Giedo van der Garde has announced in Amsterdam that he will be racing this year with the Caterham Formula 1 team. The 27-year-old Dutchman was test driver for the team last year. He will partner Charles Pic, who was his team-mate in GP2 with the Addax team in 2011. The news means that Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov are unlikely to get seats in F1 this year. This is something of a blow for the sport as it was hoped that Petrov would still be in F1 when the first Russian GP takes place in 2014. Petrov will now have to spend the year looking for sponsorship to return in 2014, if indeed he decides to take that path.
The have been around a dozen Dutchman who have raced in the World Championship since it nbegan in 1950. The first was Jan Flinterman, who took part in the 1952 Dutch Grand Prix. The last Dutchman in F1 was Christijan Albers, who drove for Minardi, Midland and Spyker between 2005 and 2007, taking part in 46 races. Robert Doornbos raced for Minardi and Red Bull in 2005 and 2006 while Jos Verstappen completed more than 100 Grands Prix with Benetton, Simtek, Footwork, Tyrrell, Stewart, Arrows and Minardi between 1994 and 2003.
There are a number of Dutch rising stars tipped for future stardom, including Sauber reserve driver Robin Frijns, plus McLaren protege Nyck de Vries and karting star Max Verstappen (son of Jos).
Shame. Giedo’s a lovely chap, but a Grand Prix driver? I wish him the best regardless.
Can’t help but think that this is a bit of a backwards step, binning two drivers with a combined experience of 168 races, for two with one season between them. Suggests limited ambition. There’s a balance between spending your money on the technical side or getting a decent driver (I’ve done my Fantasy F1) – but I’m not sure Caterham have got it right.
Perhaps you should at things beyond the short-term.
I fear that there may not be a medium term, never mind long! I can’t think of too many teams who such an inexperienced driver lineup. Torro Rosso in 06 I suppose, but they were the Red Bull nursery team. Interestingly, the ‘youngest’ team on the grid (beyond Caterham and Marussia) is, unbelievably, Red Bull which started life as Stewart in 97. Their lead driver in 97 was Rubens, who by that stage had 65 Grand Prix under his belt. Sauber is next up (started with Lehto and Wendlinger who had experience), then Jordan who had De Cesaris (he’d been going ten years).
I don’t think inexperience is a problem per se – Jordan for example did quite well in 1997 with a lineup that had eight F1 races between them. You write about new teams, but Caterham is starting its fourth season already and has every reason to change the way they were doing things as their original plan hasn’t worked as well as they hoped.
The thing is, it’s hard to see van der Garde having anything to offer besides money. A guy that has shopped for an F1 drive for five years and been snubbed until now can’t be seen as anything other than a stopgap and I feel the team does lose credibility as a result.
A team with three seasons experience is a new team compared to one that has 30 years experience.
I remember reading somewhere that van der Garde is know for providing quality feedback, so perhaps that was a consideration. Needing two drivers with money, but picking at least one that could potentially help the team forward. And perhaps they’re gambling on the potential that McLaren & Renault once saw in him (he has been part of both their young driver thingmajigs) will finally come out.
Not sure this a good thing for Caterham, needed some F1 experience in the car to move forwards.
I can’t really feel bad for either Kovalainen or Petrov. Both are good drivers who got to race in f1, something 100s of other equally talented drivers will never do.
They weren’t ever going to win the championship, so it’s right that others will be given a chance.
You missed Stoffel Vandoorne off your list of promising Dutch drivers.
Stoffel is Belgian
He’s Belgian
He is Belgian, not dutch…
Stoffel is from Belgium. But indeed looks good!
Stoffel Vandoorne is from Belgium, he seems to be talented indeed.
Stoffel is not Dutch, he’s from Belgium.
Promising yes, Dutch no
Vandoorne is Belgian.
Stoffel Vandoorne is a promising belgian young driver,making this year his debut in the Renault World Series
Surprising that Petrov with a fair amount of russian cash behind him, plus experience, plus that formidable woman who acts as his agent was still unable to find a drive. In fairness nobody expected him to score points in the car he was driving.
I’m assuming that lady is still his agent, unless Lauda has recruited her to do dangerous espionage work for Mercedes
Obviously, he does not have the money.
Those oligarchs must be mean as hell
Joe – Any thought to a post detailing pay v. paid drivers now that the field is fairly set? Is there a ‘break even’ point among the teams where the balance tips from one to the other?
And with that, is there much history of pay drivers accomplishing much beyond circuiting safely? This model seems a sad state of affairs, but I suppose reality intrudes.
I think I wrote that article back in the autumn. It was called “The value of pay drivers. Try the search feature.
Thanks for the reminder. From that article and the 2013 lineup it seems that the balance has shifted even more towards pay drivers. But some of those paid drivers had disappointing seasons in 2012, so the model of keeping mid-level experienced talent for development and podium finishes is perhaps less than successful. Still, hard to imagine no one wants Kobayashi, who does have some sponsorship.
Another underwhelming line up – means there will be a race for funding for the second to last team after all. I’m hoping karma presents in 2013, although if FI were to fall over that would put paid to that hope. Oh well.
Always a nice extra when a countryman takes part!
Stoffel Vandoorne is a Belgian driver, not a Dutchmen.
So… It’s looks like Caterham was choosing between Petrov and Van der Garde… Because if not, then Senna or Kobayashi were able to took that 2nd place. Senna had huge amount of money.. + some experience.. and Kobayashi had 8 mil. + very good experience. Both of them much better than Garde.
How come Petrov didn’t had money? what about Russian Helicopters? They just “run away” from partnership with Petrov, and decided by THEMSELF to go as like “Titled” Sponsor for Caterham?!
super, at last after years of wiating the dutch are bach in the topflight of autoacing GO GUIDO make us proud and take that point
Petrov sponships just left him, they don’t need exposure in russia anyway they need it outside of russia.
Senna’s sponsorship money was connected to how good the team was supposed to be, for a team as Caterham he would bring very little sponsorship money, and although sometimes fast I understood he lacks the much needed feedback to the mechanics.
Same for Kobayashi, too little feedback and mostly succesfull by trying a very different strategy and suprise everyone with it. But he wasn’t a star before formula 1 either.
Both vdG and Pic seem to be very solid drivers who do not make many mistakes and should be able to keep the car on the track hoping for that one streak of luck.