F1 » Mallya admits McLaren 'influence' likely

Why on earth would you replace Sutil with De La Rosa. One is slow all the time, and one is slow in the dry. Come a wet race with only 12 finishers, its likely that Sutil will be in 7th or 8th.

De La Rosa is damaged goods after the spy scandal.

Would be nice to see Gary Paffet given a shot at racing in F1.

And why would McLaren send one of the experienced test drivers in F1 today to FIF1 and leave all development to two youngsters?

Ok, now its official that Merc are likely to utilise their contracted drivers and shuffle the DTM and F1 test guys around, I'd like to chuck Jamie Green's name into the mix. Anyone else agree?

Looks like quite a cosy long-term arrangement between Mclaren and Force India. I think it makes sense, Mclaren will make lots of money fom this and get double to the amount of track and engine data, force India get a fast-track fast car. I might work out well.

Very interesting. Seems to me to be strategically a revival of the Mclaren 'B' idea that would have put Prodrive to the grid. The only big difference is FIF1 produce their own chassis. We may see more of this kind of thing - with Max having bounced the manufacturers into selling cut-price engines, they need to be getting something else from the deal. Maybe we'll see circulating drivers in the FIF1 - no challenge there for a WDC, but plenty of chances for good constructor points + income. McL may feel that having their own midfield mixer would help control the influence of Renault etc, and also compensate for Ferrari being stronger in the constructors competition.