MOTORSPORT: Pay drivers complete GP field

Exciting Kamui Kobayashi is back in F1 along with a Swedish moneybags rookie as backmarker team Caterham's owner warns he'll wave chequered flag if there are no world championship points this season

Battle for small team bigger than ever in new era

The grid has been filled for the start of Formula One’s new era of turbocharged engines and other “green” initiatives at Melbourne’s Grand Prix on March 16, with tail-end team Caterham installing two pay drivers.

One is a known quantity – Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi, who memorably made the podium for the Sauber team in his 2012 home GP but nonetheless lost his drive to Mexican Esteban Gutierrez last year and has come back with almost A$2 million raised from his fans as well as other backing.

Kobayashi, 27, will drive without pay, preferring to take part in GPs than have a Ferrari contract for a second year of sports car racing that would have been expanded to include F1 simulator work on top of F1 demonstrations for the Italian marque.

Caterham’s other driver will be Marcus Ericsson, a 23-year-old Swede who has been in GP2 for four years without finishing higher than sixth in that championship, although he won three races.

Bringing a bigger load of sponsorship money to the embattled Caterham than Kobayashi, Ericsson will be the first Swedish driver in F1 since Stefan Johansson in 1991.

He will be one of three rookies this season, along with Dane Kevin Magnussen at McLaren and Russian Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso, the Red Bull-owned team for which Australian Daniel Ricciardo has raced the past two years.

Ricciardo this season replaces fellow Aussie Mark Webber as German Sebastian Vettel’s teammate in Red Bull’s four-time world title-winning outfit.

Meanwhile, Caterham owner, Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes (pictured), has threatened to walk away from F1 if his team goes through a fifth season without scoring a world championship point.

Caterham has never finished in the top 10 in 77 GPs. Last year it was last among the 11 teams in the constructors’ world championship.

“We have to go for it this year,” Fernandes told Caterham’s 250 staff yesterday at its base at Leafield in England.

“This is it – the final chance. If we're at the back (again) I don't think I'm going to carry on. After five years with no points there is a limit to one's patience, money and motivation.”

While Fernandes said he could never see the backmarker teams challenging the might of Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren and signaled he may wave the white flag of surrender, others are still prepared to take up the challenge of running an F1 team.

American industrialist and NASCAR team owner Gene Haas already has flagged an interest in entering the sport and two other parties also are believed to have told the governing Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) they want to join the circus.

This year’s new cars with 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engines rather than the normally-aspirated V8s of the previous era will be unveiled in coming days ahead of next week’s first of three four-day tests – this one in at Jerez in Spain, the other two in Bahrain.

McLaren, the sport’s second most successful team behind Ferrari but without a podium finish last season, will reveal its MP4-29 car online on Friday but without a naming rights sponsor.

However, McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale vowed the 50-year-old team was “in very good shape financially”.

“McLaren will have a larger operational budget in 2014 than we’ve had in any previous year.”

McLaren twice has postponed announcements on a replacement major sponsor to Vodafone but it is now thought it may not reveal a new title backer – widely expected to be Samsung – until it switches to Honda engines from Mercedes in 2015.

Meanwhile, Kobayashi’s return to F1 at Caterham and hiring of Ericsson has come at the expense of Dutchman Giedo van der Garde, who will become test driver for Sauber, and Frenchman Charles Pic.

Caterham also has American Alex Rossi and Dutchman Robin Frijns in the wings as test and reserve driver respectively, obviously in case Ericsson does not shape up.

Caterham team principal Cyril Abiteboul claimed Ericsson was “physically and mentally prepared for what lies ahead”.

Abiteboul spoke glowingly of Kobayashi’s speed and said “his extensive experience of developing [F1] cars, particularly in his years with Toyota, will be incredibly important for us as we tackle one of the most challenging seasons F1 has ever embarked upon”.

The popular Kobayashi admitted that joining the worst team in the sport was “a risk in my life, but it is important for me”.

“I am 27, I still need more to race in F1. That is why I chose to come back to F1,” he said.

"Ferrari offered me another contract, and Stefano Domenicali [Ferrari team principal] is not happy I didn't take it.

“Caterham needs some different energy and my experience is quite useful for this team.

“I’m driving for free. It is my decision. It is just my approach. I want to do this job. I want to help the team. I don’t care about the money.”

2014 Formula One driver line-up

Red Bull-Renault – Sebastian Vettel (Germany), Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)

Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain), Nico Rosberg (Germany)

Ferrari – Fernando Alonso (Spain), Kimi Raikkonen (Finland)

Lotus-Renault – Romain Grosjean (France), Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela)

McLaren-Mercedes – Jenson Button (Great Britain), Kevin Magnussen (Denmark)

Force India-Mercedes – Nico Hulkenberg (Germany), Sergio Perez (Mexican)

Sauber-Ferrari – Adrian Sutil (Germany), Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico)

Toro Rosso-Renault – Jean-Eric Vergne (France), Daniil Kvyat (Russia)

Williams-Mercedes – Felipe Massa (Brazil), Valtteri Bottas (Finland)

Marussia-Ferrari – Jules Bianchi (France), Max Chilton (Great Britain)

Caterham-Renault – Kamui Kobayashi (Japan), Marcus Ericsson (Sweden)

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Dell Inc.

MOTORSPORT: Pay drivers complete GP field

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