Monday, 4 June 2012

It has been reported that reigning Formula One Champion Sebastian Vettel has a 'Get Out Clause' in his RedBull contract. That is the claim of RedBull's motorsport adviser Dr Helmut Marko. His comments come on the back of rumuors in Monaco last weekend that Vettel has signed to race alongside Fernando Alonso at Ferrari in 2014.

The Times and The Independent on Sunday in England have both suggested that Vettel has a clause in his RedBull contract specifically related to 2013, that if the team does not finish above a certain position in the championship Vettel is free to leave the team. However it is also understood that the same clause is in place in relation to RedBull and if Vettel doesn't perform in 2013 the team are free to release him.

It was extremely interesting because when this story broke Vettel was very quick to pledge his future to RedBull. Now another interesting piece of info is the fact that Vettel's career is managed by RedBull and Marko and that he doesn't have a management team persay.

It was a similar situation with Lewis Hamilton at McLaren up until a last season when McLaren suggested that Hamilton get a management team in. As far as I understand it with Lewis Hamilton who is yet to sign a contract extension at McLaren it is his management team who are holding out for a more lucrative deal from McLaren this is despite speculation that he was set to sign a £100 million deal with the team.

I think that the driver market is going to be extremely interesting at the end of the season. With seats potentially available at Ferrari, McLaren, RedBull, Mercedes, Force India, Toro Rosso and Caterham.

So my predictions for the line - up of the grid for 2013 are

RedBull: Sebastian Vettel/ Mark Webber? / Daniel Ricciardo?

McLaren: Jenson Button / Lewis Hamilton? / Mark Webber?

Ferrari: Fernando Alonso/ Felipe Massa? / Mark Webber?

Mercedes: Nico Rosberg/ Paul Di Resta? / Michael Schumacher / Lewis Hamilton

Force India: Nico Hulkenberg / Paul Di Resta? / Jiles Bianchi?

Sauber: Sergio Perez/ Kamui Koboyashi

Lotus: Kimi Raikkonen/ Romain Grosjean

Toro Rosso: Jean Eric Vergne / Daniel Ricciardo

Caterham/ Heikki Kovalienen/ Vitaly Petrov/ Giedo Van Der Garde? / Alexander Rossi? Felipe Massa?

Marussia: Charles Pic / Timo Glock

HRT: Pedro Dela Rosa / Narain Karthikeyan

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