Just one race into 2015, the first driver moves are already shaping up. Spotted in the Melbourne paddock last weekend was Chikara Funada, who is the popular driver
Kamui Kobayashi's manager. Kobayashi, 28, lost his Caterham seat at the end of last season and for this year has signed up with
Toyota in the top Japanese series Super Formula.
But Italy's Autosprint claims he is now in talks with Manor. Manor, the resurrected
Marussia team, travelled to Australia last weekend with
Will Stevens and
Roberto Merhi, but only Briton Stevens is signed up for the whole season.
Spaniard Merhi is hoping to stay with the team next weekend in Malaysia. "The team is relying heavily on me," he is quoted by the EFE news agency, "and they tell me that they prefer me over someone with ten million euros." Nonetheless, Merhi has declined to break his existing contract with the Formula
Renault 3.5 series team Pons, even though there are some calendar clashes with F1 this year.
Finally,
Williams is thinking hard about its options in the wake of
Valtteri Bottas' back injury, having ruled out promoting female test driver
Susie Wolff in Malaysia. "Susie Wolff is our test driver," said deputy boss
Claire Williams, "not our reserve driver. I don't want to think about what we will do (for Malaysia) if he (Bottas) is not fit. But clearly we'd have reserve drivers," she told the BBC. (GMM)
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