Fisichella Moves from Force India to Ferrari

[rage2]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78280

Speculation is that FI still owes Ferrari lots of $ for the canned engine deal (switched to MB power this year), and this clears things up. Ferrari gets their (competitive) Italian driver for Monza.

Poor Badoer... lol!

[cloud7]

Good move for Ferrari. Replace an Italian driver with an Italian. I think it is a good long term move for Fisichella, assuming that he is there for the long term. I hope he will do well against Kimi and there is no reason not to think so since he was doing well against him in a Force India. I wonder what FI's pace will be at Monza.

[Chris Elyea]

Crazy move for Force India!

Sutil has been fairly good, granted, but just as the car has gone from being a midfielder to a podium finisher, they let an experienced driver go? Have they not just seen Badoer fail? I mean, that's why Ferrari wanted Fisi! Liuzzi's not exactly a rocket pilot. What of the newbies who've struggled to perform? They've just gained credibility and now they're putting it all on the line.

Unless it's true they benefitted financially, which they swear up and down they did not. It wouldn't be the first time in F1 history that somebody has failed to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It's hard to understand their motivation otherwise.

[Mibz]

So he drives 5 races for Ferrari then gets relegated to reserve driver next year... Is that really living the dream? You've proven that you're in a competitive car so why switch now? What do you have to gain?

An under-the-table deal is the only logical reason that this switch was made.

[bart]

Curious to see how he does against Kimi :)

[ottamania]

He said he was faster than Kimi and only reason Kimi passed him cause of KERS. I am curious to what he ll do with the Ferrari car.

[Eleanor]

Originally posted by Mibz
So he drives 5 races for Ferrari then gets relegated to reserve driver next year... Is that really living the dream? You've proven that you're in a competitive car so why switch now? What do you have to gain? I bet if he does well this year, I wouldn't be surprised to see him as a main driver next year. He's still in a competitive car, even more than the FI car.

Plus he's Italian, an Italian driving for 'Rarri is akin to a Canadian playing on the Olympic hockey team, but Fisi gets paid to do it :D

[Phenix]

This season has been very interesting, too bad schumacher couldn't drive again. that would ahve been awesome

[DJ Lazy]

So will we see Massa/Fisi for the 2010 season, while Kimi takes his step into the WRC?

[Chris Elyea]

Maybe it's not such a good move for Fisi, as Ferrari's going to park him at the end of the season. I figured he'd move to another team, maybe even back to Force India, but this looks like retirement.

Ferrari has also announced that Fisichella will stay on and become the team's reserve driver in 2010 (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78383)

[Mibz]

Yeah, looks like Renault and Ferrari are looking to swap Kimi for Alonso, keeping Fisi in the test seat.

You know what though? Retiring while you're ahead is never a bad idea. Maybe Fisi has it right.