CONFIRMED: Bernoldi replaces De La Rosa

[Minardi fan]

This is just in from Planet F1:

Bernoldi to partner Verstappen at Arrows in 2001

January 31: Arrows reveal that Brazilian Enrique Bernoldi is to partner Jos Verstappen this season, leaving Pedro de la Rosa hoping for a call from Paul Stoddart.
Orange Arrows have announced that 22 year-old Brazilian, Enrique Bernoldi, will race for the team, as team-mate to Jos Verstappen, in the 2001 Formula One World Championship.

Commenting on the announcement Team Principal Tom Walkinshaw said, "We are pleased with our line-up for 2001. We have a strong, experienced driver in Jos and some young blood with Enrique. It should prove to be an interesting combination. We have been pleased with the feedback and maturity shown by Enrique when testing the car so far and look forward to watching him develop as an F1 driver. We would like to thank Pedro (de la Rosa) for the 100% commitment he has shown to the team in the last two seasons and wish him well for the future."

After re-joining Arrows in 2000, 28 year-old Verstappen had a good season and at many times was able to race against the top teams. He brought home five valuable World Championship points for the OrangeArrows team in 2000 and finished 12th in the Drivers' Championship.

Bernoldi began his career at the age of nine, racing karts. After winning two Brazilian Karting Championships he followed the path of many of his countrymen and travelled to Europe to race cars. It was in Formula Renault in 1996 that Enrique started to attract attention as he won nine out of eleven races and was crowned European Formula Renault Champion before moving on to compete in the British Formula 3 Championship, the proving ground for many stars of Formula One including Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell and Mika Hakkinen. In 1998, Enrique was runner-up in the British Formula 3 Championship after winning six races and made the decision to move up to F3000. For the past two seasons, he has combined racing in F3000 with F1 testing duties for Sauber.

In the build-up to the first race in Melbourne, the Orange Arrows team will make announcements regarding it's 2001 challenger, the A22, a brand new supporters club, the re-launch of orangearrows.com and the team's sponsorship portfolio for the coming season.

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This clears a whole lot up - Minardi will have De La Rosa and Alonso driving for them in 2001.

[Valve Bounce]

Heck!!! AND I thought Martin was going to make a big comeback!! AND that would leave poor Johnny out in the cold, along with Nigel, Damon, Zanardi, Andretti, Berger, ..............HEY!!! That would have been the move: BERGER - that would have landed Paul with some BMW engines!!

[DNQ]

What a bloody disgrace - poor Pedro doesn't deserve that.

[Toth]

Damn, I really like Pedro and he's fast too, I hope he can get a drive somewhere (read: Minardi).
Good for Minardi though, Alonso and de la Rosa is a pretty good driver line up.

[angst]

And Repsol money - it should help. But poor Pedro. He and the team really seemed to be making progress - now he'll be starting from scratch again at Minardi.

[downforce]

DAMN!!!

Is Bernoldi better than Pedro??????

[Marshal]

No. (IMHO)

But please Enrique, prove me wrong.

[Martin de Miguel]

Don't worry Pedro you showed how good you were last year, you are faster than your "exteamates" and this situation, which probably seems aweful now will be the door for a better opportunity in the near future, most probably with a better team suited to your driving experience and skills.

"Brake a Leg"
"Un Abrazo"

PD: Thank you Mr. Walkinshaw for letting free one the best drivers in the F1world, now he won't have to drive for your crappy team anymore.

[EERO]

Its surprising to me; given De La Rosa's pace over the past few seasons, TWR may rue the day he made this move.

Latest rumours suggest that PDLR will sign on as Test Driver for Prost. Marzipan allegedly has performance clauses in his contract which i suspect he will find it hard to meet. Expect Pedro in the second Prost by mid-season.

For now, it is sorry news. I hope we have not seen the last of Pedro De La Rosa in F1. The trend toward siging little boys continues.

[KC]

It is a shame. Both of Arrows drivers deserve better than the team has done in the past. I also realize that Arrows does not have the budget of most of its rivals. The talents of Verstappen and dela Rosa took many positions the chassis did not deserve last year and this is the repayment. This is no fault of Bernoldi's either, he just wants to race and they signed him. I am sure he probably brought a larger dowry with him than PDLR.

[bella]

arse.

curious that minardi's going to have 2 spanish drivers though.

i did say i was going to set my great aunties on them. you watch out, philistines! you'll regret going for the money. ah, maybe they'll get a clerasil sponsorship deal for enrique.

pedro certainly didn't deserve that. he fathomed out the new engine, then it's bye bye.

[Tristan]

Travesty. If they were to drop one driver, it SURELY shouldn't have been Pedro. In fact, i think thier lineup last year was nigh on perfect. Coupled with a chassis that, whilst not quite there last year, was showing real signs of progressing, i think this could be a nasty mistake.

HOWEVER: Bernoldi COULD be the surprise package of 2001. All this talk over Alonso, Burti and, worst of all, MONTOYA has left this bloke rather in the shade. I think he COULD be the next Rubinho (if not quite the new Senna).

Will Minardi now sign PDLR?? What's his wage demands like?? Can they afford him?? Can the team do him some justice?? Could this be a blessing in disguise for PDLR???

[Valve Bounce]

Bernoldi went to TWR with Red Bull sponsorship, which will appear in the Arrows cars as well as Sauber this year. It seems that TWR must have been short of cash. Now we see that the only options left in F1 are test drivers for Prost, Minardi and Sauber. Poor Pedro DLR. And we thought Zanardi got a bad deal!! This is eally lousy because if TWR had made his intentions known earlier, say like last year mid season, Pedro cpould have landed a better job, but to be turfed out just before the season starts just shows that TWR is the southern end of a north bound camel.

[Ralf's Girl]

I think Tom Walkinshaw is going to regret the decision to get rid of Pedro. De la Rosa showed real talent last year, and how Walkinshaw can really justify the decision to sack him is beyond me.

So, what next for Pedro? I love Minardi, I really do, but I think de la Rosa's talent would be wasted on lining up at the back of the grid every race.

[Martin de Miguel]

TW behaved very dirty here, he force de la Rosa to stay in the team last August when he had two other offers (Prost,Sauber) and now with just a month he leves him absolutly helpless.
Pedro flew to leadfield yesterday but TW didn't even received him (what a gentleman), and then in the afternoon flew to visit Alain but even though he was dying to get Pedro this summer now is too late.

Don't worry Pedro this will be a blessing in disguise,, time will tell there are at least 10 to 15 drivers in F1 worst than you so don't worry your phone will ring many times this year.

PD: I love Minardi but Pedro now is not the right timing for you, you've already got that 2-3 years experience if nobody calls have fun, drive Le Mans and go sking. You will have another chance.

[ganda123]

Arrows really are a bit stupid. They secure what basically is a supply of ex-Pug engines (we know how fine they were don't we!), lose Eghbal Hamidy and then they go and sack De La Rosa who was fast and had it not been for that unlucky retirement he would have got a podium for them last year!

[Valve Bounce]

It seems that Bernoldi had dollops of cash, and TWR had his eyes on that cash. Repsol would not agree to TWR's extortionistic demands, and so TWR ( that southern end of a north bound camel) shafted Pedro.
It is very clear that at this stage, Minardi is the only team on offer, and it would be essential for Pedro to determine what Paul Stoddart's long term plans for an engine are. It is useless to sign up for Minardi for just one year, because, contrary to popular opinion that they will be at the tail end of the grid, they will be pushing to make the grid at all. One has to face the facts here - they have done zero testing!! Repsol wants to see Pedro driving in F1 this year and so do we; but all the other places are long gone.
I don't know what to think!! I wish my grandmother to put a hex on TWR.

[Valve Bounce]

The new Arrows caught fire after one lap!!

[Martin de Miguel]

By the way I wish the best of luck to Bernoldi and Jos this year, they are not too blame for anything that happened to Pedro. Jos is a Magnificent driver that deserves better and if its engine allows him this season he will continue showing how expectacular he is.

Good luck Jos and be careful with TW
you never know (Mika, Pedro,...)