Normally not a lot of people desperately wait for the summer break to get over, but things roll a little differently in the world of Formula One. After what seemed like forever, F1 is finally back from the break, starting with the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix. That said, here's what changed over the vacation: Marussia and Caterham are replacing Max Chilton and Kamui Kobayashi, respectively, for the racing weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.
While Marussia cited 'unspecified contractual issues' for replacing Chilton with their reserve driver - Alexander Rossi, 23-year-old Max has a completely different story to tell.The management company that represents him released a statement that read: "Max has volunteered to step out of his race seat for the race in Spa to allow the team to attract much-needed funds by selling his seat. Max will attend the race and be on hand to support the team in any way possible. Marussia are currently in talks with several new investors and it is expected the situation will be resolved before the next race in the F1 calendar in Monza."
No matter what the 'real' reason might be behind this move, it all seemed to have worked out pretty well for Alexander Rossi, who joined Marussia as their reserve driver only last month. The silver lining of this metaphorical cloud is that we finally have an American on the grid as Rossi makes his F1 debut at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
Now on to Caterham, Kamui Kobayashi is being replaced by German driver Andre Lotterer, who is a three-time Le Mans winner and previously tested for the Jaguar F1 squad in 2001 and 2002. The team believes it will "benefit from Lotterer's experience, particularly in mixed conditions that are often typical to Spa, and that his feedback will contribute to improve the performance of the car".
Though Caterham and Max Chilton claim that it is just a one-time fling, we aren't convinced if these changes are really a 'one-race' deal or a rather long-term changes.
Update (August 22, 2014, 15:04 IST): According to latest reports, Marussia applied to change their nominated driver from Alexander Rossi back to Max Chilton for the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix. The request has been approved by the stewards. The team had also requested that Rossi be allowed to stay in the car for FP1, which was also approved.
