First and foremost, apologies for the lack of updates over the past few days – my computer went into meltdown. Boooo.
So…the last few days have been pretty packed for the first week of off season. Toyota have pulled out thanks to their worst year in terms of car sales, it looks like Renault will be following suit although they are “delaying” the announcement until the end of the year. Whether this is just procrastination, or whether they are hoping to find a bail-out solution by then is still unclear.
Over the Abu Dhabi weekend, Nico “Britney” Rosberg announced that he was leaving Williams but declined to announce where he would be driving instead, but Williams announced earlier this week that their drivers for 2010 will be Nico Hulkenberg and veteran driver (aka Old Hat) Rubens Barichello. The two will be driving Cosworth powered Williams’ next season.
Ferrari have hit out at the higher echelon of F1, bizarrely comparing it to an Agatha Christie murder mystery, and Bernie Ecclestone, mad man extraordinaire, has given Silverstone just TWO days to sign the contracts that will allow them to continue to host the historic British GP.
Driver Changes
While Williams may have announced their drivers line up for 2010, they are very much in the minority. Only Ferrari and Red Bull have announced their full line up for next year.
Renault (if they are still in the sport) have confirmed Kubica but not the 2nd seat, McLaren have “confirmed” Hamilton, in as much as they have him on a 5-year contract and it’s obvious to all that he’s not going anywhere soon, but have not confirmed who will be replacing the almost-certainly-departing Heikki Kovalainen.
Brawn are still in limbo with Rosberg rumoured to be heading there, but it’s still not certain who will be his team-mate. Button is still disputing with Brawn over money and it’s being said that he has had a serious offer from McLaren.
With Raikkonen announcing last week that McLaren are his only real option, if Button ends up partnering Hamilton at the Woking-based team, that could leave Kimi out of a drive. His only other real offer came from Toyota, who couldn’t afford what he was demanding and are now out of the sport for 2010 completely.
Force India have not yet confirmed whether they are keeping Sutil, although it seems fairly obvious that they will be replacing Liuzzi. Torro Rosso would do well to replace one or both of their sub-par drivers but are also yet to announce any changes.
And that’s just the current crop! We know Bruno Senna will be at Campos, but other than that the drivers for the new F1 teams have also not been announced. With Toyota out, however, it might mean that Sauber can get a look in, which would be great for the drivers and the sport in general.
It’s an odd feeling as a fan, getting to this stage – with the WDC decided, the WCC decided, the season over, but to have pretty much no idea as to how things will look teams-wise next year.
Personally, I hope it’s Lewis vs Kimi at McLaren, Sutil & Davidson at Force India, Rosberg & Button at Brawn and that Heidfeld, Glock and Kovalainen get seats in decent cars.
With testing being banned in-season, it makes sense for the teams to announce their drivers asap now that the 2009 season is over, so that they can get enough testing and sponsor events in over the winter. Hopefully we’ll get some more news over the coming few weeks and by the end of the year, we’ll have a much better idea of who will be sitting where come March 2010.
