EJ is an outspoken sort of a chap at the best of times, and he was at his rambling, barely coherent best last Sunday, discussing that team orders business. Something about which he was very clear was [...]]]> Which, for the purposes of this little update, don’t include, “But of course this is my real hair.”

EJ is an outspoken sort of a chap at the best of times, and he was at his rambling, barely coherent best last Sunday, discussing that team orders business. Something about which he was very clear was that Rob Smedley shouldn’t have been the man giving Felipe Massa the order to slow down. The call, Eddie said, should have been given by the team managers who’d made the decision in the first place. He thought back to Spa in 1998, when the Jordan team claimed their first victory, Damon Hill leading home team mate Ralf Schumacher.

“Damon came on the radio and said, ‘If he comes by, then I’m going to have him off,’ and he was very clear about that.”

Eddie insisted that the order to hold position and preserve a 1-2 finish came from him, and that he delivered it to the drivers personally. Lotus technical chief Mike Gascoyne, then chief designer at Jordan, mentioned in the same broadcast that Eddie’s account of things had a certain economy of truth to it, and a couple of years ago I found a lovely clip on YouTube of a documentary that disproved pretty much everything the Irishman said.

It’s not there anymore. Happily, some enterprising fellow has uploaded the relevant bits. Judge for yourself how Damon put his views across, and notice that when he’s giving orders, Eddie Jordan sounds an awful lot like Ralf’s then race engineer Sam Michael:

Sometimes these things make too much sense.  Fisi spent much of 2009 showing well for Force India, before forging late-season links with Ferrari that saw him given a testing and development [...]]]> If it seems like only yesterday that Giancarlo Fisichella was being reported as favourite for the vacant Sauber drive, that’s because it really, genuinely was.

Sometimes these things make too much sense.  Fisi spent much of 2009 showing well for Force India, before forging late-season links with Ferrari that saw him given a testing and development role with the Scuderia.  He still has a desire to race, Sauber have Ferrari engines for 2010, Giancarlo used to drive for Sauber…the pieces came together like a pre-school jigsaw.

Somewhere between yesterday’s news reports and this morning’s driver announcement, Peter Sauber’s dog must have opened the box and ate the piece with Giancarlo’s face on it, for I’m sure that the Roman’s name isn’t spelt ‘Pedro de la Rosa’. The Swiss team have opted to sign the 38-year-old from Barcelona, whose last full season of Formula One came with Jaguar in 2002.

Pedro’s appointment might seem a strange one on the face of it.  8 seasons on from his last full-time drive, de la Rosa has been a fixture at McLaren since being cast aside by Jaguar.  Contracted as test driver throughout, the Spaniard nevertheless had a couple of opportunities to race for the Woking outfit.  His cameo in Bahrain 5 years ago, after Juan Pablo Montoya hurt himself falling off a tennis racket, was brilliantly entertaining and ended with Pedro claiming fastest lap.  His half-season in 2006 when the Colombian quit for NASCAR in mid-season was less startling, Hungarian podium finish notwithstanding.  His reputation is that of a solid, reliable pair of hands, lacking in ultimate pace but a very capable development driver.  That, of course – well, that and a few Euros in sponsorship money – is why Sauber have signed him.

A month or so ago, Sauber confirmed Kamui Kobayashi as the first of their 2010 race drivers.  Kobayashi’s pair of races for Toyota suggest that the Japanese driver has plenty of raw pace but the kind of rough edges that would occupy a sandpaper factory for a week.  His racecraft is questionable, his defensive driving on the dangerous side of robust, and he has very little prior experience of setting up a Grand Prix car, though he can hardly be blamed for that.  He will show well given a decent car, but can’t be relied on to bring the car home every time, or to lead a development programme through the course of a season.

For that, the team need an experienced old hand, and they don’t come much more experienced than de la Rosa.  His technical knowledge, allied to his knowledge of McLaren’s successful working practices (in-depth knowledge, as you’d expect from a trusted member of the team – until today, PdlR was scheduled to give McLaren’s 2010 car its first run next month), will be invaluable.  His temperament inside the car tends to be even, as does his performance, an excellent baseline for judging the performance of new parts.  A well-respected and approachable man, Pedro is also the ideal mentor for a young, wild hotshoe like his 2010 teammate.

With the right tutelage, Kamui Kobayashi will be the long-term solution, the man charged with making Sauber’s future bright.  Surprise choice or not, Pedro de la Rosa is the right man to provide it.

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The filling of Sauber’s vacant seat must have brought great joy to the folks at Renault.  Nick Heidfeld is out of a drive.  Christian Klien wants one.  So does Anthony Davidson, along with his F3 and Super Aguri sparring partner Takuma Sato.  If an up-and-coming driver is what they want, and last year’s experience of Romain Grosjean ought be enough to show that it isn’t, Ho-Pin Tung and the delightfully-named Bertrand Baguette are available.  If an old hand desperate for one last go fits the Renault profile, Jacques Villeneuve is their man.

The seats at Campos and USF1 will go to drivers bringing sponsorship, and it’s difficult to imagine any of the above-named fancying a drive with either team anyway.  With every other competitive seat filled, Renault is their last sensible choice, and that’s a cracking bargaining position for the French squad.

The teams we all expected to challenge were nowhere.  The teams we’d written off in pre-season were somewhere, and a team that barely made it to the first race won the whole show.  The world champion divided opinion, with his supporters matched in size and volume [...]]]> It’s the done thing at this time of year, isn’t it?

The teams we all expected to challenge were nowhere.  The teams we’d written off in pre-season were somewhere, and a team that barely made it to the first race won the whole show.  The world champion divided opinion, with his supporters matched in size and volume by those who felt he’d reversed into it having done nothing of note for the last 10 races.  The outgoing world champion faced serious scrutiny off the track but answered every critic on it, his nemesis tried his best to make sense of a team in crisis and the last of the big-spending Japanese car makers took their final bow.  How do you begin putting that into some kind of order?

With difficulty, as it turns out.  What follows is an attempt at ranking the 10 best Formula One drivers of 2009, and is nothing more than opinion, based on sessions watched and timesheets studied.  You can make statistics mean whatever you want – you can even use them to suggest that Jenson Button is better than Sir Stirling Moss, and if you dream of doing so then you’re either one of his family or in entirely the wrong place - and so they’ve been left to one side as far as possible.  Sometimes the numbers don’t do justice to the performance.  Sometimes they flatter it enormously.

To qualify for a place in this particular top 10, a driver needs to have completed at least half of the 2009 season, which means no place for the mightily impressive Kamui Kobayashi, whose two end-of-season races were wonderful but not enough to assess him fairly.  There’s also no room for Tonio Liuzzi, Jaime Alguersuari, Romain Grosjean or – but no!  But yes! – Luca Badoer.  I can but imagine your horror.

That leaves 20 drivers vying for 10 places (and I should mention that yes, friend of petrolheadblog.com Nelson Piquet Jr is eligible), and in a season where the title contenders haven’t always excelled and the best performers have been hiding in the middle of the pack, arriving at a final list hasn’t been easy.  You may well disagree, and if you do, I’d very much like to hear from you.  Right, shall we begin?

10. Kimi Raikkonen

Why so low?  The Ferrari F60 was rarely better than good and quite often a fair bit worse, but the Iceman only appeared interested from mid-season.  His rise coincided with the loss of Felipe Massa to injury, and his drives in Valencia, Monza and particularly Spa were brilliant efforts in a car whose development had long since tailed off.  At other times, at too many other times, the Finn was a man going through the motions.  Off to rally a Citroen in 2010, he’s a loss when operating at his peak but hasn’t truly done so since he left McLaren, 2007 title notwithstanding.

9. Nico Rosberg

Solid.  11 points-scoring finishes, 7th in the drivers championship, but too much promise unfulfilled.  He led strongly in Malaysia before crumbling in the rain, made all the wrong calls in China, underwhelmed in a good car through the early part of the European season and finally, after some strong runs mid-season, turned a potential win into a big fat out of control zero at the Singapore pit exit.  His drive from the back of the field to 4th at the Nurburgring was a reminder of what he can do, and his pace on Fridays was searing, but too often he fell away a little when it mattered.  Whether leading the team or learning from the master, Nico must begin to deliver on his undoubted promise at Mercedes.

8. Sebastien Buemi

20 years old, straight in at the deep end with one of the slowest cars in the field, Buemi outqualified a multiple CART champion in the same car and scored a point first time out in Melbourne.  Hello, world.  By mid-season the Toro Rosso was even worse, but Buemi clinically disposed of Sebastien Bourdais and was fazed not a jot by his promotion to team leader.  His qualifying aberration in Japan was the work of a rookie, his many measured drives weren’t, and his 4 points-scoring finishes were richly deserved.  If Red Bull get behind him, Buemi really could be special.

7. Felipe Massa

It isn’t possible to rank him higher without knowing what he might have gone on to achieve, though surviving to see Christmas was achievement enough, and you might feel 7th is too generous for a man who couldn’t complete the season.  Before a flying spring curtailed his season, though, Massa had scored more than double the points of teammate Raikkonen.  Sensational in dragging the F60 through to 4th at Silverstone and a remarkable 3rd at Nurburgring, spellbinding through a Monaco middle stint that should stand as a lesson in controlled aggression, Felipe operated at but never beyond his car’s limits every time he sat in it.  His stock has risen exponentially through the last 24 months, and it’s to be hoped that his return to racing will see him back at the front, in the position his 2009 drives deserved.

6. Rubens Barrichello

Generally brilliant once his season got going, his season kicked into gear just as his Brawn was fading.  He had plenty of rotten luck in the early part of the year, but too many of his performances in the dominant car through that period were lacklustre – only 5th in Bahrain after getting trapped behind Piquet Jr, too slow to win in Spain, hitting everything that moved in an entertaining Turkish cameo.  Only when we reached Britain did Rubinho really hit his stride, and through the second half of the season he held a definite edge on his title-winning teammate.  Wins at Valencia and Monza were richly deserved, and the old stager keeps his place in the 2010 field on merit, but this year was an opportunity missed.  At 37, he might not get another.

5. Mark Webber

12 months ago Mark Webber was beginning his recovery from a badly broken leg and shoulder, his bicycle having collided with a car during his Pure Tasmania Challenge charity event.  At the end of March he was in Melbourne, suited, booted and ready for action but only half-fit.  By mid-July he was a Formula One race winner.  A breakthrough season for the Australian might have been even better had he been able to prepare through the winter, and threatened to be more than that anyway before a run of 5 races without a point put paid to his title bid.  Only 9th in Valencia could be said to be Mark’s doing, and while his driving might lack that final tenth that separates the great from the world class, Webbo’s performances in the cockpit were a model of consistency.

4. Jenson Button

Button’s world championship year was built on the first 7 races.  6 wins, a 3rd place, a world title bought and paid for.  Then, on home soil, his year began to unravel.  His fans point out that he scored points in every race he finished and attempt to suggest that he drove sensibly once he’d built up a lead, but an honest analysis is less kind on an Englishman fading under pressure.  A number of those mid-season drives, notably runs to 6th at Silverstone, 7th in Hungary and 7th in Valencia, were recoveries from either bad qualifying, bad opening stints or both.  His only non-finish, at Spa, came through a first lap shunt after qualifying a dismal 14th.  At the same time, the man in the other Brawn, the man Jenson had taken to pieces in the early rounds, was demonstrating that the car was still a race winner.  It took Button until Interlagos to clear his head, and on that October afternoon he won the title by finally putting in a performance worthy of it.  Next year, partnered with Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, early-season JB stands half a chance.  Mid-season JB will be ruthlessly dismantled.

3. Fernando Alonso

It’s tempting to write, “Scored 26 points in a truck,” and move on, but it’s worth giving the Spaniard a little more time than that.  By the end of 2009 the Renault R29 was as bad as anything else in Formula One, yet somehow in Singapore it carried Alonso to a podium finish, only 16 seconds adrift of winner Lewis Hamilton.  Perhaps it’d be more accurate to say Alonso dragged it there.  Around the twists of Abu Dhabi, the fast esses of Suzuka and the sweeps of Spa, R29 was the dictionary definition of ‘recalcitrant’ and yet there was never room for a cigarette paper between Alonso and the ragged edge of adhesion.  He gave everything, everywhere, and his all-out approach brought a steady flow of points through the year, including a 5th place in Spain that simply shouldn’t have been possible in such a dog of a car.

2. Sebastian Vettel

It’s easy to forget that Vettel is 22 years old and has completed only 2 full seasons as a Grand Prix driver.  Every so often we’re given a reminder – slapping the barriers in Monte Carlo, falling off the road before a lap had been completed in Istanbul – and are hit by the realisation that hey, he’s not the complete package after all.  His win at Suzuka was the drive of a seasoned veteran, not a man who had never raced on the legendary circuit before.  At Silverstone his dominance was crushing, in the mould of another fast German driver.  Quick enough to have been this year’s world champion with better reliability and a little more luck, as well as being an immensely likable man, Vettel’s time will come.  Soon.

1. Lewis Hamilton

Why?  Because it’s incredibly difficult to recall a race in which Lewis let the car down, and incredibly easy now to answer those who instantly accepted Fernando Alonso’s claim that he brought 6 tenths of a second to McLaren.  The team might never again produce a racing car as bad as the MP4-24 was at the beginning of the season, yet Hamilton opened with 3 points finishes in the first 4 events, being denied a clean sweep by disqualification during the Australian ‘Liegate’ affair.  After that, no points for 5 races as the McLaren’s aerodynamic shortcomings were exposed, most notably at Silverstone where he fought brilliantly with Alonso for 16th position.  Hamilton helped drive the development of the car throughout that period, reaping the rewards in Hungary where he took a well-judged win; from zero to heroes in 4 months.  Another win in Singapore followed, while his charging drive at Monza was spectacular right to the premature finish.  17th on the grid became 3rd in the race at Interlagos, and his pole lap in Abu Dhabi was nothing short of astounding.  Simply, there is nobody better.

Go on, then.  Tell me I’m wrong.

Peter Sauber, who recently agreed a deal to buy his old team back from BMW only 4 years after selling it to them, has something of a [...]]]> In what might be the most pleasing bit of news of the off-season so far, Japanese rookie Kamui Kobayashi has agreed a deal to race for the Sauber-Ferrari outfit in 2010. 

Peter Sauber, who recently agreed a deal to buy his old team back from BMW only 4 years after selling it to them, has something of a reputation for spotting talent.  He gave Formula One debuts to Karl Wendlinger, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, as well as taking on Nick Heidfeld after his disastrous first year with Prost in 2000.  Whether he or anyone else would have spotted this particular talent any time before October is open to debate, since a successful career in the junior categories had well and truly stalled out in GP2.  It could be argued that Kobayashi didn’t have the equipment to truly shine – even in a one-make series preparation can make the difference, and his DAMS team’s glory days passed in the mid 1990s – but throughout 2009 he was outpaced by teammate Jerome d’Ambrosio, nobody’s idea of the next big thing, on his way to 16th in the final standings.

Timo Glock’s misfortune, crashing at Suzuka and cracking a vertebra, was Kobayashi’s salvation.  The Toyota test driver was thrust into the spotlight, and coped magnificently, holding off champion-elect Jenson Button for half the race on his debut in Brazil before decisively seeing off the Englishman at the new Yas Marina track two weeks later.  His performance in Abu Dhabi, taking 6th place ahead of his veteran teammate Jarno Trulli having looked good for a podium at one stage, further enhanced a reputation that had taken a beating through the rest of the year, and a 2010 race seat with Toyota looked certain.  Then the Japanese team withdrew, The End.

Without the funding to carry on for another year in GP2, it really could have been curtains for Kamui.  Without those two end-of-season drives, without that opportunity to impress, Kobayashi would have been a GP2 reject left marooned by the Toyota pull-out.  Thanks to those two drives, he’s a star in the making.  His career has turned on a single stroke of luck, but has he ever made the most of it.  Afraid of nobody and willing to go wheel-to-wheel with all comers, Kobayashi’s brief F1 stint has been a breath of fresh air, and it is to be hoped that these qualities will remain in evidence through 2010 and beyond.

The German tabloid Bild reported this weekend that Mercedes had agreed a one year contract with Michael Schumacher.  The German tabloids, in common with the majority of tabloids, are not always renowned for printing stories that have any basis in fact.  This particular paper, however, has been [...]]]> Heavens above, it’s actually going to happen, isn’t it?

The German tabloid Bild reported this weekend that Mercedes had agreed a one year contract with Michael Schumacher.  The German tabloids, in common with the majority of tabloids, are not always renowned for printing stories that have any basis in fact.  This particular paper, however, has been used in the past by both Willi Weber and Norbert Haug as a means of leaking stories, and if you’re wondering what they’ve got to do with anything, you should know that one is Michael’s manager and the other is awfully high up at Mercedes.

The latest is that Schumacher didn’t attend Ferrari’s Christmas party last weekend, and that the company will not stand in his way if he genuinely wishes to return.  Michael has done a lot of karting this last few weeks, and while he generally competes in a good number of charity events at this time of year, many are viewing this as a fitness test; in the summer, even a run in a kart was enough to show Schumi that his injured neck was not yet up to the demands of a Grand Prix.  That nobody, including the man himself, has made any comment on his fitness through the winter can only lead one to believe the injury has healed, though it is thought that this hasn’t been officially checked out.

James Allen, the respected racing journalist, has spent a lot of time detailing why there’s nothing in it for Michael and why a comeback doesn’t make sense.  He, like I, might just have overlooked that sometimes, the pleasure of driving on the limit is the only incentive a man needs, and that nobody in modern racing derives more pleasure from that than Michael Schumacher.  Allen’s sources in Italy and Germany all indicate that the deal is on, and that subject to medical clearance and a release from his Ferrari obligations, the most successful driver in history really is on the way back.

Memories of an anti-climactic summer are still raw, and it’d be wise not to get too excited.  Difficult, though, isn’t it?

It has since emerged that a deal starting in 2011 was concluded in the summer but has since been brought forward, the recent race fixing scandal and Kimi Raikkonen’s acceptance that he is no longer wanted at Maranello [...]]]> Formula One’s worst-kept secret is out, Ferrari confirming Fernando Alonso on a three year deal starting in 2010.

It has since emerged that a deal starting in 2011 was concluded in the summer but has since been brought forward, the recent race fixing scandal and Kimi Raikkonen’s acceptance that he is no longer wanted at Maranello paving the way for an early switch.  It makes sense for both parties.  Switching to a team that has long since given up on this year to develop the 2010 car gives Alonso a shot at getting out of the midfield, while Ferrari will feel the Spaniard’s tenacity and self-motivation, allied to his sheer speed, will bring more points than the laid-back, sometimes disinterested Raikkonen.  Alonso will be partnered by Felipe Massa, who remains on course for a return at the start of next season.  The entire paddock has been waiting for the Alonso/Ferrari deal to be confirmed before making their own driver moves, and with early October being an uncommonly late time to start finalising driver line-ups, the next couple of weeks promise to be hectic.

Where next for Kimi?  He was uncharacteristically chatty when asked about it earlier, though as usual his answer consisted of the truth as it stands and nothing else.  ‘No, I haven’t got a contract anywhere, so I could do rallies, or I could do F1, or I could do nothing.’  At least one more season in single-seaters remains the most likely move, and his old seat at McLaren is currently the one he’s expected to occupy.  Santander, the banking firm currently sponsoring both Ferrari and McLaren, are said to be bankrolling a deal that will take the Finn back to Woking and into what would be a fascinating inter-team battle with Lewis Hamilton.

That would leave Heikki Kovalainen out in the cold, unsurprisingly given his poor recent run after a fine start to the season.  A return to Renault is an option now that the man behind his departure, Flavio Briatore, has left, though that’s equally true for Jarno Trulli, a man not currently in high demand at his present home Toyota.  Robert Kubica is considered almost certain to be confirmed as a Renault driver next week, but Romain Grosjean’s underwhelming performances since replacing Nelson Piquet Jr mean there could be a second seat available.

It’s likely that there’ll be at least one change at Brawn, the smart money currently putting Nico Rosberg at the team for next season.  Rubens Barrichello’s resurgent form looks sure to keep him on the grid for another year, probably in a straight swap with Nico taking him to Williams, but there may yet be a seat at Brawn for him; Jenson Button is holding out for more money, money the team are currently unwilling to give him.  His form since May isn’t a fantastic bargaining chip, so the champion-elect may have to settle for what’s on offer, and it’s hard to imagine that he wouldn’t.  If he doesn’t, he might be the Brawn driver moving to Williams instead.  The second seat there is Nico Hulkenberg’s, leaving Kazuki Nakajima with no obvious options for next year unless long-time supporters Toyota offer a lifeline.

Where does Nick Heidfeld go?  He’ll be another watching progress at Williams closely – he’s driven for them in the past and is highly regarded by engineering director Patrick Head, a blunt, straightforward character not renowned for being easy to impress.  BMW remain an option having been taken over by Qadbak Investments, the mysterious investment company also currently bankrolling the faintly ridiculous goings-on at Notts County FC.  That team, however, are not guaranteed entry to next year’s world championship, and Heidfeld may consider waiting for them to be an unnecessary risk.

The new teams are spolit for choice.  Kovalainen could be an option for Lotus, Manor, Campos or USF1 if he can’t find a drive at Renault, while such talents as Anthony Davidson, Pedro de la Rosa and Christian Klien, all steady hands if not ultimately world beaters, are currently without a race drive of any kind.  Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 world champion currently touting himself to anyone with an available car, brings a famous name and an amount of credibility even if his ultimate pace would surely be lacking, while Bruno Senna brings an even more marketable surname and the speed to go with it.  To my eyes, there remains no obvious candidate for the ‘young, up and coming American driver’ role USF1 are seeking to fill, though if you listen to everything Bernie Ecclestone says, you’ve probably already decided that there won’t be a car for the young American to drive.  You’re also a bit daft, though time will tell whether B.C.E is right on this one.

What we’ll see in the coming weeks will be one of the biggest shifts in driving personnel of recent years, and some of the potential pairings, particularly the ones at McLaren and Brawn, are mouthwatering.  There are bound to be surprises in store, though.  Who do you want to see where in 2010?