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.

----------------------------------------------------

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.

Mercedes have bought a controlling stake in Brawn GP.  The team will race in 2010 as Mercedes [...]]]> An awful lot of things happened these past few days, and I was ill so didn’t get to blog about any of them.  The topics that merit further attention will receive it in due course, so let’s recap quickly:

Mercedes have bought a controlling stake in Brawn GP.  The team will race in 2010 as Mercedes Grand Prix and carry the famous Silver Arrows livery.  Ross Brawn remains at the helm, and drivers are yet to be announced, though one of those is thought certain to be Nico Rosberg.  The other probably won’t be Jenson Button, who is set to confirm a 3 year, £18million contract with McLaren.  Alan Henry has reported it in today’s Guardian newspaper, and there is no journalist with greater insider knowledge of the Woking team than Henry.  The team will, incidentally, continue to use Mercedes engines.

Mercedes motorsport vice-president Norbert Haug has suggested that second-guessing Button’s replacement would be a dangerous business, but admits the team have an interest in Nick Heidfeld.  Wilder speculation – and I will admit to having floated this idea myself in an idle moment – places one Michael Schumacher at the wheel for one final fling, having came to prominence in the Mercedes sportscars of the late 80s and early 90s, though that’s an extreme longshot given that he recently agreed a new advisory role with Ferrari.

If Button’s going to McLaren, where is Kimi Raikkonen going?  Home.  While the Kimi that turned up for much of his stay at Ferrari won’t be missed, the one that was so brilliant in the latter part of 2009 is a loss to the sport, and it is to be hoped that the Iceman’s absence is as temporary as the linked piece suggests.

Timo Glock has signed to drive Manor GP’s first F1 challenger, shying away from the expected move to Renault in the wake of the French firm’s meeting to discuss their future in the sport, the outcome of which is still not public knowledge.  There is quiet, unsubstantiated talk that Robert Kubica has signed as de facto number one for the Regie and that Timo didn’t fancy playing second fiddle; whether there’s any truth to that is another thing altogether.  Of the other new teams, Lotus have confirmed the signing of a driver whose identity will be announced in due course (the hot money is on Jarno Trulli to end up there, perhaps partnered with Anthony Davidson, but the contracted man is likely to be Malaysian Fairuz Fauzy as test and reserve driver), Campos have been linked with GP2 race winners Pastor Maldonado and Vitaly Petrov, and there is continued talk that USF1 will not make it.

Fernando Alonso has made his first public appearance as a Ferrari driver, accompanying Felipe Massa at the Ferrari World Finals in Valencia.  His taste in knitwear is criminal.

With refuelling banned for 2010, this is the last time we get to do this for at least a year.  A reminder, one final reminder, that qualifying is made up of 3 knockout sessions, with the fastest 10 drivers competing in Q3 with race fuel aboard while [...]]]> This week, “Domination: the act of being in control.”

With refuelling banned for 2010, this is the last time we get to do this for at least a year.  A reminder, one final reminder, that qualifying is made up of 3 knockout sessions, with the fastest 10 drivers competing in Q3 with race fuel aboard while the slowest 10 declare their starting weight for the race separately.  20 drivers qualified, and assuming the man on pole gets to the finish, the other 19 surely can’t win.  Drivers, cars, weights in kilos from the FIA:

1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes        658.5
2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault        663.0
3.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault        660.0
4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes          655.0
5.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes          657.0
6.  Trulli       Toyota                  661.0
7.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber              654.5
8.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber              664.0
9.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota         665.0
10.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari      661.5
11.  Raikkonen    Ferrari                 692.0
12.  Kobayashi    Toyota                  694.3
13.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes        697.0
14.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota         704.0
15.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      696.5
16.  Alonso       Renault                 708.3
17.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes    695.0
18.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes    696.0
19.  Grosjean     Renault                 710.8
20.  Fisichella   Ferrari                 692.5

The weights show that Lewis Hamilton is on pole, in a car fuelled roughly as far as Mark Webber’s Red Bull and only a couple of laps lighter than Sebastian Vettel’s.  The weights don’t show exactly how far ahead the outgoing world champion is; for that, we must refer to the Q3 lap times:

Hamilton – 1:40.948
Vettel – 1:41.615
Webber – 1:41.726
Barrichello – 1:41.786

Miles, then.

That a McLaren is on pole isn’t a surprise in itself.  They were widely tipped for victory before the cars ever turned a wheel, and the pace shown by both Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen yesterday was more than quick enough to make those tips look good.  The size of the gap, though, has taken everybody by surprise, including the men in silver.  Had they known for a second that pole by the thick end of 7 tenths was on the cards, the car would have been fuelled more heavily, giving a strategic advantage to go with their speed.  It wasn’t, but that shouldn’t matter.

At no point in qualifying did anyone look like a match for Hamilton, but the men closest at all times were the Red Bull drivers, for whom the podium looks likely but the top step looks out of reach.  Best of the rest isn’t what any of the teams aspire to, but this weekend it’s all that’s on offer, and the Austrian outfit have a firm claim on the position that only Brawn and one Toyota have seriously threatened to snatch away.  Barrichello outqualified Button again but with a lap less fuel on board this time around, and with the incoming champion complaining of massive vibrations through the steering wheel in Q3.  Either of the Brawn drivers could end up sneaking onto the podium tomorrow, Button the heavier and generally slightly more impressive of the two all weekend until it mattered, but starting behind the heavier Red Bulls puts them at an immediate disadvantage.

Jarno Trulli, without a 2010 drive at present for reasons that aren’t immediately apparent, did his standard excellent job in qualifying and was a contender for the front row in Q3 before being shuffled back to P6.  His pace and his fuel load are comparable to the cars immediately ahead on the grid, and the Italian has been combative on Sunday afternoons of late – positively pugilistic at times, though not always while still inside a racing car, bless him – so his target must be to get involved in the Red Bull/Brawn battle directly ahead.  He’ll be relieved to note that Adrian Sutil is nowhere near him this weekend, the Force India falling away in Q1 having looked moderately competitive through free practice.

BMW say farewell to Formula One this weekend, though the team may yet be on the 2010 grid under new ownership and the engine department could be swallowed up by McLaren, rumours suggesting that the Woking outfit will be fully independent in the near future.  Kubica blew yet another powerplant in practice but both he and Heidfeld are set to give their squad a points-scoring send off, Quick Nick’s heavier fuel load suggesting an inter-team squabble could be on the cards tomorrow.  Nick is another one who should be secured for next season by now but isn’t, while Kubica is off to Renault, who can’t get away from 2009 quickly enough.

Romain Grosjean, whose performance has been that of a slower, more erratic version of this blog’s favourite Brazilian, wins the No Stops Til Christmas award and absolutely nothing else for another underwhelming showing, a spin in Q1 being the highlight.  In mitigation, he can point to comments made by his superstar teammate.

Fernando Alonso says, and you might struggle to argue against this, that the R29 is currently the worst car in Formula One, and this weekend not even he could propel it to a position any more advanced than 16th.  He too has fuelled up, the plan for tomorrow being to tool around for as long as possible, stop once and see how much ground can be made by simply stopping later than those around.  He’ll be aided in that task by Bridgestone, who’ve brought their soft and medium compounds to this race and are having no trouble at all with either of them.

The same strategy has been adopted by everyone outside of the top 10, including the potential spoilers of the flying Finns with their KERS buttons and Kobayashi with his tendency towards homicidal swerving.  Of those, the man with the biggest chance of making headway is Kovalainen, who would surely have been right in amongst it at the front had his gearbox not broken in Q2.  He wasn’t because it did, and the additional pain of a grid penalty for a gearbox change leaves Heikki starting 18th in the fastest car on the grid.  His race will be one to keep an eye on; nobody is better placed than Cakey to demonstrate whether it’s possible to overtake on this new layout.

It’ll be amazing if anyone at the very front gets to make the same demonstration.  With the polesitter in the weekend’s quickest car and with a KERS button to boot, there is no reason to suggest that the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will fall to anyone other than Lewis Hamilton, or that he should be anything less than comfortable all afternoon.

One of next year’s nailed-on driver moves has been confirmed, Robert Kubica committing to Renault for 2010 and quite possibly no longer than that, being one of the men keeping a keen eye on Felipe Massa’s performance on the off chance that the Brazilian’s comeback [...]]]> Listen up, soldiers!  A few things to fill you in on.

One of next year’s nailed-on driver moves has been confirmed, Robert Kubica committing to Renault for 2010 and quite possibly no longer than that, being one of the men keeping a keen eye on Felipe Massa’s performance on the off chance that the Brazilian’s comeback falls flat next year.  Speaking of comebacks, here’s a little picture of Felipe making his, in a Ferrari F2007 at their Fiorano test track.  Felipe’s conduct both on and off the racetrack in the last 12 months won over a lot of doubters, this blogger included, and it’s wonderful to see him back behind the wheel.

Also making a return to competitive action after some time away, according to rumour, is Renault’s traditional yellow and black livery, seen here on Alain Prost’s 1983 car.  A variety of sites are reporting it, just like the tabloid sensationalists at Planet F1, but as yet none of them appear to be citing any kind of source.  It’d make sense, though; Renault’s current orange, yellow and white colourscheme is a) related to their ING sponsorship, which has now been brought to an end, b) not in any way connected to Renault’s corporate branding and c) chuffing awful.

Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren move, which looked certain last time we spoke, seems to have stalled for now, the rumour being that the Iceman wants $25m for next season and McLaren don’t want to give him it.  After a lacklustre first half of the year, Kimi has raised his game brilliantly since becoming de facto team leader after Massa’s Hungarian accident, and it’ll be a crying shame if he doesn’t land a competitive drive for 2010.  That could yet happen – the Woking team appear to be his only realistic option at present, with Brawn looking full and no seat at Williams, where the Brazilian media are certain that Rubens Barrichello will begin his 18th full season of F1 next year.

Rubinho himself admits he’s had talks with them, but that nothing is finalised and staying with Brawn remains an option.  Everyone else, however, remains certain that Nico Rosberg is going to Brawn for next year.  Rubens might be too busy eyeing the skies of his hometown Sao Paulo to care, with the forecast for this weekend’s Interlagos race changing by the day but almost always including the threat of heavy, heavy rain.  Jenson Button, needing just 5 points to be sure of the world title, must be thrilled at the prospect of a wild, unpredictable weekend.

At some point we’ll have to cover some more politics, with the FIA presidential elections taking place on October 23rd.  For now, it’s enough to say that the Max Mosley-endorsed ex-Ferrari race chief Jean Todt (and that’s not sounding any less repugnant as time goes on, is it?) is busily slinging mud in the direction of his rival, rallying legend turned politician Ari Vatanen.  It’s the kind of mud that makes you think the Todt team aren’t absolutely sure they’ve secured the votes they need to win the presidency, and the Vatanen campaign has secured high-profile support from South Africa and Jordan.  Note though that Max, and by extension Jean, has a spell cast on a great many banana republics that have the same voting rights as everyone else regardless of whether they hold any race meetings at all in their country, and so a Todt win seems the most likely outcome all the same.  We’ll see.

Wonder what Max will be doing in his retirement?  Wonder no more – the autobiography is coming…

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?

- Martin Brundle called him ‘Teflonso’ on the grid.  How many of you are sat kicking yourselves right now for not [...]]]> A couple of quick ones for you, appearing here because to have put them in the main write-up would have given the altogether false impression that what took place today was an interesting motor race:

- Martin Brundle called him ‘Teflonso’ on the grid.  How many of you are sat kicking yourselves right now for not coming up with that?

- When Ron Dennis was around, he became known for something called Ronspeak, a way of speaking in which ‘the wheel fell off’ would become ‘we had a serious optimisation issue relating to the installation and alignment of a rotating cylinder.’  Today we learned that Ronspeak is still dear to the hearts of all at McLaren, which is why ‘Lewis, turn KERS off, it might be broken’ is actually pronounced ‘Lewis, there is a potential KERS issue, a potential KERS issue, we need you to set a default X three zero.’  It’s difficult to see why it would hurt them to give radio calls that aren’t then followed, as this one was, by the team explaining to their driver what a default X three zero actually is.

- Part of the reason I’d sooner see Rubens win this championship than Jenson is that when told both he and Jenson were struggling to make their brakes last, his first response wasn’t, “How far should I back off?” but, “Can we catch him?”

- Toro Rosso’s new pit strategy of allowing the driver to leave the pit box whenever he feels like it needs work.  Jaime Alguersuari’s first pit stop was brought to an end not because the mechanics were finished working, not because the fuel rig had been removed and not because the lollipop man had given the signal to go.  None of those things had happened.  Jaime just drove off.