Only of two F1 ready operations will race next year

While there are four new F1 teams being built from the scratch (USF1, Manor, Campos META, Lotus) at least one of two established F1 operations is unlikely to make it to the 2010 grid.

BMW has finally managed to do what they should have done right away – after the failed Qadbak deal they sold the team back to Peter Sauber. The problem is BMW decided not to sign the new Concorde Agreement and the team has lost its entry. Before they made up their mind what to do with the Hinwil operation FIA granted the 13th entry to Lotus … All that Peter Sauber’s team has now is the “14th” entry.

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2010 Force India Drivers - Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil

Force India F1 team are the fifth team to have officially confirmed their 2010 driver line up. There will be no changes – both Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi will retain their seats. All the hopefuls testing for Force India next week in Jerez (Paul di Resta and J.R. Hildebrand) can hope for now are the test (third) driver positions with the team …

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So, no Quadbak sale. BMW has at the end agreed to sell their F1 team back to Peter Sauber. There is one condition attached though – the team needs to have a place on 2010 grid. And that is one thing they don’t have at the moment thanks to the failure of BMW to sign the Concorde Agreement. There is a possible vacancy following Toyota’s withdrawal from the sport. But that vacancy does not have to go to Sauber … Toyota still owns that 13th entry and there are some reports that Toyota may be selling it to another party – that party being Stefan Grand Prix, the Serbian entity that took FIA to European Commission for the way the original team selection process was handled … Here are the links to Joe Saward’s blog entry and to Autosport feature (subscription required).

The original sale to Quadbak was announced just after FIA granted the entry vacated by BMW to Lotus. Will the history repeat itself ? Has the BMW / Sauber solution arrived too late yet again ?

I have finally managed to sort out all the photos taken in Macau last weekend. Here is the second set featuring images from the track and from the paddock and garages. This is a mix of pictures from Formula 3, Formula BMW, motorbike race, GT Cup and WTCC. And yes, the photos of former Minardi F1 driver and current Star Sports F1 commentator Alex Yoong and his strange Bufori car are also in the mix . Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images.

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Nico Rosberg will race Silver Arrows next year

Mercedes GP (formerly Brawn GP) announced today that from the 2010 season, as expected, German driver Nico Rosberg will drive for the new Mercedes team in the Formula 1 World Championship.

Nico Rosberg: “I am really happy to be a part of the Silver Arrows re-launch in 2010 as a driver for Mercedes. No other brand in Formula 1 can look back on such a long and successful tradition in motor racing. I am very proud that I will now drive for the new Mercedes team and work with Ross Brawn. I am more motivated than ever and can hardly wait to start testing with the new Silver Arrow and for the first race of the new season at Bahrain on 14 March 2010.”

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: “We are delighted to welcome Nico Rosberg to our Mercedes team and are very much looking forward to working with him. Nico is a great talent, and with four years of experience in Formula 1, is a driver who will be able to make a valuable contribution to our team right from the outset. I had the pleasure of working with his father Keke during his Formula One career and it is great to see Nico following in his footsteps. 2009 was Nico’s best season in Formula 1 to date and we look forward to seeing his development continue with us at Mercedes next year.”

Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: “I saw Nico racing karts alongside Lewis Hamilton and later in the support programme of the DTM events – I have known him since he was a young boy. Early on it was obvious that he would make his way as a race driver and we are glad that after four years with Williams he will now be one of our drivers at Mercedes. It makes our re-start even nicer, that we have as talented and sympathetic a driver as Nico in our line-up. Nico has positive ambitions, we have positive ambitions and together we want to achieve a great deal. I am really looking forward to working with him.”

Now the question is, who will be Rosberg’s team mate. Nick Heidfeld, Kimi Raikkonen and even Michael Schumacher have been mentioned since Jenson Button’s move to McLaren. Mercedes people may however take their time knowing that what they have is probably the best vacant seat on the grid …

More on 2010 F1 drivers – see here.

Photo: Williams/LAT

The 2009 Macau GP provided some great racing action in all the events. It also produced lots of minor, major and spectacular crashes. Safety car was called to action in all Sunday races, two of those (the 2nd WTCC race and the Formula 3 race) were even red flagged. There were no serious injuries but lots of debris and some seriously damaged cars. Here are photos of some of the Macau crash fest action from the Lisboa bend. There were more seriously looking crashes and pile ups but those occurred at higher speed corners, away from the lense of my camera. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images:
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Bits and pieces of the Lambo

The GT Cup race (part of 2009 Macau GP program) today produced a massive crash of Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 driven by Luis Artiles. The front and rear of the car was totally ripped off, debris all over the track… The driver walked away but it will take some serious repair job before that Lambo can race again … Here is a short video featuring that crash.

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The 2009 Prediction Game ended about 2 weeks ago. The prize this year went to the 2nd on the podium, psychy as I somehow could not imagine presenting the prize to myself . I can’t understand why the wine shop delivered different champagne than what they were supposed to but at the end it is all bubbles and I hope psychy will enjoy it ! Here are few photos psychy sent back after receiving the prize.

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Jenson Button will take the nubmer 1 to McLaren

The speculations about Jenson Button’s move from Brawn GP to McLaren were confirmed today. The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 team announced earlier today on Twitter their multiyear deal with 2009 F1 champion. This will be the first time in F1 history that a team has started the new season with a line-up featuring the most recent two successive World Champions. This will also be the first pairing of two British World Champions since Graham Hill (1962, 1968) partnered Jim Clark (1963, 1965) at Lotus in 1968.

Many will doubt Button’s motivation for this move especially after all the talk about the failure of Brawn GP (now Mercedes GP) to meet his financial expectations. Martin Whitmarsh was quick to stress that money was not the reason for this move:

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Following his departure from Ferrari Kimi Raikkonen made it clear that it will either be McLaren in 2010 for him or nothing. According to Raikkonen’s manager the talks with McLaren have collapsed and Kimi will be left without F1 drive next season. This is what Steve Robertson had to say to Finnish papers Turun Sanomat:

“The options in F1 were with McLaren next season or not at all. Kimi and McLaren were unable to reach an agreement, so he will not drive at the F1 level – at least not next year.

A gap year means nothing for Kimi. He is more interested in fighting for wins and the world championship. F1 will miss Kimi. He worked hard over the summer – doing things in a Ferrari that only the best drivers are capable of.”

Kimi Raikkonen entered F1 in 2001 with Sauber only to move to McLaren in 2002. He went on to win 9 races with the Woking  team. His best championship result in McLaren was 2nd place in 2005. In 2007 Raikkonen moved to Ferrari. He won his debut race in the red car in Australia and went on to win the title in his debut season with the team. In total he has won 9 races with Ferrari, the last one in Belgium this year. Here are few images from Raikkonen’s 3 years with Ferrari.

Unless Mercedes and McLaren have some shocking scenario hidden in their sleeves it now leaves three drivers – Button, Rosberg and Heidfeld to divide the 3 Mercedes powered seats (1 in McLaren and 2 in Brawn) between them (with Rosberg expected to race for Mercedes Grand Prix).

Here are 2 interesting facts:

1) When Raikkonen joined McLaren in 2002 he replaced his compatriot Mika Hakkinen who also went on a sabbatical. That sabbatical never ended, Hakkinenen never raced in F1 again.

2) When Raikkonen joined McLaren in 2002 he was selected ahead of Nick Heidfeld. Heidfeld is likely to be the driver who may benefit the most from Raikkonen’s failure to reach an agreement with McLaren for 2010 …

Photos: Shell Motorsports

Timo Glock will race for Manor in 2010

The announcement season continues today. Manor have signed up Timo Glock for next season. Glock was left without a drive following Toyota’s pull out from F1. There were rumours connecting him with Renault drive but at the end he will be joining the newcomers Manor GP.

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Although the Mercedes engines will power the McLaren F1 cars for few years to come (the new deal says 2015 at least) their privileged partnership is coming to an end. Following the takeover of Brawn GP Mercedes will run their own team and McLaren will turn into a customer. Let’s look back at the images of Mercedes powered McLaren since 1995:

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