Here is the video interview with Norbert Haug on the purchase of Brawn GP by Mercedes, the separation from McLaren and on the 2010 drivers. No there are no names yet but some hint that announcements may come in next 2 weeks with possible surprises …

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Mercedes confirmed purchase of Brawn GP F1 team

Mercedes today made an announcement about their future F1 plans. Here is the quick summary:

- Daimler AG (Mercedes) is to buy a majority stake in the Brawn GP Formula One team. According to not exactly clear press release from Daimler AG the team is to be known as Silver Arrow Formula 1 team or Mercedes Grand Prix (read the press release at the end of this post)
- McLaren Group is to purchase Daimler AG’s 40 per cent shareholding
- Mercedes-Benz is to power McLaren’s Formula 1 cars until 2015

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Prague - the object of F1 rumours

It is amazing to see how quickly the F1 media picked up the story that Czech Republic is targeting F1 street race in Prague. Well it is not Czech Republic, it is not Prague, it is Mr. Antonin Charouz. And he is not exactly planning F1 race in Prague. He is talking about building a race race track somewhere in Prague that perhaps one day (in his dreams) may host F1 race. But news about someone planning to build a semi street race track at the outskirts of Prague would hardly attract as much attention as news about Czech Republic or Prague targeting F1 race…

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Few weeks after Jenson Button and Brawn GP secured their maiden driver and constructors world championships arrives the Brawn GP Champions & Victory Collection. At this time the only products available are Henri Lloyd caps and shirts.

Here are some of the championship products available at the moment:

Jenson Button victory cap

Brawn GP champions cap

Brawn GP champions T-shirt

All the above items are now available from OnPole (links below):

Jenson Button victory cap
Brawn GP champions cap
Brawn GP champions T-shirt

Although there is no info yet on any special die cast championship presentation Minichamps do have the 1:43 die cast replica of Jenson Button’s BGP001 from Brazilian GP (where he clinched the 2009 title) available for pre-order now ( click here ) with deliveries expected early in 2010.

Mistakes are costly in Macau ...

It is less than 2 weeks to go to 2009 Macau Grand Prix. The highlight of the weekend has been since 1983 the Formula 3 race often featuring future F1 drivers. The list of former Macau GP winners includes names such as Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, David Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, Takuma Sato. Several drivers on 2009 F1 grid raced in Macau in the past – Sebastian Vettel, Adrian Sutil, Kamui Kobayashi, Robert Kubica, Kazuki Nakajima, Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Nelson Piquet jr, Jenson Button, Sebastien Bourdais, Mark Webber, Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella, Rubens Barrichello, Sebastien Buemi, Romain Grosjean and as recently as last year also Jaime Alguersuari. We can also add the 2010 F1 rookies Bruno Senna (Campos META) and Nico Hulkenberg (Williams) – both raced in Macau in 2007.

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Will they stay or will they go ?

Only day after Bridgestone announced their future plans do not include F1 and on the same day Toyota ended their 8 year long winless F1 adventure the story is emerging that Renault may be the next one to quit. An emergency board meeting is on today in Paris. The French car company is to discuss its F1 future. The options for Renault are to stay on with their own team, to continue as an engine supplier only or to follow the examples of Honda, BMW nad Toyota and pull the plug on F1 programme completely.

Update:

On Thursday, Renault Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said:

“You will have to be patient. We will make an announcement on our participation in Formula 1 before the end of the year.”

What must be going on in Robert Kubica’s head following his move from ex-BMW team to Renault …

Photo: Bridgestone Motorsport

End of the F1 adventure for Toyota

The (off-)season of announcements continues with news of another withdrawal. This time it is the rather expected news from Toyota. Toyota confirmed today they are pulling out Formula One. There goes the commitment to stay on board till 2012 …

“Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announces it plans to withdraw from the FIA Formula 1 world championship at the end of the 2009 season. TMC, which had viewed its participation in F1 as contributing to the prosperity of automotive culture, remained dedicated to competing at the pinnacle of motor sports even in the face of the abrupt economic changes that started last year.

However, when considering TMC’s motorsports actitives next year and beyond from a comprehensive mid-term viewpoint reflecting the current severe economic realities, TMC decided to withdraw from F1.”

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The final race of 2009 F1 season is over and that means also the end of the 2009 Prediction Game. The final round was not very high scoring one. The main reason seems to be the fact that lots of usual suspects failed to make it to top 8 in Abu Dhabi. With McLaren, Ferrari, Williams, Renault all out of the points lots of points correctly guessed teams in top 8 were lost. Those who had BMW, Toyota and Toro Rosso drivers among their top 8 scored big …

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Nico Hulkenberg will race for Williams in 2010

First day of the offseason is turning into a day of announcements. As expected the AT&T Williams team today confirmed Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg will drive for the Cosworth powered team in 2010 season. The 2009 GP2 champion Nico Hulkenberg is the second rookie already confirmed for 2010 season following the Campos META/Bruno Senna announcement.

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There were no drivers changes at all during 2008 Formula One season. Of course if we do not count Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson, two drivers left without seats after Super Aguri pulled out of the sport.

It was a different story this year. Injuries, performances and perhaps also personal disagreements resulted in rather different line up during the photo ops in Melbourne in late March and Abu Dhabi right at the beginning of November:

2009 Formula One Drivers - March

Bourdais, Buemi, Fisichella, Sutil, Webber Vettel, Nakajima, Rosberg, Barrichello, Button, Glock, Trulli, Heidfeld, Kubica, Raikkonen, Massa, Hamilton, Kovalainen, Alonso, Piquet

2009 Formula One Drivers - November

Alguersuari, Buemi, Liuzzi, Sutil, Alonso, Grosjean, Heidfeld, Kubica, Trulli, Kobayashi, Rosberg, Nakajima, Raikkonen, Fisichella, Barrichello, Button, Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, Kovalainen

How many of them will we see back next year ?

Bridgestone will quit F1 after 2010 season

We have all expected the off-season full of announcements. The first one came shortly after the end of 2009 F1 action. And it is a rather surprising one – Bridgestone announced they will not continue supplying F1 with tyres after 2010 season.

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Fourth 1-2 finish of the season for Red Bull courtesy of Vettel and Webber

Sebastian Vettel won the rather dull inaugural Abu Dhabi GP and claimed second place in the drivers championship. One of few exciting parts of this GP was the final laps fight between Webber and Button for 2nd place. Webber prevailed and helped to secured fourth 1-2 finish of the season for Red Bull Racing. Rubens Barrichello finished 4th, Nick Heidfeld 5th in BMW Sauber’s final F1 race. Kamui Kobayashi scored 3 points for 6th place in only his second F1 race. The final 2 point scoring positions belong to Jarno Trulli and Sebastien Buemi.

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