Kazuki Nakajima, Williams

We entered the last month of 2008 Formula 1 season and after a short period of silence the drivers market there seems to be a lot happening on drivers market.

Williams team confirmed yesterday their 2009 drivers line up will remain the same as this year - Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima. Rosberg’s drive has been confirmed for a while already, Nakajima being the Toyota boy doing a decent rookie job was expected to continue. No real surprises here.

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1998 grooved F1 tyres

Italian GP was the last European F1 race to feature the grooved tyres (not much though due to rain). There are only four more fly-away races left this season and then the grooves (along with other ugly things) will be gone, hopefully for good. Hated by many fans the grooves have been with us for 11 seasons since 1998. Back then in 1998 Goodyear was still F1 tyre supplier and Bridgestone started only their 2nd F1 season after their 20 year hiatus. Now however we are about to see the last of them. Here is a brief look at the short history of modern grooved Formula 1 tyres.

Originally with 3 circumferential grooves on the front tyres and 4 on the rear ones they were introduced in order to slow down the cars. From 1999 the front tyres received the 4th groove as well.

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There has been a lot of speculations about the look of 2009 cars. The tall and narrow rear wing that Williams ran yesterday at Jerez may be the first indication of things to come. As expected, return to early 1990s .

It will be interesting to see if any other teams test some 2009 features during this final test of 2008 season.

Photo: Williams/LAT

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The FIA announced the winner of the Formula Two chassis and engine supplier tender - MotorSport Vision (MSV):

MotorSport Vision (MSV) has won the tender to supply chassis and engines for the new FIA Formula Two Championship, following a fax vote of the FIA World Motor Sport Council. As part of the winning tender it has been agreed that MSV will be the promoter of the Championship as well as the operating entity for all of the cars.
MSV has commissioned WilliamsF1 to design the car, which will incorporate a turbocharged 1.8 litre Audi engine and be built to Formula One-level safety standards. The first prototype car is on schedule for its testing debut in November 2008, with the Championship due to start in May 2009 and comprising 16 races over eight events. Performance levels will be between Formula Three and Formula One and the cost per competing driver will be less than €250,000.

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Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari

Ferrari again had an annoucement to make during their home race weekend in Monza. The team confirmed yesterday the extension of Kimi Raikkonen’s contract to the end of 2010 season ending the speculations about Raikkonen’s retirement. With Felipe Massa already having his contract for 2009 and 2010 it is rather safe to assume that Ferrari driver line up Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen will remain the same for the next 2 seasons. That is also what the team’s statement says:
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United States Grand Prix

The Belgian GP follow up was all about the last 3 laps of the race and the Lewis Hamilton (non)win. However there were other things going on behind the scenes.

Failure of Bernie Ecclestone and Tony George to find some common ground lead to US GP elimination from the F1 calendar. We had no US GP this year, there is no US GP featuring on 2009 provisional race calendar. It looks like last weekend in Belgium some first steps were taken to bring the US GP back, perhaps as early as in 2010. Bernie Ecclestone held talks with team principals and the topic was the return of F1 race to United States. There is hardly any team principal happy with the current sitaution and it looks like the F1 team bosses made this clear (yet again) to Bernie. I am not sure if the current economic climate has anything to with it, but this time Bernie seems to be listening.

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Nico Rosberg, Williams

Nico Rosberg has confirmed that he is staying with Williams in 2009:

“The future is here (at Williams). Well, for next year. Then we’ll see. I feel very comfortable at the team. Of course I feel good. I’ve been with the team a long time, I get on with everybody so it’s very nice. It’ s just the car isn’t fast enough.”

While this pretty much settles it for 2009 Rosberg’s words seem to indicate yet again, that he is ready to move on if an opportunity to drive better car presents itself … Well, who would not be.

You can follow the 2009 Driver Line up on this page

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Most of the Formula 1 fans already know that the new 2009 F1 regulations especially those affecting cars’ aero will bring some radical changes to the look of the Formula 1 car. Many are asking how will the 2009 F1 cars look. So let’s summarize the most obvious and visible changes.

Rear wings:

This is how the wings look this year (the shapes and angles change from track to track):

And this is how it is likely to look in 2009 - higher and narrower, similar to the wings used in early 90s (picture shows Williams in 1993).

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The only confirmed 2009 F1 vacancy is at the moment at Toro Rosso. Sebastian Vettel signed with Red Bull from next year and his current seat is up for grabs. With Sebastien Bourdais struggling and having no contract for next season, the contest is pretty much on for both seats in the former Minardi team. That makes Toro Rosso the most likely route to F1 for the lucky one or lucky pair of Formula 1 newcomers. Therefore it comes as no surprise that a string of young drivers has already been linked with the Faenza based team.

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However unlikely it might have looked few weeks ago there may be some (not much but some) Honda logic behind Alonso to Honda move. But as it has become Fernando’s habit, he keeps sending out very conflicting signals or whatever he says is twisted and edited by the media. As a result his mind is very difficult to read. On Monday it looked like the Honda move is very possible, after but then I read his latest comments to Cadena Ser radio on Renault and their chances in 2009:

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