My prediction for 2009 drivers line up does not expect many changes except some shuffle in Red Bull / Toro Rosso following Coulthard’s retirement and Vettel’s move to Red Bull proper and perhaps some refreshment over in Force India.

After McLaren confirmed Heikki Kovalainen last week Toyota guys also seem to agree with me . Following Timo Glock’s maiden podium the team has announced they intend to keep both their drivers for 2009 season. This does not come as a big surprise. This move by Toyota would very likely also mean that Kazuki Nakajima will continue at Williams.

It however looks like Honda and Renault may be out to spoil my 2009 drivers prediction. Honda are either desperate to get Alonso on board no matter what or confident that their 2009 package will be so good that Alonso will stop dreaming his 2010 Ferrari dream. Ross Brawn gave Honda’s intentions revealing answer to Autosport when asked about the Alonso situation:

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F1Wolf

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It had to be expected that there willl be lots of talk about the 2007 Hungaroring events ahead of this weekend race. So it is no surprise that this topic has been touched also during the press conference yesterday. And this is what Alonso had to say when asking about his feelings one year on:

Much happier this year for sure. Last year again it is true that I had a possibility to fight for the championship and it was okay. I knew that this year it was not possible any more. But if I was racing for McLaren now at this moment maybe I would be in the same position as I am now without the possibility to win. So at least I am happy to be with Renault with the full support of the team and knowing that everybody is working night and day to give me the best car possible. One day we will be seventh, one day we will be fifth and hopefully one day we will be on the podium and everybody on the podium will be there with some excitement.

This seems to me to be the strongest hint yet from Alonso on the “equal” treatment the McLaren drivers get. He has done a good job so far not talking about the details of his 1 year stint with McLaren but it looks like he may be ready to start leaking some bits and pieces .

I do not believe the claims that the drivers at McLaren are equal. I have no problems with any team having number one and number two, I have problems with being told all the time that it is not the case … We only need to look back to Hockenheim to see one example. And if that is not enough, then check the interview Felipe Massa gave to Autosport (Jonathan Noble) yesterday…

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F1Wolf

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After reading all that has been written about Fernando Alosno since his not that good German Grand Prix performance, a question popped up in my mind. Which way will his career go from now ?

Same as two former champions Alonso left his title winning team to try his luck somewhere else. After winning his first title in 2005 he signed for McLaren from 2007 season. He did manage to win his 2nd title in his final (?) season with Renault, but not much went right for him since. When he arrived in McLaren he found his rookie team mate to be the next big thing in F1. He had a car able to challenge for race wins and for the title, but the expected number one status was nowhere. Not able to bite the bullet he did not manage to keep his mouth shut and found himself out of the team not long after the end of 2007 season. (Seems like Heikki has learned the lesson ). With nowhere else to go he returned to Renault, now no longer a front running team. Despite all the PR talk he clearly struggles with the uncompetitve car and his performances seem to start to reflect his unease. There is not really anywhere else to go for him next year. Unless he forgets about Ferrari and signs longer term deal with another team he is stuck with Renault for a while … How will these few fruitless years affect his future career ?

Will he do Schumi or will he do Jacques ?

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Last week an article appeared on Autosport suggesting that according to high level sources Spanish bank Santander (currently McLaren sponsor) is about to switch to Ferrari from 2010 season. Their motivation for the 2007 link up with McLaren was simple - arrival of Fernando Alonso. He is however no longer there and any suggestion of move by Santander to another team naturally sparks fresh speculation about Alonso’s future.

The “Alonso to Ferrari” talk begins to look more and more similar to “Raikkonen to Ferrari” talk few seasons back. Kimi took the place of retiring Michael Schumacher and some sources suggest that Schumi was made to make the room earlier than he had planned.

If the stories behind Santander’s link up with Ferrari and reunion with Alonso are true, who’s place would he take ? Who would be making room this time ? Kimi Raikkonen has contract with Ferrari till the end of 2009 season, Felipe Massa till the end of 2010…

Photo: Daimler Media

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McLaren Mercedes team are currently at worst the 2nd best team on the grid. The last French GP did nothing to make me feel otherwise. Heikki Kovalainen finished 4th after starting from 10th (following his 5 place grid penalty). Without the drive through penatly Lewis Hamilton would not have finished too far from podium either despite starting from P13…

But yet despite their strength the team lies at 3rd place in constructor standings, 16 points behind 2nd BMW Sauber and 33 points behind Ferrari. Their drivers are currently at 4th and 6th place. Compare it with their standings after 8 races last year. Top 2 drivers at the table, the team leading the constructors table by 25 points ahead of Ferrari…

The car is good, the car is reliable (only 2 retirements, both due to accidents, see the 2008 season stats here), so where is the problem ?

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I am not sure if the team has been distracted by Flavio Briatore’s wedding or his pictures (may be disturbing to some people) or what, but it looks to me like they are loosing their direction. If I were in Renault’s current position I would have two basic (and very interconnected) things on my mind:

1) 2008 or 2009 ?
2) Fernando Alonso - will he stay or will he go ?

It has been an open secret since the moment he re-joined Renault that this team may be just a stopover for him. Neither the team nor Alonso are hiding the fact that there is some sort of car performance related escape clause in Alonso’s contract. Alonso himself (at least publicly) has accepted the reality. He was well aware even before the season has started that the Renault car will be no match for the top this year. The reality is perhaps worse than he has expected but he keeps on doing the job. It is probably fair to say that he gets the car to the places it does not really belong to - front row start in Barcelona, very competive race pace in Canada (as long as it lasted). It is also fair to say that Renault are should be benefiting from having Alonso with them. Although I have never been a huge fan of Alonso, it looks to me to be the only one in Renault talking some sense these days …

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All we need is 2 weeks break between races and the rumour floodgates open. Let’s have a look what’s new since the second edition.

Robert Kubica has been doing well and so it comes as no surprise his future has been talked about quite a bit. Few innocent remarks to Italian paper La Stampa created two contradictory rumours. First linking Rosberg with BMW Sauber (as Kubica’s team mate) and then linking Kubica with a move to Ferrari. Sounds interesting but whom would Kubica replace ? Massa is under contract till 2010 and doing well right now (after shaky start to the season). There has been lots of talking about Raikkonen’s retirement but if I am not wrong that is part of the post 2009 future. All I can say about Kubica and Ferrari is that Kubica’s helmet matches the Ferrari colour scheme quite well as the picture above shows .

Fernando Alonso has dismissed the rumours about him signing for Ferrari, so now it is time to link him to BMW Sauber, now also a race winning car. It may help that Robert Kubica does not seem to mind having Alonso as a team mate. The question for me however is if Alonso would be OK with Kubica in the other car. At the moment all that is sure about Alonso’s future is that he has not made any decision on it, at least that is what he says.

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It looks like after many years there are no pay drivers on Formula 1 grid. Their last sanctuary disapeared when Vijay Mallya took over Spyker F1. The last proper pay driver - Christijan Albers - left the grid even earlier. Not (as he should) because of his mediocre performances, but because his sponsor stopped sending money.

Christijan Albers - Spyker

So now there isn’t a driver on the Formula 1 grid who has to pay to drive instead of getting paid for driving. At least for now gone are the days of fat purses buying F1 drives in teams like Prost, Minardi, Jordan (later Midland and Spyker)… At the same time however almost gone are also the days when other teams or drivers management could place their young and upcoming drivers to weaker back-of-the-grid teams for few seasons. This is what Honda could do with Super Aguri but never really did, this is what Toyota have done with Kazuki Nakajima and Williams, this is what Flavio Briatore have done with Minardi. Many different drivers started (and some also ended up) their F1 careers in with the backmarkers:

Fernando Alonso - Minardi

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F1Wolf

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It is Monaco Grand Prix and the Paddock is buzzing with rumours. This brings out the second edition of this series of posts. (See the first here.)

I am not really surprised to hear that “Fernando Alonso has just inked a deal to drive for Ferrari in 2010″. I do not expect anything bigger than this to come out this weekend. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. It may be, remember how Kimi Raikkonen signed for Ferrari. It may also be just a purposely started rumour to unsettle the drivers market. Let’s see what happens next, but I do not expect to find out the truth anytime soon.

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Kimi Raikkonen will start the Spanish GP from pole position confirming the strength of the Ferrari package in Barcelona. It is also the first pole position of the season for Raikkonen. He will however have an unexpected neighbour on front row - Renault with Fernando Alonso in the cockpit. Felipe Massa missed out on front row and will start from P3.

Robert Kubica qualified well again - P4  ahead of both McLarens. The silver cars have exclusive rights to row 3 in Barcelona and they will not be too happy about that. Mark Webber and Jarno Trulli proved again they are masters of qualifying - P7 and P8 are great results for Red Bull and Toyota. Nick Heidfeld may be heavier than his team mate but still, P9 is hardly a starting position he would have hoped for. Nelson Piquet made it to Q3 adding his bit to what definitelly was a very good day for Renault.

The midfield is extremely even. Only few tenths separate 11th from 15th.

This was a disapointing session for Coulthard (eliminated in Q1), Vettel (beaten by his team mate again), Sutil (7 tenths behind Fisichella and less than a tenth ahead of Davidson in pennyless Super Aguri…).

Is Renault that good all of a sudden or did Alonso only go for home qualifying glory in a lightly fueled car ? We will see tomorrow.

Spanish GP Qualifying Results:
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F1Wolf

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