Mercedes GP Signs Nick Heidfeld

Nick Heidfeld has been finally confirmed by Mercedes GP as their Reserve Race Driver and Test Driver for the 2010 Formula One season.

“I am very pleased to be joining the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS Formula One Team. It’s the team which has attracted the most interest in the close season, not only because of the comeback of Michael Schumacher, but also because this season sees the return of the Silver Arrows cars as a Mercedes-Benz works team for the first time in over fifty years. Whilst I would of course have preferred a seat as an active driver, I am really proud to be part of the new Silver Arrows team. I have seen how committed everyone at the team is and I feel the same. I will be doing my very best to support Michael and Nico this year.”

Heidfeld may be pleased to join the defending champions but his statement does not hide the main reason behind his choice – the failure to secure a race drive for 2010 season… It will be interesting to see if he will get a chance to test the MGP W01 during the remaining winter test sessions.

2010 F1 Drivers – Nick Heidfeld joins Rosberg and Schumacher

Contrary to reports that Giancarlo Fisichella is closing on the race seat with Sauber the Hinwill team has picked Pedro de la Rosa to partner the rookie driver Kamui Kobayashi for the 2010 season.

“Pedro has spent many years working for a top team at the highest technical level. We as a team stand to gain from his experience, and the same goes for young Kamui. The combination of a seasoned racer and an up-and-coming young driver has repeatedly proved a very fruitful one. I don’t expect either of them to disappoint in 2010. Of course it is also crucial that we provide them with a decent car; I feel positive about our in-house progress on that front too. We were able to continue work on our 2010 car as scheduled throughout the recent period of uncertainty.” – Peter Sauber

“I always firmly believed I would be given another chance as a team driver. Since the number of test drives were radically reduced, this was what I was working towards. I’m really excited about the season with Peter Sauber’s team, which has been a solid fixture in Formula One ever since 1993.” – Pedro de la Rosa

Pedro de la Rosa, the 38-year-old Spaniard,has 71 Grands Prix under his belt and worked with McLaren as a test and reserve driver for seven years from 2003 through to 2009. During that period he raced for McLaren the team in nine Grands Prix. In 2005 he finished fifth in Bahrain (substituting for injured JP Montoya) and claimed the fastest race lap. In 2006 he stepped in after Montoya left F1. In eight races he scored 19 points and took second place in the wet Hungarian Grand Prix.

De la Rosa made his first Grand Prix debut in Australia in 1999 for Arrows following his test driver job with Jordan a year earlier. He moved to Jaguar for the 2001 and 2002 seasons. Then came his testing days with McLaren.

The last quality race seat remains with Renault. There is also Nick Heidfeld still without a drive for 2010 season.

Photo: F1Wolf.com

2010 F1 Drivers – Pedro de la Rosa confirmed by BMW Sauber

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:

“I want to make clear that Jenson’s decision to join us was in no way motivated by money. We’ll be paying him no more than he could be getting elsewhere, and that fact is a reflection of not only Jenson’s belief in Vodafone McLaren Mercedes but also his desire and ambition to build on the phenomenal results he achieved during the 2009 season.”

This is a risky move for Button and many prominent F1 figures believe he is making a big mistake. It will be very interesting to see how both the drivers and the team management handle the new situation. The last pairing of world champion with Lewis Hamilton (Alonso in 2007) was not exactly a long lasting success story … Both Hamilton and Button are however confident that all will be well:

“It’s always a difficult decision to leave a team when you’ve been there for so long. But life is all about challenges – and, most important of all, it’s about challenging yourself. So, although I won the World Championship with Brawn GP last year, and I’ll never forget that, I was always adamant that I wanted to continue to set myself fresh challenges. So that’s why I’ve decided to join Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.

From a personal point of view, it’s also a great pleasure to be joining a fellow British World Champion. Lewis has achieved an incredible level of success in a very short period of time, and he’s a wonderfully gifted driver who has earned the respect of every Formula 1 driver. I’m sure there’s plenty that we can learn from each other, and I’m really looking forward to using our combined knowledge to push the team forward.

Also, I think it’s fantastic that we’ll be forming an all-British line-up. I know that we both fly the flag with pride, and I sincerely hope we can make the whole of the United Kingdom, as well as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes fans across the world, proud. Nothing means more to me than to be able to represent my country, and I’m looking forward to both of us painting Formula 1’s circuits red, white and blue for many years to come.” – Jenson Button

“It’s fantastic news that Jenson has decided to join Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – and I’m looking forward to working with him and our engineers to make sure we kick off the 2010 season with a car that’s competitive enough to win the World Championship – but I want to send my best wishes for the future to my 2008-09 team-mate and now good friend Heikki Kovalainen, who is one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever met.

I already know Jenson, and we get on very well together. We both really want our team to succeed. Although we’ll be pushing each other hard, I’m sure we’ll very quickly establish a great working relationship. He’s an exceptional driver: very controlled and very smooth, and he has a real depth of knowledge and experience. I think we’ll complement each other very well, and our collaboration will make the team stronger as a result. Also, I’m delighted to be racing alongside a fellow British World Champion, and I believe we can pull together to make Vodafone McLaren Mercedes the best team on the grid.” – Lewis Hamilton

Let’s wait and see what will they have to say 12 months later …

Button’s move to McLaren means that McLaren will again display the number number one on one of their cars. It also means that Heikki Kovalainen is at the moment without a drive for 2010. We can now expect Mercedes GP (formerly Brawn GP) to announce their 2010 drivers soon with Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld widely expected to get the nod.

Photo: Bridgestone Motorsports

2010 F1 Drivers – Jenson Button moves to McLaren

We all probably expected this to be a quiet week. It all turned out a bit differently.

BMW decided to pull the plug on F1. They surprised not only the public but also their drivers who had no idea such an option was even on cards (at least that is what Heidefeld, Kubica and Klien said). The focus of BMW debates is now shifting from “Why they decided to quit ?” to “What is next ?”

There are very much only 3 possible outcomes for the team. The team will be taken over by someone else, the team will disappear and FIA will select another entry for 2010 or the team will simply disappear without trace.

Given the facilities the team has built up since the purchase of Sauber it would be waste to simply scrap it. BMW probably would not mind to get some money back if a buyer with fat wallet can be found. But perhaps more likely scenario would be a “Honda/Brawn” kind of solution if someone currently involved with the team has a desire to continue. One name that immediately comes to mind is Peter Sauber (still a minority shareholder in the team). The other questions raised are where would the engines and money come from. I would also like to hear what do people over at Petronas have to say on BMW pull out … I mean other than saying they “fully respect the decision made by the BMW Group to pull out of the F1 championship at the end of this season” followed with this saying nothing statement:

“Petronas’ involvement in F1 with the BMW Sauber F1 Team has been that of a strategic partnership, to complement the company’s branding and business marketing objectives through the areas of premium branding efforts.”

Following the selection of USF1, Campos and Manor there were several serious possible entrants left out of the 2010 grid. Some of them may still be interested to get in. Epsilon Euskadi for example has already expressed their desire to fill the gap BMW exit may create. The question is, would any new entrant still have enough time to get everything ready for 2010 if they were to build everything from scratch ?

Kubica and Heidfeld now face the choice – to stay put or sign somewhere else before the good seats are gone. But what will be the good seats in 2010 … No matter what the form of all the teams is this year McLaren and Ferrari will be considered the safest bets. With Ferrari having already more big names connected with them than seats available we can expect a nice long queue forming in front of McLaren’s door …

Felipe Massa is fortunately doing well but it is likely that it will be a while before he returns to racing. Many names were mentioned as his possible temporary replacement but at the end it will be Michael Schumacher in the red car in Valencia. This would be the first opportunity for drivers like Hamilton, Kovalainen, Vettel to race against the 7 time champion in F1. It would not be the first time for Schumacher however to race against Piquet and Nakajima though, he had raced against these guys’ fathers . Also, if Schumacher races in Valencia, it looks like it would be for the first time since 1999 there will four F1 champions in the race (that time Hakkinen, Hill, Villeneuve and Schumacher) – correct me please if I am wrong.

Technically Schumacher should be fine. If Jaime Alguersuari could do well in Hungary why would anyone doubt ability of Michael Schumacher to race an F1 car, although a one he never raced before. Scary thought is however that his car will be one of the four with the magic KERS button …

If you want to see how he drove a car (a Maserati) on track about 2 months ago, check this video.

And now to Renault. Currently the team is banned from European GP following Alonso’s wheel incident in Hungary. The team has appealed, of course. The appeal hearing is set for August 17, with verdict to be released on August 18. Then shortly after the Hungarian GP we could witness quite heated exchange of opinions (through media) between Flavio Briatore and Nelson Piquet (jr). Few days later Renault went straight line testing. And according to Brits On Pole (the guys had their man at the test) Romain Grosjean was on duty instead of Nelson Piquet. To add to the mess there has been talk there is an investor interested in buying the team and a bit away from F1 Renault (the company) announced yesterday a loss of $3.8 billion for the first half of 2009.

Hot F1 topics of the week – BMW out, Schumacher in and then Renault

Mark Webber celebrating his first F1 win

Mark Webber finally has an F1 race win under his belt, let’s have a look how his German GP win changed the F1 statistics:

Mark Webber has officially become the driver with most F1 races before first win. Here is how the table looks now:

1. Mark Webber – 130th race
2. Rubens Barrichello – 123rd race
3. Jarno Trulli – 119th race
4. Jenson Button – 113th race
5. Giancarlo Fisichella – 110th race
6. Mika Hakkinen – 96th race

Interesting that current F1 drivers make up the top 5 …

Let’s have a look who has the best chance to take away Mark Webber’s top spot. Here are the current F1 drivers without a race win after Webber’s name disappeared from this list:

1. Nick Heidfeld – 159 races
2. Nico Rosberg – 62 races
3. Adrian Sutil – 44 races
4. Timo Glock – 31 races
5. Kazuki Nakajima – 28 races
6. Nelson Piquet – 27 races
7. Sebastien Buemi – 9 races

Nick Heidfeld first win would put him firmly in the lead in the driver with most F1 races before first win table. He has also another option – to overtake Andrea de Cesaris who currently is the all time driver with most F1 starts without a win (208).

There has been a lot of comparing Mark Webber to Nigel Mansell since Webber’s win. But actually it is Nico Rosberg who is challenging Mansell’s place in the history books. It took Nigel Mansell 72 races to win his first, Nico Rosberg is on 62 at the moment.

The other interesting number is that currently there are 12 race winners on 2009 Formula 1 grid – Alonso (21), Raikkonen (17), Massa (11), Barrichello (9), Hamilton (9), Button (7), Fisichella (3), Vettel (3), Trulli (1), Kubica (1), Kovalainen (1), Webber (1). I am not sure when was the last time there were so many race winners competing in F1 championship at the same time …

Changes to history books following Mark Webber’s German GP win

With the teams revealing their 2009 Formula One cars we also have chance to see some of the 2009 F1 drivers helmets. Here they come, including the new yellow helmet of Jenson Button . I will be adding more (or better) pictures as they become available.

Hamilton, Kovalainen, Glock, Trulli and Piquet keep their helmets more less same as in 2008. Alonso added some red colour to his lid (to match the new colours of the Renault car probably).

Robert Kubica keeps his 2008 colours while Nick Heidfeld has changed his dominant helmet colour from 2008 blue to 2009 green after getting inspired by similar snowboard helmet.

2009 F1 Drivers Helmets

Kimi Raikkonen's last win came way back in April in Spain

The 2008 Formula 1 driver rankings continue with part 3 – ranks 10 to 6. I did not have too difficult time to select the five drivers for this post but giving them their ranks was a bit different story. Here is how I settled it:

10th Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari had bad start to the season in Australia but few races later, after Spanish GP, it looked like Kimi may be the man to beat in 2008. Unfortunately for him, that was the high point of his season. The mid season slump took him out of contention and by the time his form returned all he could do was to support Felipe Massa. He was outqualified by his team mate 12:6 and that says something about the roots of his problems. At the end Raikkonen managed to reclaim the 3rd place in drivers championship but only because the second McLaren driver was nowhere near the top and the BMW Sauber and Kubica lost the plot in the final 2 races. He made my top 10, but only just.

9th Jarno Trulli
This was typical Trulli season. Great qualifying not always followed by great performance on Sunday. Thanks to his qualifying and his ability to keep a train of cars behind him he finished regularly in points. It looks to me that it does not matter what kind of car Trulli has, he always does the same .

8th Mark Webber
Sure bet for top 8 finish in the early stages of the season. He however suffered from the slump of the Red Bull car performance in the later stages of the season and ended the year only 2 points better than Nelson Piquet. His place in my top 10 is result of his dominance over his team mate suggesting that Webber did rather good job with no so good car in hand.

7th Timo Glock
Timo Glock’s famous moment came on that last lap of the last race but that is a topic of another post . This was Glock’s sort of rookie season and he did much better than the other too newcomers – Nakajima and Piquet. I may be placing him a bit too high here but I have my reasons. He improved as the season progressed and in the second half  he even gained upper hand over his experienced team mate (after Hungary he finished only once behind Trulli). And although Trulli outqualified him 14:4 Glock made it to Q3 9 times this season and on another 3 ocassions only just missed out (P11).

6th Nick Heidfeld
Nick Heidfeld was getting lots of stick this season and even Mario Theissen took his time before deciding to keep him for another season. His qualifying woes cost him dearly in races for better part of the season but he still managed 4 podium finishes and 60 points in the championship table. And judging from the fact that the highly rated Robert Kubica ran into same sort of trouble in the final 2 races it looks like the problems might have more to do with the car than with the driver. He was also the Mr. Reliable finishing all 18 races and has one fastest lap to his name (German GP). The main reason why I have him 6th however is that I had no other candidate for this position .

Photo: Shell Motorsports

2008 Formula 1 – Wolf’s Driver rankings – Part 3 – 10th to 6th

Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber

The speculations about the future of Nick Heidfeld are over. BMW Sauber has confirmed their 2009 drivers line up. The announced today they will retain both Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld in the 2009 season. Christian Klien will also stay on as a test driver.

“We see Nick and Robert as a strong driver pairing and Christian as an experienced test driver. We are in no doubt that we will again achieve our ambitious aims with them in the team’s fourth year.” – Mario Theissen.

Nick Heidfeld has been under fire this season but the fact is that he lies 5th in the championship standings ahead of one McLaren drivers and at the same time only 8 points behind his highly rated team mate…

It now looks even more likely that Fernando Alonso will stay with Renault in 2009.

See the 2009 F1 Driver Line Up here

Photo: BMW Motorsports

Kubica and Heidfeld confirmed for 2009 season by BMW Sauber

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.

Sebastien Bourdais

It is getting quite interesting in Renault. At the moment it looks like the chances of Alonso staying are bigger than te chances of him leaving for Honda or BMW Sauber. We still however have to wait and even Alonso’s Singapore win may not make the waiting time shorter. One thing is obvious though, Renault want Fernando to stay.

Nelson Piquet’s position is rather different. He clearly hasn’t impressed and unlike in Kovalainen’s case last year there was not any late season performance surge. Flavio Briatore:

“Piquet hasn’t had a good championship so far. He does good things before qualifying, and then he doesn’t go the way he should. We’ll see…”

And so Renault guys are looking around for options and they seem to have plenty. The number 1 replacement candidate is emerging to be Lucas di Grassi. This Brazilian driver entered the GP2 season quite late but still managed to finish third behind Pantano and Senna. He also did well in Jerez testing for Renault, obviously impressing the team. Then there is also the other Renault tester and GP2 driver, Romain Grosjean….

The rumours are that Briatore is already looking for some alternative employment for Nelson Piquet, offering him to Toro Rosso. But that sounds like a long shot to me. Toro Rosso would hardly select Piquet for any reason other than money. And when it comes to money and marketability he would have to beat Sato there … I does look like Piquet may have to return to some testing role next year …

When talking about Renault – Toro Rosso connection there is also a talk about Sebastien Bourdais possibly moving to Renault next year. Anything can happen in F1 but this looks like pure speculation only … Although, if Alonso leaves, there will be plenty of room in Renault …

Nick Heidfeld

The other interesting news that came out in recent days was the admission of Honda’s Nick Fry that he has been talking with Nick Heidfeld and that exchanged more than just “hello”. Hm, not what Rubens Barrichello wants to hear … At the same time Fry repeated again Honda is still interested in services of Fernando Alonso, should he leave his Renault home. He also remotely advised Alonso against joing the BMW Sauber rivals:

“Fernando found that McLaren is rigid, and BMW is even worse.”

So the 2009 Formula 1 grid is slowly filling up but at the same time more question marks are appearing the closer we get to the season finale. This is one of the possibilities how the 2009 grid may look according to the latest round of speulations, although especially that Renault line up looks extremely unlikely to me:

Ferrari – Massa, Raikkonen
McLaren – Hamilton, Kovalainen
BMW Sauber – Kubica, Alonso
Renault – Bourdais, Di Grassi
Toyota – Glock, Trulli
Toro Rosso – Sato, Buemi
Red Bull – Vettel, Webber
Honda – Button, Heidfeld
Williams – Nakajima, Rosberg
Force India – Fisichella, Sutil

You can follow the actual 2009 Formula 1 Drivers Line Up development on the 2009 season page.

For a time being we still have all the teams racing with the same drivers that started the 2008 season (except Super Aguri guys of course).

Photos: Williams/LAT, Red Bull/GEPA, BMW Motorsports

2009 Formula 1 Drivers Line Up – End September Developments

Felipe Massa, 2008 Belgian GP

So, we finally had a race that went to the wire. It actually went even further and the final result was amended about 2 hours after the race with 25 second penalties to Timo Glock (overtaking Webber under yellow flags) and the controversial one to Lewis Hamilton for cutting the chicane. The debate on that Hamilton’s penalty has already begun below another article. I wil focus this review more on the race action itself and later today post my take on the whole controversy.

Following the qualifying Lewis Hamilton looked well set for the return to the top of the podium. His McLaren seemed to be the car to beat. But there was Kimi, lighter than his qualifying time might have suggested, who althout running wide using all the run off area available managed to pass cautious Massa and few moments later also Lewis Hamilton. Kimi’s fight with Massa was actually quite rough, I thought for a moment they will both go off … Massa dropped back a bit (it was later revealed that as a precaution his engine was tuned down and never reached the 19,000 rpm limit) but there was not much between Raikkonen and Hamilton. Hamilton stopped first but Raikkonen and Massa followed soon after. Not much changed only Kimi’s lead was a bit bigger. It was a bit different situation after the second round of pit stops. Either the harder tyres worked better for Hamilton than for Raikkonen or Raikkonend started to control the race – Raikkonen’s lead was shrinking, Hamilton was right on his tail. About that time the it became to look like some rain may affect the final stages of the race. In the meantime Massa cruised behind in 3rd. Knowing that he has no chance to catch the leaders he probably settled for damage control result and 6 points.

And then with 3 laps to it started to rain. Hamilton took an immediate advantage of Kimi’s slower pace and tried to overtake him. Raikkonen defended hard. Some say he simply kept his racing line, some say he deliberately turned into Hamilton. The result was Hamilton had to cut the chicane and got ahead of Kimi. He gave the position back on the start finish straight but once behind Kimi Hamilton attacked immediately again and this time successfully. From then on Hamilton’s focus was to keep the car on the track. Raikkonen had other ideas, he needed the win. He decided to go for all or nothing. He managed to survive one spin, but after another one he found himself in the tyre wall. That elevated Massa to 2nd place.

2008 Belgian GP

What was happening behind these three was even more fascinating, well on the last 3 laps at least. After Raikkonen’s crash Fernando Alonso climbed to P3 but only for a very short while as he dived into the pits for intermediate tyres. All of a sudden Bourdais found himself in podium position, Alonso dropped to 8th. Bourdais struggling to keep the car on the slippery track lost few positions and Vettel took over the P3 for a while. But then few metres from the finish line Heidfeld and Alonso benefited from their gamble on late switch to intermediate tyres. Heidfeld took 3rd, Alonso 4th. Sebastian Vettel brought the car home in 5th ahead of Kubica, Bourdais and Glock. The post race penalties moved Hamilton down to third, handing the win to Felipe Massa and elevating Nick Heidfeld to 2nd place. Mark Webber jumped to 8th while Timo Glock dropped to 9th.

Ferrari will have some tough decisions to make. No matter if Hamilton’s penalty stands or McLaren will be successful with their appeal it looks like Kimi Raikkonen is now out of the title race. The fact that Kimi crashed out however means that he may not have to use his Spa engine again in Monza this weekend. Ferrari may give him one more race to keep his title chances alive. Felipe Massa can call himself extremely lucky. With the tuned down engine he must have known that 3rd is probably the best he could hope for. The luck (and stewards) were on his side and what looked like 8 points gap to Hamilton is now only 2. But there would be no win for him if he did not keep his car on the track in those trecherous final laps. So credit to Massa for keeping his head cool. He also will not complain about Kimi crashing out. It looked like Kimi was on course to cut Massa’s advantage to only 3 points, 3 laps and 2 hours later that turned out to be 17 points …

Lewis Hamilton, although penalized, again proved he is the guy to watch once the track gets wet. He however drove a smart race even before that rain, not taking too many risks. He made a mistake early on and allowed Kimi Raikkonen to take the lead. But Hamilton was doing what he needed to do. Finishing second behind Kimi and ahead of Massa would mean extending his championship lead and that is what matters to him at this stage of the season. But then the moment he smelled the blood he went for it and Kimi had no chance.

Heikki Kovalainen had very mixed race. He lost lots of ground at the start but once he got his McLaren up to the pace there was no stopping him. Well, until his collision with Mark Webber that resulted in drive through penalty. He looked set for some low points finish but retired on the last lap.

It was a rare weekend for BMW Sauber. Nick Heidfeld outclassed Robert Kubica ! He did so in practice, in qualifying and in the race. That is something we almost forgot is possible. Robert Kubica’s 6th place however means he jumped ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in drivers standings. Nick Heidfeld’s tyre gamble returned him to podium and eased some pressure that sure is on him.

Fernando Alonso, 2008 Belgian GP

Fernando Alonso will be happy with his race. He could have reached the podium, there were also speculations that he perhaps could even have a shot at the race win should he switch to intermeds a lap earlier. But at the end 4th place combined with no points for Toyota is a bigger gain than the team may have hoped for. The fight for 4th place in constructors table is still on. Nelson Piquet did not last for long. He crashed out on lap 14, not what a driver in his positions wants to do …

Sebastien Bourdais, Belgian GP 2008

Toro Rosso continued their impressive run of results. Bourdais was close to a great result but the conditions that placed him on the podium position for a while at the end worked against him. But still, 5th place for Vettel and 7th for Bourdais is a great result for the team following equally strong qualifying (both cars in Q3). Toro Rosso now caught up with Williams in the constructors table and jumped ahead of sorry Honda.

Mark Webber, the regular point scorer in the early stages of the season, returned to top 8th for the first time since French GP but none of the Red Bull cars seems now to able to challenge their Toro Rosso cousins.

It was disapointing weekend for Toyota with both drivers missing out on points allowing Renault to close the gap. Williams, Honda and Force India were in class of their own. Honda guys obviously gave up on 2008 season and that allowed Force India to close the gap.

I am not going to post any videos here, but here are 2 links to some video higlights from Belgain GP.

Link 1
Link 2

Photos: Shell Motorsport, Renault/LAT, Red Bull/GEPA

2008 Belgian F1 GP – Wolf’s Race Review