The waiting is over, the 2009 F1 seat is secure for Bourdais

Toro Rosso took their time but at the end they made the decision that many would consider being the right one. They chose Sebastien Bourdais over Takuma Sato for 2009 season. This decision also ends speculations about Jenson Button or Rubens Barrichello possibly joining the Faenza team following collapse of Honda F1 project. This is what Le Seb had to say:

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With all the eyes focused on future of the Brackley team formerly known as Honda we tend to forget that there is one more team with uncertain future also looking for a buyer – Scuderia Toro Rosso. The talk about Honda being suited by several interested parties may be encouraging for Red Bull. If there indeed are several parties in talk with Honda that means that even in the current conditions there are people interested in entering Formula 1. When (if) Honda is sold some of the loosing bidders may turn their eye to Toro Rosso. May, if the team is assured of future existence. Some sponsors on board would probably also do no harm to longe term prospects of the former Minardi team.

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Dietrich Mateschitz and Gergard Berger

Interesting and quite surprising news came out of the Red Bull camp. The energy drinks company bought back the 50% stake in Scuderia Toro Rosso from Gerhard Berger taking full control over the former Mindardi team.

Dietrich Mateschitz:

“I am very grateful to Gerhard for his huge input. Together we turned Toro Rosso into a team that qualified on a regular basis in the top 10 and collected world championship points.”

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Sebastien Bourdais still not assured of his 2009 F1 drive and increasingly frustrated

End of 2007 season meant also the end of pay drivers in Formula 1. The last of them disappeared with Spyker team and so we haven’t seen any of them on the 2008 Formula 1 grid. This might also be one of the reasons why no driver lost his seat this year (except of course Super Aguri guys).

But if we are to believe Sebastien Bourdais (interview for GPUpdate.net), the pay driver institution is about to return.

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Anthony Davidson, no longer on anyone's radar ?

It has been a week since the grand 2008 F1 season finale, it is about the time to begin the evaluations here. Not everything went according to pre-season predictions, some teams did better some much worse than expected (or hoped). But let’s forget about the cars and focus on the drivers here. This is the part one of my 2008 Formula 1 driver rankings, positions 22 to 16.

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Toro Rosso search for their 2009 drivers has been on for weeks. The team does not plan to make any decisions until late November early December but the drivers evaluations are going on. Sebastien Buemi tested the STR03 in Jerez on Wedndesday, Thursday saw the Formula 1 return of Takuma Sato, his first F1 drive since the demise of Super Aguri. Sato may not be the greatest driver F1 has ever seen but he has definitely been very popular, especially in Japan. Here is a little photogallery of Sato’s return behind the Formula 1 wheel. I think this the first time I see him driving a F1 car that is not powered by Honda …

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the photos.

See also – Toro Rosso and Takuma Sato – Can that go wrong ?

Photos: Red Bull/GEPA

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Takuma Sato ready to test for Toro Rosso

Not surprisingly there has been renewed talk about the future of Toro Rosso following their maiden F1 win last weekend. There are basically 2 questions:

a) Who will drive for Toro Rosso next year
b) What will happen with the team after 2009 season

Not much has changed with the drivers situation. Although the Sebastien Bourdais has been doing better recently, especially in qualifying, his future is still very uncertain. On one hand the team bosses sound a bit happier about Le Seb’s performances, on the other hand Bourdais himself does not see much point in continuing with the team if he can’t get a car that would suit his driving style. So let’s see. For the time being Toro Rosso are looking at the Sebastien Buemi and Takuma Sato. Both are with the team in Jerez for the final test session of the season. Buemi was behind the wheel yesterday, today (Thursday) will be Sato’s turn. There hasn’t been much said about Bruno Senna recently though …

What is more interesting is what lies ahed of the team itself. I was wondering whether Dietrich Mateschitz would change his mind about selling the team. But what the media say this week is right, he never put the team up for sale in the first place:

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Takuma Sato

When I first heard about the possible Sato – Toro Rosso connection I found it to be quite good joke. There is a lot of competition for the vacancy created by Vettel’s move to Red Bull. Well, of course. Many drivers want to get to F1 and Toro Rosso’s is so far the only confirmed vacancy for 2009 F1 season. Now it however looks that Toro Rosso guys are seriously considering Sato for 2009 season and the more I think about that connection the more sense it makes. Here is why I think why:

Business

Japan is a big market (also for the nergy drinks) and one of the few developed ones where Red Bull is yet to make it big. There are several reasons for that but at the end, it is all about marketing. Takuma Sato is still very popular back home (nothing against Nakajima, but it will take him a while to achieve Sato’s status). The combination of Japanese F1 hero with Red Bull brand may be something what Mr. Mateschitz may be willing to try.

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To make it even more difficult to keep the engine statistics up-to-date Red Bull team has decided to keep David Coulthard on the same Renault engine for the third race in a row in Hungary this weekend. Well on paper it is third race in a row but his British GP barely lasted a lap . Here are the reasons behind the unusual decision – Fabrice Lom, Renault, in charge of Red Bull engine supply:

“This is the first time we have taken this decision. First of all his V8 has not done too much running. Plus, having our two drivers out of synch on the engine cycle means that we won’t be putting all our eggs in the same basket. This decision will also help us in the second half of the season in terms of the logistical challenge. And finally, it means that David will not have to use the same engine in Spa and Monza, which are two of the toughest challenges on the calendar.”

In the early days of two race rule there were worries the teams may choose deliberately not to finish the race to be able to run with fresh engine in next one. It actually happened in 2005 when BAR retired both cars (Button and Sato) on the final lap of Australian GP and again in Australia in 2006 when Button stopped his smoking car meters from the finish line. Now we have a team choosing to use the same engine for third time .

Photo: Red Bull/GEPA

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It has been a bit quiet on the rumour front since the third edition but but still not a total radio silence. And surprise surprise, Sato has been talked about again.

This time not in connection with the “future Honda North America Team” but an existing one – Force India. The rumour has it, as Swiss publication Motorsport Aktuell reports, Force India F1 may be thinking about changing their engine supplier. Some meetings are reported to have taken place in Montreal between Force India and Honda. While Force India have a contract with Ferrari at the moment, the sweetener that allegedly makes Honda deal more attractive is inclusion of Honda’s KERS system in the package. After collapse of Super Aguri Honda currently do not not supply customer engines to another F1 team. The Honda engine / KERS package would come at a discount (the rumoured sum is EUR10 mil a year less than what Force India pays to Ferrari) under condition that Force India would also take care of Honda’s headache and give a race seat to ex-Jordan/Honda, ex-BAR/Honda and ex-Super Aguri/Honda driver Takuma Sato. Sounds to me like pay driver deal on offer … I do not know why but this does not feel like a deal Mallya would do …

The other rumour connects Bruno Senna (currently 2nd in GP2) with BMW Sauber.
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