It was necessary for him to refine his technique. In his first year he was moving the steering wheel at a million miles per hour.

I am completely flumuxed by the idea that Ferrari would want to replace either KR or FM. Granted, they have had their ups and downs, but I don't see either pilot as a liability. I like to read all the speculation and comments on the driver's strengths or weaknesses, but I think the rational thing to do is keep both KR and FM for 2010. They are signed for. If Ferrari want Alonso, bring him in for 2011. Perhaps this is the big announcement?

Of course if FM is forced to retire, the whole scenario changes (let us hope this is not the case).

It is debateable if a driver in a mid field team or a tester at a big team gains more experience.
The fact that only Ferrari had an interest in him may have more to do with the name Todt.
In any case, it did allow him to gain experience.
Although he sometimes still makes very rooky mistakes.

With Hulkenberg looking more and more like Williams and the team not likely to have TWO German drivers, it appears Rosberg is on his way to Mac.

I do think so, yes. This is an old team, they know drivers come and go, even Prost, even Senna, and even Hamilton. It's a race team, first and foremost, that's why 2007 went wrong. And even after Fernando had betrayed the team to its arch enemy Max they still let him race it out with Lewis. Heikki may have been fuelled heavy a lot, but that's about his pace. Don't forget even in the pain of losing 2007 McLaren still said they were pleased for Kimi and felt they had owed him a championship. If Kimi does go to McLaren it will be 100% fair competition on the ground, even if Lewis' extrovert personality and workrate might get him the atmosphere still.

Lewis would learn nothing. Raw speed can't be learned. In any case he's not much a single lap specialist, there're quite a few others who're better than him. I'm not convinced about oversteer being quicker.



He has plenty of support in Ferrari too and as you said, he's not affected by the atmosphere anyway, why would Massa's popularity bother him? The only difference is the driving style of teammate, and that is not certain. We don't know if Massa prefers understeer or he can't drive a oversteery car, it could be that it just so happens that Ferrari have produced understeery cars for the last few years.

So who's in line for 2nd Williams seat? Kovalainen? On my personal list Heidfeld is ranked on top, but I share your opinion about Williams not having two german drivers at the same time... though I think Hülkenberg + Rosberg/Heidfeld sounds promising.

wont be surprised if rosberg joins Brawn...

that is if Brawn decides Rubens is too old... would be safest for Rosberg... no Hamilton.. just Button...

It is not as if all top-of-the-drawer drivers are falling over each other to drive for Williams now, are they? For SFW he'd put two monkeys in his two cars if they are affordable and can win GP races. So, I don't subscribe to the theory that Nico is onhis way to McLaren. If so, what prevents McLaren from announcing their driver line-up? It's not as if they have to wait till Monza, like Ferrari, to announce their driver line-up.

didn't Whitmarsh say they 'd wait for the driver market to "settle" (ie see if Alonso moved to Ferrari and what that brought) before they announced their lineup? It's not like he needs to hurry, Kova doesn't look like he's swimming in offers

Well if it happened I think Lewis would be glued to Kimi's telemetry. Oversteer, within reason, is quicker because they can get on the power earlier and also steer both ends of the car.

Anyway it seems we'd both be happy, me with LH/KR and you with FA/FM. Good luck .

not as safe as staying put at Williams though. Kubica is also interested in Brawn.

Exactly. If they are waiting for the driver market to "settle" doesn't it imply that the theory that Nico is on his way to McLaren is wrong? If on the other hand they've signed up Nico they would have announced it by now, wouldn't they?

Well, IMHO every team manager has a list in his pocket and depending on what's going to be announced in Monza there will only be one name left on the list come sunday.

Have you already heard the latest French new... Kimi going to Renault with Nokia, and he has already turned down 45 Mil$ offer, but still negotiating... Greedy bastard

Of course they would, if they had a firm contract with somebody they wouldn't say they are waiting for the market to settle, they just announce that somebody

That is mind boggling. Is Kimi alright? Or has the stench from Crash-gate grown even worse? If the very idea that Renault approached Kimi is true then he must be contemplating a drive somewhere else than Ferrari next year.

I don't reckon Williams would care if both their drivers were German (or both their names were Nico!) so long as they were good.

So I reckon we could easily end up with Rosberg/Hulkenberg or Heidfeld/Hulkenberg.

Either way, I really hope Sir Frank choses Hulkenberg.

He's done everything right in his junior career, winning the F3 Euroseries and (probably) winning GP2.

And I reckon he'd have won GP2 even if Grosjean had stuck around.

So Hulkenberg probably has the best junior record since Lewis Hamilton entered F1.

I reckon he can be every bit as good.

I'd prefer Hamilton/Heidfeld, but it's not gonna happen.

The news was published here in Finland by Iltalehti , and this one definately is made up, most likely by their source French web site Confidential...

I'm with you on that...
Would clinch both championships.

One would wonder whether Renault F1 bosses, who must be pretty busy trying to ensure that their asses don't get hauled into Max's Kangaroo court, have the time to ink a 45 million dollar with Kimi in between desperate phone calls to their lawyers.

/signed.

McLaren: HAM/HEI
Ferrari: ALO/MAS
Brawn: BUT/ROS
Renault: KUB/RAI
Red Bull: WEB/VET

<wishful thinking/>

That would be perfect,

Amusingly, the other driver that became a tester after his debut season was Fernando Alonso. Yeah different circumstances and all but still very funny that you'd pick this to throw at Massa.

I'm afraid any comparisons between Fred and Felipe for next year, if they become team-mates, are always going to be dependent on Massa's crash. We have no idea if he's still as quick as he used to be, and won't really know for sure unless he's put against Kimi.

Well if this comes true, then Renault definately up their game in 2010

Every ****ing year someone dreams up a "Nokia is going to sponsor so-and-so" scenario. Every ****ing year it's BS, and this ****ing year is no exception. So, once more:

"We have nothing to add except that it's a totally false report. Nokia has absolutely no intention to start sponsoring F1 or motorsport in general. We've been reading the rumour with confusion but I'm familiar enough with the sport to know that there are always plenty of rumours going around."

That's what Nokia's head of communications had to say.


Whoever keeps coming up with this shit needs to step away from the crack pipe.

My guess for 2010:


Ferrari: Kimi & Felipe
McLaren: Lewis & Nico
Brawn: Button & Alonso
Williams: Kubica & Kovalainen
Redbull: Vettel & Webber
Toyota: Glock & Heidfeld

Kimi and Kubi at Renault? What a waste that would be. Meanwhile Lewis and Fernando would trample all over their teammates with no drama at all .

Well, it's mostly from this Pino character from gazetta and I believe it's called passion.

Well, at least he confirmed there was no talks with McLaren yet.

Maybe Massa, but Heidfeld has never been trampled, by anyone.

He's a good racer, intelligent, I have a lot of respect for him, but he'd go to McLaren as a no2. 'Trampled' might be a bit of an exaggeration, but there would definitely not be any drama. I suppose the team might think of that as a plus though .

It's interesting, but the amount of drivers linke to the 2nd Mclaren is enormous...

Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Sutil, Glock, Rosber, Kubica, Heidfeld... At least 7 options and I am sure there are more...

Apart from Kimi, I don't know a driver who's a better single lap specialist than Lewis.

Even then, the Kimi I'm alluding to is the 2004-2005 Kimi, not the Ferrari Kimi.

That's pretty clear. Thanks for setting the record straight.

Trulli is the obvious answer.

Relative to Hamilton, Kovalainen really isn't that bad at all in qualifying, it's in the races where he can't follow Lewis.

it's the same kimi...it's just that his teamate is not DC anymore
over a single lap he looked rather average, he looks a lot better over a stint

you're also ignoring jarno

Yes, probably Trulli. I forgot him.

However, Kovalainen sets up his car for Quali, while Lewis sets his car for the race.

I don't think Kovalainen has beaten Lewis a lot of times in Q1/Q2. When they go 100%, Lewis is always 0.2 - 0.5 seconds faster. Needless to say, Heikki is a pretty good on a lap-to-lap basis.

It's hard to say, Lewis hasn't been paired up with a proven single lap specialist like Trulli and he's never had a big margin over his teammates in qualifying. He's decent enough in qualifying, but I think Kubica, Vettel are faster on a single lap.
DC was a weak qualifier, he especially sucked at the current format.

How can you say he's slower than Kubica and Vettel, when he has never been paired up with a proven single lap specialist?!

You're contradicting yourself.

Furthermore, it isn't like Vettel and Kubica have been paired with proven single lap specialists as well (Heidfeld, Bourdais, Webber).

Let's just leave it at ... they're all good, but we need more info.

Webber is rather famed for his qualifying pace. Heidfeld is not, but Kubica has quiet a margin over him consistently.

From Ted Kravitz's Notebook.


"The prospect of Kimi Raikkonen returning to McLaren seems to be one of the more plausible outcomes of the driver market.

Many people at McLaren still love Raikkonen; in many ways he's the perfect McLaren driver.
For a team that grounds their engineering in pure mathematics and physics, to have an unemotional, repetitive - almost robotic - driver in the car is much easier than having a man who is inconsistent and variable.

You'll never be able to prove anything with an inconsistent driver, because you'll never know if what you're changing on the car is working.

McLaren engineers still talk with wonder about Raikkonen's consistent lap times. He was so good, they say, because he would come back to the pits, say what was wrong, they would fix it and he would go out and go faster. Simple.
Team boss Martin Whitmarsh, who values his engineers' opinions highly, wouldn't rule out employing Raikkonen again when asked on Saturday afternoon.

He also said the team wanted to employ the two best drivers they could, despite the problems they had with Hamilton and Alonso two years ago.

Raikkonen only left McLaren because his relationship with then-team boss Ron Dennis deteriorated when he signed Fernando Alonso. Is history repeating itself at Ferrari?

How Lewis Hamilton would feel about having Raikkonen in the other McLaren is another matter.

As a matter of interest, in the McLaren post-race press release, every quote - with the exception of Hamilton's - praises Kimi for his win.

Given that most McLaren people would rather undergo root canal surgery than publicly praise Ferrari, one can't help thinking there's a bit of 'preparing the ground' going on here."


My Bold.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/f1mole/2009/09/...-belg.html#more

Spa 2009 says hi. Webber has been TERRIBLE this year and I seriously doubt it's the car. Webber has only faced Rosberg (only good teammate he's faced) and that's when Rosberg was a rookie..

As for Kubica, it depends. I don't think he's been that great either. Heidfeld has had troubles last year with the tyres. Anyway, you get it. I'd rather wait [until he faces stronger competition] for Kubica.

Hamilton has faced far stronger competition than all those drivers. Alonso is better over a stint but can put some blinders when the stars align. Similar for Heikki; even worse, Heikki sets his cars more for the Quali than the race, while Lewis does the opposite.

EDIT: As far as the article goes, I'd take it with a pinch of salt...

Vettel is no good, eh?

With the exception of Kimi and Kub, the others are not top tier.

I see Kimi to MaC.

My bad, I meant before Vettel.

Wrong.

Canada 2008 Qualifying

1. Lewis Hamilton 1′17.886


2. Robert Kubica 1′18.498 +0,612
3. Kimi Raikkonen 1′18.735
4. Fernando Alonso 1′18.746
5. Nico Rosberg 1′18.844
6. Feipe Massa 1′19.048
7. Heikki Kovalainen 1′19.089 +1,203
8. Nick Heidfeld 1′19.633
9. Rubens Barrichello 1′20.848
10. Mark Webber no time

That was quali-terror...demolition of the opponents

I was going to name that one. Total ownage. One of the most dominating pole I've witnessed in the past couple of years.

Kimi has done similar performance. However, you have to be a fool not to give Hamilton some credit for his single lap pace. I think his number of poles (14 in some 40-odd races) suggest he's quite good on one lap.

Me too... People say Rosberg is very good, but he is at last up to Kova's level... Lewis destroyed him in all junior Formulas.

Kimi and Lewis at the same team would be very nice to see.