Yeah, that's what Timstr posted three posts ago.

Well, if it's only 99% certain though that he'll stay for Brawn... there is still a 1% chance that he won't... which is probably more that enough for some speculators

Best outcome for both JB and Brawn …hope they hurry up and do the deal. I’m totally fed up with the speculation. Would be nice to have it all done and dusted ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP so that I can just enjoy the racing.

But now that the championship is over, the silly season is the fun part!

I agree…especially with five long winter months ahead of us without any racing, the speculation is all that we have to look forward to. However, as we had all last winter to speculate on the future of both Brawn (Honda) and Button, it would be nice as a Jenson fan to be able to enjoy this last race and to save the speculation for others on the grid....lets face it, Kimi is doing a good enough job to keep us all entertained all by himself!

Like they would know for how much... No doubt they'll make the deal though.

Like I said: they actually named their source for once. It was Richard Goddard, Button's manager. If anybody would know how much Button was being paid, it's him.

Here's a link to the audio of the BBC interview with Ross Brawn

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/8324640.stm

Hulkenberg and Barrichello confirmed at Williams, according to Willi Weber.

Rosberg's Brawn deal is even more certain than before. That leaves Heidfeld, Kovalainen and Kimi as McLaren's options.

Link/source please

Bjørn

Bild am Sonntag.

http://www.bild.de/BILD/sport/motorsport/2...schumacher.html

I disagree that Rosberg's switch to Brawn is a done deal. Barrichelo is still in the picture with offer from Ross.

I hope they wait until after the season is over for the proper market to become known. Asits going to be a while before testing starts it at least gives us something to talk about in the meantime. I am glad hardly anyone is confirmed.

Out of the 26 drivers for next year we have confirmed

Massa - Ferrari
Alonso - Ferrari
Hamilton - Mclaren
Vettel - Red Bull
Webber - Red Bull
Kubica - Renault
Buemi - Toro Rosso
Alguersuari - Toro Rosso

What we have left is

Mclaren - 1 seat available
Brawn - 2 seats available
Williams - 2 seats available
Renault - 1 seat available
Toyota - 2 seats available
Force India - 2 seats available
Manor - 2 seats available
Campos - 2 seats available
USF1 - 2 seats available
Lotus - 2 seats available

Out of the current grid with no contract we have

Kovalainen
Raikkonen**
Trulli**
Rosberg
Nakajima*
Glock
Fisichella**
Sutil
Grosjean*
Button
Barrichello
Liuzzi**
Kobayashi**
Badoer*
Piquet jnr**
Heidfeld**

* = highly unlikely to get a seat next year
** = chance of it going pearshaped and not being on the grid next season


So out of the other 16 drivers that have driven this season, only 7 are likely to make the 2010 grid for definate, 6 that are in are either in contract negotioations, or are still in a postition where they still have something to offer to the grid. Then there are 3 where I dont think they have a chance of keeping their spots.

The new names being mentioned which are very likely to join are

Hulkenberg
Senna
Petrov
Davidson
Carroll

So if you include the ones with a double asterisk by their name, that gives us a 26 driver grid. I may have missed off a couple of the newbies (or former drivers like Sato, PDLR and JV) but these are the main names being mentioned.

Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong. I am just hazarding a guess.

Oops sorry forgot to mention Pantano and di Grassi

I think that The Hulk and Rubens Barrichello with Williams will be a very competetive team next season.
Also i like to see Pedro de la Rosa in a Campos F1 car. We will see it the next couple of months.

It's been clear for months that we will have Jenson and Nico at Brawn + Rubens and Hulk at Williams.

What remains to be seen is if Raikkonen and Mclaren will reach an agreement or not.

I think Force India could have Baguette as one of their drivers next season, he has driven for the Draco team in WSR and Draco has close tie-up with FI to give them info about good young drivers, and Bertrand has dominated WSR, so...

He desreves at least a test: he has been really dominant in WSR. He had contacts with Manor, but I don't know if he's negotiating with them.

Thought Sutil and Liuzzi were all but confirmed at Force India. Same as Hülkenberg and Barrichello at Williams really.

Ok here's my current prediction

Brawn:
1. Jenson Button
2. Nico Rosberg
Red Bull:
3. Sebastien Vettel
4. Mark Webber
McLaren:
5. Lewis Hamilton
6. Nick Heidfeld
Ferrari:
7. Felipe Massa
8. Fernando Alonso
Toyota:
9. Kimi Raikkonen (Although I think he might take a year out.)
10. Kamui Kobayashi
Williams:
11. Rubens Barrichello
12. Nico Hulkenberg
Renault:
14. Robert Kubica
15. Timo Glock
Force India:
16. Adrian Sutil
17. Heikki Kovalainen
Toro Rosso:
18. Sebastian Buemi
19. Jaime Alguersuari
USF1:
20. Sebastian Bourdais
21. Graham Rahal (Love to see him in F1, but USF1 have more or less ruled out an American driver.)
Campos:
22. Bruno Senna
23. Vitaly Petrov
Manor:
24. Lucas di Grassi
25. Adam Carroll (or Anthony Davidson?)
Lotus:
26. Jarno Trulli
27. Fairuz Fauzy

Anyone have a predion for USF1, Wurz says no and Villeneuve looks kinda out of the picture?

Wurz has said no to USF1?

Yeah it was Autosport magazine that he has no interest to return to racing in Formula One.

Wurz Chooses Le Mans over F1

"Former McLaren driver Alex Wurz has ruled out a racing return to Formula 1 next year. The Austrian, who retired from F1 race driving in late 2007, had been in discusssions with US F1, but has told the team that he is not available because of Le Mans commitments with Peugeot. Although he has not yet signed a deal witht he French manufacturer, he is expected to return to Le Mans, which clashes with the Canadian Grand Prix. "I am 100 per cent focused on Le Mans," Wurz told AUTOSPORT. "Until the new calendar was released it was possible that I could race with one of the new teams, but clearly Le Mans is my priority." Wurz, who is currently one of Brawn's reserve drivers, did not rule out continuing in a third-driver role in F1. "It's possible, but let's wait on the driver market," he added.

October 22 2009 page21 (not sure who wrote the article)

I'd be suprised to see Villeneuve back in F1.

Me too, I liked him at Williams and BAR, but his post BAR seasons were lackluster to say the least. He turns 39 in April.

I can't agree with that. OK, he struggled through most of '05, as he never mastered the brakes on the Sauber, but he was really good in 2006.

The picture I've been getting over the recent weeks would be that it would be Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg at Brawn GP, Nicolas Hülkenberg and Rubens Barrichello at Williams and Lewis Hamilton and driver X at McLaren.

I think Nico Rosberg isn't the one to go to McLaren because his father Keijo "Keke" Rosberg told his opinion that it would be Kimi Räikkönen who would go to McLaren. I doubt very much Keke would say that if he would know his son would be going to McLaren or would be in contention for that seat. Keke just never has seemed like someone who talks BS about the driver moves so I will take his words as pretty convincing. So what I gather from what he has said is Nico is not going to McLaren. As we are pretty sure by now Nico is leaving Williams, and that he would be moving "up", the only realistic choice I see is Brawn GP.

Jenson - I doubt very much he would risk changing teams now that he has found the one to win with. He will stay at Brawn GP. He is their "homie"

Rubens is happy to get more time in F1, he is very strong, a bit superstitious, but that minor detail pushed aside, someone like Williams can use him, and the team too, can use him If he can win a GP for Williams then he will climb up a notch or two in the hero list. I think that goal would be enough for him - he may not get another chance to win the WDC, but he may get many chances to win Grands Prix and what a better place to do that than Williams, a team once so heroic but needs something a little bit extra nowadays to win - perhaps that little bit extra could be Rubens? I hope he will win many Grands Prix still.

Who could that driver X at McLaren be? I would say it very likely will not be Heikki Kovalainen. All said and done, his performances have been disappointing. Yes, the team was gathered around Lewis before he had even visited the McLaren Technology Centre, but Heikki, did you let it get in your head a bit too much. Don't look to the other side of the garage that much.

I saw some of his interviews in Finnish and he looked and sounded like he knows he will be out of the team. I'll keep cheering for Heikki no matter what and he just needs to go to another team and keep working. It will come to you Heikki - don't doubt yourself so much you've had a fantastic attitude, at least what I've seen, so you just keep working hard and it will come to you. Remember how short a time you've been in F1 - look at Häkkinen, he spent years at McLaren not winning anything, even getting his first win as a gift. You've still got many more years to show everyone Suomussalmi is not a place of wimps

So, who is the driver X? Kimi Räikkönen? Could well be. I just hope they would let us know already. McLaren, sort it out for us by UAE, thanks. There are many other good candidates but I don't think they can find a better one than Kimi - Lewis you have already and Fernando will be at Ferrari. So of the Super 3 you only have Kimi available to you and I would be surprised if you don't do all you can to hire him

ReX Racer

Hamilton $12m/season
Raikkonen $35m/season


Hmmm, that's going to go well....

Sure, hire Kimi, but they can't pay Kimi more than Lewis => same number of titles after all.

I think the only circumstances under which Kimi could realistically expect to keep his salary would be if a team is desperate to get him and willing to out-bid the others. I don't know how much other drivers are paid, but I can't imagine that many of them are in Raikkonen's neighbourhood. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa are the only two I can think of who might be close to him, and I'd say they're a distant second and third on the list of highest-paid drivers. With everyone being so mindful of the economy and everything, I doubt they'll be willing to pay exorbirant amounts for him, even if driver salaries were never to be included in the budget cap (yes, I know there's no budget cap, but the proposal was created in response to the recession, and while the budget cap might be no more, the recession is still lingering). We don't even know if Kimi wants his salary of fifty million, only that he's trying to get more out of McLaren and Toyota than what they were offering.

Well, if you look at McLaren/Kimi relationship as a wedding, Maca does owe Kimi an indemnity for spending his best years there without an equivalent backing from Maca's part.
Maca never gave Kimi a reliable car.
Now that Kimi proved to be a WDC in Ferrari, I think Maca own Kimi something.

I don't think you can use Hamilton pay as a reference point on how much a WDC should earn. The problem is Hamilton tied himself to a top team in young age for peanuts. It turned out to be very good investment for McLaren, but can they really expect that they could renew Hamiltons deal at the same bargain price again. (Unless he starts to fail miserably of which I've seen no signs whatsoever).

So should every other driver suffer because of Hamiltons long term deal he made as junior? You get junior for peanuts, if you don't want to pay hire someone promising. With a long term option for a team there's no other risk than loosing a season in WCC hunt. Then try another rookie.

Another tactics is to hire a proven winner and pay the price. Of course sometimes they fail too, but I've seen a lot more failing rookies than failing winners recently.

That's a fair point, but with question marks about Raikkonen's motivation, I think it's fair that McLaren gives him the Hamilton salary offer.

Or you can use Button as reference point.
You can't use Alonso as a reference point, he's the only 2WDC on the grid and he brings sponsors to the team.

What for leaving them for Ferrari?

The ability of Hamilton shows they don't need to pay as much for Kimi and they can do without Kimi, no need to throw money away for Kimi that could be spent on the car.

I think that only proves that McLaren gambled with a rookie and it paid off instantly. Now they have one great driver and their 2nd driver really hasn't delivered what they need.

McLaren has always said they try to get the best available drivers, both of them. This season they've failed to achieve it and it cost them WCC points. It's not a case of we can do with just one great driver, they obviously can't. Now it's just a case of who are available, and what is the right price.

Not necessarily. The keyword here is 'available': most drivers better than H.J. Kovalainen weren't available for 2009, or didn't want to drive for the team anymore (i.e. F. Alonso Díaz).

Plus personal sponsors plus bonuses.

You don't think Kimi doesn't get the same?

I suspect the problem with Kimi's salary is pride: the surest way to aggravate Hamilton would be to employ a teammate on a higher salary than him. Once salary exceeds a certain level the money itself is less important than the prestige it implies, therefore Kimi would have to be paid at Lewis' level. If Steve Robertson thinks he can demand Raikkonen's usual salary from McLaren he's not being realistic. For the same reason WDC Button would be unlikely to join McLaren for less money than Hamilton, even though he's not regarded as being on the same level - and even though it might mean sticking with an even lower offer from Brawn.

Back on the topic of the actual silly season, Rosberg reckons he's ready to step up to the perpetual front runners:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79770

It was for both. But you could notice my remark was about 12M. People likes F1 but very bad in math - for them pound = dollar.

Baguette gets a test with Renault as part of his WSR prize. He'll be doing one of the three young drivers days, the first week of December.

And it paid off for Hamilton as well. Had he been forced to wait for a F1 seat for another yera or two, or go to another team, the odds are the story would be very, very different. He might only now start to make a name for himself in F1, and start perhaps dreaming of landing in a car in which he can win.

In one interview I saw on youtube (probably done some weeks ago) Kimi indicated that the media didn't know even half of the Ferrari/Santander/Kimi/Alonso deal, nor did they have a clue about the money Kimi was being paid, etc. So I wonder now just how much of all this is pure speculation and waaayyy off base.

Exactly. I think when people talk of greed they are missing the point: it is about prestige and perceived value.

Well, you still had Hamilton's figure in red. And given all the alleigances to this driver or that faction, I kind of took your avatar as a sign of what I thought you meant. It's nothing personal - I do it to everyone because I've got better things to do than plot everyone on a graph showing their fanatacism for a particular team or driver relative to everyone else.

Well I don't know how you survived through all those years because from what i see for 3 years autosport board is antonym to word sense. People knows at best 1% but they don't miss any opportunity immediately make a conclusion from couple of words from journo article and then miraculous change opinion on 180 degree when hour later new article appeared on the site.

I didn't mean to say McLaren didn't try to get the best available when they hired Kovalainen. Maybe he was. McLaren just failed to get good enough results with the one they got. It's time for a change.

Apparently, McLaren are also interested in Rubens Barrichello, and they have talked to him at Interlagos...

Kimi wants too much it appears.

Now that would be a surprise...