Odd Q&A with Rosberg: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79818
I have a feeling that currently Rosberg is only sure he will be a Mercedes driver.
Whether it's Brawn or McLaren depends on the outcome of talks with Raikkonnen.

Q. Looking at your season this year, if you had to give yourself a grade of 1-100 on your performance, what grade would you give yourself?

NR: 101! Is that on the scale? No, I'm just kidding! I would say it has been a good season. I would say that the team has given me a good car this season, which has been important for me because it has given me the opportunity to raise my share value, and gave me a great opportunity for next year to have a chance to get a winning car to win races – which is what I would like to do. For me it has been a good season, and the team gave me a good car.

Of course, it was not as good as we wanted it to be, because we wanted to be on the podium winning races, but it was consistent. We always knew what we had. We knew whichever track we went to we would be up there, finishing top five for a series of races, and seventh in the world championship is okay. From my point of view, I got the best out of the car this season because I could not have beaten [Lewis] Hamilton or [Kimi] Raikkonen, I don't think there was any way of beating them, so I got the best out of it. So I am quite pleased.

There were people saying that Nico is better driver than kimi. Read above what Nico said regarding Kimi amd Lewis .....
Note: he gives to himshelf a grade of 101 for his performance

Hmm, well, I seem to recall reading of a Finnish staton or magazine or newspaper that was no better than the Spanish ones. Hada name similar to MTV3, but I can't recall it; it was ages ago.


I don't know ... Howett might not be the best team principal, but I've always reckoned the Toyota environment is the worst on the grid. For all we know, Kimi simply told MTV3 that he was only ever looking at going to McLaren.

maccaFTW nailed it. Rosberg is overrated and now is the time to pick when the pickin's good. I think it's a mistake for him to leave Williams (I've always believed in them) but he's looking to make more money and one can't blame him for that (I think whichever team he signs with he won't move up the grid). Kimi at McLaren or Williams would be good. I think Ferrari made a mistake letting Kimi go (for 2010 Kimi'd be trying to "redeem" himself while Massa'd be trying to reassert himself - two highly motivated drivers but not <potential> enemies like Alonso and Massa). Logically, Ferrari'd like to go 1-2 in every GP next year. Somehow, I don't think that'll happen in 2010. They want to win the manufacturers champs also. I don't think that'll happen either. McLaren can do much better than Rosberg, anyway.

That's a good point actually.

I reckon Nico has signed to be a Mercedes driver, the team depends on, as you say, the negotiations with Raikkonen.

12 months ago I'd have agreed with you.

But this year Rosberg has really impressed me with his race pace and cool head.

We haven't seen him junking cars like he used to.

He's been at Williams for four years, it is time to move up to a better team.

If he fails, career over. If he does well, he'll finally fulfill his potentional.

MTV3 is nowhere near the same league. They sometimes do tell what for example AS and Marca or Bild have reported, but I've noticed they always at the same time tell where that crap came from. Their own sources definitely aren't as many as Autosport's but apparently their reporters are not fanboys or nationalistic yahoos.

Yeah, cool head to cross a white line at the end of the pit lane...

Did you not read what I posted five minutes ago about mixing them up with another source after everyone else told me I'd messed up?

Congratulations, you're telling us what we all knew five minutes ago.

One mistake is allowed, and it was quite a small one.

All the drivers have one or two brain fade moments a year.

He's calmed down a lot though.

Small one? It cost the team the only podium of the season

FROM MTV3

Räikkönen: McLaren is my only option
29.10.2009 13:56

Kimi Räikkönen told MTV3 that McLaren is his only option.

I haven't even discussed with Toyota, Räikkönen assured.

If you want to drive a winning car then McLaren is the only option.
My situation should be clear within a few days, Räikkönen hinted.

He and Domenicali

So you wouldn't mind 6 French Grand Prix then, or 6 Force India teams?

No Nationality doesn't mean shit to me, but variety does, I just think it gets a bit corporate and samey if the grid is dominated by one nation.

Totally agree.

I do not doubt that Toyota has made an offer to Kimi's managers but the fact is that Toyota never met Kimi's clear demands for a winning team and a car. Keeping that in mind I'm not at all surprised that Kimi has not even discussed with Toyota. Below are the direct quotes of what Kimi said to MTV3 today.

- "I haven't even discussed with Toyota", Raikkonen assured.

- "If you want to drive a winning car then McLaren is the only option. My situation should be cleared in a couple of days", Raikkonen hinted.

http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/f1/uutiset.shtm.../2009/10/985468

Long been expected but still sad to see; Nico has matured at Williams and, I hope, will go on to great things in the coming seasons.

Wish him all the very best wherever he eventually ends up.

And now, please God, can we have the announcement that Nakajima is moving on too....

For me - another child of PR. Nothing special - as we saw on tests.

Hardly.

Hulkenberg has grown a hell of a lot since he was binning the brand new Williams on his instalation lap.

He's the real deal, and the best prepared rookie since Lewis Hamilton.

This is the William's fans hope for next season; Hulkenberg's potential combined with Ruby's experience...

Now if the factory can magic up a decent car...

Sorry, couldn't resist ...

Fair enough.

The thing is, Hulkenberg would have had a really good education at Williams.

No doubt Patrick Head would have really given him hell for those crashes.

But he's put his head down, won the F3 Euroseries, won GP2, won A1GP.

He's also worked at the Williams factory during the summer.

I think he's really prepared well.

His race pace has been good this year, but has he done anything with the car that you couldn't imagine a few other guys doing? The Williams hasn't exactly been a disastrous car, even if Nakajima has done his best to make it look like a POS.

I just haven't seen the "wow" drive from him that we've seen from Hamilton, Vettel, and Kubica on multiple occasions. He had a shot at Singapore this year and blew it.

He's a good driver; definitely good enough to win. But he's not the best of his generation, that's for sure.

Well, haven't followed him that close but he seems to be the man for the job.

Doesn't say much for the team as a whole if one chance of a podium all season was the best they could do.

A driver's first tests in a F1 car at such a young age usually aren't great.

About time too!

Well, it's something I see a personality like Howett doing.

very true...

i like him.solid background.thought he was really impressive in A1

The Key to Kimi's word was "A COUPLE OF DAYS"

So...could this thing get done by Quali?

I hope so.

Well he may be prepared well but what about his skill? Also I don't trust Willi Weber who do everything to sell his product.

Ok, I missed the post you made three minutes earlier as I didn't refresh the browser for a while. Thousand apologies, but are you sure your pants aren't a little bit too tight?

The quote is not in English originally and in some other languages the expression "a couple of " doesn't necessarily mean "two", but "a few"... So I guess Kimi meant that his future will be sorted in a few days. An announcement on Saturday would be strange anyway, these things are usually done either before or after the race weekend.

Toyota would be thrilled to have 12 podiums, which Heidfeld achieved with shit cars.

Camel toe!

I'm very intrigued about the possible prospect of seeing Button vs Rosberg next year - I find it hard to call this one, who I think will hold the advantage. Button should at first, mainly because he's established there, and because his interaction with Shovlin will be much smoother than the one between Rosberg and his engineer. But once they get to know each other, Rosberg should be a very tough cookie for Button.

I can easily understand why Williams is interested in Barrichello, but what an underwhelming driver line-up they will have in 2010.

Rubens in Abu about his move to Williams:
"When the time comes, I will talk.
I'm close to finish a good thing for me, that is having a competitive seat for next year.
I'm happy for being in the middle of rumours [silly season], something that haven't happened last year."

About Senna to Campos, a radio reporter confirmed with all parts involved that the contract is really signed.
Bruno, the next Senna.

Joe Saward's suggesting that Sutil might be looking elsewhere for next season?

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/...f-adrian-sutil/

Can anyone really see him going anywhere other than Force India? Really? He's a magnet for danger and I'm sure McLaren and Toyota have their sights set a little higher, though the latter may well settle with his services if they don't find anyone to replace Trulli and Glock.

What page in this thread has the latest info on where everybody will be next season? Compiled list like on the first page...only it hasn't been updated by Thread starter.

Don't have a problem with it, as long if there good enough for F1.

There's a possibility that there are going to be 4 brazilians too...=

Massa, Rubens, Luca Filipi & Bruno Senna.

2 nationalities and 10 drivers!!!

Filippi is Italian and not really knocking on the door to F1, I presume you were thinking of DiGrassi.

It could be partly down to trying to overcompensate for driving a poor car, but at least half the accidents have been caused by others. If McLaren were stuck with Kova next season I think they'd do well to replace him with Sutil, who might calm down slightly in a good car. Certainly Sutil has shown more promise then any of the other drivers in the minnow teams.

Trulli and Sutil in Toyota

Autosport reports today (on the same piece of news on which Kimi mentions that Mclaren is his only option) that Trulli and Glock were both offered a contract with Toyota for 2010, but it's looking likely that both are moving away, Glock to Renault and Trulli to Lotus.

Double DNF in every race.

Ofcourse 'stupid me!'

Brazilian press goes on saying that Bruno Senna won't need to bring any of his personal sponsorship (money) into Campos as the team will have a major boost from the city of Murcia (where it's based), in order to boost the local tourism.

It goes on saying that the fact mentioned above pratically destroys the possibility of Piquet Jnr joining as Senna's teammate (something that Ecclestone would have been architecting) as for obvious reasons a spanish driver would be required. And, as it has been mentioned for months, it will be Pedro de la Rosa.

I'm not discounting the fact Senna will end up at Campos, but I don't buy the bit about the area receiving a boost in tourism. It's not like people will flock to the area to gawp at a building is it?

I don't really know, you'd better ask them

One interesting thing to note... This has been by far the busiest silly season for a while, but it seems that nothing that has been previewed here was actually SILLY, as we were all saying since the beginning that Alonso would be at Ferrari, Kimi at Mclaren, Rosberg next to Button and Mercedes at Brawn, Senna and PDLR at Campos etc...