An other option for H.J. Kovalainen might be -- don't shoot me just yet -- Scuderia Toro Rosso. Why? Because with Buemi and Alguersuari they have 2 youngsters with a season-and-a-half of experience, at a time when they need to build and develop their own car for the first time in a couple of seasons. Perhaps they could give Kovalainen a seat next to Buemi for 2010, and have Alguersuari as reserve driver, with an option to race again in 2011. Perhaps Red Bull money could buy the Spaniard a seat in GP2 for next year as well.

Based on what?

If anybody deserves a seat, it's Kamui Kobayashi. Adam Carroll has four years in GP2 to his name and has gone backward to the point where he did just four races in 2008 as opposed to his season-long campaign in 2005, where he had three wins and two podiums.

Totally agree. Carroll is not even close to being F1 material and it would be better to have Sarah Fisher into someone's car as publicity would make up for all the awful performance

Autosport reports this:
Renault is also holding an extraordinary board meeting to discuss its future plans today. Although the indications are that the French company is committed to F1, Toyota's decision to pull out could give Renault an opportunity to follow suit if it wished.

Could this have Heidfeld and Kubica back at Sauber?

alguesuari said he has a signed contract for race drive

dude Kubica already signed for Renault

Exactly, if anything the Toyota team will be sold as Honda was and BMW was. Why would they just close it. They need money so why not sell it.

So what. Button had signed contract with Honda and had the option to back out if ownership was changed.

dude, there may not be a Renault

2008 he was busy winning a championship, more than some of the drivers muted, something Hulkenberg did - A1GP also - he will be in F1, Liuzzi did a few races there he is in F1 yet some think a person who won the series is not good enough.

Do you have a link? I can't find one on the main page.

This is a big deal because we'd only have 12 teams next year (including Sauber)

The bit from Autosport about Renault is at the bottom of this article: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80003

Seriously, poor Kubica (if this is true).

Toyota had no drivers signed and no engine customers.
I don't expect Renault to do it now.

^^^

TOLD YOU!

I also think that Adam Carroll did enough to deserve a chance; fingers crossed then but it looks like Manor is asking their drivers to bring sponsorsip money with them and with Lucas di Grassi almost confirmed it's going to be difficult for him. Esteban Guerrieri, Bertrand Baguette, Pastor Maldonado, Sergio Perez, Alvaro Parente, Andy Soucek and probably several other drivers are looking for a budget as well to buy a seat with one of the new teams so Carroll faces tough competition and the highest bidder might get it. I expect Vitaly Petrov to get a seat somewhere too, he could end up at Force India, at one of the new teams or even at Renault if Megafon would invest heavily in them.

I hope so they won't withdraw... but if they do this, I don't think that it will be immediately. And I think Renault will find a buyer.

I want to rectify something: Guerrieri's priority is until November 10th, not 5th. My mistake, because the original date was December 5th, but then Booth took it to November 10th. After that, he will still have chances, but the seat will go probably to the man with the best financial support. For what it is known in Argentina, Guerrieri is still far from getting the budget asked. They are still waiting for some arab investors to give an answer and apparently there could be negotiations with Spanish sponsors too. I hope he gets at least 1.5 million, because that should be enough to secure the test driver seat, as manager Julio Gutiérrez has said. Ohm and something else: I think we could leave López out of the race for a seat with Campos. His only chances are with USF1: some support for the Argentinean turism office could appear and, added to the strong recommendation form Carlos Reutemann to Windsor (Reutemann has always appreciated López as a driver, since the Córdoba driver raced in karts) and his talks with Bernie to have an Argentinean driver next year in the field, that could boost his chances. But money has to appear...

I can't believe Koba might not have a seat. He is the only driver that deserves one, to come in drive the way he did with a car that was ok at best was incredible to watch. McLaren, are you listening?

My picks, Kimi's decision should release the market imo.

Brawn GP / Mercedes
#1 - Jenson Button
#2 - Nico Rosberg < Nick Heidfeld

McLaren / Mercedes
#5 - Lewis Hamilton
#6 - Kimi Raikonnen < Nico Rosberg < Nick Heidfeld

Renault
#11 - Robert Kubica
#12 - Jarno Trulli

Force India / Mercedes
#14 - Adrian Sutil
#15 - Vitantonio Liuzzi

Scuderia Toro Rosso / Ferrari
#16 - Sebastien Buemi
#17 - ?

Sauber Qadbak / Ferrari
#26 - Nick Heidfeld
#27 - Christian Klien, other Candidates based on Saubers choice of drivers: Fischella, Trulli, Kovalainen (only applies if P.Sauber is involved)

Bet for...

BRAWN
Button
Rosberg

RED BULL
Vettel
Webber

MCLAREN
Hamilton
Raikkonen

FERRARI
Alonso
Massa

SAUBER
Heidfeld
Petrov

WILLIAMS
Barrichello
Hulkenberg

RENAULT
Kubica
Glock

FORCE INDIA
Sutil
Liuzzi

TORO ROSSO
Buemi
Alguersuari

CAMPOS
De la Rosa
Senna

MANOR
Kovalainen
Di Grassi

LOTUS
Trulli
Fauzy

USF1
Villeneuve
Piquet

Sub Piquet with Bourdais, and I think your picks will be spot on

Red Bull - Renault (works Renault backed) - Vettel/Kubica

Webber to McLaren?


It's less of a step than Brawn afterall, there is at least one Renault logo on driver overalls unlike no three-pointed stars anywhere on Brawn team!

Renault will stay in F1.

By the way, Epslon Euskadi is saying that although their chances of getting into F1 are still a long way, they'd been further down than where they are now.

No Ant Davidson?

I'd have thought Manor or Lotus might be looking at Ant for a drive

He doesn't bring any sponsor backing. Even if Lotus is getting help from the Malaysian government and Manor are purchased by Virgin, sponsor backing isn't going to become unncessary automatically.

Kubica to McLaren.

History suggests that Ferrari may push Fisi onto someone as part of the engine deal, at this point STR and Sauber.

If McLaren really wanted him, they would have got him before he moved to Renault.

In my view, it will be either Raikkonen or Heidfeld who will partner Hamilton.

That's because before Kubica didn't want to go to McLaren. Now that Renault is on rocky grounds, he's changed his mind. Maybe he can offer McLaren a better deal than Kimi.

Will he want to be No2 though?

If he went to McLaren i think Lewis would welly him all over the track, then what

Robert is known to like a moan now and then

McLaren don't need another conflict in the team, Raikonnen just wouldn't give a toss, give him the car and he'll drive

Kimi had his chance at McLaren. He didn't like the team and left. It's time to give the seat to another driver.

I think Robert would rather be number 2 than unemployed.

USGP continues to be in doubt.

Ross Brawn: "We have been crash testing components of our 2010 car over the last 3 or 4 months. Any of the new teams should be at least as far along." This in response to the fact that USF1 is the only team to have made no tests at all.

Of other note is the fact that at the Abu Dhabi FOTA meeting, it was proposed that the new teams being admitted this year not be allowed to sell their entry. This was done to assure that Sauber would be the natural choice, should one of the new teams not make it. USGP (Windsor) was the only one opposed to the motion, (which required unanimous approval).

Those bastards. What a scam USF1 is turning out to be

I'd love to see Penske return or Ganassi take a shot a F1. At least one of them would be a legit American F1 team.

Why delay the announcement then? What possible reason?
By the way, I do hope you're right.

That's inglorious bastards, my friend. As opposed to the rest of the grid grinding away in their own self(ish) interests? I remember the halcyon days of; what, two or three weeks ago (?), when Williams opened their arms wide to welcome Peter Sauber and all his employees to sporting competition next year. How much do you think Frank can hold out for? Especially now that Toyota has left a hole in his poker hand.

(Warning: this post contains trace elements of sarcasm and irony - slippery particles that change meaning during observation and measurement.)

So it could be only 12 teams at the end, or even less

What a load of ..... Adam has never had the backing that the likes of Di Grassi, Buemi, Grojean have had and he walked all over Kobayashi. If he'd been a Red Bull or Renault backed driver he'd have been in F1 by now. He's won in every formula he's been in and always hits the the ground running in whatever car he drives . Look what happened when he got in the FMS GP2 car.

Which means the new teams were never meant to expand the field, they were added to maintain the stasis quo when the manufacturers pulled out. (Though I'm getting concerned about USF1 and Manor)

These look pretty good, generally. I've got a few differences in opinion, though.

1. Sauber will be the last team listed because they would be the last team officially entered. That's a correction that should be made.

2. Sauber won't take Petrov. He's shown very little interest over time in taking pay drivers, and financially the team will be fine with Petronas staying. Manor or Campos are more likely to take on Petrov or any other pay driver. I'd look for Sauber to promote Klien to the race seat.

3. Lotus won't take on Fauzy. Gascoyne just said today they want experienced drivers. I'd bet on them making a run at Kovalainen; Fauzy will probably be given the 3rd driver role.

4. I think you're pretty far off on USF1's choices. They want experienced drivers who can help them develop the car, which Villeneuve has shown he can't do to save his life.

Windsor has already said USF1 has no interest in pay drivers, so that rules out Piquet. Windsor also slagged off Piquet's driving with regularity on SPEED broadcasts of F1 races, so I'm sure they don't have any interest in him.

I'd look for them to hire guys like Wurz and Montagny, both of whom are rumored to have spoken to the team and both of whom have a good bit of quality testing and development experience.

So, looking at your grid, move Sauber down to the bottom and make the following changes, and it will be a pretty good prediction, I think:

Manor
Di Grassi
Petrov

Lotus
Trulli
Kovalainen

USF1
Wurz
Montagny

Sauber
Heidfeld
Klien

Adam Carroll is a millionaire..

A million dollars doesn't go nearly as far as it used to.

This years silly season has to be the silliest season of all silly season.

Drivers officially confirmed

Red Bull
Vettel
Webber

Ferrari
Alonso
Massa

Mclaren
Hamilton

Reanult*
Kubica

Williams
Barrichello
Hulkenberg

Toro Rosso
Buemi
Alguersuari

Campos
Senna

*= not sure if that may happen

We dont know if all of the new teams will make it on the grid, in fact we dont even know if Renault are going to stay.

I've got a feeling that some of the current drivers will have to swallow their pride and go knocking on the doors of the new teams and be prepared to drive for virtually no money. In fact some of the existing drivers are going to disappear because pay drivers will replace them. Toro Rosso are unlikely to go with anyone that isn't from the Red Bull program. I am beginning to see Force India being quite a desirable place to be.

I think the Renault team will remain in some guise, however if they dont then there are going to be big names disappear.

Not fact, just an opinion. It could be wrong but it is a gut feeling.

My God, aren't we gullible today?

As soon as rumour breaks that USF1 is in trouble, everyone is all over it and taking it as gospel truth. But when evidence that they are doing well for themselves emerges, everyone jumps through hoops to convince themselves - and each other - that it's a fake.

Raikkonen and Kubica said that they love rallying and would do it at some point, so if they are out of F1 Im sure they wont lose any sleep

multi

EDIT: .. sorry.. I confused Adam with Mike Conway..

It's the anti-American mindset among Europeans. Euros think that Americans are useless and incapable of succeeding on an international stage. It's the same attitude they've always had toward Americans in any international sport.

I love Europe; I love the place, the culture, the society, etc.. But the arrogant attitude that many Europeans have toward Americans can be very frustrating. Sure, Americans have problems and haven't always been the most humble bunch, but our problems are no worse than anyone else's, and we have just as many capable people as a percentage of population as any country in Europe does.