Thanks. I hadn't heard that. I'll remove him from the list.

There is an article at Tazio rulling out PDL from Campos. It is between Maldonado and Petrov and money is the issue.

It's the same of Autosport.

Things are not looking good for Jaime.
Toro Rosso confirmed tests with Borto and Brenda.

Jaime can't drive in these tests (he raced in more than three GPs)

James Allen reports that the Brawn GP Formula One team may have France Télécom's brand Orange as title sponsor for 2010, as well as the Brawn name disappearing in favour of Mercedes.

So we'll see the World Drivers' Champion in an Orange Mercedes-Benz, then? Might look good, orange on silver.

Orange color?
Bastards ...

Manor now an option for Glock
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news...113092421.shtml

Looks like a done deal. So now Glock to Manor and Heikki to Renault?

Wouldn't be too bad, if true. The Orange Arrows carsused to look pretty good:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1032/135699...93562ba.jpg?v=0

Except for the bit where Glock's manager says they're currently holding talks with three teams at the moment?

Orange! If Mercedes liked orange so much they could have had it at McLaren!

Sounds plausible... but "a done deal", I don't think so.

I would prefer Glock next to Kubica in a team, which is probably more competitive than Manor (and still consider the Renault option as more likely to happen). I guess Kubica would prefer Glock as well, because it's probably hard to look better than Hamilton vs. Heikki.

If Renault have a choice between H.J. Kovalainen and T. Glock, it's not an easy one. A short career summary:

Kovalainen

• Was 3rd in the 2002 British F3 championship and finished the Macau GP 2nd to Tristan Gommendy.
• Moved to the World Series by Nissan for 2003, finishing runner-up behind a very dominant Franck Montagny, and took the title himself in 2004, over Tiago Monteiro and Enrique Bernoldi.
• Won his first GP2 race in 2005 only to finish 2nd that season to Nico Rosberg.
• Graduated to F1 as Renault's test driver in 2006, and race driver in 2007, taking a 2nd place in Japan, totalling 30 points from 17 GPs, beating very experienced teammate Giancarlo Fisichella by 9 points to 7th in the WDC. (Note: even without his 2nd place, Kovalainen would've beaten Fisichella.)
• Joined McLaren for 2008, joining Lewis Hamilton in his championship year, taking 1 victory, a 2nd and a 3rd to 7th in the WDC with an 18 point margin to 8th-placed Vettel.
• Rather disappointed in 2009 in an under-par McLaren, scoring 22 points -- less than half of teammate Hamilton's, who took 2 victories.

Glock

• Won the 2000 ADAC Formula Junior Cup, and the Formula BMW championship in 2001.
• Was 3rd in his debut F3 season in 2002, in the German championship, 5th in the Euroseries in 2003.
• Did only a single race as a VIP in the 2004 Porsche Supercup.
• Debuted in F1 for Jordan in 2004, scoring a 7th place in his first GP, taking 2 of the team's total 5 points that year.
• Lacking a Formula One drive, moved to Champ Car, taking 202 points from 13 races to 8th in the title standings.
• Stepped back, in a way, to GP2, finishing 4th with 60 points in 2006, having driven for 2 teams, but took the title in 2007.
• Got a 2nd break in Formula One with Toyota in 2008, taking a 2nd place an dscoring 25 points from 18 race to 10th in the WDC, followed by 2 podiums from 14 races in 2009, scoring 24 points to, again, 10th.

Is it just my impression or this has been a really, really slow news week? Mid November and no-one hurries up to confirm anything, there's not even any more solid rumours.

With no testing for established drivers and no testing of the new cars till January or February, there isn't a rush to confirm anything right now.

I was expecting more movement... maybe it is the uncertainties about Renault...

My thoughts exactly.

Maldonado would be brilliant! Started following him after his amazing performance in the GP2 Silverstone sprint race in 2008.

Stalled on the dummy grid, pit-lane speeding penalty, another penalty for passing under yellows, bashed in a load of race fastest laps and then crashed on the final lap. Went down in my notebook under the title 'legend'.

What? On no! Orange branding looked horrible on Arrows, this doesn't sound good at all. But if the team becomes Mercedes, then they will likely be silver in color and Orange would not be so dominant. I hope so anyway.

I reckon Petrov would be the better choice. He's worked with Campos before, so if any rookie driver could get the most out of the team - and vice versa - it would be him.

Orange and silver sounds like a lovely combination.

It may end up looking curiously similar to the VMM livery. But Bernie won't let that happen. There can be only one silver team surely (so it's Brawn or McLaren, not both).

The irony of it is that McLaren's traditional colour is orange. Orange-yellow, but you see my point: damned if they do, damned if they don't.

New Lotus F1 team have signed their first F1 driver for 2010, announcement soon.........................

That's the traditional color of their road cars.

The traditional color on their race cars is Rocket Red.

Yeah

http://www.manipef1.com/news/articles/10328/

It would fit with recent events and the rumours around who Lotus has been talking to that this yet to be announced driver is Trulli...but I'm still curious, and even more so about who will fill the other seat.

Surely not?


Well more Vodafone colours on McLaren, less Mercedes colours, tifosi will be right chuffed as Hamilton and Alonso battle in all-red cars!

Im hoping McLaren incorporate alot of black into the livery, black red and silver. Basically west livery but instead of white pods and rear wing make it red. with black front wing.

Some surces reporting Campos has signed Vitaly Petrov. However, I don't have a link - the website requires registration first and I don't trust it.

I thought McLaren's traditional colour, going back to the Bruce McLaren era was Papaya- ie orange. McLaren F1 and works team CanAm cars were painted that colour from about 1967 until the sponsors' colourschemes took over (Yardley & Marlboro) in the early 70's
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...uce19690801.jpg
http://www.ritzsite.demon.nl/F1_70s/BIN/Mc...n_M14D_1970.JPG
http://www.sportscardigest.com/wp-content/...e-the-start.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3520/392788..._ec80bbc8de.jpg
http://www.grandprix.com/jpeg/misc/mp421-lg.jpg


Several times in recent years, that's the colour that the new F1 cars have been unveiled in before the new season's race livery is announced
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Test_livery.jpg

Rocket Red is a fairly recent thing I think?

I think the orange-silver livery would be good, like the Kolles-team in the Le Mans Series. Orange, bwin and Becks would be a sponsors of Brawn.

I've heard that rubbished on other forums.

Parente says he is still in "advanced negotiations" with Manor, and "talking to another 3 teams" (yeah I'm not quite buying that). However he also admits that he still needs to get quite a bit of sponsor money to secure a seat.

Parente's said to have significant funding for 2010, but for F1 only, so no 2nd GP2 season for him.

According to veteran F1 journalist Roger Benoit, from Swiss Blick Online, also Kubica has recently visited the McLaren factory ( Raikkonen, Button, Kubica, busy overthere......... )

Zur Lachnummer wird auch der Fall von Weltmeister Button, der bei Brawn zusagte, aber dennoch die McLaren-Fabrik besuchte. Wie auch Kubica – für den Notfall, dass Renault plötzlich doch noch aussteigt!

The most important part of that quote ist "...Button, der bei Brawn zusagte,...". ~ Button and Brawn reached an agreement.
If all these stories about (top)drivers visiting the MTC are true, it looks like McLaren is trying to build up pressure on Kimi and his management to lower the price.

Hmmm... that's interesting if it's true...

They might as well invite the whole grid down.

They could have one of those double-decker sight-seeing busses for the visiting F1 drivers and managers

If that's true (Kubica visiting the McLaren factory), with Glock considering to join Manor... Oh, Renault...

How reliable is Blick? I mean, is it a tabloid rag or is it a wiki-worthy news source?

They're about as reliable as a chocolate teapot.

Roger Benoit is Swiss F1-reporter for 40 years working for Blick-magazine and is friends with Bernie
Ecclestone for example.

It's like Bild in Germany or The Sun and The Daily Mirror in the UK.

Pray tell why on earth would McLaren run black? I want you to tell me what significant it has to their sponsors? I wish people would just get over the old West livery and accept sponsors have changed.

I'm sensing a contradiction of terms here. On the one hand, you have a man who has been doing it for four decades and it well-connected. On the other hand, he works for a tabloid.

I'm going to go with tabloid because I like the chocolate teapot analogy.

I'll rescind and restate something I said about Alan Henry.

I typically don't like his commentary, as it tends to be very nationalistic. But I've just read from James Allen's blog that he is apparently a personal friend of Martin Whitmarsh's. Thus, I think we can take his latest writing on the McLaren-Raikkonen-Button bit as having some merit to it.

If Henry is Whitmarsh's friend, I would personally say that the Henry piece can be interpreted as a leak from McLaren, probably from Whitmarsh himself. Henry in this case would be serving basically the same purpose that Pino Allievi plays for Ferrari; very well connected journalist there who is usually the man they turn to when they want to leak something.

I would interpret Henry's piece as very much a signal to Raikkonen's camp from McLaren; get it together and sign, or we have other options.

I agree, the "meeting" is convenient for both McLaren and Jenson.