Well I can't quite imagine how Button and his manager would not know that Mercedes would take over (the majority of) Brawn a couple of days before it actually happens, so surely he must have checked in on alternatives already.

If Mercedes really go for Rosberg and Heidfeld, then it will be funny for McLaren, they would be in a great position to take one of the two (Button or Raikkonen) for a ridiculously low salary comparing to what they are used to get paid.

The other question that arises, who will now drive for Ex-Sauber, if Heidfeld goes to Mercedes?

like what cars they have driven have nothing to do with it...

Button still wins on that count: he was 2009 World Champion and in 2004, he was the fastest non-Ferrari. Where was Heidfeld in all of this?

Do you even get what I'm saying?

In a sub-par BMW and doing miracles in a Jordan respectively.

It reminds me of what happened to Damon Hill at Williams - he wins the Championship, then gets dropped by the team. Because they (Sir Frank Williams I suppose, and maybe Patrick Head as well) thought he wasn't good-enough and gave the most credit to their car.

I do think though that Sir Frank Williams has actually apologised for that. At least sort of. He did say in some interview that he regrets dropping Damon from the team. I would call that an apology even if not presented to Damon directly.

I can see this sort of a thing could be going on at Brawn GP as well - many of us realised quickly after the first tests that they might very well have a dominant car, and so it proved to be in the first half of the season. Whilst this allowed Jenson to "finally show his worth" as I saw many put it, it also works against him, just like it worked against Damon Hill (and against Jacques Villeneuve as well?)

And with this Mercedes-Benz take-over of the Brawn GP team I think we can safely say now Nico Rosberg is their one driver but who will be the other one. Will it be Jenson or someone else? I would still bet it's going to be Jenson but I wouldn't be hugely surprised if it isn't Jenson.

I'll have to have some tea now - way too much news about F1 today Get those driver contracts sorted out quickly, will you please

There is a difference... Hill was dropped then he went on to win the championship.

If we take what we know which is that Lewis Hamilton will definately drive for McLaren in 2010 and Nico Rosberg will definately drive for Mercedes (that's a cert), is the rest of it not as simple as....

Button and Kimi will fill the 2 seats at McLaren and Mercedes, whoever signs first, the other will take the other seat? (All that would be needed to beleive this simple solution is that Kimi won't 'only drive for McLaren').

So its just a big game of salary poker. But who is going to budge first, will Mercedes or McLaren bend to one of the drivers demands, or will one of the drivers accept what's on offer....

Or Kimi could be the one in the shit if McLaren offer Button a deal which he accepts.

er...Hill won the championship in a Williams - then got dropped and went to Arrows with No1 on the car.....or am I imagining it ?

Yes I think the pedantics of it are that Hill knew he was dropped before he'd technically won the title.

Correct: Frentzen was announced by Williams to partner Villeneuve from the 1997 season onwards on 9 September 1996, while Hill didn't decide the World Championship in his favour until 13 October.

Number 1 is well, just a number.

http://www.mcz.com/f1/image/97/a18_1.jpg

Rossi never changes his number.

Nah he was doing some crash testing for them

I think this is it for Kimi, he'll be doing Rallye or whatever next year, but no way that McLaren takes him over all the others that are waiting in line, among them top drivers (Button, Kubica) if they want to go in that direction, or good 2nd drivers (Heidfeld, Kova, and half a dozen others).

I agree with others, this is sillier than ever before...

My guess:


McLaren:
Button
Hamilton

Mercedes:
Heidfeld
Rosberg

Red Bull:
Vettel
Webber

Ferrari:
Massa
Alonso

Williams:
Barrichello
Hülkenberg

Renault:
Kubica
Glock

Force India:
Sutil
Liuzzi

Toro Rosso:
Buemi
Hartley

Campos:
Senna
Petrov

Virgin/Manor:
di Grassi
Davidson

USF1:
de la Rosa
Villeneuve

Lotus:
Trulli
Kovalainen

Sauber:
Klien
Fisichella

Nationalistic fear mongering.....


Q: There has been a lot of speculation that the new Mercedes team may field two German drivers next season?

DZ: What we would like to see would be the best drivers in the two seats. We certainly would not be opposed if one were German, but that is not a pre requisite which we would give the team.

Norbert Haug: I read some speculation and I understand this because we could not give this information earlier. But this will be an international team for Mercedes-Benz is a global player. If you look back in our history we have very often been criticised for not having a German driver, so we were always open and we took the driver decision always together with McLaren. This will be the same in the future. We want to have the best ones and we definitely do not want to have the pure German team - it's an international Silver Arrows team and we want to have the best drivers in the car.

Let me repeat...

Q: There has been a lot of speculation that the new Mercedes team may field two German drivers next season?

DZ: What we would like to see would be the best drivers in the two seats. We certainly would not be opposed if one were German, but that is not a pre requisite which we would give the team.

Norbert Haug: I read some speculation and I understand this because we could not give this information earlier. But this will be an international team for Mercedes-Benz is a global player. If you look back in our history we have very often been criticised for not having a German driver, so we were always open and we took the driver decision always together with McLaren. This will be the same in the future. We want to have the best ones and we definitely do not want to have the pure German team - it's an international Silver Arrows team and we want to have the best drivers in the car.

BUTTON SIGNS!

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multime...on_1506210c.jpg

"I'm close to Force India at this time. I'm still in process of deciding what I do in the future," said former Renault driver, who also did not rule - but did not show much enthusiasm - a stake in American racing. "This is all very interesting for me and maybe I'll stay another year in Europe before coming here. It's still all very open," he said.

Translated.

This makes a lot of sense. German corporation are usualy very careful with avoiding national tainted ventures.

In that case, we should get :

#1 Jenson Button GBR Mercedes
#2 Nico Rosber GER Mercedes

#5 Lewis Hamilton GBR McLaren
#6 Nick Heidfled GER McLaren

You are 3/4 right.
I fear that Nick is only being used as a pawn.
It will be Kimi at Mac.

Dick

I'm so hoping that you're right.

I am having flashbacks to the Napoleonic Wars.

After all this, Kubica made the worse decision by signing with Renault.. If he would have stay put, he would have been one of the leading candidates for Brawn and Mclaren..

Showing your age there

So basically, Heidfeld gets a top drive either way because he is German?

I don't think that's fair, but whatever, it's F1 aye.

I doubt it, he's not German. I mean don't be naive.

No.
As a matter of fact, Heidfeld is the only one that got shafted with all this.
Button and Rosberg at Mercedes/Brawn. Confirmed by AMuS, which claims that both drivers have been found to have Mercedes related committments for early next year.
Kimi at Mac.

I was hoping to catch a Kimi fan out with that one!

Rorberg is german so I don't think they need two german drivers..
Why do you think mclaren would be interested in a german driver.?

Because, sad as it may be, maintaining interest in Germany via a German driver is probably worth more than having a better WDC and WCC position with a potentially better driver.

AMUS does indeed seem to think/know that Button will stay with Brawn. I guess that would also qualify as driver lineup surprise of sorts now that the British media is 99% certain that Button goes to McLaren... So Kimi at McLaren then as expected. Great!

Elaborate answer is elaborate.

are you saying two german drivers is better than one german and Kubica and are you also saying that mclaren need a german driver? these were my two questions and you provided only one answer.

Rosberg was an okay choice for Brawn/Mercedes when they had Button, but he's not capable of leading a team himself. If Heidfeld gets placed there, he should beat Nico convincingly.

I think this thread needs to be renamed the ridiculous season.

I totally agree.

All we need now is for a driver from years back (Villeneuve, Alesi, Lavaggi...) to come back and the nuttiness will be complete.

I don't think anyone will particularly care if Mercedes has two Germans.

Ligier-Renault had two Brits in 1993 and we all got over it pretty soon.

Besides, Nico Rosberg is hardly your typical German.

He is Mr International, having grown up in Monaco and speaking heaps of languages.

He's a lot like Nelsinho Piquet in that respect.

Well, Jacques's already in frame at Team US F1 and Lotus, if rumours are to be believed...

Jenson Button agrees to join McLaren on three-year, £6m-a-year deal - Alan Henry, The Guardian.

Now where have I seen that before..?

Yeah, I must admit I did copy and paste.

Nothing like someone nicking your glory eh ?

Button would just kill his reputation as 2009 world champion... in my book Hamilton is a class above Button.

Kimi or Heidfeld for McLaren!! ffs!

I dunno.... suddenly I have visions of Kubica in a Mercedes next year...

For that to happen, Renault needs to pull out first and pull out fast, before Mercedes signs Button or Heidfeld

I have the feeling that the 2010 Silly Season isn't over by far. Too many teams and too many drivers still available, and everybody's waiting for everybody else.

Edit: maybe not...