Apparently the same guy reported that he was going to Citroen in WRC

I'll take it with a pinch of salt until it happens

Somebody should tell Jarno that NASCAR is not a series to race with your doors open

How much longer is this years silly season gonna go on? I really dont know if i can physically or emotionally take much more of this lol

Better enjoy it, we won't get a silly season like this again for a very long while.

Oh im not complaining im just exhausted! I have the same feeling from when i watched lord of the rings trilogy in a row ... enjoyable but so very exhausted

Merc need someone to lead them, Kimi fast, but if all his stated aim is to drive, do rallys and no PR days, is that really going to be a good option for Merc?
If they do hire him is it a panic buy?

I see it more as an impulse buy than anything else. Kimi is great, fast, consistent, but lacks leadership and motivation to be a true leader. He never had to assume that role at Ferrari and McLaren, but will probably have to do so at Mercedes.

Yeah, the 2009 Silly Season was one the more boring ones, most drivers were confirmed in the summer of 2008.

Could someone explain all this stuff I always see of people talking about how important it is for a driver to be a leader? I understand that Schumacher was sort of a leader in a very useful way to the extent that he brought all the guys over from Benetton and was vocal about who else he wanted on the team, thereby completely turning Ferrari around and making it what it is today.

However, I know of no other driver in recent history doing that kind of thing and I don't see any other drivers having even the possibility of doing that kind of thing again.

So what other kind of leadership must be meant by these kinds of comments? It's not like this is a sport where there are a large number of guys on a field that need to work together to move a ball up the field or something -- it's two separate guys in separate cars not able to talk to each other usually competing against each other to individually win car races. What does a "leader" driver do exactly? Be better than Ross Brawn and lead the team better than Ross Brown? Is that what someone like Kimi would be poor at relative to someone else?

Alonso. And probably Hamilton....

Please explain how they were team leaders exactly. What's the distinction between, for example, these cases of F1 "leader driver" and the other WDCs since (in this case Button and Raikkonen)?

I think you could call Alonso a team leader in his last stint at Renault because of the fact Piquet and Grosjean were rookies

But at Brawn last year i would of said there wasn't a team leader as such between Jenson and Rubens

Mr Lito Cavalcanti has just spoken lively on Brazilian channel SporTV.

He has confirmed that after Button had signed with Mclaren, Mercedes went after Steve Robertson and then clinched a deal that will see Raikkonen on a Silver Arrow in 2010. Everything is settled and he/we is only waiting for the official confirmation.

He spoke quite clearly and with lots of certainty indicating that he is more than sure this is happening and will be announced sooner rather than later. I mean, he talked about it as fact, not as rumour.

it just makes sense(to me)

Mercedes Grand Prix (title sponsors Emirates, Orange and Mobil 1 mentioned)
Mercedes W2010 – Mercedes FO108X
Team Principal: Ross Brawn ; Technical Director: Ross Brawn (?)
3. Nico Rosberg (ever more likely due to Mercedes deal)
4. Kimi Räikkönen (should they make the right offer, it's a no-brainer)
Nick Heidfeld (very probable, since Button's departure)

Hamilton carried the team on his shoulders this year, and even last year.

Alonso... well with Renault.. from 2004 to 2006 + 2008-2009.

How's that different from simply "really good driver"? People are talking about certain people being team leaders (eg Hamilton) and others not being team leaders (eg Raikkonen). I'm just trying to understand what the "team leaders" are doing other than driving really well. Was Button the best team leader for the first seven races in row and Raikkonen the best team leader during the period when he scored the most points of anyone 5 races in a row? Would either of these two been a team leader had they had really poor teammates like Piquet Jr or Grosjean? Is there any distinction here between "team leader" and "really good driver"? That's what I'm trying to understand.

Now Autosport reports Raikkonen would consider Mercedes

Trulli to make F1 decision after Toyota Motor Sport Festival

Paul di Resta is rumoured to be driving for Force India during the 'young driver' tests next month.

Who is driving for Mclaren?

I'd think it's Gary. As far as I know, they don't have any young drivers, and I'm not sure whether Pedro is eligible for young driver testing (better check that one out).

EDIT

So apparently it's Paffett indeed.

Pedro?????' c´mon he is 38

As you can see from my edited post, the eligibility criteria are not about age.

I can't see Raikkonen joining Mercedes because:

(a) they won't stump up anything approaching $10M
(b) they will want a driver willing to whore himself to sponsors
© they're unlikely to want their #1 going off rallying in his spare time

This is just Raikkonen's manager's last desperate attempt to stay in F1 for 2010.

That's your opinion. But what goes through the minds of guys like Brawn, Haug, Whitmarsh etc is way deeper than we can think and than we will ever know.

Brazilian journalist Celso Itibere reports that the Cosworth engine, running on maximum economy mode, is getting alarming fuel consumption figures on the dyno tests.

err... sorry but should we read that as positive alarming, or like negative alarming..??

Negative. The engine is drinking too much.

I doubt anyone uses the word 'alarming' in a 'Good News' sense.

http://www.fanaticf1.com/formule1/9423-Vil...-USF1-Team.html
(french)

Ken Anderson(USF1) in talks with Jacques Villeneuve

F1-live sees Pedro de la Rosa at Force India.

Fail.

No quotes and it's a GMM syndicated article.

Even the Beeb's running it in their gossip column, so I thought I'd post it here.

Then the BBC should know better (and it's something I have ranted about before on here).

F1-Live and a whole host of other web/parasites use a news syndicate from Australia called GMM.

GMM aggregate F1 news stories (and unreliable ones at that) and then resell them to news sites across the globe. Problem is, that most of the stories are badly translated and they often seem to deliberately miss vital information in to make them sound more exciting than they actually are.

Example: Alonso's plane crash incident about a year ago. GMM 'accidentally' missed the word 'taxiing' from their news release and made the factual, but dull, story sound much more exciting then it actually was - Alonso's plane brushed a fence.

If you trace back many of F1's controversies (the kind that get fans all riled up), you'll probably find a GMM misquote at the root of it all.

They need to make money, but aren't journalists. They're sensationalist rubbish. And importantly, they have a quota of stories to produce daily, which if memory serves me well is between 8-15 a day. Imagine doing that during the off season?

And it's not just me on my high horse, the Autosport journalists can't stand them and nor can Joe Saward, Stuart Codling or Will Buxton (bit of a lengthy read that, but well worth it).

(I'll go lie down now after that...)

I know all that. But this is a rumours' thread, and I thought, let's post a rumour. There's been worse gossip in this thread the past year.

its a silly season, rumors and speculation all are eligible. Whether its credible or not, well for that we'll have to wait and see.

Ok, but then there's absolutely nothing substantial to even warrant the rumour/speculation that de la Rosa is going to Force India is there in that article?

All it states is:



I know this thread isn't to be taken seriously, but you must concede that that^ isn't anything to go on is it?

Hmmm sounds like crash.net. That's the most sensationalist f1 website I ever saw

Well, the interesting bit -- or rather, the bit that makes it all rather silly -- is this: "is tipped to". By whom, I ask... as, probably, do you. However, Adrián Campos Suñer stated a few days ago: "I would like to sign Pedro de la Rosa but he is Spanish and Spanish sponsors are in a bad way. There are other options, from Russia and Venezuela, but that all depends on the sponsors."

So, I believe it's safe to assume that Pedro Martínez de la Rosa will not be at Campos Meta Team, next season, and I think we'll agree that saying where he will end up, like GMM, through F1-Live, is doing, is mere guesswork. But that's where this thread comes in...

At least the Beeb are putting stuff like that in a gossip column.

They're not dressing it up as fact, and to me it seems that they are partly using the column to alert their readers about rumours that they probably don't feel are substantial enough to post a full story on.

Press Trust of India say Nelsinho Piquet is close to a Force India deal

DON'T DO IT VJ!!! Think about the improvements your team made this year!!!

FI isn't in good financial health I hear, maybe Piquet is just dirt cheap?

.........I agree FI is not in a good financial health but in 2010 FI is going to be more than ever "Mclaren B" so in my opinion the financial issues will not be a serious problem for them..........

I wonder if such a deal would continue beyond the McLaren–Mercedes partnership, and if we could see a Force India–McLaren on the grid come 2012 or '13.

It's old news.

so since liuzzi is confirmed...where will sutil go now? maybe renault?

Mercedes

Nobody is confirmed at Force India for 2010 at the moment.