That was when they were one of the best teams around and the top drivers were fighting to join them, times have changed and if they want a top driver then they will have to pay top dollar.

Just to add to the mix, I'm not convinced Barrichello will remain at Brawn beyond this season (despite the Valencia win) - so that's pontentially another pukka F1 seat that could attract the likes of Kimi or Kubica.

Nick Fry and Ross Brawn - who also commented on the new deal - have no reason to lie. They gain nothing from it that they wouldn't gain from telling the truth. You could make the case that by lying about securing funding, they temporarily keep the team in positive spirits, but telling the truth does the same thing. More to the point, if they lie and say they have sponsors lined up when they don't, it's going to be even harder to attract an actual sponsor.

Sorry if this has been answered previously, but is there any word on whether double-deck diffusers will be banned next season along with any 'slots' or 'holes' such a devise may incorporate? The first three races of the season (where the majority of the field was running a single deck diffuser) was tremendously exciting and involved a wealth of good driving manuves and overtaking. As the season has progressed and the rest of the teams have caught up on the rule exploitation the on-track action has become rather dull, with the wealth of the action taking place in the pit lane.

So, is there any word on this as surely it would hit one of FOTA's targets of 'improving the spectacle' next season.

Thanks.

Is it time for the 2011 thread yet or has it been made?

I've started the 2007, '08, and '09 silly season threads in November/December of '05, '06, and '07 respectively, and the '10 thread somewhat earlier, in October '08. So from that point it's a tad early, but no-one will stop you from starting a '2011 Silly Season' thread.

Story on F1-live.com saying Head expects Rosberg to move on from Williams. Apologies if already posted.

I might...



I am lazy and you do a much better job than me though

Aahw, thanks...

hehe..


Brawn GP Formula One Team
Engine: Mercedes
KERS: Mercedes
Drivers
1. Jenson Button
2. Rubens Barrichello

Red Bull Racing
Engine: Renault
KERS: RB MM
3. Kimi Räikkönen
4. Sebastian Vettel

Santandair Scuderia Ferrari
Engine: Ferrari F2010 – Ferrari 056
KERS: Ferrari MM
5. Felipe Massa
6. Fernando Alonso

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Engine: Mercedes FO108X
KERS: Mercedes
7. Lewis Hamilton
8. Nico Rosberg

Panasonic Toyota Racing
Engine: Toyota
KERS: TOYOTA
9. Timo Glock
10. Nelson Piquet

AT&T Williams
Engine: Mercedes
KERS: Williams
12. Nick Heidfeld
13. Nico Hülkenberg (test driver currently in GP2)

Renault F1 Team
Engine: Renault R30 – Renault R27
14. Robert Kubica
15. Mark Webber

Scuderia Toro Rosso
Engine: Ferrari 056 (
KERS MM
16. Sébastien Buemi (hard to see him dropped after some solid drives)
17. Jaime Alguersuari, jr. (replaced Bourdais mid-season '09, likely to stay on)

Force India F1 Team / Prodrive
Engine: Mercedes
Kers: Mercedes
18. Adrian Sutil
19. Vitantonio Liuzzi

Campos Meta Team
Campos Meta CM10 – Cosworth CA2010 (Dallara-designed and -built car)
20. Takuma Sato ( with Samantha Kingz, Asahi-H2O and Adelance)
21. Christian Klien (Big Blood Diamond)

Manor F1 Team
Engine: Cosworth CA2010
KERS: Williams
22. Marc Gene
23. Vitaly Petrov

Team US F1
US F1-10 – Cosworth CA2010
KERS:
24. Pedro de la Rosa (
25. Graham Rahal

Sauber F1 Team
Engine: Ferrari 056 (again with Petronas badge?) / Cosworth CA2010 (an other option)
KERS: BMW
26. Jarno Trulli
27. Giancarlo Fisichella

So far no news on the subject, and unfortunately if DDDs survive we won't be able to judge whether OWG work brought any fruition.

It's fine to speculate, of course, but you do know that M.A. Webber has a 2010 contract with Red Bull Racing, right?

Think of all those engine failures

Plus whatever team Webber drives for will have a 1 on their car.

you wish...

RBcan use Merc, RB gives Webbo to FLav for ditching their engine,.. so I should have written that RBR 2010 uses MErc engine...

You're not allowed 2 accounts Krap, that's not fair

Well paranoiko, you have Kubica going to 2 teams and Heidfeld out the door.
Kind of expected such from you...

I sure as hell don't think Nick's out of a seat, he's too good for that. That list is only for the rumours I've read. Autosport has mentioned Kubica as "widely thought to be in talks to Renault" (paraphrased) and The Guardian mentioned that McLaren is interested in him. Haven't seen anything about Nick - yet.

I expect him to end up somewhere like Toyota or Williams. Brawn, Mac or Renault aren't impossible neither but I think they'll go with others.



Yeah I wasn't entirely sure on the Youtube situation, think I've read rumours about Youtube sponsoring them but that was before the official announcement - it's probably clearer now that it's a personal investment by Chad.

Thanks for the tip on Sauber.

Brawn GP: Button, Barrichello
Red Bull: Webber, Vettel
Ferrari: Alonso, Massa
McLaren: Hamilton, Rosberg
Toyota: Glock, ???
Williams: Heidfeld, Hülkenberg
Renault: Kubica, Grosjean
Toro Rosso: Buemi, Alguersuari
Force India: Sutil, Kovalainen
the rest: ???

So does Kimi with Ferrari

Exactly. That's why I stated him:

Not completely true. Mansell was driven out by the political games of Prost & Renault and Williams made it seem that it was his sallary demands.
And didn't Piquet left Williams himself because they wouldn't be keeping the Honda engine?

Red Bull Racing

-Brendon Hartely

-Daniel Ricciardo

Brawn GP

-Karun Chandock

-Narain Karthikeyan

Mclaren Mercedes

-Heikki Kovalainen

-Gary Paffet

Williams F1

-Kazuki Nakajima

-Neel Jani

Toyota Racing

-Takuma Sato

-Yuji Ide

Renault

-Olivier Panis

-Frank Montagny

Scuderia Toro Rosso

-Jaime Alguersuari

-Sebastien Bourdais(shock return)

Force India

-Andy Soucek

-Alex Yoong(Good senior driver needed)

Campos Meta

-Marc Gene

-Lucas Di Grassi

US F1

-Danica Patrick

-Milko Dunno

Manor Virgin F1 Team

-Pedro De la rosa

-Jacques Villenueve

Epsilon Sauber Euskadi Petronas Durango iSport F1 Team

-Nelson Piquet

-Luca Badoer





















Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro

-Fernando Alonso (heavily rumoured)

-Felipe Massa (contracted)

-Kimi Raikonnen (contracted)

Test Drivers

-Jenson Button (heavily rumoured)

-Rubens Barrichello (heavily rumoured despite wining)

-Sebastien Vettel (heavily rumoured despite being contracted to Red Bull)

-Mark Webber (heavily rumoured despite being contracted to Red Bull)

-Nico Rosberg (heavily rumoured)

-Nico Hulkenberg (heavily rumoured)

-Lewis Hamilton (heavily rumoured despite being contracted to McLaren)

-Romain Grosjean (heavily rumoured)

-Sebastian Buemi (heavily rumoured)

-Nick Heidfeld (heavily rumoured)

-Robert Kubica (heavily rumoured)

-Giancarlo Fisichella (heavily rumoured)

-Adrian Sutil (heavily rumoured)

-Timo Glock (heavily rumoured)

-Jarno Trulli (heavily rumoured)

-Vitaly Petrov (heavily rumoured)



Ferrari Cruise to 18 victories and take WDC and WCC with only Heikki Kovalainen as any sort of reasonable competition.

With Yuji Ide, Luca Badoer, Alex Yoong all on track many pile ups occured throughout the season. Luckily Ferrari Had ample Test drivers to step up. Vintage season of F1.

Just saw that, I think we can assume he will be at McLaren next year then...

Or not, there are mixed messages coming out of Williams, where Frank insist keeping Nico, and Patric is sure he is already gone...

I'm sure Williams want to keep him, but if Mac want him he would be a fool to turn them down.

I'm not so sure going to team Hamilton as no2 is ideal for his career building, and I think Keke knows that too...

If he believes in his talent then he will be fine. He will only be #2 if he is the slower.

Keke no longer manages Nico. I believe Nico manages himself, except for some background assistance in some legal and financial matters. In any case, I don't think Nico is afraid of Hamilton and I also don't believe McLaren wouldn't give him a fair chance to fight Hamilton. But I rather hope Kimi goes back there, even though it's very unlikely.

BTW guys what official budget cup for next season? 100 mln euro?

Although it's worth remembering that Mansell was driven out a second time due to salary, courtesy of the cheaper David Coulthard in 1995 who Frank fought tooth and nail to keep in his car after the McLaren contract dispute. In hindsight, I would have let DC go and signed up Nigel who could have had a stellar season in that mighty FW17 which Hill and Coulthard squandered. Anyone think Schumacher could have bullied Mansell like he did Damon at Spa? Not bloody likely.

And, of course, Hill went thanks to his catastrophic 1995 season rather than money.

Its hamilton's team - and I personally think he can wipe the floor with nico in terms of talent. Nico will be #2 no question.

I don't subscribe to the "Its Hamilton's team" view, that's just a convenient excuse when your driver is being beaten, but do agree that he is probably quicker than Rosberg, but unless Rosberg goes there he will never know for sure, and it's really about how much he believes in himself. As things stand the odds would favour Mac giving him a shot at the WDC before Williams and if there is an offer I think he should snap it up.

I guess most people have read it, but semi-interesting James Allen post about Kubica/Rosberg/Alonso.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2009/08/read...ca-and-rosberg/

I am still not convinced Alonso has a signed contract with anybody aside Renault. I think he realizes his only realistic option is Ferrari (having burned his bridges at McLaren while Hamilton is there) and is using the media to push for the Ferrari seat. Someone with a signed contract doesn't say:

True, but at the same time he would not say that he already signed.

Of course, he's going to hide it until Monza...

I don't know about that. If he has signed already, he has proven to be "very active" at finding that other championship-winning team, no?

I now see what was meant earlier in this thread when someone posted that everyone thinks they know Alonso's and Ferrari's true intents and prposes. They way James Allen reports it - and he's better-informed than all of us combined - Alonso and Ferrari isn't a done deal. Not yet. It mgiht be in the disant (or not-too-distant) future, but from reading his posting, he seems to think that nothing has been signed yet.

Ill trust Lobotomy Lobato any day of the week over James "the cock" Allen.

AND JENNNNSSSSON BUTTTTTTTTONNNNN...."breath" WWIIINNNNSS "breath" THE "breath" HUNNNGARRIAN GRANNNNNN PRREEEEEEE

hahah what a fool.

Its a done deal.

Actually, he's pretty insightful and sensible about it all when he's not behind the microphone.

And I'd like you to prove that it's a "done deal".

Williams interested in keeping Rosberg



Frank sounds more like he's hawking his goods. Is Nico a free agent? or Frank has an option on him?

You should listen to Lobato sometime.

The clip from Spanish TV with Alonso being asked about Ferrari says it all.

Alonso is asked directly, says he hasn't signed.

Then both he and the interviewer burst into laughter.

It's a done deal.

Just a question of how Ferrari can offload Raikkonen.

Renault are shopping hard for Kubica, and all indications are they're going to keep Grosjean.

Give him half his contract money (for 2010) and off-load him to McLaren. Will do nicely, thank you.

Finnish MTV3 has Nicos comment of his contract situation, and there he say that he will decide his new team with in two weeks, and Williams is one of them. He said his situation is good, and the decision is based on a package which include teammate, engine and budget.

If the teammate is one object, then McLaren is not the best package for him.

Autosport magazine this week says Ferrari have upped their payout offer.

Previously it was reported they were offering him half his 2010 salary to walk.

Upping this offer seems remarkably stupid to me.

If Raikkonen and his management now know Ferrari are starting to budge, why would they settle for anything less than his full 2010 wage?

Hang on, perhaps Rosberg means the deal depends on how good his teammate is?

Nakajima can hardly be helping Williams push forward.

Someone like Nick Heidfeld would.

He is in a strong position and would be foolish to accept anything less. Well, if these reports are true then one can assume that his management team would already be in negotiations with other teams. I'd say the whole thing will come to a final conclusion after this week's GP.

If that is true, I would go and take my some 3/4th of the salary, and go knocking on a door in Woking for example.

Ferrari, nicely managed...

That is what he must be after, but he hardly want to have no2 role alongside Hamilton.
I think he stays in Williams, if he gets better teammate and the team gets better engine deal.

With that amount, I seriously doubt Ferrari would allow him to drive for McLaren. More like a gardening leave.