News reaches us this morning that’s about as surprising as the clocks going back, that we didn’t have a proper UK summer and that Fernando Alonso is driving for Ferrari next year: Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg are in at Williams.
OK, so it’s a bit more surprising than those other three things, but it’s been a badly kept secret for a good few weeks that Rubens was going to be driving for Williams in 2010.
And it’s been equally as non-secret that GP2 series winner Nico would be the young up-and-coming foil to Rubens’ experience of three million race starts.
So out goes the other Nico, Rosberg, who’s spent his entire five-year F1 career with Williams. He’s probably just doing a straight swap with Rubens, to partner incoming World Champ ‘our Jens’ Button at Brawn GP.
Which makes another couple of excellent driver pairings for the 2010 season: Alonso and Felipe Massa at Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton and probably Kimi Raikkonen at McLaren, the current Red Bull line-up, and Robert Kubica with likely partner Timo Glock at Renault.
And there’s still more partnerships to come now the silly season has stepped into full swing.
Citin’.
Bah, two Nicos. What is this cosmic law that dictates all racing drivers must be named from a very small list of possibilities? More Sebastian anyone?
Timmmmmmm in that case, why no other Nigel?
Well we all knew this, a nice shock announcement will do us all some good I reckon.
FIRST COMMENT!!!
I tihnk taht teh nick o’hulkenberg will do well toreplace nick o’rosberg and taht Barrychello will be good at wiliamms as number1 driver. I remember wehn Eddy Ervine was teh only Irish driver in F1 but now there are two. Its strange. I cant wait to see if o’rosberg will be eny good at Brown GP but teh team will have to get a nwe manager by may because gordon will have been voted out and their will have to have new management. Hamilton is teh best driver in teh lot because he has won teh cahmpionshi ponce already wichh is more tahn eny ohter driver in teh feild plus hes britaish wihc means hes better by defolt. I hope he dosnt get a teamate that is gong to show him up cos he needs somone behind him be a rer gunner.
great balance hopefully they will have a good car next year
If Glock goes to renault, where will kovalienen go? Toyota?
i want to see renualt and kubica do well in f1 in 2010 because he is a brilliant driver who deserves a good car to win more races in!
It is really funny Top Gear can spend so much resources in astonishing challenges, sending rockets to outer space, running cars on Quagga’s milk, but they can not afford to FIX THE VERY VERY OLD DRIVER’S STANDINGS ON THEIR OTHERWISE PERFECT WEBPAGE.
On a second thought, it was not funny, but HIDEOUS.
DD TG Fan, Kovalainen drives for McLaren, not Renault, so what do you mean? However yes, he has been tipped to go to Toyota
brawn-button,rosberg
ferrari-alonso,massa
renault-kubica,glock
toyota-kobayashi,kovalein en
red bull-vettel,webber
toro rosso-buemi,alguersuari
force india-sutil,liuzzi
williams-barrichello,hulk enberg
mclaren-hamilton,heidfeld
sauber-piquet,petrov
campos-senna,de la rosa
manor-davidson,paffett,
usf1-speed,bourdais
lotus-fauzy,yoong
other possibilities
max chilton
adam carroll
lucas di grassi
alex wurz
christian klein
marc gene
luca badoer
kazuki nakajima
aj allmendinger
romain grosjean
brendon hartley
takuma sato
Great that Rubens is still in it, I believe he will pass 300starts next year, wow! But Hulkenburg? Not so sure… saw him crash off the track at Copse this year at Silverstone. How do you crash at Copse!? Really? Could be interesting.
My predictions for Kimi, WRC, he’s had enough of F1, Malaysia proved that, it’ll be a shame to see him go, but it may give a chance to someone like Gary Paffet or even Danica Patrick in his place – probably not at McLaren, but somewhere else.
Great to see the Senna name back in F1, would have prefered to see him in a McLaren, Lotus or Williams though, but there is still time.
Next year should be interesting
ferrari are in for a good chance cos alonso just needs a good car but also the same thing with kimi
Yup well done to Rubens, nice to see him have a good year.
Was anyone else rather perplexed at why we had to watch Jake’s attempts at racing but the Formula One drivers’ press conference wasn’t broadcast live after qualifying on Saturday? Since when are the commentators motorsport exploits more important then Vettel’s and Button’s?
i can’t wait til nxt seasons f1 its gonna be gd without refuelling. I luved da abu dhabi track and da multicoloured hotel
@kalum….
wheres raikennon in this line up? he is still a very talented driver, and as a maclaren fan id like nothing more than to see him there with hamilton next year…
next season, rocking, with many drivers race winners and a 3 or 4 champions, and many ppl and teams looking to shine, it will be a season worth watching
new rules and new president also, this looks better and better.
all the line ups are great next year
please don’t let Kimi leave F1.
There are whispers of Raikonnen jumping the F1 ship in some sort of ludicrous swap deal with Seb Loeb, he of WRC dominance and who allegedly tried to race at Abhu Dhabi but was denied. I can’t see it happening, sounds like the same rumour-mill that said Rossi from MotoGP was moving to F1…that said, I can’t wait for these moves to become concrete and for next season’s racing to be tighter than a nat’s chuff…or something?
@ 18…Ur right…kimi is better than many drivers in F1 today…y wood they let him leave?…y wood ferrari replace him with alonso?
Ferrari is utterly falling apart by letting go Kimi and hiring Fisi. 2009 is whats to come for their fans.
no!!not alex yoong!!
williams are going to do great in F1 next year with rubinio in the car that will be fantastic if he races as well as he has with brawn
Next thing: Kobayashi and Raikkonen to Toyota, pushing Glock to Renault and Trulli to partner Senna at Campos Meta. It might happen
Raikkonen is rich enough to retire and rally for fun. Kobayash and Glock is looking more and more likely.
Does Williams have sponsor for next year?? Guess RBS is on a leave..
Still doubt Toyota and Renault will be there next yr.
2009 at 8:25 pm
wach alonso kick asssssssss:)
brawn button-rosberg
ferrari alons-massa
renault kubica-kovalein
toyota kobayashi-trulli
red bull vettel-webber
toro rosso buemi-alguersuari
force india-sutil,liuzzi
williams barrichello-hifield
mclaren hamilton-Raikonnen
campos senna-de la rosa
lotus loeb-glock
manor davidson-paffett
usf1 speed-bourdais
the thing with kimi, one of the Speed commentators made this comment last season. it’s that kimi can bring 110% out of the car, but only when the car is set up perfectly.. which is hardly ever! Massa on the other hand is someone who can get 90% out of the car no matter what… and Alonso is similar, Alonso is someone who can bring the most out of a bad car, he will be a good partner for Massa
@Sean (9) I know kovalienen drives for mclaren, but i thought he would go back to renault (its my fault, i didnt make it clear).
yes raikkonen is a possibility for all the teams as he is obviously a ex world champ also there istrulli and fisichella to consider but me personally i like to see new people in f1 because i get bored with the same teams ever year i like to see things shaken up
MerClarren shud get Marlborough back as they sponsor and have teh red and white coloughr sehcme like their did in teh old days before St Ander became they main sponsor and maybe try and reserect Airtonn Senna to get him two driv for them or maybe just get his nefew to go alongside Hamlton but this culd confews common tatrs as their wuld have teh same helmet coloughrs wihc wuld look starnge but cool
Frarri shud quit teh sport their no good anymoor and their have gonn form bad to worse. All their needed to do was get Wurz to repalce Badoer and their could have been said to hve gonn form Badoer to Wurz…lmfao
Willyams need to get renno enjins like tehy had in teh old days maybe wiht turbos so tehy can go even faster in teh races.
I cant waight to see if lotts can be like they was in teh svnties and ayghtys…taht wuld be exclnt.
I dont care who dives for who as long as Hammolton drives for MerClarren…taht is wehr he belonns
Wow. That is THE worst spelling I’ve ever seen – ever, in the history of spelling.
Congrats to InternetNoob for the most spelling errors on a blog post!
Toyota to quit !
Renault to follow !
No tires for 2011 !
Seems mr.Todt has a job on his hands..
Thanks mr.Mosley for what you done to the sport we love.. The ‘09 rulechanges made it all happen, thanks again!
Just heard about Toyota(come on TG, pull your finger out-it might not involve British drivers but it’s important F1 news). Trulli and Glock will be ok but I doubt Kobayashi will be able to find a drive for 2010 at such short notice – such a shame because I was really looking forward to watching him race next year.
Firstly, I’d just like to say to InternetNoob how utterly amazed I am that someone with a keyboard could make so many spelling mistakes in one post…it is truly incredible! (By the way, apologies if you are dyslexic or something (if you are, you might like to try using a spell checker on Microsoft Word and copying what you write on there onto here in future, or indeed get a friend to write it for you), but all the same…WOW!).
Formula One has been in an enormous state of flux since Day One of this season, and Toyota’s withdrawal is yet another symptom of the current state of the sport. The global economic downturn has been a large contributing factor in Toyota’s withdrawal, too.
I wonder if there will be a repeat of Brawn’s Phoenix-esque resurrection of the felled Honda team (unlikely, I know, but you can hope), or if they will just continue as a fairly mediocre team with a couple of sparks of brilliance on the odd occasion. Another possibility, of course, is that there will be no buyer for the team…now that really would shake things up.
I don’t think that will happen, though, as Sauber is waiting in the wings to get back into the sport. I wonder if it will be Ferrari supplying engines to Sauber like it was back in the Petronas days, or if they will go with Mercedes like they did when they first came into the sport, or indeed if they will go with a completely different supplier…who knows?
Lets hope that this means Williams will be back to winning again. It’s great for small teams like them to be still in F1 where it is mainly dominated by teams with huge budgets like Red Bull and Ferrari
well with toyota out i think the line ups may be completely different
brawn-button,rosberg
ferrari-alonso,massa
renault-kubica,glock
red bull-vettel,webber
toro rosso-buemi,alguersuari
force india-sutil,liuzzi
williams-barrichello,hulk enberg
mclaren-hamilton,heidfeld
sauber-piquet,petrov
campos-senna,de la rosa
manor-davidson,paffett,
usf1-speed,kobayashi
lotus-fauzy,yoong
other possibilities for the new teams are max chilton,adam carroll,lucas di grassi,alex wurz,christian klein,marc gene,luca badoer,kazuki nakajima,aj allmendinger,romain grosjean,brendon hartley,takuma sato,trulli,raikkonen
i think usf1 or one of the new teams will get kobayashi cos he is a new hot prospect for 2010 as shown in brazil and abu dhabi,more likely for the new teams are the experienced drivers (sato,trulli,grosjean,wur z,nakajima) as they know what it feels like to be in a f1 car so the speed wont be a shock for them,although the new boys wont be as expensive and hopefully add new blood for the championship contendership aside from the usual (hamilton,alonso,massa,ra ikkonen).
i think secretly raikkonen would like to be here next year but the fast finn never gives anything away so its hard to tell,i cannot see brawn or mclarens either wanting him or being able to afford him etc so all that leaves is renault and with kubica signed and glock the most likely candidate for the 2nd seat,raikkonens chances look increasingly bleak for next year
rosberg will definately have a seat with either brawn or mclaren as will heidfeld,i think rosberg will be at brawn as they are a new team and rosberg is a young and reasonably unnderrated driver that shows huge prospect,heldfeld will most probably be at mclaren as he will be the consistency to hamiltons speed.
renaults second seat will be either glock,raikkonen,kovaleine n,kobayashi or grosjean although for some reason i think grosjean is unlikely to get a seat next year
ferrari,williams and red bull have been settled so thats that
most reckon that toro rosso and force india will stay the same as buemi has shown great skill in qualifiying and alguersuari hasnt been given a real chance i believe,the only change i can see for force india is that if fisichella goes back to the team instead of being ferreri’s test driver,
now then the new teams have created a massive rumour mill so this is my realistic guesses
campos have confirmed senna and will most likely have de la rosa as he has experience,is a spaniard and clearly has skill as he is mclarens test driver in 2009
i think manor are the real wild horses as apart from a virgin name change we havent heard much from them,i say davidson because of the experience factor and paffett because of the young fresh driver who is mclarens test driver plus they are both british.
usf1 are also a hard one to guess as they want american driver so instantly i thought scott speed and aj allmendinger,although if they could get another experienced driver such as bourdais etc instead of allmendinger they would have a huge advantage over the other teams
lotus want 2 malaysian driver so fauzy and yoong are good predictions although they would be smart to get a experienced driver on board
sauber have a conditional place so i thing we may be a certain piquet jnr on board,they would be wise to also get vitaly petrov as he would be the first russian f1 driver so would bring a lot of sponsorship and talent otherwise get a experienced driver.
max chilton and brendon hartley are most probably to inexperienced and young to get a seat but u never know,u could argue then that gene,badoer and wurz are to old to get a seat but gene is spanish so campos will have him on the horizons,but badoer has had is time in f1 i think,wurz is a possibility but he is wanting to set up is own team so i think i can rule him out,raikkonn is either at renault,brawn or mclaren but i think all are unlikely so i think no more kimi in f1 2010,trulli is either going to renault,brawn or mclaren but i think all are unlikely so i think no more jarno in f1 2010,if my predictions are wrong then the drivers who i think aremost likely to get a drive next year are nakajima,grosjean and sato as they all have experience and are the right age and the other driver most likely to get a drive if my predictions are wrong are adam carroll as he is irish so will bring plently of sponsorship and he is a good driver having won 3 championships,lucas di grassi as he is renaults test driver,won 6 championships and is a good age for entering. ,christian klein as he has won 2 championships and has 5 years experience in f1 and finally sebastian bourdais as he has 27 races in f1 and 6 championships under his belt
there u are a detailed guess into next years f1 season
the above guesses were by me