The news that Fernando Alonso is moving to Ferrari came as no surprise and it started movement on the F1 driver market after a period in which movement was frozen until after the FIA decision about Renault F1, which cleared the Spaniard of blame in the Singapore 2008 scandal.
The suggestion in Japan was that Renault has now done a deal with Robert Kubica; that Nico Rosberg will move to Brawn GP with Mercedes-Benz behind him. Rubens Barrichello is expected to move to Williams and if he wins the World Championship would take the champion’s number 1 with him. The team is expected to name Nico Hulkenberg as its second driver, leaving Kazuki Nakajima out of work. He will probably get a ride with Toyota, if the team survives. Toyota has released Jarno Trulli and the word is that the Italian veteran will probably end up at the new Team Lotus, as he enjoys a good relationship with the new team’s chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne. Toyota has not taken up Timo Glock’s option, which is a strange thing to do, but it seems that the Japanese are very keen on putting Kamui Kobayashi into F1. Thus Toyota could end up with two Japanese drivers. This might please the top management, but it is not likely to net any big results.
The future is currently uncertain for Adrian Sutil, Heikki Kovalainen and for Nick Heidfeld, while Romain Grosjean may also be worrying amid rumours that he will dropped by the team before the Brazilian GP, to make way for Lucas di Grassi.
There are also increasing rumours that Sebastien Loeb, the multiple World Rally Champion, will be in a Toro Rosso in Abu Dhabi. This will probably be at the expense of Jaime Alguersuari, but it is unlikely to be a longterm arrangement as Loeb has signed for Citroen’s WRC team in 2010. It is believed that part of that deal will be for Citroen to let him become an F1 drivers for one weekend, something which Red Bull is very keen on as it is trying to expand the French market. Alguersuari will be back at Toro Rosso next year and the word is that he will have Repsol money behind him.
Of the rest there are hints that Alexander Wurz could be involved with the USF1 team; Pedro de la Rosa could be at Campos with Russia’s Vitaly Petrov; Christian Klien with Virgin F1 and Anthony Davidson is being mentioned as a possible Team Lotus driver. Takuma Sato is also pushing hard for a job. Nelson Piquet Jr is also hoping to get a new ride but he popped up in Miami Homestead over the weekend to talk to Indycar teams.
Everything you write about the driver merry-go-round sounds highly feasible Joe.
I wonder if you can shed more light on Jarno Trulli’s next career move. It seems to me that his speciality is anonymity. For the last few years, no doubt very handsomely rewarded by Toyota, he appears to have been happy to trundle around in mid field, with the occasional qualifying spurt to keep his paymasters convinced he was trying.
Then, in Japan this weekend, when he needs to showcase his presence, he comes alive and streaks ahead of the car and driver that so comprehensively won last weekend’s Singapore GP. And if memory serves me reasonably well, he attempted the same performance at Renault, but was “let go” by Briatore anyway.
He may well be an enigma, inside a puzzle, wrapped up in a conundrum, but for some reason I feel a little cheated to think there are drivers like Anthony Davidson sitting on their hands whilst Jarno merely goes through the motions.
Interesting development with Trulli- I wasen’t even thinking about the Team Lotus deal for any drivers. Very good if Wurz winds up with USF1- hoping Jonathan Summerton lands with them in some capacity as well.
I think it’s a big mistake for Toyota to make a move with their two in-house drivers and replace both Glock and Trulli. It would be a big step back, but again, it’s all dependent on te company surviving in the first place.
Grosjean may not be driving stellar at the moment, but I think he’s better on pure talent than di Grassi.
Any word on the Kimi-to-McLaren possibility?
It would be awesome to see a #1 on a Williams again, and if Toyota is focused on increasing its popularity in the Japanese market they should just hire Taku, surely he’s got to be a better bet at brining them their first win than Nakajima (although we are talking a 0.00001% chance vs. 0.00000% chance .. which I guess is insignificant but also infinitely better !!! At least he brings excitement by the boatload)
joe, can you explain how barrichello gets chopped after showing somewhat better skill and tyre management with the machine than jenson button. I agree that button has more wins, but he seems to be holding on whilst others are storming home with a wet sail. He was the benefactor of a good machine at the start of the year, but with all things being equal, isn’t Barrichello the better bet? Is it the Mercedes political angle with having a German in a seat??
The one name you didn’t mention Joe was Senna – any chance he might make it into F1 next year (after nearly getting into Brawn this year, it’s all gone quiet)?
Lucas di Grassi in for Brazil? have Renault not learnt their lesson yet? Sticking a rookie in the car with no testing – that’s just bound to work!
What Renault needs to do is is put Grosjean into one of the new teams so that they can see how he does with some testing and preparation, then put two quick experienced guys in the works team.
Toyota – Kamui and Kazuki. nice idea, but they are not serious are they? I thought they needed a ‘win for the management’? This is either simply a news story to please the Japanese fans at their home GP – or they are trying to lower expectations about their future participation. Now, Kimi and one of the Japanese drivers in the other car would be a more logical line-up.
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