Nico Rosberg was unveiled this morning as Mercedes Benz GP’s first new driver for the 2010 season.

The highly rated German youngster left Williams after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and was connected with the team before Brawn sold out to Mercedes.  When this happened, it became almost 100% certain that Rosberg would join Benz as the manufacturer looked to German drivers.

“I am really happy to be a part of the Silver Arrows re-launch in 2010 as a driver for Mercedes,” said Rosberg.

“No other brand in Formula 1 can look back on such a long and successful tradition in motor racing. I am very proud that I will now drive for the new Mercedes team and work with Ross Brawn.

“I am more motivated than ever and can hardly wait to start testing with the new Silver Arrow and for the first race of the new season at Bahrain in March.”

Speculation is mounting as to who his team mate will be.  With internet (and Eddie Jordan’s) finger pointing at Michael Schumacher, lets not forget Nick Heidfeld the “maybe” man has been linked with the drive, could this re-spark his career?

Photo from BrawnGP

Schumi Going Green?

And no… I do not mean environmentally friendly. After initial reports tipped Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg for the drives at Mercedes GP (formerly Brawn GP), rumours have surfaced about another German bumping Heidfeld from the running. Former F1 team owner, and established race analyst Eddie Jordan, has stated his belief that retired, 7 time world champion Michael Schumacher, will now prospectively be the number one at Mercedes, which will place even more certainty on the impending departure of Kimi Raikkonen from F1, for the next year at least. Of course, this is still all up in the air. Michael faces a fair bit of red tape including gaining medical clearance, being released from his current contract at Ferrari… not to mention the physical wear and tear on that F1 will put on his body… how much more he can take has he suits up at the ripe age of 40? While it would be amazing to see the greatest driver of our generation take to the world’s circuits once more, we should remember that all of these talks could be surrounding a consultative move, comparable to his role with Ferrarri currently.

Jordan did comment that the contract would likely only last a year as the general thought is that Mercedes ultimately want Sebastian Vettel as soon as he becomes available… which could be as early as next year depending on any extensions and or/options that are extended in his contract at Red Bull Racing. This also pushes Heidfeld into drivers no-mans land, which is somewhat disappointing because many feel that while he has not always had the most flattering results in the series, that he is a bona fide competitor and that he could without a doubt be a solid contributor to any team in search of winning the constructor’s title. Stay tuned to cheddarbomb.wordpress.com for an upcoming breakdown of Teams and their driver selection to date.

Mercedes Loves Germans

You rock, Eddie, you rock!

Eddie Jordan é um sujeito boa praça, e o que há de melhor na transmissão da F-1 na BBC. Um contraponto perfeito para a insipidez de David Coulthard e o nacionalismo extremado de Martin Brundle. Quando, no meio desta semana, Eddie anunciou que Michael Schumacher poderia retornar à F-1 pelas mãos da Mercedes, vibrei. Gostaria muito, assim como o próprio Eddie, que o alemão retornasse. Sua simples presença, competitiva ou não, traria um charme todo especial ao campeonato de 2010.

O queixudo, porém, não vem. A Mercedes-Benz, neste sábado, deixou claro que não está negociando com o heptacampeão e que a chance de ele guiar para a Cometa GP em 2010 é zero. É pena, porque a segunda vaga vai acabar ficando com o mega sem graça Nick Heidfeld – e, atenção, não estou dizendo que ele não seja competente, apenas que é sem graça.

Claro que uns poderão dizer que a Mercedes está despistando e que o alemão tem chances, sim, de retornar, mas acreditem, meus caros: o cara não volta. Infelizmente.

As opções para o segundo cockpit da Cometa GP são interessantes, pois trata-se de um time que deverá apresentar um carro competitivo. Ao lado de Red Bull, McLaren e Ferrari, deve ser uma das forças do campeonato. O piloto que lá se sentar (ao lado de Nico Rosberg) será, de cara, um privilegiado. Pela lógica, a vaga tinha de ser de Robert Kubica, mas o polonês se amarrou à Renault e dançou. Heidfeld, portanto, parece ser a opção natural para o time alemão – é bom desenvolvedor da carros e é consistente, batendo muito pouco – embora seja pouco agressivo. A agressividade, porém, ficaria a cargo de Rosberg.

Trocando em miúdos, não seria uma dupla fraca não. Rosberg e Heidfeld podem dar muito trabalho aos demais, se o carro da Cometa for bom como o de 2009.

E vocês? Quem gostariam de ver no segundo cockpit da Cometa?

Um ótimo fim de semana para todos!

Team GB

Despite Mercedes buying out Brawn GP to create Mercedes GP, and despite Mercedes’ promise to shareholders and fans alike that it would be back to back championships, the interweb has been abuzz with numerous rumours that the 2009 drivers champ, Jenson Button, was ditching his championship team and heading to (less?) greener pastures. Those wild rumours have been put to rest as McLaren and Button have announced their partnership for the 2010 season. This begs all sorts of unresolved questions. First off… Astonishing, no? What does all of this mean for Lewis Hamilton… is there another driver controversy brewing in the British Midlands… didnt McLaren learn from the Alonso-Hamilton misfire that two drivers of equal talent cant possibly co-exist at the same stall? Just thinking about it makes me wish Australia was just around the corner.

So lets, think about this for a moment… who is driving for Mercedes now?? Barrichello was the first to bolt and now Button has left the BAR replacement. So without any true championship caliber drivers, how exactly does the German stall plan to deliver on their lofty promise of a repeat championship. Why by installing two German drivers of course. Both Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg are tipped to be the 1-2 drives for next year’s squad, though nothing is 100% squared away just yet. There is still a lonely Finn out there who might be the right man for the job, should he decide he can afford a pay cut from 20 million pounds to 6 million pounds for the season.

The Sweet Nectar of Victory

However, considering the financial sticking point and Kimi’s notorious stubbornness, the Button move will likely push the once highly sought after Kimi Raikkonen into no-mans land. Its been a “hard” road for the Finn who could never quite get it done with McLaren, then won a driver’s title with Ferrari, got bumped from Ferrari in favour of driving enemy no 1, Fernando Alonso, returned to McLaren, only to be bumped by driving enemy no 2… Jenson Button?? Based on the personnel changes in F1 thus far it seems more and more certain that the 2010 season will find Kimi without a drive for the first time,  in a very long time. Oh well Kimi, I hear Le Mans is… wait… its too funny to even consider. I doubt you will be able to make anywhere close to 6 mill on the 24 hour circuit, let alone the rally series you are considering. So Kimi… see you in 2011. I hear that Red Bull might have a spot open.

Grosse Verwirrung nach der Meldung von Autosport.com, wonach Kimi Räikkönen 2010 pausieren müsse. Auf den ersten Blick ein Widerspruch zur Meldung hier vom Montag, wonach der Finne bei Mercedes fix sei. Ist es aber ganz und gar nicht. Ich kann da nur die Lektüre der aktuellen Ausgabe von P1Mag empfehlen. Von 2010 ist da nicht die Rede

Posted via email from P1Magazin

OK, clarifying my post from the 17th for all non-German speaking friends: I DID NOT SAY (or write) that Kimi Räikkönen is going to drive in Formula 1 for Mercedes in 2010! According to our research for P1 Mag he DOES have some kind of agreement in place with Mercedes-Benz.

It seems the terms of his contract termination with Ferrari do not allow him to drive in 2010 for any team placed ahead of Ferrari in the 2009 World Championship. Apart from risking the compensation he’s got for the contract termination, he’d probably would face legal issues for breaching this agreement. So actually the best thing to do is to take a year off and come back in 2011. With Mercedes Grand Prix. Nick Heidfeld being the likely choice to fill the void for 2010.

I’m well aware that Autosport.com has pumped out something different, mentioning McLaren had been Kimi’s only choice and speculating about him joining RBR 2011. Time will tell if they can stick to their story. I’m quite comfortable with ours. Oh, and sorry for the cheap skate copy cats who got themselves into trouble for picking up just the headline…

Kimi Raikkonen’s manager Steve Robertson has announced that the Finnish ex World Champion will be taking a sabbatical in 2010 after talks with McLaren broke down. Robertson was quoted as saying:

Kimi and McLaren were unable to reach an agreement, so he will not drive at the F1 level – at least not next year.

A gap year means nothing for Kimi. He is more interested in fighting for wins and the world championship. F1 will miss Kimi. He worked hard over the summer – doing things in a Ferrari that only the best drivers are capable of.

With the recent Mercedes acquisition of 75% of Brawn GP and the rumours of them wanting an all German team of Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg, it was looking more and more likely that Jenson Button would be signing for McLaren, leaving Kimi Raikkonen without a competitive option in 2010.

For Kimi Raikkonen to have pulled have out of talks with McLaren is surely a clear indication that the official signing of Jenson Button is all but a formality now and will be happening sooner rather than later, possibly even today.

With an eye on the World Rally Championship in 2010, it’ll be interesting to see what Kimi Raikkonen’s options are for Formula 1 in 2011 and whether a race seat for a top team will be open to fight for.

For some great comments about the Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button situation I urge everyone to read the comments left by one of our valued readers here.

It seemed that Button was on the verge of signing for McLaren, but the newspaper The Times is tonight reporting that Brawn GP have offered Button what he wanted – an £8mill deal to keep him at the team which will run under the Mercedes name next season.

It was expected that Mercedes had their driver line-up sorted for next season with many speculating that the German owners would want German drivers – with Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg favourites for the Mercedes race seats, with Jenson Button off to McLaren and Kimi Raikkonen out of F1 completely.

However earlier on today the head of Mercedes’ motorsport activities Norbert Haug hinted at ’some surprises’ in the Mercedes 2010 line-up, and will Jenson Button staying on at the team be the surprise?

O pelotão da principal categoria do automobilismo, por enquanto, terá 26 lugares quando a FIA confirmar uma nova equipa para o lugar da Toyota

Com a saída da Toyota, a Fórmula 1 tem 12 equipas confirmadas na temporada 2010. Dos 24 lugares no pelotão, porém, apenas 11 já têm donos – três deles são de brasileiros: Felipe Massa na Ferrari, Rubens Barrichello na Williams e Bruno Senna na Campos.

As 13 vagas ainda abertas são um alento para os agora desempregados Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock e Kamui Kobayashi, que ocuparam o cockpit da equipa japonesa este ano. Eles passaram a fazer parte do grupo de 24 pilotos que estão disponíveis no “mercado”.

A lista de “candidatos” inclui, também, o actual campeão, Jenson Button, que ainda não renovou com a Brawn GP. E corre o risco ficar ainda maior caso a Renault também saia da categoria. A categoria terá 26 vagas em 2010, assim que a FIA confirme uma equipa no lugar da Toyota.

A Toyota foi a segunda equipa a deixar a F1 esta temporada – a BMW Sauber também saiu. Além de Trulli, Glock e Kobayashi, um outro piloto fica em situação diícil. Kazuki Nakajima, que defendia a Williams, era um dos nomes cotados para a vaga na equipa em 2010.

Há, ainda, uma esperança para os pilotos. A Sauber – comprada pelo grupo de investimentos árabe Qadbak – ainda aguarda aprovação da Federação Internacional de Automobilismo (FIA) e das equipas.

Lucas di Grassi, Antonio Pizzonia e Nelsinho Piquet lutam por vagas, principalmente nas quatro (ou cinco) equipas estreantes.

Pilotos “disponíveis”: Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Adrian Sutil, Nick Heidfeld, Kamui Kobayashi, Timo Glock, Heikki Kovalainen, Kazuki Nakajima, Lucas di Grassi, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Giancarlo Fisichella, Pedro de la Rosa, Nelsinho Piquet, Pastor Maldonado, Anthony Davidson, Jacques Villeneuve, Jonathan Summerton, Antonio Pizzonia, Adam Carroll, Jarno Trulli, Takuma Sato, Alex Yoong, Fairuz Fauzy e Christian Klien, Vitaly Petrov

(Fonte: portalf1.com)

Afinal a visita da passada semana poderá não ter sido “só” de cortesia.

O braço-de-ferro entre Kimi Raikkonen e a McLaren prossegue, o que deixou o caminho aberto ao Campeão do Mundo de F1, Jenson Button, que está agora bem mais perto da McLaren-Mercedes, num ‘negócio’ que tem mesmo pernas para andar. Resta saber se Kimi Raikkonen vai agora para a ‘nova’ Mercedes Grand Prix. Para já Norbert Haug admite… Nick Heidfeld.
Jenson Button mais perto da McLaren -

De acordo com uma notícia de hoje do “The Guardian” a visita da passada semana foi complementada por negociações efectivas, o que, no final poderá resultar em novo confronto ‘à parte’ na F1, entre a nova Mercedes, com dois pilotos alemães, já que a Nico Rosberg poderá juntar-se Nick Heidfeld, e a McLaren, com Lewis Hamilton e Jenson Button.

(Fonte: autosport.aeiou.pt)

The latest news sweeping the online world is that Jenson Button has signed a 3 year deal with McLaren worth £6 million a year. I must stress that at this time this is not confirmed, but heavily suspected to be true. After yesterday’s news of Mercedes buying into Brawn GP, Jenson Button moving to McLaren seems more likely than ever. The signing of Jenson Button will save McLaren a fair few millions of pounds a year than if they’d signed Kimi Raikkonen.

Jenson Button – soon to be driving the #1 car for McLaren?

I’ve had some feedback which suggests that I have been unfair when talking about Jenson Button and that he has far more fire in his belly than I have given him credit for. Admittedly my judgement of Jenson Button is only based on the past few seasons where before last season he was almost non-existent, and last year I was pretty unimpressed despite him winning the World Championship. I’m more than willing to be proven wrong and if I am, and this move to McLaren is actually happening, then that’ll mean more championship points for the team I love and more positive blogging to be done!

I can’t help thinking that Mercedes GP are making a mistake in letting Jenson Button go, because as much as I don’t see his apparent driving skills, he’s a better proposition than either Nick Heidlfeld or Nico Rosberg. The former is consistent but unspectacular and the latter is a wiz in qualifying but never seems to translate that to podium finishes. It’s all very well Mercedes wanting an all German line up of drivers but shouldn’t the potential to succeed be the bigger factor in signing a driver?

Mercedes have said they will announce their drivers for 2010 in the next week or so, but if Jesnon Button is announced as a McLaren driver before then I think Mercedes will be forced into bringing their announcement forward – it would be as obvious as the Ferrari signing of Fernando Alonso earlier in the year.

As for Kimi Raikkonen, well this leaves him taking that money spinning sabbatical that he has spoken about. He has maintained that he will only drive for the right team and with no competitive drive options left one can only assume that the 2007 world champion will not be on the grid in Bahrain next March.

One perfect year – and then it was all over.

The news today of German motoring giant Mercedes shifting its weight from McLaren to Brawn GP means that this season’s double champions will become the ultimate motorsport one-hit wonder.

Brawn GP: one glorious season is all we get

The new Mercedes Silver Arrows team will be many things – a formidable, well-resourced contender first among them. But one thing it will not be is the team that thousands of fans fell instantly in love with as they watched its journey from the edge of extinction to the summit of the sport.

Mercedes has announced today that it is “re-aligning” its relationship with McLaren and will become merely an engine supplier to the team with which it has won three drivers’ titles and a constructors’ championship since the current partnership began in 1995.

It will instead be running the former Brawn GP as a silver-liveried works team with one, and possibly two, German drivers and is expected to revive its Silver Arrows branding for the occasion.

Twelve months ago, Brawn GP didn’t even exist as Honda announced on December 5 2009 that it would be pulling out of F1 with immediate effect. That left its staff at Brackley, from cleaners, engineers and caterers to designers, executives and drivers, with no clue if they would even have jobs in six months’ time.

During an uncertain winter a rescue bid was put together by the management team of Ross Brawn and Nick Fry who bought the team to run as an independent outfit. McLaren gave its permission for its engine supplier, Mercedes, to help the new squad make it to the grid.

The McLaren-Mercedes partnership has been enduring and strong

That new squad took part in January testing with plain white, sponsorship-free cars emblazoned with the legend ‘Brawn GP’. Fans rallied behind the new outfit in their thousands.

The cars, driven by the old Honda partnership of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, both of whom might have justifiably have wondered if they would ever drive in F1 again, blew the socks off the other teams and it was clear that the championship-winning Ross Brawn was back in business.

Brawn GP managed an unbelievable inaugural year in which it won both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles from its inauspicious start as December’s child. More and more fans got behind it – and revelled in its success.

Now those fans, like Minardi’s in 2006, are facing the prospect of a new season with their team bought out by a bigger entity, re-named, re-branded and changed beyond recognition.

Who will drive?

The new world champion - still job-hunting despite the silverware

Jenson Button may have won the world championship for Brawn. But – unlike the formerly eponymous team principal – that doesn’t mean his services are considered essential for next year.

Nico Rosberg is widely accepted as one of the team’s 2010 drivers. And Lewis Hamilton is locked into one of the McLaren seats. Who fills the other two gaps still seems very much up for grabs.

Button could well find himself in the thoroughly disadvantageous position of backing up Hamilton in a team and a car built around the 2008 champion – whose driving style and requirements from a car are very different to the current champion’s.

At first glance, a Button-Hamilton partnership might appear to turn McLaren into Britain’s equivalent of Force India, US F1, Ferrari or Malaysia’s new Lotus team – but each driver has partisan fans that are unlikely to warm to the other.

And McLaren strategists, led by Ron Dennis, have grand plans for their business that are unlikely to include turning the race team into a new Team GBR (more on this later).

If Button stays at Brackley – as most insiders still expect – the partnership with Rosberg will be a strong one. But it might not best suit Mercedes, which seems likely to be as German a team as Ferrari is Italian. Unlike the Maranello outfit, and unlike McLaren, that could extend to requiring a pair of drivers of the same nationality.

The name that seems set to be the fourth partner in this dance is Nick Heidfeld – quick, reliable, non-controversial, a known team player, a former McLaren development driver, German, and unlikely to overshadow a star lead driver. He could end up at whichever team doesn’t take Button.

Either way, Button is unlikely to be the ultimate loser. Increasingly, there seems no vacancy for Kimi Raikkonen’s questionable commitment, high wage demands and lack of enthusiasm for commercial and promotional work.

Mercedes buy-out – and McLaren’s future

Car-maker Mercedes seems determined to be the manufacturer that bucks the trend and makes its involvement in F1 pay as its peers desert the sport in droves.

Brawn GP today released this heavily-Photoshopped concept of a Mercedes Silver Arrow car

Last year it extended its engine supply from its traditional McLaren partners to Force India and Brawn. Now it plans to go the whole hog and renew its rivalry with Ferrari from the earliest days of racing.

In doing so it moves in the opposite direction to rival German carmaker BMW, which has this year abandoned its own solo effort – and the parallels are striking.

Like Mercedes, BMW ended a successful partnership with one of the big independent names in F1 because it wanted more control over its investment. And, like Mercedes, when BMW split with Williams its new plan was to buy control of a smaller privateer team run by a respected pitlane figure.

Employees at Brackley, who still bear the scars of Honda’s withdrawal, will be hoping that Mercedes prove more committed to them than BMW did to Peter Sauber’s workers at Hinwill.

And McLaren fans and even employees may have one eye on Williams and the fate that befell that championship-winning side after its partnership with BMW was terminated. The team undoubtedly sees itself as a member of F1’s elite top table, and works constantly to return to the front of the grid, but has not yet made up the lost ground.

Some of the most interesting developments in this saga, at least when it comes to the future, seem to involve McLaren and its plans for the next few years.

According to its press statement released today, it comes out of the deal able to buy back the 40 per cent of the team owned by Mercedes’ parent company and with an engine deal for at least the next six years.

Ron Dennis has a strategy for McLaren that might not have room for Mercedes

But the economic red meat of the story is in this sentence: “McLaren Automotive has been spun out of the McLaren Group and from 2011 will begin to manufacture its own range of high-performance production sports cars, targeted to penetrate a series of meticulously-selected premium automotive market segments.”

Those segments are the ones currently filled with Mercedes SLKs and coupés. And it looks very much as if, in order to keep even this level of connection between the two companies, McLaren has been required to put clear blue water between its car production division and its racing team.

Let’s give McLaren Automotive chairman and race team architect Ron Dennis the final word. Here’s what he had to say about the development. This being Ron, it’s not a particularly brief or pithy quote, but do read it through to the end, it will prove worthwhile:

“The next few years will be a very exciting time for McLaren, during which period we intend to become an ever-stronger technological and economic force.

“Formula 1 will always be a core activity, for sound business reasons as well as for historical sporting reasons: to be clear, our Formula 1 business has traditionally enjoyed great financial security, largely as a consequence of the longevity of our contracts with our partners, many of which have exceeded 15 years of continuous involvement with McLaren. Indeed, two of our partners have been with us for more than 25 years.

“We’re risk-averse by design. Over the past two years we’ve analysed in great detail the challenge of entering the high-performance production sports car market. In the MP4-12C, which will be introduced to market in 2011, we have a car that has inherited the genes of the iconic McLaren F1 of 1994 and has already been the subject of much global media acclaim. It is proposed that it will be produced in a new state-of-the-art production facility adjacent to the existing award-winning McLaren Technology Centre at Woking.”

In April this year, when Dennis handed over the team principal’s role to Martin Whitmarsh, we wrote of the development under the headline McLaren diversifies away from F1.

It still looks to us as if this is exactly what McLaren is doing – realising Dennis’ long-held ambition of turning his outfit into the British Ferrari. Because, as the proverb goes, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.

And that’s a saying that applies even more strongly to the brutally unsentimental way in which Brawn GP – for all its 2009 success and committed fanbase – has been dispatched to the pages of F1 history after just one glorious season.

Mercedes Benz have today bought a 75% stake in the Brawn GP team.

On the official Brawn GP website they explained the details of the transaction:

Daimler AG together with Aabar Investments PJSC will take over 75.1 per cent of the Brawn GP team, with Daimler taking 45.1 per cent and Aabar 30 per cent. The rest of the 24.9 per cent will remain with the current stakeholders. With 9.1 per cent, Aabar is the biggest single shareholder of Daimler AG. This transaction is subject to the approval of the EU and the Swiss cartel authorities.

Despite head of Mercedes motorsport and the McLaren team boss saying a while ago that McLaren and Mercedes were to remain partners in the sport for the forseeable future, it seems that this move from Mercedes will change the Mercedes and McLaren partnership quite significantly, with the McLaren group planning to buy back the 40% the Daimler group currently hold by 2011, although Mercedes could well supply engines to McLaren up to 2015.

Dr. Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars said on the matter:

“I want to thank McLaren for a successful collaboration over the last decade and a half. For the benefit of both Mercedes and McLaren, we will continue our partnership cooperation in future. We will be rivals on-track but, off-track, we will cooperate with McLaren and the other teams in order to create the best possible product for spectators worldwide.”

And Norbert Haug head of Mercedes motorsport said:

“We look back on 15 successful years of great collaboration with McLaren; in that time, we won four world-championship titles and finished ten times as runner-up in the drivers’ and constructors’ rankings. Since the first victory in the 1997 Australian Grand Prix, the modern Silver Arrows have achieved a total of 60 victories in 223 races to ensure that our brand symbol, the star, stands for the greatest successes in Formula 1. We thank our partner and will continue to work with McLaren based on an excellent partnership.”

It is our target to develop a model for our Formula 1 activities which will initially be run with significantly reduced budgets by Mercedes-Benz and which, in the foreseeable future, will be self-financing. Furthermore, we naturally want to inspire our faithful spectators and TV viewers worldwide and maximize media coverage for our brand. With Formula 1, Mercedes-Benz can continue to clearly demonstrate its willingness to compete and win on the most important motor sports competition stage in the world.”

Boss of Brawn GP Ross Brawn said:

“Both I and my fellow Directors at Brawn GP are incredibly proud of our staff, drivers and everyone associated with our team and thank them for their commitment, outstanding teamwork and their focus on achieving results in sometimes difficult circumstances. The senior management group will remain in place to lead our team and on behalf of everyone at Brawn GP, we are honoured to be representing such a prestigious brand as Mercedes-Benz in Formula One next year and will be working together to do our best to reward their faith in our team.”

How will this change the drivers market?

Many are speculating that Mercedes will want two German drivers on their team, meaning Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld are likely candidates for the drive with the new team.

This would likely mean that Heikki Kovalainen will leave McLaren, paving the way for Jenson Button to make up an all British, all world championship winning team.

Kimi Raikkonen has previously said that his only option to stay in F1 is with McLaren, but if they opt to go with Button, it will leave Raikkonen without a team, so we could quite possibly see the 2007 world champion without a drive in 2010.

Yes, it seems the rumours were true, Mercedes-Benz has indeed bought the double-championship winning Brawn team and it’s aiming to return to Formula 1 as a manufacturer since 1955. The German giant has bought about 75% of the English team and they say that Ross Brawn will remain team principal. They will also continue their deal with McLaren as they must supply engines for free for another 6 years to them.

Over the next two-year period McLaren will buy back actions worth 40% back from Mercedes. The new Mercedes-Benz GP team will be also based in the current Brawn GP factory in Brackley. The thing is, I just don’t understand what Mercedes is trying to play here. They will return to F1 by buying a team that has won a few weeks ago both world championships.

You might think: ok, that’s very intelligent then, they chose a winning team so it’s very good. You see, in F1, development takes time, so in general, the team which has the most time, experience and money turns up with the best car for the next year. Now Brawn have been fighting for the championship until the penultimate race so they kept their eyes focused on the 2009 car while others like Ferrari for instance had already began their development on their 2010 car.

The driver lineup will also be a problem. Rumours say that there will be an all-British layout at McLaren : Button and Hamilton, and an all-German layout at Mercedes: Heidfeld and Rosberg. Imagine that: the Germans will be laying the red carpet for each other in the ultimate fair-play team game begging each other to overtake while the Brits will be having a massive fight for who should be nr 1 .