BMW pulled out a while ago. They got bought but BMW didn't sign the Concorde agreement, which means they are first reserve team. With Toyota pulling out, they should be back in.

Renault might pull out but I think they have one too many commitments. Stranger things have happened though.

And Toyota quit F1. The team didn't really achieve anything of note but what is concerning is the lack of engine manufacturers now. It is just Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Cosworth supplying 13 teams.

He used to be my hero but I've gone right off him after that.Its good job they don't have a naughty chair in F1 as I for one would like to see that scallywag made to sit on it.

Oh yeah,did watch the race,my god was it boring (even by recent F1 standards).Button being caught saying a naughty word was just about the most interesting thing that happened in it (and even that wasn't very interesting TBH).

Jenson showed everyone how he could race yesterday and pulled some craft old moves there, a worthy World Champion!

Great to see everyone at Brawn celebrating too.  They all deserve the win.

Grandprix wrote:
> Well done to Dario Franchitti on winning the Indycar
> Championship.
>
> Crazy race that with no yellow flags and Franchitti driving a
> fuel strategy race while Briscoe and Dixon ran flat out and
> needed a splash of fuel to go to the end. Franchitti just drove
> straight past them while they were coming out of the pits.

Must admit to not following indycar but it looks exciting and keep meaning to watch some,

Well done to Dario Franchitti on winning the Indycar Championship.

Crazy race that with no yellow flags and Franchitti driving a fuel strategy race while Briscoe and Dixon ran flat out and needed a splash of fuel to go to the end. Franchitti just drove straight past them while they were coming out of the pits.

As with last season, it looks like 2009's F1 is coming down to the wire, or at least the penultimate race.

Unless he's really lucky, I don't think Button will gain the championship in the next race, possibly at the end of the season instead. 

However, he's still got two other drivers to contend with now and Sunday's race made sure we'll have a 3 horse race again, keeping them all on their toes.

It's not just about the winner either.  McLaren want to prove they've got something for next year so Hamilton will be out to get as many points as possible, Alonso sounds like he's assured of the driver's seat at Ferrari now but he'll want to impress his new bosses before he starts and Raikkonen has everything to prove to leverage the best contract wherever he goes next year (most likely McLaren)

No one was catching Hamilton today. Had the race under control from the start. A costly couple of mistakes from Vettel and he is pretty much out of the title picture now. Webber now cannot win the title.

Brawn are pretty much nailed on for the Constructors Championship. Button just needs to keep Barrichello in sight or behind and it'll be the title for him. I don't see Button beating Barrichello in Brazil so Japan is going to be key for Button.

Looking forward to seeing Suzuka again. Really like the track.

pb wrote:
> Despite being cleared, I wonder if this will have any affect on
> Ferrari's decision to take Alonso next year.  They already have
> about 100 driver choices lined up it seems!

Can't see any of this affecting any dealings between Ferrari & Alonso, i guess bein cleared means he had no involvement, so holding any of this against him would be unfair. He may of been involved in past illegal events but this time i think he's just been caught in the middle of others.

its most likely that the deal was sorted last year and Ferrari are keeping quiet to avoid going through the same sort of press release-farce like when they signed Schumacher back in 95.

Ferrari's problem is Raikkonen taking every oppotunity to say that he will honour his contract to the end of 2010 and is not willing walk out, which means, ferrari will have to pay his contract in full for 2010, rumoured to be around 28million euros. So dont be suprised if Alonso's 2yr + optional 3yr contract is put back til 2011.

Despite being cleared, I wonder if this will have any affect on Ferrari's decision to take Alonso next year.  They already have about 100 driver choices lined up it seems!

I'm not really surprised about Briatore as he has previous when it comes to cheating, especially around the Schumacher/Benetton days.

Wow!

Flavio Briatore and director of engineering Pat Symonds have both quit, saying they're not going to contest the FIA's charges of race fixing.

Not sure what happened for them to suddenly hold their hands up but it's big news.  Not sure what other sanctions the FIA may give Renault.

As far as I know, the Mercedes buying Brawn shares hasn't happened yet but it seems likely. As for the Red Bull team going for Mercedes, again, just rumours as of now but it seems like Mercedes is the engine to have at the moment.

pb wrote:
> I don't really believe that they would do that though, it seems
> pretty drastic.


Just out of interest, why not?

I reckon it went something like this:

There was a clause in Alonso's contract stating that if he didn't get a race win, or didn't have a certain number of points by the end of the season saying he was free to go to another team.

He looked quick at Singapore from free practice, but something went wrong in quali - can't remember what - and he was out in Q2.

Renault thought this would be there best chance of giving him a win, making him stay with them into 2009.

Piquet had been quite handy at crashing so far in the season, so they put Alonson on a really weird fual strategy than banked on getting a safety car - fairly likely on a street track.

Lo and behold...

I'm not saying they did do it. But in a sport where you invest millions of $$$$ I really wouldn't be suprised if one team or another employed some underhand tactics to ensure they get what they want.

Scuey 'crashing' in quali in Monaco in '06. Alonso holidng up Hamilton in quali in Hungary in '07. McLaren lying to the stewards in Oz this year. It does happen...

Looks like Fisichella has called time on his racing career after this season as he is taking the reserve driver role at Ferrari in 2010.

This Renault race fixing investigation is intriguing.

Fisichella joins Ferrari for the rest of the season. Not really a surprise although it looks a very short sighted move and I don't see many seats available to him for next season.

Numnut wrote:
I'm with you on the Lorenzo thing, I don't see the point - the
Ducati is one big risk. I thought Nicky Hayden was going to be
more up there this year as he is a talented rider and he is
having similar troubles to melandri.

I agree mate,fear this may be Hayden's last year with a top team and that's a real shame.People soon forget when a rider has a spell in the wilderness.That's team bosses,fans and sponsors,at this level your only as good as your last result.I like and rate Hayden too but think like Melandri,Gibernau & Checa before him he deeply regrets getting on the big red monster !.

Numnut wrote:
Maybe Yamaha should just chuck out Lorenzo for being awkward,
get Edwards in instead then Spies can have his slot in Tech3.  At least that way Edwards may get his first GP victory - which I think is well overdue!

Yeah,Edwards is ace,Donington this year was a reminder of just how good he can be.Remember his battles with Bayliss in WSBK ?,those guys were in a league of their own but not just that they truly respected each other off track as well.That doesn't seem to happen so much these days.Lorenzo can act like a bit of kid at times but at least he has a personality which many of todays sportsmen lack IMO.At first I thought he was cocky a*****e who was totally full of himself,but over the past year I have quite warmed to him.He always gives it 110% and is not afraid to speak his mind,I respect that.

Numnut wrote:
Don't know where that would leave Toseland though........I think
if he has a future in GP it is not on a Yamaha he just doesn't
seem to get on with it. I'm sensing a return to WSB!

Yeah,reckon you are right.In Toselands defence you do not win 2 WSBK championships with 2 different manufacturers by accident.Last year was promising but this year has been one huge disappointment.If he doesn't start banging in some big results soon I reckon he is on his way back to WSBK.Hope I'm wrong though.

Numnut wrote:
And going even more off topic ....Leon Camier is blitzing the
BSB championship......I wont be surprised to see him in WSB next year.

Camier has been great this year as in his defence he was still far from recovered from his huge Cadwell Park accident last year.I reckon thats why Shakey totally blew him away.Reckon it would have been much closer if they raced together now.

Numnut wrote:
All these brits doing well in different classes of bike racing -
Haslam, Byrne, Rea, then Crutchlow and even Bradley smith and Scott Redding  in the 125s - I'm surprised it doesn't get more  attention.

Couldn't agree more mate.We have a lot of guys to be proud of racing in all catergories.Tom Sykes is good as well IMO.

Numnut wrote:
Incidently, are you Eurosport or BBC?

BBC as I can't afford SKY at the moment :(

Have to say,this is ace having another bike racing fan on here !.May have to start our own thread instead of gatecrashing other peoples though ! :)

Personally I think Lorenzo will regret it if he leaves Yamaha especially if he goes to Ducati.Look at Melandri,he was great rider on a Honda,beat Rossi a few times with some truly fantastic rides.Went to Ducati and just looked like an accident waiting to happen from the minute he got on the thing.Not just that he looked like a beaten man by the end of the season,his confidence was shattered.This year on a half baked piece of crap privateer Kawasaki he has looked like the old Melandri again and I fear Lorenzo moving to Ducati would suffer a similar fate.I really like the guy,I think he has one huge pair of nuts and tremendous fighting spirit but when under pressure he has continuously crashed the best handling bike in the field.I can understand his frustration to a degree as he obviously feels he is the unofficial number 2 rider in a team built around Rossi.My opinion is that he is a hugely talented rider who has improved greatly from his very impressive debut season.I feel he has a hell of a lot to gain by staying on at Yamaha.I know Stoner can ride the Ducati and its truly bizarre that everyone else who has tried to tame it has failed.Lorenzo for sure will have the confidence (and ego !) to think he can ride it but I think he may have slightly underestimated how much he has benefited from having a Jeremy Burgess built/Rossi developed bike underneath him.Next year I would love to see Ben Spies in the series (who his an amazing rider IMO) and our very own Cal Crutchlow in the new Moto2 category.

Grandprix wrote:

Well, Badoer was hopelessly hopeless. I thought he might do better than he did but he turned out poor.

Felt a bit sorry for him TBH.He just looked well out of his depth.Must have been embarrassing for both him and the team.Be surprised if they run him at Spa.

Anyone catch the MotoGP last weekend ?.That was a mighty race,been much more exciting than the F1 this year IMO.

Right:

Renault are back (which makes many think it was a decision made to keep the crowds coming due to Alonso).


Ferrari still haven't ruled Schumacher out of driving 100% yet (keeping their hopes up!) and there is even a rumour of a petition to get a third car for him to race next year (yeah, right!)