2010 Formula 1 Season - Official Discussion Thread

[iceman1]

Yuji Ide was seen at the McLaren factory with his manager. Ide 2nd driver?

No, He wants to drive for Ferrari in 2011

[Tom Vandenhove]

Yuji Ide was seen at the McLaren factory with his manager. Ide 2nd driver?

He's probably their crash-test driver

[sdutt]

I was seen at the McLaren factory yesterday...

mclaren make phil and ide work on their simulator and Phil is 2s faster

[f1anatic]

Jenson Button's bid to stay at Brawn is being torpedoed by Mercedes' plans to turn the Brackley operation into Team Germany.

Formula 1 world champion Button has been made a final £3.5million take-it-or-leave-it deal by Brawn GP, according to sources at the team.

That is nearly £5m less than the 29-year-old wants for bringing in the sport's ultimate silverware. Mercedes is only days from announcing a buyout of Brawn which will give it a controlling interest in the team.

The German car giant is desperate to conjure a home marketing coup by powering a German to victory for the first time in the modern era.

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A deal has already been struck to lure Nico Rosberg from Williams to Brawn on a contract that does not allow any other driver a superior salary. After 15 years at McLaren and failing to land various German stars --including Michael Schumacher - and then missing out on putting its power plant behind Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull, Mercedes has thrown its weight behind Rosberg.

Mercedes is just days away from announcing a £500m split with McLaren.

But it is refusing to bankroll a fair salary for Button, the newly-crowned world champion. While it was willing to stretch to £30m to lure Schumacher from Ferrari, Mercedes is refusing to pay a quarter of that to keep Button at Brackley.

And that looks certain to push Button into the arms of McLaren and a partnership with Lewis Hamilton.

Button was highly impressed with the team after visiting McLaren's hi-tech facility at Woking on Friday.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/motorspor ... -21822597/

[phil1993]

It would be a little funny if neither Mercedes nor McLaren wanted Button...

Driver line ups: Bear with me on the numbers, it does make sense

Mercedes
1. Jenson Button/3. Nico Rosberg
2. Nico Rosberg/4. Nick Heidfeld

Red Bull Racing
3/5 Sebastian Vettel
4/6 Mark Webber

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
1 Jenson Button/5 Lewis Hamilton
2 Lewis Hamilton/6 Kimi Raikkonen/Nick Heidfeld

Ferrari
7 Felipe Massa
8 Fernando Alonso

Williams
9 Rubens Barrichello
10 Nico Hulkenberg

Renault
11 Robert Kubica
12 Timo Glock/Heikki Kovalainen/Romain Grosjean

Force India
14 Adrian Sutil
15 Vitantonio Liuzzi/Karun Chandhok

Scuderia Toro Rosso
16 Sebastien Buemi
17 Jaime Alguersuari/Brendon Hartley

USF1
18
19

Campos
20 Bruno Senna
21 Pedro de La Rosa/Vitaly Petrov/Pastor Maldonado

Manor
22 Heikki Kovalainen/Adam Carroll/Paul di Resta
23 Anthony Davidson/Lucas di Grassi

Lotus
24 Jarno Trulli
25 Kamui Kobayashi/Heikki Kovalainen

Sauber Ferrari*
26 Giancarlo Fisichella
27 Christian Klien

Numbers sorted by finishing order in 2009 or by champion status. New teams sorted by order of received application. *Sauber will use the last gridslots if they are accepted as the 13th team.

[Tom Vandenhove]

Montagny raising hopes for Renault seat

Spoiler:

16 November 2009

Franck Montagny believes that he could find his way back into the Renault team, possibly as team-mate to Robert Kubica, at the refreshed outfit ahead of next season. The Frenchman tested for the Enstone squad between 2003 and 2005 and is now yet to race in F1 since doing so for a limited period of time in 2006.

After his testing stint with Renault, Montagny's F1 race debut came with Super Aguri at the 2006 European Grand Prix, competing in a further six races before testing with Toyota for the next two seasons. With former Renault Managing Director Flavio Briatore now having left, however, Franck feels his chances of rejoining the squad are higher.

"There is a real possibility and we have discussed it a lot of times," the 31-year-old, who hails from Feurs, explained to Radio Canada. "I do not particularly expect to find myself on the list. I have been concentrating on my (Le Mans) prototype program, not specifically about F1 because I wasn't there anymore, but surprises like that can happen.

"I suppose I was not on very good terms with Flavio but this is a team with which I worked, I helped change and won a World Championship with so, for me, it would be sad to see the team disappear." Franck's final comments refer to the fact that Renault staged an emergency meeting in Paris regarding its own F1 future following the sudden exit of Toyota just under two weeks ago.

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http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2009/11/16/montagny-raising-hopes-for-renault-seat/

... Oh dear

[phil1993]

The problem Button will have if he goes to McLaren is that Macca tend to develop an oversteery car as this suits Hamilton's driving style and its how their cars have been over the years. Button has a smooth style that requires an understeery car and this means he will have to adapt a hell of a lot - he would have the advantage at some tracks such as Istanbul where Hamilton's style tends to wreck the tyres whilst Button's style perfectly suits Istanbul; but on the whole Hamilton would outclass Button, partly due to this trait of the car

[macssafc]

ive got a feeling now that with Mercedes stepping into the Brawn team, Jenson might now join Mclaren and Kimi going to Brawn. the wage structure would be better for Kimi's high demands even though as stated in the press mercedes are after an all german team (not sure if thats true). If Jenson is only looking for 8 million pounds then that would be attractive to mclaren, yes it would be attractive to mercedes also but i think they would prefer kimi to jenson.

[iceman1]

The Guardian are saying that Button has signed a 3 year deal with Mclaren

Full Story

[swca92]

The Guardian is a very good source, they're very rarely wrong and the move makes sense and has been rumoured for a while now. That leaves Raikkonen and Heidfeld fot the Brawn/Mercedes seat...

[cformula1]

Motorsport Total are reporting that Timo Glock has signed for Manor in 2010.

[JoostLamers]

Manor signs Glock for 2010

Spoiler:

Timo Glock has been confirmed as the first driver for the new Manor GP team ahead of the 2010 season. The German, who leaves the departed Toyota, had been linked with a drive at Renault or Mercedes although the latest signing places another piece of the driver jigsaw into position.

With Toyota having announced its exit from Formula One just days after the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi, Glock's confirmation at Manor has not arrived with predicted news of a Virgin sponsorship deal for the outfit; the German's confirmation also means, therefore, that the Renault seat alongside Robert Kubica is still vacant.

"I had several options for 2010, some of them with more established teams," Timo explained on Tuesday. "Every driver has the same overall objective - to win the World Championship one day - but the way I want to succeed is to be part of the process of building a team and to play a key role in developing the car.

"This is why the opportunity with Manor Grand Prix is so exciting for me. I have spent a lot of time with Nick Wirth (Technical Director), John Booth (Team Principal) and other members of the team and what I liked most is that this a real racing team run by true racers - the team may be small and new but it has big ambitions and a very impressive car and development programme.

"I am confident that I can play a big role in terms of my technical input and that's a fantastic opportunity for me. I can't wait to start testing the new car early next year."

"I'm absolutely delighted that Timo has chosen to drive for our team," Technical Director Wirth added. "It has always been my recommendation that we have at least one driver with experience of the 2009 cars to help our development programme, but to get a driver that has not only achieved podium finishes in 2009 but has such proven talent and the potential to take us forward for many years is very exciting."

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http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2009/11/17/glock-signed-at-manor-for-2010/

Well done Manor!

[Coopz]

Good deal Manor good there. Tom won't be happy.

[hannibal_rising]

Button closing on McLaren switch

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80178

I really hope it is not true... Button is the worst champion I can remember and I would hate to see him in McLaren...

[Coopz]

It seems ever so likely the Button and McLaren now

Kobayashi to Renault?