Ferrari confirms Alonso will replace Kimi

RichardsF1    Driver Market, F1 News     Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen

Ferrari has finally what we already knew by announcing it has secured Fernando Alonso on a three-year deal from next season.

The 2005 and 2006 world champion will replace Kimi Raikkonen after Ferrari agreed to terminate its agreement with the Finn one year early by mutual consent.

Alonso will team up with Felipe Massa in a strong-looking line-up in 2010, with the Brazilian expected to return from injury well before the season opener in Bahrain next March.

Alonso’s imminent switch to Ferrari will bring to an end his second spell with Renault, with the Spaniard having rejoined the team he won his two world titles with at the start of last season after an unhappy single year at McLaren.

However, the 28-year-old’s second period at Enstone has failed to hit the heights of the first, with the team’s difficult 2009 season compounded in recent weeks by the turmoil of the race-fixing scandal – a controversy which resulted in team principal Flavio Briatore and engineering chief Pat Symonds being sacked resigning from the team.

The announcement of Alonso’s Ferrari deal should now kick-start the rest of the 2010 driver market, with the grid having waited for the Maranello outfit to confirm its moves before deciding on their respective line-ups.

Raikkonen’s early release from his Ferrari contract appears likely to pave the way for a surprise return to McLaren alongside Lewis Hamilton, the Finn having left the Woking-based squad at the end of 2006 to join its arch rival.

Meanwhile, current BMW star Robert Kubica has been strongly tipped to replace Alonso at Renault, while Nico Rosberg is expected to make the off-season’s other big move and join championship-leader Brawn GP.

Five-year Alonso deal to be announced on Thursday

RichardsF1    Driver Market, F1 News     Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, Renault

The confirmation everyone has grown sick of waiting for will take place on Thursday, with Fernando Alonso speculated to move to Ferrari, the Spanish media reports. 

Alonso is expected to line up next to Felipe Massa, with Kimi Räikkönen tipped for a McLaren return alongside current Champion Lewis Hamilton.

Alonso’s anticipated contract with Ferrari is believed to take him to the end of the 2014 season, with 2015 remaining an option. With the predicted €125M (£115M) deal over five season believed by many F1 insiders to have been in place for some time already, 28-year-old Alonso is expected to remain in a Ferrari until the end of his career.

Hurry up and announce it!!!

Toyota to release Timo Glock

RichardsF1    Driver Market, F1 News     Sebastian Vettel, Timo Glock, Toyota

"The door is not closed," he added, also insisting that the news has nothing to do with the team’s future.

With Jarno Trulli’s future also in the air, the news could be seen as yet more evidence that Toyota intends to wind down its involvement in F1 at the end of the year, spanning 8 years without a single race win.

Glock also confirmed the news about his expiring option. "Now I have to look around," he said. "I have several possibilities and I am very confident. Let’s see what happens this week."

Sebastian Vettel said he was shocked to hear that Toyota was not automatically renewing Glock’s deal, but surmised that his Singapore podium had been "the right answer" to give.

Well put, Sebastian!

Villeneuve still hoping for F1 return

RichardsF1    Driver Market, F1 News     Jacques Villeneuve

1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve this weekend made yet another visit to a Formula One paddock, and he told the French daily Le Parisien that he is "reasonably optimistic" that he will return to the series next season.

Now 38, the French Canadian left the sport in 2006, following a disappointing run with the BMW/Sauber, Renault, BAR and Williams teams dating back to his season as reigning champion in 1998.

Villeneuve is now pushing for one of the potentially 28 seats in next year’s championship, and admitted he hopes to know if he has been successful "before Christmas".

"F1 is like a love affair; something always interests you more when it is taken away."
Villeneuve said his goal is to "be competitive" and a "hero" to his children, "just as my father was to me".

He insisted that his objective for the Singapore weekend was not to have "negotiations" but rather to socialise with the important figures of the F1 world.
"I am not yet at the point of negotiations, but there is some interest," Villeneuve added.

He believes he would fit in well with the new trend of the F1 regulations, with slick tyres, reducing budgets and the ban on refuelling.

"With the new rules, the work will resemble much more what was going on in the 90s," said Villeneuve. "The work with your engineers will be more important for developing the car. I always used less fuel and tyres than my team-mates. It is an era that would suit me."

He said he is hoping to be able to finalise his plans by Christmas. "I do not want to wait a long time, because I am also working on opportunities in the United States. A time will come when I will probably have to make a choice.

"You can’t sign a contract a week before the first grand prix. It is necessary to prepare," he explained.

Just who would be prepared to take the punt on Jacques???

Fisichella’s points drought continues

RichardsF1    F1 News     Ferrari, Giancarlo Fisichella

Ferrari’s zero-point haul at the Singapore Grand Prix has allowed McLaren to move to within just three points of third overall in the Constructors’ Championship. The race result was also again disappointing for Giancarlo Fisichella, who is yet to score for the Italian team.

A drive to an ironic 13th position placed Fisichella in an Italian sandwich between compatriots Jarno Trulli and Tonio Liuzzi although, having hoped for top eight results in his five races with the Scuderia, his two first Grands Prix have not born fruit.

"It was a very tough race, both physically and mentally," the Roman commented. "The pace was not up to Ferrari’s standard and we have to take that on-board. I was struggling to keep the car on track because of a lack of grip. At the end, on the softer tyre, the car’s handling improved and I managed to do some good lap times.
"We brought my first pit-stop forward to try and get me out of traffic, given that I was stuck behind Sutil, but then with the Safety Car the move didn’t give the result we’d hoped for."

Fisi can take some comfort from Force India’s equally poor showing this weekend.

[Image from ITV-F1]

Heidfeld slams "brainless" Sutil

RichardsF1    Catfights, F1 News     Adrian Sutil, BMW Sauber, Force India, Nick Heidfeld

Nick Heidfeld’s race was abruptly halted after Force india’s Adrian Sutil caused an avoidable accident in the Singapore Grand Prix. The BMW driver reacted angrily by dubbing his fellow German ‘completely stupid’.

The incident occurred as Sutil unsuccessfully attempted to overtake the Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso. After backing out of the passing move and spinning to avoid collecting the Spaniard, Sutil obviously didn’t look for oncoming cars as he attempted to power out of his spin and rejoin the fray, resulting in the collision that put both drivers out of the race and that ended Heidfeld’s record run of consecutive race finishes.

"I think it’s obvious, I thought he would stop – I moved to the left and he accelerated into my car," Heidfeld explained. "I still think it was completely stupid of Sutil; he kept going and went back onto the circuit without looking."

Amazingly,  Heidfeld managed to see the lighter side of the situation when contemplating the action that should be taken against Sutil: "Maybe we’ll try to find him a brain!"

Webber’s title hopes over

RichardsF1    F1 News, Results     Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing, Sebastian Vettel

Mark Webber’s spectacular exit from the Singapore Grand Prix ended the Australian’s challenge for the 2009 Drivers’ Championship. After his front brakes gave way, second overall in the standings is now the best the Red Bull man can achieve.

Having taken his maiden race victory at the Nürburgring this year, Mark Webber enjoyed being the nearest challenger to championship leader Jenson Button after the Hungarian Grand Prix but will now have to play No.2 driver to team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who can still mathematically clinch the title with three races to run.

"The lads were about to retire me when the brakes went, which was very disappointing," Mark explained to the BBC, before talking of an overtake from earlier in the race. "I can’t understand the decision to let Alonso back through – Kimi [Räikkönen] did something very similar at Spa and he received no warning."

Nonetheless, this has been an excellent season for the Aussie.

Grosjean’s "worst weekend ever"

RichardsF1    F1 News, Results     Renault, Romain Grosjean

Renault’s second car failed to finish the Singapore Grand Prix again this year. Frenchman Romain Grosjean did, however, manage to keep his car out of the wall at ‘Piquet corner’ (Turn 17), unlike on Friday.

Brake temperatures reportedly soared and forced the Frenchman to retire on Lap 3 of the race, and the young Frenchman didn’t hold back in explaining his personal disappointment with the weekend. "This is the worst weekend I’ve ever had," he told the crowd of reporters.

The team, now managed by Bob Bell, has struggled with high brake temperatures all weekend and do not appear to have mastered the problem, according to Grosjean. "I lost the brakes and the team just can’t understand it," he added.

Hamilton takes victory in Singapore

RichardsF1    F1 News, Results     Race Summary

Lewis Hamilton recovered from his last-lap crash at Monza two weeks ago with a faultless driver under the lights in the Singapore Grand Prix that secured his and McLaren’s second win of the season. It was also his 11th race victory.

Jenson Button moved a few steps closer to realising his world title ambitions, overcoming a disastrous qualifying session to beat his Brawn GP team-mate (and title rival) Rubens Barrichello to fifth place and thereby extending his championship lead by one point.

Hamilton led for almost the entire 61-lap race distance, and his path to victory was eased by pit lane indiscretions by Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel that earned each a drive-through penalty.

Timo Glock impressively took full advantage of others’ misfortunes to move up to second place and claim Toyota’s first podium since the Bahrain Grand Prix in April, equalling his career-best Formula 1 result in the process.

And following a hugely turbulent fortnight in which its whole Formula 1 future was on the line and the race-fixing scandal led to the departure of two the team’s senior figures, Renault finally made news for the right reasons as Fernando Alonso harried the R29 to the podium for the first time this season.

Vettel salvaged fourth to keep his personal title ambitions mathematically alive, but it was another race weekend where he threw costly points away and this has well and truly scuppered his title ambitions for this year.

Button’s fifth placing creates a near insurmountable 25-point gap to the Briton with just 30 left up for grabs.

Barrichello, who also lost time during a slightly slow second stop that allows Button to leapfrog him, had to settle for sixth, while Kovalainen increased his points-scoring streak to six races in seventh.

Hamilton made a perfect start from pole, but fellow front-row starter Vettel was slower away on the dustier side of the grid, which allowed to snatch second place into the first complex of corners.

Fernando Alonso also beat Mark Webber off the line and tried to go the long way around Vettel, but succeeded only in losing momentum onto the back straight.

Webber and Glock both pounced, but Webber would later be ordered to cede both positions for taking to the Tarmac apron on the outside of turn seven to pass Alonso, relegating the Australian to sixth as he would have to let Glock (who had also passed Alonso) past as well.

Leader Hamilton quickly established a small cushion before Rosberg began to stabilise the gap at around the two-second mark. Vettel had a similar margin behind in third and Glock and Alonso losing touch in fourth and fifth respectively.

Hamilton had a minor scare when the team radioed him to say that his KERS was malfunctioning, but the tecchies in the McLaren garage fiddled with a few settings and soon cured the issue.

The first major development at the front came at the first round of pit stops, when Rosberg was a little too eager on the pit lane exit and out-braked himself, hopping over the kerbs and onto the circuit before the white ‘blend-line’ had finished.

He tried to make amends by ducking back inside the line, but the stewards applied the letter of the law and promptly issued a drive-through penalty, putting an end to a great showing for the German where a podium finish (at least) had looked highly likely.

Before Rosberg could service his penalty, however, the safety car was deployed following a collision between Adrian Sutil and Nick Heidfeld.

Sutil had spent several laps fruitlessly looking for a way past an oversteering Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso before finally losing patience and making a half-hearted lunge into turn five.

He bailed out of it and threw the Force India into a spin to avoid hitting Alguersuari, but then lit up the rear tyres to spin the car through 360 degrees – and collected an unsuspecting Heidfeld on the apex of the corner. Heidfeld’s rear suspension was broken on the spot, ending the German’s record run of 42 consecutive race finishes after a troubled race where he was forced to start from the pitlane for being underweight during qualifying.

It was a clumsy driving error from Sutil, who was fined US $20,000 and reprimanded by the stewards after the race.

Hamilton, Alonso and Barrichello all scrambled into the pits before the field queued up behind the safety car, but the full-course yellow was an unwelcome interruption for Button, who had been hoping to use a long first stint to leapfrog some of the cars in front of him but now he had to pit in sequence with the leaders.

It was even worse news for Rosberg, who would fall to the back of the field as the cars backed up behind the pace car.

At the restart on lap 25 Hamilton led from Rosberg, Vettel, Glock, Alonso and Barrichello, with Button running eighth behind Heikki Kovalainen.

Rosberg served his drive-through penalty two laps later and plummeted to 14th, giving Vettel a clear shot at Hamilton.

The Red Bull had taken on less fuel than the McLaren and Vettel seized his chance to latch onto Hamilton’s tail, harrying him all the way until his second pit stop on lap 39.

Then, in his haste to lose as little ground as possible, Vettel – like Rosberg earlier – made a costly blunder, exceeding the pit lane speed limit and incurring a drive-through penalty.

He added to his woes by crawling over a high kerb and damaging his car’s diffuser, robbing it of vital downforce and giving him a handful in the cockpit for the remainder of the race.

As Hamilton continued his serene progress to victory, Vettel’s penalty promoted Glock and Alonso to second and third respectively.

Alonso enjoyed a brief spell in the lead courtesy of a long middle stint, but the extra low-fuel laps were not enough to overhaul Glock and Timo comfortably kept the Renault at bay to take second on a weekend that had initially looked inauspicious for Toyota.

The main excitement in the closing stages of what had been a quite processional race involved the Brawn team-mates and championship rivals.

The turning point came when a brake failure sent Mark Webber spinning into the barriers at turn one with 15 laps remaining.

Expecting another safety car interruption to clear the wrecked Red Bull Renault, most of those yet to make their second stops dived into the pits – including Barrichello and Heikki Kovalainen, who had been lying fifth and sixth ahead of seventh-placed Button.

The marshals quickly cleared Webber’s car from the scene, however, so the safety car was not required.

Button had held his nerve and now had five low-fuel laps with which to make time up on Barrichello and Kovalainen.

Having struggled for pace for most of the weekend, Button hit a purple patch just at the right moment and reeled off a succession of quick laps – faster, in fact, than anyone else on the circuit at that stage.

As a result he emerged from his final stop in fifth place, comfortably in front of Barrichello and hard on the heels of Vettel, who hadn’t suffered as badly as Rosberg from his penalty since there had been no safety car to compress the field.

Button briefly entertained thoughts of challenging Vettel, but soon had to back off to nurse drastically fading brakes, an affliction that had already claimed not only Webber but also Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso.

Barrichello began to close on his team-mate but he too was in trouble with brake wear and ran out of laps to mount a challenge.

Kovalainen finished an anonymous seventh in a race that his team-mate had won so convincingly, although that did extend his points-scoring streak to six races.

Robert Kubica lost ground as the safety car phase clashed with his planned first stop, but nevertheless took the final point following a positive debut weekend for BMW’s heavily upgraded F1.09.

Singapore GP Race: Final Classification

RichardsF1    F1 News, Results