Chief Aerodynamicist Iley to leave Ferrari, Maranello now shifting its focus onto 2010

Italian publication Gazetta dello Sport reported this morning that 41-year-old Englishman John Iley, who has been chief of aerodynamics at Ferrari since November 2003, is to leave the team at the end of this year when his current contract expires.

After a very difficult start to the season for the Maranello outfit, which was mainly due to the poor aerodynamic properties of the F60 (Ferrari's 2009 F1 car), Iley came to an agreement with the team at the end of last week to leave his day to day job with immediate effect. His job mainly concentrated on the likes of windtunnel development, and Gazetta dello Sport is quoted as saying that a "serious" design flaw in the aerodynamics of the F60 has been identified as the root cause of the car's lack of performance.

During the weekend of the German Grand Prix, team principal Stefano Domenicalli was quoted in several media reports as saying that Ferrari are now starting to shift its focus on to the 2010 car, because we are now half way through the 2009 season and the championship is clearly out of reach. The best place Ferrari can contend for in the Constructors' Championship this year is 3rd place. So the bosses at Maranello want the team to start early development work on the 2010 car to ensure that Ferrari can start challenging for both the Drivers' and Constructors' titles again. In light of the poor aerodynamic properties of the F60, the decision was taken not to involve Iley in the development work of the 2010 car. Instead, chief designer Nikolas Tombazis will take on greater responsibility for the aerodynamic development of the 2010 championship contender.

What remains to be seen is if Ferrari can really bounce back to its winning days next year. The legendary Italian marque is clearly going through a transition period right now following the departure of Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and of course Michael Schumacher - all within the last two or three years. So it is no doubt that the Prancing Horse will eventually go back to its glory days of dominating both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships throughout the season time after time, it is just a question of when rather than if.

The next round of the World Championship is this weekend at the Hungaroring circuit near Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Until then, drive safely!

Toro Rosso parts company with Sebastian Bourdais

Scuderia Toro Rosso, a sister team of Red Bull Racing, confirmed yesterday that they have sacked French driver Sebastian Bourdais with immediate effect. The 30-year-old debuted in Formula 1 with Toro Rosso at the beginning of the 2008 season and was overshadowed by his German team mate Sebastian Vettel. This year he has been completely outperformed by Swiss rookie Sebastian Buemi, while Vettel has moved up to Red Bull and is now contending for the Driver's title.

Toro Rosso has said that despite a promising start, the Frenchman has failed to live up to the expectations as he has scored just six points out of 27 races in his career so far. Before coming to Formula 1, Bourdais dominated in the United States by winning four successive Champ Car titles between 2004 and 2007. But that probably shows the difference in an ordinary open wheeled car racing, such as Champ Car, and the pinnacle of world motorsport that is Formula 1.

Although not officially confirmed yet, it is widely expected that the current Red Bull reserve driver Jaime Aluersuari will be taking Bourdais's seat from the next round of the world championship, the Hungarian Grand Prix. If that does happen then the 19-year-old Spaniard, who is the current British Formula 3 champion, will become the youngest ever Formula 1 driver. The current GP2 championship leader Romain Grosjean is then expected to become Red Bull's reserve driver.

Sebastian Bourdais has however threatened legal actions against the Toro Rosso team. He said that he was unfairly sacked, and that also happened just before Toro Rosso is scheduled to introduce a whole host of upgrades for the next race in Hungary. Bourdais said that if he was given a chance to drive with that upgraded package on the car, he could have provided a more satisfactory result. So he has asked his lawyers to look at all the contractual arrangements to review the possibility of issuing legal proceedings.

In my opinion though, his time in Formula 1 is over. He may not have had the chance to drive a competitive car, but in his one and a half seasons in Formula 1, he almost always got outperformed by his rookie team mates. He never could prove his talent with what he was given, and if he cannot show it after 27 races, he probably never had that talent. That is exactly why I always say that Formula 1 is not just another open wheeled racing series, it is the pinnacle of world motorsport. So only the best drivers in the world can truly master those enormously powerful beasts that are Formula 1 cars.

Until next time, drive safely everyone!

Max Mosley reaffirms his decision to stand down in October, backs Jean Todt as FIA presidential candidate

The president of the FIA, Max Mosley, has confirmed that he intends to stick with his plans of not seeking re-election for a fifth term in October this year, when his current term ends. In a letter written to all the FIA member clubs on Wednesday, the 69-year-old said that despite pressure from several members to run for re-election he has decided to step down after 16 years at the helm of world motorsport's governing body. He said that he now plans to spend more time rearranging his family life, after his son died earlier in the year due to a drug overdose.

Mr. Mosley has chosen to back the former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt as his successor. Even after standing down as FIA president, Max Mosley will still remain a member of the FIA Senate as all other former presidents. Although the new FIA president will be voted in by the FIA member clubs, as the outgoing president, Max Mosley has the power of making a recommendation as to who he thinks will be his best successor. Although former world rally champion Ari Vatanen has confirmed his decision to stand as an FIA presidential candidate in October's election, if Jean Todt were to stand as a candidate as well he would have a much stronger chance of winning with the current president's backing. The important thing is though, all around the paddock, Vatanen is clearly the more popular choice among the teams as they do not want someone with a former connection to a team to take over from Mosley.

Behind the scenes, Max Mosley suddenly going all soft and back-tracking on his comments of seeking re-election in October has a much deeper story. Some of the news media are reporting that Formula One's commercial rights holders, CVC Capital Partners and Bernie Ecclestone, were furious with all the debacle that was going on between the teams and the FIA. When an agreement was reached in Paris on the 24th of June, one of the deals of that agreement was that Mosley will not stand for re-election in October. However, after a couple of days, Mosley came out saying that he is now reconsidering that decision since he is angry with the way that FOTA outlayed the terms of the agreement to the media, and the fact that Mosley felt that the FIA's authority was being seriously challenged by FOTA. Then earlier this month, in a meeting between the FIA and all the current and new Formula 1 teams to discuss next year's regulations, the FOTA teams were told that since they were not officially part of the 2010 World Championship, they could not apply any voting rights to change the published regulations. This created another fall-out between FOTA and the FIA, bringing back the threat of a breakaway championship.

Now, simply put, what it seems like is that if FOTA were to break away from the current Formula One World Championship, they probably would not mind having Ecclestone and CVC on board with them. This is because CVC already owns the commercial rights to all the current tracks and also the television rights, thus making it easier and cheaper for the teams to launch their own championship. On CVC's part, it also makes sense for them since the massive investment they made in Formula One will still be recouped, may be just from a different named series. Also there is the fact that this potential breakaway championship would not have to be governed by the FIA, so the teams were pretty much free to do whatever they like as far as the regulations were concerned. Legally, if the teams and CVC got together and did decide to go through with this plan, the FIA could not do anything to stop them. That is what, I think, caused Max Mosley to take an about-turn on his stance he held firmly during this entire political saga. It is probably the same reason why he is now saying that he will not be standing for re-election.

For us fans though, I think it is safe to say that all this political bickering is now really over. The FIA presidential election will be a very interesting one to watch, as whoever will be taking office will be in charge of shaping up Formula One for the next several years. Before that though, we have a lot more racing to enjoy, the next one being at the Hungaroring in Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix in just over a week's time. Until next time, drive safely!

Mark Webber completes a dream weekend in Germany by securing his first ever Formula One victory

He has waited a long time for this and although many people believed that he has the necessary talents, he never quite got to drive a race winning car. This year though, his Red Bull RB5 has been a Championship contending car from the beginning of the season, which is why everyone saw it only as a matter of time until Mark Webber finally gets that coveted first F1 victory. It is something that every newcomer to Formula 1 always dream of, and something that all successful Formula 1 drivers always cherish because no victory can ever be sweeter than the first. And it finally happened for this Australian born UK resident, after a wait of 8 years and a 130 Grands Prix. Mark Webber has, finally, won a Formula One race. It is also the first time in 28 years that the Australian national anthem has sounded on an F1 podium, making this a very memorable weekend for Australian motorsport fans.

When Webber took a sensational pole position on Saturday, his job seemed to have been about half done. The remaining part of the job would be to ensure that he got a clean start off the line, maintain his lead into the first corner and then build up a gap from then on. Although the weather forecast predicted a wet race for Sunday, the weather update on Sunday morning at the Nurburgring indicated that the race will most likely be a dry one.

Off the line, Mark Webber made a decent start but alongside him, Rubens Barrichello in the BrawnGP made an even better start which was also helped by the fact that Webber was running with quite a bit of more fuel onboard, making the Red Bull heavier than the Brawn. There was a lot of action happening going down to turn 1 on the opening lap. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, starting from 5th, used his KERS power really well to overtake 3 cars straight away. Going into turn 1, Hamilton, Webber and Barrichello were three abreast and someone had to give way. Webber, being stuck in between with Barrichello on his inside and Hamilton on his outside, kind of drifted over towards the inside line before lightly hitting Hamilton's rear-right tyre. That incident punctured Hamilton's rear-right tyre but also caused irreparable damage to his car's diffuser and floor. He then made a pit stop straight way which put him all the way to the back of the field. The Briton was never able to recover from that and eventually ended up in last position, being the only car in the grid to have been lapped.

Out of turn 1 however, Barrichello took the lead with Webber close behind him. That was not necessarily bad for Webber as he was running much longer than Barrichello before his first pit stop. The two Ferraris also made an astonishing start and had already moved up several grid places. By now, Ferrari's Felipe Massa was in 3rd ahead of Button and Vettel, with Massa's team mate Raikkonen behind in 6th. Button's Brawn however, was clearly faster than the Ferrari and he soon overtook Massa. Thanks to the KERS though, Massa was able to fend off a charging Sebastian Vettel who was eager to make up some positions following a pretty ordinary qualifying for him on his home turf.

At this point, Race Control announced that the incidents involving car numbers 14 and 23 were being investigated, effectively meaning the incident between Webber and Barrichello coming into turn 1 on the opening lap. Although Webber slightly drifted off towards the inside line forcing Barrichello to weave as well, it did not look like the Australian was intending to push Barrichello off the track or anything. So it was a bit of a surprise to some people when Race Control announced that car number 14 - Mark Webber - will have a drive through penalty. A drive through penalty basically involves the car entering the pit lane at the pit lane speed limit, then driving along the pit lane without stopping for fuel or tyres and rejoining the race. In simple words, it costs quite a bit of time for the driver involved. So this was unlucky for Webber. However, his Red Bull team strategists played this brilliantly. As soon as race leader Barrichello made his first pit stop on lap 13, Webber also entered the pits with him to take the penalty. Ferrari's Felipe Massa then took the race lead at this stage, as Button who was ahead of him had already made his first pit stop and was now a few places behind Massa.

Mark Webber then made his first scheduled pit stop about 3 or 4 laps later. Following the stop, he rejoined the race in 6th position staying with his pre-planned two stop strategy as opposed to BrawnGP's three stop strategy. This is the time when Webber absolutely floored it. Barrichello soon took back the race lead as Massa and Vettel both pitted. However, Webber was on a long middle stint and with the BrawnGPs struggling for front end grip, he soon caught up with the race leader. That is exactly when Barrichello made his second pit stop handing over the race lead to Webber. By the time he made his second and last pit stop, he had built up a comfortable gap that helped him maintain his lead. From then on, it was a cruise to the finish line for the Australian.

Behind Webber, his team mate Sebastian Vettel finished in 2nd to complete yet another one-two victory for Red Bull Racing. Ferrari's Felipe Massa, starting with a very heavy fuel load, really drove out of his skin to bag his first podium of this season. It was a well deserved 3rd place for the Brazilian taking him to 5th on the Driver's Championship, which also helped his team Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro consolidate 4th place in the Constructor's Championship. His team mate Kimi Raikkonen was a bit unfortunate though, because following an incident with Force-India's Adrian Sutil, Raikkonen was forced to retire on lap 36 with an engine problem. The incident basically happened when Sutil came out of the pit lane and Raikkonen was charging down the start/finish straight. They went side by side into turn 1 and Sutil's front wing clipped the back of Raikkonen's F60, which put some debris into the Ferrari's radiator causing engine cooling problems. That also meant pretty much race over for Adrian Sutil, who until then, was running in the points and was looking good for Force-India's first ever points finish. Following this incident, he had to make an unscheduled pit stop to replace his front wing and that put him way back down the field.

It was not a real surprise that the two Brawn-Mercedes cars only managed to finish 5th and 6th, as they had been having problems with grip and tyre temperatures throughout the weekend. Although Barrichello started the race ahead of his team mate, a brilliant in-lap from Button just before his last pit stop enabled him to overtake Barrichello. So Driver's Championship leader Jenson Button finished in 5th with his team mate just behind him. Williams' Nico Rosberg, who started from 15th place, also had a brilliant drive on his home race to finish in 4th position. The German driver started with a heavy fuel load and used the turn 1 debacles on the opening lap well to his advantage. Double World Champion Fernando Alonso also drove the socks off his Renault R29 to finish in 7th place after starting from 12th. Apart from Kimi Raikkonen, the only other retirement of the race was Toro Rosso's Sebastian Bourdais, who it seems like, has just driven in his last Formula 1 race. There are strong rumours going round the paddock that Toro Rosso will be replacing him with Red Bull's reserve driver Jaime Alguersuari.

But the entire weekend belonged to one man only, and he is Red Bull's Australian driver Mark Webber. After he took the chequered flag on lap 60, he was very emotional when his team principal Christian Horner came on the team radio to congratulate him. He thoroughly deserves this victory based purely on merit, because he was quite simply the fastest man on the track throughout the weekend.

So from the Nurburgring in the Eifel Mountains in Germany, Formula One now heads off to the Hungaroring circuit in Budapest in two weeks' time for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Because it has been such an exciting race weekend, I have not talked about any of the political matters in the last couple of days and I am glad that I got to enjoy one of the most exciting races of the year without worrying about politics. However, a few problems still remain in Formula One off the track but hopefully, they will all be resolved within the next few days. Until next time everyone, drive safely!

Mark Webber storms through a chaotic Qualifying session at the Nurburgring to snatch his maiden pole position

Set in the heart of the Eifel mountains in western Germany, the 14-mile long Nurburgring Nordschleife is one of the longest, most fearsome and most demanding purpose built race tracks in the world. Just adjacent to the Nordschleife however, is the "new" Nurburgring which is a 3-mile long modern grand prix race track that currently hosts most of the major racing events including Formula 1. Although nothing like the Nordschleife, the new Nurburgring (also known as the Nurburgring GP-Strecke) is still a pretty demanding and interesting race track and is one of the favourites among drivers and spectators alike.

So approaching the halfway mark of the season, Round 9 of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship has brought us to this legendary race track for this year's German Grand Prix. In recent years, this race has been dominated by Michael Schumacher which has also meant that the grand stands were always filled with people wearing Ferrari red, supporting their home hero. This season, we have five drivers with German origin including Force-India's Adrian Sutil, BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, Williams' Nico Rosberg, Toyota's Timo Glock and none other than Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing. Although Ferrari still has a big fan base here in Germany, as a legacy of the Schumacher days, this year we have already seen a lot of Red Bull fans in the grand stands cheering for Sebastian Vettel who has been tipped by some to be a legend in the making, the next Schumacher.

Three weeks ago, Sebastian Vettel led a dominant Red Bull one-two finish at Silverstone in what was his Championship rival Jenson Button's home grand prix. So everyone expected Vettel to continue the run in front of his home crowd. The only problem though, could be in the form of Vettel's team mate Mark Webber. Although the Australian driver is a lot more experienced than Vettel, he has never qualified on pole or achieved victory in his entire Formula One career. Vettel however, in only his second F1 season, has already got three victories under his belt with two of those coming this year. So the pressure was on Webber to deliver some good performances to ensure that his team does not start favouring Vettel to challenge Jenson Button's lead in the Driver's Championship. Now it seems like Webber can prove that he can be just as good as his hyped up team mate, because on Saturday afternoon in a very chaotic Qualifying session, the Australian got pole position for the first time ever in his career.

The weather has been playing hide and seek all throughout the weekend, and there are heavy rain shower forecasts for Sunday's race. But who could imagine that it will make the Qualifying session so exciting? The first part of qualifying, Q1, went without much drama and was a dry session. Most of the cars did a few laps on the medium hard prime tyres before switching to the super-soft option tyres to post some fast lap times. Among the front runners were the two Red Bulls but also Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, the two BrawnGPs and the two Ferraris as well. But it was Q2 that would turn out to be absolutely crazy. Just as the pit lane lights went green, indicating the start of 15 minutes of Q2, all of the 15 cars came out with the option tyres on to try and get a lap or two in. Rain was due very shortly however, and most of the cars could not even complete their outlap before it started raining. Formula 1 cars are pretty useless in the rain with the slick tyres on, so all the cars went back to the pits to change to the intermediate tyres. Now it seemed like although it was raining, the track was not wet enough for the intermediates to work properly and most of the cars were still struggling for grip. As the rain started to subside a little bit, BrawnGP's Rubens Barrichello took a gamble and changed back to the slick tyres again. This gamble paid off big time as the Brazilian gunned in a couple of storming laps. Seeing this, all the drivers who were on intermediate tyres went back to the pits to change to the super-soft slick tyres as well. However, by the time these cars came back out, it had started raining pretty heavily again and now it was time to really use the intermediates. Most of the front-runners were still able to go back to the pits, change to the intermediate tyres and get a lap or two to get through to Q3. Jenson Button got through to Q3 in the last minute, because in all the rain-tyres debacle, he had been pushed into the knockout zone. Double World Champion Fernando Alonso however was not lucky enough and had to settle for 12th. The big surprise here was that Alonso's Brazilian team mate Nelson Piquet Jr., who has had a very dismal season so far to say the least, out-qualified the Spaniard for the first time this season.

By the time Q3 started, the rain had stopped but the cars did not come out straight away as all the teams wanted the track to dry out a little bit. When they did come out, all the cars came out on slicks and although they were struggling for grip in the cold and wet conditions, they were still able to post relatively decent lap times. Towards the end of Q3, Lewis Hamilton, whose McLaren has had a raft of new upgrades introduced for this weekend, got provisional pole. He was soon pipped by fellow Brit Jenson Button, before Rubens Barrichello moved to provisional pole. But at the death of Q3, Red Bull's Australian driver Mark Webber produced a brilliant lap of 1:32.230 to snatch his maiden pole position. His team mate Sebastian Vettel only managed 4th. So behind Webber, Barrichello, Button and Vettel is defending World Champion Lewis Hamilton in 5th with the Briton's best qualifying this year and he is ahead of his team mate Heikki Kovalainen. In 7th place is perhaps the biggest surprise of the day; it is German driver Adrian Sutil taking his Force-India team into Q3 for the first time ever in the their history. Sutil is ahead of the two Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, with Nelson Piquet Jr. in the Renault completing the top ten. The two Ferraris are probably running with a fuel load heavier than that of everyone in front of them.

So Sunday's race is going to be a phenomenal one, with the weather playing a particularly big part. What promises to make it even more interesting is that we probably will see the rain coming on and off, or only coming for a while in the middle part of the race with dry conditions on either side of it. That could potentially mess up the race strategies for most of the front-runners, particularly the ones that are light on fuel. Who will win the race? It literally can be anyone, and we will find that out in a few hours' time. My heart wants Sebastian Vettel to shine in front of his home crowd and of course for Ferrari to get some decent results as well. For UK viewers, coverage of the German Grand Prix starts on BBC One and the BBC Sport Website live from the Nurburgring at 12:10pm. Until then, drive safely!

FOTA at loggerheads with the FIA again on the eve of the German Grand Prix

Just when we thought that the political row in Formula One has really come to an end, that all parties seem to be agreeing with each other more or less and that after a three-week summer break, we all head to the legendary Nurburgring in the west of Germany for a race weekend where everyone can concentrate only on the racing and not politics, we are thrown right back into the middle of the stormy seas that once again sees Formula 1 teetering on the brink of collapse. Who do we have to thank for this? You might have guessed it - it's motorsport's world governing body, the FIA. This new episode in this "epic" political saga started when FOTA walked out of an FIA meeting at the Nurburgring on Wednesday.

The FIA and the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) finally came to an agreement last month in Paris after a long political row that, at one point, saw the teams threatening to set up their own breakaway championship. The row seemed to have been finally settled however, when the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) agreed to meet most of the teams' demands and revert the technical and sporting regulations for next year to the 2009 regulations. That meant that the controversial new budget cap regulation, and all the other new technical changes that came with it went out the window. So promises were made by the FIA that the technical and sporting regulations would remain the same for the next three years. Although the regulations will be based on this year's regulations, there will be minor changes to bring in some cost reductions and all of that will happen according to FOTA's proposals.

Following that, the FIA set up a meeting with the eight FOTA teams - Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and BrawnGP - and also Williams and Force India, to discuss the regulations for next year. The three new outfits - USF1, Campos Meta and Manor GP were also present in the meeting, which took place at the Nurburgring on Wednesday. However, the eight FOTA teams were told by the FIA that they were not entered into the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship and therefore had no voting rights in relation to the technical and sporting regulations. This came a day after the FIA said in a press statement that all teams signed up for next year must unanimously agree for the FIA to be able to change the published regulations for next year. FOTA was under the impression that they were included in the "accepted" entry list as endorsed by the FIA World Motor Sport Council and confirmed by an FIA press statement on the 24th of June. In light of these developments, FOTA representatives requested for a postponement of Wednesday's meeting which was rejected on the grounds that no new Concorde Agreement would be permitted until a unanimous approval of the 2010 regulations have been achieved. As a result, the FOTA representatives at the subsequent Technical Working Group had no opportunity to exercise their rights and therefore they had no other option but to walk out of the meeting.

Before going any further, I just want to clarify a couple of points. First, the Technical Working Group is formed of representatives of the teams and the governing body to meet and discuss changes in regulations and how to bring about new regulations most effectively. This is how historically, or at least for the last couple of decades, new regulations have been introduced into Formula 1. It is only since 2007, when the last Concorde Agreement expired, that the FIA has been unilaterally imposing new regulations on to the teams without consulting them first. The second point I want to clarify is the Concorde Agreement. I have talked about it a lot in my last few posts but never really explained what it meant for some of the more casual F1 viewers. The Concorde Agreement is basically a legally binding document signed by the FIA, all the participating teams and the sport's commerical rights holder Formula One Management (FOM). It determines how the sport is governed, how the revenues are shared and how the changes in regulations are made. The last Concorde Agreement, that expired in 2007, was signed in 1998. That is why lately the teams, in their own interests, have been pushing the FIA to sign a new Concorde Agreement to bring back the stability in the sport.

Anyway, later on in the afternoon, FOTA issued a statement explaining why they had to walk out of the meeting, and put the blame entirely on the FIA to have thrown Formula 1 into jeopardy once again. FOTA said that they were keen to sit down with all the existing and new teams to discuss the regulations for next year, and that they came out of Paris last month in good faith that the FIA was equally eager to put an end to this political bickering once and for all. Since then, Max Mosley, president of the FIA, have already broken part of the Paris agreement by reconsidering his decision to not seek re-election in October for a fifth term as FIA president. Mosley standing down at the end of his term in October was part of the deal given to the teams in Paris last month, but Mosley later said that efforts by FOTA to undermine the FIA's authority has forced him to reconsider his decision to stand down.

Several news sources have been saying that owners of F1's commercial rights, CVC Capital Partners, are furious with this latest development. They, along with Bernie Ecclestone, will intervene to ensure a solution to this row but until that happens, we have a lot more posturing on our hands. I personally am so sick and tired of all this, that I am starting to grow indifferent to it now. I love Formula One as much as ever before, and always will, and I know very well that politics and ego have always been an integral part of this sport but this time, it is just getting too much. I sincerely hope to see a solution to this very soon, once and for all. Until next time everyone, drive safely!

Strong rumours in Spanish and Italian press suggesting that Fernando Alonso may be employed by Maranello next year

Yes, it's that time of the year again and the press is bored. We have a three week break between the British and German Grands Prix, and the political war between the FIA and the teams seem to be over in spite of some recent comments by Max Mosley, the FIA president, and the teams have not responded and are instead continuing with their plans to shape up the regulations for next season's FIA Formula One World Championship. All this means that at this moment, motorsport journalists have got nothing to write about as far as Formula 1 is concerned. So what can they talk about in such a situation? It is of course the potential driver line-ups for next year.

Ever since double World Champion Fernando Alonso left McLaren at the end of 2007, after just one season with the Woking based team, there has been rumours going around of Alonso joining Ferrari. Before the end of the 2007 season however, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team - who are based in Maranello in Italy - confirmed that they have extended the contracts with their current drivers Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen to keep them at least until the end of 2010. Since Raikkonen won the World Driver's Championship by 1 point in 2007, there has been a real lack of performance from him that has caused many of his critics to even doubt his motivations and his commitments towards Formula 1. That has meant that the Spanish media, who are seen by some to absolutely worship Fernando Alonso, have been reporting about an alleged contract that guarantees Alonso a drive for Ferrari from 2011 with a certain clause in the contract that apparently allows Alonso to join Ferrari a year earlier in 2010. Although even many Spanish Formula 1 fans question the validity of such rumours, what has kept these rumours fuelled all along is the fact that they have never been denied nor confirmed by Maranello.

Along with Alonso's native Spain, the Italian media also had a part to play in all these rumours. Famous Italian motorsport journalist Pino Allievi, who writes for La Gazetta dello Sport, is known to have good trustworthy contacts in Ferrari. Allievi has been saying since the end of last year that Alonso will be driving for Ferrari from 2011, and may be even a year earlier from 2010 if any of the current Ferrari drivers underperform. This is crucial because long before Ferrari officially confirmed that Kimi Raikkonen (who used to drive for McLaren-Mercedes before) will be replacing Michael Schumacher from 2007 following the legendary German's retirement at the end of 2006, Pino Allievi did say that Raikkonen will be joining Ferrari. Just like with Alonso now, back in 2006 those rumours of Raikkonen joining Ferrari was never denied nor confirmed until the official announcement came from Maranello. Given that since winning his one and only World Championship with Ferrari in 2007, Raikkonen has been outperformed by his younger Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa time and time again, rumours are suggesting that it is the Finnish driver who will have to make way for Alonso. So from next year onwards, we could potentially see a Felipe Massa-Fernando Alonso pairing for Ferrari.

Now it is a fact that Ferrari traditionally announces its driver line-ups for the following year at every year's Italian Grand Prix at Monza, that being Ferrari's home race. If rumours are anything to go by, then apparently Ferrari will officially announce the contract with Alonso on the Friday of this year's Italian Grand Prix weekend. What is fuelling this rumour even more is the fact that Spanish banking group Banco Santander has signed up a sponsorship agreement with Ferrari starting from next year. The last time Santander sponsored a Formula 1 team was in 2007, and the team was McLaren-Mercedes. When Alonso left McLaren, Santander also ended their sponsorship arrangements with McLaren. On top of all these, the fact that Kimi Raikkonen is seen to be getting interested in rally racing more and more rather than Formula 1, it will not come as a big surprise if he does announce his retirement from the pinnacle of world motorsport at the end of the current season. Although his contract with Ferrari runs through to the end of 2010, if he so chooses, he could still drive for Fiat (Ferrari's parent company) in the World Rally Championship!

Only time will tell who is driving for the legendary Italian marque next year. For now though, we can look forward to Round 9 of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship that will take us to the Nurburgring in less than a week's time for the German Grand Prix. The last time Formula 1 visited the Nurburgring was back in 2007 and it was a very eventful race with lots of rain, then a red flag, then a re-start of the race and lots of incidents in between. But guess who won the race eventually? It was none other than McLaren-Mercedes and their Spanish driver Fernando Alonso. It is going to be a very exciting race weekend and whatever you do, do not miss it! Until then, drive safely!