2009 lineup - Rumours, Speculation and (a few) facts

[KSaiyu]

hmm, I don't think he's quite ready for F1 and a year spent fighting Hulkenberg, Maldonado and (possibly) Grosjean would be much better in my eyes.

 

[Alex.]

SeaBass is back baby

Sebastien Bourdais will be back behind the wheel of Scuderia Toro Rosso's Formula 1 car at Jerez next week. The Frenchman was the team's driver in 2008 but is still waiting to be confirmed for the upcoming Formula 1 season

In 2008 Sebastien Bourdais joined Sebastian Vettel at Toro Rosso. His team-mate Vettel was soon announced as Red Bull Racing's driver for 2009 as the German teams up with Mark Webber. Earlier this month Toro Rosso confirmed Sebastien Buemi as the team's driver for the upcoming season but the team has yet to announce Buemi's team-mate.

Both Bourdais and former Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato were rumoured to be close to a deal with the Italian team but as Bourdais is now confirmed to complete two days of testing for the team it looks like the Frenchman has the best cards for 2009.

A Scuderia Toro Rosso spokeswoman told GPUpdate.net: "I can confirm that Sebastien Bourdais will be testing with us next week at Jerez. Sebastien will be in the car on Thursday and Friday. Sebastian Buemi will be in the car on Tuesday and Wednesday."

For Bourdais it will be the first time in 2009 that the Frenchman will be behind the wheel of a Formula One car. Bourdais enjoyed his last day of testing at Jerez on 10 December 2008.

he best get the damn seat!

 

[Vaxen]

SeaBass is back baby

he best get the damn seat!

It sounds like he's got the seat...


...unless something better* comes along...


*better defined as "brings more money to the team"

 

[Tired Tyres]

Sebastien Bourdais is confirmed.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/2/8908.html

 

[Ardius]

Hoorah!

 

[MagpieRacer]

Good stuff, I like Bourdais and I think he did pretty well in second half of 2008 so definately deserves another crack.

 

[corporatesteve]

[size=+1000] bourdais is on str!!!!!!!!!!!wooohooooo!!!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU LOL, I think well now see his true colors in 2009 [/size]

 

[SUPER NUMBBER]

Holy red letter attack, Batman!

Good job, Seb!

 

[Hyst]

So this is what we're looking at so far.

McLaren

rLewis Hamilton
rHeikki Kovalainen
tPedro de la Rosa
tGary Paffett

Ferrari

rKimiRaikkonen
rFelipe Massa
tLuca Badoer
tMarc Gene

BMW

rRobert Kubica
rNick Heidfeld
tChristian Klien

Renault

rFernando Alonso
rNelson Piquet jr.
tRomain Grosjean

Toyota

rJarno Trulli
rTimo Glock
tKamui Kobayashi

Toro Rosso

rSebastien Buemi
rSebastien Bourdais
t? (will undoubdtedly be a Sebastien something..)

Red Bull

rMark Webber
rSebastian Vettel
tDavid Coulthard

Williams

rNico Rosberg
rKazuki Nakajima
tNicolas Hulkenborg

Honda (?)

r?
r?
t?

Force India

rGiancarlo Fisichella
rAdrian Sutil
tVitantonio Liuzzi

I've heard rumors of PdlR replacing either Sutil or Fisi at Force India.

 

[Roo]

Sebastien Bourdais is confirmed.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/2/8908.html

Not just at STR:

Bourdais, Brabham join Peugeot

By Steven English Monday, February 9th 2009, 17:00 GMT

Sebastien Bourdais and David Brabham have joined Peugeot's assault on the Le Mans 24 Hours this season.

Bourdais, who was recently confirmed for another season in Formula One with Scuderia Toro Rosso, returns to the French manufacturer's line up after finishing second in the No.8 908 HDi at Le Mans in 2007.

"In 2007, I started this great adventure with the whole Peugeot team," Bourdais said. "In 2008, there was a problem with the time schedule so I couldn't do it again, but I always agreed with (Peugeot team manager) Serge (Saulnier) that I could do something this year."

Brabham won the GT1 class with Aston Martin in the 24 Hours last year, and has extensive prior experience in prototypes having raced for Jaguar, Toyota, Panoz, Bentley, Zytek and Acura in his career.

The Australian is already confirmed for a full American Le Mans Series campaign in Acura's new LMP1 car.

"It is a great honour for me to be a Peugeot driver with the history of my brother Geoff's victory," said Brabham. "That was a big occasion, and hopefully we'll have another one this year."

Bourdais and Brabham have teamed up once before, when they finished third in the GT2 class of Petit Le Mans with Panoz in 2006.

The pair take the places of Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta in Peugeot's 2009 line-up, with Nicolas Minassian, Marc Gene, Christian Klien, Pedro Lamy, Alex Wurz, Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin all retained.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73202

The Le Mans 24hr race fits in the weekend between the Turkish and British GPs this year.

 

[Ardius]

I've heard rumors of PdlR replacing either Sutil or Fisi at Force India.

Quashed long ago when Mallya said they considered McLaren's suggestions, but decided to stick with what they've got.

 

[Roo]

No seat for Senna - probably:

Barrichello secures new F1 deal

By Jonathan Noble Tuesday, March 3rd 2009, 09:40 GMT

Rubens Barrichello will extend his record as the most experienced Formula One driver in history this year, autosport.com has learned, after agreeing a deal to race for the soon-to-be-renamed Honda Racing outfit.

Although it is understood that a final contract has not yet been signed, high level sources close to the Brackley-based team have confirmed that the veteran Brazilian has been given the nod to line up alongside Jenson Button in 2009.

The team are awaiting the final green light from the Honda Motor Company for the imminent management buyout led by Ross Brawn and Nick Fry, and only when that happens will the 2009 deals be finalised.

It is suggested that the situation could be fully resolved by the end of this week, with the team expected to conduct a shakedown of their 2009 challenger in Britain on Friday before joining next week's final group test session at Barcelona in Spain.

"We expect to be able to make an announcement from the company and the team in the near future," the Yomiuri daily quoted a source at the company's Japan headquarters as saying.

"Honda has been making all possible efforts to avoid the worst option of having to disband the team."

Barrichello has started 267 Grands Prix in a career that stretches back to the start of the 1993 season.

Speaking to autosport.com at the end of last year, Barrichello said he was fired up to remain at the Honda Racing despite the uncertainty that had surrounded the team since December.

"I have unfinished business in F1," he said during a visit to England before Christmas to let the team know how keen he was to remain with them. "I am sure I can finish higher up, if not winning the championship. I really believe that is what I deserve.

"It would be a shame not to use the services of someone so eager to do it, plus with all the experience and the speed. It is the right time - and it comes with the willingness to do well.

"If you sign someone with the speed but whose time is over, they will set up the car differently and badly. You are 80 percent of the time going through corners, and you set up the car different compared to someone who comes and wants to go flat out.

"For me, I am still taking it flat - and sometimes this year in qualifying you have that little pimple on your skin saying 'just remember you are not a boy any more' after the corner. So it is still there very much."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73522

And Bruno isn't happy about it:

Senna 'upset' after Honda snub

By Pablo Elizalde Tuesday, March 3rd 2009, 17:02 GMT

Bruno Senna says he is upset following the decision of the soon-to-be-renamed Honda team to choose to stick with Rubens Barrichello over him.

Senna, the nephew of three-time champion Ayrton, was the main favourite to land the second seat alongside Jenson Button if the team were saved.

However, the bosses of the former Honda team have decided to keep Barrichello for another season, leaving Senna with no F1 racing seat for 2009.

Senna said he will have to look elsewhere now, but he admits it will mean a step backwards for him if it's outside of Formula One.

The Brazilian admitted he was annoyed the talks with Honda had taken so long.

"I'm kind of resigned to trying something else. I had a meeting today (Monday) with Ross Brawn and he cancelled," Senna was quoted as saying by Brazil's Agencia Estadao.

"I'm just a little upset because this situation has dragged on for so long, making me lose better professional possibilities.

"Now I'm going to get together with my family, with my advisors, and decide what way to take.

"Anything that I may do will be step backwards. The important thing is to keep Formula One as the top priority. I will bounce back."

Barrichello, meanwhile, insisted nothing had been signed yet, but the veteran racer is hopeful that he will be in action at Barcelona next week.

"My faith says that next week I'll be driving a competitive car in the tests in Barcelona - although I have no document in my hands that assures me of that," he said.

"I've lived four months of waiting and I'm not going to celebrate before crossing the finish line."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73535

Should've stayed in GP2, Bruno.

 

[nissan tuner]

Same situation as Bourdais really. The team keeps you waiting for so long until all the other real options are gone 👎

 

[Ardius]

Same situation as Bourdais really. The team keeps you waiting for so long until all the other real options are gone 👎

However, Bourdais wasn't such an idiot to not make other plans just in case - Seb had been talking to IndyCar teams and had already signed with Peugeot to do the Le Mans 24 Hours at least. I wouldn't have been surprised if he had either gone to IndyCar or drove in the Le Mans Series full time.
Plus, Sebastien is already a good driver with a lot of experience behind him, he can sort of expect teams to take him on and bend the rules to get him in the team. Whereas Senna has little experience and hasn't proven himself a good driver yet, he shouldn't really have expected to get an F1 drive this soon, sure he should have tried everything to get it, but not like this.

 

[nissan tuner]

Bourdais lost his indycar ride a while back. Unless he wanted to race with a backfield team, he wasn't going to go back there.

Open wheeled teams aren't going to wait forever for their drivers to hop on board with them

 

[Ardius]

True, but even so, Bourdais and Senna are two completely different drivers in respects to what teams see when they hire them.

 

[livemusic]

He thought his name and his sponsors would be enough to join F1. Should've stayed in GP2.

 

[nissan tuner]

He has more than enough time to join Formula 2 so i wouldnt worry about him having a drive for 09, dont know if he wants to run something significantly slower than a GP2 car though

A1 Team Brazil could use a second driver too.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Probably for the better, anyway. While the Team Formerly Known As Honda might have Ross Brawn, that's no guarantee of a good car, and they're probably going to struggle ...

 

[Peter]

Darn, i wanted to see Bruno Senna kick ass in F1. Winning in the inferior car just like what happened 20 years ago.

 

[KSaiyu]

He has more than enough time to join Formula 2 so i wouldnt worry about him having a drive for 09, dont know if he wants to run something significantly slower than a GP2 car though

A1 Team Brazil could use a second driver too.

I'm pretty sure F2 is sticking with 24 drivers and A1 might be a good idea for more experience, but it could be a step back in direction.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Darn, i wanted to see Bruno Senna kick ass in F1. Winning in the inferior car just like what happened 20 years ago.

 

[blinky77]

I'm not giving up on Bruno Senna's F1 chances just yet...then again, I was certain AJ Allmendinger would have two Champ Car titles by now.

He's not a bad driver, but the way he seemed to just fall apart late in the GP2 season wasn't good.

 

[darkfinal]

Just got this in:

Depending on this spanish site, Santander (Abbey) is one inch away from signing a deal with Ferrari. 50 million euro per season during 2010-2013. And what's more interesting: The sponsoring ammount would decrease a 30-40% if Alonso doesn't sign for Ferrari before 2010.

http://www.hispanidad.com/noticia.aspx?ID=127423

Needless to say, I'm enthusiastic about this.

 

[orimarc]

Just got this in:

Depending on this spanish site, Santander (Abbey) is one inch away from signing a deal with Ferrari. 50 million euro per season during 2010-2013. And what's more interesting: The sponsoring ammount would decrease a 30-40% if Alonso doesn't sign for Ferrari before 2010.

http://www.hispanidad.com/noticia.aspx?ID=127423

Needless to say, I'm enthusiastic about this.

[spanish]Jojojo, la que se va a liar![/spanish]

Damn, there's gonna be trouble. But come on, Alonso + Ferrari = Win. With capital W.

 

[Ardius]

I wouldn't be surprised if Satander would demand that, but I don't really think they can convince the team to grab Alonso just for the money.
As a bank, who's to say they won't pull out prematurely anyway later on? I don't think Satander are in a position to demand things like that.

 

[mustang245]

[spanish]Jojojo, la que se va a liar![/spanish]

Damn, there's gonna be trouble. But come on, Alonso + Ferrari = Win. With capital W.

Most newsworthy...

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I don't think Satander are in a position to demand things like that.

Neither. Ferrari have already stated that they have no interest in Alonso, and besides ... of all the teams, do you really think they're in need of money? Of course not; they're Ferrari! They're one of those rare brands that can sell on name alone.

And while I'm not discrediting the Spanish, I'm suspicious of any 'report' about Alonso moving to Ferrari that comes out of Spain, particularly when other news sources - like GP Update and Formula1.com - have nothing on it.

 

[Madbigdog]

Spanish bank, spanish driver, so it's natural the non official news about it surface in Spain.

 

[nissan tuner]

Although it might not be F1 related, Senna was caught testing for ORECA yesterday!

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/lms-senna-takes-first-laps-at-paul-ricard/