Jenson Button and Ross Brawn have both been placed on the Queen’s New Year’s Honour list, with Button receiving an MBE, and Brawn receiving an OBE.
Button said that the honour was the “crowning glory” of his amazing year, starting from the ashes of Honda, and coming out the other end with a drivers and constructers World Championship win.
Rubens Barrichello has said that he is fulfilling a lifelong dream by driving a Williams with his countryman the late Ayrton Senna’s name under the nose of the car.
Barrichello has signed for Williams for the 2010 season, making the jump from the Brawn GP team.
The Brazilian Senna won 3 world championships and scored 41 wins in his 162 races during his 10 years in F1, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time. Senna was killed in 1994 at the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola while driving a Williams.
Barrichello said;
“It means a lot to me that I’m driving for Williams with his name under my car nose.
“It is a dream to drive for Williams, although I had to do it rationally and not emotionally because emotionally I would have signed anything to drive for them.
“It comes from the past, from when I was a kid.
“I’ve always dreamed to drive for them, but I’ve done it rationally because the engine looks good, the chassis looks good, the people around the car are very much in the ball game and I’m very much thinking I can be winning races and maybe chasing for titles with Williams.”
In 2010 there will be a new ‘Senna’ in F1, as Bruno Senna – the nephew of Ayrton will be driving for the Campos Meta team.
Gary Paffett of McLaren topped the timesheets in today’s second young drivers test at Jerez, with the 2005 DTM champion and long-time McLaren test driver setting a fastest time of 01:18.718 in a day dogged by rain.
The Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg with a 2010 race seat for the team set a time of a 1:19.184 in his 94 laps to finish second fastest ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull.
Jules Bianchi could only manage 9th fastest with a 01:20.586 in his 113 laps for Ferrari, after announcing earlier he has signed a long-term contract with the team and will continue his race towards Formula One with a GP2 seat with the ART team in 2010.
The two Brawn GP drivers were almost inseperable – Mike Conway set a 01:20.222 and Marcus Ericsson a 01:20.440, despite the former completing 46 more laps than the Swede Ericsson.
The only driver who forced the red flags to come out was Mirko Bortolotti, when the Toro Rosso man stalled out on track. Bortolotti finished the session last, with his fastest time being a 01:21.761 in his 79 laps.
Times:
01 G. Paffett (McLaren) 01:18.718 80 laps
02 N. Hulkenberg (Williams) 01:19.184 94 laps
03 D. Ricciardo (Red Bull) 01:19.243 92 laps
04 P. di Resta (Force India) 01:19.411 58 laps
05 E. Gutierrez (BMW-Sauber) 01:20.190 68 laps
06 M. Conway (Brawn GP) 01:20.222 83 laps
07 M. Ericsson (Brawn GP) 01:20.440 37 laps
08 J.R. Hildebrand (Force India) 01:20.517 49 laps
09 J. Bianchi (Ferrari) 01:20.586 113 laps
10 L. Di Grassi (Renault) 01:20.898 67 laps
11 H. Tung (Renault) 01:21.492 57 laps
12 M. Bortolotti (Scuderia Toro Rosso) 01:21.761 79 laps
The FIA have today published the 2010 F1 entry list on their official website.
A few interesting points of note from this entry list are as follows:
This team has indicated its intention to change its team name to Mercedes Grand Prix prior to the start of the 2010 season
Toyota Motorsport GmbH remains formally bound by the Concorde Agreement to put forward a team for participation, though it has indicated that it will not be in a position to do so. An announcement will be made regarding this entry in due course.
Mercedes GP (formerly Brawn GP) have announced that Nico Rosberg will drive for the team in 2010. Rosberg had been rumoured to be joining the outfit ever since he announced he was leaving the Williams team earlier this month.
“I am more motivated than ever and can hardly wait to start testing with the new Silver Arrow and for the first race of the new season at Bahrain on 14 March… I am very proud that I will race for the new team from the start and look forward to working with Ross Brawn.”
Team principal Ross Brawn said of his new driver:
“Nico is a great talent and with four years of experience in Formula 1 is a driver who will be able to make a valuable contribution to our team right from the outset.”
No announcement has yet been made about who will drive alongside Rosberg at Mercedes, however Nick Heidfeld, Kimi Raikkonen and even Michael Schumacher have all been rumoured to be talking to the team.
Check out our Guide to 2010 F1 Driver Lineups here.
Kimi Raikkonen has denied talking with Brawn/Mercedes GP, saying he believes the team’s new owners, Mercedes Benz, will be taking an all-German line-up.
Earlier this week, McLaren announced that they had signed Jenson Button as Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate, leaving Raikkonen without a race-seat for next year’s Championship as the Finn had previously stated that he would only race for McLaren.
However, almost immediately reports emerged that he could head to the Championship-winning Brawn GP team after Mercedes purchased a 75.1 percent stake in the outfit.
His manager Steve Robertson added fuel to the fire, saying:
“This is Formula 1. If they can offer, or convince us, that they can provide Kimi an opportunity that Kimi is happy with, and that we are happy with, and he feels he can win races and the championship then never say never. There is always a possibility.”
But despite his manager’s claims, Raikkonen says there has been no contract with Brawn GP and nor does he expect there to be. Raikkonen told F1.com,
“No, I have not held talks with Brawn. I feel they will run two German drivers next year now that Mercedes are involved,”
The Finn also made it clear that a year out of Formula One was on the cards for next season as he won’t race for a team that cannot guarantee him a shot at the World title, in other words, McLaren.
“I could not agree terms with McLaren so I have decided to take a one-year sabbatical. I felt McLaren offered the best opportunity to win races and challenge for the Drivers’ Championship and if that would not work the one-year break is the result. And to be honest, I will only return in 2011 if a competitive drive is available.”
“I do not want to race just to make up the numbers. That does not interest me. But there’s a lot of time until then, so let’s wait and see what happens in the months ahead.”
The 2007 World Champion, however, hopes he won’t be away from motor sport entirely, targeting a possible drive in rallying.
“I do not know yet, I will look at competing in rallying. Again, naturally I want to drive a competitive car. If not I will spend more time with my family and friends.”
Brawn GP chief executive officer Nick Fry has blasted Jenson Button on his move away from the Brackley based team to McLaren for the 2010 season. Button has signed a £6mill deal to join the team next year.
According to the Daily Express, the relationship between Button and Brawn ‘broke down so badly that they removed an offer that could have been worth £12 million next year before he signed for McLaren’, after the 29-year-old ‘was left in no doubt that he had let [the team] down in a ‘phone call with Brawn at the weekend’.
Another factor in Button’s choice to move could have been the Mercedes buyout of Brawn GP, and the rumours that they have plans to create an all German ’super team’.
Fry’s stinging quote is:
“Clearly, loyalty would be nice but in this day and age you don’t expect too much of that. I’m always happy when any employee leaves our company if I think that they’ve made the right decision and they are going to a better job. They always go with our blessing if that is the situation.
“In this situation, we don’t understand the logic of the decision. I think Jenson is going to have to up his game if he’s going to beat Lewis.
“We feel that we gave Jenson a car that enabled him to win the world championship, and we hoped he’d have stuck with us for that reason as we are very confident we can provide a race-winning car for next season.”
Button had previously given his reasoning on the switch. Part of his quote is:
“It’s always a difficult decision to leave a team when you’ve been there for so long. But life is all about challenges – and, most important of all, it’s about challenging yourself. So, although I won the World Championship with Brawn GP last year, and I’ll never forget that, I was always adamant that I wanted to continue to set myself fresh challenges.”
Earlier on today McLaren confirmed they had signed Jenson Button to drive alongside Lewis Hamilton in 2010 and lets be honest, it was news we were all expecting.
However there has just been a shocking news story by Brazilian journalist Lito Cavalcanti, saying that Kimi Raikkonen has signed for Brawn GP who will run under the Mercedes name next season.
If this sensational story turned out to be true, it would be a complete backtrack by Raikkonen and his management team, who yesterday said that the Finn would not be in F1 next season, and that he would do rallying and possibly compete at Le Mans next year instead.
Jenson Button has signed for McLaren, leaving winning team Brawn GP (Now Mercedes GP). Button will join fellow British former world champion Lewis Hamilton in 2010.
Rumours that Button would goto McLaren have been rife throughout the past month, with Button making a whistlestop visit to the Woking-based factory last week. Negotiations with his ex-team Brawn GP were said to not be going well, with the team unable to meet Button’s asking price. Formula1Blogger.com exclusively revealed that the visit was not a tour, as previously stated by McLaren.
Subsequently, Brawn GP were bought out by Mercedes Benz, who are known to be looking to front an all German team with Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld.
The most interesting part of this move will be around how Button will work with team-mate Hamilton. McLaren are known to develop and build their car specifically for Hamilton, so Button may find that he struggles to begin with. That said, former team mate Rubens Barrichello was known to be the strong leader with regards to car setup for Brawn.
What this also means in Heikki Kovalainen no longer has a race seat for 2010, however is strongly rumoured to sit alongside Robert Kubica at Renault.
A formal announcement will be available later on Wednesday.
We had all guessed it after the Mercedes purchase of Brawn, but it has now been confirmed that Kimi Raikkonen will leave F1 and not partake in the 2010 season after negotiations with McLaren were over and unsuccessful with Jenson Button still looking like a good bet for the drive at the British team.
The man who announced that he will leave the sport is one of Raikkonen’s management team Steve Robertson, who told Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat.
Robertson also said that Raikkonen will do some rallying next year and may race in the Le Mans 24 Hours.
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