- 07 Nov 07, 15:41#22903F1Live's take on who's controlling the drivers market:
With Williams confirming the signing of Kazuki Nakajima as team-mate to Nico Rosberg earlier today, the starting grid for the 2008 season is taking shape.
Rosberg had been widely tipped to join McLaren as Fernando Alonso’s replacement for next season, despite the denials from the Williams team. Today’s announcement would seem to be final confirmation that the Grove-based outfit has indeed retained the talented German driver.
Alonso remains the key player in the driver market, with current reports suggesting that he will return to Renault next year. However, this has yet to be confirmed and therefore Heikki Kovalainen, Giancarlo Fisichella and Nelson Piquet are all waiting to learn their fate.
Should Alonso ink the deal with Renault, current speculation points to Piquet getting the nod as Alonso’s number two. Kovalainen meanwhile has been linked to a move to McLaren to replace Alonso while Fisichella’s long F1 career may be at an end.
Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa remain with Ferrari, while Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica are all set at BMW Sauber. Williams have made their line-up public while Red Bull announced a return for David Coulthard and Mark Webber some months ago and assuming there is no major surprise, these all seem set for the 2008 season.
Jarno Trulli is under contract to Toyota and assuming that Timo Glock and his management can sort out contract clashes with BMW Sauber, the GP2 champion will join Trulli on the driving front. The departing Ralf Schumacher’s remaining hope to remain in Formula One is with Force India, nee Spyker.
Toro Rosso has their line-up all set with Sebastian Vettel confirmed and multiple Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais finally getting his Formula One break. Despite rumours to the contrary, Honda are expected to field an unchanged line-up with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.
Takuma Sato is a sure thing at Super Aguri and the team hope to retain Anthony Davidson who put in a strong second half of the season for the team. Force India has Adrian Sutil under contract and the young German is expected to stay put, but the identity of his team-mate is far from certain.
Agents, managers and drivers all await Alonso’s key decision to trigger the market.
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point. 