Alpine F1

Now that the Kimi to Renault rumor has died, what Silly Season rumor are you hoping the media either picks back up or creates entirely out of thin air?

Robert Kubica to Ferrari in a seat swap with Massa?

The Flav returning to F1 to create the greatest team ever?

Michael Schumacher to be replaced by a langur monkey?

The classic “Rossi to Ferrari” rumor or maybe F1B Twitter follower extraordinaire JasonSCarter* who offered the Scruffy McLoeb return to STR for Abu Dhabi as the next rumor.

So let’s hear what you have to offer and who knows, maybe some random paper in Italy will even start to carry it like it’s fact.

*It’s was Jason’s post who sparked the idea in the first place and I try my best to acknowledge those who are funnier than I am at any given moment.

Apparently he was just waiting for all the Kimi talk to end before making his big announcement.

Former Renault stalwart, Bob Bell, is stepping down from his role as managing director. He took this role following the oustering of The Flav and Pat Symonds from the sport and his role will now be picked up by team principal Eric “I looked into everyone’s eyes” Boullier. You can read the full Renault Press Release here but I especially liked the quote from Eric Boullier himself:

Since the beginning of the season, the Renault F1 Team has demonstrated its ability to react to a need for change. The results of the tremendous efforts made have been immediately apparent on the race track. Today, we have a competitive car and an incredibly motivated team. I am proud of the trust being placed in me to continue this good work, and I will make every effort to ensure the Renault F1 Team returns to the front of the grid as soon as possible.

Translation: Heck yeah I can manage this team, I mean really, what do you think I’ve been doing all season? I’ve kept Robert quiet, I’ve keep Petrov on the edge, and I managed not to get busted by the FIA for anything. So I only talked to Kimi’s manager’s second cousin about Kimi coming to Renault once in a men’s room but you are reported on it, aren’t you, so I guess I’ve got this team leader thing mastered.

Bob Bell has been with the team since its Benetton days in 1997.

Kimi Raikkonen, who is being described as “angry” or showing “unhappiness,” has flatly ruled out a return to Formula 1 with Renault.

He spoke to the Finnish paper Turun Sanomat. Here is part of what he said, according to the BBC:

“It’s 100% certain I will not drive for Renault in 2011,” said Raikkonen.

“My managers have weeks ago been in contact, once, with Renault’s team leader (Eric Boullier). That is all.”

And then a bit more from Autosport:

“I am very disappointed with how they have used my name for their own marketing. I have never even seriously considered driving for Renault, and I can assure you that I am 100 per cent sure that I will not drive for Renault next season.”

Checking both stories, you also will get the flavor of Kimi’s being angry over the way Renault has gone about promoted the conversations.

So, that’s it then. At least with Renault. I don’t know if it is just coincidence, but the man that Kimi is implicitly targeting with his comments, Eric Bouiller, Renault’s team principal, today is getting a promotion. He’s adding managing director duties to his portfolio, taking over for Bob Bell. From Renault’s press release:

The Renault F1 Team has announced today that Eric Boullier, Team Principal since 5 January 2010, will take over the role of Managing Director with immediate effect following the departure of Bob Bell.

Gérard Lopez, Chairman of the Renault F1 Team, said: “We would like to thank Bob Bell for his contribution to the performance of the team and for helping see us through a period of transition since Genii Capital became a shareholder in the Renault F1 Team. We are entrusting the post of Managing Director to Eric Boullier and we have every confidence that, under his leadership, we will achieve our racing objectives. Throughout the 2010 season, we have been assessing what is required to continue improving our level of competitiveness and we believe we are well positioned for the challenges ahead.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal and Managing Director, commented: “Since the beginning of the season, the Renault F1 Team has demonstrated its ability to react to a need for change. The results of the tremendous efforts made have been immediately apparent on the race track. Today, we have a competitive car and an incredibly motivated team. I am proud of the trust being placed in me to continue this good work, and I will make every effort to ensure the Renault F1 Team returns to the front of the grid as soon as possible.”

Sounds like all the Kimi talked paid off.

Thoughts? Lamentations? Vodka recipes? And is there anywhere else you can see Kimi going?

Yet another big surprise from Lotus F1 today: they’re going to use Red Bull Technology supplied gearboxes and hydraulic systems for 2001 and beyond. Funny, RBR also uses those same gearboxes and hydraulic systems with their Renault engines… Do you think this means that Lotus will also go to Renault engines?! I’d be shocked and surprised, SHOCKED AND SURPRISED.

Lotus chief technical officer, Mike “I can’t believe they signed me for five years” Gascoyne and Lotus racing team principal Tony “that’s Team Lotus damnit” Fernandes both offered up you standard yeah for us kind of quotes which you can read on the Lotus website.

The quote I though was most interesting was the one from Red Bull team principal Chrisitan Horner:

We are very pleased about Lotus Racing’s decision to use Red Bull Technology gearboxes and hydraulic systems from 2011. The fact that Red Bull Technology has been chosen to be a supplier to another team despite its short history demonstrates how much we have achieved since our first season. We very much look forward to working with Lotus Racing from 2011 onwards.

Interesting point. Red Bull really has come along way in a short time and I’m pretty sure its due to that Newey kid and his paper models. Just a hunch.

But good on you and we’ll see you tomorrow for the surprise announcement that Lotus will be running Renault engines.

But has yet to announce Renault as their new engine supplier. Which makes this less a news story then restating what we already knew unofficially as official. Although I guess the deal with Renault is technically unofficially official as well.

As of midnight on November 30th, 2010, Cosworth will no longer supply Lotus F1* with engines. This is seen as a move to pave the way for Renault to step in and sign on the dotted line.

From Cosworth statement via Autosport:

The decision to bring the partnership to an early termination has been driven by the team’s desire to solve reliability and performance issues unrelated to the Cosworth engine. Lotus Racing and Cosworth have agreed settlement terms satisfactory to both parties to secure an early termination of the agreement. Cosworth wishes Lotus Racing success in the future, and will continue to supply engines to AT&T Williams, Virgin Racing and HRT in 2011, thereby supporting 25% of the teams in Formula 1.

*I’m still trying to work out a good nickname for Lotus… “Not Team Lotus” Lotus F1… The REAL Team Lotus F1… We don’t need to stinking “team” to be Lotus… see not so good, however a team with as much noise as they’ve had recently definitely need a nickname.

Renault boss Eric Bouiller still has his eyes on fourth place in the constructors race, meaning he believes the team can leapfrog Mercedes GP during the next four races.

He also wants to look in Kimi Raikkonen’s eyes before any final decision is made about hiring the former world champ.

Those are among the topics of a Q&A up at the official Formula 1 site.

Bouiller on Renault’s prospects for the rest of the season:

Q: Eric, Renault lie fifth the constructors’ championship. Four races into the season – when you were also fifth – you said that fourth was the goal for the end of the season. With four races to go, can you do it?
Eric Boullier: Ah, we are close to it. Our car has improved hugely since the start of the season and with all due respect to our competitors, I am optimistic that we can pull it off.

Q: Your rivals for P4 are Mercedes GP. Is there a bit of extra motivation knowing that seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher is part of the rival team?
EB: No, not at all. We want to be world champion one day and we don’t care against whom we succeed. Mercedes is one of the last manufacturers left in Formula One – that probably spices up the situation. On top of that they are the reigning world champions.

Q: At the start of the season did you really believe that you could be so successful in 2010? The team underwent a dramatic reshuffle over the winter…
EB: Somehow I did. I knew what the technical capacity of the team is and that we have good people that co-operate excellently together.

As a reminder, Renault is 35 points adrift of Mercedes, sitting at 133 to Merc’s 168. And that means if Renault is going to give it a go, Robert Kubica is going to need some help from rookie Vitaly Petrov. Bouiller at the least suggests as much in his comments on the Russian:

Q: What role do your current drivers Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov play in that?
EB: Robert’s role is beyond any doubt. Vitaly has to show us in the four remaining races that he is the man we can hand over our second cockpit to in 2011 to follow our self-defined goal. If he fails to convince us he will not drive our car. If he satisfies us we will keep him. But we don’t put pressure on ourselves when it comes to our full driver line-up for 2011. Only one hint: we definitely will not wait until January.

Q: Is it only a question of performance? It is no secret that having a Russian on the grid is good for Formula One, and the Russian market must also be very interesting for Renault…
EB: I know that a Russian driver would be appreciated and Russia holds a huge potential for all companies present in Formula One. However, for us the performance of a driver is still the first criteria – and then the passport. Performance clearly wins over marketing potential because if a driver doesn’t deliver then the marketing potential is also limited. You must never put the cart before the horse, or at least we don’t. For a French driver the nationality would similarly not smooth his way into the cockpit if he was lacking performance.

Credit to Bouiller. He is keeping to the script when it comes to Petrov’s needing to prove himself, and that that is the first and key part of any decision about next year’s second seat at Renault.

So… if Petrov doesn’t wow the team? Who might it be? Before we get to the big name, here’s two others:

Q: The rumour mill has suggested you could also be considering German drivers Nick Heidfeld and Adrian Sutil as potential Petrov replacements…
EB: Now I have to choose my words very carefully. Let’s put it this way: we don’t have a direct contact right now and the door is not open yet, but we have signalled that it could open under certain circumstances.

Sounds like you can chalk those two up as definite possibilities. I wonder what Kubica would have to say about re-teaming with Nick?

OK, well, I’m about as slow to get to Kimi as Kimi was to get out of the mud during this past weekend’s Rally of France. Here it is:

Q: And there is still former world champion Kimi Raikkonen in the picture…
EB: He contacted us. But once again, our main issue at the moment is whether we should keep Petrov. Only if this question is negated we will look for replacement. Regarding Kimi, I would have to speak personally with him first, look him in the eyes to see if I see enough motivation there for him to return to Formula One. It doesn’t make sense to hire somebody – even a former world champion – if you cannot be sure that his motivation is still one hundred percent. Why should you invest in somebody who leaves you guessing?

I’m a bit worried Bouiller is setting himself up here. He’s pulled some form of the “looking Kimi in the eye” line a few times now. If the team were to hire Kimi, and Kimi goes all “this is boring” on them, it could be a big problem for the team boss. (As could skipping over Kimi, having Kimi end up at some other team — which does seem unlikely given the Finn’s desire for a top car — and exceeding expectations. The Kimi game, while good press right now, isn’t one without any danger.)

Bouiller has a few other interesting points:

Q: Does Robert Kubica have any influence on who will be his future team mate?
EB: It is important that there is good vibe in the team, because that is part of a successful package. I will ask Robert his opinion, but we will decide. We will choose a driver that the team needs and not Robert Kubica.

Q: Have you already considered the new tyre supplier Pirelli in the development of your 2011 car…
EB: …and that Nick Heidfeld who has done the initial tests for Pirelli should be first choice? Because he sits on important information and would without doubt give them to his new team? I think that Pirelli will inform all the teams in due course.

Q: What about the rumour that Renault is thinking of buying back a majority stake in the team?
EB: There is nothing to it.

You catch the meaning of the ellipses in that second answer, right? That he finishes up the thought, one that I know Todd and the F1B gang have touched on during podcasts. What extra knowledge might Nick bring with him? Even if Pirelli does “inform all the teams” that still is missing the feedback and understanding that Nick, as the driver, has.

You got to figure Nick will get a seat somewhere in 2011. Turns out that decision to go test for Pirelli might be the one that sees his career last a few extra seasons.

Remember how Kimi Raikkonen was doing OK during the first day of the Rally of France?

Well, hang on — and if you haven’t checked in yet and don’t want to know about Day 2, well stop reading — because it went from “typical” to … “more typical.”

Kimi, at almost no speed, drove off the road and was stuck in the mud for 37 minutes. He went from his solid, if unspectacular seventh spot all the way down to 50th.

And he isn’t happy:

“We went off the road at basically zero speed,” said the Finn. “It was so stupid. We got stuck on a mud bank with the car half on the road and half off the road. Eventually we had to get a rope to get the car back on the road.”

As I wrote yesterday, it seems to me that Kimi’s choices for next year come down to being seventh to 10th in WRC or somewhere in the same neighborhood in Formula 1, given the car he would get at Renault.

But at least when you drive off the track in F1, you’re done — you don’t have to keep going. No ice cream time for Kimi this weekend.

In a word: Typical.

At the end of the first day of the WRC’s Rally of France, Kimi Raikkonen is sitting in seventh place, pretty typical of his performance this season. He’s well back of the leaders, as well:

1. 1 S. LOEB M 1:18:27.8 0.0 0.0
2. 2 D. SORDO M 1:18:50.5 +22.7 +22.7
3. 7 S. OGIER M 1:18:53.4 +2.9 +25.6
4. 4 J. LATVALA M 1:19:09.6 +16.2 +41.8
5. 11 P. SOLBERG 1:19:13.6 +4.0 +45.8
6. 3 M. HIRVONEN M 1:20:18.6 +1:05.0 +1:50.8
7. 8 K. RÄIKKÖNEN M 1:21:55.2 +1:36.6 +3:27.4
8. 9 F. VILLAGRA M 1:24:02.4 +2:07.2 +5:34.6
9. 5 M. WILSON M 1:24:25.9 +23.5 +5:58.1
10. 43 K. BLOCK 1:25:29.2 +1:03.3 +7:01.4

He finished all the first day stages in that same seventh position, as well, so it isn’t like he’s had a particularly brilliant stage yet, either. That doesn’t strike me as boding well for his suddenly shooting up the leader board.

All the times are coming from the official WRC site.

I know it’s too early to make broad predictions, but it’s clear that Kimi’s WRC foray at this point has been fairly “meh.” Sure, he’s new to most of the circuits and the whole WRC experience. And sure next year might offer a more equal field with the changes to the cars… but has he shown you anything that really cries out for him to stay in WRC instead of returning to F1? (Setting aside, for a minute, the issue of where he might be having more “fun” etc.)

My counter to that is whether in a Renault he honestly could expect to be finishing much higher than seventh next year in F1. You have to figure the three top teams this year will be back at the front, which already claims six spots.

Maybe for Kimi, realistically, it is a matter of which series he’d rather run mid-pack in, and thus the whole issue does come down to: What’s more fun?

I still hope Kimi’s playing hardball as he waits for MINI to make him an offer he can’t refuse.

I’m no longer confident Kimi Raikkonen will be back in Formula 1 next year.

While Autosport is reporting today that Renault boss Eric Bouiller does want to meet with the former world champion, it is this quote that has me concerned:

“It is definitely getting closer to when we will make a decision,” Boullier told AUTOSPORT. “But we really want to consider all of the options.

“I decided to tell some drivers that we will not carry on discussions with them, so we know wait and see – but Kimi remains one of our scenarios.

“I have said many times that I want to meet with him first before we do anything more. I want to understand more about his wish to come back.”

Can anyone “understand” Kimi? If that’s the hurdle, I’m afraid we may as well put money on Bernie Ecclestone winning a slam-dunk contest.

Of course, it isn’t as though Vitaly Petrov has secured his seat in 2011:

“It is still frustrating because he keeps doing mistakes,” explained Boullier. “We put a lot of pressure on him and definitely he was not on the pace on Friday but he was there on Saturday.

“He qualified 13th with a crash in Q2, so it was a strange situation. The race could have been good, but he opened up a little bit too much the door and [Nico] Hulkenberg did a kamikaze move on him. It is racing, and it was unfortunate.”

When asked whether the decision on Petrov rested on commercial factors or performance, Boullier said: “It is definitely not a money issue. It is only the understanding for him to fit in F1 – and for us to give as much support as we need to give him to make sure he could be, shall I say, a decent second driver to score points next year.

“If Robert is fighting like now for fifth position and Petrov can finish seventh or eighth then that is fine. This is what we expect from a young driver. And it means his learning curve is still improving. If he is already at the limit, then it is a different matter.”

I will give Bouiller credit for letting this story continue. Other than Kubica’s finish in Monaco, this is probably the longest string of Renault coverage we’ve had all year — and it’s been a pretty good year for the team. But milk it, Eric, milk it. Maybe you can get an extra sponsor or two out of it.

But back to Kimi. Does anyone think he can or will make a compelling argument on why he wants back in Formula 1? Has he ever been in that position, since maybe his earliest days in the sport?

If you were Bouiller, what would Kimi have to say to convince you to hire him?

I admit it, I love silly season rumors.

Sure, they aren’t usually worth the paper they’re reported on, but they do provide for some interesting discussion and make a sometimes boring lull in the news a little more entertaining.

So last week, the big silly season rumor was Robert Kubica taking Massa’s seat at Ferrari and Massa taking Kubica’s seat at Renault in a tighty little seat swap. This weeks rumor, courtesy of the Swiss publication Motorsport Aktuell, still has Kubica going to Ferrari, but instead of sending Massa to Renault, now he’s off to Sauber.

Personally, I think the Kubica to Ferrari rumor still smells of a bit too much of the “if we say it out loud enough, it has to come true” type and not quite a “worst kept secret since Ralf Schumacher to Toyota” type, but it's still an interesting point of discussion. And it makes sense on every level but driver personalities.

And sure, Fernando and Robert are buddies, and it’s about racing, not warm touchy feely stuff. But if you’re a team principal, you bet your bottom dollar you’re concerned with how your team gets along.

Just ask Ron Dennis.

Then we move to Massa. I definitely could see Ferrari dumping Massa for someone else.

They aren’t going to dump Alonso, for sure, and Massa just doesn’t have that certain Ferrari air to him. Besides, I think it would behoove Massa (unlike Rubens) to move to a team where he has a fight chance in Hades to be taken seriously.

So, assuming that Massa is out, where should he go?

I vote Renault.

I think Renault will support him as a human being (I know; there I go getting all touchy feely again), and he could really benefit the team with his knowledge and experience. He’s a keep your head down and drive fast kind of guy, which is exactly what Renault needs in order to keep on progressing upwards.

It’s your classic win-win scenario.

Sauber, on the other hand, currently sits in the Williams bucket of team. Yes I want Sauber to succeed, but hope isn’t a plan.

Frankly, it pains me to say it, but who really thinks that Sauber’s prospects for 2011 are looking up—especially next to Renault? An act of desperation like changing drivers mid-season is just another example of why this team isn’t going anywhere.

So Felipe, if you’re listening: Get out of Ferrari and go to Renault. Don’t go to Sauber.

Sure, it’s better than being unemployed or a test driver (not sure which is worse), but if that’s your option, you might as well stay at Ferrari.

Just ask Rubens.