typically random ramblings and late night dribble.
webber to red bull next year, alongside old greybeard. feel a bit sorry for christian klien.
so here’s hoping that renault or ferrari provide rbr with a good, solid engine for next year and that adrian newey continues to work his well renowned magic and designs them a brilliant car.
in all the excitement, i’ve completely forgotten about toyota. i think the option of mark going to toyota is more likely than bmw, probably even more likely than maclaren. i’ve yet to hear that toyota have officially retained the services of ralf schumacher, which means they’ve currently only got one driver confirmed. jarno trulli. much like giancarlo fisichella, i’ve got alot of time for jarno and think he’s been really unlucky at toyota so far. he’s certainly been doing the better job for them in recent weeks, and reportedly for about half the salary that schumacher junior is pulling down.
mark in combination with jt would be really exciting, but i’d have to hope that toyota finally pulls it’s socks up and starts transforming those mega bucks into mega results. the signs are there at the moment with trulli having a couple of stonking drives from the back of the pack up into points paying positions, but that won’t be the first time toyota have shown promise and then failed to deliver.
so, i’m still sticking with my head-heart predictions of renault and red bull racing, but i wouldn’t be at all surprised to see mark line up in red and white next year at toyota.
given my level of interest in the sport, it’s a bit of a surprise that this is the first time i’ve made a post about formula 1.
i’ve been provoked though, with the news that mark webber won’t be driving for williams next year. a couple of days ago i would have sworn blind that he’d end up at williams, even though the car has once again been a dog for much of this season. afterall, mark’s expressed his desire to remain loyal to a team that he’d always dreamed of driving for and you’d have to think that sir frank williams would be a bit mad not to take up his option on a driver that’s been consistantly hauling the fw28 to places where it really ought not to be.
still, it seems like that’s what’s happened, although i don’t think it’s really a case of sir frank not wanting to take up the option, more that the option expired and frank ran out of time to make his offer attractive to mark. mark and flavio (mark’s manager and prinicpal of the renault f1 team for those not in the know) got sick of waiting and decided to put mark on the market for 2007.
so where does he go from here? renault seems to be the people’s favourite, and obviously that argument is given weight by the fact that mark’s manager is the renault team principal. renault would be a great option, even given their recent downturn in form. for me personally i’d love to see mark partnering giancarlo fisichella at renault, since i have quite a bit of time for fisico. fisi seems to think that his partner next year though is going to be finnish, meaning either kimi raikkonen or current renault test driver, heikki kovalainen.
personally i think kimi is off to ferrari, but only if schumacher leaves, and i think that’s why he’s yet to announce anything, because michael hasn’t said what he’s doing next year. if schumi retires, kimi to ferrari and webber to renault would be my prediction, with kovalainen doing a stint at red bull.
if schumacher continues, i think the ferrari lineup will stay the same because with felipe massa, ferrari have an ideal number 2 for michael. he’s fast and for the time being seems happy enough playing second fiddle to schumacher, giving ferrari every opportunity to get both their cars into the points whilst maintaining schumacher’s dominance.
if schumacher stays, kimi goes to renault, leaving either maclaren or red bull as the best options for mark, at least in my opinion. you could probably throw bmw in there as well, given team principal dr mario theissen has been a webber fan in the past and i believe approached him to drive when bmw split with williams as engine supplier.
i have serious doubts about maclaren, though that would also be a good option. it would be very interesting to see how mark compares with current world champion fernando alonso (who’s off to maclaren from renault next year). currently red bull racing doesn’t look so great, but the prospect of an adrian newey designed car, possibly with renault power in 2007 is a potentially exciting one.
so, out of all that, my heart says renault and i dearly hope they show a bit more form in the coming weeks. i’d hate for mark to head to another team that’s on a downward slide. my head though says red bull and i’m sure if that happens there’ll be plenty of scoffing from the non-webber fans, given red bull’s current midfield position. i’m looking for them to be much stronger next year though, thanks to the afore mentioned newey-renault combination. bmw are out of the picture i think.
hopefully we’ll know more in the coming weeks. infact if mark’s dad alan is to be believed, maybe as early as next week. that also leads me in the red bull direction given that this is the only likely option that doesn’t rely on playing wait and see with kimi and michael.
one way or another though, i am pleased for alex wurz. he sounds like one of the nicest, most intelligent guys in the f1 circus, i find his ‘wurz of wisdom’ column on the williams f1 website highly amusing and he thoroughly deserves his return to racing.
of course, this is all just me speculating based on everything i’ve been reading over the last couple of days, but i’m interested to see if i’m right, and now that i’ve stuck this all in print, there’s nowehere to hide if i’m wrong.