This is more general F1 news, but the expected was confirmed with Vettel officially moving to Red Bull next year .

So what are the odds on Alonso moving to Honda and Rosberg moving to Ferrari as number 1? Alonso won't want to stay with Renault, and has been linked with Honda, and Rosberg will probably move for 2009 due to Williams not finishing in the top 4.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

So what are the odds on Alonso moving to Honda and Rosberg moving to Ferrari as number 1? Alonso won't want to stay with Renault, and has been linked with Honda, and Rosberg will probably move for 2009 due to Williams not finishing in the top 4.

None.. lol

Don't be too sure, Honda are likely to be at the sharp end of the grid in the next few years, they should take BMW's place as the third best team on the grid and Rubens would probably be willing to retire or move teams if Honda pushed to get Alonso.

Also Rosberg needs to jump ship before its too late, and if Kimi decides to retire early then Ferrari will snap him up in no time at all, he is like a mini-schumacher with more personality and Williams have drivers lined up to replace him if they had to.

I pretty much doubt Alonso will take ANY risks next year, if he moves it will be to a (already) winning team. And the only winning teams right now are Ferrari, McLaren and (one little step behind) BMW. McLaren is not an option, so I'd say 80% Ferrari, 20% BMW.

i actually reckon Rubens will be probably be staying at Honda next year due to his superb performance this season.

despite his speed would ferrari risk alonso's temprement?

the biggest change that schumacher, todt and brawn made to ferrari was loosing the italian histrionics, knee jerk reactions and internal politicsthat had disrupted them so much since scheckter won his title. alonso is (very) latin in his reactions when things go wrong and has shown himself to be very active with regards to internal politics.

also imagine what would happen if massa or raikkonen won the title and stayed with the team, can you imagine them giving alonso the number 1 status he desires whilst he carried the number 2 on his car ?

even worse, imagine if raikkonen stays, massa looses his seat and due to various factors massa still wins the title and takes the number 1 to another team

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

So what are the odds on Alonso moving to Honda and Rosberg moving to Ferrari as number 1? Alonso won't want to stay with Renault, and has been linked with Honda, and Rosberg will probably move for 2009 due to Williams not finishing in the top 4.

Highly unlikely.

Alonso is semi-lined up for Ferrari, if Kimi chooses to retire, or if they dump Massa. Alonso will be going to a faster team, not a slower team, than Renault. Otherwise he will simply stay put at Renault. No way is he going to Honda, especially with the uncertainty of next year's rule changes.

Rosberg is already under a long-term contract with Williams, and unlikely to move. He publicly affirmed his commitment to Williams earlier in the year. It's difficult to back out of such things without losing a lot of credibility (see Jenson Button).

As for Honda, they need drivers who can act as yardsticks for development, and that means drivers who are familiar with the team from this year. Rubens and Button have performed reasonably well. If anything, they'll dump Button and put Anthony Davidson in. However, my bet is that they'll keep both Rubens and Button in the racing seats.

Quote from tinvek :

despite his speed would ferrari risk alonso's temprement?

the biggest change that schumacher, todt and brawn made to ferrari was loosing the italian histrionics, knee jerk reactions and internal politicsthat had disrupted them so much since scheckter won his title. alonso is (very) latin in his reactions when things go wrong and has shown himself to be very active with regards to internal politics.

also imagine what would happen if massa or raikkonen won the title and stayed with the team, can you imagine them giving alonso the number 1 status he desires whilst he carried the number 2 on his car ?

even worse, imagine if raikkonen stays, massa looses his seat and due to various factors massa still wins the title and takes the number 1 to another team

Alonso has not shown himself to be political, in my opinion. He was offended at McLaren because of their seeming partiality toward Hamilton. Whether that partiality was real or imagined is very debatable, but when someone has a perception about favouritism, it's very difficult to deal with. He joined McLaren with the expectation of either #1 status, or at least fair treatment. His perception was that he wasn't getting either, so he took it personally and lost his head. But he didn't - as far as I'm aware - do anything political.

His temper is bad. But he's not incapable of dealing with it. Let's not forget the injustices dealt against him during his battles against Schumacher and Ferrari. He managed to keep his head on his shoulders then and score the wins, despite the obvious anger. Ferrari will not have forgotten that Alonso was the one who dethroned Schumacher, and gave Renault two constructor's titles!

Alonso, like a lot of F1 drivers, has a huge ego. I wouldn't be surprised if he accepted a #2 status in Ferrari with Kimi or even Massa, just to prove to everyone that he can take it. They won't be foolish enough to offer him #1 status outright, but if they say something like: "We'll give you guys equal treatment until Round 9, and then the one with more points gets #1", I'm sure he'll jump at the chance to prove himself. In such conditions, even if he doesn't come out as #1, I think he'll deal with it much better than he did at McLaren.

Quote from samjh :

Highly unlikely.

Alonso is semi-lined up for Ferrari, if Kimi chooses to retire, or if they dump Massa. Alonso will be going to a faster team, not a slower team, than Renault. Otherwise he will simply stay put at Renault. No way is he going to Honda, especially with the uncertainty of next year's rule changes.

Rosberg is already under a long-term contract with Williams, and unlikely to move. He publicly affirmed his commitment to Williams earlier in the year. It's difficult to back out of such things without losing a lot of credibility (see Jenson Button).

As for Honda, they need drivers who can act as yardsticks for development, and that means drivers who are familiar with the team from this year. Rubens and Button have performed reasonably well. If anything, they'll dump Button and put Anthony Davidson in. However, my bet is that they'll keep both Rubens and Button in the racing seats.

Alonso has not shown himself to be political, in my opinion. He was offended at McLaren because of their seeming partiality toward Hamilton. Whether that partiality was real or imagined is very debatable, but when someone has a perception about favouritism, it's very difficult to deal with. He joined McLaren with the expectation of either #1 status, or at least fair treatment. His perception was that he wasn't getting either, so he took it personally and lost his head. But he didn't - as far as I'm aware - do anything political.

His temper is bad. But he's not incapable of dealing with it. Let's not forget the injustices dealt against him during his battles against Schumacher and Ferrari. He managed to keep his head on his shoulders then and score the wins, despite the obvious anger. Ferrari will not have forgotten that Alonso was the one who dethroned Schumacher, and gave Renault two constructor's titles!

Alonso, like a lot of F1 drivers, has a huge ego. I wouldn't be surprised if he accepted a #2 status in Ferrari with Kimi or even Massa, just to prove to everyone that he can take it. They won't be foolish enough to offer him #1 status outright, but if they say something like: "We'll give you guys equal treatment until Round 9, and then the one with more points gets #1", I'm sure he'll jump at the chance to prove himself. In such conditions, even if he doesn't come out as #1, I think he'll deal with it much better than he did at McLaren.

imo massa will stay he is still joint leader of the championship, people just judge hes poorly set up ferrari at silverstone as his whole performance for the season.

Formula 1 is a very hard sport to judge in terms of driver performance, like for Eg. Kubica in 07 was completely dominated by Heidfeld yet in 08 the tables turned the other way. Also before Massa went to Ferrari. in suaber in 04 he was completely dominated by fisi then in 05 he soundly beat villenuve, then went striaght to a top flight team and excelled, seems weird how a unimpressive mid field runner can perform so well with the right machinery.

I think the way the car is set up is more a factor in driver performance then how they fair up agianst thier team mate.

Quote from Mustafur :

Formula 1 is a very hard sport to judge in terms of driver performance...

I think the way the car is set up is more a factor in driver performance then how they fair up agianst thier team mate.

Much depends on the car, and its suitability to the driving style of the pilot.

I definitely agree that the car set up is a big factor.

Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :

i actually reckon Rubens will be probably be staying at Honda next year due to his superb performance this season.

He only did well in the last race at Silverstone, and that was more because of the team's tyre decision than because his superb performance.

I don't recall him having any remarkable performances/results other than that.

I reckon the Honda is so bad that both Jenson and Rubens are finding it easy to get to the cars limits, so they show up as evenly matched. The car is the limiting factor in the equation. When the car is good Jenson tends to be quicker, when the car is a smaller part of the equation.

Ferrari/Benetton had a similar thing - it was a great car, but had to be driven in a special way to find 'the limit'. It suited Schumachers style, and therefore he tended to eclipse his teammates more than the pure driving talent would suggest...

Brawn's pretty much confirmed that Rubens and Button will still drive for Honda in 2009:
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/7/8105.html

Honda lost their way slightly this year and went in the wrong direction, Ross Brawn identified that and has sorted it out. Next year there is a fresh start with new rules, which is a chance for people to make big gains, and if anyone could do it then its Honda with their huge resources, and Ross Brawn making sure it all goes smoothly. I expect Honda to be much faster than Renault next year.

As for Rosberg, he can switch teams in 2009 if Williams don't finish at least 4th in the constructors championship, and while he might like the team, he wouldn't turn down an offer from someone like Mclaren or Ferrari because he wants to win championships. Williams have actually switched focus back onto their current car, you can bet your house that they have done that to make sure they finish at least 4th so they can keep Rosberg.

I don't know about Honda, they aren't very predictable.

It's hard to imagine they turned the slump of BAR into the best of the rest and then turned it into a slump again.

I hope they do well though.

just for your request

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EDIT:
Thanks!

Pole for Hamilton!

YAY! Hamilton! Wooooooooooo!

1. L. Hamilton 1:15.666

lol : 666 Hamilton Possesed by the Devil

Impressive run by Trulli and Alonso, and the Red Bull trio as well.

Now, let us all do a rain dance.

Is it just me or does he seem surprised by his lap time? Extremely calm as well.

Once again Hamilton manages to make it through a press conference without coming across as a total cock. I think he's really improved his media face since Montreal - seems more himself. Even likable!

Good stuff from Hamilton (but he was posessed (spell?) so it doesn't count), Trulli, Alonso and Vettel.

Disappointing performance by BMW Sauber, and uh... did the Williams join the qualify?

Piquet on soft tyres Q1 1:16.2
Alonso on soft tyres Q2 1:14.9

On the same tyres and config Piquet is 1.3 seconds behind Alonso. Are his days numbered? He has had some OKish races but hasn't had the 'Heikki come back' we saw last year

Grosjean isn't setting the world alight in GP2... Renault need to take a gamble. Invest in some really talented karter like McLaren/Honda and they will reap the benefits in a few years time. But for next year??? aint lookin' good!

For Renault : (Sakon) Yama(moto) time? Lucas Di Grassi?