[Piediahef]

Just confirmed!

[Si8jy8HN]

LINK PLEASE!

[Piediahef]

On BBC News ticker....no story written, yet

[Ztcgtqvb]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79974

[KuRoregioNka]

OK! so who goes to Brawn?

[HaroldMY]

I think everyone is expecting Rosberg, unless he's being kept on ice while Mclaren wait for Kimi's decision

[Si8jy8HN]

Well we know for certain now that Barichello is not going to be at Brawn. So there's at least one free seat there.

I suspect they are waiting to sign Button first of all. I suppose if they can't reach agreement with Button they'll be looking to get Kimi.

[HaroldMY]

I can't imagine Brawn will get Kimi if we believe all the stories about Button asking for more money and Brawn stalling because they want to keep him under the £10M mark. Kimi's management are obviously keen to get the largest wage they can for their driver and theres only 2 teams other than Ferrari that could compete IMO. Mclaren and Toyota. Toyota are looking less likely and with the Mclaren pace at Abu Dhabi, I think they are the more obvious choice. Whether or not they will be willing to pay him the same as Lewis is another matter..

[Piediahef]

Indeed I wouldn't assume Rosberg at Brawn is a done deal - they need to sort Jenson first and then figure out what they have left in the budget.

[Attaniuri]

Congrats to Rubens! He is still highly competitive and very motivated even at this age and after such a long career. Legendary amount of 300 GP starts will be reached next year. His main weakness is braking balance, which has been the main cause for his struggles thus far. Rubinho has had these issues in the beginning of his Ferrari-career, at Honda in 2006 and in the beginning of 2009 with Brawn. I wonder, how will he adapt to Williams.

The main alarming aspect about Rubens is that after great qualies he has seemed to struggle slightly in races recently. I wonder if his physical fitness isn't really that sharp any more in such age. I remember similar case with Mansell in 1994 - he was fast in qualis and got a pole position as well, but in races was clearly slower than Hill.

Hülkenberg is the best-prepared rookie to join F1 after Hamilton and could be the revelation of 2010, so it will be very exciting to see, what can he do. The more top drivers we have, the greater the competition is. I personally predict that while Rubens could beat him in qualis, Nico will have better races.

[VogsHoock]

Barrichello and Hülkenberg make a good lineup for Williams

[Lolita Palmer]

we all knew this was the case weeks ago

sadly for these two, Williams made the stupid decision to part with the strong toyota engine for the unknown, cheaper and most likely inferior cosworth engine. A dumb decision that will see them competing with the other cosworths for king of the backmarker status

[newwebstar]

good news, but I hope the cosworth engine isn't a big issue, and that williams can make a competitive car.

as for Barrichello's braking issues, I think he is still doing right foot braking... the only one in F1!?

[BliliBoopsy]

ive been tipping Hulkenberg as a future world champion for atleast 4 years, so its good to see him finally get a drive in F1.

Once he gets a drive with a top team he will be a world champ.

[gooseCile]

This is a great lineup. Nico Hulkenberg seems a very strong and talented young driver and Rubens can help him a lot in what I expect to be his final year. Nico will need a good, old experience teammate and Barrichello is the ideal man. Now we need to see what will happen at Brawn GP and McLaren-Mercedes. But of Jenson goes to Brawn, I think that this will be disaster for the young team, even if Rosberg joins them.

[mr.supervideogoodfd]

the perfect driver line up for the williams team i feel, for the reasons expressed above. i can see a very good driver relationship growing next year and hulkenburg will have a great guy to work with in rubens, who i believe will take nico under his wing.

good luck for williams next year.

[PetraCromlich]

we all knew this was the case weeks ago

sadly for these two, Williams made the stupid decision to part with the strong toyota engine for the unknown, cheaper and most likely inferior cosworth engine. A dumb decision that will see them competing with the other cosworths for king of the backmarker status

I disagree, the only problem the Cosworth engine had in 06 was that it was unreliable, take out that, and it was one of the most powerful on the grid (i think it was producing close to 20,000rpm) plenty of good quali performances, fastest lap in bahrain for Rosberg and Webber running as high as 3rd in Monaco are testament to that. So i would'nt call it inferior to the Toyota engine which supposedly is the weakest on the grid at the moment.

Reliability though should improve with the rev-limited regulations and as a result, Williams and the 4 newbies could have a decent engine package. Include that Williams have an excellent driver line-up potentially and they could challenge for a top 5 constructors spot in 2010.

[EzekelEnzino]

I disagree, the only problem the Cosworth engine had in 06 was that it was unreliable, take out that, and it was one of the most powerful on the grid (i think it was producing close to 20,000rpm) ...

Both BMW an Ferrari went well above 20000 and BMW did even hit 21000 rpms.
Also reliability is at a premium nowadays with only 8 engines for a whole season.

[vladekad]

Good line-up.

Nico is a very talented guy and I predict he will hand Rubens a clear beating next season.

[oraltyrap]

I can't imagine Brawn will get Kimi if we believe all the stories about Button asking for more money and Brawn stalling because they want to keep him under the £10M mark. Kimi's management are obviously keen to get the largest wage they can for their driver and theres only 2 teams other than Ferrari that could compete IMO. Mclaren and Toyota. Toyota are looking less likely and with the Mclaren pace at Abu Dhabi, I think they are the more obvious choice. Whether or not they will be willing to pay him the same as Lewis is another matter..

Kimi's publically dismissed Toyota out of hand (or rather, he said that it was McLaren or bust as far as F1 went).

sadly for these two, Williams made the stupid decision to part with the strong toyota engine for the unknown, cheaper and most likely inferior cosworth engine. A dumb decision that will see them competing with the other cosworths for king of the backmarker status

Well, when you remember that the price for the Toyotas was Nakajima, one of the reasons they're taking the risk is obvious. The other is that Toyota may be pulling out ANYWAY, and if so they'd be hunting for a replacement engine much closer to the wire.

I disagree, the only problem the Cosworth engine had in 06 was that it was unreliable, take out that, and it was one of the most powerful on the grid (i think it was producing close to 20,000rpm)

Power at high-revs is no help with rev-limited regs - Mercedes had trouble getting their engine to rev high, but with an 18krpm limit they're the class of the field.

Reliability though should improve with the rev-limited regulations and as a result, Williams and the 4 newbies could have a decent engine package. Include that Williams have an excellent driver line-up potentially and they could challenge for a top 5 constructors spot in 2010.

See, here's the problem for the Cosworth runners - fuel. The Cosworth engine was one of the thirstiest in 2006, and with refuelling banned next year, a thirsty engine is a bigger penalty than ever.

Remember this from a couple of months back?

The word in F1 circles is that the Cosworth engine is not going to be very competitive. Designed several years ago, it is heavier and less fuel efficient than the current generation of engines and while this can be improved upon in the mid-term, it is not going to happen before the start of the 2010 season. It is reckoned that because there will be no refuelling next year, Cosworth cars will have to carry an additional 18kg of fuel. This will mean that the designers will have to build bigger fuel tanks and this will affect both the weight distribution of the cars and the handling. The result of all this will be that the cars will use their tyres less efficiently than the existing teams. Engineers from rival teams calculate that this will cost the three new Cosworth teams around three to four seconds a lap.

3-4 seconds. Per lap. After a 2009 with the field spread as low as than 1s/lap.