All the F1 action in Spain was off the track

It was perhaps inevitable that the European Grand Prix weekend in Valencia, Spain, was going to be a little flat. Michael Schumacher was there all right, and wearing Ferrari clothing--but not the driver�s suit virtually everyone hoped he would. Michael smiled a lot, and kept wishing Ferrari stand-in Luca Badoer well, but that didn�t really help. And as he stared at the timing screens, it was impossible to disguise his frustration at Badoer�s, er, modest pace.
During Friday practice, the hapless Badoer set a record by exceeding the pit lane speed limit on four different occasions-�as the paddock�s razor-tongued observers noted, somewhat cruelly, that no one could accuse him of excessive speed on the race track. In qualifying, the No. 3 Ferrari was dead last; 12 months ago, driven by Felipe Massa, it dominated the weekend.
You had to have some sympathy for Badoer, however, as he had not raced an F1 car since 1999, and though he is Ferrari�s official test driver, has virtually no experience of the F60 now that in-season testing is banned.
Some wondered why Ferrari did not draft a guy such as Sebastien Bourdais, whom Scuderia Toro Rosso fired recently. Bourdais may not have set F1 on fire, but he is at least very much race-fit, and fully conversant with both the Ferrari engine and Bridgestone slicks.
Though Ferrari will not make the announcement before the Italian Grand Prix at Monza next month, Fernando Alonso is to drive for the team in 2010, with Massa--assuming he recovers fully from his injuries suffered in Hungary--returning to partner him.
The suggestion in Valencia was that Ferrari reached an agreement with Kimi Raikkonen to end his contract a year early. During three years with the team, Raikkonen, despite nicking the world championship two years ago, has rarely looked anything like the driver he was at McLaren-Mercedes, and it is not known whether he will stay in F1--Renault has been mentioned--or perhaps turn his hand to rallying. During the recent summer break, Kimi took part in Rally Finland--he rolled his car--but not before impressing onlookers with his raw speed.
Given that it is now accepted that Alonso will join Ferrari, the driver market has come very much to life, and of course BMW�s forthcoming withdrawal has contributed to that: Robert Kubica, who has the measure of anyone in terms of natural talent, is unexpectedly available.
Kubica has been linked with three teams--McLaren, Renault and Williams--but the belief at the moment is that current Williams driver Nico Rosberg will join his old karting teammate Lewis Hamilton at McLaren. Renault, soon to lose Alonso, is believed to be keen to sign Kubica, but Robert himself is believed to have more enthusiasm for Williams, a team very much on the up at the moment.
Williams� problem for 2010 could be engines, for it is known that Toyota, which has supplied the team for the last three years, is profoundly displeased by Williams� stance in the recent FIA-FOTA battle, and may well terminate the contract. Rumors abound that Red Bull Racing will use Mercedes engines next year; if that happens, Williams and Renault could very well renew the highly successful partnership last seen in the mid-�90s.
Quite evident in Valencia qualifying was that McLaren is emphatically back on its game. Hamilton won in Hungary, but perhaps his car wasn�t the out-and-out quickest: at Valencia, though, Lewis won the pole, with teammate Heikki Kovalainen alongside him.
Only McLaren and Ferrari still use kinetic energy recovery systems, and as the teams improve their once lamentable cars, KERS can make a difference: An extra 80 hp for six seconds a lap can come in quite handy. Imagine the advantage it might provide in the next race, at Spa, up the long hill from Eau Rouge to Les Combes. Indeed, Hamilton will not retain his title this year, but he may well have a say in who takes it.

By NIGEL ROEBUCK

Week-end Formula 1 News

The Australian Grand Prix will likely be scrapped if leading teams form a breakaway Formula 1 series next year, Australian F1 race chief Ron Walker said on Friday.
Uncertainty continues to surround the future direction of the sport after the eight-member Formula One Teams Association (Fota), including Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes, walked out of a meeting with motor racing's governing body in Paris this week and revived their threat to form a breakaway series.
Walker said he would advise the Victorian state government, which backs the race, to cancel the event should F1's leading teams carry out their threat."The Grand Prix board would probably say to the (Victorian) Premier it's too hard," Walker told a radio station on Friday. "
You can just imagine if the likes of (Roger) Federer and other major tennis players didn't turn up to the Australian Open in January or if some of the best horses didn't come to the Melbourne Cup."
Melbourne has an agreement to run the event until 2015 under a five-year licence extension signed last year

On another note, defending drivers' world champion Lewis Hamilton clocked the fastest time in Friday afternoon's second free practice session ahead of Sunday's German Grand Prix.It was the third time in this disappointing season - for him - that the 24-year-old had been quickest on the opening day in his McLaren Mercedes, having been fastest previously on Friday in Bahrain and China.Cynics, however, may suggest that with his McLaren team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalainen struggling in 17th place on a cool, wet day, Hamilton was running very light on fuel to please the fans sitting in the Mercedes-Benz grandstand.
The Briton clocked a best time of 1min 32.149sec with 6 minutes of the 90 remaining to ease clear of nearest rival German Sebastian Vettel, in his Red Bull, by 0.2sec.Championship leader Jenson Button of Britain was third for Brawn GP, ahead of Australian Mark Webber, in the second Red Bull, with Italian Jarno Trulli fifth for Toyota and German Adrian Sutil sixth for Force India. Button's Brawn team-mate Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello was seventh ahead of two-time champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Renault.

Alonso trades Renault in for Ferrari, say press reports

Two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso is planning to switch from Renault to Ferrari next season, Spanish sports newspapers Marca and AS reported yesterday.Negotiations about the Spanish driver's transfer are close to completion and could become official at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza from Sept 11-13, according to the reports which were echoed by Italian media.
The 27-year-old Spaniard won the driver's championships in 2005 and 2006 for Renault and is under contract with the French manufacturer until the end of next year, but with a get-out clause which he can activate earlier.
Alonso, currently ninth in the driver's championship table, has expressed dissatisfaction with Renault's under-performing R29 model, even though engineers say radical improvements are on the way.
Ferrari are believed to be less than happy with Kimi Raikkonen, currently 10th in the table, and could be keen on the idea of Alonso partnering Felipe Massa. But the Italian firm would find it very expensive to buy the Finn out of his cast-iron contract.
According to the Spanish reports, Alonso has secured the backing of Spanish financial giant Banco de Santander to get a five-year deal with Ferrari.

F1 Teams Association walks out of FIA meeting

The eight members of the Formula 1 Teams Association (Fota) walked out of a meeting with the sport's governing body, the FIA, on Wednesday.
The meeting, at Germany's Nurburgring, was held to discuss next year's rules and Fota's proposed changes to them.
But the Fota teams left when told they had not entered the 2010 championship and therefore had no voting rights on technical and sporting regulations.
A Fota statement said the row "puts the future of Formula 1 in jeopardy".
It is the latest incident in a bitter, long-running argument between Fota and the FIA over planned budgetary and technical changes which has threatened to tear the sport apart.
The eight Fota teams - Ferrari, McLaren, BMW Sauber, Renault, Toyota, Red Bull Racing, Toro Rosso and Brawn GP - insist they have entered the 2010 championship.

"It will be remembered all eight active Fota members were included on the 'accepted' entry list as endorsed by the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) and communicated by FIA press statement on 24 June," said Fota.
The association added that because it was now being claimed they had not entered, they had "requested a postponement of today's meetings".
Fota continued: "This was rejected on the grounds no new Concorde Agreement would be permitted before a unanimous approval of the 2010 regulations was achieved.
"However, it is clear to the Fota teams that the basis of the 2010 technical and sporting regulations was already established in Paris.
"As endorsed by the World Motor Sport Council and clearly stated in the FIA press statement of 24 June 'the rules for 2010 onwards will be the 2009 regulations as well as further regulations agreed prior to 29 April, 2009'.
"At no point in the Paris discussions was any requirement for unanimous agreement on regulations change expressed.
"To subsequently go against the will of the WMSC and the detail of the Paris agreement puts the future of Formula 1 in jeopardy.

"As a result of these statements, the Fota representatives at the subsequent Technical Working Group were not able to exercise their rights and therefore had no option other than to terminate their participation.
"The Fota members undertook the Paris agreement and the subsequent discussions in good faith and with a desire to engage with all new and existing teams on the future of Formula 1."
The FIA insisted in a statement of its own that it had wanted to discuss proposals for 2010.
The FIA added: "Unfortunately, no discussion was possible because Fota walked out of the meeting."
The long-running row between Fota and the FIA appeared to have been resolved in June, when an agreement was reached between F1's governing body and the Fota teams to prevent a breakaway series.
Under the terms of that deal a proposed budget cap was postponed and the teams won significant concessions on rule changes and the governance of the sport, while Max Mosley agreed not to stand for re-election as president of the FIA.
Wednesday's truncated meeting was attended by Williams and Force India, who are suspended from Fota after applying for unconditional entries to race in 2010 at the height of the budget cap crisis.
Formula 1's three new teams, Campos Grand Prix, Manor and US F1, also attended the meeting at the Nurburgring ahead of Sunday's German Grand Prix.