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

Exclusive: Honda will be at Mebourne GP 2009

The Honda Formula One team will be on the grid for the start of the 2009 season after a management buyout. Jenson Button will spearhead the team on the track after two months of intense work on a rescue package by senior managers.

Sources close to the Brackley-based outfit confirmed last night that the deal is going ahead and that the team will conduct a �shakedown� test of their new car at Silverstone next Thursday, which will be Button�s first outing in the new machine.
The management buyout is being led by Ross Brawn, the team principal and former Ferrari technical director, and will be funded by a combination of money from Honda itself for this year, funds from Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights-holder, and commercial sponsorship. Recent reports suggested that Sir Richard Branson�s Virgin Group could be a backer but this was being ruled out by informed sources last night.

It is not yet known under what name the team will operate or in what livery their cars will race. Under independent management, with a chassis designed by Honda and powered by a Mercedes-Benz engine under a supply deal with McLaren Mercedes, the �old� Honda team will be something of a hybrid that is likely to take some time to forge a new identity.

At Silverstone, the new car is expected to run in neutral colours. That outing will be followed by the team�s first full test in Barcelona, starting on March 9, which is the last official run-out before the first grand prix of the season in Melbourne on March 29.
While Button is confirmed in one race seat, no decision has been taken on his team-mate. This will be either Rubens Barrichello, the Brazilian, who has been with Honda for the past three seasons, or his compatriot and Formula One rookie, Bruno Senna, 25, the nephew of the great Ayrton Senna.
The buyout is expected to safeguard the jobs of �the majority� of the team�s 700 employees and was approved at a board meeting of the Honda Motor Co Ltd in Tokyo last Monday. After that meeting, Takeo Fukui, the company�s chief executive, was quoted as saying that no �serious buyer� had come forward and the company was finding the sale process �difficult�.
His comments were taken at the time as a sign that winding up the team was still a likely outcome, but it now seems that these remarks were misinterpreted.
The decision by Honda to approve and support the buyout which is regarded as highly unorthodox by senior managers in Tokyo, is a sensitive matter for a company that had made clear to its shareholders that it was withdrawing from a sport that was costing it more than �200 million a year.
While Button will be relieved to have a drive in his tenth season in Formula One, it looks likely to be another frustrating year in a car that has had a difficult birth and is unlikely to be competitive, at least in the early races.

Elsewhere yesterday, Sir Frank Williams dismissed reports that his team were in financial trouble as a result of the decision by RBS to end its sponsorship of the team in 2010. Williams said that RBS contributes only 10 per cent of the team�s budget and there was plenty of time to find a replacement sponsor from 2011 onwards.
�Don�t worry, there�s hundreds of trillions of cash in the world � something will turn up,� quipped Williams, who added that he was dismayed by a story that suggested his team, and the sport as a whole, is in difficulty. �It was presented as though it was the end of the world for Formula One, which is totally, totally untrue,� he said.

Monaco Grand Prix - The ONE to Win

As the 55th Monaco Grand Prix gets under way, Rosberg is primed to snatch the crown jewel

Set on the narrow, twisting streets of Monte Carlo, on the coast of the French Riviera, the Monaco Grand Prix is the most recognised motor race in the world.
No wonder, then, that it's often referred to as "the jewel of the Formula 1 crown". And with outsiders standing a good chance, don't be surprised if we see a new prince of Monaco crowned here on Sunday, at the race's 55th edition.
The Monaco Grand Prix is the oldest street circuit in Formula 1 and one of the traditional races on the calendar. Save a four-year break from 1951 to 1954, it has played host each year since the start of the world championship in 1950.
There have been street circuits in the United States, France, Switzerland, Spain and Adelaide, but none have endured as Monaco's has.
Up until this season, which sees the addition of the Valencia and Singapore races to the calendar, Monaco was Formula 1's only street circuit for 12 years.
The 3.3km Monte Carlo track is one of the most challenging stops on the calendar.
Since the first Grand Prix in 1950, the street circuit has not changed much to accommodate the bigger and faster modern Formula 1 car.
With overtaking virtually impossible there, getting pole position is of paramount importance. He who starts the 78-lap race in front almost always takes the chequered flag.
All drivers look forward to the race in the glamourous principality as the formbook usually goes out the window there.
In 1996, Olivier Panis took the chequered flag in a lowly Ligier, in a race interrupted by intermittent rain.
The big boys didn't finish, only four cars crossed the finishing line.
Rain is always a factor at Monte Carlo at this time of the year and predictions are for a rainy weekend.
So while championship leaders Ferrari, BMW-Sauber and McLaren-Mercedes are tagged as favourites on current form to take top billing this Sunday, I'm not going to count out the rest of the field. Qualifying on Saturday for a front row place on race day is everything and my bet is that Williams' Nico Rosberg is good for a big surprise.
It will be the British team's 600th Grand Prix and Rosberg will be pumped up to add more meaning to that milestone with a win for one of the oldest sides in Formula 1.
At Thursday's practice the 22-year-old was the only outsider to feature in the top five, ending the session behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, but ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, and Heikki Kovalainen in the other McLaren.
Rosberg, whose father is 1983 world champion Keke of Finland, made his Formula 1 debut in 2006 after winning the GP2 series the year before.
He quickly showed his pedigree with Williams at the opening round in Bahrain by becoming the youngest driver in history to record the fastest lap in a race. That achievement was all the more remarkable as his Williams ride was lagging far behind championship contenders Ferrari, McLaren and 2005 champions Renault.
Last year, Rosberg was the centre of attention when he became the top contender to replace two-time world champion Fernando Alonso at McLaren after the Spaniard left the team in the wake of an acrimonious relationship.
Only the influence of the legendary team principal Frank Williams persuaded Rosberg to continue honing his talents with the Williams team.
Rosberg, who was born in Germany, started the 2008 season well enough with a third-place finish at the Australian Grand Prix behind winner Hamilton and BMW's Nick Heidfeld, and then came in eighth at the Bahrain and Turkish races.
To be sure, the Williams car is still nowhere near fighting for the world championship like its predecessors did in the 1980s and '90s.
But if Rosberg's performance on Thursday is anything to go by, and if his good form continues in qualifying this Saturday, then anything is possible.
Clinching pole will be the first step and then it will be left to his engineers to map out a competitive tyre and pitstop strategy to keep him in front.
A win at Monaco would also put Rosberg in an elite class of drivers who've conquered the mean streets of Monte Carlo, a group that includes the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio, Ayrton Senna, Jackie Stewart, Stirling Moss and Michael Schumacher.
That should be an even bigger incentive for Rosberg.

A bit of History...Williams F1 Team

Williams F1 is one of the world's leading Formula One teams. Formed in 1977 by Frank Williams and Patrick Head, the company has secured 16 FIA Formula One World Championship titles. Nine of these titles have been won in the Constructors' Championship in association with Cosworth, Honda and Renault. The remaining seven titles are Drivers' Championships, won with Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

Today Williams F1 employs around 520 personnel at a 40ha technology campus based in the heart of the UK's 'Motorsport Valley' in rural Oxfordshire. The company's core competencies are the design and manufacture of Formula One race cars, and the deployment of this expertise in running the team's entries into the Grand Prix each season.

Away from the race track, Williams F1 has grown into a significant international business over a quarter of a century, and its achievements earned its founder, Frank Williams, a knighthood in the 1999 New Year's Honours List to augment France's highest decoration, the Legion d'Honneur. Corporately, Williams F1 has also been awarded two Queen's Awards for Export Achievement, and is today recognised as one of the most enduring and successful organisations in global sport.

The company's business model is relatively unique. Williams F1 is one of the very few wholly independent Formula One teams that exists purely to race. Its income is largely derived from sponsorship. Supplementing this are a number of secondary income streams, including an international business and conferencing facility at the company's Grove HQ, with an extensive interactive museum tracing thirty years of success in Formula One.