The last racing seat has finally been confirmed for the 2007 Formual One season, as Scott Speed stays on with Scuderia Toro Rosso, Red Bull's back-marker B-team once known as Minardi. Lead by former F1 driver Gerhard Berger, Toro Rosso seemed to have been playing a twisted little game of waiting as long as possible to make the announcement, finally tipping their hand at the bottom of a testing session press release to ensure it gets the least attention possible.
While Speed remains the only American driver in F1, other countries are well represented. British fans have four drivers on the grid to support, plus two test drivers. While Takuma Sato remains the only Japanese driver on the grid, Nippon-backed teams Toyota, Williams and Super Aguri (with the notable exception of Honda) have stacked their testing rosters with four more Japanese pilots. Four German testers join four drivers in the post-Schumacher era. Italy has four on the grid and another in the garage. Two drivers and two testers compete for the attention of Brazilian fans. Even the Dutch are back with one driver and two testers.
With the unstartling revelation, the full grid for the 2007 Formula One season is now confirmed, as every other team has already announced its driver line-up (save for Toro Rosso's test drivers).
Follow the jump for the full roster.
[Source: GrandPrix.com]
2007 Formula One roster
ING Renault F1
- Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy)
- Heikki Kovalainen (Finland)
- Test drivers: Ricardo Zonta (Brazil), and Nelson Piquet Jr. (Brazil)
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
- Felipe Massa (Brazil)
- Kimi Raikkonen (Finland)
- Test drivers: Luca Badoer (Italy) and Marc Gené (Spain)
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
- Fernando Alonso (Spain)
- Lewis Hamilton (Britain)
- Test drivers: Pedro de la Rosa (Spain) & Gary Paffet (Britain)
Honda F1
- Jenson Button (UK)
- Rubens Barrichello (Brazil)
- Test Drivers: Christian Klien (Austria) and James Rossiter (UK)
BMW Sauber F1
- Nick Heidfeld (Germany)
- Robert Kubica (Poland)
- Test drivers: Sebastian Vettel (Germany) and Timo Glock (Germany)
Panasonic Toyota Racing
- Jarno Trulli (Italy)
- Ralf Schumacher (Germany)
- Test drivers: Franck Montagny (France), Kohei Hirate (Japan) and Kamui Kobayashi (Japan)
Red Bull Racing (powered by Renault)
- David Coulthard (UK)
- Mark Webber (Australia)
- Test drivers: Robert Doornbos (Netherlands) and Michael Ammermuller (Germany)
AT&T WilliamsF1 Team (powered by Toyota)
- Nico Rosberg (Germany)
- Alex Wurz (Austria)
- Test drivers: Narain Karthikeyan (India) and Kazuki Nakajima (Japan)
Scuderia Toro Rosso (powered by Ferrari)
- Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy)
- Scott Speed (USA)
- (Test drivers TBC)
Spyker F1 Racing (powered by Ferrari)
- Christijan Albers (Netherlands)
- Adrian Sutil (Germany)
- Test drivers: Mohamed Fairuz Fauzy (Malaysia), Giedo van der Garde (Netherlands), Adrián Vallés (Spain) and Markus Winkelhock (Germany)
Super Aguri Formula One (powered by Honda)
- Takuma Sato (Japan)
- Anthony Davidson (UK)
- Test drivers: Sakon Yamamoto (Japan)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
felonious monk @ Feb 27th 2007 5:09PM
"While Takuma Sato remains the only Japanese driver on the grid, Nippon-backed teams Toyota, Williams and Super Aguri (with the notable exception of Honda) have stacked their testing rosters with four more Japanese pilots."
Am I not reading the above correctly? Sat is the only Japanese driver, but 3 teams added four more.
Um...
dearyou @ Feb 27th 2007 5:22PM
the four other Japanese drivers are TESTING drivers, big difference
David @ Feb 27th 2007 5:45PM
So how come the British drivers are listed as Britain (not Great Britain, not UK) whereas the Scottish driver David Coulthard is listed as UK instead of Scotland?
Rodion @ Feb 27th 2007 5:45PM
This guy isn't very bright, full of himself, and I suspect this will be his last year in F1. Then off to CART or IRL.
GeoTracker @ Feb 27th 2007 5:46PM
Gotta love how the one Pole on the grid is surrounded by Germans...
Dude @ Feb 27th 2007 6:00PM
#5 GeoTracker... Only this time the one Pole could probably take on all of the Germans. Kubica is good!
Adam @ Feb 27th 2007 6:00PM
I looks like he is giving us his O face!
Richard @ Feb 27th 2007 7:41PM
Yeah! Speed's last year in the big leagues for sure.
Kubica is very, very good. I say he would be the next Schumacher were he to end up with a top team. He's that good.
Mark @ Feb 27th 2007 8:03PM
there seem to be more and more drivers moving up from DTM
Lee Gibson @ Feb 27th 2007 11:06PM
He looks surprised. What's the RCA Victor dog's name? Nipper? Yeah. Same look.
Or maybe he's trying on the sexy.
Matt Dell @ Feb 28th 2007 12:07AM
Surely a better stock photo of Scott Speed exists!
gesta @ Feb 28th 2007 6:48AM
Actually, in addition to your list of nationalities, we Finnish people have 3 drivers to support and cheer. Heikki and Kimi of course, but our former F1-champion's son Nico (Rosberg) also.
His father Keijo "Keke" Rosberg won the title in 1982 also with Williams.
renegade @ Feb 28th 2007 10:27AM
Cue Groundhog Day:
There's Scott Speed...not so bright look on his face...
amp @ Feb 28th 2007 12:49PM
I'm a big fan of Nico. Now that Schumacher has left, I think he has the most pure talent of any drive in the field, with possible the exception of Kimi. Just look at what Rosberg did at the end of last season with a less-than-competitive car.