Loyalty is not one of the qualities generally displayed in the Formula One circus. The market for grand prix drivers is as fluid as the Mediterranean, but Kimi Raikkonen says he's at home. The returning champion has two years left on his contract with Ferrari, and though he doesn't know what he'll decide to do when his contract runs out, he's declared that he sees no reason to move to another F1 team.
Speaking with the Spanish newspaper Marca while leading the time boards at the official testing sessions at the Valencia circuit, Raikkonen says that at the end of next year, he'll either stay with Ferrari, retire from motorsports or possibly contest a few rallies. One way or another, it's got to be a relief for Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo. CEO Jean Todt and team principal Stefano Domenicali says that, assuming Kimi keeps his word, they'll never have to worry about chasing the Ice Man around the track again.
Japanese tire-maker Bridgestone has been supplying every team on the Formula One grid since rival rubber company Michelin pulled out of the sport at the end of the 2006 season. But whereas Bridgestone had gone through 2007 as the exclusive tire supplier by default, the ink has now dried on the contract that makes them the exclusive tire supplier by design.
The deal secures Bridgestone's monopoly in the pinnacle motorsport series from 2008 through 2010. Although the deal was reportedly secured in 2006, but it just became official.
While many other racing series around the world have similar arrangements with various tire suppliers, Formula One has traditionally been a bastion of pure competition. The tire deal, however, prevents companies like Goodyear, Pirelli and Michelin from returning to F1, joining the institution of a common engine control module, the recent freeze on engine development and drastic restrictions on testing in "leveling the playing field" and thereby reducing the degree of competition in F1.
UPDATE:Official press release from Renault confirming Alonso's return can be read after the jump.
Emerging reports confirm that Fernando Alonso has signed a two-year contract with the Renault F1 Team, with which he won a pair of world titles before defecting to a tumultuous and disappointing year with McLaren.
The contract, according to Spanish newspaper El Mundo, will make Alonso one of the top-paid drivers currently in F1 at a staggering $50 million per season (According to the Wikipedia, Kimi Räikkönen makes $51 million/year). The deal is also reported to include minimal obligations towards Renault's sponsors, an exit clause should Alonso wish to terminate early, and clear, defined #1 status for Alonso over his team-mate.
That role, according to the reports, is set to be taken up by Nelson Piquet, Jr., who will be filling the #2 spot at Renault. The news subsequently leaves current drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen without confirmed rides for next season, fuelling speculation that Kovalainen could take up Alonso's now-vacant seat at McLaren, especially since news broke of Nico Rosberg's renewal at Williams.
The official announcement from Renault is anticipated shortly, and Alonso is expected to begin testing next year's Renault car at his native Spain's Valencia test track late in January.
Buzz Hargrove isn't mincing words about his opinion of Chrysler LLC's strategy. Calling the decision to send the Magnum and Pacifica models out to pasture and cut shifts and jobs at the Brampton, Ontario plant "stupid," Hargrove has said the Canadian Auto Workers aren't interested in the type of concessions the UAW recently agreed to. While the UAW is allowing new hires to be given a lower pay level, as well as taking on a health care trust fund, the CAW will be having none of that, according to Hargrove.
Cuts were expected, but Chrysler's recent scaling back is more than necessary, according to Hargrove, who counters that what the company's really trying to do is reduce supply in order to drive up demand and keep prices higher. It sounds like a good way to make the automaker profitable, thinning the lineup and trimming overproduction. The problem, according to The Buzz, is that Chrysler's plan is anathema to the long union tradition of providing jobs that pay well enough to allow a solid middle class life for autoworkers. With the pay cuts, Hargrove says that autoworkers will no longer be able to afford to buy the cars they build. The recent fall of the dollar isn't helping matters, and will likely give Chrysler another point to argue when asking for concessions. The Canadian Auto Workers will begin duking it out with Detroit in July, so expect the rhetoric to become even more heated in the months to come.
History, they say, has a habit of repeating itself. That's certainly the way things have been looking in recent years as some of the greatest racing names in motorsport history have been making a comeback. But instead of the legends squeezing their aging selves into new racing equipment like so many sardines, it's the younger generation that's been hitting the scene lately.
Gilles Villeneuve's embattled son Jacques, it pains this Montrealer to say, may have turned out to be a bit of a disappointment in recent years, notwithstanding his earlier F1 and Indy titles. But Bruno Senna, nephew of the legendary Ayrton, has been working his way up the ranks, as has Freddie Hunt, son of '76 F1 champion James Hunt. Nico Rosberg has already made it into Formula One, following in the footsteps of his '82 world champion father Keke.
The next big thing in racing dynasties, however, is coming with back-up. Nigel Mansell's sons Greg (20) and Leo (22) are boarding the ark two by two to cross the Atlantic for next year. The brothers have been working their way up the racing ladder together, competing in the British series Formula BMW last year after just half a year racing in karts. Like their father who won the CART title in 1993, the pair has confirmed that they're coming stateside to compete in the Champ Char Atlantic Series, joining BMW-backed Canadian driver Kevin Lacroix for a three-car Walker Racing team in 2008. Some good ol' Mansell-style racing is one bit of history we don't mind repeating.
It's official: Fernando Alonso won't be driving next year for McLaren. The double world champion just completed a tumultuous first season out of his contracted three years with the British team, but it was clear for all to see that the driver wasn't happy, and the team wasn't happy with its new driver. As was widely speculated, the unhappy couple has split faster than a Hollywood divorce, which may be the fastest performance McLaren and Alonso have pulled off all season long. Because the feelings were mutual, Alonso won't have to pay the team anything to be released from his contract.
Follow the jump for more analysis and the press release from McLaren, including quotes from Alonso and team principal Ron Dennis.
It's that time of the year again, as the Formula One season winds to a close and drivers line up for new contracts. After Ralf Schumacher's departure from the over-funded but under-achieving Toyota F1 team, Felipe Massa was rumored to be heading over while Fernando Alonso assumed his seat at Ferrari. With Alonso now headed back to Renault for next season and Massa likely to stay where he is, Toyota have reportedly signed Timo Glock (right) for next season to race alongside incumbent Jarno Truli.
Glock has floated in and out of F1 for the past few years. After working his way up the ranks and named Rookie of the Year in the Formula 3 Euroseries, Glock moved in to a race seat with Jordan F1 in 2004, scoring his first point in his first race (due to a technicality) at the Canadian Grand Prix in 2004. He then moved across the ocean to Champ Cars, and in his second race at the Montreal circuit scored a second place finish in his first season and was again named Rookie of the Year. Last year he moved to GP2, and took the title this year while simultaneously serving as a test driver for BMW Sauber, but was passed over for the race seat after Robert Kubica's crash... also at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
Despite his experience, Glock is evidently still considered a rookie, which means Toyota can get away with paying him "only" $2 million a year in comparison to Ralf Schumacher's purported $19 million annual contract. Glock and Toyota are expected to officially sign after this season's closer in Brazil. Just don't be surprised if his new employers use Timo to promote their new JDM coincidentally-named cellphone, the Timo.
Following the news that Ferrari was in discussions with A1GP, the international racing series has announced that the two racing outfits have signed a six-year contract with Maranello. The terms of the agreement have Ferrari supplying the V8 engines for all the national teams competing in the series starting the season after next, when the current deal with Lola and Zytek expires. In addition to powering the new cars, Ferrari will also consult on the design of the chassis, which will be built by an as-yet undisclosed third party.
The deal gives Ferrari a de facto feeder series of its own, not unlike Formula BMW and the GP2 series owned by Renault principal Flavio Briatore. A1GP chairman Tony Teixeira also announced the formation of a second, lower-rung regional series to be called A2GP – taking a possible similar relationship as the Atlantic series to Champ Cars – with which Ferrari will also collaborate, supplying detuned versions of the engine. The deal should give Ferrari a place to field up-and-coming younger drivers and bring in extra revenue, while lending the open-wheel series added prestige on the world motorsports stage.
Teixeira also confirmed earlier speculation that, after bowing out of the Spyker purchase, he is considering buying into Scuderia Toro Rosso. The Italian F1 team, currently owned by Red Bull and former Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger, scored impressive fourth and sixth places in last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.
The UAW is walking a few tightropes right now, and it can't afford to fall off of any of them. In talks with bankrupt auto supplier Delphi Corp. and its private equity partners, at stake for the UAW is coming to an agreement that benefits both sides, but one that does not put the UAW at a disadvantage when it comes to negotiating new labor agreements with other automakers this summer.
Delphi had given the UAW two different proposals, neither of which the UAW felt it could take to its membership. The UAW's counterproposal on wages and benefits was only ten pages long, but is so complicated that it will take a while yet for Delphi to really sort out what it really means. Coming to an agreement with the UAW is essential for Delphi to emerge from bankruptcy as a recapitalized company. However, the UAW knows that if it gives any more concessions to Delphi, the big three automakers will want the same thing during their contact talks this summer. With the Delphi situation also involving legacy issues for GM, Cerberus exiting the deal and other private equity companies having to restructure, and the UAW needing to get its next move right, it is a thick plot for all involved.
The world of NASCAR was rocked today when Dale Earnhardt Junior, the motorsport's most marketable and therefore most valuable driver, announced he is leaving DEI, the race team originally owned by his father. It turns out that there may be some familial conflict at the center of Junior's departure, as some speculate that Teresa Earnhardt, his stepmother and father's wife at the time of his death, wasn't willing to meet all of his demands.
Junior and his sister, Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, were negotiating with DEI to gain control of 51% of the business and complete control of the race team. The press is speculating that while Teresa was willing to give up 51% of the company to Junior, she wanted Junior's control over the team to be tempered by a board or committee that would approve final decisions. Whatever the case, DEI's offer wasn't enough to keep Junior at the negotiating table any longer, and he'll become a free agent at the end of the season. The news is even worse for DEI, as some speculate that Budweiser, Junior's biggest sponsor, will follow him next year to whatever team that signs him.
2010 Nissan Cube breaks cover in Japan
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2010 Ford Mustang revealed early on Ford's own website!
2009 Nissan 370Z rolls out early in So. Cal
VIDEO: 2009 Nissan 370Z revealed early in So. Cal.
In the Autoblog Garage: 2009 HUMMER H3T Alpha
In the Autoblog Garage: 2009 Mercedes Benz C63 AMG
In the Autoblog Garage: 2009 Hyundai Genesis
In the Autoblog Garage: 2009 Chevrolet Traverse LT
