As things stand, only Ferrari and Red Bull are 100% certain as to who will be driving for them next year, leaving eleven (or possibly twelve) teams still casually interviewing for their drives. And once some residual silliness suggesting that Kimi Raikkonen might be about to sign for Red Bull, leaving Mark Webber to tearfully finish his career scratching around in a Toro Rosso, had been cleared up into the bag marked "utter nonsense", the major point of interest at the moment is where Raikkonen actually will end up.
It looks like a simple to-way fight for the mumbling one's services in 2010, between former team McLaren, who never pass up a chance to form up a self-destructive driver line-up, and Toyota, who will be hoping to get the Finn a bit cheaper than usual given that he'll still be drawing a salary from Ferrari next season. Raikkonen is apparently only interested in a race-winning drive for next year, which seems to rule out the Japanese team, but then mutterings from McLaren are that the Hamilton camp would much prefer a meek and mild patsy number two for next season, meaning that Heikki Kovalainen might still keep his drive.
If Toyota splashing the cash on Raikkonen is hard to believe happening given their perilous financial state, then they may choose to go for a cheap and cheerful home-grown option in 2010. The powers that be apparently want Kamui Kobayashi in a race seat for next season, after his mini-cameo during Friday practice at Suzuka, while as and when Williams kick Kazuki Nakajima out, Toyota will allegedly sign up the hapless Japanese man alongside his countryman. And they want to win races?
Another big manufacturer who is taking their time to sort their final lineup out is Renault, who now have Robert Kubica signed in the first seat, but have any number of options for the second car. Current incumbent Romain Grosjean is under pressure after a suitably underwhelming start to his F1 career, with some mutterings saying that the other Renault test driver Lucas di Grassi could replace the Frenchman before the end of the season.
As for next year, it seems that neither of those pair are in the frame, and the French team have a shortlist featuring the likes of Timo Glock, Adrian Sutil, Nick Heidfeld and Kovalainen to be the partner for Kubica, with Adrian Sutil the favourite, according to unsubstantiated French media guesswork reporting.
The rampant swapping set to take place between Brawn and Williams still looks set to go ahead, with Nico Rosberg and Rubens Barrichello set to be switched across the pitlane like some sort of weird F1 hostage swap, while Toro Rosso announced on their own website that: "In case you didn't know, there's no change in our driver line-up, so no story there." Only problem being that they hadn't checked with Daddy Red Bull first, and neither Sebastien Buemi or Jamie Alguersuari are yet confirmed for next season.
Force India, meanwhile, must be feeling a little ransacked if Sutil leaves for Renault, after losing their other driver Giancarlo Fisichella to Ferrari earlier in the season. Should the German with the perfect hair vanish, they may be left with no choice but to keep Tonio Liuzzi in one seat, with possibly Bruno Senna being drafted in to the second seat.
Whatever Mini Senna is doing, the Brazilian says that his 2010 contract will be sorted at the Brazilian GP weekend, and if it isn't Findia, then the smart money is that he will winn a sponsor money-led bidding war with Vitaly Petrov for a seat at Campos Grand Prix alongside the wrinkled and arthritic form of Pedro de la Rosa.
As for the other new teams, Malaysilotus are sniffing around probable Toyota refugee Jarno Trulli, with the chance for the underwhelming Trulli to link up again with the underwhelming Mike Gascoyne possibly proving enough to convince Trulli to become the "experienced" driver in Lotusaysia line-up. If the Malaysian backers have their way, then home grown A1GP racer Fairuz Fauzy will end up in the second seat, which would have made Colin Chapman proud.
Manor/Virgin have distanced themselves from cheaty boy Nelson Piquet Jr, but are said to be chasing the sponsor-heavy form of Adam Carroll for their team, perhaps to link up with dreary GP2 driver Alvaro Parente, if the Portuguese press is to be believed.
Finally, USF1 have given up on their lofty dreams to find two talented American drivers for 2010, but junior formula man Jonathan Summerton, who has raced in A1GP, Indy Lights and Formula 3 without really doing anything amazing, but whose own website has proclaimed him "the next American Formula One champion", seems to be the best chance of some Yankee talent making it in for 2010, with Alexander Wurz expected to get the nod for the second seat, with the Austrian able to put on a passable New York accent.
Confirmed drivers so far:
- Alonso / Massa (Ferrari)
- Webber / Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
- Hamilton (McLaren)
- Kubica (Renault)
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