Ok, so I have to apologise for not posting for a while, but this is the silly season, and I have been caught up in family and work.

That said, it’s also been a good off season so far for F1 news, so with that in mind, lets break it all down, let’s start with the Driver announcements. 

The younger Schumacher has left the Toyota team, and even though he played with the idea of driving for Team India by taking part in a test, it seems that he was not offered the job.

Ralf is one of those drivers that initially shone, and I have no doubt that if he was in a competitive car could be quick. However he has not got his brothers talent of setup, and overcoming the car’s deficiencies, and because of that cost Toyota not only a lot of money, but also a lot of time.

I’m sure with Timo Glock and Jarno in the driving seats the team has a good base to build a car for the future.

Rosberg

Yup Nico has signed on to stay at Williams, ending the rumours of a switch to driving alongside his friend Lewis Hamilton at McLaren. He has signed a 2 year deal to drive for the English team, and will be alongside the Toyota (Williams Engine Supplier) backed Kazuki Nakajima.

“Williams has made me an attractive, far better offer with a new contract up to the end of 2009 and I decided to accept it. For Williams, the question of letting me go never came up.” - Lets just hope the 2008 Williams can continue on where last years car ended, as towards the end of the season it was showing promise.

Fernando

Has now moved back to the AngloFrench Renault team. His year out at McLaren obviously did not go well, and so is rejoining the team he won two Titles with.

“I am delighted to be returning to Renault, This is the team where I grew up as a driver in Formula 1. Now it is time for us to begin a new chapter together. I am very excited about working with this great team once more, and confident that together we can move back to the front of the field. Renault had a difficult year in 2007, but I know that the team has real strength in depth. I am confident they can produce a fast and competitive car and be back at the top in 2008.”

Alongside Fernando is the Brazilian Nelson Piquet Jnr. The youngster did a sterling job of running the third car last year for the Renault team, and has been promoted to the full time drivers seat.

This does bring up an interesting question though, will Fernando like it if Nelson proves to be a quick as he has shown promise to be? after all he disliked it last year when his toes were stepped on by a rookie.

Heikki Kovalainen

Heikki has signed on to be in the car alongside Lewis Hamilton. This is interesting for the McLaren team, as they very rarely run two ‘Rookies’ in the main seats.

There was a lot of talk that Heikki would not get the seat, as Santander (McLaren sponsor) would like to see a Spaniard in the seat (they did sign on with Alonso as the driver after all), this lead to rumours of Pedro de la Rossa possibly getting a promotion to the drivers seat.

However it seems that Santander are OK with the driver lineup and are staying on as sponsor at McLaren, after all they have had there money’s worth out of advertising with Lewis Hamilton in the UK.

Fisi

It looks like (hot off the press, but unconfirmed) Giancarlo Fisichella has signed to drive for Force India, after being booted from Renault. People were betting on Tonio Liuzzi getting the seat, but if the story is correct, then the young Italian is without a race drive in 2008. Let’s hope he get’s one (even if it’s a 3rd driver role), as he is at least as talented as his old STR team mate Sebastian Vettel towards the end of the 2007 season.

Teams - That brings us onto the team news, this has been an interesting area so far this off season.

Renault

Have been let off, after the investigation into them using McLaren technology. The inquest into the use of the McLaren data (2 years worth of use it might be added) resulted in

“insufficient evidence to establish that the information was used in such a way as to interfere with or to have an impact on the championship”.

Now the fact that Renault said that if they got a penalty similar to the McLaren 100Million dollar one would force the company to pull out of F1, surely had nothing to do with it?

Renault did not come clean at any point on the data they had, and the uses that they put it to (including showing top engineers inside the team simulations of the data). The information they had pertained to the McLaren GearBox, Fuel Systems and front Damper designs.

The FIA let them off, basically saying that Renault got no use out of the information, because the team did not understand it? If that is the truth, how do they put a car out that beats the ‘Minardi’ let alone the Ferrari and McLarens?

I’m in agreement with Martin Brundle, who is now being harrased by the FIA for saying ‘Witch-hunt threatens to spoil world title race‘. He has defended himself by saying

“As a former Formula One driver, I have earned the right to have an opinion about the sport, and probably know as much about it as anybody else. I have attended approaching 400 grands prix, 158 as a driver. I have spilt blood, broken bones, shed tears, generated tanker loads of sweat, tasted the champagne glories and plumbed the depths of misery. I have never been more passionate about F1 and will always share my opinions in an honest and open way, knowing readers will make up their own minds.”

“The timing of the writ is significant, in my view, given the FIA’s decision to find Renault guilty of having significant McLaren designs and information within their systems, but not administering any penalty,”

“I expect my accreditation pass for next year will be hindered in some way to make my coverage of F1 more difficult and to punish me.

“Or they will write to ITV again to say that my commentary is not up to standard despite my unprecedented six Royal Television Society Awards for sports broadcasting. So be it.” - We wish Martin luck in fighting the Writ, and I for one look forward to one of the most knowledgeable commentators in the sport (let be honest, no-one would be able to live with just James Allen commentating).

(GrandPrix.com breakdown of the Renault and McLaren cases.)

McLaren

The team has been in all sorts of trouble and wrangling. The McLaren vs Ferrari (FIA) scandal is now officially over, with McLaren apologising to the Ferrari team.

However there has been a great deal of pressure on Ron Dennis to retire, after the depth of the Ferrari technology in the McLaren 2007 car was revealed.

To this he said, 

“I’m not going to quit. That is 100 per cent. I know there are people out there who want me to retire, but I’m not. I do not think it would be in the best interests of the team.”

And I agree, Ron is the soul of the McLaren team, and if he left it would just become Mercedes Racing.

It’s well known that Mercedes is not happy about their name being dragged through the mud with the McLaren one, even if indirectly. However it would not make sense to releave the people that make McLaren run in the way it does, they are after all a successful outfit, and only because of the way they are run.

Conclusion

So there we have it, all of the pertinent information from the last few weeks, and you will be glad to hear that normal service will be resumed.

For more F1 news please visit: http://www.f1-blog.co.uk/