Monday Morning Rumour Roundup-June 30th

In the past week we have seen a lot of news and rumours surrounding Indy Cars and Formula One, here are my two cents on some of these.

F1 released it's 2009 Schedule with no USGP at Indy despite Tony George's repeated claims that he will have a race if he can get a sponsor. The only problem is that due to the 2005 debacle and the fact that Tony George is an arrogant twat, major sponsors are unwiliing to pay the necessary amount of money for a race in a series that is not really on the radar of the average American. This is also coupled with the fact that the Indy circuit is derided as being dull by many people and that Big Bad Bernie does not think that F1 needs a race in the US, so American F1 fans do not get your hopes up about a race being held at Indy, which would be a great shame as there are a lot more American F1 fans than the Europeans in charge of F1 are willing to admit exist.

Bruno Senna looks to be close to signing a deal to become BMW Sauber's test and reserve driver next year. F1 really wants That name in F1 they way that they wanted the Villeneuve name back in 1996 and BMW are looking to the future, and that could be a future without Nick Heidfeld. No offence to Quick Nick, but you have been er, not so quick this year getting blown out of the weeds by Robert Kubica in most races and having qualified well down the order in the last few days Herr Theissen may be looking for a new driver. Nick has usually out-performed his car wherever he has been in F1 and I am sure he will land on his feet somewhere in F1 if he gets sacked by BMW, but it will probably not be with a frontrunning team. Honda or Toyota would be a possibility but every succesive race he drives like a useless muppet, his stock drops and if it continues he could become a member of the "what have you done for me lately" club.

There has been more news regarding Max Mosely's shenanigans, but I don't really need to comment on that further as this whole affair has denigrated into the "too much information" zone.

In the IRL the rumours of a Paul Tracy return seem imminent as last night Robin Miller reported that the thrill from West Hill was close to signing a deal to run four road-course races in a Derrick Walker/Tony George funded and operated team. If this happens then it would be great news for the series as Paul is one of the all-time great characters of North American open wheel racing and he was right royally screwed over by Gerry Forsythe at the start of this season when the former Champ Car owner waffled on whether or not to enter the IRL as Paul watched all the good drives get taken by less competent drivers. Paul was later offered a drive if he brought money, but his almighty ego prevented him from becoming a pay driver and he rejected it, but it seems as though he has had a change of heart.

David Coulthard's future is up in the air as the 37 year old will probably be replaced by Sebastein Vettel at Red Bull for next year. The rumours of potential jobs for DC have varied from the realistic to the stupid. He has been linked as a potential BBC comentator for next year, which makes a lot of sense as he is very intelligent and opinionated while the rumour of him buying a 50% stake in Scuderia Torro ROsso next year seems rather silly as he probably does not have THAT much money and he said himself that he could not afford to spend $200 million per year on a team. DC may be a little bad at math($200 Million is an exaggerated figure), but he is not stupid enough to think that he can afford to support a team on the long term. He has also been linked as a potential replacement for Vettel as a driver at STR but I doubt that Red Bull will want the aging veteran down there when they could fill the seat with a talented youngster, although Sebastien Bourdais' seat may be up for grabs........

Not a heck of alot else happened of note, Franck Montagny, a former F1 Jack of all trades has become a north american based Jack of All trades by signing a one-race deal with Andretti-Green to run in the ALMS at Lime Rock Park while rumours abound about Dario Franchitti's future as he is being destroyed race in, race out in NASCAR and he may come back to the IRL or he may go to the ALMS for next year. In the IRL Jay Howard will be back behind the wheel at ROth racing for the six remaining road races, although he will be replacing John Andretti not Marty Roth, which should happen. And finally Murray Walker has been given a star on Birmingham's walk of fame. The Brummie walk is less famous than the one in hollywood, it is still a great honour for the greatest english-language F1 commentator in history, congratulations Murray!!!!!!