Autoblog UK

Formula One continues to make the headlines. Mercedes are taking over a majority holding in championship-winning Brawn GP and will be lining up on the 2010 grid under their own name. In a telephone conference today (Monday 16th November), Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche announced that Mercedes will have their own team from the start of the 2010 season. It will contest next year's Formula One championship under the soubriquet of Mercedes Grand Prix. The Stuttgart-based automotive giant are taking a 75.1% share in the team that Ross Brawn rescued in a management buyout in March of this year following Honda's decision to quit the sport. Mercedes will be purchasing 45.1 percent themselves and a further 30 percent indirectly via Daimler shareholder Aabar. At the same time, former F1 partners McLaren will be buying back Mercedes' 40% holding over the next two years but still continue to use them as a supplier of engines.

The grand finale to the 2009 Formula One series did great credit to the organisers in Abu Dhabi and to the victorious Red Bull team. In the futuristic setting of the Yas Marina Circuit, Sebastian Vettel claimed his fourth win of the year and finished runner-up in the drivers' championship. Following the retirement of pole-sitter and race favourite Lewis Hamilton, Vettel's victory was never in any doubt. Team-mate Mark Webber held off a determined attack by Jenson Button over the last couple of laps to make it the second one-two victory for Red Bull of the season. Button had to settle for the third spot on the podium but was at least able to celebrate in style the title that he had already secured in the penultimate race in Brazil.

As early as the seventh race out of 17 inked in on the 2009 F1 calendar, all the experts had concluded that Jenson Button had the title in the bag. The Brawn GP driver had already accumulated 61 out of a possible 70 points and established an apparently unassailable lead in the standings. In the eight races that followed, though, the Englishman's points haul was a meagre 24; in fact, his performance during this period was measurably inferior to no fewer than five other drivers: Sebastian Vettel, Rubens Barrichello, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Räikkönen and Mark Webber. But in the Brazilian GP at Interlagos, Button finally snuffed out the hopes of the chasing pack by picking up the decisive few points to clinch not only the drivers' championship for himself but also wrap up the constructors' title for Team Principal Ross Brawn. As F1 champion elect, he can now enjoy the grand finale to the season at the new circuit in Abu Dhabi. Recipe for success for the 29-year-old was the reliability of his car and consistently finishing amongst the points: the Belgian Grand Prix was the only one from which he went home empty-handed. Congratulations from autoblog, Jenson!

In the wake of the Crashgate Affair, the Brazilian media are claiming that former Renault driver Nelson Piquet Junior is weighing up a switch to NASCAR racing. He thinks it unlikely that his involvement in the race-fixing scandal will permit him to get back into Formula One. "I did the sport a service but I ended up as the fall guy," said the Brazilian in a TV interview in his home country. "My career is finished. No-one was punished more harshly than me." He offered his apologies to all F1 racing fans but regretted that he couldn't undo what had been done.

Shunned by the F1 paddock, he now fancies his chances with Team Red Horse in the Camping World Truck Series. Apparently, he has already had a trial run, and his first public outing will come on 12th October at the Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina. Incidentally, Jacques Villeneuve pursued a similar course of action to obtain the necessary licences to launch his NASCAR career and compete in the Sprint Cup series – albeit without much success.

In recent weeks, there's been a lot of fuss about an accident that happened in F1 racing. Last season in Singapore, Nelson Piquet Jr deliberately crashed into a wall in order to bring out the safety car and help team-mate Fernando Alonso. The accident had been planned right from the start. Renault admitted that Flavio Briatore, Pat Symonds and Nelson Piquet Jr had hatched a plan together to manipulate the outcome of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix and help team-mate Fernando Alonso by deliberately staging an accident. No other team members were complicit in the affair.

On Monday, the sport's governing body, the FIA, found Renault guilty in the Crashgate Scandal. However, the penalty of exclusion from the Formula One World Championship was reduced to probation. The rule breaches were so serious that disqualification from the Formula One World Championship was on the cards. In view of Renault's willingness to come clean, the team has been put on probation until the end of the 2011 season.

Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds have been excluded from all FIA events and championships. In addition, they are not allowed to lead any team nor manage a driver, as any FIA licences already granted to such persons would be withdrawn immediately. As a result of his admission of guilt, Symonds' ban is to last five years. Briatore faces indefinite exclusion. This is not just because of the severity of the breaches but also because of his denial of liability.

It's a dream come true for Giancarlo Fisichella. With immediate effect, he will be Ferrari's number two driver and his first race for Scuderia Ferrari will be at, of all places, the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in his native country Italy. After days of speculation, the issue has finally been clarified as to who will stand in for the injured Felipe Massa at Ferrari, after the two poor showings by Luca Badoer in Valencia and at Spa-Francorchamps.

It has been Fisichella's long-held dream since 1996, beginning with Minardi, then Jordan and Benetton, back to Jordan, then to Sauber, Renault and finally Force India. His sensational second place in last Sunday's Belgium Grand Prix was probably the clincher for the Ferrari bosses; to give the number two driving spot to the father of two until the end of the season. 36-year-old Fisichella will contest his 225th Grand Prix in Monza – and it will surely be a very special race for him. After driving for Ferrari in the remaining five races this season, Fisichella will be their official reserve driver in 2010.

Rubens Barrichello was temporarily unemployed last winter when his previous employer, Honda, withdrew from Formula One racing. After Ross Brawn rescued the team from oblivion, he found himself back in a job and driving the best car on the track. However, it was his team-mate Jenson Button who was notching up all the victories for the team, and Barrichello had to grin and bear it as the podium celebrations took place. Then came his somewhat surprising win in the European Grand Prix in Valencia. Barrichello posted his tenth career victory after a five-year drought of 85 winless Grand Prix races. The Brazilian is now second in the 2009 drivers' standings, 22 points behind his team-mate. After this victory, Barrichello's title aspirations are starting to look feasible.

First it was Michael Schumacher, then Luca Badoer, now it looks as though there could be another face about to line up on the F1 grid - Sebastien Loeb.

Ok, so Schumacher and Badoer had their F1 returns thrust upon them after the unfortunate injury to Ferrari's Felipe Massa but the appearance of the reigning World Rally Champion in an F1 car at the end of the season and possibly into next year has already drawn mixed responses from within the sport and beyond

BMW have given official notice of their decision to pull the BMW Sauber team out of Formula One at the end of 2009, a season that was heralded as the one when the outfit would finally hit the big time. After three years of development and steady progress, the team around Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica initially saw themselves as genuine contenders for the world championship. The plan came to nought as BMW Sauber garnered a meagre eight points from the first ten races of the season and found themselves lying a disappointing eighth in the constructors' standings – only Toro Rosso and Force India have a lower tally. Added to the poor showing on the track came the financial effects of the global downturn and the KERS flop. BMW Sauber were amongst the protagonists of Kinetic Energy Recovery, but during the course of the season, they have uninstalled the system from their car in order to benefit from improved aerodynamics and weight distribution

The cloud that had been hanging over the future of Formula One has now lifted. At a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Wednesday, FIA and FOTA came to a mutually satisfactory agreement. In a press release, the FIA announced that there would be no rival race series and that the rules for the 2010 season would be based on those applying in 2009, together with the changes that had been decided on prior to 29th April 2009. After reaching accord on cost cutting measures in the sport and the announcement that Max Mosley would not be seeking re-election as FIA President in October, the governing body confirmed the 13-strong line-up for the 2010 season. Stepping up to join the current ten contenders in the top echelon of motor racing are newcomers Campos Meta, Manor Grand Prix and Team US F1.