Williams: Barrichello + Cosworth
Well aware that quite a lot of the readers of this blog can’t get around the German content of P1Mag, here’s another scoop from the latest edition. According to sources among partners of the WilliamsF1 team, Rubens Barrichello has signed a couple of weeks ago a two year contract with options to partner GP2 champion Nico Hülkenberg. Also the decision in favour of Cosworth as engine supplier has been taken.
While the signing of Barrichello has been kept under wraps, the decision in favour of Cosworth, apparently granting Williams a preferential deal as development partner, doesn’t come as a total surprise. Cosworth will have to come up quickly with a massively improved version of it’s high revving CA-type V8 from back in 2006 to allow for more reliability and torque ans is looking for mileage. Williams is the only team to offer the option of immediate on-track testing, as all the other potential Cosworth clients will only be able to roll out their cars in 2010.
Hello Mário,
Further info from a source i’ve learned over time to be quite reliable:
Rosberg goes to Brawm GP, announcement to be made by Ross Brawn only after the season is over.
No big news here but, the info I wish to stress out is: Mercedes is backing the Rosberg move to Brawn and will take over the team for 2011.
Furthermore: the Sauber-BMW team has been sold to Qadbak, but not the engine department! And this engine department is very much likely to be enroute (ie sold to) McLaren, who will therefore run with onw engines developed from the current BMW know-how, probably in 2011 or 2012, after their partnership with Mercedes is over (or breached).
9 October 2009 at 10:25 am
The Rosberg thing is no news, actually. Robertson was refering to BrawnGP in his comment, the Austrian believed it’s Red Bull. That’s all.
But the engine thing sounds wide off the mark to me. BMW’s engine department is physically based in Munich, not in Hinwil. Anyway, you can’t transfer a building just like that. And you need the brains behind the development, too. You can’t sell people. Why would BMW sell off technology they still need for their other Motorsport programs? On the other hand, their board of directors is so obviously incompetent that I wouldn’t be surprised about yet another stupid decision…
But would it make sense for McLaren? If they want to do this, it would be far cheaper to buy the latest tecnology and hire the best people out there and off you go.
9 October 2009 at 1:17 pm
I see your point.
When I wrote “…(BMW’s) engine department is very much likely to be enroute (ie sold to) McLaren…” I was not refering to the building facilities, but the know-how and technical data itself, kind of what happened in 1992 when Honda sold their V12 F1 engine expertise to Ferrari when they got out of F1.
When I wrote about the Rosberg-Brawn thing, that was not the “info” I was talking about, I was refering to the engine part, that was the “big” news. It has been around since October 2nd but yesterday it came to me from a reliable (so far!) source.
9 October 2009 at 2:35 pm
Well….. If Cosworth comes up with a gas sipping engine (compared to the 2006 version) Rubens might get a chance to score some points next year, but it looks to me that 2011 is the target for showing results.
I guess the possibility of Renault leaving F1 (and price) made this decision a little easier. I still think Renault would be a better option at this point.
9 October 2009 at 3:32 pm
@ J.C.: I know what you mean, but still you just need to hire Gilles Simon and you got all the information you need. Including from your competitor’sengine
And as far as Mercedes-Benz goes, I got the story behind it. But obviously it’s going to be published on P1 Mag in its full width first
@ Flavio: Probably you’re right. But Briatore still was there when Rubens found out he’ll lose his place at BrawnGP. And Briatore wasn’t interested at all. So it wasn’t an option at all at the time. and Kubica seems to have agreed his deal with Briatore, too. Not a bad choice nonetheless for the team.
9 October 2009 at 4:15 pm
Yeah…and too bad Sir Frank could not secure an engine deal with Renault…would be nice too see them together again.
9 October 2009 at 4:41 pm
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