"Cato Batista" 26/09/2015 20:31:47 ID #820

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Next stop: Suzuka. The Japanese GP, 14th round of the season is coming up this weekend.

News this week comes from the drivers’ market and the possible (and complicated) outcome of the Red Bull’s future in F1.

Jenson Button has called a conference prior to the race in Japan and it’s widely believed that he will announce his retirement from the sport. His negotiations with McLaren “and other probable teams” are still underway but people from his close circle revealed that the popular Brit doesn’t want to spend another frustrating year with an uncompetitive car. His possible replacements are Kevin Magnussen or McLaren test driver and GP2 Championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne.

Force India has confirmed they will retain PER for another year. His contract negotiations were delayed because there was an offer from Renault (if they take over Lotus) to partner MAL for 2016. The Venezuelan brings 29 million dollars of sponsorship a year which will be greatly appreciated at Lotus. GRO is expected to leave the team and move to the new American outfit Haas to partner Esteban Gutierrez. And except the Renault/Lotus seat there are no more openings left in F1, and the way things are going with Red Bull we might see RIC, KVY, VER and SAI looking for a job too…

The latest from the Red Bull / Toro Rosso saga is that they might not get Ferrari engines for next year. According to Ecclestone Ferrari supremo Sergio Marchionne is “frightened he is going to upset his team” -another case of the competition being scared stiff of Adrian Newey’s genius-. “If don’t have a competitive engine there’s no future in F1 for Red Bull Racing” declared two days ago Helmut Marko, the right-hand man of the company owner Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz. “The curtain may go down after Abu Dhabi, that’s Mr Mateschitz opinion”. The options for the 4-times World Champions just received a serious blow as the prospect of Audi buying the team and to continue with Red Bull sponsorship most likely will disappear after the news of the scandal involving the VW Group. The supporter of the company getting involved in F1 was Chairman Martin Winterkorn, who yesterday resigned from the Group’s presidency. His plan was to withdraw Audi from the DTM and Le Mans Series to build their own F1 engine for the two teams.

The possibility of the F1 to lose four cars from two of the best teams is now worryingly close to materialize.

But let’s focus on the racing about to take place in one of the great circuits of the world, and of course, the opportunity to make places in the CFA Championship!

‘Till tomorrow

Cheers

Cato