grumpyf1

The great thing about F1 rumours is that they change every 5 minutes. Just last week it was looking like Barrichello might be back in at Williams, as new engines, tech staff and a general reshuffle would mean they needed someone who actually knew what they were doing in an F1 car. Which rules out Maldonado, obviously. Now it looks like Senna might be about to get a seat with the team where his Uncle lost his life. I'm sure Bruno's mum must be delighted. I don't hold with all this superstitious mumbo-jumbo though, and with the extraordinary level of safety in modern F1 cars, Bruno should be pretty safe. There is one significant problem with Williams signing him though - and this is going to be a bit unpopular I suspect - Bruno isn't very good. Yes, he put in a couple of reasonable performances with Renault, but Nick Heidfeld (ah... Nick and his lovely beard...) would have been able to do likewise, has he not been dropped. And then they dropped Senna too. Thi...

Who'd have thunked it, eh? A seat in a Williams F1 car for 2012 is now the most hotly contested thing in F1 (if you ignore the piece of tarmac Lewis and Rubens want to be on, that is). With surprise signings at both Lotus Renault and Toro Rosso resulting it all their 2011 drivers getting the F1 heave-ho, it's fallen to Frank's mob to offer a chance for the refugees from these two teams, plus a few other drivers unceremoniously dumped in the constant quest for "the next Seb". Sutil, Senna, Petrov, Buemi, Alguersuari and D'Ambrosio all need a drive, and Barrichello certainly wasn't planning on calling it a day either. And, before you mention it, I know HRT have a seat free too, but... seriously... who'd go there? Apart from Pedro de la Rosa, of course. It's on the way to the pension office, I believe. I'm guessing Sutil, but with Maldonado signed up again for next year (along with some more hefty bags of cash), Williams need a decent d...

If you're Romain Grosjean or Bruno Senna (which if you are, well... er hello. You may not like this next bit...) you were probably hoping to get the odd chance to go near a Lotus-Renault-Whatever this year, and maybe (if you were extra good) even touch one. In your wildest dreams, the thought probably occurred to you that Petrov might get inexplicably lost and not be seen for a fortnight (which isn't THAT far fetched, really) and you'd get to drive the car for a race. So when Kubica had his rallying incident, you'd forgive them for thinking that this just might be their big chance. Unfortunately for them, no-one else sees it that way. Both have had a chance in F1. Grosjean was massively average, and Senna got trumped by a guy who hadn't driven an F1 car for yonks, when Klien got a go on the HRT merry-go-round. L-R-W have wisely decided to try and get hold of someone half-decent instead. Actually, there aren't many people as good as Kubica, so it's a toug...

Sometimes, he looks scarily like his brilliant uncle Ayrton. Unfortunately for Bruno Senna's career prospects, he doesn't see capable of driving nearly as well as him. That's probably why the likable Brazillian appears to be out of F1 after just one year with the rather hopeless HRT. Now it's clear that they need someone who brings cash to the team, hence the swapping of seats during the year between Chanhok, Yamamoto and Klien. But Bruno only missed one race (I think?) so had a good chance to show himself. Unfortunately for him, he managed to get royally shown up by Klien, who hadn't raced in F1 for a couple of years, and that's pretty embarrassing. Maybe he'll get another chance. Maybe the Senna name just left F1 for good. We'll see. (Still on that No. 1's CD - Manic Street Preachers at the mo....)

Well, they finally made it, albeit under a different name. Campos became Hispania, and today they finally launched their car (although this is the only photo I've found of it so far). They couldn't have left it much later and neither of their drivers will have driven the car when they turn up for the 1st race in a week's time. Not exactly a promising start, is it? With US F1 not making it though, at least we do have 2 more teams than last season. The car has been built by Dallara, so assumingly Hispania will need to take it back to the dealership for a change of oil and a service at some point. Drivers? Well, Bruno Senna we know about already (2nd in GP2 in 2008) but Karun Chandhok is even less spectacular, having won 3 races in GP2 in the last 2 years. To be fair though, that's not exactly rubbish, is it? Tough gig for the pair of them - let's hope they don't make fools of themselves or the press will have a field day. Someone really should have explained to th...