MOTORSPORT: Driver 'silly season' hots up

The mid-season breaks in the Formula One and V8 Supercar championships signal the calm before the storms.

The driver market “silly season” has gone up a few notches this week – internationally more than locally.

Formula 1: A
Finnish newspaper has reported that Kimi Raikkonen has decided to
return to Ferrari, the team with which he won the F1 world title in 2007
– not as a replacement for Fernando Alonso, if the Spaniard is unlocked
by Red Bull Racing, but taking over (supposedly) from under-performing
Felipe Massa.

Ferrari claimed the report had “no foundation”, but
it is unhappy at being left in Red Bull’s tracks for a fourth year in a
row now – and seeing the Mercedes works team overtake it too this
season.

As Andrew Benson of BBC Sport pointed out, “a decision to
re-employ Raikkonen would effectively be an admission that they
(Ferrari) made a mistake by paying off the Finn at the end of 2009,
ending his contract a year early”.

Raikkonen has been a
revelation since his comeback to F1 with the Lotus-Renault team last
season after a two-year sabbatical in the world rally championship.

Ahead
of next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit
that is the most revered track in the world championship he is one point
ahead of Alonso, although both are almost 40 points behind Red Bull’s
Sebatian Vettel.

While Lotus has financial troubles and has been late
paying Raikkonen this season, he has not given any sign of being hugely
keen to replace Aussie Mark Webber at Red Bull as Vettel’s teammate.

Nor
is Red Bull likely to be able to extract Alonso from his long-term
Ferrari contract, despite the Spaniard’s disappointment that his car is
not competitive, so it appears increasingly likely that 24-year-old
Aussie Daniel Ricciardo will step up from Red Bull junior team Toro
Rosso to succeed Webber.

However, F1 is never short of surprises – especially when it comes to driver movements.

V8Supercars: The V8s resume next weekend at the Winton 360 in northern Victoria before the three-round Endurance Cup comprising the Sandown 500 on September 14-15, the Bathurst 1000 on October 13, and the Gold Coast 600 on October 26-27.

The driving line-ups have been finalised now for those three enduros, other than the “wildcard” third Triple Eight Race Engineering entry expected to be filled with two overseas drivers, but – contrary to earlier impressions – it won’t be a Red Bull entry.

NASCAR: Meanwhile, Juan Pablo Montoya – who a decade ago was the main challenger to Michael Schumacher in his prime – is losing his NASCAR drive at the end of this year after seven seasons that, like Australian Marcos Ambrose, has yielded two road-course wins in the Sprint Cup but none on America’s oval tracks.

Team owner Chip Ganassi has come to the realisation that Montoya is not the driver to fulfill his dream of winning the title at the top level of stock car racing.

Montoya covets the seat of four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon at top Chevrolet team Hendrick Motorsports, but the Colombian’s record and lack of complete commitment does not warrant him landing that – and it’s not available yet anyway.

More likely for Montoya is a return to IndyCar racing, in which he won a championship and the Indianapolis 500 before his stint in F1 that produced six GP victories.

Montoya has said he is “absolutely looking at everything” and that “it’s not about money, for me right now it is about winning”.

Aussie Ryan Briscoe is fit to return to Indy racing next weekend at the Sonoma road course in California after six weeks on the sidelines from a broken wrist – and he’s to come home to Australia for the V8 Supercar enduros as Russel Ingall’s co-driver (the Endurance Cup line-up is below).

Briscoe won at Sonoma last year with Team Penske and has always finished in the top five in five starts there.

Dropped by Penske this season, he raced at Indianapolis for Ganassi and has done six races for the Panther team, which he is tipped to join full-time next season.

WRC: Among other driver news, Citroen has installed Northern Irishman Kris Meeke in one of its factory DS3s for Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour on September 12-15 in place of Spaniard Dani Sordo.

Meeke outpaced Sordo at the recent Rally Finland and has been paired with Finn Mikko Hirvonen, winner of the previous Rally Oz two years ago, to score WRC manufacturer points.

Citroen is second in that championship to newcomer Volkswagen, whose new French sensation Sebastien Ogier leads the driver standings ahead of Finnish teammate Jari-Matti Latvala.

Entries for the Australian Rally Championship round to be run in conjunction with Rally Oz are open until next Thursday.

On the V8 Supercar front the future of Will Davison, third in this season’s championship behind Triple Eight/Holden’s Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes, remains undecided after Ford’s announcement this week on its future product range but without any word on whether it will continue serious support for Ford Performance Racing.

Davison is out of contract at the end of this season, while FPR – which has vowed to keep racing Falcons next year irrespective of the factory’s decision on racing – has young star Chaz Mostert, last-start winner at Queensland Raceway in his fifth event on loan to Dick Johnson Racing, under long-term contract.

Mostert not only will be busy with the V8 Supercar enduros but this week became the latest Aussie to commit as well to the upcoming three V8 SuperTourer events in New Zealand – at Hampton Downs on September 28-29 and October 19-20 and at Pukekohe on November 30-December 1.

Tim Slade, now looking increasingly likely to remain with Erebus Motorsport in an E63 Mercedes AMG next year, also signed on for the NZ events.

Mostert will partner Ant Pederson across the Tasman in a Ford (although all cars use a Corvette-based engine) while Slade has hooked up with Richard Moore’s Holden team.

V8 Supercar driver line-ups for Endurance Cup (Sandown 500, Bathurst 1000 and Gold Coast 600)

1. Jamie Whincup-Paul Dumbrell, Red Bull Racing Australia/Triple Eight – Holden Commodore VF
2. Garth Tander-Nick Percat, Holden Racing Team/Walkinshaw Racing – Holden Commodore VF?
3. Tony D'Alberto-Jonny Reid, Hiflex/Tony D'Alberto Racing – Holden Commodore VF
4. Lee Holdsworth-Craig Baird, Irwin Racing/Erebus Motorsport – Mercedes-Benz AMG E63?
5. Mark Winterbottom-Steven Richards, Pepsi Max Crew/Ford Performance Racing – Ford Falcon FG?
6. Will Davison-Steve Owen, Pepsi Max Crew/Ford Performance Racing – Ford Falcon FG
7. Todd Kelly-David Russell, Jack Daniel's Racing/Nissan Motorsport – Nissan Altima
8. Jason Bright-Andrew Jones, Team BOC/Brad Jones Racing – Holden Commodore VF
9. Maro Engel-Steve Johnson, SP Tools Racing/Erebus Motorsport – Mercedes-Benz AMG E63?
12. Chaz Mostert-Dale Wood, Wilson Security/Dick Johnson Racing-Triple F Racing – Ford Falcon FG
14. Fabian Coulthard-Luke Youlden, Lockwood Racing/Brad Jones Racing – Holden Commodore VF
15. Rick Kelly-Karl Reindler, Jack Daniel's Racing/Nissan Motorsport – Nissan Altima
17. Tim Blanchard-Ash Walsh, Wilson Security/Dick Johnson Racing – Ford Falcon FG
18. Alex Davison-John McIntyre, Jeld-Wen/Charlie Schwerkolt Racing – Ford Falcon FG
19. Jonathon Webb-Marc Lieb, Darrell Lea/Tekno Autosports – Holden Commodore VF
21. David Wall-Chris Pither, Wilson Security Racing/Brad Jones Racing – Holden Commodore VF
22. James Courtney-Greg Murphy, Holden Racing Team/Walkinshaw Racing – Holden Commodore VF
33. Scott McLaughlin-Jack Perkins. Fujitsu Racing/Garry Rogers Motorsport – Holden Commodore VF
34. Alexandre Premat-Greg Ritter, Fujitsu Racing/Garry Rogers Motorsport – Holden Commodore VF
36. Michael Caruso-Daniel Gaunt, Norton/Nissan Motorsport – Nissan Altima
47. Tim Slade-Andrew Thompson, Heavy Haulage/JR Racing-Erebus Motorsport – Mercedes-Benz AMG E63
55. David Reynolds-Dean Canto, The Bottle-O Racing/Rod Nash Racing – Ford Falcon FG
66. Russell Ingall-Ryan Briscoe, Supercheap Auto Racing/Walkinshaw Racing – Holden Commodore VF
80. Scott Pye-Paul Morris, Ekol/Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport – Holden Commodore VF
88. Dean Fiore-Matt Halliday, Dodo Car Insurance/Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport – Holden Commodore VF
97. Shane van Gisbergen- Jeroen Bleekemolen, VIP Petfoods/Tekno Autosports – Holden Commodore VF
360. James Moffat-Taz Douglas, Norton/Nissan Motorsport – Nissan Altima