Rubens and Hukenberg for Williams *confirmed*

[I am evil Homer]

Just confirmed!

[Mark]

LINK PLEASE!

[I am evil Homer]

On BBC News ticker....no story written, yet

[SkyTom]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79974

[Valve Bounce]

OK! so who goes to Brawn?

[Mark]

Well we know for certain now that Barichello is not going to be at Brawn. So there's at least one free seat there.

I suspect they are waiting to sign Button first of all. I suppose if they can't reach agreement with Button they'll be looking to get Kimi.

[I am evil Homer]

Indeed I wouldn't assume Rosberg at Brawn is a done deal - they need to sort Jenson first and then figure out what they have left in the budget.

[jens]

Congrats to Rubens! :up: He is still highly competitive and very motivated even at this age and after such a long career. Legendary amount of 300 GP starts will be reached next year. :) His main weakness is braking balance, which has been the main cause for his struggles thus far. Rubinho has had these issues in the beginning of his Ferrari-career, at Honda in 2006 and in the beginning of 2009 with Brawn. I wonder, how will he adapt to Williams.

The main alarming aspect about Rubens is that after great qualies he has seemed to struggle slightly in races recently. I wonder if his physical fitness isn't really that sharp any more in such age. I remember similar case with Mansell in 1994 - he was fast in qualis and got a pole position as well, but in races was clearly slower than Hill.

Hülkenberg is the best-prepared rookie to join F1 after Hamilton and could be the revelation of 2010, so it will be very exciting to see, what can he do. The more top drivers we have, the greater the competition is. :) I personally predict that while Rubens could beat him in qualis, Nico will have better races.

[ArrowsFA1]

Barrichello and Hülkenberg make a good lineup for Williams :up:

[truefan72]

we all knew this was the case weeks ago

sadly for these two, Williams made the stupid decision to part with the strong toyota engine for the unknown, cheaper and most likely inferior cosworth engine. A dumb decision that will see them competing with the other cosworths for king of the backmarker status

[HenryM]

good news, but I hope the cosworth engine isn't a big issue, and that williams can make a competitive car.

as for Barrichello's braking issues, I think he is still doing right foot braking... the only one in F1!?

[Stuartf12007]

ive been tipping Hulkenberg as a future world champion for atleast 4 years, so its good to see him finally get a drive in F1.

Once he gets a drive with a top team he will be a world champ.

[F1boat]

This is a great lineup. Nico Hulkenberg seems a very strong and talented young driver and Rubens can help him a lot in what I expect to be his final year. Nico will need a good, old experience teammate and Barrichello is the ideal man. Now we need to see what will happen at Brawn GP and McLaren-Mercedes. But of Jenson goes to Brawn, I think that this will be disaster for the young team, even if Rosberg joins them.

[UltimateDanGTR]

the perfect driver line up for the williams team i feel, for the reasons expressed above. i can see a very good driver relationship growing next year and hulkenburg will have a great guy to work with in rubens, who i believe will take nico under his wing.

good luck for williams next year.

[DazzlaF1]

we all knew this was the case weeks ago

sadly for these two, Williams made the stupid decision to part with the strong toyota engine for the unknown, cheaper and most likely inferior cosworth engine. A dumb decision that will see them competing with the other cosworths for king of the backmarker status

I disagree, the only problem the Cosworth engine had in 06 was that it was unreliable, take out that, and it was one of the most powerful on the grid (i think it was producing close to 20,000rpm) plenty of good quali performances, fastest lap in bahrain for Rosberg and Webber running as high as 3rd in Monaco are testament to that. So i would'nt call it inferior to the Toyota engine which supposedly is the weakest on the grid at the moment.

Reliability though should improve with the rev-limited regulations and as a result, Williams and the 4 newbies could have a decent engine package. Include that Williams have an excellent driver line-up potentially and they could challenge for a top 5 constructors spot in 2010.

[ioan]

I disagree, the only problem the Cosworth engine had in 06 was that it was unreliable, take out that, and it was one of the most powerful on the grid (i think it was producing close to 20,000rpm) ...

Both BMW an Ferrari went well above 20000 and BMW did even hit 21000 rpms.
Also reliability is at a premium nowadays with only 8 engines for a whole season.

[Garry Walker]

Good line-up.

Nico is a very talented guy and I predict he will hand Rubens a clear beating next season.

[Somebody]

I can't imagine Brawn will get Kimi if we believe all the stories about Button asking for more money and Brawn stalling because they want to keep him under the £10M mark. Kimi's management are obviously keen to get the largest wage they can for their driver and theres only 2 teams other than Ferrari that could compete IMO. Mclaren and Toyota. Toyota are looking less likely and with the Mclaren pace at Abu Dhabi, I think they are the more obvious choice. Whether or not they will be willing to pay him the same as Lewis is another matter.. :)

Kimi's publically dismissed Toyota out of hand (or rather, he said that it was McLaren or bust as far as F1 went (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79896)).



sadly for these two, Williams made the stupid decision to part with the strong toyota engine for the unknown, cheaper and most likely inferior cosworth engine. A dumb decision that will see them competing with the other cosworths for king of the backmarker status
Well, when you remember that the price for the Toyotas was Nakajima, one of the reasons they're taking the risk is obvious. The other is that Toyota may be pulling out ANYWAY, and if so they'd be hunting for a replacement engine much closer to the wire.



I disagree, the only problem the Cosworth engine had in 06 was that it was unreliable, take out that, and it was one of the most powerful on the grid (i think it was producing close to 20,000rpm)
Power at high-revs is no help with rev-limited regs - Mercedes had trouble getting their engine to rev high, but with an 18krpm limit they're the class of the field.



Reliability though should improve with the rev-limited regulations and as a result, Williams and the 4 newbies could have a decent engine package. Include that Williams have an excellent driver line-up potentially and they could challenge for a top 5 constructors spot in 2010.
See, here's the problem for the Cosworth runners - fuel. The Cosworth engine was one of the thirstiest in 2006, and with refuelling banned next year, a thirsty engine is a bigger penalty than ever.

Remember this from a couple of months back?
The word in F1 circles is that the Cosworth engine is not going to be very competitive. Designed several years ago, it is heavier and less fuel efficient than the current generation of engines and while this can be improved upon in the mid-term, it is not going to happen before the start of the 2010 season. It is reckoned that because there will be no refuelling next year, Cosworth cars will have to carry an additional 18kg of fuel. This will mean that the designers will have to build bigger fuel tanks and this will affect both the weight distribution of the cars and the handling. The result of all this will be that the cars will use their tyres less efficiently than the existing teams. Engineers from rival teams calculate that this will cost the three new Cosworth teams around three to four seconds a lap.3-4 seconds. Per lap. After a 2009 with the field spread as low as than 1s/lap.

[woody2goody]

I think, next year at least, Rubens will take Hulkenberg to school, whilst racking up 300 GPs in the process.

I'm not sure about the credibility of the rumours surrounding the Cosworth engine. A team like Williams, and possibly Red Bull, wouldn't jeopardise their title chances by going for an engine which will guarantee they are fighting for 16th place at the maximum, and finishing every race 2-3 laps down. They simply aren't that stupid.

The Cosworth was the best engine on the grid in terms of power in 2006, so I think it's just scaremongering.

[truefan72]

Kimi's publically dismissed Toyota out of hand (or rather, he said that it was McLaren or bust as far as F1 went (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79896)).



Well, when you remember that the price for the Toyotas was Nakajima, one of the reasons they're taking the risk is obvious. The other is that Toyota may be pulling out ANYWAY, and if so they'd be hunting for a replacement engine much closer to the wire.



Power at high-revs is no help with rev-limited regs - Mercedes had trouble getting their engine to rev high, but with an 18krpm limit they're the class of the field.



See, here's the problem for the Cosworth runners - fuel. The Cosworth engine was one of the thirstiest in 2006, and with refuelling banned next year, a thirsty engine is a bigger penalty than ever.

Remember this from a couple of months back?3-4 seconds. Per lap. After a 2009 with the field spread as low as than 1s/lap.

very good points and an intersitng read.
I have zero confidence in the reliability or quality of the cosworth engines, and if the article is close to the truth, then those cars are screwed. So much for Mosley' blackmailing teams to use cosworths as a requirement for approval. All he wanted was to have his vision of a single engine series come true, even if that engine is useless. Man, I am glad he is gone, the damage this man has done via the FIA on F1 is without match.

I feel sorry of Rubens and hulkenberg. Rubens should have retired this year rathwer than have a swan song in mediocrity.

[F1boat]

I think that this article is very old, before FIA allowed Cosworth to do some work on the engine.

[VkmSpouge]

A good driver pairing for Williams next season. The mixture of youth and experience should see them do well. The signing of Rubens Barrichello is key to the team as Nico Hulkenberg couldn't wish for a better team mate to learn the ropes of F1. What's more Barrichello's feed back during the winter testing will be crucial as the team seek to integrate their new car with the new Cosworth engine.

[ArrowsFA1]

Remember this from a couple of months back?3-4 seconds. Per lap. After a 2009 with the field spread as low as than 1s/lap.
I can't see Williams signing up with Cosworth knowing they are going to be 3-4 secs a lap slower than most of the field. Why would they do that? :crazy: The Cosworth engine may have been one of the thirstiest in 2006, but that's a long time ago now.

[AndyL]

I can't see Williams signing up with Cosworth knowing they are going to be 3-4 secs a lap slower than most of the field. Why would they do that? :crazy: The Cosworth engine may have been one of the thirstiest in 2006, but that's a long time ago now.

And they've still got until March to keep working on it, with the knowledge that it's going to have to run a race on one tank of fuel - an opportunity that none of the other engine suppliers have.

[christophulus]

Very happy with that. Barrichello is still fast and hitting 300 GPs will be something special! Hulkenberg has been very impressive in GP2 and Williams clearly rate him as he's been the reserve driver all year.

The Cosworth will be fine, especially as it is a "new" engine so can be tweaked up until the 1st March..


The technical team at Williams, which Patrick Head believes is approaching the level to produce the kind of work Williams came up with in its glory days, believes that the Cosworth will be a competitive engine, albeit possibly quite high on fuel consumption, which is a penalty with no refueling next year.

But as a new engine, the technical team at Cosworth are allowed to continue developing the engine until March 1 next year, which gives them a lot of time to improve the product. Existing F1 engines are frozen.

Although reliability is unproven and there is no track testing allowed, the team at Cosworth has been supplemented recently by many engineers returning from other engine programmes, such as Mercedes’ in Brixworth. Head believes that this makes Cosworth the right option, but I still believe that there is some kind of wider business reason for this which may become clear down the line.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2009/11/williams-opt-for-mixture-of-innocence-and-experience/