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The paying F1 driver is back (but not you, Jenson)

Jenson Button has earned his rewards but he is still one of the lucky ones.

While the Formula One world champion faces the difficult decision of whether to go to McLaren on six million pounds a year or stay with Brawn/Mercedes for what still amounts to a salary of lottery proportions, other drivers are not so fortunate.

With the departure of leading manufacturers and the effects of the global credit crunch, next year’s starting grid will see the return in numbers of a once familiar species that has been almost extinct in recent years — the paying driver.

They may not be obvious, and all will have the mandatory super-licences, but they will be there nonetheless.

Brazilian Bruno Senna, nephew of the late triple champion Ayrton, has the name and the personality to get plenty of attention next year when he races for the new Campos Meta team.

He was also runner-up in GP2 last year.

Despite his attributes, he will still not be getting a salary from the team.

Button to McLaren – the real deal or just pretend?

Jenson Button’s eye-catching visit to McLaren on Friday is of obvious benefit to both parties, whatever the reality behind the headlines.

If a deal is done, the new Formula One champion gets the bigger salary that Brawn are reluctant or unable to pay as well as a potentially winning car for next season.

McLaren would get a line-up of champions that will appeal to global sponsors like Vodafone and show that they remain, along with Ferrari, a big hitting team that can always pull in the top talent.

At the very least, Button is able to send a clear message to Brawn that he has other, viable and possibly more lucrative, options and that they cannot assume he will just stay out of loyalty.

McLaren are similarly able to remind Kimi Raikkonen, until now widely considered the main choice to partner Lewis Hamilton, that they too have alternatives and that he should consider reducing his wage demands.

Raikkonen, their former driver who won the 2007 title with Ferrari and has now left the Italian team, was seen at the factory on Wednesday with his management.

But what if Brawn don’t blink, Raikkonen refuses to accept McLaren’s terms and Button signs up to join Hamilton?

Suspended sentence for Renault — does the punishment fit the crime?

The news has just come in from Paris, where Renault have been handed a suspended ban from Formula One, while their former boss Flavio Briatore has been banned from all F1 activities, including driver management, and ex-technical chief Pat Symonds is barred for five years.

So the immediate result of the inquiry into race-rigging at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix is that Renault can stay in the sport, provided they stay on their best behaviour for the next couple of years, even though the offence was described by the FIA as one of “unparalleled severity”.

Does that punishment fit the crime, would you say?

It’s well worth reading the FIA media release on this in full. It confirms that Renault admitted conspiring with Nelson Piquet Jr to cause the crash. Here’s a section of the statement:

The World Motor Sport Council considers Renault F1’s breaches relating to the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to be of unparalleled severity. 

Renault F1’s breaches not only compromised the integrity of the sport but also endangered the lives of spectators, officials, other competitors and Nelson Piquet Jr. himself. 

The World Motor Sport Council considers that offences of this severity merit permanent disqualification from the FIA Formula One World Championship. 

Is Schumacher right to return to Formula One?

Incredible but true: Seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher is to return to Formula One as a short-term replacement for Felipe Massa — provided the German passes a medical.

As Ferrari have just confirmed, Schumacher is poised to make a comeback after Massa fractured his skull in an accident at last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

It’s another twist to a Formula One season you could hardly describe as ordinary, what with the breakaway threat, the stunning start from Brawn GP and the news from BMW this morning.

Is Schumacher doing the right thing in returning to the sport? Having him back will be a great boon in PR terms both for F1 as a whole and for Ferrari but will it work out? He hasn’t been out that long but in a sport where fitness is becoming more and more important, can the 40-year-old possibly be in the necessary shape to step straight back into the car?

Here’s what Willi Weber, Schumacher’s manager, said yesterday: “What would we expect from Schumacher if he stepped into a Formula One car? To win. The expectations from both sides would be too high.”

Is Schumacher right to come back?

Don’t count Ferrari out yet

Ferrari are in a deep crisis and performances this season have been disastrous, according to a couple of Italian blogs.

Last season’s champions are without any points after three races and Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, won by Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull.

I live in Italy and a lot of my friends are fickle Ferrari fans. But, you never know, they could come roaring back when their adapted car, with a new double-decker diffuser, appears at the Spanish Grand Prix on May 10.

Then again, maybe Kimi Raikkonen is right saying the title has already gone…

What’s in a Formula 1 name?

What do you call the Formula One team with no name?

The question is not merely rhetorical but one faced by anyone writing about the team formerly known as Honda (how about TFKAH?) who are expected to carry out a shakedown of their new Mercedes-powered car at Silverstone this week.

They could then go testing in Barcelona, with no news yet on when a long-awaited management buyout will be confirmed.

Honda announced in December that they were pulling out of the sport, putting the future of their team and British driver Jenson Button in limbo.

Although they have formally entered the championship as Honda Racing F1, anything powered by a Mercedes engine is clearly not a Honda.

As Bernie Ecclestone told the Times newspaper last month: “We should stop talking about Honda because they are gone. This is now a limited liability company which used to be owned by Honda (but) which they want to sell.”

Fine. So what are they to be called now? And what name would suit them best for the season starting in Australia on March 29?