New F1 season kicks off this weekend (Page 33 of 33)

I wonder if Brazil will finally see the final main pieces of the driver market falling into place.

Surely this weekend Alonso will announce his return to McLaren for next year. This would no doubt trigger the teams announcement of its intention to retain 22 year old Magnussen in preference to 2009 WC Jenson Button.

Sad for him (Jenson) that his last F1 season had to finish without a single victory, plus the sad loss of his father at the beginning of the year.

Button has had a long and I think distinguished career in F1. I hope he does turn to sports prototypes like Mark Webber as I think he has an enormous amount to offer this area of the sport and would be extremely successful. His innate abilities to 'work' a car through various race stages is ideally suited to sports cars. His sublime treatment of the equipment will stand him in very good stead. I could see him becoming our new Derek Bell and with someone like Porsche, winning WC and LeMans. Here's hoping he goes for it.

Sauber have already announced Swede Marcus Errikkson and his 15m dollars for 2015 and now Brazilian Felipe Nasr is going there too presumably with even more dollars to his name. In the current financial climate Sauber's colours are firmly pinned to the mast - pay drivers. Both Errikkson and Nasr have talent, no question, but at this stage of their careers I suspect they have more dollars than talent. Nevertheless Sauber has always been good for new young drivers so it is the best place for them, even if not the best solution for Sauber.

That means that both Adran Sutil and Guitarrez are being shown the door. Sutil's F1 career is probably now over and I suspect sports cars or the DTM will beckon for him. LeMans prototypes would suit his style, but being German, the DTM is most likely more attractive to his backers. I hope he has a chance to score a point in the last 2 races, but he needs to stay away from Perez!

On the financial front I see the much talked about 'boycott' by Lotus, Force India and Sauber, was in part avoided by the intervention of CVC, the financial 'owners' of F1. Donald MacKenzie, co-chairman contacted Lotus chief Gerard Lopez and has 'promised' to undertake a shake up of the distribution of monies in F1. This is quite a tumultuous development, if true. It shows that Bernies position is far weaker than even I thought. If MacKenzie gets active in this aspect of the sport it will undermine Bernie's standing.

With any luck Button, Sutil and Guitarrez won't be the only 'names' disappearing from F1 at the end of the season.

Yes, Marussia, or Manor or whatever they were or would be called have folded. A footnote to their story is that they have 'earned' in 2014 already a bonus payment from Bernie of $56m, and Caterham $10m. However, Bernie is forbidden from paying it in advance, which I suppose, is fair enough.

I don't know what the accumulated debts Marussia have to date, but for the Administrator you would think a $56m injection would be useful. They had a dispensation to miss the last 2 races, but they would need to be in Abu Dhabi otherwise I would imagine all bets are off and it is forfeited.

Bernie is already suggesting this retained $66m will now go into a fund to assist Lotus, F. India and Sauber. It seems all very unfair if you ask me. Maybe the way forward is for the leading teams to run 3rd cars. It would serve them right cost wise. I voted in the BBC online poll against it, but maybe they deserve it.

My take on Bernie is that he is more than 'time-served'. He has done an enormous amount for the sport of F1. The TV coverage we see today was all pioneered by Bernie, and funded by his organisation for a number of years, all designed to bring the sport forward in terms of its coverage. The safety aspects were all funded and supported by him through Prof. Jenkins for all those years.

He has done his bit, and more, but his 'dealings' with the major teams have created the financial disparities the sport now suffers from. Yes, F1 without Ferrari would be lawn tennis without Wimbledon, but a $50m payment just for showing up? Not sure about that...............

The circus rolls on though, they lose some clowns and other attractions from time to time but there are still enough (at themoment) performing seals to keep the thing (literally) on the road.

If only Mariussa and/or Caterham could find the backing to run at least one car at Abu Dhabi they they'd get the payments due to them.  I've no idea how much it costs to do this but I suspect $10m doesn't go very far.  The grid on Sunday looked quite sparse without them/

Anyhoo, it was a close run race with Lewis doing the chasing for a change.  He tends to get a little over exuberant and hence mistakes happen.  As for his post-race demeanour, I agree with Mike: he acts like a spoilt child sometimes.  Why can't all the drivers be like Daniel Ricciardo when they're on the podium?  Happy to be there.

So, the final race of the season is almost upon us.  My maths isn't good so I'm not even going to try to work out the permutations but it'll be a Mercedes champion - just which one?  It's quite exciting really!

Congrats to Lewis - Great start - perfect end of season finish; Two times World champion now!