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Adrian Campos has said he would like to use Spanish drivers when his new Campos Grand Prix team joins the Formula One grid next year.

Campos Grand Prix will be based in Madrid and Valencia and will use a chassis designed by Dallara and a Cosworth engine.

Spain’s AS newspaper said that four drivers were in the running for a race seat with the team in 2010: new Le Mans winner, Marc Gené,  GP2 driver Javi Villa, former Force India test driver Roldan Rodriguez and McLaren third driver Pedro de la Rosa.

Thanks to his recent Le Mans success, the press have focussed on Marc Gené, but I’m more interested in seeing Pedro de la Rosa’s name in connection with a race seat.

I like Pedro.  He is a very experienced driver, having been in Formula One for ten years and as well as being an excellent test driver has performed well when required to take the McLaren out on race day.  He finished second in the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix behind Jenson Button.

Lewis Hamilton thinks he’s ok, too:

I’ve known Pedro since he joined the team in 2003.  His approach, outlook and positivity were an inspiration to me as I prepared to make my Formula 1 debut.  His efforts over the years have lifted this team to some phenomenal heights.  I am proud of what Pedro has done – and continues to do – for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, the guy is a legend.

Legend he may be, but at 38 de la Rosa is also the oldest driver in Formula One, older even than Rubens Barrichello.  But like Barrichello he clearly still has a passion to race in Formula One and as David Coulthard proved with Red Bull, what a young team really needs is an experienced driver.

There has been some speculation in the German press recently about Nick Heidfeld’s future at BMW.  His contract is due to expire this year and there have been rumours that he will be dropped from the struggling team at the end of the season.

The Bild newspaper said on the Saturday of the Monaco Grand Prix that while Kubica will be retained, Heidfeld is marked for replacement in 2010.

I’m not sure where the rumour started but it doesn’t really make much sense when you think about it.  Nick has consistently outperformed his team mate this year and as Heidfeld commented:

I don’t know why they would get rid of a driver who has scored six out of the six points.

The team seem pretty supportive of Heidfeld, too.  Last week they posted a glowing article on their website describing Nick’s ‘talent and meticulous work ethic’ in his career with BMW.

They point out that Heidfeld scored the first podium for the team in Hungary in 2006.  In 2007 he made the first front row start for the team as well as another two podiums and in 2008 he achieved BMW’s first two fastest laps.

He may have the record for the most podiums without a win (12) but I think Heidfeld’s seat at BMW is pretty safe.

Image: BMW AG

Ferrari have unexpectedly announced that they are terminating Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen’s contracts at the end of the 2009 season to make way for Lewis Hamilton and Felipe’s dad.

Neither of the two Ferrari cars finished the race at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Sunday and despite both drivers having signed contracts until the end of 2010 it seems Ferrari have had enough of them both.

In a statement issued by Luca di Montezemolo the  Ferrari chairman said:

Australia was a terrible start to the 2009 season and neither of our drivers finished.  That’s just not good enough for Ferrari.  I mean, seriously, what are we paying these guys for?  Felipe’s a nice guy and all but I think it’s time we gave his dad a shot.

It is understood the two drivers will finish their season at the Scuderia this year although Massa’s dad is keen to step in as soon as possible:

I’ve spent the last twenty years preparing Felipe to win the Championship and when he finally gets the chance he blows it.  Well that’s it.  I’m going to show the kid how it’s done.

There had been rumours that Felipe’s dad would be making the move from race dad to race driver when Felipe said at the Australian Grand Prix:

He (Hamilton) is just another one, I don’t care. (MotoGP champion) Valentino Rossi as well and maybe my father will drive for Ferrari next year.

Despite previously saying he wanted to finish his career at McLaren, Lewis Hamilton was happy to make the move to Ferrari after the MP4-24 failed to live up to his expectations saying:

Yeah, I know the F60 doesn’t look too good at the moment but they drove a lorry load of cash up to my house.  I think that shows they are serious.

Every racing car in the Formula One World Championship has a number painted on it.  These are assigned depending on the team’s final standing in the previous year’s Constructors’ Championship.  The team whose driver won the Drivers’ Championship gets the numbers 1 and 2 while the rest of the numbers are assigned in the teams’ finishing order.  Within the team the senior driver generally has the lower number.

The teams’ numbers also denote their pit garage position with the lower numbers having access to the biggest garages and those at the back of the grid having to make do with much smaller facilities.

On Monday the FIA released a revised drivers list for the 2009 Championship with driver number changes affecting three teams.  Honda has now been officially renamed as Brawn GP and, as befits their ‘new team’ status, will be given the final two numbers and the last garage in the pits.  Sebastien Bourdais becomes the senior driver at Toro Rosso and so takes over the number 11 leaving number 12 to his rookie team mate Sebastien Buemi.  Over at Ferrari Felipe Massa, who outperformed Kimi Raikkonen last year, swaps places with him and gets the number 3.

You may have noticed in the video I posted the other week that Damon Hill was driving a Williams with the number 0 on it.  How did that happen?

When Nigel Mansell, the reigning World Champion, left Formula One to race in the US CART series in 1993 Williams promoted Damon Hill from test driver to a race seat alongside Alain Prost and, as Mansell was not racing in Formula One, Williams were assigned the numbers 0 and 2.  Prost, the senior driver, took number 2 and so Hill became only the second man in Formula One history to race with the number 0; the first was Jody Scheckter in 1973.

Here is the full list of constructors and drivers for the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship.  You will notice there is no number 13, for obvious superstitious reasons.

Update: 2009-03-26: The FIA have revised the numbers yet again.  It seems Force India were annoyed they had taken all their promotional pictures with their expected numbers of 20 and 21 so they will keep them this year and Brawn GP will get 22 and 23.  There will be no 18 or 19 cars.

* Driver number change requested by the team and approved by the FIA.

If you want to be a professional Formula One driver you need to manage your brand.  That means, at the very least, you need a website.  Here you (or your manager, or you team of publicists) can post pictures and news about your racing career.  You can also use it flog merchandise.

You probably also want to get yourself a fan club, a Facebook page, twitter account and a karting or GP2 team.

But all that is pretty standard stuff.  It doesn’t really set you apart from every other racing car driver on the planet.  If you really want to prove how good you are you need your very own museum.  Like David Coulthard.

Is there an Alonso Museum?  No.  A Hamilton Museum?  No.  There isn’t even a Senna Museum.  (Ok so there is a Juan Manuel Fangio Museum and a Gilles Villenueve Musem but the ratio of racing drivers to museums is still pretty low.)  But DC has one.  Or at least he did.  According to the DCM website:

For the last few years DC fan Wendy McKenzie has been running the David Coulthard Museum.  After it had been closed down she took it upon herself to get the museum up and running again, so like herself, DC fans the world over would be able to see for themselves the amazing collection of memorabilia he has amassed and celebrate the motorsport career of one of Scotland’s most succesful drivers

That time has unfortunately come to an end and you somehow get the feeling that the small village of Twynholm and Scotland as a whole are losing a National treasure that has drawn in loyal David Coulthard fans from all over the world during the past 12 years. Wendy had this to say…

It is with a very heavy heart that I have to announce the closure of the David Coulthard Museum.

I have found the circumstances just a little too much to take, and as you are all probably aware I have struggled all the way through this but as we all know it is the little thing that finally breaks the camels back and after a lot of heart-searching I have come to the decision to move on with my life and get it into some kind of normal routine again.

Yikes!  Sounds like it was a labour of love keeping that national treasure going.  It’s a pity it has closed down as it looks like it had some interesting stuff in it including the Williams FW17B that DC won his first race in. But I guess the number of loyal David Coulthard fans visiting Twynholm from all over the world has dropped now that DC has retired.

As Wendy says:

Short of a miracle, it will not be opening to the general public again.