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It looks like Rubens Barichello, the most experienced driver in Formula One, will be back with the soon to be renamed Honda F1 team in 2009.

There had been speculation that Bruno Senna, nephew of the great Ayrton Senna, would replace Barrichello this year.  Now it seems that with only a few weeks to go until the first Grand Prix in Melbourne, and the team yet to turn a wheel on the new car in testing, Ross Brawn is keen to take advantage of Barrichello’s vast F1 experience.

Last year’s Turkish Grand Prix saw Barrichello make his 257th Grand Prix start beating the previous record number of starts held by Riccardo Patrese and 2009 will be the Brazillian’s 16th year in Formula One.

As with every post about Honda recently, I have to add the disclaimer that nothing has been officially announced, but I’m glad it looks like Rubens will be on the grid this year.  While it would be nice to see the Senna name in Formula One again, it makes sense to have an experienced pair of hands for what will be a difficult year for the team.  Rubens clearly thinks he still has what it takes to race in Formula One, saying at the end of last year:

I have unfinished business in F1.  I am sure I can finish higher up, if not winning the championship. I really believe that is what I deserve.

While winning the Championship is unlikely for Rubens this year, it would be a shame if he didn’t return to Formula One for at least another year.  As the most experienced F1 driver ever he deserves a proper send off when he finally does retire.

Last week I suggested that IndyCar driver Danica Patrick could be in the running for a seat with the new USF1 team.

The 26-year-old became the first woman to win an IndyCar race when she won at Japan’s Twin Ring Motegi in 2008.

Now, according to an Associated Press report, it seems USF1 technical director Ken Anderson is interested in testing her.

To be honest, I would be surprised if they didn’t test her.  She has shown she can win, although winning in one series doesn’t necessarily translate to winning in F1,and the publicity she would attract from being the only woman on the grid would be hard to ignore.

Speaking to the AP in a telephone interview, Anderson said:

She’s great. She gets a lot of press.  I don’t know if it’s something she wants to do. We’d certainly love to test her and go from there.

So it doesn’t sound like Danica is the one driver USF1 are “close to signing” but it definitely puts her in the running.

Image: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

With all the rumours about his possible signing for Honda we’ve been seeing a lot of pictures of the young Senna and I’m often struck by how much he looks like his uncle, especially when he’s wearing his helmet.  Not only does he have the most famous surname in Formula One but when he puts on that familiar yellow lid he looks like him too!

There are a few young drivers at the moment following in their fathers’ footsteps.

Nico Rosberg is the son of Finnish 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg.  He impressed by winning the first GP2 Championship in 2005 and moved to the Williams F1 team in 2006.  Apparently he achieved the highest ever score on the the Engineering Aptitude Test, administered to all new Williams drivers.  2006 started well for the young Rosberg; he scored points in his first Grand Prix at Bahrain and became the youngest driver in F1 history to set a fastest lap.  The rest of the season didn’t go quite so well and he had to wait until 2008 to get his first podium finish; 3rd in Australia.

The son of another Brazilian triple World Champion, Nelson Piquet Junior raced against Nico Rosberg in the 2005 GP2 series and finished second to Lewis Hamilton in the 2006 GP2 Championship.  Piquet made the move to Formula One in 2007 as test driver for Renault, gaining a full race seat the following year.  2008 was a difficult rookie season for Piquet with seven retirements, but he scored his first points with a 7th place finish at the French Grand Prix and claimed his first podium with second at the German Grand Prix.  This was enough for Renault to sign him for another year in 2009 alongside Fernando Alonso.

Outside of Formula One, Martin Brundle’s son, Alex, finished fifth in last year’s Formula Palmer Audi series, Damon Hill’s son, Josh, won the 2008 Ginetta Junior Winter Championship and four-time World Champion Alain Prost’s son, Nicolas, won the 2008 Euroseries 3000 championship.  In America, Marco Andretti is carrying on the Andretti tradition in A1GP and Bobby Rahal’s son Graham is racing in IndyCar.

In 1993 Ayrton Senna famously said:

If you think I’m good, just wait until you see my nephew.

If the Honda rumours are true, maybe we will.

Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais will return for a second season at Toro Rosso this year.  This means that, barring Honda’s return, all F1 seats are filled for 2009.  It also means that for a second year in a row both Toro Rosso drivers will be called Sebastien.

While team-mate Sebastien Buemi was confirmed at STR last month, both Bourdais and former Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato were competing for the second seat.

Despite Sato performing well in testing, it seems money was the deciding factor in choosing to go with Bourdais.  With two teams to run, Red Bull needed a driver who could bring in the lucre.  Sato’s manager Andrew Gilbert-Scott:

Taku had showed tremendous speed and commitment during the three tests he did for the team and I believe he proved to be the faster driver. Unfortunately however the team made no secret about the fact that they would need the drive to bring a substantial amount of funding to the team to secure the drive. We have all been working very hard and have been able to attract a significant amount of sponsorship to support the team but unfortunately it was obviously not enough to secure the drive.

Scuderia Toro Rosso Team Principal Franz Tost said:

We are pleased that Sebastien will be with us again for another season. After one year with Toro Rosso, we expect him to profit from the experience he gained last season. He now knows the F1 environment, the race tracks and the team. In addition, the slick tyres, which make a comeback this year, should suit his driving style very well. Therefore he will tackle the coming season with much more experience under his belt. This will be especially valuable given that our other driver, Sebastien Buemi, is an F1 rookie, who has come up through the ranks of the Red Bull Junior Driver programme.

So Taku joins the ranks of talented drivers without a seat in Formula One this year.  Speaking on Friday, Sato said he still feels he has “unfinished business in F1”.

If the Team Formerly Known as Honda manage to find a buyer could Sato find a job there?  They will obviously want to retain Jenson Button but is Rubens Barichello’s seat so secure?  Sato has a history with Honda and as I’ve said before, I’d like to see him on the grid this year.

When Sebastien Buemi straps the Toro Rosso on in Melbourne this year not only will he be the youngest driver on the grid, he will also be the first Swiss driver to race in Formula One for 14 years.

While some countries like Finland seem to breed F1 champions no Swiss driver has scored points in the last 25 years. What’s wrong with Switzerland? After all, Lewis Hamilton lives there.

Switzerland does in fact have a history of Grand Prix racing, starting in 1934 at the old Bremgarten circuit. Originally built as a motorcycle racing track in 1931, the circuit itself had no true straight just a collection of high-speed corners sweeping through the forests north of Berne. The tree-lined roads and changes in road surface made for a dangerous circuit and the first race held at Bremgarten tragically claimed the life of driver Hugh Hamilton when his Maserati broke a wheel and he lost control at nearly 100mph. Bremgarten remained the home of the Swiss Grand Prix until 1954 when Juan Manuel Fangio won in a Mercedes-Benz W196.

Then the following year the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans saw the death of 84 spectators when Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR was involved in an accident and flew into the crowd, killing the driver as well. Over 100 more people were injured and the terrible accident prompted many countries to ban motor racing including France, Germany and Switzerland. But while motor racing was reintroduced in the other countries, it was only 50 years later in 2007 that the Swiss Parliament voted to lift the ban on racing. Incredibly, while 97 were in favor of lifting the ban there were still 77 opposed. However this legislation was subsequently not ratified by the Council of States so there is little chance that motor racing will return to Switzerland in the near future.

All this means that while Finland has produced more Formula One world champions per capita than anywhere else and France has a great heritage of racing, Swiss drivers have rather a hard time of it.

Sebastien Buemi explains:

Switzerland is not a good place from which to embark on a racing career. There is no help for the drivers, no infrastructure, no circuits, no support programme. In France for example, there are several well established schools and even so, it’s clear they struggle to get drivers into F1, so imagine what it’s like in a country that has nothing. It’s entirely down to the individual, but maybe my arrival in F1 will change that.

I hope so. Alonso’s huge popularity gave Spain a second race in Valencia. Maybe if young Buemi can ignite the same kind of support in Switzerland we might see a Swiss Grand Prix in the future too.