This past week in F1 has been a very interesting one indeed. If you read my blog last week you will know what I think is going to happen at Ferrari next year in terms of drivers, now however we have a spanner in the works. The spanner or tool in question is Kimi Raikkonen, who’s victory in Belgium could lead Ferrari down that financial black hole of continuing to employ the man. Then throw in  Fisichella’s excellent drive to finish second at Spa and his imminent replacement of the lackluster Badoer for the Monza race and all of a sudden Ferrari’s possible roster for next season looks decidedly cluttered. Let’s also not forget that Massa’s future is still not clear, Alonso’s looking for a drive and Kubica is drifting around the issue as well.

As far as other drivers go the most interesting question for me is where the drivers for the three new teams will come from. I think at least some of them will be siphoned from GP2, Hulkenberg should be the first driver to jump across if for no reason other than having an awesome name. You just know a man who’s name combines the Hulk and a mountain means business. He’s also leading the GP 2 championship but that’s secondary. Beyond that we’ll probably see any underperforming drivers forced out of their current teams finding a new home with the new kids on the block – Trulli comes to mind. We might also see some drivers return, Piquet and even Villeneuve have made some noises in this department. I actually think that whilst the new teams know these drivers won’t be the quickest they at the very least bring some experience to the table. Entering F1 is a daunting task at the best of times, let alone when your drivers have never even warmed an F1 seat.

We also have the emerging superpowers of Red Bull and their drivers to consider. Red Bull have a future World Champion in Vettel already and are certain to be very keen to keep him, the problem is that I have a faint suspicion Vettel isn’t that happy about the state of Red Bull at the moment. A bold statement I know considering that several of Red Bull’s top brass have said that he is the future and it’s up to them to provide the package to fulfill his potential. The harsh reality is that Red Bull hasn’t got a strategic brain anywhere within the team, they love making their job difficult with ridiculous fuel strategies to name one example. Had Vettel been fueled sensibly in Belgium considering the race pace he showed what would have happened? Ask yourself this, how unlucky have Vettel and Webber been this season compared to say the Brawn’s, in F1 you make your luck with good decisions at the right time. Ross Brawn is simply streets ahead of Christian Horner and the rest of the Red Bull think tank, and I really do think the impatient Vettel has noticed this. He should stay for next season but unless there is an intellectual turnaround at Red Bull soon Vettel will be moving on.

As far as the car itself goes however Red Bull is shaping up well for next season, they have the money and Adrian Newey so they should produce a competitive car next year, something I just can’t say for Brawn. Yes there will be a huge capital injection when they snap up the championship but their rather mediocre performance of late is definitive for me. Remember that Honda spent more time and money than anyone else last year developing this current car because of their dismal 2008 pace, they essentially gave up early 2008 and focused on 2009.

That’s not the situation they are in now, I’m going to go out on a limb and say Brawn is going to be dead in the water next year.