Kobayashi to stay on at Sauber

[CarlosFerreira]

No real news. World's coolest driver maintains his seat with the Hinwil outfit. Anyway, rejoice!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/86444

[eagleash]

No real news. World's coolest driver maintains his seat with the Hinwil outfit. Anyway, rejoice!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/86444

It must be true....Joe Saward posted it a little while ago.....

[Yannick]

Congrats to Kobayashi-san for his contract prolongation. Here's hoping Sauber will have good funding, a good car and a decent engine in the 2011 season.

[Ide]

Good stuff. Sauber seems to be going in the right direction with the car development and hopefully they and Kamui can carry their form through into next season. Once he gets his qualifying sorted I think he'll be right up there

[AndreaModa]

YES!

[eagleash]

Congrats to Kobayashi-san for his contract prolongation. Here's hoping Sauber will have good funding, a good car and a decent engine in the 2011 season.

There was a story recently that Perez, comes with a huge amount of cash &/or sponsorship courtesy of a Mexican multi-multi-billionaire, (said by some to be the World's richest person) & that Sauber are hopeful of a deal in that direction. So maybe they will be well funded in 2011. Proper funding won't do KOB any harm.

[mario]

Kind of expected, to be honest, given his recent run of points, but it is still good news (at least, for most posters here, it is). With Peter Sauber seemingly more buoyant about next year, now that he says that he has found enough funding, things are looking on the up for Kobayashi and Sauber.

What is interesting is that Sauber have not committed to their second driver, which suggests that De La Rosa is, unsurprisingly, being replaced at the end of the season. I would guess that the most likely candidate would be an up and coming GP2 driver, and a number of drivers have been linked to Sauber (Bianchi and Perez have been mentioned - particularly the latter, after rumours of Telmex sponsorship for Sauber cropped up).

Kind of means that the silly season is dull, as the line up has almost been fixed already this year - I think that this is the known line up so far for 2011:

Ferrari: Alonso/Massa
Force India: Sutil/Liuzzi
HRT: TBA/TBA
Lotus Racing: Kovalainen/Trulli
Mclaren: Button/Hamilton
Mercedes: Rosberg/Schumacher
Red Bull: Vettel/Webber
Renault: Kubica/TBA
Sauber: Kobayashi/TBA
Toro Rosso: Alguersuari/Buemi
Virgin Racing: Glock/TBA
Williams: Barrichello/Hulkenberg

So, realistically, there aren't that many seats left - the only possible mid field seats are at Renault, and that is only if Renault do ditch Petrov (I think, however, that he will stay at Renault), and Sauber. Virgin may get rid of Di Grassi in favour of either a GP2 driver or a more experienced former driver, and, of course, HRT's seats will be filled by the driver with the largest wallet.
After that, there is the decided unknown of the potential final team - the announcement of which is still some way away, it seems.

[EDIT] Italicised entries indicate drivers who are expected to resign for their respective teams, but have not officially announced their intentions for 2011.

[eagleash]

Sauber have stated that the 2nd driver will be announced "at a later date". Hence the speculation re Perez & the Mexican (Telmex) sponsorship.

[jackanderton]

Liuzzi's under a bit of pressure to score some points towards the end of the season. He's too often being out-performed by Sutil. Force India shouldn't be finishing 15th and 16th these days.

They should consider Chandhok. What with being Indian and all that, and quite capable behind the wheel, it has seemed.

[Jynister]

I think Luizzis seat might go to Di Resta seeing how he's already the test driver. Having Chandhok would make financial sense though as I'd assume some Indian sponsers might pop up.

He might go there for 2012 though, as the Indian GP will be then, and I assume Sutil is looking to move on after 2011.

[DemocalypseNow]

Would just like to point out Sutil isn't under contract at Force India next year...neither are either of the Williams drivers.

[shinji]

Would just like to point out Sutil isn't under contract at Force India next year.

I'd just take it as such a given that Sutil will be at Force India that it'd nearly be weird to see him somewhere else.

[mario]

Would just like to point out Sutil isn't under contract at Force India next year...neither are either of the Williams drivers.

The reason that I had listed the Williams drivers was because there have been reports which suggest that Barrichello and Hulkenberg will be retained for 2011 - certainly, it is known the Rubens expects to be on the grid next year, and, overall, that Williams are pleased with his performance. Hulkenberg is a little more difficult to judge, but currently there have been no alternative drivers linked to Williams.
Overall, therefore, public opinion seems to be that Williams will retain their driver line up, and at the moment, I have not seen anything conclusive that would suggest that Williams will change their line up.

As for Sutil, I do concede that, again, there has been no official confirmation that he will stay at Force India next year. However, he has indicated in the past that he is happy at Force India (even if, at times, he has slagged the team off a bit), and, so far, he hasn't been in negotiations with any other team (at least, not that I know of any other negotiations).
Secondly, where else could he go? With the bigger teams locked out, the only team that might be a step up is Renault, but that is only if they get rid of Petrov, which is not at all certain. A move to Sauber would probably be a sideways move (because both teams are really midfield teams) and the only other possible places are much further down the grid - and I think that he he is looking further up the grid then down it. Logically, therefore, the most likely option is that he will stay where he is.

Nevertheless, what I will do is edit the original post to make it clearer that those drivers are not confirmed, but expected to resign for their respective teams. That way, my original post won't mislead other people into thinking that they have been definitely signed up.

[FullMetalJack]

I can definitely see Barrichello staying at Williams for 2011. He has been very solid this season, and along with Sutil, the quiet achievers of 2010.

[IdeFan]

I can't see anywhere that would be much better than Sauber that Kamui could go to in the near future. All of the other options are in the midfield and that is notoriously difficult to predict, until a seat opens up at one of the big four* I think he's best off staying at Sauber and building a team around him.

*The big four is getting hard to define, Mercedes seem to be slipping back but Renault seem to be catching up, so arguably it could be a big 3 or a big 5, but you know what I mean .

[TomWazzleshaw]

Barrichello signed a two year contract for Williams at the end of last season if memory seves me correct.