Williams Drops The Hammer

Williams announced that Nico Rosberg (Son of 1982 F1 World Champion Keke Rosberg), widely considered the front runner for the McLaren seat vacated by Fernando Alonso , is under contract to Williams for 2008, and his services are not for sale at any price.

Of course, in F1-speak, this could mean one of two things:

1. Ron Dennis hasn't offered enough money to buy out Rosberg's contract, or


2. Frank Williams has Rosberg under contract on the cheap, and Frank LOVES cheap.

Let's face it, Williams and McLaren have a rivalry that goes WAY back, and there's certainly no love lost between Ron Dennis and Frank Williams.

Over the past 5 years, though, the teams have been on very different trajectories.

McLaren has ridden a wave of Mercedes-Benz money and engine development technology to the top of Formula One. They've secured the services of the best drivers in F1, including Lewis Hamilton, arguably the best young driver in a decade (maybe ever).

Meanwhile, Williams has gone the other way, in a big way. Their partnership with BMW was a disaster, and when that broke up, Williams was left without a factory engine deal, which is critical to any success in today's Formula One. They spent a year with Cosworth engines, then moved on to Toyota.

Toyota's engines are highly regarded, but they're not free. This is a financial drain on the team, and Williams has struggled to keep pace with the mega-budgets of McLaren, Ferrari, Honda, and Toyota. As they've fallen off the pace, they've also struggled with sponsorships. History and a famous name only gets you so far, and Williams is trying to stay at the sharp end of the grid and avoid the fate of so many other privateer teams.

So, when Rosberg's name was floated as a replacement for Alonso, Williams again found themselves in the catbird seat. Believe me, Frank loves jerking Ron's chain.

So what will it be? I predicted Rosberg for the McLaren seat. If McLaren wants Nico bad enough, they can afford to make Williams an offer they can't refuse. The money Mercedes can throw at the issue is substantial, and Williams needs the money badly if they want to stay competitive.

And if Williams refuses, they've got a pissed off driver on their hands who will bolt as soon as his contract allows. Rosberg knows that driver only has a few chances to move up the grid, and the opportunity to drive for a team with a real chance to win the World Championship may only come once, if at all. F1 history is replete with great drivers who never had the chance to drive competitive cars (Jean Alesi, anyone?), and so Nico knows he NEEDS this chance; it may never come again. He wants this drive.

On the other side of the argument, Frank Williams was stated categorically that he will never sell Rosberg's contract, even to go as far as saying that he's sell the team if he sold Rosberg. According to WIlliams, Rosberg is the key to their resurgence.

The other name being bandied about for the McLaren seat is Heikki Kovalainen. It makes sense for McLaren and Renault to work a deal to swap drivers, but McLaren doesn't want to be seen as taking Flavio Briatore's rejects. Even though Kovalainen has drastically raised his game this season, he remains a second-choice driver for McLaren. However, he's still ahead of Adrian Sutil, the Spyker #1. While Sutil has shown great promise, he hasn't driven for a front row team as has Kovalainen.

So, I have to retract my prediction that Rosberg will go to McLaren. It's going to be Kovalainen and Alonso in a a switch between McLaren and Renault, with Rosberg left at the altar.