Formula 1's Latest Rumours and Talk: Christian Horner, Kimi Raikkonen and More
Christian Horner was a dead man walking.
With reports surrounding his future at Red Bull Racing, it seemed his tenure as the boss of the four-times world champions was spluttering to an end in the most ugly, unsavoury fashion after the team's worst start to a season in several years.
Yet the 41-year-old has brought a swift end to the speculation, announcing that he has signed a new deal with the Milton Keynes-based outfit.
While Horner has secured his long-term future, Kimi Raikkonen's place in Formula One is looking increasingly uncertain.
Having made major mistakes in the last two races, the Finn was in need a vote of confidence, but one of Raikkonen's former team-mates has urged Ferrari to get rid of the 2007 world champion and sign Valtteri Bottas or Nico Hulkenberg to race alongside Sebastian Vettel.
Raikkonen's display in the Austrian Grand Prix will form part of his legacy, with the Finnish driver's frightening crash with Fernando Alonso reopening the debate over cockpit safety.
Closed cockpits and canopies have long been regarded as the most likely solution to the lingering issue, but the head of the drivers' union has insisted the competitors will follow the lead of the rule-makers when it comes to making changes.
As Raikkonen's career comes to a close, Fabio Leimer's is only just beginning.
It wasn't difficult to read between the lines when Manor recently signed the Swiss as their reserve driver, and the 2013 GP2 winner has claimed he is in line to make his grand prix debut at some point this season.
Closing this week's roundup is the news that winter testing ahead of the 2016 season will begin much later than normal as F1 continues to cut costs.
Christian Horner Ends Speculation by Signing New Red Bull Contract
1 of 5
Christian Horner has ended speculation over his future by signing a new contract with Red Bull Racing.
After the four-times world champions' limp display at their home race in Austria, where Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat finished 10th and 12th at the team's home track respectively, it was reported that Horner would pay the price for Red Bull's worst start to a season since 2008.
The Times' Kevin Eason claimed Horner received an out-of-the-blue phone call from a "rival team principal" on the morning of the Spielberg race, informing the 41-year-old that he was to be replaced by former Scuderia Toro Rosso boss Gerhard Berger.
Horner, however, has extinguished the rumours in the best possible way by not only confirming his job is safe, but extending his contract with the Dietrich Mateschitz-owned team, which has yet to secure a podium finish in 2015.
He told Sky Sports' William Esler:
"I didn’t lose any sleep over [the speculation] because it is absolutely not true.
I recently signed an extension to my contract with Red Bull, I have a great relationship with Dietrich and my goal is very much on getting the team back to the situation we were in 18 months ago.
It is total rubbish. The thing is not to put too much energy into things like that, but in the world we live in sometimes people from rival teams say things and they get picked up and then a story goes on the Internet and it goes from there.
"
The news of Horner's stay is a significant development in the future of Red Bull, who have issued several threats to quit the sport since the start of the season.
Having lost their star driver, Sebastian Vettel, to Ferrari at the end of 2014 and seen technical chief Adrian Newey step back from full-time involvement in F1, losing Horner would have been the biggest indication that Red Bull were looking to pull the plug.
But with the man who orchestrated their four consecutive championship triumphs between 2010 and 2013 committing his future to the team, Red Bull appear to be planning to return to the summit of F1, not walk away from it.
David Coulthard: Ferrari Should Drop Kimi Raikkonen for 2016
2 of 5
Kimi Raikkonen has gone from bad to worse over the last couple of races, spinning out of podium contention in Canada and spinning out on the first lap in Austria.
And one of his former team-mates believes the time has come for Ferrari to replace the 2007 world champion.
David Coulthard, who partnered the Finn at McLaren for three seasons between 2002 and 2004, has claimed Raikkonen, who will turn 36 in October, is past his best.
Since returning to Ferrari at the beginning of 2014, Raikkonen has recorded just one podium finish and been outperformed by fellow world champions Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, who quickly established inter-team supremacy at the Prancing Horse.
Coulthard, who called time on his 15-year career at the age of 37 in 2008, says he has recognised the signs that encouraged him to walk away from the sport in Raikkonen, whose last victory came in March 2013.
Despite Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene's insistence that Raikkonen will be given time to earn a contract renewal for 2016, according to Autosport's Glenn Freeman, Coulthard believes the Maranello-based outfit should find a new team-mate for four-times champion Vettel.
The Scot told Autosport's Mitchell Adam:
"I think it's time for change.
I'm not anti-Kimi at all, but having lived through that experience myself, there's a point in your career where you just stop getting better.
It happened to me in my career; I was never the best driver, but there was certainly a point at the end where you just lose the edge.
Right now, if Kimi goes and wins the next race, we'll all be super-excited, because we need that. But Vettel's come in and immediately established himself.
The facts are that whether it's bad luck or something else, he hasn't delivered in the last couple of years at the level he did in his previous career.
"
Coulthard told the same source that Valtteri Bottas, the highly rated Williams driver, and 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours victor Nico Hulkenberg should be among the favourites to replace Raikkonen.
F1 Drivers to Rely on FIA over Closed Cockpits
3 of 5
The issue of cockpit safety was raised once again following the crash between Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso at the Austrian Grand Prix.
On the opening lap at the Red Bull Ring, Raikkonen lost control of his car under acceleration on the exit of Turn 2 and collected Alonso, whose McLaren mounted the Ferrari—coming dangerously close to hitting Raikkonen's head—as the cars slid along the crash barrier.
Both men were able to walk away unscathed, but the incident, like many in recent years, has reopened the debate about closed cockpits.
Accidents such as Alonso's near-miss in the 2012 Belgian GP, Michael Schumacher's lucky escape at Abu Dhabi 2010 and Felipe Massa's near-fatal crash at the Hungaroring in 2009 have put the topic in the spotlight.
The most recent improvements to cockpit safety came in 2008, when cockpit sides were raised to protect drivers' heads in a response to the collision between David Coulthard and Alexander Wurz in the previous year's Australian GP.
Wurz, now the chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, claims the drivers' union are content to rely on the FIA, the sport's governing body, to find an adequate solution.
The Austrian, who races with a closed cockpit in the World Endurance Championship, told Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble:
"In the past we have always pushed the FIA for this, and you have seen in the last decade or more than the headrests have got a bit higher and they are in a fixed position.
There is the ongoing debate and research which we are involved in, of covering the helmet of the driver even more, and it goes all the way up to a canopy, which was extensively researched.
Me as a person I like it, but we have to check if there are any implications caused by a closed cockpit, like extraction from a fire. It is an ongoing topic with ongoing research.
We are happy with the research the FIA and the FIA Institute are doing. They are doing a top job but we know it is the most dangerous area for the drivers.
"
Given the sheer number of close shaves in recent seasons, one can only hope that a solution is found and implemented before it's too late.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Fabio Leimer Expects to Race for Manor in 2015
4 of 5
Fabio Leimer is expecting to make his Formula One debut with Manor Marussia before the end of the 2015 season.
The Swiss driver was announced as the team's reserve driver on Manor's official site ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, joining Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi in the Manor ranks.
While Stevens, according to ESPN F1's Nate Saunders, has a one-year contract with the team, Merhi—as he told Autosport's Lawrence Barretto—is competing on a race-by-race basis, leaving the Spaniard vulnerable to potential replacements.
The very fact Merhi has taken the unusual step of combining his F1 duties with a seat in the Formula Renault 3.5 junior series in 2015 suggests his future in the pinnacle of motorsport is far from assured.
And Leimer, the 2013 GP2 champion, has expressed his confidence in racing for Manor in 2015, two years after he first held discussions with the team over a full-time drive.
He told Saunders:
"We were in contact with Marussia since 2013 but in the end we never had the budget. It was all over for me, Formula One, it was over.
Then I got a call saying, 'we are interested to have you as a third driver and maybe even for some races, maybe at the end of the season.' So we were, "yeah, sure, we will do it," and I'm very happy and it's helping me a lot.
"
Leimer, who represented Virgin Racing in the Formula E season finale at London's Battersea Park recently, added that he expects to drive the MR03B for the first time in practice ahead of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Winter Testing to Begin in Spring 2016?
5 of 5
The sight of Formula One cars hurling around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya under the winter sun is set to become a thing of the past, with the news that pre-season testing for the 2016 season will begin next March.
According to Motorsport.com's Adam Cooper, team bosses have held regular meetings with the FIA and decided that testing will be delayed for a month in 2016, giving teams an extra 30 days to prepare their cars.
This is the latest move in a push to condense the F1 season after the official website of the Australian Grand Prix raised eyebrows by confirming the season-opening race will be held on April 3 next year rather than its traditional mid-March date, marking the latest start to a campaign since 1988.
Cooper claims the two four-day tests at the Spanish track are "currently scheduled" to start on March 1 and March 15 respectively, with the authorities "deliberately" avoiding holding the sessions on weekends to attract as few spectators as possible, lowering security costs.
While cost-saving is of paramount importance—the number of testing days will be reduced from 12 to eight next year—preventing fans from getting an early taste of 2016-spec F1 is hardly a good PR move.
Although teams and manufacturers should benefit from a later start to testing—the troubles experienced by Renault and Honda in 2015 may have been avoided had they been afforded more time to prepare their V6 turbo power units—F1's pre-season ritual will be lost.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
