Isn't it a bit early for silly season?

I woke up today and browsed Twitter to find the latest news on Japanese GP FP3 and Q sessions. What greeted me instead was the news of Sebastian Vettel leaving Red Bull at the end of the season. It hasn't officially been announced, but reportedly RBR's Team Principal Christian Horner let it slip that Vettel is joining Ferrari for the 2015 F1 season.

Christian Horner confirms Sebastian Vettel is going to Ferrari. ##skyf1
— Rachel Brookes (@RachelBrookesTV) October 4, 2014

Even though it's technically unconfirmed, this would mean that either Fernando Alonso or Kimi Raikkonen is in turn leaving Ferrari. The former has been rumored to jump ship to McLaren for a few weeks now. Today, people are taking that rumor as a confirmed news item. Not saying that I'm not excited for the (possible) Raikkonen–Vettel partnership, it's just a shame that we never got to see a fully competitive Alonso–Rakkonen team. I don't quite know how Alonso leaving would work out for Ferrari since this season has proven that he's faster than his teammate. It could be because Alonso is more comfortable in the Ferrari, and that he helped develop the car, but we're almost at the end of the season and we haven't seen Kimi challenging Alonso at all. Alonso basically carries the team, like he has done the last few seasons. Ferrari needs a better car, a better engine, and hopefully we see that next season.

With Alonso (potentially) moving to McLaren, it seems likely that he will take Jenson Button's seat as the team's #1 driver. Button's teammate Kevin Magnussen is the rookie with potential, who is doing very well in his first season, including a podium finish in his first ever race. It makes sense for McLaren to keep Magnussen instead of Button. Unfortunately, this could mean the end of Button's F1 career, but I really hope it isn't. There's no logical team for him to move on to; there are only a few spots for so many racers, most of whom are young hopefuls.

...Daniil Kvyat will join Red Bull alongside Daniel Ricciardo #skyf1
— Michael Wise (@MikeWise71) October 4, 2014

On the Red Bull side of things, the seat left by Vettel will be filled by Daniil Kvyat currently of Toro Rosso. Kvyat's pairing with Daniel Ricciardo gives RBR quite a young (inexperienced?) team. 2015 will be Kvyat's second season in F1. However, if Kvyat comes in as Ricciardo did this season, RBR would be just fine. Ricciardo has surprised a lot of people, including myself, in how well he's doing, especially compared to teammate Vettel.

Now where does this leave Kvyat's current teammate Jean-Eric Vergne? He's just been leapfrogged by his rookie teammate to the RBR seat. Recently, Toro Rosso announced that they're giving Max Verstappen a seat in 2015, to make him the youngest ever F1 driver. It might make sense for Toro Rosso to now keep JEV to help Verstappen. On the other hand, it sucks for him if he's going to be continually leapfrogged by his younger teammates. Would it be too risky for Toro Rosso to have two rookies fill their seats?

And here I thought last season we saw huge changes in F1. It's got nothing on next season and we're only in October!

2014 Bahrain GP

That was the best racing I've seen in a while! Mercedes are still way ahead, and Mercedes-powered cars look more competitive than others. But, what made this race wonderful is that teammates are allowed to race each other. Hamilton and Rosberg all the way up front battled it out to get the top of the podium. Rosberg came very close a few times, but Hamilton held on to the lead he grabbed after a great start. It was fantastic drives from both of them; Hamilton, though, great defending throughout. Especially in the last stint, after the safety car, with Rosberg on the option tyres while Hamilton had primes.

I'm back!

Warning: long rambling post. These past few days have been quite interesting, to say the least.

I love Kimi

About a month ago, it was reported -- although it wasn't confirmed -- that Kimi Räikkönen had picked the number 7 as his permanent drivers number. I, along with the rest of the internet, joked that he just looked at his current helmet and just thought he'd use whatever number he had. This morning, the FIA announced the official list of drivers and their chosen numbers; Kimi did get his #7. And, today, Ferrari's website posted confirming their drivers' numbers, along with their reasons of choosing them. Of course, Kimi answered as expected -- I assume he said less words than was printed.

On his return to racing in red, Kimi Raikkonen will have the number 7 on his car, the same one he had last year. “There’s no particular story linked to it,” the Finn told www.ferrari.com. “It’s the number I already had last year and I saw no reason to change it. I like it which is good enough isn’t it?”

I do like his current helmet's design. It would probably be updated with more Ferrari colors, and definitely Ferrari sponsors, but I hope he keeps it pretty damn close to what it is now.

My 2013

A few days late, but I'm finally writing my "what happened last year" post. I think my 2013 had been pretty eventful. I am going back to last year's blog posts, and other social media posts, to help me remember this past year. (As I'm writing this, I realize that this is going to be one very long post).

Farewell, Mark!

Today's Brazilian GP was Mark Webber's last race in Formula 1. The 37 year-old, oldest on the grid this season, decided that he's had enough and would move on to endurance racing with Porsche for next season. It's a shame that he never got to be a world's champion, he surely deserves one. But, thank you, Mark, for all the memories. You will be sorely missed in F1. I do love his bluntness; saying whatever he feels to the media, as opposed to the younger, PR-trained kids, who say what they're supposed to say. I respect that, and I love that.

I'm just happy that at his very last race, Webber was able to battle a few drivers for position, and win them, and ended up on the podium. He had to overtake Alonso twice, because of a pitstop issue that put Webber back behind Alonso after his first overtake. These two has had great battles, and that's one aspect of the sport that I would definitely miss. And taking off his gloves and helmet during the cool down lap was definitely an image to remember. I understand that it's very dangerous, but it really humanized the drivers.

A few highlights from today's events:

I would love to see Mark Webber at Old Trafford

Carrick had just extended his contract to 2015, which goes against United's (or it could have been Fergie's) policy of 1 year extensions for players over 30. Webber is about to race his final Formula 1 grand prix this Sunday, at the Interlagos circuit. It's quite exciting, since this is looking to be the first and only wet grand prix of the season. The only thing is, the United game at Cardiff City is on at the same time as the race! I can watch one on my iPad and the other on my iMac, but it would have been much better if they were one after the other.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing Mark Webber at Old Trafford in the near future, especially since I won't be seeing much of him out of F1.