OCTOBER 6, 2008

BMW stays with Heidfeld and Kubica

The BMW Sauber F1 team has announced that it is to retain its current driver line-up in 2009. This is not a surprise as the team had taken up the options on both men. Christian Klien will also be retained as test driver.

The move is interesting in that it means that Fernando Alonso is not going to the Munich team, which means that his options are now narrowing down to Renault, Honda and possibly Ferrari. The latter scenario will only happen if the Italian team decides to do something other than keeping Kimi Raikkonen, who has been underperforming badly this year. The same could be said for Heidfeld, but he has another year to run on his deal.

"We see Nick and Robert as a strong driver pairing and Christian as an experienced test driver," said team director Mario Theissen. "We are in no doubt that we will again achieve our ambitious aims with them in the team's fourth year."

In the last few days there have been reports that Kubica is already in conversation with McLaren about a drive in 2010 and has had a couple of meetings to discuss the possibilities.