F1-Blog

Heikki Kovalainen has been announced as the second driver alongside Giancarlo Fisichella at Renault next year.

The other news from the Renault team is that Flavio Briatore will also stay on as team boss.

Heikki is the second of the 'young guns' to come up from the GP2 series to F1, with Nico Rosberg being the first to make the leap.

The only team's that now need announce their 2007 line-up is the Ferrari and McLaren teams. The thought's and rumor is that Schumacher is to retire at the end of this season. This would make sense as it was believed that Kimi had a contract with both Renault and Ferrari with a clause in the Renault contract that allowed him to void it if the Ferrari drive came up. And with Renault now announcing their drivers, it looks like Kimi will be Ferrari bound to race alongside Filipe Massa.

The Bild (German newspaper) has said that Michael will announce his retirement at the post race press conference if he finishes in the top 3; if not he has a press conference lined up for 18:00 on the race Sunday. The newspaper also says that Ross Brawn will also announce his retirement from racing. If that happens, is Kimi's move the right one as Ferrari will certainly loose some of their strenght?

This only leaves McLaren to announce who will be their second driver for 2007. Current world champion Fernando Alonso is known to be the first driver, but who will accompany him? Will another one of the GP2 crowd make the move? After all It's not like they are short of drivers waiting to have an F1 drive on their books.