F1

Bad news for Ralfie boy. After an examination in France yesterday it was revealed that the Williams driver has 2 fractures in his spine and will most likely miss the rest of the season. Grandprix.com is reporting that test driver Marc Gene will be in the car this weekend at Magny-Cours and that Mark Webber will drive the rest of the season.

This does a couple of things. One, it confirms one of the worst kept secrets of the season, that Webber will be in the Williams in 2005. Two, it kind of puts Ralfies future up in the air. Schumacher is supposed to be announced as one of the drivers for Toyota for 2005, but his health has to be a question mark at this point.

Further ramifications can be felt down at Jaguar. Former F3000 champ Bjorn Wirdheim is the test driver, but word is that the team is enamored of Brit Anthony Davidson, who is currently the test driver for BAR.

So for 2005, this is what we know as far as team/driver combos:

Ferrari-Michael Schumacher Rubens Barichello
McLaren-Kimi Raikkonen Juan Pablo Montoya
Renault-Jarno Trulli Fernando Alonso
BAR-Takuma Sato Jensen Buttons
Williams-Mark Webber
Jaguar-Christian Klein


Speculation goes as such:

Toyota-Olivier Panis Ralf Schumacher
Williams-Jeff Gordon Jacques Villeneuve

As usual, Jordan, Sauber and Minardi are too hard to call at this point. These teams switch drivers at the drop of a hat and with some pretty solid names floating around out there it is hard to tell who will be where. Here are some names that are not confirmed or even speculated that might be somewhere in F1 next year:

Christian daMatta
Giancarlo Fischicella
Anthony Davidson
Bjorn Wirdheim
Scott Dixon
Zsolt Baumgartner
Gianmaria Brunni
Nick Heidfeld
Felipe Massa
Giorgio Pantano
Timo Glock

Now that we have reached the mid point of the season things will certainly change in the back of the pack. If Webber makes the move to Williams at Silverstone it will mark a rare occurrence that a top team makes a switch. Of course with Ralfies’ health being a question mark, it may not be as unusual as it may seem.