#FormulaOne

Michael Schumacher has all but traded in his Ferrari red for the silver and black of Mercedes-Benz. According to Ferrari team president Luca di Montezemolo, the retired Formula One superstar told him in a recent phone conversation that there is a, “very, very, very strong possibility,” that he will be behind the wheel of a Mercedes F1 car next season.

Lotus has just confirmed its driver lineup for the 2010 Formula One season with both Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen signed on to pilot the new Lotus cars on the team’s rookie season and the brand’s return to F1.

As rumored, Mercedes-Benz has decided to part ways with McLaren after 15 years as partners in Formula 1, opting instead to buy a majority stake in the Brawn GP team. The new team, named Mercedes Grand Prix, will run in the 2010 F1 season, keeping much of the Brawn team, including team principal Ross Brawn.

The Brawn GP team entered the 2009 Formula One World Championship as serious underdogs, using the underperforming Honda cars. And yet, the team managed to clinch both the Constructors’ and Drivers’ World Championships.

“We look back on 15 successful years of great collaboration with McLaren; in that time, we won four world-championship titles and finished ten times as runner-up in the drivers’ and constructors’ rankings,” siad Norbert Haug, VP of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport. “Since the first victory in the 1997 Australian Grand Prix, the modern Silver Arrows have achieved a total of 60 victories in 223 races to ensure that our brand symbol, the star, stands for the greatest successes in Formula 1. We thank our partner and will continue to work with McLaren based on an excellent partnership.”

Daimler AG boss Dr. Dieter Zetsche thanked McLaren stating that, “For the benefit of both Mercedes and McLaren, we will continue our partnership cooperation in future. We will be rivals on-track but, off-track, we will cooperate with McLaren and the other teams in order to create the best possible product for spectators worldwide.”

The partnership between the two companies is much more strained than that, however, as Mercedes has also announced it will let McLaren buy back the 40 percent stake it now holds. That transaction should be completed by 2011, fully dissolving the Mercedes McLaren business relationship.

Official release after the jump:

Lotus is set to return to Formula 1 next year and with a dedicated group of followers and the media circus that surrounds any British F1 team, the company has released some of its plans and ambitions for the 2010 season, along with the first full-sized wind tunnel model.

Lotus F1 Racing Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne said in an interview-style statement that while the team as huge challenges ahead of it with such a short preparation time, it hopes to have a full vehicle ready for February testing.

As for the car, Gascoyne says the Lotus team is working with Fondtech for the aerodynamics, Xtrac for the gearbox and a deal with Cosworth has been arranged for the engine company to supply engines. Gascoyne also comments that the team is working with technical experts in Malaysia. In fact, the Malaysian connection is a big part of the Lotus team with financing coming from both the country’s private sector as well as through the Malaysian government. In return, Malaysia intends to use the team as a marketing expert to help promote the country on the world stage. In addition, Lotus has a long term plan to set up an engineering center at the country’s Sepang race circuit.

With a long and storied history in motorsports and Formula 1 there are a lot of expectations behind the Lotus team, but Gascoyne says they have to be realistic. “We are a new team and we are starting our development late,” he said, “so it will be an achievement just to get two cars on the Bahrain grid. I hope by the middle of the season we will have established ourselves as the best of the rookie teams and then continue to make forward progress for the rest of the year.”

As for the driver’s Lotus is entertaining several offers and no doubt trying to poach some experts from other teams. One of the leading candidates is rumored to be long-time Toyota driver Jarno Trulli.

Official release after the jump:

Volkswagen may enter Formula One racing if the International Automobile Federation (FIA) is successful in cutting costs in the world’s premiere auto racing series.

Sadly, Michael Schumacher will not return to Formula 1 this weekend, although there is a possibility that the 7 time World Champion will be back in 2010. Schumacher today posted on his personal website that he could not return to the sport after recent testing at Ferrari’s private track in Mugello revealed fractures in his neck from a motorcycle crash earlier this year.

With both Honda and BMW already announcing that they will not return to Formula 1 next year, now Mercedes’s involvement in the series has come into doubt. Helmut Lense, a member of the board for Mercedes’s parent company Daimler recently told a German newspaper that the company’s involvement in the world’s top level of motorsports is open for debate. “This discussion will surely continue to heat up in light of BMW’s withdrawal,” he told the Stuttgarter Nachrichten.

Ferrari has just announced that seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher will return to the sport. Schumacher will race in place Felipe Massa, who is recovering after being hit by a piece of debris during qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Formula One driver Felipe Massa is expected to get back behind the wheel of a Ferrari race car after doctors say he is recovering and suffered no long-term injuries from his frightening accident during last-weekend’s race.

BMW will not return to Formula One after the 2009 season, the company said yesterday in a press release. After watching the BMW-powered Williams cars flounder, BMW decided to buy a majority stake in the team in 2005, (re-naming it BMW-Sauber), in the hopes that under strict corporate control it could be victorious. That would not be and BMW’s lack of success, particularly this year where it has just 8 points in 10 races and sits eighth overall, was a significant factor in the withdrawal.