There have been some fairly monumental changes at the front of the grid in terms of driver changes, firstly last week it was confirmed that Ricciardo would take over Webber's car. Thus unveiling potentially the worst kept secret of the season, a decision that everyone saw coming. Then there was what took place over the past few days at Ferrari - a process that started with an announcement from the team that actually contained and announcement. A different press line than their releases over the Italian GP weekend - where they made an announcement announcing that they had no announcement to make... Finally out of all that we had some clarity, Ferrari are relieving Massa of his services - which Alonso is not too pleased about because he liked working with the Brazilian, because he was a helpful team-mate and friend.
So who else could fill the role that Felipe had done so well, albeit a little off the pace and with a spate of inexplicable accidents, as it so happens they decided to secure the services of a certain Mr Raikkonen. Now that is a dangerous decision, of all the drivers whose name had been suggested if Massa was sent on his holidays - Hulkenberg, Di Resta, Kobayashi - Kimi is the least likely to play the number two role to Alonso. You'd have to think that initially Fernando would have the upper hand and may be faster on ultimate race pace as seen in so many recovery drives from dodgy qualifying sessions. So that would make Raikkonen on paper the number two driver, since equality hasn't really been invented at Ferrari - years of Irvine and Barrichello supporting Schumacher and latterly Massa too. A couple of anomalous seasons when Raikkonen and Massa were team-mates things were slightly more level - almost winning Massa the 2008 title had Glock not handed it to Hamilton in the final corner of the season. So this does open the door for a potentially quite fractious power struggle - which could either push the team forward and finally beat that German Bloke...or it could implode in a cloud of animosity and carbon fibre.
Then there is the other point Kimi was himself sent on his holidays to the WRC and a slightly odd visit to the NASCAR truck series, as a result of falling out with Luca Di Montezemelo. It is strange that the announcement was made after Alonso himself had been displeasing the don of Ferrari by justifiably complaining about the quality of the car. The train of thought is that Stefano Dominicali wanted Raikkonen in and had to persuade Luca to allow it to happen, because Stefano is slightly less traditional and wants the strongest line up possible - and it is an exceptionally powerful pair... if the car works well enough in 2014 to allow it to shine through.
How does this impact everyone else
Of course this decision unleashes several ripples down the field, affecting teams that might have anticipated to have an empty space that needed filling, or those now short of a driver, combined with the fact that the earlier confirmation of Red Bull's decision opens up a place as well.
First off there is Toro Rosso - since Ricciardo has now been promoted into the fastest car grid - not bad for some - the junior team does have an opening... or two if Vergne also ends up on holiday. Of all the repercussions from high interest moves, this one remains very localised, because the Red Bull program is a closed system. They feed new drivers in through lower formula, some reach Toro Rosso - most of which are then fired over time and the tiniest fraction of that subset will be sitting in the Red Bull team in 2014. So all the Toro Rosso team have to do is stick the metaphorical net in their junior driver pool and fish out the next hopeful. All the signs point towards Antonio Felix Da Costa taking the seat, while other rumours orchestrated just to meddle things up suggest GP2 driver Felipe Nasr might have a chance. That decision could go anywhere and no-one is really safe.
Secondly Lotus find themselves with an empty seat now Raikkonen has set up camp elsewhere, there is a slight indication that Lotus are not monumentally pleased about losing their star driver but need to seek a replacement. Because this is more recent decision the list of drivers linked to the seat is massive, we have existing drivers like Hulkenberg and Maldonado with his Venezuelan oil money helping out. Then there is the set of drivers Lotus/Renault have used before - Bruno Senna, Vitaly Petrov, Heikki Kovalainen and Jerome D'ambrosio who replaced Grosjean when he was having a time out. On top of that there are a list of potential rookie drivers including DTM driver Robert Wickens and GP2 champion Davide Valsecchi from the same team Grosjean graduated from. But wait, there's more Massa presently doesn't have a drive, Button has no official 2014 contract and Kobayashi is mentioned for a comeback drive. It's almost names in a hat time down at Lotus and picking one out of that lot is very complicated, and to make matters worse Grosjean isn't confirmed to stay on at the team either...
Another team that will be affected by Ferrari decision to go for Kimi is Sauber, a large proportion of the internet and defecting commentator Martin Brundle anticipated Massa's departure but expected Hulkenberg to be alongside Alonso. So this causes a problem for Monisha at the little Swiss team because abnormally for a lower mid-field team they have an excess of drivers connected with the potential race seats. At the core of this is the fact their two present race drivers are important in different respects to the team - Hulkenberg is rather good at what he does - putting that car in the top five last time was immense. While Gutierrez has money and Sauber really need some of that, which makes up for his often questionable performance. This is complicated by Sergey Sirotkin, the team are trying to shoehorn him into a race seat for 2014 because Russia may be more likely to invest in the team. The process has already cost Robin Frijns a connection with Sauber and potentially eliminates him from contention, but then there is Bianchi - tipped to be the replacement for Hulkenberg when he moved to Ferrari. Because that move didn't happen the problem cascades down to Marussia but I don't think they'll mind hanging onto Jules - though that depends on money as well.
A final issue with Sauber is that Massa is now floating about, and Sauber have had a good relationship with Felipe having employed the Brazilian before Ferrari bought him up - Sauber have been used as a Ferrari training ground hence why Hulkenberg was looking promising. It is also why Bianchi has been linked with the team due to his Ferrari connections, but could that channel work both ways and we could see Massa going back home to Sauber.
It is all getting a little crowded at the moment so many people fighting over so few opportunities - last season we saw Kovalainen, Glock, Petrov and Kobayashi go missing from the grid, all recent GP2 graduates, and all drivers that had potential but have been forced out for the likes of Chilton, Maldonado and Gutierrez. But there is still a lot more to unfold, especially on an announcement for that newly available space at Lotus.
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