Essential Reading for January 13th, 2009

Recommended links for January 13th, 2009:

• Will 2009 Be The First Time Only One Briton Competes? – The 2009 season could mark the first time a championship has only featured one British driver.

  This sorry state of affairs comes at a time when Britain should be embracing motor sport, not making fans worry about the future of the British Grand Prix, seeing two British-based teams withdraw in less than a year and potentially seeing two British drivers having to sit out due to these withdrawals.

• Another door closes for Bourdais – Penske Racing has announced that Australian Will Power will join the team in place of Helio Castroneves for the pre-season testing and may stay on in 2009.

  The news means that Sebastien Bourdais has one fewer options open to him if he does not get another year with Scuderia Toro Rosso. The Faenza team seems to be waiting to see what happens with Honda Racing F1 with rumours suggesting that Red Bull would very much like to see Jenson Button in one of the cars, as he is very much a Red Bull style of driver.

• More from behind the scenes at Ferrari – Another thing which was said at the launch to the Italian contingent, but didn’t necessarily come out in the English part of the proceedings was Stefano Domenicali’s point that the new engine agreement says that teams must use no more than 8 engines per driver in a season. How they use them is their business. You do not have to use the same engine for three races in a row, for example, you can save them. So you could avoid using the same engine for Spa and Monza, both really tough tracks on engines. Also crucially, you can change engines after qualifying with no penalty this year. The trouble comes when you need a ninth engine…
• TV viewing figures up – According to the sport's annual broadcasting report, the Formula One World Championship was watched by 600 million people in 2008, up by 3 million on 2007.

  Bernie Ecclestone's remorseless drive into Asia appears to be working, with China (119 million) now moving ahead of Brazil (110 million).

  Ecclestone claims the figures show that the figures show F1 to be in "rude health".