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Going back to Bourdais for a sec.

While it is true Bourdais was underperforming considering his experience & his especially based on his success prior to F1, I don't think that was the sole reason STR dropped him.

I think something else that led to them dropping him was because they knew they were not going to retain him for 2010 & with the lack of testing were unable to evaluate a potential replacement. So they opted to drop Bordais early & give Alguersuari some time in an F1 car to see how he did. He seems to have done enough to retain that seat for 2010, However if he had shown the move to F1 was too early or just not impressed I bet we would have seen another young Red Bull driver in the car by now.



Back more On-Topic.

I read an article yesterday which stated that Piquet Snr. had a ride lined up for Piquet Jr. at STR for this year but because of the guarantees made to him by Flavio after Singapore & the uncertainty surrounding Alonso staying with Renault, Piquet Jr. opted to stay at Renault.

Been totally honest I think the switch to STR would have been more benefitial to his career. Been alongside someone other than Alonso & having less pressure on him from the team may have allowed him to improve & perform more like he did prior to F1. I think a lot of the spins/crashes (Other than Singapore) Piquet got involved in last year was a case of him trying to respond to the pressure from the team & him simply trying to match Alonso, something considering Fernando's talent I don't think Piquet was ever going to do consistently, although been fair he did match & even beat Alonso a couple times.

Very quickly, according to BBC Sport, Renault is committed for the 2010 season:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 407138.stm

From what I've been told and heard Renault started out wanting to do a Honda, leave a few quid in the bank, sell up for a nominal sum and walk away, then they started to put certain clauses in place (exact details unknown) which meant that any potential buyer would still be working under the shadow of the Renault name, although it's fair to remember that Honda shipped out wholesale, even taking their signage leaving Ross and Nick to pull favours to get engines and gearboxes...
Renault however are still looking to supply engines and therefore still wanted Renault branding and this was some of the reason that the Richards/Prodrive (Aston Martin) bid floundered, certain terms couldn't be met... The Swiss bid was to all intents going to just carry on (as Brawn proved it is possible to do so successfully last year) however the lack of experience from the bidders caused a bit of concern in France, ok they would leave the team structure in place, but as we saw with Midland and Spyker, and then conversley with Brawn, money ain't no replacement for proper experience where F1 is concerned, such is the politics and intricate dealings and double dealings in F1 that it takes a very switched on an knowledgable individual to be able to navigate the in's and out's of it all..

Richards has that, he also has the backers, however he does have certain enemies in the pit lane (think back to his bid to run year old Mclarens, and stir in Mclarens recent difficulties with the FIA).. And then think about how Ross Brawn managed to secure Mercedes engines for his 'new' team, and quiet a lot of help from Ron Mclaren (sarcasm) This coming a few years after the stepney/coghlan 'info sharing' scandal, which was effectivly Ferrari vs Mclaren, with a bit of pushing by the FIA.
When looking at the sport as a whole, although the championships are year on year, you need to view the manouverings of it all over the last 20 or 30 years (the Max and Bernie era) to see the real picture.. Not just the day to day stuff.. Remember, Max is a failed politician, his family history hindered his ambitions, so being the individual he is, he took his ambitions and applied them to his enthusiasm for motorsport.
Out of all of this has grown up a spiders web, or perhaps more of a rats nest, of intricate dealings, double dealings, bitching, backbiting, witchhunting, backstabbing, secretive yet public goings on that will take years to unravel. And such are the consequences for all involved if it all became public... Well , do you honestly think that the 'Max the Nazi Whore slave' revelatons were the product of a newspaper investigation without a tipoff from somewhere in Surrey bourne out of $100 million worth of retribution?

Nope, not at all. Sounds like a article Tom Rubython would consider publishing in Business F1, oh wait...