This Week in Formula One Racing

BUSCH TO F1 ANYTIME SOON?

There's some huge news coming out of Formula One as the organization looks forward to new teams and a new start in 2010.

Well, not really.

One of those new teams is based in Charlotte - the US F1 team that will begin on the grid next season.

Peter Windsor, who is the "sporting director" for the new team, as well as a commentator for F1 on Speed TV, has not made a secret of his own preference for NACSAR star Kyle Busch as one of his team's drivers, at least eventually. "If he wanted to drive for us in 2011, we'd certainly be keen on that," Windsor told USA Today.

Busch, who has won 58 NASCAR-affiliated races, has a contract with Joe Gibbs Racing that runs through next year. He sounded interested but not intensely so when asked. He wants to win a NASCAR championship first. "I think I'd still be young enough that if I could win a championship by 25," he says, "go run Formula 1 for a few years and be back (in NASCAR) by 28."

Does he realize that Kimi Raikkonen made about $50 million this year to drive for Ferrari?

In the "I-told-you-so" department, sooner or later somebody associated with the Ferrari team was going to insinuate that Fernando Alonso was well aware of what was going on last year when Nelson Piquet Jr. was involved in the staged crash at Singapore that eventually led to the indefinite banning of Renault principal Flavio Briatore.

Both Piquets - Nelsons Sr. and Jr., have said that Alonso was well aware of the plot at all times, which led to a victory for him at last year's Singapore Grand Prix. Felipe Massa, who was on hand for the Brazilian Grand Prix, has tested in an old Ferrari, and is on schedule to return to F1 action next year (as a teammate of Alonso's), has now implied that he believes Alonso knew about it too - something which sort of hits home because it cost him the world title last year.

Massa, after saying he had "no doubt" about Alonso's involvement in the plot, later backpedaled a little. "What I said was a hunch and not based on any concrete evidence," Massa said. "The IAF World Council announced that there was no indication that Fernando may have been informed of what had happened and I respect this outcome. What is certain is that this episode won't harm my relationship with Fernando when we are team mates."

This group of F1 drivers goes into the season's final race at Abu Dhabi with both the drivers and constructors' championships already having been decided. Jenson Button clinched the individual crown with a fifth-place finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix, while his Brawn GP team won the team crown.

The race at Interlagos was bizarre, especially at the start, when three drivers got in mishaps and were eliminated - Adrian Sutil of Force India, Jarno Trulli of Toyota and Renault's Fernando Alonso. Sutil and Trulli, who collided with each other, had harsh words after leaving the racetrack.

Later on, Lewis Hamilton was dragging a fuel hose out of the pit with him, which set off a fire in the back of Raikkonen's car that was right behind him coming out of the pits. Fortunately no one got hurt.