F1 - Who are this year's drivers?

With Kubica confirmed at Renault for next year, the 2010 driver market has almost fallen into shape with just five empty seats to fill.

The next minor slot to be filled is the second Toro Rosso seat beside Buemi. It was assumed that Alguersuari would continue after stepping into the action halfway through last year after Bourdais, however Toro Rosso haven’t confirmed that they are looking for a new driver after an initial denial of the story on their website back in October, his habit of crashing expensive cars on a regular basis may have something to do with this. The desire to replace him, if any, would be from Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz. As Toro Rosso is set up as the development team for Red Bull, any number of young drivers would fit the bill.

Xosé Estrada gave us the news this week that De La Rosa was in the frame for the second seat at Sauber which is as good a shout as any, it is still unclear as to the financial well-being of the team, but it is likely to be similar to the Honda – Brawn situation last year, without immediate need for a self-financing driver. This would seem to make sense to have an experienced driver alongside the raw energy of Kobayashi.

On to Renault, who could still go out on a limb with the Chinese (or Dutch) new-comer Ho-Pin Tung, as an upgrade on Grosjean and appealing to a big new market, he remains my favorite. Wiser heads have narrowed the list to Sato or Jerome D’Ambrosio as having the ability to keep Renault competitive with the perceived big four, McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

The final two seats are maybe the biggest conundrum and possibly the smallest gamble, US F1, after months spent last autumn staying quiet have recently come out punching. With their funding stream and home market seemingly in good shape, the results in 2010 don’t matter as much as developing and staying in for those awkward teenage years. J R Hildebrand looks like a good potential No 2 for the team as he hails from California and has been testing well at Jerez for Force India.

For the No 1 car, it is still very uncertain as the only person who has been making noise about it for a couple of months is José María López who has been out of GP2 and single seaters for a couple of years. This has all the hallmarks of an Ecclestone deal, with the Argentinian in the seat, this would be good publicity to help draw a big audience and re-develop a historic market. Now that US F1 seems not to be as needy for a paying driver they could yet surprise us in a couple of weeks in Alabama.

Campos seem to be narrowing down the search to anyone with 5 million euros in his back pocket.