Pit Stop | Summer rumours fuel Formula One distraction as teams prepare to return from break
As 2015 season resumes, thoughts turn to shifts in driver market for 2016 with Kimi Raikkonen a possible departure from Ferrari
How were your summer holidays? Hope you had a better time than Jenson Button. The British driver was enjoying some down time during Formula One's midseason break when he was burgled.
It was all a bit dramatic, with suggestions the St Tropez villa was pumped with anaesthetic gas to make sure he and wife Jessica did not wake up during the raid. Some reports said valuables up to £300,000 (HK$3.6 million) were taken.
There will be much discussion within the F1 circus alighting in Belgium for this weekend's resumption of the 2015 season. Some drivers fear they are about to be mugged themselves: not by robbers, but by the market that will sort out race seats come 2016.
There may not be much happening on the track for much of August, but there's plenty of gossip off it
It is always a fascinating time. There may not be much happening on the track for much of August, but there's plenty of gossip off it. Except that this time the silly season seems a tad late in arriving.
Perhaps the problem is a blockage and that blockage in the driver market is Kimi Raikkonen. The Ferrari driver may or may not be with the Prancing Horse next season and, until that situation is resolved, not many other pieces of the jigsaw will fall into place.
For a long time, there has been talk of Valtteri Bottas moving to Ferrari, should Raikkonen get the boot. That would leave a vacancy at Williams and conjecture has it that Button might end his McLaren nightmare by giving his experience to the team that launched his career.
Alternatively, some rumours say he will quit to present the BBC's motoring programme.
