One thing that has perplexed me in recent weeks has been the failure of Scuderia Toro Rosso to name its drivers for 2012. Firstly there was much talk of one or both current drivers – Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi – being replaced, as Red Bull has two hot youngsters – Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne – that it considers to be rather better. When Ricciardo was placed at HRT in the summer it looked like that plan was for him to move to STR in 2012 and then bounce on to replace Mark Webber at Red Bull Racing in 2013. Then Vergne came on the scene and was given testing work with both STR and RBR and did well, raising the possibility that he might overtake Ricciardo on the Red Bull list. In recent weeks, however, the word was that Ricciardo would be placed with the Caterham F1 Team and that STR would keep the current two, and Vergne would have to wait with another season in the Renault World Series. And yet there are still no announcements, which leads me to think that there is still some action going in Red Bull Land. Who knows, perhaps Vergne will go to Caterham?

Time will tell. Meanwhile we are waiting for Force India to announce that Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta will stay on next year, thus pushing out Nico Hulkenberg. This would be tough on the German, but he has the possibility if his contract has not been respected to leave Force India and move to Williams, which is believed to be waiting on Sutil. Rubens Barrichello should be in the frame there as well, but the team seems to want to change drivers as part of its plan to change the team for the better. No deal was possible with Kimi Raikkonen, which would have been good for sponsors, and it might be easier to sell Hulkenberg – a man with a future – rather than Barrichello, a man who wants to complete his 20th year in the sport. The other man who is in the picture is Vitaly Petrov, who has been left in the lurch by Renault. However, Williams would be ill-advised to take two pay-drivers, even if it needs the money.

That aside there is the second HRT available, although it is hard to imagine why anyone would want that drive, given that the team’s new owners are showing no real sign of knowing what they are doing. The word from Spain is that the team is now moving to Madrid.