Fisichella's Ferrari Swansong

Ferrari have finally bowed to the inevitable and showed Luca Badoer the door after two embarsassing outings as replacement for the injured Felipe Massa.

Following his recent heroics in the Force India car at Spa (first pole for the team and second place finish behind Kimi Raikkonen), Ferrari have snapped up the services of Giancarlo Fisichella for the remainder of the season.

Fisichella has been announced as Ferrari reserve driver for 2010 which would appear to mean it will be hi's F1 swansong, unless Massa suffers a setback in his recovery or Raikonnen/Alonso have an accident (God forbid).

On the subject of Alonso it would appear that his switch to Ferrari, one of the worst kept secrets, is close to being confirmed. As a precursor, McLaren main sponsor Santander has signed a new five year sponsorship agreement with Ferrari.

It doesn't take a genius to work out why a Spanish owned bank would suddenly take an interest in Ferrari!

Meanwhile back at Force India, Liuzzi has been promoted from reserve driver to replace the departed Fisichella.

Today in the second free practice session in Monza for the Italian Grand Prix, Adrian Sutil was fastest for Force India while Fisichella in the Ferrari propped up the time sheet.

It looks like Force India will make another good showing at Monza. My prediction is that Sutil will make it through to the top ten shoot out and I'm sure that Fisichella will improve and probably qualify around 13th/14th.

Even Raikkonen was off the pace today and the gap back to Fisichella was around 0.7 seconds - already a marked improvement on Badoer.