I'm not sure sure he was not just a stop gap manager anyway. Has no real experience with race teams anyway

It's not (yet another) new team principle which Ferrari need, but less internal politics and a period of stability longer than 6 months. The list of big casualties who have been summararily given their P45 from Ferrari in recent years is just rediculous. Whenever thay have a string of bad results, they look for a singular person to blame, instead of looking at the bigger picture and changing organisation, structure and ethos.

Do we think we'll see Ross Brawn (who, with facial hair, has a stunning resemblance to Daddy Pig) back next season?

I was also over the moon for Williams' revival this year. Especially as you say, they are a race team whose business is racing and I'll always have a soft spot for them having supported them through the glory years of the 80s and 90s.

However, it remains to be seen if they can keep their upwards trends going in the right direction. It's common knowledge that they've been treated as a Mercedes B-team this season. Compared to Mclaren and Force India, Williams have been given way more access to the source code of the powertrain, giving them a big advantage in terms of ERS strategies. Their car is very, very quick in a straight line and it's not mainly down to the fact that the car has low drag. I'm probably selling Williams a little short, as what they've achieved with the budget they have (less than half of Mercedes') is astonishing, but I think they'll do amazingly well to clinch 3rd again next season.

Alonso isn't going to be taking a pay cut with his move to Mclaren. His deal is widely reckoned to be the biggest in F1 history. Also, no top driver would accept being paid peanuts. Sure, they have untold millions already in the bank, but every driver wants to be paid what he thinks he's worth.

I wouldn't write Kimi off just yet. Once Ferrari get the front axle of his car to his liking, he'll be fast again, trust me. As for Rosberg not standing a chance, I disagree. Remember, he out-qualified Lulu to the tune of 0.4s. Up to the point of Rosbergs ERS issues, their was nothing between them with the gap hovering around the 2s mark. Both drivers had time in their pocket and it would have been great to see how it would have panned-out.

Finally, if you're expecting Ricciardo to have a faster Red Bull next year, don't hold your breath. The team has lost Peter Podromou to Mclaren and Adrian Newey will be scaling back his involvement with the race team. The Renault powertrain should be better, but then do will the Mercedes and I don't expect any change their. Ricciardo will also have his hands full trying to see of his new team mate, Daniel Kyvat, who has had a stunning debut year. I'm really looking foward to that intra-team head to head.

Didn't Coulthard drive for Red Bull on a results based payment mechanism to get a drive?

Not that I was aware of. Happy to be proved wrong though.

Vergne's now out of a drive, according to his own Twitter account.

I may be stating the obvious, but I guess that McLaren have been waiting to see how the new car performs before deciding which driver to retain. If it carries on having problems, I suspect Button will be back in the frame as a more accomplished development driver.