Barrichello moves from Brawn GP to Williams

It's only been two days since the end of the Formula 1 season, but already the carousel of drivers has started to spin, as Williams announced yesterday that their driver pairing for next season would be Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg. The drivers replace Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima at the team.

Barrichello, 37, was third in this season's drivers' championship, partnering world champion Jenson Button in the all-conquering Brawn GP team. He won two races and had four further podium finishes, and ran his teammate close during the latter stages of the season. His departure for Williams had been widely anticipated and should see Rosberg, the man he is coming in for, moving over to Brawn in a straight swap.

The 22-year-old Hulkenberg was Williams' test driver and reserve for the season just passed, and is highly rated by the team. Principal Frank Williams said yesterday: ""Nico won the GP2 Championship this season as a rookie and has previously won the F3 Euroseries, Formula Masters, A1 GP and Formula BMW Germany."

The team's technical director Sam Michael even drew parallels between the young German and a former world champion. "Inside Williams we have a big spreadsheet which basically maps a driver's achievements from the age of eight and the reference in that spreadsheet has been Lewis Hamilton because of what he did from eight years old to get into F1. Basically Nico Hulkenberg has been on exactly the same path."

Who Rosberg is partnering at Brawn still remains up in the air, as Jenson Button has said that he will make a decision about his ride for 2010 over the next few weeks. The 29-year-old Briton has admitted receiving approaches from other teams, but was warned yesterday by Sir Jackie Stewart to stick with Ross Brawn's outfit.

"Jenson and Brawn need to come to an agreement," the three-time drivers' champion said. "He is not asking for money on the scale of Kimi or Alonso. But money is not going to be Jenson's problem in the future. He's going to make big money for quite a few years. The odd two or three million is neither here nor there."