Spengler linked once again to F1 rumours

Bruno Spengler's name is back in the Formula 1 rumours mill this week as two usually well informed sites (grandprix.com and autoracing1.com) both linked the French Canadian to Fernando Alonso's empty seat at McLaren Mercedes.

Earlier this year, rumours sent him to the new ProDrive F1 team but as David Richard's project dimmed, hopes to see Spengler in an F1 soon followed the same path.

All stars seemed aligned as he been a Mercedes official driver for the past couple of years, finished runner-up twice in the very competitive DTM championship (beating on his way names like Mika Hakkinen, Jean Alesi and Heinz-Harald Frentzen). Spengler's manager, Didier Coton, is also the manager of F1 stars Mika Hakkinen and Olivier Panis.

Spengler also speaks fluent French, English and German and is much appreciated by the European motorsport fans.

Finally, Spengler would also meet Norbert Haug's criteria for Hamilton's teammate as quoted this Saturday : "He will have to be fast... and cheap"

Spengler unhappy with Audi's tactics at Hockenheim

In an interview after the DTM finale at Hockenheim, Bruno Spengler told Autosport he was more than unhappy with the tactics Audi employed against him during the race: "It's a shame that they left a car out until it ran out of fuel. They played team to prevent me from getting to the front to win the championship" Spengler said. He estimated the time lost behind Rockenfeller at more than 6 seconds on the track.

Despite accusations from Audi in the previous race, Spengler says Mercedes always played fair : "We fought so hard, but the fairness was not the same on both sides in the end. We played for the sport, they played for the team, like they did the whole season"

"When Paul di Resta (Mercedes driver) was in front of Ekström (Audi driver) they called him in. He could have blocked but Mercedes didn't do that for the sake of the sport. Unfortunately the result is not what it should be, but you can't change it. It was a difficult year, but we drove fair the whole season."

Spengler 2nd again in DTM

Finishing fourth in the last race of the 2007 DTM championship season wasn't enough for Bruno Spengler today at Hockenheim. Spengler ends up in the runner-up spot again, this time a mere 4 points behind Mattias Ekstrom.

Spengler will have to try again next year for the crown, unless he makes the jump to Formula 1. Spengler has been in Mercedes' driver development program since he made the move to Europe in 2003. Lately, there has been rumours linking him with the new ProDrive F1 team lead by David Richards.

Spengler 2nd at Barcelona

After a gruesome race where cars bumped into each other for the whole race, Bruno Spengler grabbed the 2nd place on the podium behind Jamie Green who scored his first DTM victory in career at Barcelona this Sunday.

With the controversial decision by Audi to remove all of it's cars from the race because the Mercedes drivers were way to aggressive and resulted in unfair racing (about 4-5 Audi cars were bumped of the way by Mercedes drivers), Spengler is now only 2 points off the lead with one race left, scheduled for October 14 at Hockenheim.

The timing is right

After reading the news in the past couple of days, I realized one thing : The Flying Frenchmen are back into motorsport. Take a good look around around you'll see them everywhere, drivers from Quebec are invading the motorsport scene once again. After Jacques Villeneuve left F1, Patrick Carpentier lost his IRL ride and Andrew Ranger leaving ChampCar, one could easily think the dream was over but now, we've got Bruno Spengler knocking at the door of Formula One (as a test driver for Dave Richard's new ProDrive adventure) for the next year, Jacques Villeneuve and Patrick Carpentier (after a great Busch run in Montreal) signing with NASCAR teams to have preparation rides for a full assault next year. We have also seen Kevin Lacroix winning on his first week-end of Champcar Atlantic racing, Jean-François Dumoulin won the GT class at the Daytona 24 hours and Alex Tagliani is still running as good as he can with what he's giving in Champcar.

Only one conclusion is possible, the Flying Frenchmen are back and you'll get every bit of the stories here!