Williams Will Only Let Nico Rosberg Go on January 1

Although Williams F1 Team has already announced its new drivers lineup for the upcoming season, Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg will retain their places at Grove until the New Year's Eve. We're not sure how much sense such a decision makes, considering that the new drivers may want to have a head start for their 2010 preparations, but Williams announced the decision is final.

“Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima remain our drivers until the end of 2009,” said the statement form Williams earlier this week, in which the team announced the completely new lineup for next season.

While Rubens Barrichello has plenty of experience in Formula One, Nico Hulkenberg will step into a Formula One challenger for the first time in career – a new generation one anyway, following the major aerodynamic changes in 2009 – and will need more time to get used to driving it on the track.

Also, despite Barrichello's vast knowledge of F1 racing, he still has to get used to driving a less performance-orientated car, as compared to his title-winning BGP 001 this year.

In the meantime, Nico Rosberg is likely to ink a new deal with Brawn GP for the 2010 season, but he might miss the first few testing sessions because of his commitment with Frank Williams' outfit.

As far as Kazuki Nakajima is concerned, things tend to get even more confusing, as the Japanese driver will likely race elsewhere (out of F1) next year. He hasn't been linked with any other teams for the 2010 season, and the probability of securing a race seat with one of the newly entrants is close to zero.