FORMULA ONE 2010 PREVIEW - Part 2

HISPANIA COSWORTH

--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM OWNER - Jose Ramon Carabrante
BASE - Murcia, Spain
TEAM COLOURS - Carbon, White, Red
CAR - Dallara HRT
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR - Toni Cuquerella
MAJOR SPONSORS - TBA
--- DRIVERS ---
20 - Karun Chandhok (India)
21 - Bruno Senna (Brazil)
TEST DRIVER - TBA

A winter of turmoil and uncertainty surrounding the new Campos team was finally put to bed by a management buyout thanks to new majority shareholder Jose Ramon Carabrante, himself a successful Spanish buisnessman, sicne the announcement a week ago, Bruno Senna (who Campos confirmed as a driver months ago) has been joined by the Indian driver Karun Chandhok and finally, Dallara have allowed them to show off the completed chassis that they will use in their debut season, also the team have been renamed from Campos to Hispania although the official FIA entry lists their entry as being called HRT.

Despite the lateness of the teams future being secured, Dallara have built for Hispania what looks to be a decent little package which does bear an uncanny resemblence to Virgin's VR-01 car saying that though, the team will go to Bahrain having covered precisely no testing miles and no development work so expect the team to use Bahrain and the first 4 races of the season (all fly away races) as testing sessions for the car before we see any upgrades coming for the beginning of the European season in Spain in early May.

DAZZLA'S VERDICT - 12th - The lateness of the deal will hinder them but overall its just great to see them on the grid bringing the car count to its highest in 13 years.

TORO ROSSO FERRARI

--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM OWNERS - Dietrich Mateschitz, Franz Tost
BASE - Faenza, Italy
TEAM COLOURS - Dark Blue, Scarlet, Gold
CAR - Toro Rosso STR5
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR - Giorgio Ascanelli
MAJOR SPONSORS - Red Bull
--- DRIVERS ---
16 - Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland)
17 - Jaime Alguersuari (Spain)
TEST DRIVER - Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)

This will be a first for Red Bull's "junior" squad, for the first time in 5 years the team have had to design and build their own car without relying on the Red Bull squad to provide them with a customer chassis. Saying that though, the STR5 does bear an uncanny resemblence to last year's Red Bull RB5 which won 6 races in the hands of Vettel and Webber.

And like Red Bull, they have decided to stick with last year's lineup of drivers, Sebastien Buemi impressed greatly and put his early season teammate Sebastien Bourdais firmly in the shade and as his teammate is 2008 British F3 champion Jaime Alguersuari, the 19 year old was not helped by the testing ban when he came in to replace Bourdais who was fired mid season and such was consistently off the pace. Now though with a full pre-season under his belt, he has shown good pace which could be representative of a much improved season from the young Spaniard.

DAZZLA'S VERDICT - 10th - This is the team's first car built in the Faenza factury since 2005 when they were known as Minardi there will obviously be techincal help from the main Red Bull team but I would'nt be suprised if they were to slip behind one of the newbie teams if they keep up with development.

FORCE INDIA
MERCEDES

--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM OWNER - Vijay Mallya
BASE - Silverstone, Northamptonshire
TEAM COLOURS - White, Orange & Green
CAR - Force India VJM03
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR - Mark Smith
MAJOR SPONSORS - Fly Kingfisher, Whyte & Mackay, Medion, Reebok
--- DRIVERS ---
14 - Adrian Sutil (Germany)
15 - Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy)
TEST DRIVER - Paul di Resta (Great Britain)

Arguably the most improved team of the season in 2009, this now is when Force India must begin to come of age. 13 points represented the team's best total since 2001 when they were known as Jordan and equalled Jordan's 2003 total, this was good enough for them to avoid the constructors wooden spoon for the first tiem since 2005 (they finished bottom in '07 and '08 and equal last in '06)

With last season's late season improvement, nothign less than better in 2010 will do, and that reflects in the driver lineup which show's the team's faith in the 2 drivers that completed the last 6 races after Fisichella moved to Ferrari. Firstly Adrian Sutil who begins his 4th season with the team. and will want to improve on his record of just 6 points from 52 starts. He will be partnered by the Italian journeyman Vitantonio liuzzi who joined last season as a test driver and impressed enough after Fisichella's departure to earn a full time drive in 2010.

DAZZLA'S VERDICT - 6th - Improvements are what the team want, and that is what they should get, the car itself has the potential to be a regular points scorer and should qualify well in Sutil's hands, a top 6 finish in the constructors is certainly attainable.

FORMULA ONE 2010 PREVIEW - Part 1

SAUBER FERRARI

--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM OWNER - Peter Sauber
BASE - Hinwil, Switzerland
TEAM COLOURS - White
CAR - Sauber C29
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR - Willy Rampf
MAJOR SPONSORS - TBA
--- DRIVERS ---
26 - Pedro de la Rosa (Spain)
27 - Kamui Kobayashi (Japan)
TEST DRIVER - TBA

After the shock announcement last summer of BMW Sauber's imminent withdrawal from the sport and the saga when the team were sold to the mysterious Qadbak group, in the end, Qadbak were thrown out presumably for failing to guarantee the safety of the team, in the end BMW sold it back to the likeable swiss Peter Sauber who proceded to continue where BMW left off in terms of their 2010 design.

After 2009's total failure by BMW's high standards where they could only manage 6th spot in the constructors championship, a similar result for Suber would surely represent total success especially now considering a change of engine to the Ferrari, a vastly reduced budget and workforce and an unpredictable but promising driver lineup. The first being 38 year old Pedro de la Rosa, returning from a 5 year stint as McLaren's test driver, he should bring invaluable experience to the team and also is regarded as one of the best development drivers in the business. He will be partnered by the young Japanese star kamui Kobayashi who showed last year in a 2 race stint with Toyota that he was feisty and talented, this showed in Brazil with his vigorous defensive driving against Jenson Button and also the 3 points he scored in Abu Dhabi. Overall its an excellent mix of youth and experience

DAZZLA'S VERDICT - 7th - A strong car in winter testing should hold them well and could be an outside bet for a podium finish sometime this season.

LOTUS COSWORTH

--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM OWNER - Tony Fernandes
BASE -Norfolk, Great Britain
TEAM COLOURS - Green & Yellow
CAR - Lotus T127
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR - Mike Gascoyne
MAJOR SPONSORS - Proton, Tune, Naza Group, Hackett London, Malaysian Tourism Board
--- DRIVERS ---
18 - Jarno Trulli (Italy)
19 - Heikki Kovalainen (Finland)
TEST DRIVER - Fairuz Fauzy (Malaysia)

Lotus are one of the most successful teams in Grand prix racing with 6 drivers championships and 7 constructors championships to their name scoring 79 wins and over 1'400 points in a glittering 36 year stint in the sport. Their list of past drivers does scream of some of the greats of the sport including the likes of Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Ronnie Peterson, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna to name but a few, they also gave big breaks to future Grand Prix winners and world champions, in particular Mika Hakkinen and future British hero Nigel Mansell, the latter credited as legendary team owner and car designer Colin Chapman's last drvier signing before his death in 1982.

All this though was brought to an abrupt end in 1994 when money troubles began to hit home. But throughout its history and subsequent exile from the sport, Lotus F1 still retains a loyal fanbase amongst British motorsport enthusiasts. But now thanks to Malaysian cash and the vision of airline tycoon Tony Fernandes, Lotus are back in Formula 1.

The car itself is a continuation of the traditional Lotus type numbering and pays homage to Chapman's legacy by incorporating his famous racing colours from the 1960s, the design however is relatively simple which was to be expected as they are a new team starting out and a future move to a state of the art facility at the Sepang Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the pipeline too.

So as you'd expect, the team have set their sights at relatively modest levels with points finishes being considered as successes. They are set up with future building in mind and have made a positive move on that front by signing up 2 experienced grand prix winning drivers, Heikki Kovalainen, fresh out of the McLaren melting pot and Jarno Trulli, a 13 season veteran with a Monaco Grand Prix win on his CV.

DAZZLA'S VERDICT - 9th - Well set up and a professional attitude coupled with a strong driver lineup should propel them to the title of the best rookie team, only just though ahead of Virgin, they should pick up also later in the season and possibly overtake Toro Rosso.

VIRGIN COSWORTH

--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM OWNERS - John Booth, Sir Richard Branson
BASE -Sheffield, Great Britain
TEAM COLOURS - Red & Black
CAR - Virgin VR-01
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR - Nick Wirth
MAJOR SPONSORS - Virgin Group, MaRussia, FxPro, oxigen
--- DRIVERS ---
24 - Timo Glock (Germany)
25 - Lucas di Grassi (Brazil)
TEST DRIVER - Luiz Razia (Brazil)

A chain of music stores, an airline, financial services, even providing cable TV to British homes, all these are linked to the Virgin group led as ever by the extrovert entreprenur Sir Richard Branson, whose personal fortune amasses into the billions and he has a reputation where everything he touches literally turns to gold. So this bodes very well for his newest venture, launching his own Formula 1 team.

Working in partnership with Manor Motorsport (a race team with over 20 years experience in the junior formulae) and Nick Wirth's automotive design company, Virgin Racing have come to be and with it they are bringing all new innovations to the sport, soem of which have ruffles a few feathers with the current teams.

Firstly, they have vowed to keep themselves within the £40million budget proposed by Max Mosley (the then FIA President) back last year to prove that an F1 team can be run successfully on a shoestring but most interesting of all, their first car, the VR-01 has been completely designed without the use of a windtunnel which has been regarded as the norm in F1 for the last 2 decades. Instead the cars have been completely designed using a method known as CFD (Compuer Fluid Dynamics) a method which its pioneer Nick Wirth has used to huge success in the American Le Mans Series and hopes to transfer this success to Formula 1. It will take time though to make it work properly and already some designers including Red Bull's Adrian Newey have dismissed the idea completely. It will take some time for these people to be won over.

On the driving front, Virgin have gone for the classic mix of Youth and experience, Germany's Timo Glock brings the latter after 2 years at Toyota and the youth side is provided by the GP2 frontrunner Lucas di Grassi which should bear fruit as the season goes on and the car's improvements are added.

DAZZLA'S VERDICT - 11th - The driving talent on their books aided by car improvments promised by Nick Wirth should help them score points near the end of the season although I feel that Toro Rosso will just pip them to a top 10 slot in the constructors

THE WORST F1 CARS EVER: Number 2

FORTI FORD FG-01
YEARS USED - 1995,1996
DRIVERS - Pedro Diniz (BRA), Roberto Moreno (BRA), Luca Badoer (ITA), Andrea Montermini (ITA)
RACES ENTERED - 22 (43 entries)
BEST QUALIFYING - 19th (Brazil 1996)
BEST RACE FINISH - 7th (Australia 1995)
DNQ's - 5
DNPQ's - 0

If you want to know the reason why Bernie Ecclestone brought in the 107% qualifying rule in the mid 1990's this was it, this monstrosity built by Italian upstarts Forti Corse

Unlike many new teams, Forti had plenty of backing and a solid budget thanks to the team's relationship with young Brazilian driver Pedro Diniz, whose father owned a huge distribution company and Brazil's largest supermarket chain, bringing in with him also connections to a whole host of sponsorship from all over South America. From this, Forti were able to hire the experienced Roberto Moreno to fill the 2nd seat and some solid design talent including Sergio Rinland one of the men behind the immensly successfil Williams FW11 from 1987. But his last design job was with Fondmetal 3 years perviously.

Due to the team's late announcement to participate in F1 in 1995, Rinland decided to cut a corner and make what would become known as the FG-O1, an updated version of the Fondmetal GR02 from 1992, an idea which would have worked a couple of decades ago but development pace had increased to such an extent, that unknown to Rinland, his design would already be out of date by a long time, the result was a bulky car, too overweight, aerodynamically incorrect and (to prove the car was past its sell by date) featured the only manual H-pattern gearbox on the grid, everyone else had adopted the semi-automatic gearbox with steering wheel mounted paddle shifts which were first used by Ferrari back in 1989.

This meant one thing, the car was certainly not going to be a world beater, but team owner Guido Forti said that he would be happy to see the cars finishing races which they did. But pacewise, they were awfulyl slow, the car's weight and aerodynamic inefficiency became painfully apparent when put against the competition for the first race of the season in Brazil. Only Simtek's struggles prevented the Forti's from filling the back row (both were more than 7 seconds off the polesitters pace) and Diniz managed to finish the race too, albeit SEVEN laps down. Things did not get any better in Argentina when Moreno was the best qualifier in 24th, but he was ELEVEN seconds slower than the fastest time set by David Coulthard. Both Forti's went on to finish the race 9 laps down, not even going far enough to be classified.

By now front running drivers were beginning to complain about the FG-01's woeful lack of pace and becoming common "mobile-chicanes" promised car improvements too were awfully slow in coming and although the team were meeting Guido Forti's aim to finish races, even he was becoming worried by the car's uncompetitiveness. Rinland's decision to use the H-pattern Gearbox brought a lot of criticism due to this the designer Rinland was fired mid season.

As the season drew on though, the sizeable budget of the team began to come to fruition with car improvements coming one after the other resulting in dramatic performance improvements meaning by the end of the season, the cars frm being 11 seconds off the pace were now regualarly 5 or 6 seconds slower and now on par with the underfunded Pacific team and the Arrow's pay driver Taki Inoue and in the final race in Australia, the hard work so nearly paid off. Crucially Roberto Moreno had managed to qualify within the 107% time for the first time, important as this rule would be brought in for 1996 to weed out the rubbish. And Diniz's reliability and careful driving got him to a point where it could have been concieveable to score a world championship point, had the race gone on for a couple of laps longer and Olivier Panis's engine had gone, that may have happened, in the end he finished 7th, the car's, it would turn out to be the car's (and indeed the team's) best finish in F1.

Improvements were planned and an all new car (the FG-03) was planned for 1996 with a new design team of Chris Raddage and Riccardo di Marco but developent of that was slowed by the gut-wrenching decision by the Diniz family to take Pedro to the rival Ligier team AND a huge chunk of the sponsorship that came with it, so the team were forced to start the year with the unwanted FG-01 and ended up signing a pair of italian refugees, Andrea Montermini (from Pacific) and Luca Badoer (from Minardi.)

Amazigly though in the 5 races the team entered with the old car in 1996, they only managed to fail to qualify on 2 occasions, That was more down to the driving talent they had on their books rather than car improvements as the only modifications made were so the car could comply with the new safety regulations being brought in for the new season. When the FG-03 was finally ready to race, it was a breath of fresh air for the team, the drivers noted significant improvements in aerodynamic efficiency, a better engine (after switching from the outdated Ford ED's to the more useful Ford Zetec V8's) and best of all, the H-pattern gearbox was ditched in favour of a new semi-automatic version the team had developed. As a result, the drivers still rarely got off the back of the grid but were able to qualify the cars very comfortably and were able to be at least competitive with the other backmarkers (Minardi, Tyrrell and Arrows.)

But the team did not get the chance to maximise the potential as the money simply dried up after Guido Forti sold the team to the Shannon Group (which turned out to be phoney) and were forced to close down in mid season.

FORMULA 3: Mortara Conquers All

The annual Macau Grand Prix is traditionally the biggest showcase of young driving talent in the world, bringing together mostly what is know as the 3 biggest Formula 3 series in the world (F3 Euroseries, Britain & Japan) to discover which drivers are up for being the next big thing in single seater racing, it's an event dominated in recent years by the Japanese TOM'S squad, the reigning champions after last years win by the little known Japanese driver Keisuke Kunimoto, and they were favourites again this year to win it as they possessed in their ranks a hot new property in Swedish youngster Marcus Ericsson, the reigning Japanese F3 champion and race winner in selected outings in British F3, and seeing as he's only 19, he is set for a bright future. Other favourites for victory included the ART squad who fielded cars for the new European champion, Jules Bianchi of France and Valeri Bottas of Finland, Carlin brought the British champion, Australia's Daniel Ricciardo and Kiwi driver Brendon Hartley. There was a strong British challenge too including the likes of Sam Bird, Max Chilton, Wayne Boyd and McLaren Autosport award winner Alexander Sims.

But rising above everyone to take toe top prize was 22 year old Edoardo Mortara from Italy after a superb drive to hold off his teammate Jean Karl Vernay

QUALIFYING RACE

In a unique format, there are 2 qualifying sessions and a short qualifying race to set the final grid, the winner getting the opportunity to start the main race from Pole position, the short sprint was won by Vernay ahead of Ericsson, Mortara, Bottas and the Belgian driver Laurens Vanthoor, Sam Bird was the best of the Brits in 7th. The big suprise though was Bianchi who struggled in the race after starting 7th and ended up being down in 21st on the grid. Only one driver (Kevin Chen from Taiwan) failed to qualify for the final after being disqualifyed for being potentially a danger to others after crashing in every session.

FINAL GRID
ROW 1: 1st Jean-Karl Vernay (Signature Volkswagen), 2n. Marcus Ericsson (TOM'S Toyota)
ROW 2: 3rd Edoardo Mortara (Signature Volkswagen), 4th Valtteri Bottas (ART Mercedes)
ROW 3: 5th Laurens Vanthoor (Signature Volkswagen), 6t. Daniel Ricciardo (Carlin Volkswagen)
ROW 4: 7th Sam Bird (ART Mercedes), 8th Takuto Iguchi (TOM'S Toyota)
ROW 5: 9th Roberto Merhi (Manor Mercedes), 10th Mika Maki (Hitech Volkswagen)
ROW 6: 11th Renger Van Der Zande (Raikkonen/Robertson Mercedes), 12th Yuji Kunimoto (NOW Motorsports Toyota)
ROW 7: 13th Alexander Sims (Raikkonen/Robertson Mercedes), 14th Victor Garcia (Fortec Mercedes)
ROW 8: 15th Max Chilton (Carlin Volkswagen), 16th Kei Cozzolino (Toda Honda)
ROW 9: 17th Stef Dusseldorp (Kolles & Heinz Volkswagen), 18th Koki Saga (Le Beausset Toyota)
ROW 10: 19th Carlos Huertas (Manor Mercedes), 20th Daniel Zampieri (Prema Powerteam Mercedes)
ROW 11: 21st Jules Bianchi (ART Mercedes), 22nd Stefano Coletti (Prema Powerteam Mercedes)
ROW 12: 23rd Alexandre Imperatori (Kolles & Heinz Volkswagen), 24th Brendon Hartley (Carlin Volkswagen)
ROW 13: 25th Daniel McKenzie (Fortec Mercedes), 26th Michael Ho (CHAMP Mercedes)
ROW 14: 27th Wayne Boyd (Hitech Volkswagen), 28th Henry Arundel (Carlin Volkswagen)
ROW 15: 29th Jake Rosenzweig (Fortec Mercedes)
DID NOT QUALIFY: Kevin Chen (CHAMP Mercedes)

GRAND PRIX RACE

From the start, Vernay raced clear ahead of Ericsson and Mortara, unfortunately for him though, the race was red flagged for a multi car pileup behind caused by Daniel Ricciardo, this eliminated no less than 9 cars including nearly all of the Carlin team (only Arundel reamined).

From the restart, the vastly reduced grid of 20 cars got away without incicent, Mortara blasted clear of Ericsson but could'nt beat Vernay to the first corner. Then as both the Signature teammates broke clear of Ericsson (who had also fallen behind Bottas), the scene was set for a titanic battle for the lead between both men, Mortara just could not get close enough due to Vernay giving a wonderful display of late braking and cornering allowing him to pull out enough of a gap going into the main straight therefore preventing his teammate a slipstream into the 1st corner...

...until that is on lap 11 out of 15 when Vernayran wide in the hairpin at the end of the lap, this was the bit of luck Mortara needed as his constant harrying of Vernay finally paid off as he got his slipstream and made his move to take the lead on lap 12. A lead Mortara would never relinquish as the GP2 race winner (he won the GP2 season opener) went on to take an emotional win.

Behind him though, the man of the race was Britain's Sam Bird, who battled from 7th on the grid to catch and then pass pre-race favourite Ericsson and also Bottas (who got into mechanical trouble late on) to claim the final step on the podium, albeit 14 seconds behind the top 2, showing how the 2 Signature team-mates dominated.

RACE RESULT - TOP 10

1. EDOARDO MORTARA (Signature Volkswagen) ................ 15 Laps in 53m 07.769
2. JEAN KARL VERNAY (Signature Volkswagen) ................ + 1.146
3. SAM BIRD (ART Mercedes) ................ + 10.892
4. MARCUS ERICSSON (TOM'S Toyota) ................ + 14.988
5. VALERI BOTTAS (ART Mercedes) ................ + 19.188
6. TAKUTO IGUCHI (TOM'S Toyota) ................ + 21.406
7. RENGER VAN DER ZANDE (Raikkonen/Robertson Mercedes) ................ + 22.059
8. MIKA MAKI (Hitech Volkswagen) ................ + 29.005
9. YUJI KUNIMOTO (NOW Motorsports Toyota) ................ + 33.348
10. JULES BIANCHI (ART Mercedes) ................ + 35.761

FORMULA 1: Brawn GP are no more after Mercedes buy-out

9 months ago, this was a team on their knees after the withdrawal of Honda, that was until Ross Brawn led a management buyout and transformed the team into world champions overnight, and now to complete the fairytale, they have now been bought out by one of the greatest names in the sport, Mercedes, who after this buyout will make a return as an F1 constructor for the first time in 55 years. In addition, they have all but confirmed Nico Rosberg as one of their drivers for 2010 with Nick Heidfeld favourite to land the 2nd seat if a deal with Jenson Button cannot be agreed.

Despite their long absence as a constructor, they have a tremendous racing pedigree. In the 1930, they famously battld with German rivals Auto Union (Audi) for Grand Prix supremacy under the eyes of a proud Adolf Hitler who used the success of both manufacturers to portray Nazi Germany as a world superpower. But then the war came, and it was'nt until 1954 that Mercedes returned as a constructor and won the world championship 2 years on the trot in 1954 and 55, both thanks to the legenday Juan Manuel Fangio. But the tragic accident at Le Mans in 1955 that killed driver Pierre Levegh and over 80 spectators caused Alfred Neubauer (the Mercedes team boss) to pull out. After flirting with Le Mans in the late 1980's with Peter Sauber's sportscar operation, they decided to return in 1993 as an engine supplier supporting Sauber's foray into F1, after which they switched allegiance to McLaren in 1995 and never looked back, the partnership with the Woking team delivering 60 Grand Prix wins, 3 drivers world championships (1998,1999, 2008) and 1 constructors title (1998).

But why now, why jump ship and become an entrant rather than a supplier? Well it has been an ambition of theirs for a long time, ever since they powered McLaren to both championships in 1998, they held a 40% shareholding in the McLaren Group and long wanted to increase that shareholding to a majority and therefore attempt a full takeover. McLaren though had long resisted Mercedes's desires and with plans of their own to enter the commerical sportscar market in 2011, it made sense for McLaren and Mercedes to go their separate ways, especially with Brawn GP trouncing them with customer Merc engines in 2009 and their availability was too much of a temptation for Mercedes to reisist, in return, Mercedes will sell back their 40% stake to the McLaren Group and Ron Dennis and give them a contract of a free engine supply for the next 6 years.

The biggest winner out of all of this though has to be Ross Brawn, in 9 months, he has earned a huge return on his investment 9 months ago, a gamble that has paid off hugely, plus the very fabric of Brawn GP will remain, the only difference being the cars pained silver and Norbert Haug taking a place alongside Ross Brawn and Nick Fry on the pit wall.

But what about Jenson Button, suddenly it looks like the new world champion has been left out in the wilderness without a drive if Mercedes continue their drive for an all German lineup. Apparently he is still in negotiations with Mercedes but Haug is seemingly unwilling to give in to Button's financial demands. Something a certain team down the road from the old Brawn factory in Brackley can comfortably offer him, that being of couse McLaren. And with rumours of Button visiting the McLaren factory over the weekend, put 2 and 2 together and you get the mouth-watering prospect of an all British dream team of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.

FORMULA 1: The 2010 merry-go round

Sorry its been a while since my last update, i'll try and upload more articles in the future including completion of both my Top 20 British drivers list and top 5 worst cars list

2009 is now over and done with and Jenson Button has walked off with a championship win youi would never have expected 12 months ago, now though thoughts turn to the 2010 season, the dawn of a new decade and it promises to be one of the most exciting seasons in years added to that the intrigue of seeing at least four new teams coming in and a grid of 26 cars, something that has not been seen since the Monaco Grand Prix of 1995/ The photo is that of the windtunnel mock-up of the new Lotus F1 car which is currently now in the building phase, all 4 new teams hope to begin testing their new cars in the new year, in the meantime though, each team has their driver pairings to think about, below i have taken each team and put in what i think will be their drivers in each seat, drivers that have been confirmed are designated in Red, so here we go

BRAWN GP
1. Jenson Button
2. Nico Rosberg
Supposedly only slow negotiations in his contract are preventing Jenson Button from signing on in 2010 with the Brawn team, he is expected though to eventually tie up a new deal and be partnered by Nico Rosberg who left Williams after the final race of 2009 after a 4 year stay. One factor that could speed up the negotiations is an imminent deal with Mercedes in terms of a partial buy-out of the team, this could affect the German marque's relationship with McLaren though

RED BULL
3. Sebastian Vettel
4. Mark Webber
Red Bull announced their pairing months in advance, opting for continuity in 2010, Vettel and Webber, both race winners in 2010 will continue an already strong alliance.

McLAREN MERCEDES
5. Lewis Hamilton
6. Kimi Raikkonen
A poor season overall by McLaren's standards but they will go into the winter very optuimistic after a strong 2nd half of the season in which they won 2 races and snatched 3rd place in the constructors championship at the death. Lewis Hamilton stays as he is in the middle of a lucrative 5 year contract and he is expected to partnered by Kimi Raikkonen, who could return to the team after being sacked by Ferrari to make way for Fernando Alonso.

FERRARI
7. Fernanro Alonso
8. Felipe Massa
Felipe Massa stays with the Maranello squad after what was their worst season in F1 for 16 years, he will be joined by Fernando Alonso, providing the team can produce a car that matches the ambitions of both drivers unlike in 2009, then they should be the clear favourites for the major honours.

QADBAK / SAUBER
11. Nick Heidfeld
12. Heikki Kovalainen
BMW announced in the summer that they were pulling out after they had failed to sign the concorde agreement, they then managed to sell the team to Qadbak, an arab investment company but this was after the bidding for their spot on the grid was completed (a bidding campaign which was won by Lotus) but the FIA gave them what was called the "14th spot" meaning that they would get priority choosing to be let back in if any team pulled out, and after Toyota withdrew from the sport shortly after the end of the season, (pending an announcement from the FIA) Qadbak are back on the grid. If they are let back in, i expect them go go with an experieced lineup of Nick Heidfeld and McLaren refugee Heikki Kovalainen.

WILLIAMS
14. Rubens Barrichello
15. Niko Hulkenberg
It'll be all new at Williams in 2010, a return to the Cosworth engines they last used in 2006 and what powered them to their first world championship in 1980 and an all new driver line-up containing the perfect mix of experience and youth. Rubens Barrichello comes in from Brawn as the experienced head, his technical expertise and set-up knowledge will be invaluable for his teammate, the rookie Niko Hulkenberg from Germany, who is quite possibly, the strongest rookie to come into F1 in many years having already won a multitude of championships including the A1 Grand Prix title with Germany in 2006-07.

RENAULT
16. Robert Kubica
17. Timo Glock
No Briatore, No Symonds and quite possibly, no team at all in 2010 if Renault's recent emergency board meeting recently was anything to go by. Such speculation comes with merit after what has been an appalling season for the Renault team, an unusual and blocky car design coupled with an unreliable package and unrest within the team played their parts in a run to just 8th place in the constructors championship, simply not good enough for a manufacturer with a championship pedigree as Renault possesses. Should they be on the grid in 2010, then Robert Kubica will be their lead driver, defecting from the now defunct BMW squad, he would be expected to be partnered by Timo Glock, defecting from the now defunct Toyota squad.

FORCE INDIA
18. Adrian Sutil
19. Vitantonio Liuzzi
Finally, Vijay Mallya's team scored their first points and pipped Toro Rosso to 9th in the constructors ensuring they did not get the wooden spoon, the car was a great package especially on circuits requiring low-downforce setup, that helped enable Giancarlo Fisichella to claim the team's first podium in its current guise with 2nd place in Belgium and its first overall since Tiago Monteiro finished 3rd in that controversial US Grand Prix in 2005. Force India as a result are likely to go into next season with last years driver lineup, the erratic but quick Adrian Sutil as lead driver alongside Vitantonio Liuzzi who displayed good pace in his short end of season stint.

TORO ROSSO
20. Sebastien Buemi
21. Jaime Alguersuari or Brendon Hartley
Overall it was a quiet season for the Red Bull sister team, but that was expected since Vettel left to join the main squad. Despite that though, Sebastien Buemi scored 6 of the team's 8 points, not bad for your first season and enough to make him the rookie of the year. Who will partner him though is up for debate. Jaime Alguersuari tis the favourite to pick up the drive.

CAMPOS META
22. Bruno Senna
23. Pedro de la Rosa or Vitaly Petrov
Of the 4 new teams, Campos were the first to formally announce a driver, that will be Bruno Senna, the nephew of the legendary 3 time world champion Ayrton, also the team were to announce that they were the first to successfully complete the mandatory FIA crash tests, crucial in the cosntruction of their race car. The question with this team now though is who will partner Senna in his rookie season. Pedro de la Rosa is the favourite as Campos would prefer a Spanish driver in their lineup and he would also bring vast experience as a former driver with Arrows and Jaguar as well as a McLaren Tester. Vitaly Petrov is the other driver int he frame due to the Russian's links with the team in lower formulae and his sponsorship potential from the oil rich former Soviet country.

VIRGIN F1 / MANOR
24. Anthony Davidson
25. Adam Carroll
Manor,(another of the new teams) seem to be the least prepared to enter, then again, they are the only new team that have not said much in their press releases apart from former Simtek and Benetton designer Nick Wirth coming in as technical director and announcing a first that the car will be the first ever to be designed using CFD computer software, the same system that propelled Acura to dominance in this year's American Le Mans Series. Also it si expected that they will be announcing a major sponsorship deal with Virgin that could include renaming the team. As for drivers, dont be suprised to see them be all patriotic and go for an all British/Irish lineup. Anthony Davidson is the favurite to be the lead driver despte little racing experience in F1 but despite that, there have been plenty of people saying that he deserves a proper chance in the sport and Manor could provide that for him. The favourite to partner him could be Irishman Adam Carroll, the reigning A1 Grand Prix champion and who could be the first driver from the Irish republic in F1 since Derek Daly drove for Williams in 1982.

USF1
26. Alexander Wurz or Takuma Sato or Jacques Villeneuve
27. JR Hildebrand or Jonathan Summerton
The new USF1 squad have talked a lot about their high ambitions including setting up a european base at Motorland Aragon near the town of Alcaniz in North-east Spain as well as their american base near Charlotte, North Carolina. Team owner Peter Windsor set up the team to try and increase intrest and the profile of F1 in North America so it will be natural for him to want at least 1 American driver in his team, the early favourites to be that driver being Jonathan Summerton and JR Hildebrabd, both successful in lower formulae in the states. The lead seat though is different, an experienced head may be useful in their plans with both Alexander Wurz and former world champion Jacques Villeneuve being names that heve been mentioned, also dont rule out a return for Takuma Sato.

LOTUS
28. Jarno Trulli
29. Fairuz Fauzy
Tony Fernandes's fortune and his links with Proton paved the way for them to win the bidding for the 13th spot on the grid in 2010 and also marking the return of one of the sport's most iconic marques, Lotus. who were 6 times world drivers champions under the legendary stewardship of the late Colin Chapman. Now with the fortune of the Malaysian airline owner and Proton (who own Lotus) they are set to make a return into the field and are already constructing their new car. Fairuz Fauzy is favourite to land one of the seats seeing that they will probably want a Malaysian driver in there with the experienced Jarno Trulli (now available after the withdrawal of Toyota) favourite to take the lead seat.

F1: Schumacher Not To Return After All

After the excitement amongst fans of Michael Schumacher's impending return as a replacement for the injured Felipe Massa, today's news totally changed that optimism. After consulting with doctors treating his recovery from a neck injury suffered in a motorcycle crash, the 7 time world champion has cancelled his impending return. The neck and shoulder injuries he suffered came from a motorbike crash in preparation to achieve his next goal of racing superbikes in February, but ever since his retirement, he has never left the clutches of the Ferrari team after acting as team consultant for the past 2 seasons and has acted as an official tester of various Ferrari road cars. Also recently you may have noticed a little stunt on Top Gear where Schumacher "revealed" himself as the man behind the helmet of "The Stig" this was quickly rebuffed by Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson who called him an imposter the very next week.

Ferrari though have taken the unusual step by immediately naming his replacement in the form of their long time F1 test driver Luca Badoer from Italy, who has not raced competitively in the sport since a season with Minardi in 1999, he also holds the record of being the longest serving F1 driver never to have scored a world championship point (48 races) with his best result being a 7th place finish at the San Marino GP in 1993 driving a Lola. Badoer though is most famous for his stunning drive in the 1999 European GP where in a Minardi he drove out of his skin on merit from 19th to 4th before his gearbox packed up and he lay next to his car crying his eyes out. That does not mean he is unworthy of the drive though, Badoer has been Ferrari's official tester for 12 years and in a way, this is a way for the team to repay his loyalty to them by allowing him to drive the remaining 7 races as teammate to Kimi Raikkonen.

I think this comes as a massive suprise, Schumacher suffered his crash injuries back in February, a full 6 months ago. This decision probably confirms that the injuries he suffered were more severe than first thought despite him setting a blistering pace in a 2 year old car round the Mugello circuit. But on the whole, i think they've gone for the right man in Luca Badoer over Marc Gene, simply because with 12 years as a test driver under his belt for the team, if there is one man in the world that is more than qualified to race a Ferrari other than Michael Schumacher, its Luca Badoer.