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