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)
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.
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.
