Post by The Stig on Mar 12, 2010 12:09:30 GMT -5
The 2010 Formula 1 season is officially underway!
It's all change this year. Four huge changes have completely changed the F1 landscape, and they're just the tip of the iceberg.
First, double World Champion Fernando Alonso, who many see as the best driver in F1, left the struggling Renault team and joined Ferrari. On paper it's a perfect move for the Spaniard, but Alonso's last move to a top-tier team (McLaren in 2007) ended in total disaster because Alonso felt the team was favoring the younger but more popular Lewis Hamilton. Alonso's new Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa has been with Ferrari for a while and is very popular inside the team, so lightning could strike twice.
Shortly after Alonso's move, Mercedes bought out the Brawn GP team and rebranded them as Mercedes GP. Brawn only existed for one season after team boss Ross Brawn bought the remains of Honda's F1 team, but they managed to win the Drivers' and Constructors' World Championships in that season. Mercedes have kept Brawn's key players onboard, and the addition of Mercedes money should make a great team even better.
With Mercedes onboard, everybody expected defending World Champion Jenson Button to re-sign with the Brawn/Mercedes team. However, Button has fought naysayers all his career, and they didn't disappear with his championship. The story last season was that Button lucked into the championship by getting the fastest car on the grid and a slow teammate. So Button decided to try and prove his naysayers wrong once and for all by signing with McLaren to prove himself against the British media's golden boy, Lewis Hamilton.
With Button gone and most of the other top drivers already taken, Brawn/Mercedes looked to have a problem on their hands. But Ross Brawn is a smart man with good friends, and happily one of his old friends was more than willing to drive the car for him. Even more happily for Ross, that friend was 7-time F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher. Schumacher is 41 years old and hasn't raced in F1 since 2006, but he insists that he still has it, and so far it looks like he does.
So with all those changes, everybody was excitedly awaiting the first official practice session this morning from Bahrain. Would Schumacher set the pace on his return? Would Jenson Button show everybody that he's really the best by topping the timesheets? Would Alonso be fastest on his Ferrari debut?
No, no, and no. At the end of first practice, the man in first was... Adrian Sutil of the Force India team!
The other big news of this season is the 3 new teams. Last summer the FIA expanded the grid to 13 teams and added 3 new teams to F1 - the American-based USF1, the Spanish Campos Grand Prix, and the British Manor F1. After BMW-Sauber pulled out later in the summer, the FIA added Lotus F1 (who are actually a Malaysian team that simply bought the legendary Lotus name). Toyota then pulled out and Sauber (whose founder bought them back from BMW) got their spot back, beating out a mysterious Serbian outfit called Stefan F1.
The new teams were the pet project of the now retired FIA President Max Mosley, but they haven't had an easy time. Lotus have done the best - getting a (slow) car on the grid with two respectable drivers. Manor switched their name to Virgin Racing after Richard Branson bought a stake in them, and also managed to get a car on the track, albeit a car that can barely run 2 laps (slowly) before it falls apart.
Meanwhile, Campos ran out of money and USF1 went virtually silent. With a strong possibility that one (or both) wouldn't make the grid, Stefan F1 decided that they would eschew the normal application process, show up at the first race, and inform the FIA that they were taking the 13th team spot. They bought Toyota's unused 2010 car, painted it red. They then hired a few "designers" and put a picture of them on their website, and loudly proclaimed they had an F1 team. They then sent a shipping container to Bahrain and posted the receipt on their website, claiming that they were now ready to participate in the first race. Never mind the fact that they didn't have an entry, or the fact that there was no evidence that the shipping container actually contained an F1 car....
Meanwhile, Campos found a buyer, who renamed the team the Hispania Racing Team, and unveiled their car. Unfortunately, it was too late for any testing, and they only had one. The car didn't run until first practice at Bahrain, where a wheel promptly fell off. They are currently building a second car in their garage at the Bahrain track.
At least they're in Bahrain, which is more than can be said for USF1. After a long period of silence, a flurry of contradicting statements flew around, including a damning tirade by an anonymous employee alleging incompetence and deceit on the part of the team's owners. It became obvious that the teams wasn't ready for the season, and the FIA released an official entry list that did not include USF1. It also did not include Stefan, whose antics had not enamored them to the FIA to say the least.
So all is chaos in F1 land, which means that everything is normal! Qualifying at 6:00 AM Eastern time tomorrow morning, and race at 8:00 AM Eastern time Sunday, all live on Speed Channel.
It's all change this year. Four huge changes have completely changed the F1 landscape, and they're just the tip of the iceberg.
First, double World Champion Fernando Alonso, who many see as the best driver in F1, left the struggling Renault team and joined Ferrari. On paper it's a perfect move for the Spaniard, but Alonso's last move to a top-tier team (McLaren in 2007) ended in total disaster because Alonso felt the team was favoring the younger but more popular Lewis Hamilton. Alonso's new Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa has been with Ferrari for a while and is very popular inside the team, so lightning could strike twice.
Shortly after Alonso's move, Mercedes bought out the Brawn GP team and rebranded them as Mercedes GP. Brawn only existed for one season after team boss Ross Brawn bought the remains of Honda's F1 team, but they managed to win the Drivers' and Constructors' World Championships in that season. Mercedes have kept Brawn's key players onboard, and the addition of Mercedes money should make a great team even better.
With Mercedes onboard, everybody expected defending World Champion Jenson Button to re-sign with the Brawn/Mercedes team. However, Button has fought naysayers all his career, and they didn't disappear with his championship. The story last season was that Button lucked into the championship by getting the fastest car on the grid and a slow teammate. So Button decided to try and prove his naysayers wrong once and for all by signing with McLaren to prove himself against the British media's golden boy, Lewis Hamilton.
With Button gone and most of the other top drivers already taken, Brawn/Mercedes looked to have a problem on their hands. But Ross Brawn is a smart man with good friends, and happily one of his old friends was more than willing to drive the car for him. Even more happily for Ross, that friend was 7-time F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher. Schumacher is 41 years old and hasn't raced in F1 since 2006, but he insists that he still has it, and so far it looks like he does.
So with all those changes, everybody was excitedly awaiting the first official practice session this morning from Bahrain. Would Schumacher set the pace on his return? Would Jenson Button show everybody that he's really the best by topping the timesheets? Would Alonso be fastest on his Ferrari debut?
No, no, and no. At the end of first practice, the man in first was... Adrian Sutil of the Force India team!
The other big news of this season is the 3 new teams. Last summer the FIA expanded the grid to 13 teams and added 3 new teams to F1 - the American-based USF1, the Spanish Campos Grand Prix, and the British Manor F1. After BMW-Sauber pulled out later in the summer, the FIA added Lotus F1 (who are actually a Malaysian team that simply bought the legendary Lotus name). Toyota then pulled out and Sauber (whose founder bought them back from BMW) got their spot back, beating out a mysterious Serbian outfit called Stefan F1.
The new teams were the pet project of the now retired FIA President Max Mosley, but they haven't had an easy time. Lotus have done the best - getting a (slow) car on the grid with two respectable drivers. Manor switched their name to Virgin Racing after Richard Branson bought a stake in them, and also managed to get a car on the track, albeit a car that can barely run 2 laps (slowly) before it falls apart.
Meanwhile, Campos ran out of money and USF1 went virtually silent. With a strong possibility that one (or both) wouldn't make the grid, Stefan F1 decided that they would eschew the normal application process, show up at the first race, and inform the FIA that they were taking the 13th team spot. They bought Toyota's unused 2010 car, painted it red. They then hired a few "designers" and put a picture of them on their website, and loudly proclaimed they had an F1 team. They then sent a shipping container to Bahrain and posted the receipt on their website, claiming that they were now ready to participate in the first race. Never mind the fact that they didn't have an entry, or the fact that there was no evidence that the shipping container actually contained an F1 car....
Meanwhile, Campos found a buyer, who renamed the team the Hispania Racing Team, and unveiled their car. Unfortunately, it was too late for any testing, and they only had one. The car didn't run until first practice at Bahrain, where a wheel promptly fell off. They are currently building a second car in their garage at the Bahrain track.
At least they're in Bahrain, which is more than can be said for USF1. After a long period of silence, a flurry of contradicting statements flew around, including a damning tirade by an anonymous employee alleging incompetence and deceit on the part of the team's owners. It became obvious that the teams wasn't ready for the season, and the FIA released an official entry list that did not include USF1. It also did not include Stefan, whose antics had not enamored them to the FIA to say the least.
So all is chaos in F1 land, which means that everything is normal! Qualifying at 6:00 AM Eastern time tomorrow morning, and race at 8:00 AM Eastern time Sunday, all live on Speed Channel.