2010 Formula One season [Huge update on page one]

If they decide to be the good man and pull out for this year and want to come back next year, they are essentially saying 'OK, we've failed, but we'll try again next year!'. How's that going to attract sponsors for the next year? It's not, being as stubborn as they are is their only chance for survival.

Also, put yourself in their position. If you've set up half a team and you just need some more time to get things right, would you pull out? I doubt it.

I think only Gav has summed this up particularly well. I agree that it's the poor staff who apparently haven't been paid for ages who I feel sorry for.

A new Safety Car for 2010



Source; autosport

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X (@ed24f1)

Chandhok set to secure Campos seat The Indian driver has been strongly linked with Campos since Kolles took the helm last week as part of the restructuring that saw founder Adrian Campos step aside and his partner Jose Ramon Carabante assume full control.

source [www.autosport.com]

Just saw this on Adam Cooper's blog, there is a talking about a USF1 and Stephan GP merging (is it right the way I wrote this sentence?):
[adamcooperf1.com] Sorry, should have posted it on the USF1 trobule thread

I liked the new Safety Car, those AMG Mercedes are always nice!!

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Rocker




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2010 04:53PM by rocker.

OK so at the end of testing this year, I'm gonna make a prediction on the order of the teams.

Ferrari and Red Bull seem to be the quickest, just ahead of Mclaren, who themselves look a shade quicker than Mercedes.

Following the big 4, I think its Williams and Force India. After them it should be Sauber.

Bringing up the rear for the old teams will probably be Renault and Toro Rosso.

Leaving Lotus and Virgin to battling it out to be best of the newbies. And Campos to act as a mobile chicane.

What are everone elses thoughts?

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New safety car is beautiful
Looks like a modernised 300 SL Gullwing, which is one of my favourite cars

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Looks like a modernised 300 SL Gullwing

That's because it is.

The latest Mclaren updates seem to have moved them level with Ferrari.

At the moment I can not see RBR getting through the 1st race without car problems, they have not completed a race simulation yet.

Merc seem a bit behind Ferrari, Mclaren and Rbr at the mo but have a massive update for the 1st race.

Don't think RBR will have any issues in race 1, but the 2nd and 3rd races on the engine will indicate if the precautionary stoppages and changes in testing are merely precautionary or if they have a genuine problem of some description.

Ferrari are generally accepted to be the most consistent over a distance (it's been a few years since anyone could have said that!), McLaren seem to have a better all-out pace, RBR appear to be all out fast (and for the record Webber looks very comfortable in testing in this car) and are probably between Ferrari and McLaren and to me Mercedes look to be a couple of tenths away from challenging for wins, but still have a fairly major upgrade for Bahrain.

Williams look next best, another few tenths back, with Sauber probably ahead of Renault (who have looked very underwhelming in testing) and Toro Rosso, who, due to basically be using last years car, will probably be relatively quick in the first few races before tailing off as the season goes on. Force India look to be the same as last year - mixing it at the rear for the majority of the races while challenging the middle points on the quicker tracks.

Clearly Virgin are going to be fortunate not to embarrass themselves in the opening race. They look hopelessly unreliable and slow to change parts, but quicker than I expected when they can string laps together. Lotus seem the opposite. They are getting times by being on the track and not sitting in the pits, but with a relatively simple and slow car. 2 different approaches (of which undoubtedly Lotus took the right one for them given their lack of time), and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top at the end of the season - I suspect Virgin.

On another note, we've had very little discussion on the Cosworth engine since testing began. It looks fine. It took a bit of time to get up to speed (naturally, you're not going to unleash it straight out of the box), but there's been no reliability issues that I've seen and I've read no complaints on any level from any team using it. Certainly Williams look quicker than when they had the Toyota (which wasn't exactly the best engine, but it wasn't far off most plants).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2010 10:51PM by gav.

Hulkenberg, although it maybe slightly biased, says that its far better than the Toyota powerplant which he drove with in the December test, but they were extremely cautious bringing everything up to speed which is complete expected. I'm sure they are doing everything possible to not remind themselves of 2006 with a poor installation. It will be interesting to see how they have done with the fuel consumption rates and if it is any better than the current "frozen" engines around them. At any rate the sounds coming out of Williams at least are quite positive.

I'm not sure what to make of Renault. Kubica was making quite a noise about this supposed large update for the last day of testing and nothing seems to have materialised to write home about.

Think I agree with Gav's order with some other points...

I think McLaren are still a bit unsure and coming up abit short on the ultimate pace. Button has hinted they aren't completely happy, and Hamilton has said they need to "understand these new upgrades" of which they seem to be quite substantial. The front wing has also changed to something much more simplistic and very similar to last year which suggests they are finding some problems other than solutions with certain changes.

The other thing with Virgin is the cars stability. Even with the woeful reliability, the car seems to be extremely tail happy and very hard to control near its limit. So its either going to be on the side of the track or in the side of a tyre wall. Im sure they will pick it up towards the end of the season, certainly better than Lotus of which a large upgrade is coming for the Spanish GP.

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Dietrich Mateschitz didn't completely rule out hiring Raikkonen for 2011

"This is nothing more than pure speculation. We do not know what Kimi intends to do in one year. We have a very good relationship which makes room for speculations. But to tell you now Kimi will be racing for us in 2011 is not serious. If Webber provides top performances this year we will not reward him by giving his cockpit to Raikkonen."

As denials go in F1, this wasn't one of the most convicing ones. So it looks like Webber has a little bit of extra pressure to maintain a high level of performance this year.

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X (@ed24f1)

Yeah, the Webber OUT Raikkonen IN rumour has been swirling around for a year or two. Given Webber's age, if he under performs, yes he may get the heave-ho. He has always had the talent, and now that he seems to have the car, that talent is beginning to show itself. 2010 will be very interesting to see how he goes against Vettel. If all that bad luck Webber seems to have, can finally stay away, he could be a real title contender in the Red Bull.

The first month of the season will be interesting, with the new driver line up at Ferrari and Mclaren. By the time the first 4 races are up, I wouldn't be surprised to see Ferrari, Red Bull and Mclaren all having scored wins.

Ooh, the possibility of a Vettel-Kimi RBR line-up for next year... As unlikely as it is at the moment, what a partnership it'd be! :D

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Webber's looking very good in testing this year, I have to say. Obviously last year the start to his season was hindered by those broken bones, so this will be his first season against Vettel where he's actually been able to prepare properly. That will probably have sod all difference, but he has been impressive in testing.

Keep in mind that Vettel's contract expires after next year, so if as has been predicted he leaves to join team Germany, then RBR won't want to be in a position to have a race-winning car with a weak line-up.

The qualifying battle between Vettel and Webber will be particularly interesting.

Sure on paper it was one-sided last year, but James Allen says that it was only 9-8 to Vettel if you considered fuel weights. Webber was particularly good at low fuel runs in his early days as well.

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X (@ed24f1)

Honestly, I don't know if they are so closely tight. We'll see. But there are signs in all directions.

Hamilton did an astonishing long run in his last day of testing...
Alonso was amazingly fast and consistent in his long runs and besides, he didn't do a qualifying run setting three 1.20s in Montmelo in a 5 lap stint...
And in all those cases, I didn't see any spectacular run from Red Bull and they were considerably slower than the two big ones and more unreliable (although they may be hiding something).

In my opinion, according to what I did see:

1. Ferrari
2. McLaren close (1-2 tenths?)
3. Red Bull a little bit far from them (3-4 tenths?)
4. Mercedes close to Red Bull
5. Sauber not too close, not too far from 4th spot.
6. Toro Rosso & Force India & Williams (difficult to tell)
8. Renault (terrible year ahead again...and it'll be worse than 2009)
9. Lotus & Virgin far behind (2 sec from Renault?)

What do you think?

Ali Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Honestly, I don't know if they are so closely
> tight. We'll see. But there are signs in all
> directions.
>
> Hamilton did an astonishing long run in his last
> day of testing...
> Alonso was amazingly fast and consistent in his
> long runs and besides, he didn't do a qualifying
> run setting three 1.20s in Montmelo in a 5 lap
> stint...
> And in all those cases, I didn't see any
> spectacular run from Red Bull and they were
> considerably slower than the two big ones and more
> unreliable (although they may be hiding
> something).
>
> In my opinion, according to what I did see:
>
> 1. Ferrari
> 2. McLaren close (1-2 tenths?)
> 3. Red Bull a little bit far from them (3-4
> tenths?)
> 4. Mercedes close to Red Bull
> 5. Sauber not too close, not too far from 4th
> spot.
> 6. Toro Rosso & Force India & Williams (difficult
> to tell)
> 8. Renault (terrible year ahead again...and it'll
> be worse than 2009)
> 9. Lotus & Virgin far behind (2 sec from
> Renault?)
>
> What do you think?

very close, according to Turun sanomat, order would be similar and differences very close:
1. Ferrari
2. McLaren about 0,1seconds behind
3.RedBull about 0,2 seconds behind
4.Mercedes about 0,25 seconds behind.

but while Ferrari,McLaren and RedBull have tested already with their Bahrain package, mercedes has not and it should be about 0,1-0,2 seconds faster than the current package. So the fight is very close and differences can be made by weather,drivers etc... we should also remember that RedBull didn't seem so fast last year either before the season started but then they were the ones who challenged Brawn's.

about Lotus, Heikki Kovalainen said they are much more behind than Minardi was in year 2002, so they are quite much behind.

vesuvius Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> about Lotus, Heikki Kovalainen said they are much
> more behind than Minardi was in year 2002, so they
> are quite much behind.


Heikki has denied making that comment

[twitter.com]

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X (@ed24f1)

Yeah, I saw those comments about Heikki's evaluation of the Lotus - I found it funny how GPUpdate led with "Lotus better than expected" while espn led with "It's even worse than a Minardi!"

At any rate, I was just happy to see the name "Minardi" reappear in the news...

Campos' chances of actually competing are looking up - they are to launch on Thursday under the proposed new team name of Hispania, with Senna and Chandok as their drivers --- [en.espnf1.com]

Also, you can tell the season is upon us because Eddie Jordan is contributing to the rumour mill - his *understanding* is that Stefan definitely will race at Bahrain as well, with Villeneuve as their second driver. That's on the BBC and espn now.

Also, Petrov's Russian backing has finally emerged. Whereas Petrov's own promoters were initially unsuccessful in attracting Russian sponsorship, it looks like Vladimir Putin putting in a few good words has done the trick...
The impression that some people have that the Renault may be a bit of a dog this year is not likely going to be helped however by the fact that the car will now be sponsored by Lada. [en.espnf1.com]

I for one certainly hope they can get themselves up the nice end of the standings this year, though otherwise I'm basically agreeing with the general consensus on where the teams are right now.