With just over 1 week until the first Grand Prix race of the 2010 season in Bahrain, we thought it’s be a nice idea to summarise what’s happened between Jenson Button’s 2009 Championship win, and now.
Teams
Shortly after the end of the 2009 season, Japanese team Toyota announced that they would no longer take part in Formula One due to financial reasons. This left drivers Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock without a drive. Previous to this, BMW Sauber had also announced that they were also pulling out of F1 due to BMW not wanting to take part, again leaving drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica looking for jobs.
Sauber however managed to salvage the team, bringing it to F1 in 2010 – Although the team lost both drivers in the process, as well as the BMW Engine. Sauber are still registered as BMW Sauber, despite the lack of BMW – choosing to use a Ferrari engine instead.
Constructers champions Brawn GP were also bought out by German car manufacturer Mercedes, renaming the team Mercedes GP. Ross Brawn stays in his position as Team Principal.
4 new teams were billed to join the 2010 season, Virgin Racing, Campos (Now HRT Racing), US F1, and Lotus. US F1 recently announced that they are pulling out of the 2010 season, being unable to complete their development programme in time, and now focussing on a 2011 entry. It is understood that Stefan GP attempted to take the remaining slot on the F1 grid, however the FIA rejected their entry based on the time before the first race (some 2 weeks).
Drivers
The first major scalp in the driver juggle was Kimi Raikkonen. Mid 2009 season Ferrari announced that Renault driver Fernando Alonso would be joining the team, leaving Raikkonen without a 2009 race seat. Raikkonen was understood to only want a seat in one of two available cars, the Brawn or McLaren – however neither deal was made (likely due to the high price Raikkonen was commanding) and Raikkonen left F1 (albeit maybe temporarily).
The second biggest shock of the driver reshuffle was the move of 2009 championship winner Jenson Button over to McLaren. He joins the 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton for an all British line-up. Widely seen as a risky move, time will tell if this change was a good one for Button.
The final big news was the announcement of Michael Schumacher to the Mercedes GP team. Schumacher returns out of retirement for 3 years to lead an all German lineup with Nico Rosberg as his partner. Schumacher originally planned an F1 return in 2009 when Felipe Massa pulled out after an accident, however was unable to due to suffering a neck injury after a motorbike accident.
Remaining driver positions can be seen in our Guide to 2010 driver lineups.
Important Rule Changes
- Refuelling has been banned during the race. Drivers will only be able to pitstop with problems and tyre changes.
- The top ten drivers to qualify for the race must start the race on the same set of tyres that quaified with.
- A new points system is now in place (see here)
- KERS, although not banned by the FIA, will not be used by FOTA teams in 2010.
- A Grand Prix can now take upto 26 cars.
- Wheel covers are banned on all cars.
- Front tyres have been slightly narrowed in comparison to rear tyres
- No testing rules have been slightly amended to allow any backup drivers 1 day of testing on a circuit not part of the 2010 season in order to prepare them for racing.
Circuit Changes
British GP track Donington pulled out of hosting the 2010 GP, and any future ones after they could not secure the funding for the endeavour. After weeks of speculation, and the chance of no British Grand Prix on the timetable, an agreement was placed between F1 Administration and Silverstone to host the British GP for the next 17 years.
The Canadian Grand Prix will return in 2010. Fuji Speedway was also due to host the 2010 Japanese GP, however track owners Toyota pulled out of this as well, leaving Suzuka to continue holding the race.
Finally, South Korea will host its first GP at the Korean International Circuit in the latter part of the season.
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