Those of you that saw the Monaco Grand Prix today would have seen Michael Schumacher’s gutsy move to overtake Fernando Alonso on the final corner of the final lap to take P6. That in itself would be fine under normal racing conditions, however Schumacher did this after the safety car had dived in.

The stewards (one of those being his old sparring partner, Damon Hill) deemed this to break the rules, despite the race being under normal conditions after the safety car had gone in, last lap or not… Schumacher received a 20 second penalty, leaving him in P12, but did he deserve it?

So the Malaysian Grand Prix didn’t end up a water fest as pretty much everyone predicted. In fact, not a single drop of rain fell during the race. Many also predicted the biggest headline out of the race would be the weather, how awful it was, and how the race time needs to be changed again etc etc.

But that didn’t happen – so the second surprise to pop out was the Red Bull 1-2 finish. Yes, I said finish. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have both been plagued recently by dodgy cars, causing Vettel in particular to lose two Grand Prix from commanding positions.

Mark Webber has fared better, however he’s had his share of gremlins too in the car, however luckily during practice sessions.

Despite all that, Vettel pipped Webber to the first corner in Sepang after lights out, and the rest they say, was a parade… (well at least for them it was). Neither Vettel nor Webber moved from P1 and P2 respectively throughout the race, and were never bothered at all by the competition.

Vettel’s now infamous “Number 1″ finger pumps told the whole story at the end of the race – he was clearly relieved to have made it (a) to the finish, and (b) in P1 – probably in that order. However, have they just got lucky this time, or have the Red Bull team figured out their issues with reliability? If it’s the latter, we can say goodbye to the championship race – it’ll all be about the Red Bulls.

That said, they were let off a bit this time over. Both Ferraris and McLarens were starting from pretty much the back of the pack, and had some 10+ cars to go through before getting close to the podiums. Lewis Hamilton predictably steamed through the pack, making up a large number of places, with team mate Jenson Button going backwards, forwards, backwards.

The Ferrari boys also rued their decision on Saturday, which ultimately screwed their race on Sunday. Fernando Alonso’s engine blowout on the penultimate lap was the signing off of a terrible weekend for the team, who were hoping to be back up there. The BBC even reported that it almost looked like Alonso forced the blowout after a frustrating race.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg needs a mention. Other than the rolling headline that never disappears that he finished ahead of his team mate (you know, Schumacher), he actually finished P3, grabbing the first Mercedes GP podium this year.

What this has done is setup an interesting top 3 in the drivers championship. A top 3 which actually holds 5 drivers:

1. Felipe Massa (39)
2. Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Vettel (37)
3. Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg (35)

That’s pretty tight, and hold’s the top 4 teams. It’s anyones game right now, but could we call it this early? Let’s have a vote:

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.

Ex BMW-Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld has confirmed that he will join newly formed Mercedes GP as their reserve driver, sealing the all German lineup with Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. Nick said,

“I am very pleased to be joining the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS Formula One Team. It’s the team which has attracted the most interest in the close season, not only because of the comeback of Michael Schumacher, but also because this season sees the return of the Silver Arrows cars as a Mercedes-Benz works team for the first time in over fifty years. Whilst I would of course have preferred a seat as an active driver, I am really proud to be part of the new Silver Arrows team. I have seen how committed everyone at the team is and I feel the same. I will be doing my very best to support Michael and Nico this year”

Heidfeld suffered a pretty terrible season in 2009, with his first retirement of his F1 career, which was a great record. Whilst always managing to finish races, Heidfeld has failed to make it as a race winner on all occasions, and has only managed 12 podiums in his 10 years in Formula 1.

Mercedes Grand Prix have announced that they will launch their 2010 challenger on 25th January.

The launch will take place at the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart. The car will debut at the Valencia circuit on 1st February, at the first pre season test.

The Mercedes team will race under the Mercedes name this season after purchasing reigning world champions Brawn GP.

With the now confirmed news that the 7 times World Champion, Michael Schumacher will return to Formula One in 2010, what do you think about all of this? Are you ecstatic with joy, a big fan of the man, or are you fuming that this man can even dream of setting wheels on a track again?

Opinion was divided on whether you thought he’d be back – and we all know the answer now to that little question.

In some late breaking news tonight, the BBC is reporting that Michael Schumacher, the 7 times Formula 1 World Champion will come out of retirement in 2010 and join Mercedes GP (formerly Brawn GP) alongside Nico Rosberg.

Schumacher had previously attempted to get back into an F1 car for Ferrari in 2009 when Felipe Massa left the 2009 season early after suffering a severe head injury. However, that was short lived after a neck injury Schumacher sustained earlier in the year meant he could not continue for health reasons.

Rumours of Schumacher joining Mercedes GP have been rife for a while now. With his old race engineer Ross Brawn leading the team, as well as the team owners Mercedes keen for an all German driver line up, Schumacher was first on their hit list for the ‘debut’ year. The team were also rumoured to be hunting down fellow German Nick Heidfeld who had until recently appeared to be missing a race seat after BMW chose to leave the sport.

According to reports, Schumacher has signed a 1 year deal with the team, assuming Mercedes are keen to see first whether the ex world champion can still handle a car as well as he used to before committing long-term. Schumacher too may be only looking to only dip his toes back into the sport to see if he wants to come back for good.

Full story can be found here.

More soon…

Mercedes GP (formerly Brawn GP) have announced that Nico Rosberg will drive for the team in 2010. Rosberg had been rumoured to be joining the outfit ever since he announced he was leaving the Williams team earlier this month.

“I am more motivated than ever and can hardly wait to start testing with the new Silver Arrow and for the first race of the new season at Bahrain on 14 March… I am very proud that I will race for the new team from the start and look forward to working with Ross Brawn.”

Team principal Ross Brawn said of his new driver:

“Nico is a great talent and with four years of experience in Formula 1 is a driver who will be able to make a valuable contribution to our team right from the outset.”

No announcement has yet been made about who will drive alongside Rosberg at Mercedes, however Nick Heidfeld, Kimi Raikkonen and even Michael Schumacher have all been rumoured to be talking to the team.

Check out our Guide to 2010 F1 Driver Lineups here.

Kimi Raikkonen has denied talking with Brawn/Mercedes GP, saying he believes the team’s new owners, Mercedes Benz, will be taking an all-German line-up.

Earlier this week, McLaren announced that they had signed Jenson Button as Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate, leaving Raikkonen without a race-seat for next year’s Championship as the Finn had previously stated that he would only race for McLaren.

However, almost immediately reports emerged that he could head to the Championship-winning Brawn GP team after Mercedes purchased a 75.1 percent stake in the outfit.

His manager Steve Robertson added fuel to the fire, saying:

“This is Formula 1. If they can offer, or convince us, that they can provide Kimi an opportunity that Kimi is happy with, and that we are happy with, and he feels he can win races and the championship then never say never. There is always a possibility.”

But despite his manager’s claims, Raikkonen says there has been no contract with Brawn GP and nor does he expect there to be. Raikkonen told F1.com,

“No, I have not held talks with Brawn. I feel they will run two German drivers next year now that Mercedes are involved,”

The Finn also made it clear that a year out of Formula One was on the cards for next season as he won’t race for a team that cannot guarantee him a shot at the World title, in other words, McLaren.

“I could not agree terms with McLaren so I have decided to take a one-year sabbatical. I felt McLaren offered the best opportunity to win races and challenge for the Drivers’ Championship and if that would not work the one-year break is the result. And to be honest, I will only return in 2011 if a competitive drive is available.”

“I do not want to race just to make up the numbers. That does not interest me. But there’s a lot of time until then, so let’s wait and see what happens in the months ahead.”

The 2007 World Champion, however, hopes he won’t be away from motor sport entirely, targeting a possible drive in rallying.

“I do not know yet, I will look at competing in rallying. Again, naturally I want to drive a competitive car. If not I will spend more time with my family and friends.”

With the news that Michael Schumacher might return to F1 in 2010 joining Mercedes GP, we thought we’d throw it out there to our readers to give your feedback. Most pundits (except Eddie Jordan) don’t think it will happen, but what do you think? Cast your vote!