F1 2010 is here

The first race of the 2010 F1 season will be this weekend. I thought I'd give you my thoughts on the states of the teams.

Mercedes

The championship team has a struggle on its hands to retain the title this year. Ross Brawn admitted that the work on this year's car was delayed by last year's battle.

The biggest change is that Michael Schumacher is on board, and we all know that he is an immense talent and I don't expect his 3 years away to have dented his skills. Nico Rosberg must have expected to face Jenson Button as a team mate and might have rated his chances, but the team will quickly focus on Schumacher unless Nico can pull out some stellar performances. Judging by his speed, it may be possible but he has to cut down on the errors which marred 2009.

The ingredients should be there for the car to be one of the best, but testing has shown that it may be a fraction off the pace of McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull. A diffuser update is scheduled to appear for the first race, maybe it will return the team to the top.

Red Bull

The RB5 was the best car of 2009. Unfortunately, they didn't have the double diffuser at the start of the year and it hurt their title chances. Not so this year, but Adrian Newey's cars have always pushed the envelope to the limit and risk reliability in the pursuit of speed. Testing shows the same trend, an ultra fast car with some reliability concerns. There may also be issues regarding tyre degradation.

The RB5 also set the trend for this year's cars, which have copied the best features from last year (apart from pull-rod suspension). Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber will battle it out again this year and it's hard to see Vettel not making it to champion in the next few years. It could very well be this year if he eliminates the mistakes and the car holds together. I would expect Mark Webber to win a few more wins, but the amazing qualifying performances have been beaten by Vettel and unless he can reverse this trend he will not make it to champion.

McLaren

Last year started appallingly for McLaren, they were three seconds behind the competition and that is not a position the team is used to. In an amazing turnaround, they won a race by the middle of the year and go into this year with one of the fastest cars. In testing both Lewis Hamilton and new team mate Jenson Button have told how the car is very fast and reliable.

After Hamilton's bad start to last year, he is looking very fast and should be a contender this year. He faces the new World Champion Jenson Button and the rivalry should be gentlemanly but intense. Most expect Hamilton to be faster, and I agree, but maybe Button's smooth driving style will reap dividends when carrying a full fuel load by saving the life of his tyres. It will be fascinating.

Ferrari

The Ferrari has been looking like one of the fastest cars this year in testing. I was skeptical, that ending development of last year’s car so soon would be a good idea, especially as there were so many development opportunities to exploit in the new regulations and so little testing. It looks like they may have produced a corker and if Fernando Alonso is to be believed they have not been showing their true pace, which must be truly astounding!

Now that Kimi Raikkonen has decided to join the gravel trippers, Massa has to face his third World Champion in Fernando Alonso. I don’t suppose that it will faze him, and neither will the injury he faced at last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix. It will be interesting to see how the two men square up, Alonso with a competitive car again will want to add to his tally and Massa has to show that he can beat Alonso in the same way that he did Raikkonen. It will also be fascinating to watch the Alonso vs Hamilton vs Schumacher battle.

Renault

The Renault team are going through some big changes. Both drivers, the management and ownership have changed. The livery is back to being the yellow and black of the early 80's and they may even be adorned with Lada motifs! Last years car was ugly, and slow. Testing times have not shown a major improvement and so this maybe a 'building' year.

On the driver front, Robert Kubica has moved from BMW and looks very comfortable in his new surroundings. Unfortunately it looks like he jumped at the wrong moment because the BMW Sauber is looking good. He will be fast and consistent but it may be very difficult for him to find himself on the podium this season. His team mate, Vitaly Petrov is the first Russian in F1 and has a big challenge on his hands. He has a very fast team mate and needs to show that Rookies can make a difference after the poor showing from Piquet Jr and Grosjean.

BMW Sauber

Although the team is still called BMW, this is largely back to being a privateer run team by Peter Sauber. He runs a tight ship and although the new car does look a bit ugly testing times have shown that this car maybe the dark horse of the season. It is especially kind to its tyres and this may show dividends in the latter laps as they can pick off cars in trouble.

Pedro de la Rosa is back racing full time after the mini season he had in 2006. He is a good steady hand and will bring lots of experience from McLaren. No wins expected but he may make it to the podium on occasion. His team mate is Kamui Kobayashi who shone in the last two races of 2009. It's been a long time coming for a Japanese driver to really stand out, but maybe Kamui can be the real deal. If he continues where he left off I wouldn't be surprised if he got the odd podium.

Williams

I have a real soft spot for Williams, ever since Nigel Mansell drove for the team. It is a team of real racers, and their return to the top flight is long overdue. Last year's car showed consistency which had been lacking in the previous three seasons, but was still a disappointment when the points tally was counted. This year let's hope for better. They are back to using the Cosworth engine which should be fast but hopefully more reliable since they last used them.

Rubens Barrichello is in the last few years of his career but showed last year that he can still make wins when in the right car. If he can show consistent pace then he may put the Williams as best of the rest, after the top four. His team mate is Nico Hulkenberg, who's pace is looking very good. So far I think that Nico will show himself to be the best rookie.

Force India

This team visibly grew last year. With support from McLaren and the Mercedes engine, the late season update package added an extra second to the pace. In Spa they came very close to winning! If the same dynamics are in place then this team could show some surprises.

Unfortunately, last year's best showing was in the hands of Giancarlo Fisichello and after he ran off to Ferrari to never be seen again, the team is reliant on Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi. Both have been able to show speed on occasion but are too inconsistent to trouble the front runners on a regular basis.

Toro Rosso

A big change for this year in that they have to build their own car. It's no surprise that the car is a development of last year's Red Bull. I expect the team to snatch the odd point, but I don't expect them to trouble the middle field too often as this plucky team is now into a better financed Minardi type position.

The drivers are still Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari, but apart from the odd show of speed, neither has stood out.

Virgin F1

The first of the new teams with a car based entirely on computation fluid dynamics, will find it a struggle. Both this team and the new Lotus seem to be around 6 seconds off the pace, but I don't think we're in a position where CFD can entirely replace the wind tunnel. I expect the Lotus to attach itself to the back of the midfield leaving Virgin in its wake.

Timo Glock is a good driver who shone at times last year, and I expect him to lead this team to midfield-dom. If he is very lucky, he may even snatch a point in an incident fuelled race. So far it is unclear to see what speed Lucas Di Grassi has due to the lack of true pace shown by the cars.

Lotus Racing

It's welcome to see the Lotus name back in racing, albeit in this different guise. The car is slow right now, but with the experienced Mike Gascoyne as the technical director I expect this team to be the best of the newbies.

The team has a very experienced line-up with Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, both with something to prove. Jarno needs to show how he can make a difference to a new team, helping to develop it whereas Heikki needs to show that two years as Hamilton's team mate has not destroyed his basic speed.

Hispania F1

This team is the big unknown, until recently named as Campos it is now named as Hispania or for short HRT F1. Whoever thought that was a good idea? The car has not been shown yet so we have nothing to go on.

The drivers are Bruno Senna, trying to show that he has the skill of his uncle and Karun Chandhok who I know very little about apart from being India's second F1 driver.


That's my preview. I think it will be Alonso or Hamilton as driver's champion with Ferrari as constructors, but we only have a few hours to find out whether the winter testing times were anywhere near accurate. I can't wait.

F1 is go.

Squiffy.