Archive for January, 2010
Hamilton and Button take the covers off the MP4-25
Jan 30th
2008 World champion Lewis Hamilton and 2009 World champion Jensen button pulled back the covers on McLarens 2010 Formula1 challenger the MP4-25 today at the Vodafone (the teams main sponsor) headquarters in Newbury.
Jensen button admitted he hadn’t had a chance to really look at the new car and couldn’t wait to step off that stage and inspect it more closely. Besides testing the 2010 car in McLarens simulator, he has had next to no contact with the car in the metal.
The most obvious change, besides the narrow front wheels and longer wheel base which will be a trait of every 2010 challenger, is that the the MP4-25 has a dramatic shark fin or dorsal fin running from the top airbox and roll over bar back to the rear spoiler. The nose of the McLaren is also similar to the 2009 RedBull, just like Ferrari’s F10 which was revealed yesterday.
Lewis Hamilton said that the team had been pushing like crazy to get on the podium last year and that same push has driven them to produce a radical new design for the 2010 car…”We’ve been pushing like crazy to find the performance and the result is something that looks very special and very uncompromising.” he stated.
Team principal, Martin Whitmarsh was far from humble when he said that the MP4-25 was the most developed car McLaren had ever produced. He said that “Our goal is clear, we aim to win”.
The team clearly plan on taking the title fight to Ferrari, with Italian news sources today reporting that the 2010 title will be a battle between Alonso and Hamilton, riding on the back of the Ferrari F10 launch hype.
The tone at McLaren is that of harmony and team work. Button and Hamilton didn’t come across at all as bitter rivals, but quite the opposite, both drivers praising each other and sticking up for each other when the questions from the press gallery got a little below the belt.
Lewis Hamilton was diplomatic when he said “Both Jenson and I are world champions, and we both want to add to the team’s incredible winning legacy,” he went on to say: “I think a strong driver line-up will be very important this year as there are a lot of very competitive teams and drivers – and the stronger we can be, the better chance we’ll have of winning races. We all understand that.”
It is important to race as a team rather then having two drivers who are bitter rivals trying to beat each other race in and race out, that is because racing this way is high risk and as a result it can cost you points and cost your team the contructors title. The theme of todays reveal was that Jensen and Lewis are both comited to winning McLaren the 2010 contructors title.
Ferrari vow to return to the top with the F10
Jan 28th
Ferrari unveiled their 2010 challenger to the world today. The Maranello based outfit were the first of all the teams to launch their car for the 2010 Formula1 season.
After a dismal 2009 season Ferrari are keen to re-invent their image to their previous Glory. The new Ferrari F10 is the product of many months of development due to Ferrari’s decision to focus most of their energy developing the F10 only part way into the 2009 season due to their lack of success with the F60 (their 2009 contender).
A noticable difference between the F10 and last years F60 is that the 2010 car has a much longer wheel base, this is of course to accomodate the larger fuel tank. The F10 also has a narrower nose and the sidepods are also smaller on the F10 compared to last years car. The F10 is also sporting the new 2010 specification Bridgestone tyres which are narrower then last years. Ferrari have used a very similar nose on the F10 to RedBull’s 2009 contender that came close to winning last years championship.
The previously red front and rear wings that we have been used to seeing for many years now as part of Ferrari’s livery have been painted white with the red Santander logo popping out of the white background.
Ferrari have completely re-invented their image with a new driver line-up, new sponsors and a new outlook on Formula1. The team clearly wants to succeed this year and they are determined to restore their image as being ‘the’ team to beat in Formula1. Ferrari president, Luca di Montezemolo described Ferrari as a ‘renewed team’ with new members comming in to re-invigorate the team. “This championship will be very important for us,” he stated. “The last championship, for different reasons, was not very positive, that is why we are dealing with this one looking to be competitive – and this is what Ferrari deserves to have.”
Luca went on to state that the team was in a way having “two new drivers”; ”We have two new drivers, why two new drivers? Fernando Alonso, is a twice World Champion and we will say after the second one he will have a third one. He already appears among the big champions in F1, it is the right moment for him, for us, he wants to be successful and we want to repeat what the team concept is in our group…Felipe; we are talking of a new version of Felipe, but after such a dramatic Championship like last year with the accident in Hungary and such a fantastic season, Felipe has all the assets to prove that he is a very successful one, he can prove that he wants to restart his pathway that destiny interrupted it in Hungary. Good luck to both of them.”
Felipe Massa will drive the F10 at the Fiorano test track for a very brief shakedown late today which in reality will be more of a photo opportunity then a test.
The real test of the F10 will be next week when the car is sent to Spain for the first of the official 2010 pre-season tests at Valencia.
Massa will be the first man to drive the F10 at Valencia, after which he will hand the car over to Fernando Alonso for the following two days of tests.
Ferrari have also revealed the Technical specs’ of the F10, which are as follows:
Here is a recorded video stream of the launch ceremony:
Ricciardo and Hartley confirmed as reserve drivers
Jan 26th
RedBull have announced that Daniel Ricciardo will be their reserve driver this year, while Brendon Hartley from New Zealand will be the reserve driver for Torro Rosso,
Ricciardo had a very successful 2009, becoming the British Formula 3 Champion and then going on to top the time sheets driving Red Bull’s Formula1 car during the young driver tests at Jerez at the end of last year.
Hartley on the other hand was the third driver for Red Bull and Toro Rosso briefly last year, but was later replaced by Jaime Alguersuari.
Red Bull said in a statement: “Daniel and Brendon will sit-in on the briefings and debriefs, attend driver meetings and familiarise themselves with the everyday workings of the garage and pit wall,”
The two drivers most likely won’t see much time in the cockpit unless their role as reserve driver is required at a GP due to limited testing this year, however it is still a very good stepping stone for both drivers on their way to potential full-time F1 drives.
The Red Bull and Torro Roso Formul1 teams now employ 3 drivers form neighbouring countries, Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo from Australia whilst Brendon Hartley is from New Zealand.
Ricciardo has mentioned in an interview with Western Australian press that Mark Webber is one of his idols, Daniel may just be the man who replaces Mark at RedBull when that time comes.
Red Bull won’t be at the first round of tests in Spain starting next week, instead they will be focusing more on the development of the car at their base.
Official: USF1 sign Jose Maria Lopez
Jan 26th
USF1 Team today announced that they have signed twenty six year old Argentine, Jose Maria “Pechito” Lopez to race with them in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship.
The announcement was made from the US-based outfit’s headquarters in Charlotte, N.C
“Securing ‘Pechito’ Lopez for our debut season has been a goal of ours for a long time,” said US F1 Team Executive Vice President Peter Windsor.
“This is a truly memorable day for me, my family and the people of Argentina,” said Lopez. “I have been working towards this day for much of my life and I can’t thank Peter and Ken enough for this opportunity. Of course a new F1 team faces many challenges but our goal is to improve with each race and build a foundation that will eventually see this team competing for wins and championships.”
Being previously a contracted Renault driver, he has completed thousands of kilometers in and F1 car. Lopez has had a long carer in open wheel racing, winning the 2002 Italian Formula Renault Championship and scored several podiums in F3000 and GP2.
Lopez will be the 24th Argentine to race in Formula One, sustaining a heritage that began sixty years ago when Juan Manuel Fangio and Froilan “Pepe” Gonzalez took the F1 world by storm.
Team Principal, President and CEO Ken Anderson said finding the right drivers was a major part of forming US F1 Team.
“So many things go into starting a Formula One team from scratch,” Anderson said. “You can nail every step along the way but if you don’t have the right guys in the seats, everything else is for naught. With Jose Maria Lopez we have further positioned ourselves for a successful 2010 debut campaign.”
The 2010 Silver Arrows revealed
Jan 25th
Further to our earlier “live” blog post, we have a brief wrap-up of todays event.
Mercedes today officially launched the return of the Silver Arrows at its Museum in Stuttgart. It is Mercedes first Formula 1 works team for five decades. The team last year announced that they bought 2009 world championship team BrawnGP and today they revealed their famous Silver Arrows livery painted onto the 2009 BrawnGP car. (BGP 001).
The cars livery is predominently silver with green to represent the relationship the team now has with Petronas, the livery seems to be a good marriage of the traditional silvers arrows and Petronas, it pays homage to the Mercedes heritage in Formula1 whilst remaining appropriate for a modern F1 car. The 2010 Mercedes will be officially known as the MGP W01.
Norbert Haug was present at the presentation who stated: “With today’s presentation of our new Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One Team, a new and certainly the most important chapter of over 100 years of Mercedes-Benz motorsport history begins.” He went on to claim that the 2010 season would hold challanges and be “bigger than ever before in over sixty years of the sport’s history.”.
There is more then a 15 year age gap between Rosberg and Schumacher, yet both drivers seemed just a fit and keen as each other as they sat on the wheels of the car for the obligitaory press shots.
A surprisingly young looking and enthusiastic Schumacher stated: “We have a World Champion team in every sense of the word and I cannot wait to get into the car for the first time in Valencia. I am convinced that Mercedes will be in a very good position to fight for the championships this season and I will definitely give it a go. Driving for Mercedes-Benz again is like the closing of a circle for me as I started my racing driver career with the three-pointed star on my helmet. This is another reason why I cannot wait for the competition to get underway.”
Ross Brawn was unable to hide his excitment at working with Michael Schumacher again and stated that “Working with Michael again is a very special treat which I didn’t think would happen again” He went on to say: ”It’s so exciting and so motivational for me and the team to be involved. Nico is a very exciting prospect who will make a wonderful partner for Michael. Nico has been in a racing for a number of years but he will enjoy working with Michael and seeing how a seven-time champion operates.”
The real test now for the team will be next week when they start their official tests at Valencia starting on the 1st February. Many other teams will be present at the test, including Ferrari and McLaren. Red Bull racing have opted to miss the first test instead focusing more on technical development of their 2010 car.
Official Mercedes GP Petronas Launch
Jan 25th
The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart was the location of the teams official 2010 Launch today. Ross Brawn, Norbert Haug, Nick Fry, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg were all on stage to present the 2010 car’s livery, using a 2009 BrawnGP car. Nico and Michael sat on the car for PR photos, we will upload these official shots as they role in.
In the meantime we have photos of the car and the 2010 race suits for Michael and Nico which were taken from the live stream.
The cars livery is very similar to a mockup photo released by the team when the Petronas deal was announced
2010 Ferrari Livery leaked
Jan 21st
Photos of what is reportedly the 2010 Ferrari have been leaked by Spanish publication Marca. Marca claim the shots to be real.
The noticeable change is the white front and rear wings with Santander’s logo appearing in red. Whilst Santander normally reverse their logo in white out of the read, they may have chosen the white wings so that their logo stands out more and is not lost in the rest of the cars red livery.
The livery seems genuine and is still very much in keeping with their “red car, white squares/panels” theme as well.
Of course, the livery also matches the official photos Ferrari released of the Alonso and Massa posing for a PR photo shoot in their 2010 race suits. Once again, the Santander logo appears as red on white on their race suits.
You be the judge! I say the leaked photo is real.
Official PR shot of Alonso and Massa's 2010 Race overalls
Sauber confirm Pedro de la Rosa
Jan 19th
Sauber today confirmed that former McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa has signed with the team for the 2010 season.
The 38-year-old Spaniard will partner former Toyota F1 driver Kamui Kobayashi this season who was confirmed as the Swiss teams first driver in December last year.
Team Principal Peter Sauber stated “Pedro has spent many years working for a top team at the highest technical level” referring to Pedro’s long standing relationship with McLaren. He wen on to say: “We as a team stand to gain from his experience, and the same goes for young Kamui. The combination of a seasoned racer and an up-and-coming young driver has repeatedly proved a very fruitful one. I don’t expect either of them to disappoint in 2010.”
Pedro de la Rosa has more then 70 Grand Prix starts under his belt and no doubt he is very keen to get back on the grid. Kumui Kobayashi impressed fans last year with a brave and well executed pass on Jensen Button at the Yass Marina round in Abu Dhabi. Kobayashi’s pass was voted one of the best passing moves of 2009 in the polls by many Formula1 fans.
With their driver line up now confirmed, the next official commitment from Sauber will be when they unveil their new car at the Valencia circuit on Sunday 31 January. The launch of their new car will take place the day before the start of official testing in spain from 1-3 February 2010.
Can RedBull make 2010 Webber’s best season yet?
Jan 17th
Mark Webber nearly didn’t make it to the start of the 2009 F1 season. He had a very serious fall from his mountain bike prior to last years season which left him with multiple fractures in his leg and for a short time his f1 future was in doubt.
As a result of his injuries, he missed the pre-season testing and instead was in intense rehabilitation and physiotherapy. He had almost no miles in the 2009 RedBull by the time the first race of the season came around and was still on a cocktail of heavy painkillers in order to even drive the car.
Mark still didn’t have full use of his leg and working the pedals as a result was very difficult for him, he was not even able to put the pressure required on the pedals nor was he able to move his feet as quickly as he needed. His personal trainer would be on the team radio helping him power through every painful lap.
Mark continued taking painkillers well into the season and it was not until the European rounds mid season when he had made enough of a recovery to no longer require the medication. 
Despite all this he was well and truly in the hunt as one of around 4 to 5 contenders for the 2009 championship, he was a regular visitor to the podium and scored two grand prix wins.
The 2009 RB5 didn’t really “come good” until about the 6th round of the season and the team spent the second half of the season chasing down the extraordinary lead BrawnGP had. Red Bull however appeared to be a far more successful and consistent team in the 2nd half of the season and they are most likely the strongest team going in to the 2010 season provided they have a reliable engine.
Mark Webber has had time off now to reflect on 2009 and what he and the team may have done wrong. He has been able to spend far more time with the engineers during the pre-season period and of course being healthy and physically ready (unlike 2009) will be a big advantage.
RedBull have opted not to take part in the first round of official tests at Jerez from 1-3rd Feb this year, instead opting to spend more time developing the car in the wind tunnel, fluid dynamics and other highly sophisticated tests that Adrian Newey seems to do better then anyone.
Adrian Newey is not even remotely concerned about missing the tests that most competitors will be present at. Adrian understands the importance of rigorous aero and fluid dynamic simulation, wind tunnel development and lab tests. I guess you have to hope your systems are absolutely calibrated right to be that confident, but it’s worked for him in the past on no doubt it will work again for him this year. Lets not forget that RedBull missed the first pre season tests in 2009 as well.
RedBull are coming off the back of a very successful 2009 season and they seem to be very strong still, but if the 2010 car will be as strong or maybe stronger then the 2009 car we are yet to find out. Many other teams, in particular Ferrari and McLaren started developments on their 2010 car after only 5 rounds in to the 2009 season. Obviously Ferrari and McLarens 2009 package lacked the pace they have become used to in previous years and as a result poured most of their development into the 2010 car rather then trying to improve the 2009. I expect those teams could be strong again this year.
Many believe that last year was Webber’s one and only hope at claiming a drivers championship, mathematically he was in contention in the later rounds, but ultimately he was too far behind Button and his own team mate, Vettell in the points to ever truly be considered as a contender.
If Webber could improve on last years performance and snag a bag of strong results early on in the 2010 season he may finish higher in the standings then last year, however the likelihood of him beating his RedBull team-mate who has already been tipped to be the 2010 champion by Bernie Eccelstone seems unlikely. This also raises the question as to who will be the favoured driver by RedBull or if they we give both drivers equal resources and let them fight it out in the points race.
The new Qualifying format this year will favour Webber, who is typically strong in qualifying anyway. There is every chance Webber could consistently out-qualify his team-mate, however he needs to back it up with race pace which he may not have over Vettell.
In 2009 both RedBull drivers were equal, but being the championship runner-up puts Vettell in a very strong position at the team, however Webbers long-standing relationship with the team and his experience is also a very strong point and it seems unlikely that the team will go into this season favouring one driver over the other.
Without seeing the 2010 car in action, it’s hard to predict form, in fact even with a month of tests we don’t really see a teams true colours until the first race of the season, I predict that RedBull will be the strongest team on the 2010 grid provided that the Renault engine does not let them down. RedBull could have claimed the 2009 championship if they had an engine as reliable as the Mercedes power plant in the Brawns. They have stuck with Renault as their engine supplier for 2010, so hopefully they can overcome some of the reliability issues that let them down last year.
If Webber really does want the crown, he’s arguably with the best team on the grid with every opportunity he needs. It is now or never for Mark, but ultimately I feel it will be his team mate Sebastian Vettell who could snag the drivers championship this year.
Webber is yet to confirm whether or not he will even be in Formula1 beyond 2010. Rumours are swirling that Kimi could return to F1 to take Mark’s seat in 2011, yet at the same town, Christian Horner denies these rumours and instead there are already reports that Mark has signed on for another year. I predict that if he has an even better year this year, then he’ll stick around and drive for the team again in 2011.
Mark still feels he could be world champion one day and he knows he’s finally at a team that could help him achieve that.
I’d like to finish this story with a video of Mark celebrating his first ever Grand Prix victory when he won at the Nurburgring against all odds, including a drive-through penalty. What you are hearing over the team radio is not a man possessed, but instead around 5 years of pent-up frustration and ‘bad luck’ all flowing out…
Pictures of Schumacher in a GP2 car
Jan 12th
Further to the news we reported yesterday of Schumacher’s planned GP2 test, we have some shots from his test today at Jerez.
Clearly Mercedes are yet to provide him with new livery for his helmet which is still sporting the bright Ferrari red livery.
We will of course have to wait till the 1st February to see images of this years F1 cars out on track when they start the first official tests in Valencia. Most teams should be present at the first tests, with the exception of RedBull and USF1. RedBull confirmed this week that they will not be present at the Valencia tests and instead will attend the second round of official tests at Jerez from the 10th-13th of February. RedBull played down concerns, citing that they missed the first tests last year as well. USF1 meanwhile claim they will be doing there tests in the USA.
Below are the images of Schumi at the wheel of the GP2 car today:
The above images are provided by GP2 MediaDesk
