The deadline for teams to submit their 2010 Formula 1 entries has passed. The only thing that is clear now is the next important date – June 12, the day when the 2010 Formula One entry list will be published.

Four new teams – Campos Meta, US F1 Team, Prodrive and Lola – submitted their entries before the deadline, at least these four made it public. Earlier this week Williams also entered the 2010 championship splitting from FOTA.

Then late on Friday all nine FOTA teams (membership of Williams has been suspended) submitted their entry. This might have sounded like exciting news until reading the press release that came with it:

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A day before the deadline for 2010 F1 entry submissions FOTA came up with their own plan how to assist new teams to enter F1. The new entrants would receive technical assistance from the established teams in order to be able to compete on a credible level with the much better funded teams. However, contrary to rumours circulated yesterday it seems that the new FOTA proposal still does not allow customer cars in F1. The technical partnerships would only assist new teams with some parts (especially the non-performance differentiators) and some design know-how.

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Williams signed up for 2010, will other current teams follow ?

Following the constructive but not exactly conclusive talks in Monaco the FOTA representatives will meet again today, this time in London.

The comments coming out of all the camps (FIA, Bernie and FOTA) after Monaco were much calmer and much less confrontational than much of the talk in the past few weeks. However FOTA still felt it is important to send a signal of unity to FIA. They did so by all teams signing a letter requesting 2010 rules to be scrapped and F1 to revert to 2009 regulations only adding the clauses that all already agreed on (like the ban on refueling).

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The results of round 6 are here. The best scores of this round go to Wil and alicotero with 20 points – very respectable ! Few regulars missed this round and dropped down the provisional order. Well, no need to worry. Each player will have the worst score erased after Abu Dhabi so nothing is lost (yet) .

Round 6 results:

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This what Ross Brawn Nick Fry had to say (among other things):

“I think the other huge credit has to go to Mercedes-Benz. I don’t know if it has been observed but the engine in Jenson’s car is the first F1 engine to win three races in succession. To have an engine which is that good in terms of its performance, durability and reliability is a tribute to the guys in Stuttgart and Brixworth.”

Impressive.

It was a big day for motor racing yesterday. Monaco GP for Formula One fans, the Indy 500 for those who prefer IRL and the oval racing.

We had the Indy500 here on TV live last night. Unfortunately thanks to time difference the race start in this part of the world is at 1am. That makes it really difficult to stay awake for the entire race, really difficult. At the end I ended up watching around 120 laps of the Indy500 action.

It was not too bad, actually I quite enjoyed the spectacle. But what surprised me was that there was not that much overtaking on the track. The main place to gain or loose postions was the pitlane. It somehow reminded me of another open wheel racing series …

After last Indy500 race, I was wondering whether it would or would not be fun to have one F1 race a year on oval. Well, I think it is better to stop wondering. F1 is F1 and for the taste of oval racing action I can continue with my once a year Indy500 TV experience .

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Jenson Button celebrating race win yet again

Jenson Button won the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix, his 5th win of the season. Rubens Barrichello completed 1-2 for Brawn GP. Kimi Raikkonen brought Ferrari to the podium for the first time this year. Felipe Massa finished 4th.

2009 Monaco GP race result:

1. J. Button – Brawn GP – 1:40:44.282
2. R. Barrichello – Brawn GP + 7.666
3. K. Räikkönen – Ferrari + 13.442
4. F. Massa – Ferrari + 15.110
5. M. Webber – Red Bull + 15.730
6. N. Rosberg – Williams + 33.586
7. F. Alonso – Renault + 37.839
8. S. Bourdais – Toro Rosso + 1:03.142
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FIA published the post qualifying weights short while ago. Brawn cars are the heaviest ones among the front runners while Sebastian Vettel is very lightly fueled. Fisichella, Bourdais, Kubica and Glock are extremely heavy.

Jenson Button – 647.5
Kimi Raikkonen – 644.0
Rubens Barrichello – 648.0
Sebastian Vettel – 631.5
Felipe Massa – 643.5
Nico Rosberg – 642.0
Heikki Kovalainen – 644.0
Mark Webber – 646.5
Fernando Alonso – 654.0
Kazuki Nakajima – 668.0
Sebastien Buemi – 670.0*
Nelson Piquet – 673.1*
Giancarlo Fisichella – 693.0*
Sebastien Bourdais – 699.5*
Adrian Sutil – 670.0*
Lewis Hamilton – 645.5*
Nick Heidfeld – 680.0*
Robert Kubica – 696.0*
Jarno Trulli – 688.3*
Timo Glock – 700.8*

* – declared weights

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes released this video offering a closer look at their new aero for the high downforce Monaco track.

Another pole for Button, best qualifying result of the season for Raikkonen

Jenson Button will start Monaco Grand Prix from pole position. Next to him on front row will be KERS equipped Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. P3 went to Rubens Barrichello, P4 to Sebastian Vettel. Q3 times of some of the fornt runners are rather quick when compared to Q2 suggesting that top 8 may not have too much fuel on board. We will see later today when FIA publishes the car weights.

Q3 times 2009 Monaco GP:

1. Jenson Button – 1:14.902
2. Kimi Raikkonen – 1:14.927
3. Rubens Barrichello – 1:15.077
4. Sebastian Vettel – 1:15.271
5. Felipe Massa – 1:15.437
6. Nico Rosberg – 1:15.455
7. Heikki Kovalainen – 1:15.516
8. Mark Webber – 1:15.653
9. Fernando Alonso – 1:16.009
10. Kazuki Nakajima – 1:17.344

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Fernando Alonso posted the fastest time of the final practice session in Monaco, followed by Jenson Button and Heikki Kovalainen. Top seven drivers were separated only by 2 tenths. Looks like we are in for very unpredictable qualifying session with Brawn, Ferrari, McLaren, Alonso and perhaps Red Bulls as well all looking like pole position candidates. The slowest cars on track in this session were BMW Saubers and Toyota.

2009 Monaco GP – Saturday practice times:

1. F. Alonso – Renault – 1:15.164
2. J. Button – Brawn GP – 1:15.233
3. H. Kovalainen – McLaren – 1:15.278
4. R. Barrichello – Brawn GP – 1:15.266
5. F. Massa – Ferrari – 1:15.293
6. K. Räikkönen – Ferrari – 1:15.382
7. L. Hamilton – McLaren – 1:15.389
8. S. Vettel – Red Bull – 1:15.722

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There was no agreement reached during the talks between the teams and FIA yesterday in Monaco. The talks were however branded “constructive” and “making good progress”. The talks are set to continue although according to BBC there are no more talks planned for this weekend, Luca di Montezemolo has already left Monaco and is not expected to return this weekend.

In the meantime the week long window for submission of 2010 F1 entries has opened. The first team to lodge to 2010 entry was Campos Racing, currently racing in Spanish F3 Championship. Ken Anderson confirmed that his team, USF1 also submitted the 2010 entry.