Renault name will stay in F1

Renault has decided to stay in Formula One and form a strategic partnership with Gerard Lopez’ Genii Capital, a Luxemburg based firm specialized in new technologies, brand management and motor sport. Renault will sell a large stake of the team to Genii and both partners will operate the team together. The letter of intent signed by the two companies should be concluded in early 2010.

The team will retain the Renault name in 2010. The sister company in Viry-Châtillon will supply the engines to the Renault team as well as to Red Bull Racing for the 2010 season.

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Virgin Racing confirmed today at their team launch in London that Brazilian driver Lucas di Grassi will join Timo Glock as 2010 Virgin Racing race driver.

Lucas di Grassi has spent the previous 4 seasons in GP2. He finished 3rd in 2009 and 2008 Championships, 2nd in 2007 and 17th in his debut season in 2007. Back in 2005 he won the Macau GP in the Manor Motorsports colours.

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Team Lotus F1 has named single race winners Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen as its 2010 drivers. Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy will be the team’s third driver. The announcement was made today by Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek on behalf of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur.

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Ten days have passed since the 100 days mark, it is time for another 2010 season countdown post. Here is a summary where F1 stands with 90 days to go.

The final 2010 Formula 1 calendar has been published – see here. The only yet to be finalized race is the inaugural Korean GP that is still subject to the circuit homologation. The season opener will move from Melbourne to Bahrain, the finale will remain at Abu Dhabi after the late reshuffle of 2010 season ending races.

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F1 will return to Montreal in 2010

World Motor Sport Council confirmed the 2010 calendar. The season will kick off in Bahrain in the middle of the March and end eight months later in Abu Dhabi. The new calendar features 19 races. No races have been dropped, British Grand Prix remains at Silverstone, Canadian Grand Prix returns and Korean GP will debut.

There will be 2 races each month except May that will feature three Grands Prix. There will be 4 pairs of back to back races – Australia/Malaysia, Spain/Monaco, Germany/Hungary, Brazil/Abu Dhabi. There will be 3 weeks break between Chinese and Spanish GPs and 4 weeks break between Hungarian and Belgian GPs.

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Race win to be worth 25 points from next season

The F1 Comnission met yesterday for the first time in about five years and one of the first things all the involved came up with is rather radical new point scoring system for F1. Gone for now is the rather ridiculous “Winner takes all” medals idea. Instead F1 is set to introduce a system which will award 25 points for the race win, 20 for second place, 15 for third and then 10-8-6-5-3-2-1 for fourth through 10th positions.

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McLaren launched their 2007 contender in Valencia

Lots of talk about the great things we can or should expect from F1 in near (or distant) future is coming out of Monaco these days. One of the great ideas is to be a common car launch of 2010 Formula 1 cars planned by all the teams. The proposed event already has a date (late January) and a place (Valencia).

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Quietly without too much fanfare a new race track came to life in the middle of Europe. No, this track does not have any ambitions to host F1 races but looks like an interesting facility. Here is a brief intro. This is how the official track website describes the venue:

Being a top-notch training facility for motorists, Slovakia Ring is now bringing a unique chance for you to improve your driving skills, try a fast ride, exercise your driving techniques or just enjoy the freedom of sitting behind the wheel. Motorcycle enthusiasts as well as the owners of high performance automobiles will certainly appreciate the unique space for trying the limits of their “swift horses” and an exceptional opportunity to experience the feelings of professionals who run real races. On the other hand, racing teams and agencies have been given an ideal space for conducting racing events of outstanding quality in every aspect.

I found a video of (rather slow ) onboard lap of the track (the longest version of the track):

Here are the track specifications:

Length of race track: 5,922 m
Width of race track: 12 m
Length of race homestraight: 900 m
Width of race homestraight: 20 m
Length of acceleration testing track: 1,144 m
Width of acceleration testing track: 20 m

It has been a while since the last F1 Liveries History post but the regular off-season feature is back with the look back at the F1 liveries of 1991 season. This was the year when Jordan joined the F1 circus and Michael Schumacher entered the scene (Jordan, Benetton). Eigteen teams, nine different engine suppliers, two tyre brands made up very colourful grid…

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It will Red Bull backed Citroen rally ride for Raikkonen in 2010

It is official. Kimi Räikkönen will not race in Formula One in 2010 season and will switch to WRC instead. The one year deal that will see Kimi Räikkönen to compete in Red Bull’s colours on 12 of the 2010 FIA World Rally Championship’s 13 rounds (the exception being the Rally of New Zealand) was announced earlier today by Citroen.

As a result of the deal between Citroën and Red Bull the team will field 4 cars next season – Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena and Dani Sordo/Marc Marti form the “senior” team line up while Kimi Räikkönen/Kaj Lindström and Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia will contest the championship in colours of the Citroën Junior Team.

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It is 100 days to go before the 2010 Formula One season kicks off in Bahrain. The 2010 season countdown begins. Let’s have a look where F1 stands with 100 days to go:

Grid:

As of today there are thirteen teams with confirmed entries – the 2010 grid is full again. The final place on the grid was given to post BMW era Sauber today by FIA.

The FIA has written to inform BMW Sauber AG that their application for an entry in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship has been successful. Subject to their signing the Concorde Agreement, BMW Sauber will be awarded the 13th entry in the Championship, taking the place of the departing Toyota team.

The FIA has worked closely with the Commercial Rights Holder and the teams involved over recent weeks and is grateful for their support in achieving the best outcome for the sport.

An updated Formula One entry list will be published in due course.

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For about a month a funny short animated videos kept appearing on YouTube bringing us “behind the scenes” look at the new USF1 team. They feature the almost real life characters called Ken Anderson, Peter Windsor as well as guests appearances by Danica Patrick or Mike Gascoyne. Not to be missed is the talk about their “conditional driver signing” Jose Maria Lopez and some 80,000 USF1 toasters .The latest and apparently the final episode appeared yesterday. Here are all of them – from Day 1 to Day 8:

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