Mercedes Petronas Concept Livery

By now we should be used to the off-season Monday announcements, some expected some not. The one that came out earlier today was definitely an unexpected one. Mercedes GP announced the signing of a long-term agreement with Petronas which will see the Malaysian national oil and gas company become the title partner to the new Silver Arrows works team.

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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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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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Neither Toyota nor Sauber on the list, yet

While the talk continues on the future of Sauber team FIA came up with yet another version of 2010 entry list. It is rather confusing reading. On one hand it lists Manor as Virgin Racing (witout any official announcement from either Manor or Virgin), on the other hand the Mercedes GP still features as Brawn GP (with a remark that the team has indicated its intention to change its team name to Mercedes Grand Prix prior to the start of the 2010 season). If the rest of the list is to be believed then Red Bull will retain Renault and Toro Rosso Ferrari engines. Despite some claims from Jaime Alguerusuari that his deal with Toro Rosso has been renewed a while ago there is still a TBA where his name should be…

There are only 12 teams on the entry list. There is an interesting remark regarding Toyota:

Toyota Motorsport GmbH remains formally bound by the Concorde Agreement to put forward a team for participation, though it has indicated that it will not be in a position to do so. An announcement will be made regarding this entry in due course.

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Only of two F1 ready operations will race next year

While there are four new F1 teams being built from the scratch (USF1, Manor, Campos META, Lotus) at least one of two established F1 operations is unlikely to make it to the 2010 grid.

BMW has finally managed to do what they should have done right away – after the failed Qadbak deal they sold the team back to Peter Sauber. The problem is BMW decided not to sign the new Concorde Agreement and the team has lost its entry. Before they made up their mind what to do with the Hinwil operation FIA granted the 13th entry to Lotus … All that Peter Sauber’s team has now is the “14th” entry.

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BMW Sauber sold

Only few hours after FIA confirmed Lotus as the 13th team on F1 grid news came out of BMW. The company announced that Qadbak Investments Ltd, a Swiss-based foundation which represents the interests of certain Middle East and European based families, has agreed to purchase the BMW Sauber F1 Team:

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Lotus name returns to F1

FIA issued a press release earlier today with the new F1 team announcement. The 13th spot left vacant following the withdrawal of BMW Sauber will go Malaysian governement backed Team Lotus F1 entry. The Lotus cars will be powered by Cosworth engines. Tony Fernandes, the owner of current Williams sponsor Air Asia will be the team principal, Mike Gascoyne will become the technical director.

The BMW Sauber team (or whatever will it be turned into) received the back up spot number 14th – it will be entitled any vacancy that may be created on 2010 grid …

Here is the full text of the FIA press release:

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