New season, new drivers helmet designs. Here is the collection of 2010 F1 drivers helmets (click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images). Most of the returning drivers seem to have selected to stay with their traditional designs (or switch back back to them like Jenson Button). The most obvious changes are related to team changes or new sponsors on board. Drivers with most radically changed helmet designs are Robert Kubica (switch from red to yellow) and Timo Glock (from red to mostly gold). Helmets of all 2010 F1 rookie drivers – Bruno Senna, Karun Chandhok, Lucas di Grassi, Vitaly Petrov, Nico Hulkenberg – are included in the gallery:

2010 F1 Drivers Helmets

2010 Force India Drivers - Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil

Force India F1 team are the fifth team to have officially confirmed their 2010 driver line up. There will be no changes – both Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi will retain their seats. All the hopefuls testing for Force India next week in Jerez (Paul di Resta and J.R. Hildebrand) can hope for now are the test (third) driver positions with the team …

‘We are very pleased to retain the services of both Adrian and Tonio for another season. We have always maintained that consistency is key at this stage in the team’s development and for the first time in many years we will have the continuity of not only the same drivers, but also the same engine and senior management.” – Vijay Mallya

“2010 will be my fourth consecutive year with the team. I feel good here, it feels like family, and when you feel at ease you can focus your energy 100% on getting it right on track. Next season I want to be in the points on a regular basis, maybe even challenging for the podium, and the team has exactly the same goals. We are going massively in the right direction so with our combined energies I’m confident we can achieve even more than last season.” – Adrian Sutil

“It was always my goal to be back racing in 2010 and I’ve finally achieved it. I feel the five races I did in 2009 were a bit of a warm-up; get back racing, learn the car, get the feeling back. Now I’ve done that I feel ready to really push next season. We were pretty strong in the last part of the 2009 season so if we pick up where we stopped I think we could be in for a good year. For sure points are the aim and showing everyone what we can do.” – Vitantonio Liuzzi

Photos: Force India F1

2010 F1 Drivers – Sutil and Liuzzi to race for Force India

Adrian Sutil fastest again

Adrian Sutil was fastest also in the final practice for the 2009 Italian GP, 0.068 ahead of Jenson Button and 0.154s ahead of Nick Heidfeld. Brawn GP and Force India look good for Italian GP – Barrichello finished the Saturday practice in 4th and Vitantonio Liuzzi 7th. McLarens will probably also fancy their chances this weekend. It does not look too good for Red Bull, both Vettel and Webber were about 2s off the pace this morning. It is interesting that the top 4 cars in this session have no KERS …

Giancarlo Fisichella lost some valuable track time after crashing into the barriers on the exit from Parabolica. His session lasted only about 30 minutes.

Saturday practice times:

1. A. Sutil – Force India – 1:23.336
2. J. Button – Brawn GP – 1:23.404
3. N. Heidfeld – BMW Sauber – 1:23.490
4. R. Barrichello – Brawn GP – 1:23.575
5. L. Hamilton – McLaren – 1:23.633
6. H. Kovalainen – McLaren – 1:23.803
7. V. Liuzzi – Force India – 1:23.849
8. F. Alonso – Renault – 1:23.915
9. T. Glock – Toyota – 1:23.959
10. R. Kubica – BMW Sauber – 1:23.996
11. R. Grosjean – Renault – 1:24.197
12. K. Räikkönen – Ferrari – 1:24.302
13. J. Trulli – Toyota – 1:24.326
14. K. Nakajima – Williams – 1:24.392
15. S. Buemi – Toro Rosso – 1:24.572
16. N. Rosberg – Williams – 1:24.621
17. M. Webber – Red Bull – 1:25.154
18. S. Vettel – Red Bull – 1:25.244
19. J. Alguersuari – Toro Rosso – 1:25.791
20. G. Fisichella – Ferrari – 1:25.951

Photo: Force India F1

2009 Italian GP – Saturday practice – Sutil again

Adrian Sutil - The fastest driver in FP3

Adrian Sutil was the fastest driver in the final practice session for the European Grand Prix. His team mate Giancarlo Fisichella ended up in 6th place. It does look like Force India have brought a strong package to Valencia …

Williams, McLaren, BMW Sauber, Brawn, Renault all look quick as well, it promises to be interesting qualifying later today … Red Bull seems to be struggling a bit. Luca Badoer has a mountain to climb …

The final practice session was red flagged for almost half an hour after Vettel’s car broke down and left behind a lot of oil on the track.

Saturday Free Practice Times:

1. A. Sutil – Force India – 1:39.143
2. K. Nakajima – Williams – 1:39.247
3. R. Kubica – BMW Sauber – 1:39.513
4. H. Kovalainen – McLaren – 1:39.553
5. N. Rosberg – Williams – 1:39.732
6. G. Fisichella – Force India – 1:39.764
7. J. Button – Brawn GP – 1:39.883
8. L. Hamilton – McLaren – 1:39.950
9. J. Trulli – Toyota – 1:40.017
10. R. Grosjean – Renault – 1:40.088
11. S. Buemi – Toro Rosso – 1:40.118
12. R. Barrichello – Brawn GP – 1:40.192
13. N. Heidfeld – BMW Sauber – 1:40.230
14. K. Räikkönen – Ferrari – 1:40.260
15. F. Alonso – Renault – 1:40.402
16. T. Glock – Toyota – 1:40.443
17. M. Webber – Red Bull – 1:40.879
18. S. Vettel – Red Bull – 1:40.916
19. J. Alguersuari – Toro Rosso – 1:41.125
20. L. Badoer – Ferrari – 1:42.198

2009 European GP – Saturday practice

With the teams revealing their 2009 Formula One cars we also have chance to see some of the 2009 F1 drivers helmets. Here they come, including the new yellow helmet of Jenson Button . I will be adding more (or better) pictures as they become available.

Hamilton, Kovalainen, Glock, Trulli and Piquet keep their helmets more less same as in 2008. Alonso added some red colour to his lid (to match the new colours of the Renault car probably).

Robert Kubica keeps his 2008 colours while Nick Heidfeld has changed his dominant helmet colour from 2008 blue to 2009 green after getting inspired by similar snowboard helmet.

2009 F1 Drivers Helmets

Unchanged line up for Force India for 2009

Only few days after Vijay Mallya casted doubts on job security of his current drivers the Force India F1 team confirmed (yet again) that Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil will keep their race driver seats for next season. Vitantonio Liuzzi will continue as a test driver.

Vijay Mallya:

“I firmly believe that next year will be a huge opportunity for this team. We have a new technical partnership with McLaren and Mercedes, a dynamic new management structure and now one of the most solid driver line-ups on the grid.

We certainly welcomed the insight and advice of our new partners in this matter, however the choice was entirely ours based on the current talent available in the market today.

In Giancarlo, Adrian and Tonio we have a wonderful balance between experience and ambition, and now complete consistency.”

So looks like unlike December 11, December 14 was the appropriate time to announce the 2009 drivers line up.

Only Toro Rosso and the team formerly known as Honda are yet to confirm who (if anybody in Honda case) will race for them in 2009.

Photo: Force India F1

Force India F1 confirms 2009 drivers, yet again

Sutil and Fisichella, both confident but none of them confirmed yet

Things can change very quickly in Formula One …

October 17, 2008, Shanghai, Vijay Mallya

“I’ve made it pretty clear that I am happy with both our drivers Adrian (Sutil) and Giancarlo (Fisichella) and they will continue with us in 2009.”

December 11, 2008, Vijay Mallya to BBC:

“We haven’t finalised anything on the race seat. I will discuss this issue with McLaren and take this decision at an appropriate time.”

Watch the interview – click here

Both Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella stated several times that they have no doubts about being on the grid next year, both claim to be under contract. Does not seem to matter to Mr. Mallya…

Both McLaren test drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffet have already been connected with 2009 race seat in Force India F1 and judging from Mallya’s words they may not be without a chance … Pedro de la Rosa tested for Force India in November in Barcelona, but returned to McLaren seat this week in Jerez.

Photo: Force India F1

Force India to consult McLaren about 2009 drivers, Sutil and Fisichella not yet safe for 2009

Anthony Davidson, no longer on anyone's radar ?

It has been a week since the grand 2008 F1 season finale, it is about the time to begin the evaluations here. Not everything went according to pre-season predictions, some teams did better some much worse than expected (or hoped). But let’s forget about the cars and focus on the drivers here. This is the part one of my 2008 Formula 1 driver rankings, positions 22 to 16.

22nd, 21st – tie Takuma Sato, Anthony Davidson

These 2 guys occupy the last 2 positions by default. They only made it to the grid in Australia in the last minute. They had only 4 races in a bad car and no chance to showcase their skills. They have the honour to be the only 2 drivers not to finish the 2008 season. While Anthony Davidson seems to have been forgotten by the F1 team principals, Takuma Sato is still in the running for the 2008 seat with Toro Rosso.

20th Adrian Sutil

Why both Force India drivers have been retained by Vijay Mallya is not too clear to me. A year ago Sutil was the hot property tipped to join McLaren, this year he could not even match Fisichella who seldom does better than his team mates… He had his moment of fame in Monaco but that was too little in my opinion. Thumbs down.

19th Giancarlo Fisichella

I did believe that Fisichella’s signing by Force India was a smart thing. Vijay Mallya praised Fisichella’s development input and perhaps that is something they still need for next year. On the track however he did not show too much. He was marginally better than Adrian Sutil but should he measure himslef against Sutil ? Fisichella is the guy who asa Renault’s “new number one” planned to fight for the drivers title back in 2007 after Alonso left for McLaren…

18th Nelson Piquet

Nelson Piquet was long my candidate for the coveted 20th place but the late season performance surge elevated him at least above the Force India drivers in my rankings. He is the only driver outqualified by his team mate on every occasion and the fact that his team mate is Fernando Alonso is not an excuse. The F1 seemed to be out of his league for better part of the season and he should consider himself lucky to have kept his race seast for another season. He did improve towards the end of season though and that was perhaps that light at the end of the tunnel Briatore was waiting for.

17th Jenson Button

From the front pages of racing magazines to obscurity, that is what happened to Jenson Button between summer of 2006 and now. Having to drive dog of the car Honda for 2 consecutive seasons sure does not help. But I would at least expect him to do better than about to be fired Rubens Barrichello. If last year was bad, this one was even worse. The only excuse probably is that Honda did not care that much about this season …

16th Heikki Kovalainen

Heikki Kovalainen is for me the biggest disappointment of the 2008 season. I seriously expected him to give some hard time to Lewis Hamilton this year but he never came even close. Yes he won a race but that is not enough for a guy with a championship winning car. When somebody has the fastest or almost fastest car on the grid, that somebody simply can’t finish 7th in the drivers championship…

Whom would you place into bottom 7 ? Which one of the drivers above you think should not be there ?

2008 Formula 1 – Wolf’s Driver rankings – Part 1 – 22nd to 16th

Fisichella and Sutil, team mates for one more year

Force India announced their drivers line up will remain unchanged for 2009 season. That means both Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil will keep their jobs for one more year. None of the drivers scored single point this year, Sutil however came very close to finishing 4th in Monaco (before getting hit by the Raikkonen missile).

No one has been dropped so far this season, no one has been dropped for the next, except Coulthard who dropped himself . The only remaining seats to be confirmed are in Renault, Honda and Toro Rosso, with Toro Rosso having a vacancy and all this three teams having some serious candidates for the chop on their current roster.

Photo: Force India F1

The 2009 F1 seats are going fast, Fisichella and Sutil confirmed by Force India

Adrian Sutil is another German driver sporting new helmet design at his home Grand Prix. Here are few pictures (click on photos to enlarge):

Photos: Force India F1

2008 German F1 GP – Adrian Sutil’s Helmet