2010 Formula One Team Logos

Here is another regular start of the season feature – look at all the logos of Formula One teams. Lot’s of changes compared to the year 2009 (see 2009 F1 logos here). Gone are the Toyota and Brawn GP logos. We have four brand new logos instead – Mercedes GP, Virgin, Lotus and Hispania. Then there is the BMW logo missing in BMW Sauber logo following BMWs pull out from F1 as well as the ING brand missing from Renault F1 logo.

The one thing the 2010 and 2009 logo collections seem to have in common is that the last team to make the grid (Brawn GP and Hispania) had the least time to work on their branding or it was very low on their list of priorities (understandably). The result reflects that .

2010 Formula One team logos

Lotus T127 in action in Jerez

The voting in the poll for The Best 2010 F1 Livery has ended. From the beginning it turned into the battle of two new teams. Lotus and Virgin together received almost half of all the votes. It was a tie for quite a while but at the end it was the Lotus T127 with most votes next to its name. BMW Sauber ended up as the least popular livery on the grid. Here is the result of the poll:

Lotus – 131 votes – 24.5%
Virgin Racing – 118 votes – 22.1%
McLaren – 62 votes – 11.6%
Ferrari – 57 votes – 10.7%
Renault – 50 votes – 9.4%
Mercedes GP – 43 votes – 8.1%
Red Bull – 29 votes – 5.4%
Toro Rosso – 17 votes – 3.2%
Williams – 11 votes – 2.1%
Force India – 9 votes – 1.7%
BMW Sauber – 7 votes – 1.3%

You can see all the 2010 liveries and the poll here – Here they come – 2010 F1 Liveries – Poll

Photo: Lotus Racing

The Best 2010 F1 Livery Poll Winner

Eleven out of the thirteen 2010 F1 teams have revealed their liveries already. Here are all of them line up in alphabetical order. We may still see some changes before the season kicks-off in about 1 months time. USF1 and Campos Meta may come up with their cars, some of the teams may add a new sponsor logo here and there, the BMW Sauber racing livery probably will not feature names of both their drivers … What do you think of the 2010 liveries ? Which one is the best ? Scroll down and vote in the 2010 Liveries Poll !

2010 BMW Sauber Livery

2010 Ferrari Livery

2010 Force India Livery

2010 HRT (Hispania) Livery

2010 Lotus Livery

2010 McLaren Livery

2010 Mercedes GP Livery

2010 Red Bull Livery

2010 Renault Livery

2010 Toro Rosso Livery

2010 Virgin Racing Livery

2010 Williams Livery

(If you have difficulties to vote below you can also follow this link and vote – click here)

You can vote until Friday 19 February 2010 noon (GMT).

Here they come – 2010 F1 Liveries – Poll

BMW Sauber unveiled today in Valencia their first post BMW era F1 car – the Ferrari-engined C29. The car features high nose, shark fin and almost all white livery with dark sidepods and no sponsor logos (yet). It is very much the old BMW style livery with black (or dark grey) replacing the blue.

Earlier today the team announced new sponsorship deal with Japanese hair shampoo brand Scalp-D. The Scalp-D logo will be visible on the rear wing endplate of the new Formula One race car as well as on the team’s trucks and garage equipment.

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the images.

Photos: BMW Sauber F1 Team

2010 F1 Cars – The Ferrari powered BMW Sauber has arrived

Lotus F1 Racing Website

New F1 teams, new F1 team owners resulted in (among other things) in new online presence. Here is an updated list of Formula One teams websites featuring all the 2010 F1 teams. Former BrawnGP website is now redirected to new Mercedes pages (new site to be launched on 25th January). BMW Sauber F1 (while still keeping the “BMW” as a part of the official team name) have been moved away from the BMW Motorsport site to a new blog like team site. Renault website reflects the departure of their title sponsor ING.

The most flashy website among the newcomers belongs to Virgin Racing. USF1 and Lotus F1 Racing websites have a nice simple blog like feel. Campos Meta online presence however at the moment features only a not so special homepage with links to few files for download.

2010 F1 Team Websites List (with links):

Mercedes GP
Red Bull Racing
McLaren
Ferrari
Williams
BMW Sauber
Renault
Force India
Toro Rosso
Lotus F1 Racing
Campos Meta
Virgin Racing
USF1

Screenshots of new F1 teams websites:

Virgin Racing Website Screen Shot

Lotus F1 Racing Website Screen Shot

USF1 Website Screen Shot

Campos Meta Website Screen Shot

2010 Formula One Team Websites

Contrary to reports that Giancarlo Fisichella is closing on the race seat with Sauber the Hinwill team has picked Pedro de la Rosa to partner the rookie driver Kamui Kobayashi for the 2010 season.

“Pedro has spent many years working for a top team at the highest technical level. 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. Of course it is also crucial that we provide them with a decent car; I feel positive about our in-house progress on that front too. We were able to continue work on our 2010 car as scheduled throughout the recent period of uncertainty.” – Peter Sauber

“I always firmly believed I would be given another chance as a team driver. Since the number of test drives were radically reduced, this was what I was working towards. I’m really excited about the season with Peter Sauber’s team, which has been a solid fixture in Formula One ever since 1993.” – Pedro de la Rosa

Pedro de la Rosa, the 38-year-old Spaniard,has 71 Grands Prix under his belt and worked with McLaren as a test and reserve driver for seven years from 2003 through to 2009. During that period he raced for McLaren the team in nine Grands Prix. In 2005 he finished fifth in Bahrain (substituting for injured JP Montoya) and claimed the fastest race lap. In 2006 he stepped in after Montoya left F1. In eight races he scored 19 points and took second place in the wet Hungarian Grand Prix.

De la Rosa made his first Grand Prix debut in Australia in 1999 for Arrows following his test driver job with Jordan a year earlier. He moved to Jaguar for the 2001 and 2002 seasons. Then came his testing days with McLaren.

The last quality race seat remains with Renault. There is also Nick Heidfeld still without a drive for 2010 season.

Photo: F1Wolf.com

2010 F1 Drivers – Pedro de la Rosa confirmed by BMW Sauber

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.

Toyota announced pull out of F1 shortly after the final race of the season. That has created an opportunity for Sauber to get back. However Toyota still has the entry and apparently that can remain the case until they fail to show up in Bahrain … If Toyota’s plan is to make some money out of their F1 operation they can continue to work on some solution until the very last moment. At the end, under different circumstances and probably with different intentions, that is what Honda did last year …

The difference was that Honda’s failure to find a solution would not stop any other team from racing in 2009. Toyota on the other hand may end up preventing another solid F1 operation from racing next year …

Peter Sauber is “very confident” his team will be on the 2010 F1 grid. The decision of Mario Theissen to stay with BMW Motorsport and leave Sauber team may be a sign that the future of the team in Peter Sauber’s hands is safe now.

On the other hand there is Toyota with F1 entry in their hands offering know-how and 2010 car designs for sale and apparently talking some sort of collaboration with Stefan GP. There is also the matter of Concorde Agreement and possibility of penalty from Bernie Ecclestone for Toyota’s failure to meet its obligations to F1 ranging anywhere from bottle of beer to 300 mil pounds. Lots of things going on while Sauber awaits …

Obviously both FIA and FOM would want to prevent ending up with 24 cars instead of 26 only because one perfectly good F1 team causes another one to run out of time…

FIA is likely to announce the final 2010 entry list next week after World Motor Sport Council meeting. Let’s hope that FIA will handle this matter better than BMW handled their exit from the sport …

Who will get the 13th slot on the 2010 grid ?

So, no Quadbak sale. BMW has at the end agreed to sell their F1 team back to Peter Sauber. There is one condition attached though – the team needs to have a place on 2010 grid. And that is one thing they don’t have at the moment thanks to the failure of BMW to sign the Concorde Agreement. There is a possible vacancy following Toyota’s withdrawal from the sport. But that vacancy does not have to go to Sauber … Toyota still owns that 13th entry and there are some reports that Toyota may be selling it to another party – that party being Stefan Grand Prix, the Serbian entity that took FIA to European Commission for the way the original team selection process was handled … Here are the links to Joe Saward’s blog entry and to Autosport feature (subscription required).

The original sale to Quadbak was announced just after FIA granted the entry vacated by BMW to Lotus. Will the history repeat itself ? Has the BMW / Sauber solution arrived too late yet again ?

BMW sells the team back to Peter Sauber

Robert Kubica

As expected Renault F1 team has confirmed that Robert Kubica will replace Fernando Alonso and will drive for the team from the 2010 season onwards. There has been no information about the length of Kubica’s contract with Renault. Kubica tested for Renault back in 2005 following his World Series by Renault title. There has been no word on the team’s second driver.

“We are very excited to have signed Robert with the Renault F1 Team starting next season. Ever since Robert made his Grand Prix debut in 2006, he has been on our radar as one of the most naturally talented drivers of his generation and he has delivered on that promise so it’s great to have secured him in one of our cars next season. Renault has high ambitions and hopes for the future of the team and we feel that Robert can play a big role in fulfilling them.” – Team Principal Bob Bell

“I am very happy I will be joining Renault in the 2010 season. I feel I have a special connection with this team because in 2005 I won the World Series by Renault. This gave me the chance to test with the team in Barcelona, which led to my debut in Formula One.

I share with Renault a strong winning mentality and feel comfortable with their friendly and open attitude. I’m highly motivated and optimistic that together we can be at the front of the grid next year and hopefully fighting for the world title.” – Robert Kubica

Robert Kubica in 2002

BMW Sauber team released a thank you message to Kubica:

“Robert played an important role for us – and certainly we did the same for him. He joined us in 2006 as a test driver with no Formula One experience, and then we promoted him to be one of our team’s drivers during that season. He never let us down and, with our first pole position in 2008 in Bahrain and first victory the same year in Canada, he set milestones in the history of our team. We are grateful for his strong and constant performances and wish him all the best for his future.“ – BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen said:

And Robert Kubica thanked BMW Sauber team:

“I’m very thankful to those responsible in the BMW Sauber F1 Team for giving me the chance to get a Formula One cockpit. I think I justified the belief in me by delivering good results. In 2008 I managed to get the first pole position in Bahrain and the first win in Canada. Both will remain unforgettable moments for me. For 2010 I will have a new challenge. I wish everybody I worked with at the BMW Sauber F1 Team all the best for the future. I’m sure in the future our paths will cross in Formula One.”

Photos: BMW Motorsports, Renault/LAT

Robert Kubica confirmed by Renault

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:

“A strong investor has therefore been found for the Hinwil-based team. Qadbak’s interest in the team will be represented by Lionel Fischer, a Swiss national. BMW wishes Qadbak and the Sauber Team every success for the 2010 season and beyond.”

The problem the Hinwil based team has at the moment is that they do not have the 2010 F1 entry. FIA has awarded BMW Sauber the ‘14th place’ in the Championship. But for the team to actually race they would either need the other 13 teams to agree to expand the grid to 28 cars or some of the privileged 13 would have to drop out… Nevertheless the team expects to be on the grid next year:

“We are pleased to confirm that the FIA has indicated that we may have a place in the 2010 Formula One World Championship. The team expects to line up on the grid for the first race of the 2010 season.”

Interesting times ahead…

Photo: BMW Motorsports

BMW Sauber sold team aims to race next year