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

Toro Rosso STR5

The winter testing has finally begun. Early today Mercedes GP and Scuderia Toro Rosso unveiled their new cars – MGP W01 and STR5. Then at 10am local time the first on track action of 2010 F1 year started.

Mercedes GP (Rosberg morning, Schumacher afternoon), McLaren (Paffet), Ferrari (Massa), Renault (Kubica), Barrichello (Williams), Buemi (Toro Rosso) and de la Rosa (BMW Sauber) are scheduled to run today.

Here are the morning times:

1. Felipe Massa – Ferrari – 1:13.’088
2. Pedro De la Rosa – Sauber – 1:13.247 +0.159
3. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes GP – 1:13.543 +0.455
4. Gary Paffet – McLaren – 1:14.018 +0.930
5. Rubens Barrichello – Williams – 1:14.449 +1.361
6. Robert Kubica – Renault – 1:15.298 +2.210
7. Sebastian Buemi – Toro Rosso – 1:19.279 + 6.191
8. Michael Schumacher – Mercedes GP – no time, no laps

Felipe Massa ended the day with the fastest time, about 2 tenths faster than time recorded by Pedro de la Rosa in Sauber. Michael Schumacher took the Mercedes car over from Nico Rosberg in the afternoon. He finished the day one of testing with third fastest time, 6 tenths faster than his team mate. Sebastien Buemi improved at the very end of the session and relegated Robert Kubica to the bottom of the time sheets. Here are the times at the end of the day 1:

1. Felipe Massa – Ferrari – 1:12.574 – 102 laps
2. Pedro De la Rosa – Sauber – 1:12.784 +0.210 – 74 laps
3. Michael Schumacher – Mercedes GP – 1:12.947 +0.373 – 40 laps
4. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes GP – 1:13.543 +0.969 – 39 laps
5. Gary Paffet – McLaren – 1:13.846 +1.272 – 86 laps
6. Rubens Barrichello – Williams – 1:14.449 +1.875 – 75 laps
7. Sebastian Buemi – Toro Rosso – 1:14.762 +2.188 – 18 laps
8. Robert Kubica – Renault – 1:15.000 +2.426 – 69 laps

Scroll down for photos from the first day of 2010 F1 winter testing:

And here are few images of Michael Schumacher back in F1 action:

2010 Winter Testing – Valencia February 1 – With Photos

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

Unlike last season this year we have already had some mid-season drivers changes. Jaime Alguersuari has replaced Sebastien Bourdais in Toro Rosso, Nelson Piquet was dropped by Renault and Luca Badoer is about to step in to Ferrari F60 for injured Felipe Massa. Unlike last year we can also expect some serious shuffle to come before the 2010 season begins. BMW is on their way out, 3 (or 4) new teams are on the way in, several contracts are up for renewal (or else). Let’s have a first look how the things are (or may be) shaping up:

Ferrari

Ferrari keeps holding the official line that both their current drivers have valid contracts for 2010. At the same time many seem to be convinced that Fernando Alonso will drive for Ferrari next year. It is hard to imagine Ferrari dropping Felipe Massa while it is not so difficult to imagine Kimi Raikkonen doing rally …

2010 line up prediction – Massa, Alonso or Massa, Raikkonen

McLaren

Lewis Hamilton will go nowhere but the same may not apply to Heikki Kovalainen. His may turn out to be the most desired seat on the market. I would expect Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld and perhaps also Adrian Sutil all considering or being considered for the potential McLaren vacancy.

2010 line up prediction – Hamilton and Kovalainen/Rosberg/Kubica/Heidfeld/Sutil

Brawn GP

Everybody expects Jenson Button to stay but I wonder if he would prefer to take his time and see how will the team handle the current performance slump. He probably would not be eager to move towards the back of the grid again. Rubens Barrichello secured his drive with Brawn at the very last moment resulting in the 4th year of Button-Barrichello partnership. If Button stays the team may go for young driver next year, perhaps the one who only just missed out on the seat this season. The situation would be more interesting if Button decides to move somewhere else. Would they keep Barrichello and his experience ? If yes would they still consider Bruno Senna (another Brazilian) for the second seat ?

2010 line up prediction – Button and … Senna ?

Red Bull

Not much speculation here anymore, both drivers have their contracts, in Webber’s case a fresh one.

2010 line up – Vettel, Webber – confirmed

Renault

If Alonso really leaves the team Renault will be left with no experienced driver. Flavio may go to fish to the BMW waters with both Heidfeld and Kubica available. At the end Alonso is expected to move to Ferrari anyway, if not in 2010 then in 2011 latest … In the meantime Romain Grosjean is expected to replace Nelson Piquet from the next race (Valencia or Spa).

2010 line up prediction – Alonso and Kubica/Heidfeld/Grosjean or Grosjean and Kubica/Heidfeld

Toyota

There hasn’t been much talk about Toyota drivers. This may be one of the few teams that will enter 2010 season with unchanged line up.

2010 line up prediction – Glock, Trulli

Williams

This is interesting. The team does not hide the desire to keep Nico Rosberg. They gave him a good car this year but the car is still short of being a race winning machine. Prospect of race wins may convince Rosberg to move to McLaren despite the risky prospect of being Lewis Hamilton’s team mate. Williams do have a replacement ready, the GP2 championship leader Nico Hulkenberg. But that would mean lining up a rookie next to Kazuki Nakajima… They could also do a straight swap and bring Kovalainen to Williams but then what to do with Hulkenberg … Nakajima is probably safe as long as the car is powered by Toyota engines.

2010 line up prediction – Rosberg/Nakajima/Hulkenberg/Kovalainen – make your pick ….

Toro Rosso

The team seems to be happy with Sebastien Buemi at the moment and they will probably keep him next season. Jaime Alguersuari was quite impressive on his debut in Hungary and if he continues in similar fashion for the rest of the season he may well return to the car in 2010. His main competitor will probably be Brendon Hartley who will no doubt get a chance to rake up some testing mileage during the winter. There also has been some talk about Sebastien Loeb taking over from Alguersuari for final races of 2009 season. That may be just a publicty stunt or it may not. Loeb did pretty well in the F1 car last year – see video here.

2010 line up prediction – Buemi, Alguersuari/Hartley, Loeb ?

Force India

There has been talk that Vitantonio Liuzzi has 2010 race drive with Force India guaranteed. If that is the case one of the current drivers would have to make room for him. Few would expect Force India to drop Sutil and keep Fisichella but there is also the possibility of Sutil leaving for a better team. There probably isn’t much chance for Karun Chandhok getting the seat.

2010 line up prediction – Sutil,Liuzzi or Fisichella, Liuzzi

Now the new teams (if they make it to the grid):

USF1

Original idea was to give both seats to American drivers. It however emerged that the team now plans to employ at least one experienced F1 driver and there aren’t that many in the US at the moment. The hottest candidates appear to be Alex Wurz and Pedro de la Rosa. Earlier also Jacques Villeneuve’s name came up but it is hard to say if there was more to it than his recent presence in F1 paddock. Jonathan Summerton is the driver most often mentioned with the second race seat reserved for American driver. Graham Rahal and Kyle Bush have also been connected with possible US F1 drive. Danica Patrick and A.J. Allmendiger have already distanced themselves from move to F1.

2010 line up prediction – Summerton, Wurz/de la Rosa

Campos

The list of names linked with a Campos seat is also quite long and includes several Spanish drivers – Pedro de la Rosa, Marc Gene, Javier Villa. Former F1 driver and 2008 GP2 champion Giorgio Pantano has proclaimed his interest in Campos F1 seat. Hard to make a pick here …

2010 line up prediction – no idea

Manor

The most famous name linked with move to Manor has so far been Richard Branson but that would not be as racing driver. Unlike in cases of US F1 and Campos there is bit of radio silence when it comes to potential drivers picks for Manor F1. Adam Carroll and Max Chilton are very much the only names that came up. As a new team they could use some proven test driver with a bit of racing experience, someone like Anthony Davidson for example.

2010 line up prediction – no idea

There are 2 more potential race seats with the team number 13 that should fill the gap left by BMWs withdrawal from F1.

And for the record there are also few recent F1 drivers that I haven’t listed in connection with any 2010 F1 team – Nelson Piquet, Sebastien Bourdais, Takuma Sato, Christian Klien. They may also want to grab one of the of the spare or newly available seats.

Some iteresting times ahead …

If you have your own tips or predictions for 2010 F1 line up, feel free to leave them in the comments. I also created a 2010 F1 Drivers over at the Forum (still in the testing mode).

2010 Formula 1 drivers – The first look

Jaime Alguersuari is making is F1 racing debut this weekend in Hungary. Here is Jaime’s first full interview since securing his race drive in Formula 1. The youngest ever Formula 1 driver speaks about the aims for his first race, beginning of his career, new team and expectations for the rest of this season.

Video – Interview with Jaime Alguersuari

Jaime Alguersuari will make his F1 debut in Hungary

As widely expected Scuderia Toro Rosso has confirmed Jaime Alguersuari as a replacement for Sebastien Bourdais. Team’s official website informs that Alguersuari’s Formula One debut will be this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. This will make Alguersuari the youngest ever driver in the 59-year history of the Formula One World Championship.

This will not be easy debut. Alguersuari has only very limited experience in F1 car and the testing bans means that the young Spanish driver will have to learn on Fridays and Saturdays of GP weekends. Here is what Franz Tost says:

“Red Bull’s stated aim for Scuderia Toro Rosso is that, when possible, it should be used to provide a seat for products of its Young Driver Programme. We therefore chose Alguersuari as the most mature driver currently in the programme.

“I am well aware that over the next few months the team and Jaime will face a major challenge, especially because of the testing ban. But Red Bull is always ready for a new challenge. I do not expect anything from him for at least his first three races, during which he has to get used to the car, the team and to the Formula 1 environment.”

This suggests that the team plans to use Alguersuari for more than just one race.

Toro Rosso confirms Jaime Alguersuari for Hungarian GP

Le Seb's F1 career with Toro Rosso came to an end ...

So, it is official now. Sebastien Bourdais’ F1 career with Scuderia Toro Rosso is over. The team has decided to bring new driver for Hungarian GP. Franz Tost:

“In Sébastien’s second year with us, the partnership has not met our expectations and therefore we have decided to replace him as from the next round of the World Championship, the Hungarian Grand Prix.”

And so Sébastien Bourdais becomes the first driver since Scott Speed in 2007 to be dropped by the team during the season (if we do not count Alex Wurz who dropped himself and retired the same year with a race to go). He also joins the privileged company of Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve and others – the drivers whos F1 seasons or careers ended in July …

No replacement has been confirmed yet although it is widely expected that Spanish youngster Jaime Alguersuari will get the seat and become the youngest ever F1 race driver.

Photo: Red Bull Media

Sebastien Bourdais dropped by Toro Rosso

Sebastien Bourdais, will he return for Hungarian GP ?

Cristiano da Matta, Patrick Friesacher, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve, Christijan Albers and Scott Speed have one thing in common. All of them were sacked by their teams in July (between 2004 and 2007). The 2008 season was a rarity. We haven’t seen a single driver change for the entire season. At the moment there is only one rookie on 2009 grid – Sebastien Buemi – who filled the gap created by Coulthard’s retirement (and Vettel’s move to DC’s place at Red Bull).

But July is here again and it looks more and more likely that the tradition of parting ways with drivers in summer month will continue afte one year break.

There aren’t too many people who expect to see Sebastien Bourdais back in Toro Rosso car for Hungarian GP. Spanish driver Jaime Alguersuari is expected to take over the duties from the next race. All rookie line up for Toro Rosso ?

Jaime Alguersuari waiting for his chance

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There are also indications that Renault may have finally lost their patience with Nelson Piquet jr. It would be ironic for Piquet to loose his drive after outqualifying Fernando Alonso for the very first time.

Nelson Piquet, all smiles before German GP

The driver widely expected to replace Piquet should Renault decide to drop him is Romain Grosjean, currently 2nd in GP2 standings.

Update: Autosport reports that Toro Rosso is expected to confirm within the next 48 hours that it has decided to part company with the Frenchman. Jaime Alguersuari will become the youngest Formula 1 driver in history when he makes his debut for the Scuderia Toro Rosso team as replacement for Sebastien Bourdais at the Hungarian GP. See the full article here – Alguersuari gets nod for Hungary debut

July, the month when F1 teams often change drivers