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

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

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

Nico Hulkenberg will race for Williams in 2010

First day of the offseason is turning into a day of announcements. As expected the AT&T Williams team today confirmed Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg will drive for the Cosworth powered team in 2010 season. The 2009 GP2 champion Nico Hulkenberg is the second rookie already confirmed for 2010 season following the Campos META/Bruno Senna announcement.

“Rubens needs no introduction. He is not only the most experienced driver in Formula One, but a passionate and talented driver who fought hard for the Drivers’ Championship this year. Nico Hulkenberg won the GP2 Championship this season as a rookie and has previously won the F3 Euroseries, Formula Masters, A1 GP and Formula BMW Germany.

Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima remain our drivers until the end of 2009 and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their contribution to the team. Nico and Kazuki have represented AT&T Williams and our partners with dedication, discipline and skill and we wish them every success with their future endeavours.” – Frank Williams

It is expected that Nico Rosberg will take Barrichello’s seat in Brawn GP. No one really knows what the future holds for Kazuki Nakajima, especially after Kamui Kobayashi’s strong and determined race performances in Brazil and Abu Dhabi made him favourite to land the Toyota seat for next season.

See how the 2010 seats are filling up – visit the 2010 Season page.

Photo: Williams/LAT

2010 F1 Drivers – Barrichello and Hulkenberg to Williams

Nico Rosberg

When I returned from Singapore to Hong Kong I spotted Nico Rosberg at the Hong Kong airport. Then I saw him waiting for his luggage at the same belt as me and it became sort of obvious he would be spending some time between Singapore and Japanese GPs here in Hong Kong. I found a video interview he did last week for South China Morning Post. Big part of the interviews focuses on Nelson Piquet’s crash last year in Singapore. Funny how he compares individuals doing stupid things in F1 and in banking world . He also spoke about his future (without giving too much away) and about his Macau GP experience that includes a crash with Lewis Hamilton.

Photo: Williams/LAT
Video: SCMP.com

Video – Nico Rosberg on Piquet, his future and more

Jarno Trulli - On the way out of Toyota ?

Some interesting bits of information came out last night from Toyota and Williams camps. Let’s look at it.

First Toyota’s John Howett revealed that it is likely Toyota will not renew the contract with Jarno Trulli. Although no specifics have been given there are obviously some differences between the expectations of two parties involved:

“We are in negotiation (with Trulli) and we haven’t reached an agreement and there is a possibility that we won’t close the gap. At the moment the gap is reasonably large. We have to say there is a very strong probability not (to renew).” – John Howett

This is what Jarno Trulli had to say when asked about his future (interview with Autosport):

Q. Comments from John Howett suggest you and the team are quite far apart in terms, is that true?

JT: Money has never been an issue. I understand the position of the team, on many things. At the moment there is a lot of cost cutting. I do believe the driver has to play his role in this and I am more than happy to… for me this is not only a team but a family. So I understand that we need to save the team and save the people who work in it.

So a cut in the budget and, let’s say a cut in my budget, this is not a problem. I need to understand what the team wants.

Q. There are now lots of drivers on the market, does that make your position more complicated?

JT: It depends what the Toyota team wants to do. It is not really in my hands. All I can do is my best, which is what I have always done. The rest I think we can always talk with the team and understand what they want, because eventually maybe they are not happy about me, I have no idea. I don’t know. We didn’t talk about money.

Powered by Toyota and Nakajima, but for how much longer ?

Then only a bit later last night came the news that Williams is seeking early end to Toyota engine deal. Williams is said to be in talks with Renault and Mercedes-Benz with Renault being the favourites to return as engine supplier for Williams.

This would be bad news for Kazuki Nakajima. It would be unlikely for him to stay at non-Toyota powered Williams especially with Nico Hulkenberg in the line for a drive with Williams. Of course there is always the possibility of Nakajima racing for Toyota.

It looks like very little will remain the same next season …

Photos: Bridgestone Motorsports, Williams/LAT

Trulli, Toyota, Williams, Nakajima

Sebastian Vettel extended his contract with Red Bull

With F1 back from the summer hiatus we also have some fresh news, rumours and speculations coming out of the paddock. Here is a summary of today’s F1 news, tweets and speculations.

Sebastian Vettel extended his contract with Red Bull until the end of 2011 season. Red Bull Racing also has an option for Vettel’s services for 2012 season. This is a fact.

Yesterday McLaren made it clear that Heikki Kovalainen has to up his game if he wants to keep his seat beyond this season. Martin Whitmarsh very much confirmed it today. But while doing so he also said something interesting about Fernando Alonso and Ferrari:

“I think in reality there are some changes probably with Fernando at Ferrari. That frees up the driver market and every year there is a number of pivotal points during the season which determine what is going to happen in the driver market.

This year I think we all know that the Fernando/Ferrari move has a knock-on and that ripples through the other teams.”

Meanwhile Nico Rosberg has spoken about his future, future that may have something to do with McLaren:

“I have been team-mate with Lewis before so that wouldn’t be a problem. It would be fun and very tough also, a combination – sweet and sour. I would like a good team-mate for sure. Team-mate is a factor. Potential for development for the future, who the key people in the team are and the management and everything. All these things come into it.

Budget, salary they are able to pay. I am prepared to put salary last, that’s nowhere near the priority as I really would like to have some good results now.”

There is also some fresh talk about the future of BMW Sauber. Mario Theissen in his interview yesterday hinted at talks going on. The talks involve also Peter Sauber, the teams long term partner Petronas and Ferrari as an engine supplier. The talks are said to be in an advance stages. According to Joe Saward BMW asks about $90 million for the team. If Sauber and company can raise that sort of money the rest of the 2010 F1 teams are expected to allow the team to sign the Concorde Agreement.

There are also rumours going around talking about Force India. Vijay Mallya is said to owe some engine money to both his former (Ferrari) and current (Mercedes) engine suppliers. There is also talk about Prodrive possibly making a bid to take over Force India.

Another rumour that has something to do with Force India is the one about Giancarlo Fisichella. He said to be on the way to Ferrari as their new test driver. Fisichella himself however denied having any contact with Ferrari. His goal is to remain in F1 and staying on with the improving Force India team is one his options.

Another interesting topic has been the future of European GP. There is a talk about this to be last race in Valencia and Silverstone has been mentioned as one of the options for 2010 …

Photo: Red Bull / GETTY Images

Teams, drivers and GP rumours

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

Nico Rosberg

With all the attention focusing on Red Bull, Jenson Button (or Lewis Hamilton in Hungary) Nico Rosberg does not get too much TV time during the races. His moments of fame usually come during the free practice sessions. But after 10 races of the season Nico Rosberg is 5th in the drivers championship especially thanks to recent string solid points scoring finishes. The most impressive perhaps is his climb from 15th on the grid to 4th at Nurburgring.

Rosberg only failed to score points twice in 10 races this year (China and Bahrain) and failed to make it to Q3 only once (Germany). Rosberg scored 18 points in last four races, only Webber (32), Vettel (24) and Button (19) scored more. Look at the last 3 races would be even more interesting – Webber (24), Vettel (18), Rosberg (14).

Only about 2 months ago Patrick Head used a word “inconsistent” when describing Rosberg’s performances. James Allen even suggested that Williams may be “a bit fed up with Rosberg’s performance this year“. Looks like things are changing …

Nico Rosberg has been loyal to Williams since the team gave him his F1 debut in 2006. Now he has the good car that he hoped for, although perhaps not yet a car that can challenge for race wins under normal conditions. Will this be enough to keep him at Williams ?

Nico Rosberg – A bit off the radar now but impressive

As the biggest number of visitors to this site comes from United Kingdom I believe that the British Grand Prix is the race of the season that most regular or ocassional readers may actually go to. For those who plan to go and want to show up in their favourite team colours, here are the links to 2009 F1 teams merchandise:

Brawn GP

Brawn GP is probably the most popular team when it comes to merchandise these days. One of the reasons may be that the team is new and nobody has any caps or shirts from previous seasons . But their popularity also has something to do with the team’s performances … The latest addition to their products range is the Jenson Button flag.

Brawn GP 2009 F1 merchandise

Here are the links to other teams who made their 2009 merchandise available online:

2009 McLaren F1 merchandise

2009 Ferrari F1 merchandise

2009 Williams F1 merchandise

2009 BMW Sauber F1 merchandise

2009 Renault F1 merchandise

Gearing up for Silverstone