Team by team preview to 2010

The 2010 season is ready to be officially kicked off by the start of the launch season tomorrow, with the first testing of 2010 to commence on 1 February. This year, the changes are minor on the regulation side, but new teams are making the anticipation to March extra interesting.

Twelve teams are planned to participate to the new season after the FIA introduced a standard engine supplier. Cosworth was the obvious choice as the manufacturer still had a V8 design in the shelves from 2007. Cossies will be supplied to several teams for fixed a price set by the FIA. All new teams have opted to step into this option, while Williams will also be powered by Cosworth after its former engine supplier, Toyota has left Formula One.

BMW is also out of the game as an engine supplier, but the team that stands from its ashes will run Ferrari engines, just like it did when Peter Sauber sold his team to BMW.

In short, here are the teams that should be in action next year, provided they all manage to finish their chassis in time.

• Ferrari: With Alonso and Massa behind the wheel and after having halted the development of the Ferrari F60 as early as July 2009, the Scuderia should again be a leading force.
• McLaren Mercedes: McLaren is again a fully independent team after Mercedes sold its stake in the business. The Mercedes engines will be available for Woking at least until 2015, but the development capacity that Mercedes put into the team will be lost. With two world champions in its car, it sure won't be due to the drivers when they can't contend at the front.
• Red Bull Racing: Adrian Newey confirmed last year he is one of the best designers in F1 to date, but the team lost out to Brawn in the diffuser row. Massive car development made it the leading force in the second half of 2009. We have been told the Red Bull RB6 will again hold several surprises and could allow Vettel to grab his first world title.
• Mercedes Grand Prix is essentially the same as Brawn GP, the one-year highly successful team that profited from the money Honda wasted the year before. We really believe that they have another world title on their hands, now as the "silver arrows".
• Renault F1 has slipped away in recent years with lacking performance and incidents. From the winning team of 2006 is little left, but with KERS now behind them, nothing is stopped them from making a car better than the troublesome Renault R29.
• Williams F1 was on the up in 2009, but an all new driver pairing often causes trouble in the beginning of the season. Hulkenberg and Barrichello look unlikely to have the car to be able to be a serious threat for any of the expected teams in 2010.
• Force India F1 can still count on their technical partnership with McLaren and Mercedes and can build on the successes at the end of 2009. Both their drivers also remain the same, as well as the engine.
• Scuderia Toro Rosso will not be last in the championship. The team should have an advantage over the new teams thanks to its Formula One experience. It is however the first time that the team has its own technical department to design a car, independently from RBR.
• Virgin Racing: Of the brand new teams that were granted a slot into 2010, Virgin Racing looks most as a team ready to compete. With Virgin behind the company, financially everything looks to be in place. The experienced designer Nick Wirth has been called to design the car, a task which Wirth Research is going to perform only with CFD technology. For the first time in modern F1 times, a car will appear at a test without having been tested in a wind tunnel.
• Lotus F1 Racing is relying heavily on the knowledge of Mike Gascoyne to create a car that can compete with the midfield. The team released a wind tunnel model (picture) early on but is still recruiting engineers. All in all, this could well become the fastest of 4 rookie cars.
• Campos Meta F1 are working with Dallara to design and build the car to drive Bruno Senna. The team is however reported to have financial difficulties and might get sold sooner, rather than later.
• USF1 have kept silent for more of 2009 with doubts cast around its presence at Bahrain, but recently plans have become more clear, with a possible driver announcement imminent.

The new F1 season really begins on Monday, 25 January when Mercedes GP launches its 2010 contender. Ferrari and McLaren follow on Thursday and Friday. Next week, on 1 February, all major teams will be present at Valencia for the first test of the year. Red Bull and Force India have however confirmed not be be there as they prefer to spend more time for developing their cars in the wind tunnel.

The 2010 race calendar has 19 races, the first at Bahrain on 14 March and ending at Abu Dhabi on 14 November.