F1 2010 season is about to start in under 3 days and I am super excited. Weekends would be much more fun and weeks full of anticipation. This is the season which promises a lot of entertainment not just because of great driver lineups but because a lot of has changed behind the scene. I have been watching F1 for 15 years and this is the most change I have seen on paddock.

Last three years have been disappointing for the sport. Not because we did not have great races, but because behind the scene politics was ugly. Either it be McLaren espionage, Alonso-Hamilton rivalry, Max Mosley’s “dictatorship”, Renault’s ugly crash in Singapore or many nasty things that I don’t want to remember. Things have cleared up now, Mosley is gone and it looks like a promising sign to the sport. He did a lot of things for sport but lately things weren’t going well. Todt who once said Alonso would never race for Ferrari is not president of FIA and Alonso is in scarlet colors. Kimi who has a contract for 2010 is now racing a Citroen in Mexico. Flavio and Ron Dennis have said good bye to sports. And biggest changes of all Michael Schumacher is back but this time with silver colors. I see all of these changes as positive for the sport and wish we will see all the actions on track rather then in pitlane.

There have been significant rule changes also. I see no refueling as the biggest change, with all drivers starting heavy it would be fun to see how they manager their tires, indulge in overtaking and plan strategy. Red Bull claims to have attained sub two second pitstops and those would be fun to watch.  Wheels fairings have also gone, so that adds to efficient tire changes. None of the teams would be using KERS, so we can expect a level plane to start with. Complexities have reduced, efficiency increased and so have teams. Now we will see 12 teams on grid and 10 drivers scoring point in each race. This means more competition in middle order and that would be fun considering the fact that Toro Rosso and Force India showed good progress by end of 2009 season.

Now moving on to predictions. I believe with the advantage of diffusers gone (for Brawns), Ferrari is going to bounce back and be in front of the grid. McLaren will be competing at par with them and they would be challenged by Red Bull and Mercedes GP (former Brawn GP). Middle order will consist of Renault, Williams, Toro Rosso, BMW and Force India, it is hard to predict who will come to top considering pre-season testing does not provide much information.

For the drivers I would put my money on Alonso for World Championship. He seems to be in perfect shape and can drive a sub-optimal car to perfection. In Ferrari he will be unstoppable. Massa would be close behind (Glad to see him on track after that fierce accident) and so will be Hamilton, Schumacher and Button. Hamilton will come on top in McLaren, he is definitely a better driver than Button. New drivers Bruno Senna and Chadhok will struggle in beginning but they have shown potential and by mid season can challenge Force India and Toro Rosso (provided they have decent cars).

I am super excited. Are you?!

PS: I lost twitter handle @F1 to FIA, so would be tweeting at @fakeF1

Bernie Ecclestone suggested having short cuts in formula 1 which a driver can use 5 time during a race. These shorts cuts are to provide more chances of overtaking since refueling is not allowed from next season.

My first question to Bernie is have you ever seen a race? If so you would not give such a ridiculous idea. This idea would cause chaos and would not work for following reasons:

1. Adding shorts cuts means complete redesign of track. Short cuts added without proper though being put in could lead to spending extra time on track. Just considering all the corners that we know in F1 catalogue it seems impossible to add more than 3 shorts cuts that would be beneficial. What maximum can be achieved is removing some chicanes as short cut allowing but that would reduce the fun of racing.
2. Adding short cuts mean changing racing line, this would lead to a set of problems. First, design of cars will be more complex as adding some shortcuts means adding those additional corners. That would change the complete down force equation of cars, especially at different fuel levels. Second issue would be with accidents. Imagine two different racing lines crisscrossing each other. That itself is evident that at those high speeds we will have more disaster than fun.
3. Second race driver (or second race team) can help leading driver by preventing his competitor from taking a short cut. By position parallel to competitor whenever he is planning to take a short cut, his race can be ruined. This will lead more to fist fighting then fierce racing.
4. This is a solution to problem that could have been solved at different levels. By having proper design specifications for car overtaking can be made possible. That would be much more fun as driver’s talent comes into play rather than car’s performance.

I believe this kind of suggestion will make F1 a circus rather than sports. Five short cuts in a race would create a chaos that would not be easy to handle. I understand than teams would not agree to such ridiculous suggestions, so no worries. Can’t wait for season to start!

I like the idea that Schumi is coming back on track, it would be a treat to watch but still a lot that I do not like
1. Ferrari does not have a spare driver or driver development program, where they can bring in/train new drivers for future.
2. They dont have a competitive enough car for this season, so it would be sad.
3. Alonso won’t be there for Valencia, so we wont see the rivalry.
On other side
1. Schumi has never raced Hamilton and it would be nice to see a battle, since both are similarly matched car at this point.
2. With Schumi driving, Ferrari is definitely going to improve, because he knows well where the car is not performing well and what exactly he has to tell mechanics.

Images from Jerez, Spain, 1 March 2009

1. Alonso – He did wonderfully in improving Renault and got some good results by end of year. Even when car was not performing well, he brought out 100% out of car and always resulted in 5-8 positions.
2. Massa – Did not expect him to do this well, but he did well. He was destined to be overshadowed by Kimi but he did not let that happen, drove well. He needs to improve him wet weather driving skills though.
3. Vettel – Drove live a champion with not so great car.
4. Hamilton – whenever he got pole, he did well but scumbled under pressure and made mistakes.
5. Kubica – Great driving and good mix of aggression and control. He justified the pace of car and outperformed Heidfeld who is much more experienced. Drove exceptionally well in Canada and won his first GP.
6. Kimi – Had an excellent start to season but bad qualifying caused the problem by end of season. But he was unfortunate, if luck would have favored him he would be #1 by middle of year and Ferrari would have favored him for WC. He made some mistakes (Monaco) and was caught up in some mistakes (Canada).
7. Trulli – very well qualified and helped a lot in improving Toyota.
8. Glock - same as Trulli.
9. Rosberg – poor car, but he did well in the start of season when Williams was performing better. If he had a good car he would be at 4-5 in Driver’s standings by end of year.
10. Heidfeld – He had a good car but he could not settle in it properly, at the same time Kubica was doing much better in similar car. He turned around the bad results by year end and got some positive results.

A race to remember not just for Alonso and Renault but for all those F1 fans who like F1 because of its unpredictable nature. Alonso had the pace as he proved in Practice 2 and 3, but he hit the misfortune when he had fuel pump issues in second round of qualifying. Alonso started at P15 and in just one lap he had gained P11, but it had to be a very difficult task overtaking on this street circuit. He was helped by Nelson Piquet’s big accident, Safety car was deployed and he had an opportunity after that to climb to few more places.

Once in front, Alonso drove like a champion, defended his position well and increased the lead. Sometime he had to be told from pitwall that Rosberg is pretty far and he does not need to push hard. The way Alonso was using kerbs, cutting corners on this bumpy track, it was spectacular. He had a bit of scare just 10 laps to go when Adrian Sutil had a big shunt, Safety car was deployed once again and this time, Nico from P2 and Hamilton from P3 were on his back, when safety car was removed Alosno responded well and made sure he takes the chequered flag. This was his first win after he left McLaren and Renault’s first win in last 2 years.

This would be day TIFOSIs would like to forget, nothing went right after qualifying. First Massa’s car got some debris, then he had an incident in pits because of miscommunication resulting in injury to pit crew and a drive through penalty for himself. Kimi needed badly to overcome his bad form but luck was not in his favor, he was doing well at P5 and pushing for P4, but had a minor imbalance, jumped over the kerbs and hit the wall. Hamilton also drove very well, but once he knew Massa was out of points he reduced his aggression to make sure he will lead the Championship.

Magnificent View of Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore.

We cannot end the post without talking about Nico Rosberg, this is his best performation ever and its well deserved too. He drove very well and made sure was away from incidents and for last 8 laps did not allow Hamilton, who was in much faster car to overtake.  Another disappointing day for Force India, they had not been able to perform as compared to what they were doing in start of the season. They might end up not scoring any points this season. Fisichella had good chance, when he was in P3 after first safety car. But he had a long pit stop, filled the car to brim and it was very hard to balance the car.

Championship run is over for Kimi, currently Hamilton is leading from Massa by 7 points and any mistake from Hamilton can turn the Championship in favor of Massa. Constructor championship is still open, first time this season McLaren is ahead of Ferrari. Kimi and Massa had to make sure they end up in points position in remaining races to win Championship.

I am very excited about the race, so excited that I planned to start the blog again. Sorry guys, I was away for 4 races now, it was a transition from India to US and few other things that kept me away from blog.

First night race every in the history of Formula 1, this prospect is enough to excite any F1 lover. To clarify few things, none of the rules have been modified for the night race. There were some questions, will there be headlight on cars and few other details, answer to all of them is no. The circuit will be illuminated by 1600 light projectors so it will be almost like simulating daylight (first pictures from the track confirm that too). Only concern as of now has been raised by Alonso regarding the bumps on Turn 10, those bumps are big enough to damage the car and render is unusable. FIA is looking into in and will be able to come up with a solution. (Some rumors about water spilling on the track at the main stretch are there too, but no confirmation yet).

Adrian Sutil (GER) Force India F1 VJM01. Formula One World Championship, Rd 15, Singapore Grand Prix, Practice, Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore, Friday 26 September 2008

McLaren was fastest in first practice and I guess that will remain the trend for the weekend, mainly for two reasons. Firstly, Mclaren has got very good straight line speed and that is an advantage on this track, even though its a street circuit, there are enough straight stretches to take advantage of that. Secondly, because of the aggressive driving style of Hamilton, that will suit him perfectly for such narrow circuit. It would be very hard to overtake (except turn 1), so we can expect Monaco like situation. Qualifying will be the key as that will have complete impact on race result, some drivers might even choose to adopt a 3 stop strategy to gain advantage in qualifying.

Only worry as of now seems to be rains, that would be disaster for Ferrari. Massa who is trailing behind one point for the Championship is not a great driver in wet conditions and the gap might widen if it rains. I personally do not want rain too, as this is first time drivers would be adjusting to different light settings and different time zone, they should not be put under extra pressure because of rains. If this is a success, we might have few more night races coming up. (Bernie has already hinted for Japanese night race).

Since Hamilton made a mistake in Q3 and weather playing games it was sure that race on Sunday would be amazing. Most surprising result was Heikki on Pole alongside Mark Webber in Red Bull, Massa was down to P9 alongside Kubica. Usually the starting row 5 and 1 are swapped.

Race started with Hamilton and Kimi in row 2 and wet conditions. Hamilton took the advantage in the beginning and climbed up to 2 positions but Heikki drove well to keep Hamilton away. Conditions were very tricky on back of the grid with all the rubber from tracked washed out because of overnight rains. Webber lost him place in first lap itself and for rest of the race he was trying to climb up again. Heikki had a spin and Hamilton took advantage of it to get into lead.

Alonso was one of the first to pit in and surprisingly did not take a new set of tyres (still I don’t understand why) and had to struggle throughout the race after that. Kimi and Hamilton pitted together and it seemed Kimi will take the lead but a brilliant stop by McLaren ensured that Hamilton maintains the lead.  Just to get track position Kimi did not take new tyres but that strategy backfired for Ferrari.

Tricky Conditions

Honda was looking extremely bad, they did not have any grip and car was very unstable. Before the race Button had said only rain can help us, and exactly same happened but for another Honda drive, Rubens who drove brilliant to get that last place on podium. Another struggling team was Williams and nothing went right there way, Nakajima has to be content with P7.