The first race of the year means the finishing order is exactly equal to the championship order, and it's the best possible start for Alonso and Massa.
Vettel was leading the way for the majority of the race, but mechanical problems saw him fall slowly backwards, handing the glory to Ferrari who take a dominant 1-2 victory for the first race of the 2010 season.
F1 Digest is back with your guide to everything you need to know for the 2010 season. In four preview shows, we'll look at teams, the calendar and the regulations, but we're starting with the expanded grid for this season - the drivers.
Class of 2010
It's all change for the upcoming season as the defending champion joins a new team with the champion before that, a popular former champion leaves the sport, and a controversial seven times world champion returns.
Further down the entry list, we have new teams galore, some with familiar faces, some introducing new (and delicious) faces. We even have two drivers who don't have teammates as yet, and are still uncertain as to whether they'll make the grid.
Finally, there are those who are remaining in place - a bit of consistency for both their teams, and for us as viewers. It's going to be a fascinating year from a driver perspective, and I can't wait.
Fresh from delving into the new cars and their technical prowess, KerbRider is back to cast his eye over another - just as important - element of a successful team.
I want to attempt a psycho analysis of this years major driver pairings. The ones we will all be watching.
Ferrari
This for me will be one of the most intense and exciting battles of the year, and years to come. Alonso and Massa have a history. Remember the Nurburgring in 2007?
There was some rather close racing which eventually ended up in some argy bargy on and off the track.
Fernando was much quicker and trying to get past Felipe on a drying track. They had a moment at turn 5 with some banging of wheels, and the post race weigh in, and press conference, was a lot of fun to watch.
We have two Latino temperaments in the most emotionally charged outfit in the pit lane. Expect the sky at Maranello to rain fire. Gazetta de la Sport shares would be a great investment this year, as their readership will quadruple.
Fernando is a quiet genius in my eyes, and easily the best driver out there.
Fernando is a quiet genius in my eyes, and easily the best driver out there. Although the return of Voldemort will certainly make that more arguable. Lewis still has plenty of room to grow, as brilliant as he is already.
Felipe has been very impressive the past two years, and has grown enormously as a competitor with the benefit of Voldemort as a mentor. Unsurprisingly enough, this didn’t occur until the 7 time WC retired.
We should expect to see plenty of fireworks between FA and FM coming into the last half of the year. They will be media savvy and play it all down until it is obvious their despise for one another cannot be played down anymore.
Both are fiercely competitive and Massa will be territorial as Alonso will be intruding on Massa's home. Fernando wont get the measure of Massa consistently until probably 2011 as the first year with a new team is usually testing the waters. This was evident with Fernando's stint at McLaren. Besides, Massa won't allow Alonso to get the best of him.
Last year's accident is in the past, and I don’t think it will affect his overall approach to a race weekend. He certainly wont be frightened of driving the car, and he wont be slower as a result of the accident. Neither will win the title.
McLaren
McLaren have utilised the press superbly with the fact they have the two reigning WCs in their cars. It makes me wonder if that was a major factor in them hiring Button in the first place.
Lets make no mistake though, Button is quick. Well duh! I hear you say, and rightly so. But let me retort and say that there are still some question marks over Button's ability. Mainly due to the fact that he was not able to optimise his performances relative to Rubens in the latter half of 2009.
He may have been playing it safe, he may not have been as comfortable in the car as he was in the first 7 races of the year. Either way, it tarnished his championship victory.
Jenson is on the record as saying he moved to McLaren to prove he can race against the best, and there is no reason to not believe that, as he would be well aware of his reputation in the F1 community due to his tail off in performance post Turkey.
I think as people, Lewis and Jenson will get along as team mates more than friends. The reason being is that there is a slight age gap, which subsequently makes both have differing interests outside of F1.
Overall, I don’t think the team dynamic will ruffle too many feathers as both are gentlemen, but again fiercely competitive. The anger will be on track, rather than in the garage.
I expect Lewis to win the year for several reasons. One being is that Lewis is ultimately quicker in an ill handling car, and copes when the car doesn’t suit him better than Jenson does. 2009 proves that resoundingly. And with heavy cars and low(ish) grip tyres, this should fit into Lewis's domain more than Jensons.
Also Lewis will qualify consistently better, and create his own luck whereas Jenson will require the luck to fall upon him. Another reason is that Lewis is part of the McLaren furniture, and Jenson was in the right place at the right time. Again!
Red Bull
Sebby V in his third full year of F1 will push hard for the championship. I'd expect him to be top 3 at minimum. Where does that leave Mark? He surprised a bit last year with how close he pushed Sebastian. Especially once the circus got back to Europe, and the leg was healing better.
If it wasn’t for a string of 5 unlucky races for Mark from Valencia to Singapore, the end result might have been quite different. A mistake from the pit crew in Spa cost him a podium. The car was not suited to both Monza and Valencia. Vettel only scored 1 point from these two races. In Singapore he had brake fade, which was probably his own causing, and Japan he made a critical mistake in practice which cost him a Q3 run. He set the fastest lap.
Sebastian created his own bad luck last year which cost him a chance to win the championship
Sebastian created his own bad luck last year which I think cost him a chance to win the championship in Abu Dhabi. He lost 6 points in Australia, which I saw up close and personal. That led to a bad qualifying position in Malaysia. He made a big error of judgement in Monaco with tyres, which he will have no doubt learned from for this year.
This pairing will be the one to watch for purely sporting reasons I think. RBR will stick to their equal opportunity philosophy until the last minute, as will McLaren. Ferrari will have no choice.
Sebastian is driven to win. He has a genuine need to win like Schumacher does. It bodes well for a future champion. Whereas Mark, has more of a point to prove. He is as determined as anyone out there, and his fitness is unquestionable. Tony Purnell once commented that he was amazed that Ferrari were not looking to Mark to replace Schumacher once he retired. A big rap, I believe.
Sebastian may be more prone to errors than Mark, but Mark, as is his nature, will be more prone to catching bad luck. So again I expect a close battle between the two, but ultimately, Sebastian should end up on top in what again will be the car of the year.
Mercedes
Voldemort V Rosberg. This will be interesting to see how this dynamic reacts to the media bewilderment. Will it be a master and apprentice situation like Schumacher and Massa? Or will Schumacher do what he always has done, and hide his telemetry from his internal rival. I, for one, hope he doesn’t. I, for one, hope Ross doesn’t allow it.
His testing point of view alone should see Mercedes develop a strong car. It remains to be seen whether it will be up the pecking order in Bahrain.
Make no mistake, Schuey will be quick, and the pressure is really on Nico now to deliver. I hope he does, because I think he has matured well under Williams and last year he had some impressive races. Singapore was one until he blew it exiting the pit lane.
I'm predicting Schumacher to win this battle, but I cant wait to be proven wrong. This could ruin Nico's career. I don’t think either way it will propel him to superstardom. He lacks the charisma and personality. Fernando, Lewis and Sebby V have it all in spades. Nico has the Finnish persona that Kimi carries so well.
The questions at this point pre-season will be, if Nico beats Schumacher, will he fulfil the three year term at Mercedes. If Schumacher beats Nico, will he go the way of Heidfeld as an also ran that never reached a peak anyone noticed?
This is the team that will define careers. Schumacher could go the way of Alan Jones as a former world champion that never got back in the game, or he could launch an even greater legend in f1 folklore. I doubt he will go the way of Alan Jones.
Nico could be made to be a great number 2, or the man who beat the statistically greatest driver F1 will ever see, and create his own legend.
This morning Ferrari became the first F1 team to launch their brand new car for the upcoming season. While Mercedes may have unveiled their new livery on Monday, this was the public's first experience of a full launch in 2010.
The event began at 10:30am local time (9:30 GMT), and while Ferrari valiantly attempted to stream the happenings online, their website lasted no more than a few minutes before succumbing to the inevitable onslaught of traffic. Eventually a clear picture of the new challenger appeared, and when it did, it looked a lot last year's Red Bull, only slightly more red.
Credit: Ferrari S.p.A.
The new Ferrari F10 chassis that the Italian team hope will bring them success in 2010.
Pictures of this year's livery, featuring prominent Santander branding, had previously been leaked online, and rumours relating to the chassis design weren't wide of the mark either. Named the F10, the new car has been designed to pull Ferrari back to where it believes it belongs, right at the very front of the Formula 1 grid.
Credit: Ferrari S.p.A.
The new front end of the Ferrari F10 takes its design cues from last years Red Bull RB5.
Speaking at the unveiling, new signing Fernando Alonso said:
"I'm very calm regarding the work done by all the technicians at Ferrari. We have the best technicians in the world. The work we're doing in February, with Felipe's and my suggestions on the car, makes me really confident as far as the first race is concerned.
"It is important that a red car wins. We'll both give it our all to improve our performance, we'll both give 100%. I’ve always had strong teammates and I never had any problems with then. I have a great relation to all of them and it won't be different with Felipe."
Felipe Massa meanwhile was keen to highlight just how much work had gone into the F10:
"Many things happened in 2009, resulting in difficult conditions for us to work on the car. We started very early thinking about 2010. We were asking for many modifications not just regarding aerodynamics, but also the engine and the tank. Everything was really important considering the 2010 rules. What's very important is that every single detail can bring tenths of a second."
Originally Felipe Massa had been scheduled to run the car on track in the afternoon, but unfavourable weather conditions meant that plan had to be postponed.
Coming up this week, we discuss bridges, aerodynamics, Twitter, videos, testing, surveys, domains, previews, jokes and rankings.
Intro
Back to back shows! We're getting the new year off to a good start.
Good Week / Bad Week
It's been a good week for Toro Rosso who now have a full line up for 2010, and for Button, who is getting a bridge named after him. It's been a bad week for Alan Donnelly, who isn't involved in F1 anymore, and for Lotus, as Trulli thinks they have less potential than Toyota. Oh dear.
News and Views
We start with the new stuff for the upcoming season, including Sauber's new driver. We were sure it was going to be Heidfeld, but Pedro de la Rosa gets the nod. We briefly discuss Williams' plans for a brand new design, plus some great tweeting from them, and we cover the Barcelona test for Rossi and Massa.
The Castrol Driver Rankings are back for another week, with some interesting feedback after the last show. We read through some of the comments received, in the interest of balance, and then also take a look at the F1 Racing Fan Survey that will open soon.
Feedback
Two great voicemails this week - Mark has an idea to improve racing just using some paint, whilst Cody has a request for a refresher course.
A few fabulous emails too - Rolando has some domains and ponders what he should do with them, Marc stuns us with some serious maths, and Michael Parker has a request for some jokes.
Marc's maths:
According to Wiki, the largest 747 holds about 243,000 litres. An F1 car, during race, goes about 1.3 km per litre. Silverstone is 5.1 kms. It takes nearly 4 litres to lap Silverstone. The GP has 60 laps. So 240 litres per car, multiplied by 20 cars, equals about 4,800 litres, multiplied by practices, qualifiers, etc, let's say multiplied by 3, that's about 14,400 litres of fuel to race Silverstone. Let's round it 15,000 litres. There are about 20 races, so 300,000 litres to race an entire season.
That's more than the largest 747 holds; about 243,000 litres.
Housekeeping
There's plenty of launches and testing action coming soon, and we are keeping on top of it all with our brand new Google Calendar.
It's Saturday, and that means the weekend is officially here! Woohoo! As ever, we're going to be around during the weekend, fiddling with bits and pieces on the site and gradually making Sidepodcast a better place to be. Starting with:
Mr C has been busy at the coding grindstone and has put the awesome comment filter box on every single page. So, if you are using Ye Olde Comments, you can now filter those as you would be able to on the LCLT or the Doohickey. If this means nothing to you, we'll probably be explaining in more detail soon, but why not test it out and let us know how it goes?
We created another breakout thread yesterday with the news that Jaime Alguersuari has finally been confirmed at Toro Rosso. It seemed like an obvious signing, and everyone involved seem to think that he was all set for the drive, so we're not sure why the delay occurred. Either way, we are now down to just four unclaimed seats for the upcoming season.
Massa finished up his return to the F1 cockpit, albeit an F2008 with GP2 tyres on. He took over the reigns from Valentino Rossi at Barcelona, and said he feels 100% fit and isn't worried about returning to the grid at all. Yay for the return of Massa!
That should do it for now. Let us know how your weekend is going and what you're up to, and I'll see you in the comments.
We have reached Friday once again, and according to my super duper calendar, Massa is getting behind the wheel of the F2008 with GP2 tyres on, so look out for some pictures of him getting some Barcelona track time. Meanwhile, here are some of the things we're talking about:
James Allen has written about the Schumacher number business, which is pretty much old news by now, but I thought it was worth linking to. Lukeh's first comment on that item sums up the whole thing!
Whilst Williams team principal Sam Michael has been half complimenting his new driver lineup, Rubens himself is fired up for the year ahead. He's been visiting the factory, learning everyone's name, and says he is still massively hungry for success. This is good news for the team, now they just have to provide a decent car.
Pedro de la Rosa has been speaking out about any criticism's against him. Whilst he won't come out and say he's going to be brilliant this year (he's modest like that), he has said that he expects to surprise people and he's hoping that testing will get him up to speed. He's glad there's plenty of it.
That should do it for now, let us know what you've got planned for the weekend. Gavin's going skiing! I'll see you in the comments.
Tuesday arrives, and it is time to wish Tom G a very happy birthday! I hope the weather isn't too bad for you, Mr Tom, and that you are not falling down anywhere! I notice there were some Tom-shaped updates on the Sporting Injuries page on the wiki - don't forget to update it if you have anything to add! Anyway, here are some of the things we're talking about:
Alonso has been spotted out and about with his new Ferrari team, wearing some particularly striking red outfits. There are a few pictures on the drop. It's interesting that Alonso looks right at home in the red, whilst Button's appearance in his new McLaren gear was a bit of a shock. It's also good to see Massa looking so well.
Kovalainen has been talking about who he thinks will be battling it out in 2010, and has picked out Alonso vs Hamilton for the championship fight. This is bringing back all kinds of memories from 2007, and the debate is raging in the comments once more. If Kovi is right, I hope F1 is prepared!
Today, Michael Schumacher is getting behind the wheel of a GP2 car at Jerez in a development test for the series, which presumably also helps him continue to acclimatise to driving fast again. It's an interesting mix of the oldest driver on the grid taking part in the feeder series testing for young drivers to get into F1. I'm sure they'll be some pictures throughout the day.
That's all for now. Let us know what you're up to and how the weather is where you are, and I will see you in the comments.
We've got our resolutions for 2010 out of the way, now it is time to put on your psychic hat and tell us what you think is going to happen in the season ahead. At the end of November, we took a look at some of the things we predicted for 2009 and the results were about 50/50. Formula 1 is a very tough thing to try and fathom as it's happening, let alone before events occur, but it is great fun to try, and even more fun to revisit later on.
Therefore, this is your chance to put your neck on the line and say who will do well and who won't in the year to come.
If you're stuck for ideas, you can start with the obvious - who will be champion? Will we get any new winners? Which teams are going to improve dramatically? Will we see a full grid in Bahrain?
It's at this point that I am supposed to hand out some predictions of my own, and whilst I was completely wrong last time, and have tried to put this moment off, I must get on with it.
We've had two British champions in a row now, from British teams but I think the tide will turn in favour of Ferrari once more. I think there will be quite a battle between Massa and Alonso, and whilst it will not be as highly anticipated as the Button/Hamilton fight, I think it will be worth watching as the season progresses. I will take a punt and go with Alonso for WDC '10.
After a couple of years of no driver changes, we saw an enormous amount last year, both anticipated and due to injury. I think this season will be no different, as with new teams on board, and a lot to prove, I think drivers will come and go more times than there are races. I think Toro Rosso will still lead the way in driver changes though.
Who will win in Bahrain? It's really hard to say with no testing form at all, and based on 2009, that is a clear indicator of how the first race will pan out. However, I think Renault might be back on form, trying to shake off the indignities of the last couple of years, and it will be between them and maybe a shock winner in Sauber.
Finally, as a bonus prediction, Franck will win Le Mans. At last.
What do you think about the year ahead? Here are a couple more questions to ponder:
Will we see any new winners on the podium?
Will there be any awesome live timing blunders like Hungary?
Will the BBC finally see sense and shake up their pundit panel?
How many scandals will there be?
Which will be the first of the new teams to really impress?
Let us know your thoughts about these and any other matters relating to the 2010 season, and we'll come back at the end of the year to examine how well we all did. I fear I may have jinxed Franck now, but we will see.
