Ferrari had the best possible start to their championship campaign, whilst Red Bull could have got a lot, lot more. Both McLaren and Mercedes finished ahead of them.
This week, Jackie has posed the question over on Viva F1, and it's a great one:
“Do you think that Richard Branson regrets his decision to buy Manor instead of sticking with Brawn GP?”
The question comes from the fact that Virgin Racing are having a really tough time in testing at the moment and things stopped going well the moment the car hit the track. At first glance, you'd have to think that Mr Branson is scratching his head and wondering what he's got himself into.
Credit: Virgin Racing
Virgin Racing test in Jerez
I'm not sure that he would regret his decision though. If he had invested more in the Brawn project, he may have got a little more exposure on the car and made a few more headlines. It's not as though he wasn't always hanging around the garage anyway, though, and he was certainly quoted a few times on what a fantastic team he was involved with. I can't believe he feels like he missed out during 2009. He perhaps could have made some more money with the team, if the Mercedes deal had still come to fruition and he'd had more of a stake in Brawn. I don't suppose he really needs more money though, or that is top of his agenda.
What he has got with Virgin Racing, né Manor, is the opportunity to build from scratch. Instead of piggy-backing on what was the most successful one year operation we've seen in a long time, he can make his mark on Formula One on his own terms.
At the moment, those terms don't seem to be going very well, but the battle between Virgin and Lotus is making headlines regardless, and it's fair to say that Virgin Racing are becoming a household name... in our household anyway. It's a bit early to tell whether the car will let down the dream or not. Clearly they are having pre-season issues, but at least they have a car and that already puts them one step ahead of some of the other new teams.
Branson may be a bit concerned about the early year reliability niggles, and he may be wishing for simpler times when Ross Brawn had all the headaches, but if they can keep going in the style they have begun, I think Formula One will be good for Virgin, and Virgin will be good for Formula One.
Friday has arrived and with it comes more testing in Jerez. It looks as though it might be a little less damp out there in Spain, but since when did the weather people ever predict anything right? I've been enjoying consuming testing through our dedicated threads though, so I hope you'll join us through the day. Anyway, here are some other things we're talking about:
The digital version of Autosport Magazine was launched yesterday, with three magazines available to peruse. We snapped up a subscription instantly, and although it isn't exactly a bargain, if you were thinking about subscribing to the paper version, definitely consider the digital version instead. You also get access to all the online stuff, including Forix, so it is well worth the money.
Yesterday, I mentioned the US F1 rumours which are still just that at the moment. More respected sources are reporting the Argentinian newspaper thoughts, but we're still not sure of anything official. Meanwhile, Campos are getting ever closer to being bought out and it looks like former Force India employee Colin Kolles might be involved as well. I do wish these teams would sort themselves out, don't they know I have an F1 Digest Preview series to write?
In former F1 driver news, Takuma Sato has secured himself an IndyCar drive with KV Racing, David Coulthard has said that he would like to have another test in a DTM car and apparently Mercedes are considering it, and finally Kovalainen is still keen on trying his hand at rallying despite having his work cut out with Lotus at the moment. I like to see drivers keeping busy.
There were other things I wanted to link to today, but at the time of writing Wordpress.com had spectacularly died, leaving me without some of our favourite blogs to share. Hopefully it is already back, or will be soon. I will see you in the comments.
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.
Today we've got another launch in store. This time Ferrari are due to unveil their new car, and we're hoping it will be a bit more than just a livery. There'll be a breakout thread along shortly to cover the launch, and apparently there's live streaming! Loving the interactivity this year. Anyways, here are some other things we're talking about:
Talking of launches, Mercedes posted a replay of their online stream so that if you missed the event on Monday, you can catch right up. Naturally, a lot of it is in German, and you still don't manage to get a good look at the car, but it's worth watching if you've got a spare half hour.
We had some real good news yesterday (before all the Apple stuff kicked off) in the shape of Autosport preparing to announce the introduction of digital magazines. They trialled the idea when we had the postal strike in the UK, and now it looks as though it's coming back for real. This is very good news, and whilst the setup isn't perfect for searching and archiving information, it's an amazing step in the right direction.
So, yes, there was Apple news yesterday, and as content producers, we are quite excited about the new iPad. That is a stupid name, by the way. Mr C spent most of the evening daydreaming about what he could get up to on the new device. If you have thoughts about the device, please share them in our dedicated thread, it's not all a love-fest, I promise.
That should do it for now. There's plenty to keep us busy to forget the fact that it's Thursday, so I will see you in the comments.
The 26th January is apparently Australia Day, so celebrations all round for the Australian members of the Sidepodcommunity. Meanwhile, we are officially into the F1 pre-season, now the launches have begun, so we are talking about lots of things! Here are just a few of them:
Mercedes launched their new livery yesterday, with the car due to be revealed at the first test next month. We covered as much as we could in the breakout thread, and the new livery also made yesterday's F1 Big Picture - this is the best version we could find, it looks almost acceptable in this one.
It was interesting to note that the Bahrain circuit have made changes to their circuit ahead of the season opener in March. They've added an extra loop to the track which extends the length of a lap, and is supposed to add overtaking opportunities. This will remain to be seen, I suppose.
The points system could be about to change as it looks like the team have agreed yet another system. The win would still be worth 25 points, but second place is slightly less, and the rest appear to be more evenly spread. It seems to encourage a win more and more, but you'd be less inclined to mess about for the other places. That's not the desired intention, though, is it?
We have completed another new sub-page of Sidepodcast, with tons and tons of information about Twitter. Who you need to be following, and who is tweeting from the world of Formula 1, is all listed in easy to view format. Keep up to date, and get tweeting!
That should do it for now, we've got a moment of calm before more launches later this week, so let us know what you're up to, and I'll see you in the comments.
Journalists are heading to Stuttgart this morning to watch the unveiling of the new Mercedes team colours and livery. Although the new chassis is not expected to be unveiled until next month, Monday will see the official rebranding of last year's championship winning Brawn GP team.
The event is scheduled to start at 11am local time (10am GMT), and will be held at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.
Updated: The teams new look was officially unveiled under a dazzling array of media lights, making it difficult to pick out the chosen colour scheme. Eventually it became apparent that Mercedes have gone with a silver and turquoise livery, while Mercedes GP's first chassis, which is to be revealed on 1 February, will be named the MGP W01.
Credit: Daimler AG
Ross Brawn, Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Nico Rosberg, Michael Schumacher, Norbert Haug and Nick Fry line-up for the cameras at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.
An accompanying press release pointed out that over 600 guests attended the launch, which saw drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher reveal their new race suits and the cars paint scheme.
Speaking at the event, Team Principal, Ross Brawn said:
"It is a privilege to be here at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart today for the official presentation of the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One Team. With your first look around the Museum, you realise the fantastic racing heritage of Mercedes-Benz and we hope to be able to contribute to those successes going forward."
Michael Schumacher, who will drive car number three this season, sounded pleased that the 2010 season finally appeared to be getting underway, and was only to happy to be associated with Mercedes once more.
"Driving for Mercedes-Benz again is like the closing of a circle for me as I started my racing driver career with the three-pointed star on my helmet. This is another reason why I cannot wait for the competition to get underway."
Credit: Daimler AG
Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher show off their new racing colours together at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.
Nico Rosberg can't wait to get in the car and begin testing, he was keen to highlight the international aspects of the team and praise everybody's efforts.
"Since joining the team in November, I have spent a lot of time at the factory in Brackley, at Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines in Brixworth and here in Stuttgart, which has given me the opportunity to settle in and get to know everyone.
"I am looking forward to working with everyone at Mercedes Grand Prix and will give it my all to reward their fantastic efforts with good on-track results this season."
Vice President of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, Norbert Haug added:
"The new Formula One season will offer challenges which will be bigger than ever before in over sixty years of the sport’s history. We look forward to the cooperation with our drivers Nico Rosberg who has enormous capabilities and perspectives, and with seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher who is no less motivated than at the time when he began his professional motor racing career with Mercedes-Benz and then made his first step into such a successful Formula One career with our support."
Additionally, prior to today's announcement, Mercedes GP released the following teaser video which seems to show a more metallic looking livery. It might be the lighting, or it may indicate the team made some late changes to the final look.
Monday heralds the start of a new week, and the start of the 2010 season proper as the first team launch gets underway. Mercedes will be showing off some new stuff in Stuttgart, and there'll be a thread along later to discuss it all. For now, though, here's what we're talking about:
We're all sorted on the Fantasy Racers front now, as there was a bit of a confusion over what the Sidepodcast league was going to be called. We're now known as the Panda Racing 2010 league, so if you haven't already, head on over to Fantasy Racers, set up your team, and follow this link to join the league.
We released an F1 Debrief podcast yesterday, another one that was recorded off-air, and it was actually an unscheduled one. We had a lot to discuss though, and the show features a brand new advert for the daily threads made by my own hands. I'm not good at the music but hopefully it fits in the podcast quite well. Also, don't miss the outtake on the drop.
Nico Rosberg has stuck his neck out and said he's not afraid of Schumacher. Speaking to the L'Equipe paper (and assuming my French is up to it), he said he plans to win in Bahrain and he's not afraid to stand up against the seven times world champion. Go Nico! (Another thing I never thought I would say about him.)
That will do for now. We're also expecting some news about US F1's first driver announcement, so it will be a busy day for breakout threads! I'll see you in the comments.
Any semblance of an off-season is well and truly gone now, as we duck under the 50 day season start countdown, and prepare ourselves for upcoming team launches and testing. This week sees no less than five F1 teams unveil the designs they will race around the world this year.
As usual Sidepodcast will be covering all the announcements as they happen and there will be a dedicated thread per team, appearing in advance of each launch. During events we'll post photographs, video and embedded streaming (if teams allow it), before wrapping up what we've learnt at the end of the day.
Additionally we'll be tracking conversations on Twitter and as ever, please keep your insights, thoughts and observations coming in the comments. This year promises to offer the most connected and interactive experience Formula 1 has ever seen.
The first launch kicks off on Monday, with Mercedes being the first to break cover for their "team launch". The Sidepodcast Calendar lists all of the currently announced dates, but here's a quick reminder of what we're looking forward to.
Date
Team
Location
25 Jan
Mercedes Grand Prix
Stuttgart
28 Jan
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Maranello
29 Jan
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Newbury
31 Jan
Renault F1 Team
Valencia
31 Jan
BMW Sauber
Valencia
1 Feb
Mercedes Grand Prix
Valencia
12 Feb
Lotus F1 Racing
Jerez
Of note, there are rumours suggesting Mercedes may run their car for the first time on 1 February in Valencia, along with Williams. The calendar is continually updated with new information as it's available.
To ensure you don't miss out on any launch coverage this year, make sure you subscribe to the Sidepodcast Feed.
Mid-way through the week already, and we have reached the twentieth day of this brand new year. It's Will Wright's birthday today and I'm only telling you that because he created The Sims, and The Sims is brilliant. Now, moving on to more Formula 1 related things, here are some of the items we're currently talking about:
The BBC Olympics blog has an interesting post about how the GB cycling team relates to the McLaren Technology Centre. It's one of those: "F1 is useful to other technologies, honest" type posts, but it makes for good reading if you have a spare five minutes.
We were intrigued by the news about Pedro de la Rosa yesterday, particularly his signing over the anticipated Heidfeld announcement. We talked about it in the breakout thread, there's a Pedalo shaped F1 Big Picture, and RG has written about the news, coming to the conclusion that it's not all bad.
The official F1 site have a history piece up about Mercedes, and how they fit into the bigger motorsport picture. There's nothing new in there, but it's a great recap of how they've got where they are - which is basically taking over the grid. This piece reminded me of the mini series episode I did on the Safety Car and Medical Car, both powered by Mercedes.
Anyway, that should keep you going for now. As I said, we're mid-way through the week, so it's all downhill from here. I'll see you in the comments.
