The 2010 Formula One season finally got underway with a vengeance with a plethora of new car launches and the start of official testing at Valencia, in Spain.
We've come a long way.
Ferrari was the first team to unveil its new challenger, the F10, and early signs in testing show that they’ve hit the mark. Felipe Massa, making his return after his dreadful accident in Hungary last year, was straight on the pace in the new car during the first day of testing. He will be partnered at the team this year by double-world champion Fernando Alonso.
McLaren was the next team to show its latest challenger – the MP4/25, which will be driven by the reigning world champion Jenson Button and his immediate predecessor Lewis Hamilton. That’s one strong driver line-up.
The new cars came thick and fast with Renault, BMW-Sauber, Mercedes, Williams and Toro Rosso all unveiling their 2010 challengers. Renault has lost its major sponsors and announced Russian driver Vitaly Petrov alongside Robert Kubica. Early signs are that the new R30 is not on the pace yet.
Rumours are this is Ferrari's ace-in-the-hole car.
The biggest interest in the pit lane surrounded the return of seven times world champion Michael Schumacher in the new Mercedes (nee Brawn) W01. The German quickly showed that he has lost none of his speed during his three year sabbatical and was third quickest on the first day of testing, half a second faster than his team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Surprisingly on the pace straightaway was the BMW-Sauber team with its C30, driven by Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi. Surely this isn’t going to be the Brawn of 2010 is it? A team faced with extinction, saved at the last moment and then streets ahead of everyone else? It’s a pretty unlikely scenario but good to see the team fighting with the big boys, though whether that will last into the season remains to be seen. Incidentally, although the team is still named BMW-Sauber, it is really just Sauber since BMW pulled the plug at the end of last year. The cars actually run Ferrari engines but the name had been registered as the entrant and so it stands.
Scuderia Toro Rosso has Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari driving its new STR5, while Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg will handle the latest offering from Williams, the FW32.
All of the new designs bear more than a passing resemblance to last year’s Red Bull, which was so successful in the hands of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. The team will reveal its RB6 car on 10 February while Force India has yet to confirm when its launch will be with drivers Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi.
A new challenge this year - the pits are in outer space.
Which leaves the new boys in town. Virgin, which has Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi on board, will unveil its car this week while Lotus will do the same on 12 of February with drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, the strongest line-up in the new teams. The other two – Campos and US F1 – are still unknown quantities at the moment and it is uncertain if either of them will make the grid, despite having named one driver apiece in the form of Bruno Senna and Jose Maria Lopez respectively.
So there you have it. Expect the usual suspects to be fighting at the top – Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull, with the others not far behind. Refuelling is banned for this year so the drivers will have to adapt to changing handling of the cars as the fuel load lightens during the race. Tyre stops are still permitted though.
It’s going to be a fascinating season.
