The arrival of the official FIA entry list and the announcement from Hispania Racing Team (née Campos) that it has a deal with India’s Karun Chandhok means that we finally have a full list of the Formula 1 drivers for 2010. No doubt there will be some changes along the way, probably as money will be an issue in some case, but at least we have a starting point.
There are five new boys: Nico Hulkenberg, Vitaly Petrov, Karun Chandhok, Bruno Senna and Lucas di Grassi. Of these the two important additions – from a demographic point of view – are Petrov and Chandhok, who represent major nations which do not, as yet, have a fully developed F1 following. India and Russia are both big players. Senna brings a famous name back to F1, but he must prove that he has what it takes to be a Grand Prix driver. It is the same story with Lotus F1. It is a great brand but its value must be built with solid performances.
Although eight teams are based in Britain, only three are listed as British: Mercedes GP (née Brawn) is now German. Red Bull Racing is Austrian, Renault French, Force India Indian and Lotus Malaysian. Only McLaren, Williams and Virgin are now officially British. Italy has Ferrari and Toro Rosso, Switzerland has Sauber and Spain claims its first team with Hispania.
On the driver front there are six Germans, four Brazilians, three Spaniards, two drivers each from Britain and Italy and individuals from Australia, Finland, India, Japan, Poland, Russia and Switzerland.
There are only four engine suppliers. Cosworth boasts four teams; Ferrari and Mercedes three each and Renault two.
It’s a good mix of youth (both in terms of current drivers and all-new boys), experience (both in terms of current and returnees) and differing nationality.
It’s a good grid, I like it.
I also like that we’re returning the sport to the independents, even if the birth of this is proving awkward in many ways.
Probably the main concern elsewhere is that which you point out about engine manufacturers, it seems slightly precarious when listed like that.
And don’t forget another great thing to happen this year–Max Mosley is (mostly) out of the picture.
Let’s go racing!
That last paragraph is sureall!
I know this is a bit off topic, but why is BMW still at the front of Saubers name? Is it just to get the TV money? I keep having to explaining to people why BMW have Ferrari engines and I don’t have a good answer.
[...] The F1 Class of 2010 « Joe Saward's Grand Prix Blog [...]
[...] The F1 Class of 2010 « Joe Saward's Grand Prix Blog [...]
It would be interesting to know from Cosworth whether it is pleased or not about supplying four teams instead of the planned five.
It needed a certain number of clients to be viable and – probably – without the FIA’s ‘coercion’ it couldn’t have come back into the game.
Five or six teams though – Red Bull was thinking about Cosworth at one point – which all seemed like a big ask early on.
@Peter – just call them Sauber. From all accounts (on-line sources only), BMW have no affiliation with the team beyond the name. It appears that the BMW Sauber entity has not sought a name change – and their reasons are not known.
It will be interesting to see if BMW are allowed to trade on the name this year. I imagine that the team will be fighting with Force India and Williams for the 5th spot in the Championship, which means they will score some decent points at some stage this year.
Britain needs to fight back because I see it slipping away. Thank God we still retain a GP.
[...] The F1 Class of 2010 « Joe Saward's Grand Prix Blog [...]
It would be interesting to know how much the new teams rely on Williams with regard to the Cosworth engines. If Williams had not chosen Coseworth, the engines would have had very little track time before Bahrain.