2010 Formula One season
The 2010 Formula One season will be the 61st Formula One season. The technical and sporting regulations applicable for this season have been, and continue to be, the subject of much debate. The reigning Driver's Champion, Jenson Button, has joined McLaren, and the reigning Constructor's Champions, Brawn GP, have been bought by Mercedes-Benz and renamed Mercedes Grand Prix. The 2010 season will see the return of the most successful driver in the sport with Michael Schumacher coming out of retirement after a three year absence.[1]
Dispute over regulations and breakaway series
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) planned to introduce a budget cap to reduce costs in order to safeguard the sport during the current economic downturn. The proposal included an optional budget cap of €30 million ($45 million, £27 million), with greater technical and design freedoms allowed to teams who nominated to use it.
The teams objected to what they believed to be two sets of rules within the championship and five of the teams within the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), Ferrari, BMW Sauber, Renault, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso announced their intentions to withdraw from the 2010 championship.[citation needed] BMW Sauber announced on 29 July that they were withdrawing from Formula One at the end of the 2009 season.[2]
Following a discussion, all ten of the FOTA teams unanimously decided to withdraw at the end of the 2009 season unless the budget cap rules were changed.[3] Williams and Force India both later submitted their own entries and were temporarily suspended from FOTA.
The remaining FOTA teams all submitted conditional entries for the 2010 season before the entry list was published on June 12, which included all ten current teams and three new teams, Campos Meta 1, Virgin Racing and US F1 Team.[4]
Discussions between the FIA and FOTA failed to find a resolution and the eight FOTA teams announced their intentions to form a breakaway series for 2010.[5] However after a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council on 24 June, FOTA agreed to remain in Formula One and Max Mosley agreed to not to stand for re-election in October.[6]
However, on 8 July, the FOTA group of teams walked out of a meeting with the FIA about future rules.[7] FOTA were informed that they were not entered for the 2010 season and could therefore have no input on regulatory discussions.[8] It was later announced that plans for a breakaway series were still being pursued.[9]
FOTA have since expressed their interest in ending the conflict by negotiating the terms of a new Concorde Agreement directly with CVC, the company that controls the commercial rights to the sport, with a resolution possibly being found in time for the Hungarian Grand Prix.[10]
On 1 August it was announced that the FIA had signed the new Concorde Agreement, bringing an end to the crisis and securing the sport's future until 2012.[11]
Bernie Ecclestone has repeatedly stated his belief that several of the new teams will be unable to prepare in time for 2010 due to the lack of the FIA's cost cutting plans.[12]
Teams and drivers
The following teams and drivers will compete in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship:[23]
McLaren
-Jenson Button
-Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
-Nico Rosberg
-Michael Schumacher
Red Bull
-Sebastian Vettel
-Mark Webber
Ferrari
-Felipe Massa
-Fernando Alonso
Williams
-Rubens Barrichello
-Nico Hülkenberg
Renault
-Robert Kubica
-TBA
Force India
-Adrian Sutil
-Vitantonio Liuzzi
Toro Rosso
-Sébastien Buemi
-TBA
Lotus
-Jarno Trulli
-Heikki Kovalainen
Campos
-TBA
-Bruno Senna
US F1
-TBA
-TBA
Virgin
-Timo Glock
-Lucas Di Grassi
BMW Sauber
- Kamui Kobayashi
-TBA
New entries process
The FIA announced its intention to open up the grid, aiming for a total of 14 teams. The FIA revealed that it received 15 entries from new teams (in addition to the 10 teams currently involved in Formula One) for 2010.[59] The existing F1 teams, under the FOTA organisation, are understood to have agreed a system of technical support to assist new teams.[60] This compromise proposal would involve the supply of parts and design knowledge to the new entrants, but not full customer cars, in return for which the budget cap idea was dropped.
The four new teams which are included in the entry list are:
* Campos Meta 1, Spanish-based GP2 team led by former racing driver Adrián Campos, who lodged an entry for his Campos Racing team in conjunction with Meta Image.[61]
* Virgin Racing,[62] headed by F3 owner John Booth and former team owner Nick Wirth was an unknown entrant until the FIA published the 2010 entry list on 12 June 2009. The team was originally entered as Manor Grand Prix prior to Virgin's investment.
* US F1 Team,[63][64][65] a group led by designer Ken Anderson and former Williams employee Peter Windsor.[66]
* Lotus F1 Racing,[44] a partnership between the Malaysian government and a consortium of Malaysian entrepreneurs. Mike Gascoyne, whose previous Lotus entry with Litespeed was unsuccessful will be the technical director.
Bye Bye Kimi! :confused:
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Entered Formula One
Bruno Senna will make his debut with the new Campos Meta team.
Michael Schumacher will return to the sport with Mercedes GP after a 3-year hiatus.
* Bruno Senna, nephew of three-time World Champion Ayrton Senna, will join Campos Meta in 2010, returning the Senna name to Formula One sixteen years after his uncle's death.[46]
* Nico Hülkenberg, 2009 GP2 Series champion, will make his debut in Formula One with Williams, alongside Barrichello.[37]
* Lucas Di Grassi, who placed third in the 2009 GP2 Series, will partner Timo Glock at Virgin Racing.[51]
Exited Formula One
* Kimi Räikkönen will be taking a one-year "sabbatical" from Formula One in 2010 after his managers confirmed that negotiations with McLaren officially came to an end.[111] On December 4, it was confirmed that Raikkonen would be joining the Citroën Junior Team in the 2010 World Rally Championship, driving a Citroën C4 WRC in twelve of the thirteen rounds of the championship.[112]
Returned to Formula One
* After several weeks of speculation, seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher officially joined Mercedes Grand Prix on December 23, 2009, ending a three-year hiatus from the sport.[1] Schumacher had originally intended to make a comeback with Ferrari in 2009 to stand in for the injured Felipe Massa, but a lasting injury from a motorcycle accident earlier in the year prevented him from doing so. According to Autosport,[1] the contract was not signed until he was given a clean bill of health. Schumacher had previously raced for Mercedes in the 1991 World Sportscar Championship.
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Calendar changes
* The British Grand Prix was due to move from Silverstone Circuit to Donington Park in 2010,[113] but on October 23, 2009, the owners of Donington Park admitted that plans to raise £135 million through a bond had failed.[114] After extended negotiations with Bernie Ecclstone, the organisers of the Silverstone circuit came to an agreement that will see the British Grand Prix hosted by the circuit for the next seventeen years, despite Ecclestone's earlier assertions that Siverstone would not be hosting the race again.[115] Work to the circuit for the 2010 British motorcycle Grand Prix means that the British Grand Prix may be run on the circuit's new "Arena" layout. However, Silverstone officials will wait until early in 2010 to make a decision on which circuit configuration the race will run on.[116]
* The Japanese Grand Prix was due to return to Fuji Speedway for 2010, as part of a year-on-year rotation with Suzuka Circuit. However, Fuji's owners Toyota announced that they had abandoned plans for Fuji to hold the race, citing the global recession as the main reason for this.[117] Suzuka will continue to hold the event in 2010 and in 2011.[118]
* The Canadian Grand Prix will return in 2010 after its one-year absence.[119]
* South Korea is to make its first appearance on the F1 calendar under the name Korean Grand Prix with a race being held at the Korean International Circuit in Yeongam on October 17 (subject to the circuit's completion in time).
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Rule changes
Proposed
* A budget cap of £40m ($63.7m, €45.4m) was originally proposed for 2010, with teams choosing to take up the budget cap being allowed greater technical freedom, together with unlimited testing. Teams choosing not to take up the budget cap would have been able to spend freely, but with technical and testing constraints.[120] However, the budget cap idea was dropped following the political crisis in the middle of the season.
Confirmed
* Refuelling during the race is to be abolished for the first time since 1993.[121] Despite the resolution over the budget cap and the decision for 2010 to fall back to the 2009 rules, FOTA have expressed interest in a refuelling ban as it represents a way to cut costs.[122]
* Formula One Management will offer financial support to all new teams from next season, in the form of $10m (£6.25m, €6.8m) along with the free transportation of two chassis and 10,000 kg (22,049 lbs) of freight to each race.[123]
* FOTA has agreed to scrap KERS for 2010 due to poor uptake and pressure from FIA to cut costs, although KERS is not banned in the regulations.[124]
* The minimum car weight will be increased from 605 kg to 620 kg (1,334 lbs to 1,367 lbs) to stop taller and heavier drivers being at a disadvantage if KERS is added to their car, which will still be allowed in 2010, despite FOTA's agreement not to use the system.[125]
* The maximum number of cars allowed to take part in a race shall be increased from 24 to 26 cars.[120]
* The qualifying system will change to accommodate the extra cars: 8 cars will drop out of the first qualifying session, 8 from the second and as in 2009, 10 cars will shoot-out for pole in the third session. The third session will now be run in low-fuel configuration due to the refuelling ban.[126]
* Wheel covers which have been used by the teams since 2006 are also set to be banned for 2010.
* The front tyres will be narrowed from 270mm to 245mm to improve the balance of grip between the front and rear.
* During negotiations of a new Concorde Agreement at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, several details[127] emerged of cost-cutting proposals by the teams including:
* Homologation of front and rear wings.
* A limit on the number of aerodynamic upgrades permitted over the course of a season.
* A continuation of the ban on in-season testing introduced for 2009.
* Restrictions on the number of team personnel who can attend a Grand Prix weekend.
* Complete closures of team factories over the mid-season summer break.
* A new points system has been ratified for 2010, in response to the increased grid. Since 2003, points had been awarded to the top eight finishers: ten points for first, eight for second, six for third and all the way down to one for eighth place. The 2010 system will see 25 points for first, 20 for second, 15 for third, ten for fourth and then eight, six, five, three, two, and finally one for tenth place.[93][128]
* The stewarding system will be overhauled for 2010. Rather than having a rotating line-up of stewards, they will now be drawn from a smaller, fixed pool of permanent stewards that will include former drivers.[129] This is an attempt to make the stewarding process more transparent, following recent controversies involving the stewards.
* 2009 saw the teams banned from conducting any testing once the season had commenced. This will be amended for 2010, with stand-in drivers being permitted to complete one day of testing (provided they have not participated in an F1 race in the last two calendar years) at a circuit that is not on the calendar.[130] This was introduced in response to a situation arising whereby rookie drivers such as Jaime Alguersuari and Romain Grosjean were unable to physically drive a Formula One car ahead of Friday practice on their debut.