[Archived] Formula 1

[Grabbi Graeme]

F1 is back next weekend and here are the teams and drivers competing this year

McLaren

Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton

All eyes will be on the back to back British champions as Button looks to keep his title and Hamilton wants the title back.

Mercedes

Michael Schumacher and Niko Rosberg

A lot of F1 fans wonder if they would ever see Schumacher back in F1, many might think it is a publicity stunt from Mercedes who are the new owners of Brawn, but Schumacher will be up for the fight,many fans will also want to see Schumacher go wheel to wheel with Hamilton.

Schumacher's team mate is Niko Rosberg who will certainly have to live in Schumacher's shadow, Rosberg never got a chance at Williams in a competitive car, he could have a chance this season to score points in a more competitive car.

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber

Surprised some last season and both drivers pushed Button and Barrichelo at the later stages of last season, expect them to be there again.

Ferrari

Fellipe Massa and Fernando Alonso

Massa back after last season's horrific injury and his team mate this year is Alonso who is never the easiest person to get on with, so will be interesting to see how this partnership develops.

Williams

Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg

Still looking to get back to anyway near the way they were, this year see's two new drivers, Rubens Barrichello has come in after a great season at Brawn and Nico Hulkenberg who after coming through the ranks of racing and winning GP2 has been compared to Hamilton and Vettel.

Renault

Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov

After a year of making the headlines for the wrong reasons last season they will be hoping to make headlines on the track for racing this time around, questions about reliability after several failures last year, also just signed a sponsorship deal with AvtoTAZ who are owned by the Russian car maker Lada.

Kubica is an experienced driver in F1 while Russian Vitaly Petrov is new to it, he was GP2 runner up in 2009.

Force India

Adrian Sutil and Vintantonio Liuzzi

Now in their third year of F1 racing, they got 13 points last season and will no doubt be looking at that mark again.

Toro Rosso

Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari

Toro Roso have always enjoyed hand me downs from Red Bull as both teams are owned by the same company, but this year that has stopped and they have had to build their own car this season although it is still powered by a Ferrari engine.

Buemi and Alguersuari are very young drivers, both drove for the team last season although Alguersuari only drove for the last eight races.

Lotus

Jano Truli and Hekki Kovalainen

One of the most famous names associated with F1 is back, in Truli they have an experienced driver, Kovalainen didn't have the best of times at McLaren and will be hoping to get his career back on track.

Hispania Racing

Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna

A new team and they have already undergone a management and name change before they have even got on to the track, they haven't had the best pre season and both Karun Chanhok and Bruno Senna (nephew of Aryton) are rookies and will be making their debuts in the first race in Bahrain.

Sauber

Pedro De La Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi

BMW pulled their money out of the team at the end of of last season and Sauber have have had to find funding elswhere, driverwise it's opposite ends of the scale De La Rosa returns to full time F1 at the age of 39 after 7 years of being the McLaren reserve driver and Kobayashi who made an impact racing the last two races of last season in a Toyota.

Virgin Racing

Timo Glock and Lucas Di Grassi

Originally called Manor Motorsport before Sir Richard Branson came along with some financial backing, after his success with Brawn last season, Branson who admits he likes to support the underdog has put his name to this team.

Something the team is also doing which is unusual in F1 is that they have not used a wind tunnel in the devolpment of the car instead they have used CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics).

In the driver dept they have Timo Glock who has spent two years at Toyota and Lucas Di Grassi who is a former Renault test driver making his debut in F1.

Race Calender

14th March Bahrain

28th March Australia

4th April Malaysia

18th April China

9th May Spain

16th May Monaco

30th May Turkey

13th June Canada

27th June Valencia (European GP)

11th July Britain

25th July Germany

1st August Hungary

29th August Belgium

12th Sept Italy

26th Sept Singapore

10th Oct Japan

24th Oct South Korea

7th Nov Brazil

14th Nov Abu Dhabi

[Presty On Tour]

Schmacher is 22/1 with Coral for todays race.

E/W bet this morning

[T4E]

Does e/w cover podium?

Alonso for me. Button will be exposed with a more level playing field.

[T4E]

Alonso for me.

~!

[Exiled_Rover]

I forgot how boring F1 is.

[Presty On Tour]

Yeah each way is the top 3.

6th for Schumacher but he beat the current world champion in his first race back. I was hoping for a lot more retirements in all honesty.

Didn't watch the race as I was working but heard is was a bore!

[SAS]

Yeah each way is the top 3.

6th for Schumacher but he beat the current world champion in his first race back. I was hoping for a lot more retirements in all honesty.

Didn't watch the race as I was working but heard is was a bore!

Mclaren really need to sort their downforce issue out with the cornering. On the straights they kicked arse.

They also seem to be a very reliable car, whereas Ferrari and red bull had a few issues. Mercedes also had a strong race but are still quite away from a race win I feel.

[Grabbi Graeme]

Another good win for Hamilton and a 1-2 finish for Mclaren for the 2nd race in a row, somebody should tell Schumacher that it's F1 not bumper cars, some very aggresive driving from him in the race including nearly putting Massa into the wall as Massa tried to overtake.

Luzzi had a scrap with Schumacher aswell and got bumped before getting past the German

[Al]

Another good win for Hamilton and a 1-2 finish for Mclaren for the 2nd race in a row, somebody should tell Schumacher that it's F1 not bumper cars, some very aggresive driving from him in the race including nearly putting Massa into the wall as Massa tried to overtake.

Luzzi had a scrap with Schumacher aswell and got bumped before getting past the German

Schumacher has always been over aggressive to the point of cheating. He is dangerous to other drivers and after yesterdays performance should receive a ban.

[Flopsy]

Nah, he's not lewis Hamilton or McLaren, so no action will be taken

[BiggusLaddus]

Lovelly bit of karma on the last lap when he ended up outside the points. He was horrendous yesterday, but that 'trick' Kubica pulled on his entrance to the pits!

[Grabbi Graeme]

Can't believe that Ferrari only got a $100,000 fine for breaking the rules at yesterdays German GP, the radio message given to Massa was a coded instruction for him to let Alonso past.

Massa must of been really p****d off, the way he slowed right down to highlight the fact he was letting Alonso past, if Alonso is as good as he says he is then he should of been to get past Massa using his own ability.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

$100,000 is the maximum I think, it can be raised by the FIA iirc.

EDIT: No it can't, but they can impose point penalties.

[Grabbi Graeme]

Ferrari should of had points deducted, also Alonso should been stripped of his first place finish, this paltry fine is a joke.

[Presty On Tour]

F1 is boring these days.

On top gear last sunday there was a tribute to Senna R.I.P. So much more about the skills of the drivers back then.

[SAS]

Such a shame that ferrari made the German GP irrelevant. Was disgraceful.

[T4E]

Its been a really good season so far, plenty to talk about and not boring int he slightest.

Big Alonso fan but Sunday was crap, disappointed that they chose to do that.

[Biddy]

This year has been one of the most exciting for ages. I fell out of love with the sport during the Ferrari / Schumacher arrogance years. Looks like they are back to their old tricks which leaves a bad taste in the mouth and puts people off the "sport" for good. And Alonso is a distasteful young man the way he behaved at McLaran when he wasn't treated as the messiah and now to Massa. Thinks he is far bigger than he really is.

[Grabbi Graeme]

F1 is boring these days.

On top gear last sunday there was a tribute to Senna R.I.P. So much more about the skills of the drivers back then.

The Senna tribute was great, Top Gear are often critised for the show, but they got it spot on with that tribute.

The governing body of motorsport are to take a look at the German GP and they have the authority to impose a greater punishment to Ferrari, here's hoping they do.

[Iceman]

im a Ferrari fan, but that was utter rubbish. Why be so blatant about it, they could have thought of a better way to let Alonso pass. Im not happy with it, and i feel very sorry for Massa. He deserved the win imo.

[AlanK]

F1 is boring these days.

On top gear last sunday there was a tribute to Senna R.I.P. So much more about the skills of the drivers back then.

Care to elaborate?

[jim mk2]

Care to elaborate?

The political machinations off the track are quite fun but the "sport" itself is dull, dull, dull. Remember the days when drivers overtook each other in their cars rather than during the pit stops ? Bring back Jim Clark and Graham Hill, I say.

[AlanK]

The political machinations off the track are quite fun but the "sport" itself is dull, dull, dull. Remember the days when drivers overtook each other in their cars rather than during the pit stops ? Bring back Jim Clark and Graham Hill, I say.

I was referring to the comment about lack of skill. There is a common misconception that these cars are loaded with driver aids. That used to be the case but the days of traction control ( which was awful ) are long gone. These drivers are driving the cars make no mistake.

And Jim, as for the other misconceprion about the lack of overtaking you couldn`t be more wrong. This is just a common and cheap attack on the sport. Lewis made 32 overtaking manevoures in the 1st 4 races alone. Jenson started 14th at Silverstone and finished 4th. Vettel went to the back of the grid at Silverstone and still came in 6th/7th.

This season is set up. 5 drivers all within 1 victory of each other with 8 races to go.

Still we can always look forward to the premier league season starting because thats never predictable is it?

[Presty On Tour]

I think taking away the fuel pit stops was a shame as there is less options for a race plan.

The drivers skill now seems to be save fuel/tyres just to finish the race where as before they were pushing it to the limit and could also change their stratergy during the race. The smaller teams have less chance competing because of this restriction imo.

[Grabbi Graeme]

Taking away the refueling was the the best thing for the sport, too many races being won on fuel strategy rather than on the track, I remember Niko Rosberg doing an interview last year when it was revealed that refueling would be banned in 2010.

He said in the interview that he asked his father who is former F1 champion Keke Rosberg how he supposed to drive a car that was full of fuel, his father's reply was.

"Same as I had to do in my day"

Even now the cars arn't fueled fully and drivers have to drive part of the race saving fuel, Sunday's race was expected to be a bit of a bore as there is not much chance of overtaking on the Hungaroring circuit.

But a safety car out on the track which meant teams were scrambling to change tyres while the safety car was out which resulted in a crash in the pit lane, Vettel with a drive through penalty due to not adearing to the rules and Hamilton's car breaking down.

All this resulted in a different race than expected and changed the championship standings, as for Schumacher his move across on Barrichello was a disgrace, he could have put Barrichello into the wall.

It's not the first time that Schumacher has done this, he tried a similar move on Massa earlier this season.

He has been punished by a 10 place drop on the grid for the Belgian GP, maybe it is time he realised his return to F1 was maybe not a good idea and he should think about ending his career before he seriously hurts somebody.