With just over 1 week until the first Grand Prix race of the 2010 season in Bahrain, we thought it’s be a nice idea to summarise what’s happened between Jenson Button’s 2009 Championship win, and now.

Teams

Shortly after the end of the 2009 season, Japanese team Toyota announced that they would no longer take part in Formula One due to financial reasons. This left drivers Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock without a drive. Previous to this, BMW Sauber had also announced that they were also pulling out of F1 due to BMW not wanting to take part, again leaving drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica looking for jobs.

Sauber however managed to salvage the team, bringing it to F1 in 2010 – Although the team lost both drivers in the process, as well as the BMW Engine. Sauber are still registered as BMW Sauber, despite the lack of BMW – choosing to use a Ferrari engine instead.

Constructers champions Brawn GP were also bought out by German car manufacturer Mercedes, renaming the team Mercedes GP. Ross Brawn stays in his position as Team Principal.

4 new teams were billed to join the 2010 season, Virgin Racing, Campos (Now HRT Racing), US F1, and Lotus. US F1 recently announced that they are pulling out of the 2010 season, being unable to complete their development programme in time, and now focussing on a 2011 entry. It is understood that Stefan GP attempted to take the remaining slot on the F1 grid, however the FIA rejected their entry based on the time before the first race (some 2 weeks).

Drivers

The first major scalp in the driver juggle was Kimi Raikkonen. Mid 2009 season Ferrari announced that Renault driver Fernando Alonso would be joining the team, leaving Raikkonen without a 2009 race seat. Raikkonen was understood to only want a seat in one of two available cars, the Brawn or McLaren – however neither deal was made (likely due to the high price Raikkonen was commanding) and Raikkonen left F1 (albeit maybe temporarily).

The second biggest shock of the driver reshuffle was the move of 2009 championship winner Jenson Button over to McLaren. He joins the 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton for an all British line-up. Widely seen as a risky move, time will tell if this change was a good one for Button.

The final big news was the announcement of Michael Schumacher to the Mercedes GP team. Schumacher returns out of retirement for 3 years to lead an all German lineup with Nico Rosberg as his partner. Schumacher originally planned an F1 return in 2009 when Felipe Massa pulled out after an accident, however was unable to due to suffering a neck injury after a motorbike accident.

Remaining driver positions can be seen in our Guide to 2010 driver lineups.

Important Rule Changes

• Refuelling has been banned during the race. Drivers will only be able to pitstop with problems and tyre changes.
• The top ten drivers to qualify for the race must start the race on the same set of tyres that quaified with.
• A new points system is now in place (see here)
• KERS, although not banned by the FIA, will not be used by FOTA teams in 2010.
• A Grand Prix can now take upto 26 cars.
• Wheel covers are banned on all cars.
• Front tyres have been slightly narrowed in comparison to rear tyres
• No testing rules have been slightly amended to allow any backup drivers 1 day of testing on a circuit not part of the 2010 season in order to prepare them for racing.

Circuit Changes

British GP track Donington pulled out of hosting the 2010 GP, and any future ones after they could not secure the funding for the endeavour. After weeks of speculation, and the chance of no British Grand Prix on the timetable, an agreement was placed between F1 Administration and Silverstone to host the British GP for the next 17 years.

The Canadian Grand Prix will return in 2010. Fuji Speedway was also due to host the 2010 Japanese GP, however track owners Toyota pulled out of this as well, leaving Suzuka to continue holding the race.

Finally, South Korea will host its first GP at the Korean International Circuit in the latter part of the season.

Ex BMW-Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld has confirmed that he will join newly formed Mercedes GP as their reserve driver, sealing the all German lineup with Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. Nick said,

“I am very pleased to be joining the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS Formula One Team. It’s the team which has attracted the most interest in the close season, not only because of the comeback of Michael Schumacher, but also because this season sees the return of the Silver Arrows cars as a Mercedes-Benz works team for the first time in over fifty years. Whilst I would of course have preferred a seat as an active driver, I am really proud to be part of the new Silver Arrows team. I have seen how committed everyone at the team is and I feel the same. I will be doing my very best to support Michael and Nico this year”

Heidfeld suffered a pretty terrible season in 2009, with his first retirement of his F1 career, which was a great record. Whilst always managing to finish races, Heidfeld has failed to make it as a race winner on all occasions, and has only managed 12 podiums in his 10 years in Formula 1.

The teams, working with the FIA have agreed a new points system for the 2010 F1 season. The top 10 drivers will now receive points rather than the top 8, in an attempt to encourage teams to race for the win.

The new points system, starting with P1 will be as follows: 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1.

In addition to this change, drivers will have to start with the same set of tyres that they qualified with, specifically, the set of tyres that they set their grid time with for their position.

Finally, the controversial double diffusers that ignited a court case at the beginning of the 2009 season will be banned from 2011 onwards. This will ultimately mean less downforce on the cars next year.

19-year-old Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari will continue driving for the Toro Rosso team in 2010. Alguersuari has only 8 races experience in F1, from when he took over from Sebastien Bourdais in the latter half of last season.

Scuderia Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost said:

“Considering that he made his debut only halfway through 2009 with no prior testing, he did a good job, making steady progress throughout the second half of the year with a mature approach, considering he is still only 19 years old.

“This season, he will again face a steep learning curve as all the circuits in the first part of the season will be new to him. Jaime’s appointment also confirms our team’s commitment to bringing on graduates of the Red Bull Young Driver Programme.”

Mercedes Grand Prix have announced that they will launch their 2010 challenger on 25th January.

The launch will take place at the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart. The car will debut at the Valencia circuit on 1st February, at the first pre season test.

The Mercedes team will race under the Mercedes name this season after purchasing reigning world champions Brawn GP.

According to the Swiss daily newspaper Blick, Sauber will confirm Pedro de la Rosa to drive alongside Kamui Kobayashi in 2010 for the new team.

The newspaper said that an announcement will be made soon, barring “an earthquake in Hinwil.”

The 38-year-old Spaniard has had two previous stints in an F1 race seat from 99-02 with Arrows and Jaguar and from 05-06 at McLaren, before become a full time test driver for McLaren. In his 72 races, he collected 29 points with just 1 podium, and 0 wins.

Last week team owner Peter Sauber was quoted as saying that “an experienced man” with “new knowledge for the team” has been signed to partner Kobayashi in 2010 – a bill perfectly fitted by de la Rosa.

Christian Klien and Nick Heidfeld are other drivers in the running for the seat.

Niki Lauda believes that Michael Schumacher will be competitive in his bid eighth world championship, but he is not willing to bet on it.

The 60-year-old Austrian Lauda returned successfully in the 80s to win his third and last title in 1984. He said in German newspaper Bild:

“Everything depends on the car, and at the end of last season Vettel had the best one. What is for sure is that there are many more strong drivers in the field now than in Schumacher’s last years.

“There’s no question he can keep up. But I’m betting no money.”

Jenson Button and Ross Brawn have both been placed on the Queen’s New Year’s Honour list, with Button receiving an MBE, and Brawn receiving an OBE.

Button said that the honour was the “crowning glory” of his amazing year, starting from the ashes of Honda, and coming out the other end with a drivers and constructers World Championship win.

Chiefs of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix have announced that they will keep the ‘twilight’ day/night timing of the Grand Prix and the pit exit tunnel, despite both elements coming under fire from some quarters.

When quizzed on the twilight timing of the race and the tricky pit lane tunnel with no speed-limit, circuit boss Richard Cregan said:

“Nothing will change in that respect.”

The Yas Marina circuit won the 2009 race promoters award at the FIA gala and has been given the privilege of holding the last race of the 2010 season for the second consecutive year.

The plans for all 2010 teams to launch their cars at the same time in a common launch have been scrapped.

The issues with the possible joint launch due to be held in Valencia next month were that it was thought that certain teams would get more coverage than others, and some teams like Lotus said that they would not have a car ready by the time of the common launch.

The idea has not been scrapped forever however, as FOTA will re-evaluate the concept for the 2011 season.