Driver movements for 2010, the ongoing merry-go-round

2010 sees the most changed grid in a long while and whereas the new teams and drivers receive a lot of press there are also a good few drivers who’ve changed teams over the winter. Some of them for the better and some for worse.

Jenson Button – Brawn to McLaren
Rubens Barrichello – Brawn to Williams
Nico Rosberg – Williams to Mercedes
Fernando Alonso – Renault to Ferrari
Timo Glock – Toyota to Virgin
Jarno Trulli – Toyota to Lotus
Heikki Kovalainen – McLaren to Lotus
Robert Kubica – BMW Sauber to Renault

Some of the moves were forced such as Timo Glock, Jarno Trulli and to some extent Robert Kubica because of the demise of the team though in Kubica’s case Sauber re-emerged later on. Glocks move sees him end up at Virgin and Trulli’s at Lotus – two of the new teams – only time will tell whether these moves make sense and a lot of [...]

Mark Webber and Red Bull top the first day at Barcelona

Red Bull finally jumped to the top of the times in good conditions with Mark Webber in Barcelona. It will be a great boost to them to see the car at the top of the times and give them the confidence that this years car might be able to compete right at the sharp end. With Ferrari and McLaren down in 5th and 7th some two seconds off the pace though I’m not sure that much confidence can be there yet.
Sauber are still appearing in the top four runners as they have almost everywhere on everyday. It shows that they are consistent and they seem to have reliability. With their technical director Willi Rampf saying that they aren’t happy with the balance of the car and that there’s still a lot of work to do it seems that the other mid field teams are going to have another battle.
Yesterday also [...]

Four day view of the second test in Jerez, Jenson Button ends up top with McLaren

With the weather in Spain still damp for most of the test and the teams request for a warmer location turned down everyone knuckled down to see what they could get done. Their efforts were rewarded near the end of the test with some dry running, with the dry days being right at the end of the test we can’t really compare the drivers as some of them never really got a dry track to drive on.
Team wise though we see that Jenson Button and McLaren take the top spot but that surprisingly Renault have come from nowhere to post the second fastest time of the whole test, I don’t know how consistent these times are but that’s fast for the Jerez tests, that must give some encouragement to them. Sauber still show in the top three confirming that they might be a good bet for some points this year.
Red [...]

Day one at Jerez, Red Bull are back on form – at last

The second Jerez got underway today at a damp track, the teams are frustrated at having to stick to the wet venue as their request to move the test somewhere warmer fell through. It seems some of the teams were more annoyed than others voicing the frustration though less official channels such as twitter feeds.
On track we saw the Red Bull finally regain the form of last season by topping the times ahead of the McLaren piloted by Lewis Hamilton. The times aren’t as quick as last week yet so the other teams could yet overtake them.
Toro Rosso and BMW Sauber put in another good show to confirm that their pace is good and they put their cars ahead of Michael Schumacher Mercedes. Ferrari took the third spot as they concentrate on setup work.
Williams didn’t have such a good day ending up bottom of the established teams and having some [...]