Practice 1 in Bahrain, Adrian Sutil and Force India top the times

The first practice is now over and we have our first taste of F1 for 2010 and it is Force India with Adrian Sutil that take the top spot with Alonso and Ferrari second. Fourth spot also went to Ferrari to reinforce the general view that their car is fast.

Other stars were Kubica to haul the Renault up to third spot when it hasn’t looked that fast throughout testing. Jenson Button managed to get in front of Hamilton in the first session in their battle, it doesn’t mean that much but every little victory will help. Rosberg also finished ahead of Schumacher who was unhappy with the car setup throughout the session, how many times in the past have we seen Schumacher struggle all weekend to then take the Victory on Sunday though?
Liuzzi finished seventh to show that the Force India does indeed have pace but the Saubers somewhat disappointingly [...]

All the rookies of 2010, Senna, Hulkenberg, Petrov, di Grassi and Chandhok – what to expect?

The 2010 grid has five new drivers on it, that’s a lot for one season but there could have easily been more had US F1 made the grid. Nico Hulkenberg joins the Williams team, Vitaly Petrov joins Renault, Lucas di Grassi joins Virgin Racing and both Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok join HRT Cosworth. Most of these come directly from GP2 with Nico Hulkenberg the reigning champion.
Nico Hulkenberg has risen to stardom very quickly showing a talent that Willi Webber says reminds him of a young Michael Schumacher (who was it who said the same about Vettel?) and took the GP2 title impressively in his first season, will he have a similarly explosive start to his F1 career? Petrov and di Grassi have been around in GP2 for much longer and have finally made the leap into F1. Both need to prove that they are capable of competing at this [...]

With Bahrain just a week away, what’s new for F1 in 2010?

The first race of the 2010 F1 season in Bahrain is just a week away, it seems like it’s been a long winter. There are many things that are different (I won’t say new) this year in F1. New rules, new teams, new drivers and we’ll all see who’s done the best job over the last few months.
There are a few new rules this year such as the refueling ban and the ban on wheel spinners. As well as technical changes like the tyre size and the new points system of 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1. I may not agree with all of them – especially the refueling ban, I just don’t see how it can possibly improve overtaking – but they are here and the teams and drivers must make the best use of them.
We will have three new teams on the grid for the first race of the season, Virgin, Lotus and [...]

McLaren and Lewis Hamilton end the last test on a high

The McLaren is looking good for this year posting the fastest times of the last few tests. It looks quick in both the hands of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. The Red Bull and the Ferrari also ended the testing at the sharp end – it looks like the title contenders are starting to show themselves.
Force India take fourth spot in a reasonably impressive set of pre-season testing times, I wonder how they will perform at the first GP, the car was good at the end of last year so perhaps they can impress. Sauber have impressed at Jerez but they haven’t made a massive impact at Barcelona, does that point to a car that is hard to setup or one that prefers certain circuits? Whatever the reason they now have two weeks to understand it.
Lotus have made a good start to their F1 challenge too, they have completed the [...]