With three races down – is the new points system working if Felipe Massa is leading?

With three races completed, Bahrain, Australia and Malaysia there have been three winners so far, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Sebastien Vettel but it’s Felipe Massa who leads the Championship. It may be by only 2 points but it seems strange that a points system that was designed to give winning races more emphasis is being led by a driver who hasn’t won yet.
The table itself is very close with 9pts covering the first 7 drivers:

1. Felipe Massa
Ferrari
39

2. Fernando Alonso
Ferrari
37

3. Sebastian Vettel
Red Bull Racing
37

4. Jenson Button
McLaren
35

5. Nico Rosberg
Mercedes GP
35

6. Lewis Hamilton
McLaren
31

7. Robert Kubica
Renault
30

Though I doubt this will hold all season it does mean that you can hold onto the people who are winning even if you don’t manage it yourself. I’m sure that Felipe Massa will be wanting to win and justify that position at the top but with all the different people who seem to be in with [...]

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 [...]

Can Sebastien Vettel go one step further this season?

Sebastien Vettel stormed his way to second place in the World Championship in 2009 and he’ll want to go one step futher in 2010. The competition this season will be stronger for sure, McLaren and Ferrari won’t be off the pace and Mercedes will be in close company too so he’ll have to perform better than last year.
Red Bull seem quietly confident about their car, it has done well in winter testing but rarely did it grab the headline times – it did run faster more consistently than some though. It seems that they won’t miss out on any technical oversights like last year with the double diffuser – they would probably be world champions if they had used one from the first race in 2009.
To beat Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher to the title Vettel needs to start the season with the same raw [...]