Wonderful to see another Senna back in Formula 1. Lets hope he has a decent piece of machinery to work with.

Possibly the most interesting contest will be between Button and Hamilton

Schumacher would not have signed for any team unless the car was fantastic and his team mate was ordered to play second fiddle

Alonso is not a team player and never will be. Won't be long before the toys start getting thrown out the pram.

Button will struggle to settle in a team so firmly based around LH

Best bet...That Mercedes must be soooooooooooo good for Schumi to comeback...8th title.

....how's Rosberg going to cope with being continually told to slow down and let him pass

1) Rosberg signed before Schumi, so we can be sure there's nothing in his contract about playing "second fiddle". If he's obviously better than Schumi, Mercedes will support him in the championship - they want/need to win as many points as possible.

2) As far as I can see nobody knows how the cars will perform relative to the others until testing starts, so there are no guarantees that the Mercedes car will be "fantastic".

Personally, I think its unlikely that Rosberg will find himself in front of Schumi v often, so the chance of him "being continually told to slow down and let him pass" are remote.

However, its all pure conjecture at the moment (albeit fun).

It is possible that Schumi will have lost his 'edge' and find it difficult to keep up with Rosberg (he is getting on and not raced in F1 for 3 years), but I suspect I'm not alone in thinking this extremely unlikely. Alonso/Hamilton/Massa may have the edge on Schumi now, but whilst Rosberg is a good driver I'm not convinced he's in the same league. Time will tell.

Another Bernie idea. Short cuts, which each driver is allowed to use 5 times in a race.

I guess Bernie got this idea from video games. Too many changes to the rules will confuse fans and teams IMO.

I thought this was a joke!

If not, I can (sort of) understand the reasoning, but 5 times?

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80987

The 'mindgames' have officially started

As F1 is preparing for the first test sessions Kimi has already started his preparations for WRC season. He's been testing whole week in central Finland and seems to be finding quite good speed on the snow.

At least based on this vid, quite amazing and no safety zones and tire barriers here. Just solid frozen woods

World Champion Jenson Button and 2008 Champion Lewis Hamilton launch McLaren's new F1 car, the MP4-25

Lewis likes the new car, and Rubens advice to Rosberg is leave. The last bit is probably tongue in cheek, but true.

Fernando Alonso sets pace on Ferrari debut at Valencia

Fernando Alonso got his Ferrari career off to a flying start by setting the fastest time of the major Formula 1 test at Valencia on Wednesday.The double world champion took over from Felipe Massa and set a best time of one minute 11.470 seconds - more than half a second clear of the field.

Pedro de la Rosa's Sauber was second, ahead of Michael Schumacher's Mercedes, which was 0.968secs off the pace.

McLaren's Jenson Button ended the day 1.481secs slower than Alonso.

The Englishman said he had spent a lot of time in the garage during the morning sorting out a problem with his seating position in the car.

He added that he was happy with the McLaren's reliability but that it was "too early" to judge the relative pace of the front-running cars.

cont. here

cant wait for the season to start

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport...one/8497949.stm

A new spread of points for 2010 increases the difference between first and second place, which is now seven points rather than two last year.

Last year, the points went down to eighth place, with 10 points for a win, eight for second and six for third.

Following a meeting of rules think-tank the F1 Commission on Monday, that has now been changed to extend the points down to 10th place with places rewarded in a 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 sequence.

It is the second change to the points system in as many months, after it was realised that a change to 25 points to a win and 20 for second place did not alter the percentage difference between first and second place.

That last paragraph absolutely staggers me! They changed the points system and then it dawned on them that the percentage difference between first and second remained the same?!!! My goodness me, are these people being paid to deliberate and come to these decisions?! I hope not!

I'm a bit old school on the points thing. Don't like the way they keep fiddling. And now with all the top 10 drivers scoring points, it takes away something from the prestige. Still, i guess it's better than the ridiculous medals nonsense!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport...one/8497949.stm

A new spread of points for 2010 increases the difference between first and second place, which is now seven points rather than two last year.

Last year, the points went down to eighth place, with 10 points for a win, eight for second and six for third.

Following a meeting of rules think-tank the F1 Commission on Monday, that has now been changed to extend the points down to 10th place with places rewarded in a 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 sequence.

It is the second change to the points system in as many months, after it was realised that a change to 25 points to a win and 20 for second place did not alter the percentage difference between first and second place.

That last paragraph absolutely staggers me! They changed the points system and then it dawned on them that the percentage difference between first and second remained the same?!!! My goodness me, are these people being paid to deliberate and come to these decisions?! I hope not!

I'm a bit old school on the points thing. Don't like the way they keep fiddling. And now with all the top 10 drivers scoring points, it takes away something from the prestige. Still, i guess it's better than the ridiculous medals nonsense!

Agree entirely. I too couldn't quite believe that they hadn't realised the new points system made no difference between 1st and 2nd place (and v little, if any for the other point scoring places other than 9th and 10th)

But then I thought about it..... fairly typical for top management (in any big business) to not have a clue.

Putting that aside - testing has started - means nothing yet, but at least we've got something to talk about!

Ferrari and McLaren are looking good (not to mention Sauber!) - Mercedes not so good. But early days yet.

imo the bigger points spread will be much better, more incentive to win, even between team mates. Hopefully, we wont have team orders for positions, let them duel it out. It will sort out the best driver. 2010 looks like another drama filled year.

The changes keep me interested. It definately beats the processions we had when Ferrari were virtually unbeatable, so boring!!

In saying that the 5x corner cutting sounds dumb

imo the bigger points spread will be much better, more incentive to win, even between team mates.

I agree but all we've done is go round in a circle to how it was before when first place = 10 points and second place = 6 points. Only difference now is they now give points to all drivers in the top ten. Is that a good thing? I'm not so sure.

Now that some of the cars have had their 1st runs. Which is the ugliest, appreciating that beauty is in the eye of the beholder? That fin on top pf the Ferrari looks ridiculous. I know the McLaren has one but the Ferrari looks really out of place. Actually there could be a safety issue here.

Hi Wot engines Sauber running ~~ I know I could google it but I am lazy!

TBWG

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/f1-2010-season/

I think they have got the engine out of Del and Rodney's flying pig .

Now that some of the cars have had their 1st runs. Which is the ugliest, appreciating that beauty is in the eye of the beholder? That fin on top pf the Ferrari looks ridiculous. I know the McLaren has one but the Ferrari looks really out of place. Actually there could be a safety issue here.

the Merc looks worse imo, esp in lime green

ferarri

mclaren has none

No, they had like a vertical fin. Look at the pics on the F1 website

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/2/10404.html

http://www.formula1.com/gallery/testing/2010/480.html

arh ok

Anyone planing to go to the F1 in singapore this year? 'Er in doors' aka the Wife agreed to let me go down this year for the weekend, but need to book way way in advance to get room/flights...

Anyone planing to go to the F1 in singapore this year? 'Er in doors' aka the Wife agreed to let me go down this year for the weekend, but need to book way way in advance to get room/flights...

[/quoteR

i worked 3 years for Red bull then Honda F1, went to over 40 races and 60 tests , dawn till dusk ,Button winning last year shocked me i always said he would not win as long as he has a hole in is arse(sorry add min) i was shocked he was arrogant moody like a child, i think Ros Brawn and the germans will shine in 2012 (cars go fast for longer than 1 year in this sport ) so expect a German podium championship in 2012 but they will win 3 races min this year ,as for Button and Lewis ,its easy Button took 10 years and a lot of luck ,Lewis took 2 years and a lot of bad luck , Shumacher was the first of the drivers at the circuit and last to leave that says it all to me good luck to the Brits but if the Brazillians did it i would get my flag out

Anyone planing to go to the F1 in singapore this year? 'Er in doors' aka the Wife agreed to let me go down this year for the weekend, but need to book way way in advance to get room/flights...

Sorry, Singapore doesn't interest me as its a boring circuit.

But, I'm thinking of going to Malaysia.....

Is there a race there this year? Must check when.

See page 7, and Sepang would be my choice. Good value and a great circuit.

No USF1 team on the grid.

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/teams/us-f1/

See page 7, and Sepang would be my choice. Good value and a great circuit.

Well I have got everything booked for OZ GP and getting excited! Just done a check on my Hotel and it is on King street. Another report on the area says it is the place to go after dark if you want to get beaten up. Oh dear!

But what Ding Dong decided to rename Campos the" Hispanic Racing Team". HRT for short

TBWG

If the perform really badly, they might wish for some HRT.

A new spread of points for 2010 increases the difference between first and second place, which is now seven points rather than two last year.