Sebastian Vettel drove a superb race at Abu Dhabi to fight off every other contender, including his own team mate Mark Webber, to become the 2010 Formula 1 World Champion. The race was, naturally, a fraught affair given that the title was up for grabs by Alonso, Webber, Vettel and even our own Lewis Hamilton. However, the car and driver were just too strong a combination.

Well done to the Red Bull team and in particular Sebastian Vettel, who is officially the youngest world champion the sport has ever had.

Thus the Formula 1 2010 season draws to a close and we all look forward to what may happen next year. New rules, new complications and even more controversy are sure to follow. Not to mention the fact that the grid will be populated almost 20% by World Champions. Bring on the racing!

Read more and see the video at BBC Sport online.

In the most recent Formula 1 race that took place in Germany, there was an investigation into the radio message that appeared to suggest that Massa should move past to allow the quicker Alonso gain the greater number of points. They finished, as we well know, in the 1-2 position. Naturally, Ferrari were elated with the result, having had a rather up and down season in 2010. The question remains though, just what exactly should be done about team orders?

Well, for me, there are obvious positives and negatives. In favour is the fact that F1 is a team game. Without the 70 players that make a team, you’d have a driver and a broken car. It also means that the team is free to push a driver that clearly has more points than the other.

On the negative though, what exactly is the point of fielding two drivers if you’re just going to favour one over the other for the whole season? This destroys morale and ultimately breeds resentment in the sport. Not to mention the most obvious fact – it simply is not sporting in any way.

I’d like to see a ruling in future that means that the two cars on the grid (or more as has happened previously) must be of the same specification. Just where would be the fun if there wasn’t a true contest between the likes of Button and Hamilton? Ferrari, come on guys. Sort it out!

You can read the latest release about the Ferrari Germany win at the official Formula 1 site.

Monaco is one fearsome track, with tight turns, very few opportunities for overtaking and 5 long straights. In this video from Motors TV, Mark Webber explains just why Monaco is looked forward to by racing fans and worried about by drivers! It is a fantastic circuit with one of the most beautiful backdrops of any in the world. Good luck to McLaren (and especially the unfortunate Lewis Hamilton) this weekend.

The Chinese Grand Prix 2010 proved to be action packed all round, but the highlight of the day was the two McLaren team mates coming in on positions one and two respectively. Jenson Button brought home the number one position, followed just over a second later by his compatriot Lewis Hamilton.

Rain meant that there were numerous offs and tyre changes taking place very early on, with a number of laps conducted under the safety car. Alonso had a jump start which meant a penalty, but he still managed to bring in the goods for a fourth finish. Nico Rosberg managed to hold Alonso off and brought in a third position.

In another race incident, Hamilton and Vettel were both warned due to some wheel to wheel antics when emerging from the pit lane.

Overall, this has been the most exciting race of the season and hopefully means even more exciting things are to come.

Whilst his colleague Jenson Button took the Australian Grand Prix in dramatic fashion, Lewis Hamilton appeared in the news before the result by having his Mercedes car impounded. Following leaving practice for the race, Hamilton appeared to drive in an erratic fashion down the road leaving some tyre smoke in his wake. This was enough for the car to be impounded and the luckless driver to be booked.

In other news, Hamilton did manage to put in a good performance during the race, finishing a very commendable 6th position, which could have been a fourth but for a collision with Mark Webber.

Given the racing at Bahrain, it was pleasant to see that Australia had far more action, spills, offs and general racing moments. It looks as though this season could well hot up after all! Here’s the low-down of who finished where:

1 J Button
2 R Kubica
3 F Massa
4 F Alonso
5 N Rosberg
6 L Hamilton
7 V Liuzzi
8 R Barrichello
9 M Webber
10 M Schumacher

In terms of performance, it’s probably Vettel that I feel most sorry for. It looked as though at one point he was easily going to take first position, only to find that once again a brake failure lead to him having to be a ‘DNF’. Absolutely gutting, especially when Webber was also on course for a better position before the incident with Hamilton. However, it does prove what a cracking car Red Bull have.

I can’t believe it’s here already… The Formula 1 2010 Season is here! There’s been a wealth of news pre-season as I’ve kept you up to date with, including team changes, rule changes and of course the return of Michael Shumacher. So, where does the season begin?

2010 Formula 1 – Race 1 – Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix (Bahrain Sakhir)
Number of Laps: 49
Circuit Length: 6.299 km
Race Distance: 308.405 km
Lap Record: 1:30.252 – M Schumacher (2004)

Sakhir is a Grand Prix circuit with a variety of turns (of which there are 23 in total), with the close spacing of turns 6 to 13 proving to be particularly challenging. Sector 1 provides a good opening gambit with a mix of turns and speed. Sector 2 opens with a variety of turns, whilst sector 3 provides a long straight that will give the chance for the engines to open up.

Teams In Formula 1 2010 World Championship
1 McLaren-Mercedes
2 Mercedes Benz GP Ltd
3 RBR-Renault
4 Ferrari
5 Williams-Cosworth
6 Renault
7 Force India-Mercedes
8 STR-Ferrari
9 Lotus-Cosworth
10 HRT-Cosworth
11 BMW Sauber-Ferrari
12 Virgin-Cosworth

Television coverage
13/03/2010 10.10am BBC1 – Qualifying
14/03/2010 11.10am BBC1 – Race

My prediction
At this stage, it’s going to be very hard to tell who is going to be sitting at the front – but it’s worth pointing out that the rule changes (including no refuelling) could well open up the playing field more. However, in practice there are a few unexpected racers appearing near the top including Nico Rosberg, Vitaly Petrov (8th) and Sebastian Vettel (5th).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hamilton, Schumacher and Button were all recorded as putting in extremely strong performances. Perhaps this is going to be an extremely exciting year. I’ll certainly be glued to the television for the next two days!

I’m sure you’ll all have heard by now that Michael Schumacher is returning to F1 in 2010 – which will add a lot more excitement to the grid. Will he, however make an impact? Well, he certainly thinks so. You can read the article from The Times here. For my money, I’d reckon he’s going to be very competitive. Will he still have the edge though? Stranger things have happened in the sport…

In what has been seen by many in the business as the ‘dream team‘, McLaren have announced their new driver for the GP 2010 season – none other than Mr Jenson Button. So, what’s the story? Well, after Mercedes bought a controlling stake in Brawn, things got a lot more complicated. Talk from insiders very quickly became of the nature of Mercedes seeking an all-German team, though this seems unlikely when they’ve kept Ross Brawn in the ‘driving seat’ as it were.

Button is well known for seeking big pay packets and he sought to re-negotiate after winning the World Championship. Again, talking about rumours, they were that he was simply asking for too much and discussions repeatedly stalled. Then, a couple of weeks ago, we started hearing rumours that Lewis Hamilton, a former World Champion, would be joined by Jenson Button, the 2009 World Champion. McLaren have the buying power, that we know. They also have the ability to design a car that’s more than capable of winning.

This brings us to where we are now. The announcement. It’s almost world shattering and amazing at the same time. Where does it really leave Button though? Well, that’s a tough one. McLaren ‘is’ Hamilton’s team. The links with him, his family and the team are well known. He’s been their star driver, coming second in his first season then first in his second. There’ll be a lot of mutual respect in the garage between him and the engineers. Button, well he’s not exactly an unknown quantity, but will he accept the very different atmosphere from Brawn GP?

The other question that springs to mind is how the car is developed. Button has a superbly smooth driving style. He rarely looks ruffled and will manage a very low mistake ratio even when pushing the car very hard. Hamilton, to my mind an equally good driver, is worlds away in terms of style. You can see how he wrestles the car – he uses a much more physical touch. It’ll be amazing to see how they do when given the same quality equipment.

Ultimately, history has dictated that it’s not always great to have two World Champions in the same team, let alone of the same nationality. However, if there is little in the way of in-fighting then McLaren arguably have the two best drivers on the great. Give them the right wheels and we could be looking at the 2010 Manufacturer and Driver Championship winners. Though which driver it’ll be taking that title is anyone’s guess…

There are some wild rumours going around about just where Jenson Button is going to end up for the 2010 F1. Stories persist that Button had expectations of his salary going back up to £8 million – the mark that he was at prior to Honda bowing out of F1 before Brawn swooped in. Apparently though, Ross Brawn isn’t too keen to go all the way back up to that salary point following the £3 million that was paid to Button this year, despite him being the world title holder.

It’s unfortunate to say, but it’s hardly unexpected. Button is a talented driver but has been accused previously of joining and following teams for the money, rather than for the winning car. Having a winning car does put him in a stronger position when it comes to the negotiating team, but given a number of team members were actually paid off when Brawn came in (they operate as a smaller outfit than Honda did) it would be a little bit sickening to see that.

The alternative that Ross Brawn has put forward is to allow Jenson to go ahead and get more sponsorship deals. This seems very much more fair to me and F1 one drivers are not strangers to this kind of setup. It’s well known that some drivers don’t get a salary at all, but are paid exclusively by sport sponsors.

Of course, this leads us to an interesting dilemma of what exactly will happen if Jenson feels that he’s worth more than Brawn (whilst hugely successful this past season are still a small team) can offer? Well, this brings us back to the rumour that he may join Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, who are known to offer salaries only lesser than Ferrari – the oldest team on the grid. Ferrari is out for Button due to a dearth of drivers and it’s unlikely that Jenson would join one of the newer teams. But, much like Rossi and Lorenzo in Moto GP, could you have two hugely successful drivers in the same team? It didn’t seem to work so well for Barrichello at Brawn…