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!
Leave a Reply