After a long winter, Formula One is officially back! The cars got back on track early this morning, and as usual, we are not any closer to understanding the pecking order between the teams. FP1 saw all the teams run their installation laps and start cranking out a few laps, with HRT running their first ever laps in the brand new car. Having missed all of winter testing, the car was suffering problems and sat on stands until the last few minutes of FP1. Senna had a chance to run 3 installation laps to shake down the car and returned to the pits without running an actual timed lap. Teammate Karun Chandhok had it worst, watching from the sidelines as his car was not ready to run. His car has not hit the track for either sessions today.

The Bahrain 2010 Driver's Line-Up Parade - Photo Credit @thefifthdriver (twitter)

The big news today is that the FIA has given McLaren the go ahead on their driver controlled blown wing system, which has given Hamilton the top trap speeds for both sessions at 311km/h. There were many vocal opponents to the system, mainly, Bob Bell from Renault, who ranted live on the BBC broadcast. He believes McLaren is cheating, even though he also admits that the system does adhere to the regulations. Ross Brawn from Mercedes was also critical of the system, complaining that the teams now have to invest a huge amount of money to research, copy, and develop a competing system. Funny he wasn’t complaining last year when his Brawn GP car had the radical double diffuser, which was also approved, and led to the exact scenario for the other teams that had to copy the idea.

Red Bull has given up on protests, and knows they have to copy the system. It started off right at the photo shoot before FP1, where Webber and Vettel were sneaking around the McLaren chassis and looking inside whenever possible.

As teams struggle to copy the system, some interesting tidbits has come to light. For 2010, the monocoque is homogolated, therefore you can not change the tub to accomodate the system. McLaren has a hole in their tub in front of the driver for the snorkel to draw air into the cockpit control system, so other teams can not simply drill in a new hole there. They have to use existing holes, which will be hard to come by. F1 engineers do not like holes in the tub, as it weakens the stiffness of the tub. An option is to run it through the nosecone, with the inlet at the tip, but trying to get the airflow from there, to a driver control system, to the rear wing will prove difficult with a lack of access holes. F1 engineers are most likely the smartest engineers on this planet, so expect the teams to find and copy the system a few races in.

Renault, being off the pace as predicted, has asked the FIA to allow them to make changes to their engines. The team feels that they are 30hp behind the front runners, and has asked for special permission to modify their engines to catch up. If this gets approved, Red Bull will benefit huge, as a boost in power will bring them closer to the front runners. Even though Red Bull was a heavy favorite in pre-season testing, they did not make a big impression in either practice sessions.

Free Practice 2 saw most teams doing long run simulations, where Hamilton somehow managed to destroy his rear tires in only 4 laps at the beginning of the session. As tire wear management will be the key to winning races this year, Lewis has a bit of work to do to catch up to Button’s superior tire management skills. Because most teams were doing long runs, there were no blistering times, and again, we’re still just as lost as we were 2 weeks ago when winter testing wrapped up as to where the teams stand. At Mercedes, Rosberg clocked the fastest time, which means he beat out his teammate, seven time World Champion Michael Schumacher, in both sessions. Awesome.

Back to HRT, how did they end up doing? Senna got a few timed laps in, and ended FP2 with the car stopped as the rear wheel almost fell of the car. Ouch.

FP1

1. Sutil 1:56.583
2. Alonso 1:56.766 +0.183
3. Kubica 1:57.041 +0.458
4. Massa 1:57.055 +0.472
5. Button 1:57.068 +0.485
6. Hamilton 1:57.163 +0.580
7. Liuzzi 1:57.194 +0.611
8. Rosberg 1:57.199 +0.616
9. Webber 1:57.255 +0.672
10. Schumacher 1:57.662 +1.079

FP2

1. Rosberg 1:55.409
2. Hamilton 1:55.854 +0.445
3. Schumacher 1:55.903 +0.494
4. Button 1:56.076 +0.667
5. Vettel 1:56.459 +1.050
6. Hulkenberg 1:56.501 +1.092
7. Massa 1:56.555 +1.146
8. Petrov 1:56.750 +1.341
9. Alonso 1:57.140 +1.731
10. De La Rosa 1:57.255 +1.846

Mercedes GP Petronas
Chassis: Mercedes MGP W01
Engine: Mercedes-Benz FO 108X
Drivers: Michael Schumacher (3), Nico Rosberg (4)

Yes, you read that correctly. 7 time world champion Michael Schumacher is back in F1, racing for the all German Mercedes GP team. As you all know, I’m not the biggest fan of MS, so I’m glad he’s back, so he can be finally challenged by the world’s best drivers in similar cars. Rosberg and Schumacher were neck and neck during testing, lapping times as one of the top 4 teams. Expect some surprised by the first race, as the team, even during week 4, was still using their 2009 diffuser. The 2010 aerodynamic package will be unveiled at the first 2010 F1 weekend. Unfortunately, we don’t know if this is due to running behind schedule, or if they’re hiding something revolutionary until the absolute last minute, so it’s really tough to figure out where they stand.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Chassis: McLaren MP4-25
Engine: Mercedes-Benz FO 108X
Drivers: Jenson Button (1), Lewis Hamilton (2)

Save the best preview for last. All the cards are in McLaren’s favor for 2010. A blown wing that’s raised questions amongst other F1 teams, the 2 most recent World Champions piloting the cars, and of course, winning the winter championships by clocking the fastest laps in 3 of 4 weeks of testing. McLaren spent their 4 weeks gathering tons of data, as they have a huge development program throughout the season. They proved last year that they are the best at mid season developments now that testing is banned, so they are in a good position to leapfrog other teams, even if they aren’t the fastest at Bahrain this weekend. But from testing, they look like they are about to lead the charge, with Lewis Hamilton on the final day of testing showing what the MP4-25 is capable of in a long run, with the tires in excellent shape after each stint. Go McLaren!

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Chassis: Ferrari F10
Engine: Ferrari Type 056
Drivers: Felipe Massa (7), Fernando Alonso (8)

The first of the top 4 teams, Ferrari continues to run impressive pace during all 4 weeks of testing. Felipe Massa has shown that he’s lost none of his speed after his terrifying near death accident at Hungary last year. Alonso, joining the Scuderia after swearing years ago that he would never drive for the red team, ran several impressive long run stints, which was only bettered by the final race simulation by Lewis Hamilton on the last day of week 4 testing. There are signs that the Ferrari are the best at managing their tires, enough so that they may be running 1 stop strategies quite often. With gentle tire use comes temperature warmup problems over a single qualifying lap, which was quite evident in testing as they were slightly slower than Red Bull and McLaren in a single lap. An interesting technical change are the Ferrari wheels, which feature fins lined up in a concentric ring, which are used to recover some of the brake cooling loss and aerodynamic wake from the banning of wheel covers.

Red Bull Racing
Chassis: Red Bull RB6
Engine: Renault RS27
Drivers: Sebastian Vettel (5), Mark Webber (6)

Expected by the paddock to be one of the top 2 teams this year, Adrian Newey’s RB6 was impressive throughout testing, especially week 4. Continuing from their successful 2009 campaign, Vettel and Webber set blistering single lap as well long run laptimes. Week 4 introduced their ultra-low exhaust outlets, where the flow will help drive flow from the floor to the diffuser exit. This may affect downforce sensitivity when backing off the throttle, so it’ll be intersting to see how well this concept works. Expectations are high for this team, and we will most likely see them on the top step of the podium more than once this year.

Renault F1
Chassis: Renault R30
Engine: Renault RS27 -2010
Drivers: Robert Kubica (11), Vitaly Petrov (12)

Renault has been on a downward spiral since the Crashgate scandal broke. Team boss and resident F1 paddock pimp Flavio Briatore is gone, Fernando Alonso moved to Ferrari, and Renault sold 75% of the team to Genii Capital. Testing did not fare any better, with the team failing to come close to the front runners, slotting them between Toro Rosso and the new teams of Virgin and Lotus. There were many updates to the car, most notably the W shaped rear wing, but it’s hard to tell if they have problems understanding and finding a proper setup, or if it just doesn’t work together. On a related note, Chinese driver Ho-Pin Tung signed on as a 3rd driver (he will be competing in GP2 as part of the deal), we may see for the first time a Chinese Formula One driver.

AT&T Williams
Chassis: Williams FW32
Engine: Cosworth CA2010
Drivers: Rubens Barrichello (9), Nico Hülkenberg (10)

Like McLaren, Williams toyed with the blown wing idea, but their shark fin does not have a feed for the rear wing slot. Replacing the Toyota powerplant with the new for 2010 Cosworth engine, the team fared well in week 4 testing, putting them on equal footing as the Saubers. There were rumors that the team will be running a flywheel-based KERS (technically legal this year but not used under the FOTA gentleman’s agreement), but there was no evidence of such a device. A flywheel based KERS system does not have the large cooling requirements of battery based systems, so it’s fesible that Williams could introduce such a system mid-season. Of course, that would cause a lot of drama and controversy within FOTA, and as seen last year, Williams has no problems with going against the group even though it risks losing their membership.

The Calgary Police Service Bait Car Program has been successful since it launched about 18 months ago and now the program is expanding to the Calgary Transit LRT parking lots as well as the Park and Ride lots.

The campaign is a highly visible one with signs posted at LRT lots warning thieves that Bait Cars are being used. Ads for the Bait Car program are also running on buses and on bus shelters. Calgary Police are confident that the expansion of the Bait Car program will further reduce car thefts which had already dropped by 29% over the last year and by over 50% since 2007.

“The message is simple. Steal a bait car and we’ll catch you and you will go to jail.

“We have a lot of success with this program as part of the overall auto theft strategy,” police Staff Sgt. Colin Adair said.

No details of the Bait Car program were released to ensure the program remains effective but the bait vehicles will be placed randomly in lots where auto thefts are a problem. I really hope they release the videos from the Bait Cars.

Scuderia Toro Rosso
Chassis: Toro Rosso STR5
Engine: Ferrari Type 056
Drivers: Sébastien Buemi (16), Jaime Alguersuari (17)

2010 is a significant fresh start for this young team, as the ban on customer cars for this year means that STR has to build their own chassis instead of using the Red Bull chassis. Oddly enough, the front wing of the STR looks nearly identical to the Red Bull car. Week 4 testing showed promise, as the team was able to show performance better than Lotus, Virgin and Renault, putting them at the tail end of the front runners. With the refuelling ban, some clever strategy coupled with a safety car could see the Red Bull Jr team scoring some big points.

Force India F1
Chassis: Force India VJM03
Engine: Mercedes-Benz FO 108X
Drivers: Adrian Sutil (14), Vitantonio Liuzzi (15)

Force India continues to impress the F1 paddock, with a strong 2nd place finish last year at Spa, which in my opinion should’ve been a win, the team continued to impress during testing this year. Although the team missed the week 1 tests, week 4 testing put them (Sutil, specifically) right smack in the middle of all the front runners. There were only a few small updates to the car compared to 2009, which goes to show how strong the car was aerodynamically in the last half of the 2009 season.

HRT F1
Chassis: Hispania HRT
Engine: Cosworth CA2010
Drivers: Karun Chandhok (20), Bruno Senna (21)

What’s there to say about this team. Started off as Campos, ran into money troubles, majority shareholder takes over the team, gets renamed as Hispania Racing Team (HRT), and the car is officially launched 1 week before the first free practice without a single mile on the chassis. It’s unfortunate that the great Senna name is coming back to F1 like this. We’ll be lucky to see the team run at the first race. If they do, expect them to use the first few races as a testing session.

Lotus Racing
Chassis: Lotus T127
Engine:Cosworth CA2010
Drivers: Jarno Trulli (18), Heikki Kovalainen (19)

Even though the name has been around with a huge F1 legacy, the 2010 version of Lotus Racing is essentially a brand new team. Chassis work was done by Fondtech on a very short schedule, with wind tunnel work not having started until late 2009. The car was completed and ran through testing with all the other teams. Surprisingly, the car was very reliable. Unfortunately, several crashes during testing cut down on the much needed laps for the car. Pace wise, it’s not quick, but it’s a step ahead of the Virgin cars. With 2 drivers that are usually overshadowed by their F1 teammates, don’t expect to see the Lotus name back on top.

Virgin Racing
Chassis: Virgin VR-01
Engine: Cosworth CA2010
Drivers: Timo Glock (24), Lucas di Grassi (25)

This team is one of several new entries to Formula 1 in 2010. 80% owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group (who was a minority sponsor in BrawnGP last year), the team designed their car entirely using CFD simulations, without the use of a wind tunnel. Winter testing proved that this did not work as envisioned, with the car struggling to stay on pace with everyone during the last week of testing. Expect the team to be the backmarkers this year.

BMW Sauber Ferrari
Chassis: Sauber C29
Engine: Ferrari 056
Drivers: Pedro de la Rosa (22), Kamui Kobayashi (23)

BMW, one of the teams to pull out of F1 last year, sold the team back to founder Peter Sauber. What’s funny is that the team will be keeping the BMW Sauber name so they can keep the 2009 money for their 6th place standing. What’s even funnier is that they’ll be using Ferrari engines, so the team name ends up being BMW Sauber Ferrari. Now, if the team does better than last year, that would really be a marketing nightmare for BMW. And you know what? It may happen. The car has performed well over winter testing, and in the last week of testing, ran similar laptimes to the big teams. De la Rosa, McLaren’s ex-test driver has not missed a beat, and Kobayashi continues his impressive 2009 debut with times close to 7 time world champion Michael Schumacher. This is definately 2010 Formula 1 dark horse team that will have some surprises this year.

Much like last year’s double diffuser debacle, two teams have asked the FIA for clarification on McLaren’s rear wing. There is a good description of the system in this thread from our forums.

Red Bull Racing’s team boss Christian Horner has stated that his team, along with Ferrari, are looking at the design of the system, and asking to ensure that it’s legal. The design of the system bypasses the slot-gap separator rules introduced years ago that were put in place to ensure that the rear wing can not be stalled on high speed straights, therefore reducing drag, allowing for much higher top speeds. McLaren has been topping the trap speeds during all 4 weeks of winter testing.

McLaren’s response? It’s perfectly legal. The team has even talked to Ferrari, and they’re not aware of any lodged protests. Regardless, the FIA has confirmed that at this time, they have no concerns over the car, and have accepted McLaren’s invitation to view their 2010 challenger, the MP4-25 up close.

Let’s hope that this will be handled a lot better than last year, where BrawnGP, Toyota and Williams were running their double diffusers for the first 3 races under protest, and potentially, under the threat of disqualification months after the races are wrapped up. Stay tuned for updates.

*update* Charlie Whiting, the FIA’s technical delegate did not visit the McLaren headquarters as expected on Friday. As it turns out, his flights out of Brazil were delayed.

There are only 7 days left until the Formula 1 circus fires up their engines for the first Friday free practice of 2010. Much has happened over the winter, and we’ll try to cover it all in our F1 preview this week.

The big news is that when the cars start rolling on the track, 2 teams will not be there at the first race. USF1, the much hyped outfit from Charlotte, NC has effectively shut down operations this week. There was much speculation over the last 4 weeks, with insiders at the company spilling the beans on missed payroll, lack of organization, lack of funding, and most importantly, lack of an actual car. Why did USF1 fail? Money, according to team boss Ken Anderson. A key sponsor failed to deliver promised funding to the team, and without money, supplies thinned out, and development came to a complete halt. This caused the team to ask for a 4 week no-show, and now, complete withdrawl from 2010 competition.

Out of all this turmoil, a new team, Stefan GP, was waiting in the wings expecting the imminent failure of USF1 and to take over their 2010 grid slot. Team owner Zoran Stefanović had purchased the rights for Toyota’s 2010 car after Toyota officially pulled out of Formula 1 in November 2009. 2 drivers conditionally signed with Stefan GP, Kazuki Nakajima, and 1997 F1 Champ Jacques Villeneuve. Unfortuantely, to the dismay of Villeneuve fans in North America, the FIA has released their official 2010 entry list, where Stefan GP was not a part of. The FIA stated that it was simply too late for a team entry to be changed, with the first race weekend in a little over a week. Funny, because Campos, which changed their name to Hispania, didn’t even unveil their car until this morning.

Bad news for North America, as we will not be seeing a North American team, nor a North American F1 Champion race. At least we have Montreal…