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.