F1 2010 Preview: Ferrari and Red Bull

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.

Formula 1 News Round-Up

Piquet confirms Renault departure

The war of words between Nelson Piquet and Renault team boss Flavio Briatore has reached an unsurprising conclusion as Piquet confirms he has been given the boot by his team. “I have received notice from the Renault F1 team of its intention to stop me from driving for them in the current F1 season,” said Piquet on Monday. Going out with a bang, Piquet claims that he was mistreated since he arrived at Renault and that his teammate Fernando Alonso is given special treatment giving him an unfair advantage.

Massa is at home in Brazil and resting

The racing world breathed a sigh of relief as word got out that Massa was recovering well from the injuries he suffered during the qualifying of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Less than 10 days since he fractured his skull in the freak accident, Massa is resting and recovering at his home in Brazil. Ferrari has not set a date for his return to competition.

Michael Schumacher returns to Formula 1

The seven time world champion who retired from Formula 1 in 2006 will return to race with Ferrari in place of injured team member Felipe Massa. Schumacher has already begun training and testing (although not with the current car, the F60). His first race will be in 16 days at Valencia. It is still unclear how long Massa will be out for, or if he will even return this year. Can Schumi climb the leaderboard and claim an 8th championship?