2010 Racing Season Begins

Today marks the official start of race season with the F1 Grand Prix taking place in Bahrain. The petrol is thawing from my veins and the red mist is slowly returning so here's your race season preview of what's on my radar.

Formula 1
With the failure of USF1 to make the grid this year, there are 3 new teams.

• Virgin Racing - This team brings the technical expertise of Nick Wirth's Digital Flow Systems company which will develop the aerodynamics on the car entirely in Computational Fluid Dynamics, his engineering company Wirth Research, the Manor Grand Prix racing team, and Richard Branson's money. It's rumored that Branson's Virgin money won't last the team the whole season so its results in the first half of the season will determine their longevity. With major reliability problems such as hydraulic failures and the front winning falling off Timo Glock's car at the beginning of the season, the teams has many doubters.
• Lotus Racing - With some historic colors and Malaysian money, Lotus has returned to the sport of F1 that fills its rich racing history with success and fans. Despite the company having no affiliation with Lotus other than in name, it's exciting to see the car on track. The car's early season reliability has been rather impressive although the simplicity of the car (other than the front wing) has gained criticism due to its blocky shapes and seemingly undeveloped exterior. I expect to see good things from the team as the car develops through the season and as its race winning drivers become comfortable.
• Hispania Racing Team - Formerly called the Campos Meta team, this group has somehow managed to make it onto the grid. The car was designed by Dallara in Italy and only made it to the grid due to an 11th hour monetary bailout which prompted the name change. The car was up to 11 seconds off the pace in the first practice sessions where only a single car made it on track. In fact, the sport's first Indian driver didn't make it out onto track until his qualifying run. I don't expect much from this team other than as back-markers who will slowly improve but still without sufficient pace. It will take quite some time for this team to get settled and begin developing their car.

The championship team of Brawn GP was bought out by Mercedes GP and promises to be a formidable competitor to the other front runners of Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren. BMW Sauber, Torro Rosso, and Renault don't seem to be much of a threat to the front runners, but only time will tell.

American Le Mans Series
With Audi and Acura's P1 cars not being present at the season opening 12 Hours of Sebring this year it seems a bit of a slow start to the season, but I hope I'm wrong. At least Aston Martin is bringing their P1 car to the US to compete with Peugeot. However, Aston won't have much of a chance against the diesel as the rules certainly still place a handicap on the petrol cars in comparison. In any case, watching the Dysons duke it out with the Patron Highcroft Acura ARX-01c will be fun to watch along with the new challenge series which promises to match equally matched cars against one another for a true driver battle. In GT2 this year the battle will be fierce between the Corvettes, Porsches, and Ferraris. Also Jag is going to put in a full season this year, but based on their performance last year I'm not expecting much.

More later...