The influx of new teams and drivers for 2010 reminds me of the halcyon days of F1, which were characterised by 30-car grids, and numerous world champions vying for the crown. Of course, we tend to look at the past with rose-tinted glasses, because races in the late ’80s used to be contested by red-and-white cars, followed by scarlet- or blue-and-yellow ones, and the rest really just made up the numbers…
By contrast, if last year, which saw more individual winners and teams take the chequered flag than in previous seasons, is anything to go by, the 2010 Formula One championship will be cliffhanger, and the world champion may emerge from any of four top-rung teams.
In pre-season testing, the Red Bulls of Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber positively flew and the McLaren-Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton (in particular) and Jenson Button finished on a high. Much to the relief of the tifosi, Alonso’s got to grips with the Ferrari quite early and the Spaniard and his Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa have several reasons to be optimistic about their title chances…
The works Mercedes team has not topped the timesheets yet, but with the return of the wily Michael Schumacher, who will be reunited with the master tactician Ross Brawn, it won’t be long before the team formerly known as Brawn return to the top of the podium. I can’t think of a better mentor to guide Nico Rosberg into the elite group of F1 drivers than Schumi and the young German is certainly a dark horse. Unfortunately for the seven-time world champion, he will be up against more than a couple of mercurial Finns and a plucky Brazilian in the battle for this year’s world championship… Oom Michael will have his patience and racing temperament tested to the absolute limit by a brace of fearless young guns who know how to win races and aren’t afraid to sit it out with Schumi.
So how will this season turn out? You may ask… Well, I, for one, don’t expect Hamilton to intimidate, let alone annihilate, McLaren team-mate Button, but their working relationship won’t remain peachy. I hope Alonso will be competitive right from the onset, but I am weary of reading too much into Ferrari’s pre-season form.
Vettel is arguably the hottest talent and if the Red Bull is quick again, he may be hard to beat, but ultimately, the driver that will succeed in 2010 will need to master two skills from a bygone era…
Now that refueling is banned, drivers will need to effectively nurse their tyres (especially under heavy fuel loads early on in the race) to get optimal performance from each set and, by doing so, extend the distances between, and number of, pit stops. With 24 cars set to start each grand prix, frontrunners’ ability to scythe through packs of squabbling backmarkers will also be key.
I humbly predict the 2010 champion will to be a driver with a wise head, as opposed to a hot one. My heart says Alonso, my head says Vettel or (sigh…) Hamilton and, if I was willing to have a bit of a gamble, I’d tip Schumi to maybe sneak it at the end, but for that he’d have to find race-winning form and establish himself as Benz’s unofficial “number one” driver early on in the season, and rely on Rosberg to help keep his rivals at bay…
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