The new Cars for 2010 so far !

Here they are, The new cars we will be watching on the grid for the 2010 season.

Unveiled so far with much publicity were Ferrari F10 and Vodafone Mclaren MP4-25, last week Thursday and Friday.
Most of the talk however will be on the new Renault Livery - some comparing it to BumbleBee from Transformer , others more like a Jordan from the 70's... You decide.
BMW car will be quite bare to start the season waiting for more sponsors to jump onboard and Williams does seem to remain quite equal to last year.

Finally the much anticipated return of all, Mercedes GP unveiled yesterday their new car with Schumacher taking most of the cameras and reporters attention away from young Nico... Oh Dear .... Barichello did warn him though by quoting " get out of here...!" refering probably to his stint as Michael partner back at Ferrari a few years back, but placid as ever Nico remarked that it wasn't important how many cameras were on him and he'll let his driving do the talking.... Well said Mr Rosberg and good luck.

Here are some pictures to whet your appetite while we wait for the full lineup to be revealed soon.

Could Kimi make a shock return to McLaren?

With the political rows that have dominated this Formula 1 season more or less over apart from a few late skirmishes, attention in Valencia has turned to the driver market.

The key move this season is Fernando Alonso's prospective switch to Ferrari. This has not been officially confirmed yet, but it is considered a given. And it will trigger a series of swaps that will significantly change the look of the F1 grid next season.
Among the top teams, only Red Bull are not changing their line-up and there are attractive seats available at Ferrari, McLaren and Brawn.
In the wake of Alonso's move, the key men in the market place are Kimi Raikkonen and Robert Kubica.

Assuming Jenson Button stays at Brawn - which is not 100% certain, but looks very likely - they are the A-listers who will be top of most teams' shopping list.
The driver market is always complicated - but the injury suffered by Felipe Massa has made it more Byzantine than usual this summer.
Ferrari have actually got themselves into a bit of a pickle. Alonso's arrival means they have three of the top drivers in F1 for next season and only two cars to put them in, as both Felipe Massa and Raikkonen are under contract until the end of 2010.
They intended to partner Alonso with Massa, but the Brazilian has a fractured skull following his accident in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Although he is expected to make a full recovery, in terms of living a normal life, it is impossible to know right now whether he will be able to race in F1 again, even if Brawn driver Rubens Barrichello and Massa's race engineer Rob Smedley, probably the two people closest to him in the paddock, are optimistic.
Massa is talking about an emotional return for the Brazilian Grand Prix in October, but many feel that may well be over-optimistic, even allowing for the traditionally astonishing powers of recovery of F1 drivers.
And if Massa cannot drive until after the end of the season - which means he might not be able to do so until January, because of the testing restrictions in December - that makes getting rid of Raikkonen less immediately appealing.
Despite that, it does appear that the Finn will be the one to leave Ferrari, for whom one solution would be to gamble on Massa being fit and, if he isn't, take one of the experienced drivers who may be left standing after the game of musical chairs finishes.
Jarno Trulli looks certain to leave Toyota - whose entire future in F1 may be in doubt - and the futures of Rubens Barrichello, Giancarlo Fisichella and Nick Heidfeld are all up in the air. All would make a more than decent one-year stand-in.
In that eventuality, the question is where Raikkonen will end up.
There are a number of interesting possibilities. His advisors are known to have had talks with Brawn, which interests him, and Toyota, which does not. And another obvious possibility is Renault, who need a top-liner to replace Alonso.
And there is one intriguing possibility that I have not heard discussed on the paddock rumour mill - could Raikkonen make a shock return to McLaren?

It comes a bit out of left-field and might seem outlandish, but bear with me on it for a moment.
Lewis Hamilton is locked in there until 2012, but the second seat is open. Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen is under pressure because of his unconvincing performances in races and there has been talk of Nico Rosberg moving over from Williams.
But, if you were McLaren, why replace one guy who is not as quick as Hamilton with, in Rosberg, another who isn't either but might be more disruptive?
Raikkonen, on the other hand, is well known by McLaren having driven for them from 2002-6, and he is low maintenance - he just gets in the car and drives and couldn't care less who his team-mate is.
Rosberg is known to be wary of facing Hamilton in the same car - he was his team-mate in karting and knows how quick he is - and Kubica has a reputation as hard work and demanding.
Raikkonen is the total opposite. He would not be bothered about the team's focus on Hamilton. He would just do his job and go home - just like he always has.
Not only that, but he left McLaren largely because he fell out with Ron Dennis, but the former boss has no involvement in the F1 team any more.
So a fresh link with Raikkonen could be an appealing idea for McLaren - and vice versa.
And read this quote from team boss Martin Whitmarsh after Sunday's European Grand Prix: "Kimi's really raised his game and all weekend has done a great job and Heikki has always been a fantastic team player and a good asset in our team but his race pace hasn't been good enough."
Of course, all of that might be hugely wide of the mark, in which case Raikkonen will probably end up at Brawn or Renault - at both of which Kubica must be considered a contender.
The Pole has been strongly linked with a move to Williams following BMW's decision to quit F1. But this weekend he has opened negotiations with Brawn, which would surely be a more appealing option considering the two teams' respective performance this season.

It is a difficult decision for Brawn. Given that Raikkonen has been a little off the boil in the last couple of seasons, Kubica is arguably the best driver on the market this season.
But he has a reputation for being disruptive inside a team and Ross Brawn might prefer not to disturb the equanimity of Button, the man who still looks likely to be world champion this year.
On top of that, Kubica is understood to want a one-year contract so he has the ability to move on for 2011 if a better drive becomes available, while Brawn would almost certainly want him to sign for two seasons.Traditionally, early September is the time the big pieces in the driver market puzzle begin to fall into place. But given the inherent complications, this season it could be a good deal later than that.

Andrew Benson

What does BMW's exit mean for F1?

BBC Business news.

BMW has confirmed that this will be its last season in Formula 1.
The team, which had been tipped to fight for the world championship, has been struggling to make an impact on the track this year.
But that's only part of the story.
Like Honda, which pulled out of Formula 1 before the season had even started, the German carmaker has seen its sales and profits tumble as a result of the global economic downturn.
In such a difficult environment, they are struggling to justify spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on motor sport.
Before the end of the year, we will see at least one other car manufacturer leave F1
F1 analyst Christian Sylt of Formula Money
BMW's departure leaves four car manufacturers still competing in F1: Ferrari, Mercedes Benz, Toyota and Renault.
Ferrari is unlikely to leave the sport, because its image as a manufacturer of supercars is intimately tied to its racing heritage.
But there is widespread speculation that at least one of the other major brands could follow BMW out of the door.
"BMW definitely won't be the last," says F1 analyst Christian Sylt of Formula Money.
"Before the end of the year, we will see at least one other car manufacturer leave F1."
According to motorsport's governing body, the FIA, such an exodus was inevitable.
"It has been clear for some time that motorsport cannot ignore the world economic crisis," it said in a statement released after BMW's announcement.
"Car manufacturers cannot be expected to continue to pour large sums of money into Formula 1 when their survival depends on redundancies, plant closures and the support of the taxpayer."

Race against time

So will BMW's departure cause any lasting damage to Formula 1?
Ferrari is not expected to pull out of F1 - but at least one other firm is
The answer is, not necessarily.
Three new teams are due to join the series next year. Assuming they can raise enough sponsorship to guarantee their entries, there should still be plenty of cars on the starting grid.
But in the current climate raising the money is likely to prove difficult.
In addition, the new teams face a race against time if they are to be on the grid next year.
If the new entries fail to materialise, and more teams leave, a crisis could yet develop.
Some experts believe that the departure of major names such as Honda and BMW undermines F1's claim to be the pinnacle of world motorsport.
It's an argument that points towards the real problem facing Formula 1.

Spending rows

A key part of the sport's attraction is its brash, free-spending image.
It oozes high-rent glamour, and promotes itself as a hub of white-hot technology.

There have been moves to reduce spending in the glamorous world of F1
That image comes at a cost. In recent years, top teams have been spending more than $400m (£244m) a season.
Yet as the departures of BMW and Honda have illustrated all too clearly, that kind of outlay can no longer be taken for granted.
For much of the past year, the main stakeholders in Formula 1 have been embroiled in a bitter dispute over how to cut costs, without emasculating the sport.
The FIA, led by its forceful president Max Mosley, wanted to put the brakes on spending by forcing teams to cut their budgets to just $60 million a year, as well as restricting technical development.
But this was vehemently opposed by most of the teams, who believed such a move would destroy the essence of Formula 1.

'Nuclear' threat

The teams' ire was also directed at the Formula 1 Group, the network of companies run by Bernie Ecclestone, which control the commercial side of F1.
The group earns close to a billion dollars a year from trackside advertising, television rights and race fees.
But only half of the money goes back into F1, as payments to the teams.
The rest is absorbed by the F1 Group and its ultimate owner, the private equity group CVC Capital partners.
At a time when sponsors were hard to find, the teams argued, they should be given a bigger slice of the cake.
The dispute came to a head at the British Grand Prix in June, when eight teams threatened to walk out of F1 and set up their own rival championship.
That plan, widely seen as a "nuclear option" now looks highly unlikely to be carried out.
Under intense pressure from Bernie Ecclestone and the F1 Group as well as the team owners, the FIA backed down.

Uncertain future

The teams no longer face a compulsory budget cap. Instead they have agreed to work together, establishing ways to cut costs dramatically over the next two years.
The dispute with the F1 Group also appears to have simmered down.
It now looks as though the current commercial arrangements will stay in place until 2012.
These plans are to be formally set out in a new governing document for the sport, known as the Concorde Agreement - which the FIA says will be signed in the coming days.
But while the agreement offers F1 some welcome stability after a period of turmoil, it does nothing to remedy the harsh economic environment.
And as BMW's departure illustrates all too graphically, the sport's future remains far from certain.

Qualifying analysis - Bahrain Grand Prix

Tyre preservation will again be the name of the game here, but Sakhir is a very different type of circuit to Melbourne and China, where degradation on the super-soft rubber militated in favour of the mediums. They take longer to hit their optimum temperature and have less grip, so everyone will try to go as far as they can on super softs and keep the prime running to a minimum.
But some are more adept at eking out tyre life than others.
On fuel weights, the relevant ones were
Toyota’s Jarno Trulli: 648.5;
Toyota’s Timo Glock 643;
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel 659;
Brawn’s Jenson Button 652.5;
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton 652.5;
Brawn’s Barrichello 649. Which makes Vettel the dangerman…

Toyota
Jarno Trulli, 1m 33.431s, P1
Timo Glock, 1m 33.712s, P2

Toyota were delighted to lock out the front row of a grid for the first time since they entered Formula One in 2002. Trulli reported that things didn’t go as smoothly as planned because of a brake problem that still needs to be rectified before the race. He dedicated his first pole since Indianapolis 2005 to the team for their hard work, and to the people of Abruzzo after the recent earthquake. Glock lost time with an electrical problem in free practice, but was happy with the set-up changes made overnight. A change of wind direction forced him to struggle on the prime tyres in Q1, but he felt more comfortable in Q2. He admitted to a small error in Q3, but said it wasn’t enough to have affected his chances of taking pole from his team mate.

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 34.015s, P3
Mark Webber, 1m 34.038s, P19, will start P18

Vettel was fastest in Q1 and Q2, and said he was very happy with the way things went in Q3. He also harvested a set of option tyres in readiness for the race. Webber was very unhappy after his final runs in Q1 were thwarted by Sutil. The Red Bull was trapped behind the Force India at the end of its first lap, and then Sutil repassed into the first corner to spoiled Webber’s second try. The German was penalised three grid places as a result.

Brawn GP
Jenson Button, 1m 34.044s, P4
Rubens Barrichello, 1m 34.239s, P6

Button and Barrichello complained of lack of grip in Q3, when usually the Brawn is at its best with a fuel load, and were disappointed not to take a pole that they had expected to contend for. Button said he had wheel locking, Barrichello traffic.

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 34.196s, P5
Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 33.242s, P11

Hamilton was very happy with fifth place, especially as he is the fastest KERS runner and will have an advantage on acceleration on Sunday afternoon. He even talked of being in a position to challenge for pole position soon. Kovalainen could not explain his relative lack of performance.

Renault
Fernando Alonso, 1m 34.578s, P7
Nelson Piquet, 1m 33.941s, P15

Alonso complained that the closeness of qualifying is stressful in the cockpit but was pleased to have a competitive car after overnight work on his latest diffuser. This time, he said, seventh was about what he had expected. Piquet made it through to Q2 but pushed too hard for Q3 and overdrove.

Ferrari
Felipe Massa, 1m 34.818s, P8
Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 35.380s, P10

Ferrari looked very strong in Q1 and Q2 but faded when it mattered. Massa reported a small step forward and was happy to be in the top 10, especially as his F60 was oversteering more than it had in the morning. He is looking forward to maximising his KERS at the start. Raikkonen said it would have been difficult to better his eventual 10th place as he’d run out of fresh super-soft tyres. He also reported that his car behaved better with KERS.

Williams
Nico Rosberg, 1m 35.134s, P9
Kazuki Nakajima, 1m 33.348s, P12

Rosberg was not comfortable in his FW31 and felt he was lucky to make it through to Q3. But he was happy with ninth as he was running a heavy fuel load. Nakajima said he made no errors, and was mystified why he wasn’t quicker.

BMW Sauber
Robert Kubica, 1m 33.487s, P13
Nick Heidfeld, 1m 33.562s, P14

Kubica admitted that BMW Sauber simply lacked performance, and that a radio malfunction made it difficult to fine-tune tyre pressures. The Pole also had two small flash fires in the pits while refuelling, which didn’t help. Heidfeld found his F1.09’s balance inconsistent between runs as the wind changed. Both drivers used KERS.

Force India
Adrian Sutil, 1m 33.722s, P16, will start P19
Giancarlo Fisichella, 1m 33.910s, P18, will start P17

Sutil reported a drop in grip levels compared to free practice and that the balance of his VJM02 was thus not as good for qualifying. He said the problem with Webber arose because he was trying to make a gap to Alonso to start his own lap, and that he didn’t realise Webber was on a flying lap. The stewards docked him three grid positions.Fisichella felt he’d got close to Q2 but said he wasn’t entirely happy with his car’s balance and that the super-soft tyres made the handling unpredictable.

Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi, 1m 33.753s, P17, will start P16
Sebastien Bourdais, 1m 34.159s, P20

Buemi thought he could easily have made Q2 but for a mistake in the third sector on his best lap in Q1. Bourdais lost track time with undisclosed technical problems in the morning, then picked up a lot of understeer on his second run in Q1. He corrected that with the front wing for the final effort, only to encounter serious oversteer.


David Tremayne@www.formula1.com

Your Bank may be the ticket to F1 Singapore GP

WITH only a month left until Singapore's first Formula One race, some banks are pulling out all the stops to get their clients revved up for the big event.
Some are splashing out wads of cash to fly in top-tier customers from all over the world while others are hosting posh F1 cocktail parties at some top hotels.
Splashing out
Credit Suisse. The Swiss bank is inviting about 900 global guests who are its clients to the race.
Royal Bank of Scotland. Clients will be hosted to a cocktail party at the old Supreme Court building and get a chance to meet F1 legend Jackie Stewart.
ING. A major sponsor of the Renault team, it is hosting some 1,000 wholesale and private banking customers.
In short, the inaugural F1 night race is shaping up to be a major marketing tool for a number of the banks here.
Three big sponsors - ING Group, Credit Suisse and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) - are not only giving the highly sought-after Paddock Club tickets to wealthy clients, but also letting them hobnob with the world's best F1 drivers.
While the three declined to say how much they are splurging on their clients, observers estimate each bank could chalk up millions during the race period.
Credit Suisse is inviting about 900 global guests who are its clients to the race which runs from Sept 26 to 28.
The Swiss bank did not want to disclose how many of its clients will be treated to exclusive Paddock Club tickets.
But what is known is that these tickets - which allow guests to get close-up views of the pit-lane action while feasting on champagne and caviar - do not come cheap, with prices ranging from $3,500 to $7,500 for a single seat.
As Credit Suisse is the official partner of the BMW Sauber team, its guests will get to meet the team's drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica at a dinner.
RBS, a key sponsor of the Williams team, will host its clients at a cocktail party at the old Supreme Court building.
ING, a major sponsor of the Renault team, also said it is hosting some 1,000 wholesale and private banking customers.
Meanwhile, other banks have entered the fray to create opportunities for guests to meet and socialise.
'One of our party nights is built around a hawker stall theme,' said Mr V. Shankar, group head of origination and client coverage at Standard Chartered Bank. 'Our clients can look forward to lots of good, authentic Singapore food, lots of laughs and definitely F1 celebrities.'
SG Private Banking has chartered a private yacht for clients to cruise to the Southern Islands. 'It will provide guests, especially those from overseas, the unique opportunity to view the much-talked-about developments along Singapore's waterfront,' said Mr Pierre Baer, SG Private Banking chief executive officer for Singapore and South Asia.
OCBC Bank is the only local bank to invite its clients to the Paddock Club. 'No detail is too small for us as we make transport arrangements for our customers to get to the OCBC Paddock Club without fuss,' said Ms Koh Ching Ching, head of group corporate communications.
Despite the glamour of being associated with the race, industry watchers say some private banks, including those belonging to Citigroup, JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch, have chosen to give the race a miss, or are taking a subdued approach.
Sources say many of them - saddled with credit-related losses and write- downs back home - would have thrown parties and sponsorships without hesitation when capital was plentiful.
But now they have to be realistic.
Citi, JPMorgan and Merrill all declined to comment. Those willing to go on record were either skittish on details or simply painted a mood of conservatism.
UBS Singapore's chief operating officer Teo Lay Sie said it has made arrangements for clients to attend race-related hospitality events and the race itself.
Mr Rolf Gerber, CEO of LGT Bank in Liechtenstein (Singapore), said the bank is sponsoring tickets for top clients - but they will make their own flight and hotel arrangements. 'We wanted to see how exciting, if at all, the F1 turns out to be before making a decision on perhaps a greater commitment for F1 next year,' he said.

By Gabriel chen (Asiaone.com)

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO EDIT - CANADA HIGHLIGHTS

Relive Robert Kubica's maiden F1 triumph and BMW Sauber's historic one-two in this exclusive video highlights from Sunday's incident-packed Montreal race...

Watch it now.