On Monday, the FIA officially announced the teams that will compete in Formula 1 in 2010, as well as an updated drivers list and car numbers.  Let's take a look-see:

McLaren-Mercedes
1 Jenson Button (GB), 2 Lewis Hamilton (GB)

Brawn-Mercedes Benz
3 Nico Rosberg (D), 4 TBA

Red Bull Racing-Renault
5 Sebastian Vettel (D), 6 Mark Webber (AUS)

Ferrari
7 Felipe Massa (BR), 8 HWMNBN (E)

Williams-Cosworth
9 Rubens Barrichello (BR), 10 Nico Hulkenberg (D)

Renault
11 Robert Kubica (PL), 12 TBA

Force India-Mercedes
14 Adrian Sutil (D), 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi (I)

STR-Ferrari
16 Sebastien Buemi (CH), 17 TBA

Lotus-Cosworth
18 TBA, 19 TBA

Campos-Dallara
20 TBA, 21 Bruno Senna (BR)

USF1-Cosworth
22 TBA, 23 TBA

Virgin-Cosworth
24 Timo Glock (D), 25 TBA

A couple of interesting things leap out at the observant viewer.  The biggest one is that there are only 12 teams listed.  Of course that's because ToyotaF1 pulled out, but it was expected that the once BMW-Sauber-then-Qadbank-Sauber-then-finally-just-Sauber entry would be granted the slot.

It appears that that is not automatically the case.  See, ToyotaF1 may have removed themselves from F1, but they still hold the rights to their slot on the grid and are bound by the Concorde Agreement to put forth a team for the season.  If they sell the team, a la Honda to Ross Brawn last year, whomever purchases them would get the slot... maybe.  Peter Sauber, longtime F1 guy and namesake of the Sauber team, is reportedly somewhat grumpy about the whole situation.

Next up, the rookie team Manor Motorsports has changed their name to VirginF1.  Since the megacompany has slapped down the money for major, if not exclusive, sponsorship, that makes sense.

Third, two things from the Campos team.  A little surprise that their engine supplier is listed as Dallara, since it was reported that the newbies' acceptance to the grid was contingent on their choosing Cosworth as their engine supplier.  The Campos team has a history with Dallara that goes back a few years, and Dallara will be building the car for the Spanish rookies.  It may be that in fact, they'll have Cosworth engines anyway, or perhaps Cossies rebranded as Dallara.  Just an interesting bit of speculation.

The other thing is that Bruno Senna isn't listed as the team's first driver, despite being to date their only driver.  Turns out there's a good reason for it: the car number.  Senna is Brazilian, and Embratel, the Brazilian telecom company, is a major sponsor.  "21" is the code used to dial the operator for Embratel connections.  Clever.

Finally, you may note that McLaren, not constructor's champion Brawn/Mercedes Benz/Whatever, has car #1.  That's because of the tradition giving the Driver's Champion the prestigious number, and his teammate #2.  After that, the numbers are allotted via the constructor's standings.   There have been exceptions, however.  If the reigning driver's champion is not in F1 the following year (because of death or retirement, for example), his team is given car numbers 0 and 2.  This has happened twice in the past, in 1993 and 1994.

Of course, #13 hasn't been used since 1976.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:50 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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