Official 2010 F1 Pre-Season Thread

Renault adds Ho-Pin Tung to its line-up for the Jerez test.

Meanwhile, Mark Webber looks forward to 2010...

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80354

Webber: Motivation as high as ever

By Edd Straw Friday, November 27th 2009, 15:20 GMT

Mark Webber says his motivation remain as high as ever as he targets an even stronger championship challenge in the 2010 season.

The Australian scored his first Formula 1 victory this year and went on to finish in fourth place in the standings.

Webber won two races in 2009, in Germany and Brazil.

The Red Bull driver, who has been racing in Formula 1 for eight years, is fired up to have another strong season in 2010.

"My motivation is very high, which is the key," Webber told AUTOSPORT. "You can't survive if the motivation is low. This is the most enjoyable and the best group of people I've worked with in F1.

"They have got such an incredible balance of not being anal and ridiculous and getting lost in how serious it can be, but they are still ferociously competitive - the Adrian Neweys, the Rob Marshalls, the Christian Horners and Dietrich Mateschitzs. So that's there and I'm motivated for myself to go out there and get the result.

"I could keep going for a long time as long as I'm knocking in good results, not losing performance through my age and motivated. I've just had a good year and I hope I can do the same next year."

Despite having been outscored by team-mate Sebastian Vettel this year, Webber admits he has been very pleased with his performance.

"It has been personally a very good season ? it's something which there is always going to be comparisons with the guy with the same equipment," he added. "Coming out of this year, it's a year that I'm massively happy with.

"I'd have liked to have done a little better here and there, but I could have done a shedload worse. You always want to take what you have been given. I believe I got this year what I deserve and I've just got to keep focusing on where I can improve."
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Full interview is in the written and online edition of Autosport magazine. Unfortunately, since I'm not a subscriber... :(

And very good news, there is a press conference today at 15:00 Canadian time to announce the return of the Canadian GP to the calendar. The Midget must have cracked.
 
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^^ Dont want to be a spoilsport but thats only available on Autosport plus, so its copyrighted material for subscribers only, not sure you're allowed to cut and paste that.

Anyway, I've noticed many of the big announcements for next year have been on Mondays so I was wondering if we would hear anything new tomorrow. Maybe a driver from one of the new teams? I dont remember much warning about a Glock to Manor announcement being immenant despite the rumours.

There is also some rumours that the FIA is announcing the final entry list tomorrow. If thats true, hopefully it means that Sauber are back in, as I don't know if Stefan GP could have sorted something with Toyota in time.

Oh, and a point concerning the young drivers tests mentioned here...the RBR/STR ones are apparently for the third driver spot for the Red Bull teams next year. You'd have to say Ricciardo is looking the favourite for that considering he gets the full 3 days in the RB5. I think Hartley is probably on shaky ground given the year he's had. The Force India one is also meant to be for the test driver position, I'd be surprised if di Resta didn't get that.
 
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I'm going to be a mess the weekend of the Canadian Grand Prix, I'll have been up for 48 hours watching Le Mans and when Qualifying come on I'll have to decide to watch the race or qualifying. I'll have to source a laptop.
 
Just a point/question here: Aren't customer cars banned for 2010? If so, does that mean STR has to build their own car next year? I thought they were planning on selling the team?
 
pfrocker said:
Just a point/question here: Aren't customer cars banned for 2010? If so, does that mean STR has to build their own car next year? I thought they were planning on selling the team?
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Yeah, I'd completely forgot about that...anyone know what's going on there?
 
STR are building their own car. Not sure what the situation is with regards to them selling the team, but I think they're sticking around for the short term. They have the facilities and know-how so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
 
Red_Bull said:
STR are building their own car. Not sure what the situation is with regards to them selling the team, but I think they're sticking around for the short term. They have the facilities and know-how so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
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Yeah, they've spent most of the year expanding their Faenza base so it can accomodate a full manufacturer and they've probably got the blueprint for the RB5 so they'll have something to work off.
 
Sir Stiggington said:
Yeah, I'd completely forgot about that...anyone know what's going on there?
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They're building their own car. They've expanded operations in Italy and taken over what used to be Red Bull's second wind tunnel in Bicester for aero testing.
 
Red_Bull said:
STR are building their own car. Not sure what the situation is with regards to them selling the team, but I think they're sticking around for the short term. They have the facilities and know-how so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
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If they sell, i hope they sell it back to Paul Stoddard. We need more outspoken team principals.
 
So I take it "Red Bull Technologies", who designed and built both the Red Bull and Toro Rosso chassis for 2009, will now only handle the RBR chassis? And that means Adrian is only designing the RBR chassis?
 
Kiskaloo said:
So I take it "Red Bull Technologies", who designed and built both the Red Bull and Toro Rosso chassis for 2009, will now only handle the RBR chassis? And that means Adrian is only designing the RBR chassis?
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Pretty sure thats the situation, yeah. Neway is definately designing the RB6.

Anyway, we've got one bit of news today - Manor to run as Virgin Racing. Not that its really any news to anyone!

Article gives a provisional FIA entry list, but still no announcement on the 13th team, though it does say this:

"Toyota Motorsport GmbH remains formally bound by the Concorde Agreement to put forward a team for participation, though it has indicated that it will not be in a position to do so," said a statement from the governing body. "An announcement will be made regarding this entry in due course.
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So hopefully that means Sauber will be back in soon. New teams also have numbers assigned - Lotus 18 & 19, Campos Meta 20 & 21, US F1 22 & 23 and Virgin Racing 24 & 25. I presume whoever gets the 13th slot gets 26 & 27. Im a bit confused as to why Lotus have got the first numbers out of the new teams as I thought it was done on order of entry, but its not really important I guess.

Oh, a couple of extra points from that announcement - Renault have been listed as an entrant (with Kubica as first driver) and Red Bull are listed as using Renault engines, whether that means they will continue, I don't know. Brawn are still listed under their old name and will switch to Mercedes Grand Prix at a later date. Maybe something to do with not being counted as a new entrant and keeping their pitlane position?
 
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