Official 2010 F1 Pre-Season Thread

It's kind of sad that Brawn GP won't be Brawn GP but Mercedes GP. It's weird.
 
A one year team that did a forza-style engine swap in the car and went on to dominate, it needs to be made into a movie. Did the team even exist for 12 months?
 
I'd like to see a Brawn GP documentary if they have behind the scenes footage and reactions of the year by drivers and staff.
 
Just a thought, since Mercedes is now taking over BrawnGP, BrawnGP will probably be the most successful team in the history of F1 for quite sometime.

The stats will be something stupid like 65% race win or more.
 
I think The Guardian are jumping the gun a bit. Of course Button would like the McLaren terms, they're offering him exactly what he wants from Brawn. He will have taken those terms back to the Brawn negotiating table, said 'here's what McLaren are offering, match it or I walk'. The Mercedes deal could be a favouring factor if Merc want an 'international' line-up as they've supposedly said, and a world champion. They ought to be able to open their wallets and accomodate Jenson.

As Katie Lou stated over in the silly season thread, from here (with the german press taking Button/Rosberg at Brawncedes for granted) it looks like Button seems to be in talk with both sides, and both sides off the record tell their press contacts they are sure they'll close the deal. Only one can, so it's all speculation until there will be a press release.
 
f1.com said:
Glock to lead Manor GP line-up for 2010

The new Manor GP team, currently preparing for their Formula One debut next season, have confirmed 2009 Toyota star Timo Glock to lead their driver line-up. The announcement precedes the official launch of the team later this year.

Manor say their driver strategy has been to secure a blend of youth and experience - and that Glock ticks both boxes. The 27-year-old German made his F1 debut as a Jordan stand-in in 2004, before beginning his career in earnest with Toyota in 2008, going on to score three podiums and 51 points.

?I had several options for 2010, some of them with more established teams,? explained Glock. ?Every driver has the same overall objective - to win the world championship one day - but the way I want to succeed is to be part of the process of building a team and to play a key role in developing the car. This is why the opportunity with Manor GP is so exciting for me.

?I have spent a lot of time with (technical director) Nick Wirth, (team boss) John Booth and other members of the team and what I liked most is that this a real racing team run by true racers. The team may be small and new but it has big ambitions and a very impressive car and development programme. I am confident that I can play a big role in terms of my technical input and that?s a fantastic opportunity for me. I can?t wait to start testing the new car early next year.?

Commenting on Glock?s signing, Wirth said: ?I'm absolutely delighted that Timo has chosen to drive for our team. It has always been my recommendation that we have at least one driver with experience of the 2009 cars to help our development programme, but to get a driver that has not only achieved podium finishes in 2009 but has such proven talent and the potential to take us forward for many years is very exciting. The fact that he has come and seen all aspects of the project before making his decision speaks volumes about what we have achieved so far.?

Manor are one of four new teams joining the grid next season, along with Lotus, Campos Meta and the US F1 Team. They expect to reveal more of their plans and car development programme later this year, but in the meantime have been quietly progressing towards their inaugural year of Formula One competition.

?Progress on our new car continues to be very encouraging,? added Wirth. ?The first fully-finished monocoque was completed a week ago, and we've been crash testing all areas of the car since May. I think we'll have the bulk of the official FIA tests done by Christmas, bang on our schedule. Now we just can't wait to get Timo into the new car once track testing begins next year."
 
Well, that problem is already there with Toro Rosso and Red Bull tbh. I often have had problems to tell the difference on a distance.
Didnt you see the red/yellow colored winglets at the front nose on the STR's ?
 
I've never noticed that. I have 2 guidelines:

A) The Toro Rosso's bull on the fin has a bigger contrast and is more forward.
B) The 2 cars leading the pack can't be Toro Rosso.
 
Another difference: Red Bull= Yellow nose. Toro Rosso= Gold Nose.

Manor: Now sign up Mr Davidson!!!

Brawn GP we barely knew ye
 
I've never noticed that. I have 2 guidelines:

A) The Toro Rosso's bull on the fin has a bigger contrast and is more forward.
B) The 2 cars leading the pack can't be Toro Rosso.
LUL. Not leading. LOLOLOLOLOL.

But anyway, allow me:

STR:
2vnj8uu.jpg


RBR:
1zbas2f.jpg


EDIT: No idea why the "compactness". Mine plays okay on the player...
 
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Usually how I went about it this year:p

I know its manor themselves talking, but it sounds to me like they'll be on the grid come Bahrain. And have most of the USF1 rumors and news dried up?

USF1 paid their non-refundable fee and what not, so they'll be there. Rumor has it they and half of IRL are in contract talks with Ryan Hunter-Reay. I don't see it happening, as his sponsor IZOD is now IRL's title sponsor, but who knows.
 
McLaren losing Mercedes = a major lol from me.
 
Jenson Button 'has agreed' three-year deal with McLaren

It is being claimed that F1 World Champion Jenson Button's patience with Brawn GP's refusal to meet his financial demands has finally run out - and that he has agreed terms to join compatriot Lewis Hamilton at McLaren-Mercedes in 2010

Recently-crowned 2009 F1 World Champion Jenson Button has reportedly come to an agreement to join title-winning predecessor Lewis Hamilton at McLaren-Mercedes from 2010 on a three-year deal ? as a former team owner predicts an all British line-up at Woking, and an all-German alliance at the newly-rebranded Mercedes Grand Prix.

According to British newspaper The Guardian, Button has 'agreed terms' with McLaren for 2010, 2011 and 2012 on an annual ?6 million retainer ? ?2 million a year more than his current employers Brawn GP have been willing to pay for his services ? and could officially sign the contract 'within the next few days' following a visit to the team's Surrey factory at the end of last week.

Button has been locked in stalled negotiations for some weeks now with Brawn over his pay packet, two-thirds of which he voluntarily surrendered last winter in order to help the Brackley-based operation stay afloat in the wake of parent company Honda's sudden and shock withdrawal from top flight competition.

Now, it would seem, the 29-year-old's patience has finally run out with the 'lip service' being paid to him by Brawn ? and an added incentive of a McLaren switch is the opportunity to measure himself against good friend Hamilton, a man regarded by some as out-and-out the fastest driver on the grand prix grid.

On the negative side, Button's purported new salary is still only around half of what Hamilton is paid, and it has been contended that the move represents a backwards step in some respects, departing the safe and comfortable confines of Brawn for the lion's den of what is regarded in some circles as Hamilton's team.

What's more, yesterday's announcement that Mercedes has relinquished its 40 per cent stake in McLaren in favour of purchasing 75 per cent of Brawn and renaming the team in its own image could threaten to turn the multiple world champions into something of a second-string effort for the Stuttgart manufacturer.

There has also been fevered speculation that the three-pointed star has its sights set on an all-homegrown line-up ? almost certainly involving ex-Williams F1 star Nico Rosberg, possibly alongside experienced and regularly underrated BMW-Sauber refugee Nick Heidfeld. That is a theory to which Eddie Jordan ? who ran his own eponymously-named outfit in F1 until he sold out to Midland in 2005, and has since gone on to become a pundit for the BBC ? evidently subscribes.

?Clearly Mercedes have been planning for some time to buy into Brawn, and of course they are looking for two German drivers,? the ever-colourful Irishman told BBC Radio. ?If that's a German team, that opens the door for Jenson to go somewhere like McLaren and create this wonder team of British stars.?

Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Vice-President Norbert Haug, however, refuted such talk, with new Mercedes Grand Prix CEO Nick Fry adding that the notion is 'totally incorrect ? Mercedes is an international company'. The Englishman moreover insisted that whilst the goal is to continue to retain Button into next season and beyond, it cannot be at any price, with no raised offer regardless of the new cash injection.

?I read some speculation and I understand this because we could not give this information earlier,? Haug acknowledged, ?but this will be an international team, for Mercedes-Benz is a global player. We definitely do not want to have the pure German team ? it's an international Silver Arrows team, and we want to have the best drivers in the car.?

?I hope Jenson is still with us next season,? Fry told the BBC. ?We've been together for a good few years now and we have succeeded in winning the world championship together, and we want Jenson to be with us ? but we have to recognise that Formula 1 is not divorced from the rest of the world.

?We work within a budget and if we spend the money in one area, we can't spend it in another. We've had discussions with Jenson which we think are a sensible salary, and [the Mercedes buy-in] is not going to change anything in that respect.?

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/154693/1/jenson_button_has_agreed_three-year_mclaren_deal.html
 
http://www.ts.fi/online/urheilu/89167.html

Roughly translates to: Kimi won't race in 2010.

Kimi has now also been in negotiations with Citroen for a possible seat in the WRC for next year.

The article also says that Kimi plans on taking a sabbatical and according to his manager he would be coming back to F1 in 2011 because he still has a strong will to drive in F1.
 
hahaha I just watched Norbert Haugs Mercedes GP interview.

he sounds like Michael Schumacher, obviously, and Nico Rosberg together. They must have an F1 german public speaking class, to which Haug, Michael, Nico, and Seb have graduated from...
 
Upon further reflection, Mercedes buying out Brawn GP really annoys me because that means that there is one less independent team, a team that exists just for racing. Also, for me, owning your own F1 team would be my ultimate goal especially one where it's my name on the car. Now it's a corporate blank face, it's not Ross Brawn and Nick Fry but the whole Mercedes company. The same company that metaphorically raped Chrysler, leaving it a shattered husk of what it was. No longer can I relate the plight of the ruins of the Honda team being resurrected by Ross Brawn and having a killer of a season because I can no longer see Brawn as the head of the team but instead a single faceless, grey blob. Drivers that will thank the sponsors and give uniform responses to questions asked by the media. Brawn GP was a team that I would have wanted to work for, knowing that I'm not some employee number, but a functioning and respected part of the team who contributes valuable information towards vehicle development. Not having to submit my ideas into a corporate board meeting where all of the bigwigs will decide if my idea is beneficial for the team and the company and their image. I believe that in a small team, engineers are allowed to be much more creative and are allowed to interpret the regulations as freely as they want because they don't have a board worrying that the governing body might deem pieces on the car illegal because that would ruin the company's reputation.
 
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