Formula One Gets New Blood for 2010

The Formula One 2010 grid is going to look a little different next year when you watch the fastest vehicles and their daring drivers take to the race track. There will be four new teams joining the Formula One fold in 2010. One will be an old friend who returns after a prolonged absence from a Formula One track, while the other three will be new entrees to the Formula One world.

Peter Windsor annouces the formation of USAF1, the first US based Formula One team in two decades

Manor Grand Prix will begin the 2010 Formula One season with hopes of success on the Formula One grid, next to Team US and Campos Meta, who will also be looking for success during their first full year on the Formula One grid. The arrival of these three new competitors to Formula One is a breath of fresh wind for an industry that needs a new wind. These new teams will suit up next to an old friend to Formula One, who will once again field a race car in Formula One, after a 15 year absence. Lotus has returned to the Formula One fold for 2010 and we are all looking forward to watching and seeing what the legendary Lotus can do. Lotus has seven championships, 79 race wins and 107 pole positions, and is one of Formula One’s most successful constructors. They achieved race success with iconic racing names like Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Ayrton Senna.

Founded by Englishman Colin Chapman, almost six decades ago, with the financial help of his fiancée Hazel, the Lotus Engineering Company started life in 1952 building lightweight sports cars to the specifications of their customers. Within five years Lotus had constructed its first single-seat race car, the Type 12, to compete for the Formula Two championship. This race car was the beginning of it all for Lotus, as winning the International Trophy at Silverstone would be Chapman’s motivation for taking his race car to Formula One racing.

The Type 12 was fitted with the more powerful 2.2-litre Coventry Climax engine and made its debut in the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix with Graham Hill and Cliff Allison behind the wheel. The success of the Type 12 would lead to the Type 16 in 1959, a more powerful engine that was fragile. In 1960 Lotus introduced the innovative mid-engine Lotus 18 but it would be the arrival of Jim Clark driving the Lotus 25 in 1963 that Lotus would arrive onto the Formula One scene. Clark would win seven races of the 10 Formula One races in 1963 and this would be the beginning of a Formula One team that will go down in Formula One history as one of the greatest success stories the industry as ever seen.

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