Kobayashi will be racing against the best Formula One has to offer in 2010

Kamui got noticed by the fans and teams after he took the place of Timo Glock behind the wheel of his Toyota race car after Timo was injured and couldn’t make it to the final two races of the season. Timo had a bum leg and back that made him sit out, so Kobayashi was drafted in to take his place in the car and he really took the bull by the horns and showed the Formula One world what kind of talent and drive he has to win. In the first of his two races, Kobayashi was first able to finish just on the outside of the top ten, but in his second race he stepped forward and had the best result of his Formula One career, so far, with an impressive display of racing that provided him with his first Formula One points and a sixth place finish at Abu Dhabi.

Peter Sauber smiled brightly when the announcement of Kobayashi signing with his team was made and put his arm around Kobayashi in a gesture that should make Japanese fans happy to see. Hopefully, these two gentlemen can form a relationship that will leave us breathless in the coming Formula One season and increase the entertainment value of each of the races they compete in. He stated that Kobayashi showed great promise in his two races last year and that he was looking forward to seeing what he could do behind the wheel of one of his race cars.

The opening of the 2010 Formula One season is starting to look like something that no one should miss, what with the new teams, the signing of some of the brightest talent to new teams and should make for an interesting year of racing.

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Kamui Kobayashi Signs With BMW Sauber

Formula One will see the return of Lotus in 2010

BMW actually announced to the Formula One world that they would be leaving the tour in 2010 and then promptly sold the team to the man that originally sold it to them, Peter Sauber, instead of the investment group Qadbak, who were originally talking to BMW about buying the team. At first it didn’t look like BMW Sauber was going to be able to grab one of the thirteen available tickets to be one of the teams for the 2010 Formula One season, when Lotus looked like they had grabbed the final berth. BMW Sauber got another chance at a ticket to the big show, after Toyota decided to withdraw their team for the 2010 season.

FIA has been busy finalizing the teams for the 2010 Formula One season and is certainly glad to get this part of the process secured and now they can get onto preparing for the season. This means that the thirteen teams that will be on the grid for the opening race of the 2010 season, will be McLaren, Mercedes (Brawn), Red Bull, Ferrari, Force India, Toro Rossi, Renault, Williams, Sauber, Virgin Racing, US F1 Team, Lotus and Campos. This isn’t written in stone just as yet, and there could still be changes to the thirteen teams that will arrive at the first race of the 2010 Formula One season, but things are looking pretty good for these teams to be the ones that will be competing for the 2010 Formula One title.

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BMW Sauber Confirmed for 2010

Will Robert be driving for Peter Sauber's new team next year

This move by Peter and BMW gives the team a secure foundation to go forward on and try to win the 2010 Formula One Championship. They’ll have to work fast to get the car and team in shape for the season, but Peter is one of the best in the business and I expect the team to be in top shape come opening day. It might be said that Peter felt a certain need to step forward to care for the team he started, when he found out that BMW wished to step into the background and let another party take the lead. It is certainly true for Peter, but his responsibilities just increased ten-fold and the expectations for the team just increased significantly with his return. It would have been a bad thing if one of the best teams and factories in Formula One had to close down because of the departure of BMW and Peter deserves a pat on the back and cheer for stepping forward to take the reigns of the team.

We have learned that Peter Sauber will be paying all of the bills for the team as it goes forward himself, so he has put forward significant financial resources in order to make the deal possible. Will he have to seek financial backing for the team to go forward, most likely, but then Formula One is an expensive sport and one that often requires multiple sources to keep the cars running and pay checks coming in.

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Peter Sauber Returns to Formula One

BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica thinking about his year, so far

Let’s quickly go over BMW Sauber’s year so far and a few of the less than stellar moments of their 2009 campaign.

2009 was going to be BMW Sauber’s year for major improvements in their car and final standing in the race for the world championship. Considering their steady progress since 2006, expectations were of BMW Sauber challenging for the championship and maybe even winning. This was not to be however, as instead of rising to glory, BMW Sauber has lost ground with both their car and their final standings in the races.

Pre-season testing seemed to indicate too many that BMW Sauber’s F1.09 was fast, quick, and reliable, and drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica were talking excitedly about their cars and chances for the 2009 Formula One season. Unfortunately, as the season has progressed, it has become clear they can’t currently compete with the front running Brawns and Toyotas. They have only managed four top ten finishes this season, far behind what they were expecting considering last year they had 74 points after eight races.

BMW Sauber really got left behind when they concentrated on KERS over aerodynamics at the beginning of the year. They are now coming up with their own editions of Brawn/Toyota/Williams double-diffuser, but they’re still way behind this season, and refuse to admit defeat.

In the Turkish Grand Prix they tried out their first editions of the two-tier diffuser, and there were a few signs of improvement, with Kubica grabbing his first points of the 2009 Formula One season. The Silverstone race saw both BMW Sauber drivers finish a lap down, so if the team is going to compete, they need to get their car running faster.

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BMW Sauber’s 2009 Formula One Season

Brawn GP has dominated the 2009 Formula One season so far

To date Brawn has won six of the eight races completed and currently have a healthy points lead in the constructors championship. Let’s do a quick run through of the Formula One season so far…

What a turn around for the former Honda team! After a terrible 2008 in which Honda withdrew its support, they spent the off season battling to keep the team afloat, before ending in a 2009 Formula One season in which they have been on top of the podium race after race.

Ross Brawn has done an excellent job driving his team through a rough period and putting two experienced drivers in Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in a position to race and win. Honda showed great maturity in realizing their RA 109 just wasn’t going to be the car to win for them and re-focused their development on the BGP001. Their courage paid off as their new entry was surprisingly fast in pre-season tests and hasn’t disappointed them so far in 2009. To date the BGP001 has only retired from one race in eight tries and has put at least one Brawn driver on the podium in every race so far.

There has also been plenty of controversy surrounding Brawn’s dominance, which was due to the BGP’s innovative double diffuser, something that the other teams protested. In the end however the FIA’s Court of Appeal found in favor of Brawn and they were clear to put the pedal to the metal.

The last race at Silverstone did see Red Bull make a dent in Brawn’s advantage, but we have yet to see if this was a fluke of a true improvement on the part of Red Bull.

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Brawn GP’s 2009 Formula One Dominance

Can Lewis Hamilton do it again for McLaren?

Ferrari’s Formula One F60 will be driven by Kimi Raikkonen from Finland and Felipe Massa of Brazil for the 2009 season, both experienced drivers and proven winners, even if Kimi did have an off racing season last year. Ferrari’s team principal, Stefano Domenicali has stated that Ferrari will be concentrating on trying to make the car more reliable by taking care of the small things in 2009. Reports out of Spain and Bahrain had Ferrari running a little slow due to the weather, but more recent reports indicate that at Jerez and Barcelona Ferrari was showing signs of improving their cars overall performance and speed.
McLaren will field the current world champion Lewis Hamilton from Great Britain and Heikki Kovalainen of Finland for the 2009 F1 season. Current reports out of Jerez and Barcelona indicate McLaren is having problems with the rear-end aerodynamics of the MP4-24; both Lewis and Heikki have reported disappointment in the cars performance, so far. McLaren says it has scientists and technicians working on the problem and they hope to have a few changes that will fix the problem by the time they pull into Melbourne at the end of the month.
BMW Sauber’s drivers for this season are Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld, BMW has been really quiet during testing, but the F1.09 has shown every sign of being able to compete head-to-head with the other teams. The Swiss-German combination will be implementing a KERS system in their car this season and team principal Dr. Mario Theissen has indicated the system is ready for race testing. Will BMW Sauber be able to compete effectively for the world championship this season, is the question?
Renault will put Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet in the drivers’ seat of their R29 race car this season. Initial reports indicate the R29 ran slow in the early stages in Spain, but that lap times at Jerez were much improved and clearly progress is being made on the R29. Renault will also implement a KERS system in their race car this F1 season, but any advantages a KERS system may give cars implementing such systems has yet to be shown.

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The Formula One 2009 Season Preview