2010 Season

Driver changes

Fernando Alonso leaves Renault for Ferrari, replacing Kimi Räikkönen, who has taken a two-year sabbatical from Formula One to drive for the Citroën Junior Team in the World Rally Championship. Alonso signs a three-year deal with Ferrari.

Reigning champion Jenson Button joins Lewis Hamilton at McLaren after failing to negotiate a contract with Mercedes, who bought his 2009 team Brawn GP. The combination gives McLaren the sport’s first double World Champion line-up since Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost shared the garage in 1989.

Seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher ends a three-year retirement to join Mercedes GP, signing on 23 December 2009. Schumacher had originally intended to return with Ferrari in 2009 to replace the injured Felipe Massa, but a motorcycle injury prevented it.

Nico Rosberg leaves Williams after four seasons to join Schumacher at Mercedes. Rubens Barrichello moves from the dissolved Brawn to Williams, while Nico Hülkenberg, the 2009 GP2 champion, makes his Formula One debut alongside him.

Robert Kubica leaves BMW Sauber to drive for Renault in place of Alonso. Vitaly Petrov joins Kubica at Renault, becoming Russia’s first Formula One World Championship driver.

Bruno Senna — nephew of three-time champion Ayrton Senna — returns the Senna name to Formula One for the first time in sixteen years, joining the new Hispania Racing team. His teammate is Karun Chandhok, India’s second Formula One driver after Narain Karthikeyan.

Other new Formula One entrants include Lucas di Grassi (Virgin Racing), Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus Racing, after leaving McLaren), Jarno Trulli (Lotus Racing, from the now-defunct Toyota), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber, after his late-season Toyota appearances in 2009), and Timo Glock (Virgin Racing, after Toyota’s withdrawal).

Pedro de la Rosa returns to Formula One with Sauber after three years as a McLaren test driver.

Team changes

BMW withdraws from Formula One, citing a lack of future viability. The team is sold back to founder Peter Sauber, who renames it Sauber and switches to Ferrari engines.

Toyota also withdraws, citing financial difficulties in the automotive industry. Toyota does not sell the team; its grid slot goes to Sauber.

Daimler AG purchases a 75.1% stake in Brawn GP and renames the team Mercedes Grand Prix. It is Mercedes’ first Formula One season since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. The team takes Petronas as its title sponsor, renamed Mercedes GP Petronas.

Renault sells a 75% majority shareholding to investor Gerard Lopez to secure the team’s future. The team continues to race as Renault, with the engine department remaining under full Renault ownership.

Scuderia Toro Rosso becomes an independent constructor for the first time. The FIA closed the loophole that had allowed them to purchase customer chassis from Red Bull, so the STR5 is the first car Toro Rosso has built entirely in-house.

Four new teams join the grid: Mercedes, Lotus Racing (a Malaysian-owned outfit, not directly connected to the historical Team Lotus), Virgin Racing, and Hispania Racing (HRT). A fifth new entry, US F1, officially withdrew in early March following months of mismanagement allegations.

Calendar

Nineteen races are scheduled across 18 countries and five continents. The Canadian Grand Prix returns after its one-year absence. South Korea makes its debut on the Formula One calendar with a race at the Korea International Circuit in Yeongam.

The Bahrain Grand Prix opens the season on a new extended circuit layout. Drivers leave the existing track after turn four and follow a loop of nearly 900 metres before rejoining before the old turn five, increasing the lap distance from 5.412 km to 6.299 km.

The British Grand Prix remains at Silverstone after plans to move to a redeveloped Donington Park collapsed when the venue’s owners failed to raise the required £135 million bond. Silverstone introduces a new “Arena” configuration that adds 760 metres to the lap.

The German Grand Prix returns to Hockenheim for one year, having been held at the Nürburgring in 2009. Japan stays at Suzuka after Toyota, who had managed Fuji Speedway’s Formula One rotation, abandoned plans for the circuit citing the global recession.

Regulation changes

Refuelling during races is banned for the first time since 1993, a measure supported by FOTA as a cost-cutting measure. All cars must now complete the race on the fuel loaded at the start.

A new points system replaces the 10–8–6–5–4–3–2–1 structure in use since 2003. The 2010 system awards the top ten classified finishers on a 25–18–15–12–10–8–6–4–2–1 basis, the most radical revision since the championship was founded in 1950.

To accommodate the expanded 24-car grid, the qualifying format changes: seven cars are eliminated in Q1, seven more in Q2, and the remaining ten compete for pole in Q3. Drivers in Q3 must start the race on the set of tyres used to set their fastest Q3 lap. Each driver receives eleven sets of dry tyres for the weekend, reduced from fourteen in 2009. Front tyre width is narrowed from 270 mm to 245 mm to improve the balance of front and rear grip. Wheel covers, rim heaters, and outboard wing mirror positions are banned.

The stewarding system introduces a fixed pool of stewards that includes a former racing driver at each event, replacing the rotating line-up that had drawn criticism for inconsistency. Penalty options are also expanded: stewards can now issue 20-second penalties (equivalent to a drive-through) and 30-second penalties (equivalent to a stop-and-go), serving them within two laps of issue rather than three.

The minimum car weight increases from 605 kg to 620 kg.

Pre-season testing

Testing took place at Valencia (1–3 February), Jerez (10–13 and 17–20 February) and Barcelona (25–28 February), with a maximum of 15,000 km over fifteen days. Campos/Hispania and US F1 did not participate.

Ferrari dominated the Valencia test, with Felipe Massa fastest on days one and two. Fernando Alonso, in his first public appearance for the team, set the overall best time of 1:11.470 on the third day. The first Jerez test was disrupted by heavy rain, though Lewis Hamilton set the fastest dry time of 1:19.583. Virgin Racing, making their first public appearance, completed just five laps due to a shortage of parts. The second Jerez test saw Lotus Racing’s first public running of the T127; Jenson Button set the fastest time of 1:18.871 in improved weather. At the final Barcelona test, Hamilton was again fastest overall with a 1:20.472, with most teams completing low-fuel runs on the final day. Virgin’s Lucas di Grassi crashed and the team suffered further mechanical issues throughout.