Schumacher Returns - It's Official

Mercedes Benz World - Brooklands

It has been a busy week for Mercedes F1...

Further to earlier speculation, on Wednesday 23rd December, the team officially announced that seven time F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher will race for them alongside fellow German Nico Rosberg in 2010.

Schumacher, ever confident, has already set his sights on an unprecedented eighth World title which he believes to be achievable despite his age and three year absence from the sport.

He is basing this assumption on the fact the Brawn GP (now Mercedes) Team produced the Championship winning car and driver in 2009.

As I have stated in this blog on a number of occasions, I believe that Brawn were afforded an early season advantage in 2009 over their rivals due to their clever interpretation of the technical rules regarding the use of a double diffuser.

By the time the other teams had modified their cars, Brawn had the Championship effectively sewn up.

It is highly unlikely, in my opinion, that the Brawn/Mercedes team will be afforded the same head start in 2010 and therefore it follows, that Schumacher will not have an open road to the Championship.

I do believe 2010 will be a very tight season with several teams and drivers in the hunt for Constructors and Drivers Championships.

Massa and Alonso at Ferrari will be fun to watch taking points from each other - and, I expect, squabbling throughout the season.

I have a good feeling about Hamilton at McLaren - provided the team can produce a decent car. I believe Button will struggle with a top class team mate coupled with an unfamilar car and team organisation.

If Red Bull can continue to develop their car, Vettel will definitely be another Championship contender. I would like to include Mark Webber in the list of possible Champions but fear he will continue to be dogged with the bad luck that has plagued his career to date.

In addition to the news of Michael Schumacher's impending return to F1, Mercedes have also signed a title sponsorship agreement with Malaysian oil giant Petronas, much to the chagrin of Lotus F1 who had hoped to do the deal themselves.

My friend Himmat Singh in Malaysia has written an interesting post on his blog from a local perspective about the Petronas/Mercedes link up and it's implications for Lotus.

If you'd like to read it, please click here.

How do you think Michael Schumacher will fair in 2010? Will he still be competitive or just make up the numbers?

Why not leave a comment? They are always very welcome.

Barrichello Takes the Championship Fight to Button

Photo by S G Mendez

Rubens Barrichello has taken the 2009 F1 Championship fight to Jenson Button by landing pole position for tomorrow's Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.

Button meanwhile made a hash of qualifying by failing to change to the intermediate tyre at the right point and remaining on full wets. He qualified fourteenth.

The third Championship protaganist Sebastian Vettel fell at the first hurdle by failing to progress from Q1 in a heavily rain affected qualifying "hour" which, due to various red flags, dragged on for nearly three hours. He starts fifteenth on the gird - directly behind Button.

Unfortunately the delayed coverage meant that those of us watching on the BBC had to endure Jake (the Plank) Humphrey asking numerous mind numbingly inane questions to pad out the time waiting for the qualifying sessions to restart.

At least today he managed to refrain from incessantly referring to David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan as DC and EJ - one of my pet hates - aaaarggghhh

It's almost enough for me to want the BBC to start showing adverts!

Putting my latest BBC F1 commentary rant to one side, it now appears that the Championship is a straight two horse race between Button and Barrichello - barring any miracle from Vettel tomorrow.

I still believe that Button will take the Championship but not until Abu Dhabi and with a whimper rather than a bang.

Call me unpatriotic but I'm afraid I do not class Button as a driver in the same league as the likes of Lewis Hamilton or Kimi Raikkonen.

The Championship was virtually gifted to him by dint of the fact the Brawn car in the first half of the season, due to their clever interpretation of the rules, was streets ahead of the opposition.

At the same time any misfortunes to the Brawn Team seemed to fall in the lap of Rubens Barrichello.

In the second half of the season the other teams have improved their cars, in particular Red Bull and McLaren and since that point Button has not had the sniff of a victory and has played safe.

If he remains with Brawn next year, as is expected, and their car is on a parr with the McLarens, Ferraris etc it will be interesting to see how he fairs on a level playing field - if I would hazard a guess, not too well.

The race tomorrow holds a lot of promise and could be a classic (maybe too much to hope!).

It will be great to see Vettel going for it from the back - after all he has nothing to lose. Button will need to try and keep himself out of trouble and avoid a DNF.

At the front Barrichello and Webber (P2) will both be desparate to win. Barrichello to keep his Championship hopes alive and Webber to prove to his doubters that he can get the job done.

Others to look out for in my opinion are Sutil who took an impressive P3 for Force India and Kimi Raikkonen in P5.

If it rains again during the race Sutil is definitely in with a shout for a podium finish.

Other posts you may like....

Button Wins at Spanish GP Barrichello Spits the Dummy!

Jenson Button Makes it Five Wins Out of Six

Button Wins again in Turkey. Is the Season Over?

German Grand Prix - Webber takes first F1 career victory

Mark Webber completed a perfect weekend at the Nurburgring this afternoon with a stunning drive to victory - the first of his F1 career - despite being handed a harsh drive through penalty after a slight coming together with Rubens Barrichello off the start.

When the penalty was handed out I honestly thought that would be it for Webber's chances and the end of what could have been potentially an exciting race. Once again the hierrarchy would have conspired to remove any ounce of entertainment from the proceedings.

Fortunately Webber was so focused he was able to outclass the whole field today including his much lauded team mate (even by me in previous posts!) Sebastian Vettel who finished second completing another Red Bull Racing one-two.

Felipe Massa finished third his best result of the season. Rosberg of Williams drove a solid race to fourth despite qualifying poorly on Saturday.

The two Brawn's of Button and Barrichello finished fifth and sixth respectively due to tyre issues and, in the case of Barrichello, issues in the pits (fuel rig problem).

Barrichello who qualified second on the grid had managed to get the jump on Mark Webber at the start but later got held up behind Kovaleinen and later Massa.

Alonso had a good run towards the end of the race clocking up fastest laps and managed to take seventh place. The top eight was rounded out by Kovaleinen.

Lewis Hamilton had rocketed off the grid from P5 into the lead (making full use of the KERS) but managed to clip Mark Webber causing a puncture which effectively ended his afternoon. Hamilton ended taking the wooden spoon.

The Red Bull Racing star definitely seems to be in the ascendant this half of the season.

The same cannot be said from Brawn GP. Following their blistering start a few cracks (or should that be chasms?) are starting to appear. As mentioned in our post yesterday, Button's body language at the press conference was all telling. The Brawn car was totally outclassed by Red Bull this weekend.

Following the race, Barrichello spat the dummy (once again) in an angry TV interview shown on the BBC coverage implying that the team lost the race and that he had done all that was necessary to win it.

To compound matters, Barrichello once again found himself finishing behind Button after the final round of pitstops when he had been in front beforehand. No doubt he has in mind the situation at Ferrari where he played Patsy to Schumacher.

He was probably unaware of the fuel rig issue at the time of the interview and will no doubt get slapped down by Ross Brawn and told his fortune!

To rub salt in the wounds, there is a strong rumour that Virgin will not be sponsoring the team next season and instead will be supporting newcomers Manor F1.

New parts are expected for the Brawn car at the next race in Hungary but will it be enough to hold off the resurgent Red Bulls?

German Grand Prix - Mark Webber Takes First F1 Career Pole

Aussie Mark Webber took his first F1 career pole position at a rain affected qualifying session at the Nurburgring yesterday afternoon with a blistering lap in difficult conditions.

It transpires that this pole position was fully merited as his car is fueled heavier than his nearest rivals on the grid.

Rubens Barrichello made a good tactical choice of tyre and was able to take second slot on the grid behind Webber but in front of his team mate and Championship leader Jenson Button in third.

At the press conference, Webber (obviously) and Barrichello seemed very pleased with their performance whilst Button's body language told a different story. It doesn't look like he will have an easy ride during the race today.

The Red Bulls appear to have the edge over the Brawns this weekend. On top of that, with more changeable weather forecast for the race, Barrichello and Vettel are ones to watch out for.

Talking of Vettel, he qualified fourth to the disappointment of the German crowd, but when fuel load is taken into account he would have been only 0.25 seconds behind Webber in P2.

The McLaren team appear to have pulled out all the stops to make some major improvements to their performance this weekend. New aero parts have been fitted to Lewis Hamilton's car giving around 0.7 seconds per lap improvement.

Hamilton qualified fifth and could be on for a podium finish especially if the weather comes into play. Heikki Kovalainen qualified sixth despite the new parts only being fitted to Hamilton's car but will probably drop back during the race.

The other star of qualifying (apart from Mark Webber) was Adrian Sutil who guided his Force India into P7. The highest ever qualifying slot for the team. Again the position was fully merited when fuel adjusted. Could Force India be on for their first points of the season?

The two Ferraris of Massa and Rakkonen qualified eighth and ninth respectively whilst Nelson Piquet rounded out the top ten outqualifying his team mate Alonso.

Hopefully Webber and Barrichello can both outscore their respective team mates this weekend to add some well needed spice to this season's Championship.

All will be revealed later today.

Button Wins Again in Turkey - Is the Season Over Already?

Jenson Button continued his winning streak at the Turkish Grand Prix last weekend making it six wins out of seven.

The race was effectively done and dusted before the first lap had been completed.

Vettel who had qualified on pole went wide whilst pushing hard enabling Button to slip through.

From then on it was game over. Nobody had the pace to keep up with Button. His team mate Barrichello who had in qualified third, suffered clutch problems and had a terrible start off the line dropping more or less to the back of the field before eventually retiring from the race. This was Brawn GP's first retirement of the season.

It was a dissapointing race for Vettel in the end. He finished on the third step of the podium behind his team mate Webber.

Webber had driven very well throughout the race to a highly deserved second place. He is now fourth place in the drivers Championship only 1.5 points behind Vettel. The two Brawn GP drivers, however, are pole apart. Button is now leading the Championship over Barrichello by a massive 26 points.

Whilst I would dearly love to have a British F1 World Champion again at the end of this season, I would like to see Jenson closely challenged as Hamilton was last year.

Unless the other teams step up to the plate in the next couple of races it will be fait accomplit.

I am still sticking to my prediction that Barrichello will show some form at Silverstone and finally make some inroads into Button's seemingly unassailable lead.

Turkish GP - Vettel Takes Pole

Red Bull Racing's 21 year old wunderkind Sebastian Vettel has snatched pole position for tomorrow's F1 Turkish Grand Prix in the dying seconds of Q3 (as predicted in this blog!).

Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello of Brawn GP had to settle for second and third on the grid respectively.

Vettel's team mate Mark Webber has qualified fourth and, in a much improved performance for Toyota, Jarno Trulli was fifth fastest.

The two Ferraris of Raikkonen and Massa are sixth and seventh, Fernando Alonso (Renault) is eighth, Rosberg (Williams) ninth and Robert Kubica of BMW tenth.

The BMW's are showing some improvement in form compared to recent Grand Prix with Heidfeld one spot behind Kubica in eleventh.

McLaren are having (yet) another dismal weekend. Lewis Hamilton was dumped out of Q1 and qualified a terrible sixteenth. His team mate Kovalainen, despite topping the time sheets in second practice on Friday, fared little better with fourteenth spot on the grid. McLaren are hoping to rush through new parts in time for Silverstone but whether that will make a lot of difference remains to be seen.

Force India driver Adrian Sutil qualified a very creditable fifteenth.

The top seven runners were separated by barely half a second and with a tricky circuit to navigate (practically every driver has had an off this weekend so far), it promises to be an exciting race tomorrow.

Our podium prediction - Vettel to win, Button second, Massa third.

Jenson Button Makes It Five Wins out of Six in Monaco

Jenson Button has continued his winning streak by taking a lights to flag victory at the Monaco GP. He has now won five of the six Grand Prix so far this year.

Although it may sound churlish and unpatriotic, the season is in danger of going stale (as it often did in the Schumacher era) if one driver continues to dominate.

I am hoping that one or (preferably) more of the other drivers, maybe Vettel or Barrichello or even Mark Webber, will snatch a victory or JB will encounter some unreliability to even out the playing field and spice things up a bit.

Compare the 2009 F1 season - two different winners to date - with this year's BTCC season - seven different winners in seven races.

Going back to the Monaco GP..... Button's Brawn GP team mate Rubens Barrichello came second and in third place, scoring Ferrari's only podium finish to date, was Kimi Raikkonen.

The Ferraris do finally seem to have picked up a bit of pace after their worst season start for decades.

Button wins at Spanish GP - Barrichello Spits the Dummy!

Britain's Jenson Button drove his way to victory number four of the 2009 F1 season at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday beating his Brawn GP team mate Rubens Barrichello into second place.

Barrichello had outpaced and passed Button at the start of the race to take the lead and on his planned three stop strategy should have won the race. During the race Brawn GP decided to switch Button from three stop to a two stop strategy enabling him to take the victory.

On the BBC F1 coverage you could clearly see Barrichello was bemused to find himself in second place when he clearly thought the win had been in his grasp.

Post race Barrichello was quoted as saying he would "hang up his helmet" immediately if he had any suspicion that Ross Brawn was favouring Button. Brawn has denied showing any favour to either of his two drivers.

It must seem like deja vu to Barrichello after playing Patsy to Michael Schumacher for all those years at Ferrari - same team boss - same scenario - just a smaller pay packet!

L2F's view is that Rubens is being paranoid. Ross Brawn has been around too long to put all his eggs in one basket when there are still twelve races left to run.

Button is clearly on a roll at the moment but cast your mind back to earlier in his career when things weren't running so smoothly for him - for example his time at Renault when the perma tanned one had to give him the hurry up or the is he going to Williams or isn't he debacle.

A few DNF's here and there or a slip up or two for Button and Barrichello could still have his day. They should both keep an eye on young Vettel of Red Bull too.

By the way L2F tip - Barrichello for victory at Silverstone.......

End to a busy month - Jenson wins in Bahrain / BTCC action at Thruxton

April came to a close with plenty of action both on and off track.

Jenson Button picked up his third win of the season at last weekend's Bahrain GP joined on the podium by German wunderkind Sebastian Vettel and Toyota's Jarno Trulli.

Lewis Hamilton in the much improved McLaren came in fourth - his season's best to date.

Meanwhile in the latest BTCC rounds at Thruxton, James Thompson made a welcome return to the series action with Team Dynamics sporting another of his decidedly dodgy hair dos!!

(Fortunately his driving makes up for it so we can forgive him)

The VX Racing team scored a 1-2-3 in the first race with Giovanardi leading home Matt Neal and young Andrew Jordan.

Colin Turkington took victory in race two after a closely fought battle with Giovanardi while Matt Jackson, debuting in an RML Chevrolet had an excellent win in race three.

Off track, McLaren received their expected rap across the knuckles - a suspended race ban. Ron Dennis's recent departure from the scene would appear to have been sufficient to appease the F1 hierarchy.

Today the FIA have announced their planned £ 40 million spending cap for the 2010 season which they hope will lead to up to an additional six cars joining the grid. Several teams including McLaren and Williams have already raised concerns.

No doubt this one will rumble on over the next few months!

Vettel Takes Red Bull's First GP Victory in China

Sebastian Vettel converted Red Bull's maiden pole position into it's first Grand Prix victory in China on Sunday.

Vettel drove an excellent race in appalling wet conditions and was followed home by his team mate Mark Webber - no doubt disappointed not to have been Red Bull's first GP winner himself.

Jenson Button claimed the third step on the podium cementing his lead at the top of the 2009 driver's championship.

For our full race report please visit the L2F web site now.

Shut Up Flav! Briatore Lays Into Brawn

Renault F1 team boss and aging perma-tanned lothario Flavio Briatore has once again been shooting his gargantuan mouth off.

He has publically lambasted the Brawn GP team following their blistering start to the 2009 F1 season, thanks, according to Briatore, solely to their diffuser.

At the same time he has reffered to Brawn GP's drivers as a slow coach (Jensen Button - err who he recently tried to sign to Renault....) and a pensioner (36 year old Rubens Barrichello).

He is clearly talking out of his arse - as usual!

In qualifying for today's Chinese Grand Prix there was not a single Brawn GP car to be found on the front row of the grid!

The pole position went to Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing who's car does NOT use the contraversial diffuser used by Brawn GP.

Second on the grid is his own beloved Fernando Alonso..... using err ..... Renault's version of the contraversial diffuser he has been bellyaching about.

Don't suppose he complained about that.

Do us a favour Flav - keep it buttoned!!

Vettel Takes Red Bull Racing's First Ever Pole Position

Sebastian Vettel has taken Red Bull Racing's first ever pole position for tomorrow's Chinese Grand Prix and furthermore it was taken in impressive, dare we say it, Schumacheresque style.

Due to a driveshaft gremlin which had cropped up earlier in the day, Vettel was only able to make single runs during all three qualifying sessions and pulled the pole lap out of the bag despite being under extreme pressure.

L2F cannot help but be impressed by the way young Vettel has found his feet in F1 and believes he will be a serious contender for many years to come. Another Schumacher perhaps? He has the skill but fortunately not the arrogant streak.

Second place on the grid goes to a light fuelled Alonso (despite Briatore's bellyaching about diffusers....)

Third place to Vettel's team mate Mark Webber in the sister Red Bull. All in all a great performance for the team so far this weekend.

Barrichello and Button for Brawn GP will occupy fourth and fifth on the grid respectively with Toyota's Jarno Trulli in sixth.

For full details of the qualifying positions please visit the L2F web site!