Four champions begin the season on the grid, but only one can be crowned king of the road. The 2010 season promises to be the most exciting and competitive that Formula One has seen in years.
Reigning champion Jenson Button will have to pull something special out the bag if he wants to retain his trophy. The Englishman surprised everyone by taking home the top honours last season, but his car was far better than anyone else’s and other than a challenge from the Red Bulls he was presented with a clean run at the title, even if he did take a few detours along the way.
This season the Somerset-born racer is at McLaren, which is in essence Lewis Hamilton’s “team”. In testing Button has struggled a bit - it took a while for the champ to get used to the new car and he has put in significantly slower times than Hamilton. He went to McLaren for the challenge and it will be interesting to see how he develops there. Ultimately he could end up ruing his decision to walk out of Brawn/Mercedes.
As for Hamilton it’s a big year for him as well. Having lost both his crown as champion and the British No.1 spot last season, he will be keen to get back to winning ways. With Hamilton you suspect attitude plays a big part. In his rookie season he fell out with teammate and reigning champion Fernando Alonso which resulted in the Spaniard leaving the team under a cloud. You get the sense he can throw his toys out the pram a bit, it’s not hard to imagine Hamilton as a petulant teenager throwing a hissy-fit because he doesn’t want to eat his broccoli.
At the moment it is all sweetness and light between the two Brits, however if Button starts producing the better drives, expect to see Hamilton’s beady eyes fill with jealous anger. McLaren could be in for a repeat of the Senna/Prost rivalry and we all remember how that ended. Some people never learn.
Obviously all eyes will be on a certain Michael Schumacher and who doesn’t love having the self-contented German back in a race car? Schumacher is Mr Formula One, saying someone is the best ever is purely subjective but it’s hard to look past the chinny former champion. Seven championships he has in his collection and there is no doubt he will be on the tail of number eight this year. He has his perfect set up, a German team plus Ross Brawn, a formidable team indeed. Even at the ripe old age of 41 Schumacher is a threat and to the other competitors his presence is like finding yourself in the jungle with Predator.
In pre-season testing Schuey’s former team, Ferrari are looking very strong indeed. The addition of Alonso was amaster-stroke. Renault have fallen apart and won’t be competitive for the time being, Kimi Räikkönen was beginning to appear jaded and Alonso seems hungry for a return to success. Having won his last title in 2006 it’s been a slow few years for the Spaniard. He will always be keen to get one over on Hamilton after their feud and it is looking increasingly like the Ferrari will be the quickest on the track after a dud year last year.
Fellow Ferrari driver Filipe Massa can’t be ruled out either, the Brazilian is now fully recovered from his bump on the noggin and can resume his career as a bit of a dark horse in 2010. Frequently quickest throughout pre-season, Massa has become something of a forgotten man having been pipped at the post by Hamilton in 2008. There is no doubt that Massa presents a genuine threat to the title.
Aside from the favourites, the Red Bull drivers are both good bets as outsiders. Red Bull have really got their act together in the last few years and are building cars capable of championship challenges. For a company that makes a drink that tastes foul without vodka they sure do seem to have a lot of money. They sponsor everything, literally everything; a day will probably come when you put on your Red Bull shoes, get on a Red Bull bus and make your way to your Red Bull-sponsored office. They mean business in Formula One though and are not there to make up the numbers. Seb Vettel is just a mini-Schumacher, a day will come soon when he storms the championship and then that will be it for years. He’s a classy driver and has been a prospect since his Torro Rosso days which says a lot given how bad Torro Rosso usually perform.
His teammate Mark Webber is also in with a shout, but it would take a brave man to back him for a title win. The Aussie racer is an above-average driver, a good foil for Vettel and will pick up podium places. He is sort of like the Paul Collingwood of Formula One, he’ll be there-or-there-abouts, grafting away, but will more than likely fall short when it comes to quality.
Elsewhere there is obviously Rubens Barrichello in the Williams who is normally in the mix, a couple of the unknown quantities in Virgin driver Lucas Di Grassi who comes with a big reputation, while a lot of people have an eye on Bruno Senna.
Senna has quite big shoes to fill, so big in fact a family of seven could live in them. How can you live up to Ayrton Senna’s legend? Who knows, but he’s going to try and he’s going to attempt it in the Hispania car. Good luck with that Bruno.
The 2010 season is going to be a close one to call. Finally we have a season that will be worth putting the hours into. It’s all to race for and the only thing that can stop it being enjoyable will be if Schumacher dominates the whole thing, which quite frankly isn’t that unlikely.
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