CALL FOR RULE CHANGE

Formula One bosses are already calling for further rule changes after the first race of what had been billed as a potentially epic and explosive season turned out to be a bit of a dud.

The ban on refuelling, and the end of the strategies that went with it, meant that most drivers made just one pitstop to change tyres in Bahrain on Sunday and created a situation where the action fell a long way short of the hype. Jenson Button , the defending champion was struck behind Michael Schmacher for the whole race,even thoughh he was faster then the seven times world champion. It seemed like the start and the first corner of the 1st lap were the only overtaking oppertunities.

Some team bosses (Which includes the team principles of Mercedes, Mclaren,Redbull and Willams) and pundits said afterwards that the rules should be tweaked to introduce a second mandatory pitstop while tyre compounds could also be changed to make them less durable.

Its a pity that the FIA during the last few years have made a lot of radical changes in order to increase overtaking so that the sport can be made more entertaining. The refuleing ban was a good idea but I wonder did anyone in the FIA noticed that it would effect the overtaking oppertunities during the race.The FIA has worked alot to decrease the down force of the cars so that their may be more chances of overtaking but a single rule change has made thing worse.

Germany Goes Mad

Michael Schumacher's Formula One return at the Bahrain Grand Prix was a big hit. Almost twice as many German television viewers tuned in this year.

The seven-times world champion's comeback race was watched by an average audience of 10.5 million Germans on Sunday, compared to the 5.3 million viewers the season-opening event attracted last season as the 41 year old German driver finished sixth in a Mercedes car on his comeback after three seasons in retirement / hiatus.

This shows how important he is for Formula One. Time for the German marketers to get him behind their marketing campaigns!!!!

Alonso Wins in Bahrain

The eagerly anticipated season opener started with optimism as Fernando Alonso drove a superbly judged race to follow what only Nigel Mansell and Kimi Raikkonen have only achievedwinning debut race for Ferrari. Alonso piped Felipe Massa at the first corner of the race to get into 2^nd position after qualifing 3^rd on the race grid. Sebastian Vettel who got the pole position for the race started off very well, he had a perfect start and opened up a reasonable gap between the 1^st and the 2nd place. More than two thirds of the race distance was led by him and at one stage it looked that it would be an easy victory. But the red bull driver really struggled when he made a pit stop to get the hard compound tires on. On the hard compound tires the red bull driver was not able to match the pace of the two Ferrari’s, Alonso overtook him on lap 34 and then after a few laps Massa did the same thing. Later it was identified that their was a spark plug failure in Vettle’s car. Massa came home in second place his race was hampered by a bad start and engine temperature problems. Lewis Hamilton also overtook vettle to get the final podium place as Vettle settled for 4^th place. Nico rosberg came sixth. Michael Schumacher’s long awaited comeback saw him in 6^th place he finished 4 seconds behind his team mate which is a very nice performance keeping in mind that he came after 3 years and still managed to match the pace of the frontrunners, his pace will improve as he’ll cover more and more miles. The defending champion Jenson Button finished the race in 7^th place. Mark Webber, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Rubens Barrichello finished the proceeding in 8th, 9th and 10^th places respectively.

The result gives Ferrari the perfect start to the world championship with 43 points, ahead of McLaren on 21, Mercedes GP on 18 and Red Bull on 16. Alonso leads the title chase with 25 points from Massa on 18, Hamilton on 15, Vettel on 12, Rosberg on 10 and Schumacher on 8.

THE RETURN OF THE F1 KING

The 2010 season is all about changes and surprises and the biggest surprise was when the 7 times world champion Michael Schumacher announced his comeback to the sport who is regarded as statistically the best Formula 1 driver. And more surprisingly he did’nt joined Ferrari , the team with whom he won his last 5 titles and spent eleven years of his career but instead jumped into a newl y turned Mercedes GP Team formerly Brawn GP.Now who would have imagined that Schumacher would not be wearing a red uniform. But in this world nothing is impossible. According to my understanding, there are two reason why he jumped into Mercedes GP, the team won the last year’s championship(Brawn GP) and other one because of Ross Brawn, the former technical director of Ferrari and Benetton and the guy who is regarded as the main architect behind Michael’s success. Michael has won all of his seven titles in partnership with Ross. Michael and Ross have a very good understanding among themselves, this proves that a person cant do all things on his own and needs a partner. Michael’s return shocked the whole world. He has such a great following and he’s such a brand that Formula 1 will benefit a lot from his return.

In formula 1 a lot of things change’s even after a single race. After a three year hiatus, now we’ll see how will he manage these changes & how much pace does Michael still have? 14^th march, 2010, is not that far now, on that date every thing will be clear.

THE 2010 SEASON

The 2010 season is approaching very fast, the first race will start in Bahrain on 14th March. The experts are reckoning it to be one of the most exciting season in the history of the Formula 1 because of a number of changes made. Formula 1 is one of the most expensive and the most watched sport in the world. The reason why the FIA (governing body) made these radical changes is to make the glamorous sport more exciting and encourage drivers to do their utmost to try to win races. Let's have a look at the changes which we will witness in the 19 races of the season.

1. REFUELLING BAN:

For the first time since 1993, the cars must start with a full fuel tank which will last the entire race. Previously the cars used to have a fuel tank with a capacity of 80 litres but this year the car fuel tank will have a capacity of around 250 litres. Because of which the wheelbase this year will also be longer then the previous years cars.

2. POINTS:

The point system has been revised. The winner of the race will get 25 points instead of 10. The format of the new point scoring system is 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1.

3. TYRES:

The front tyres will be narrower. The tyre compound will harder to compensate the weight of the car. The wheel rim cover, which was used by many teams in 2009 are not allowed.

4. KERS:

The Kinetic Energy Recovery System which is commonly known as KERS will not be used by any team this season. Last season we saw that the teams having KERS were either at advantage or disadvantage at various tracks, so the teams have decided not to use the KERS systems this year.

5. TESTING:

In season testing remains banned but the new regulations allows teams to test a replacement driver if he hasn't raced in a grand prix in the previous two year.

6. STEWARDS:

Experienced former F1 driver, will form part of the steward's panel.