The 8th September 2010 was a busy day for the FIA/WMSC. They had to announce the (provisional) 2011 calendar, whether there would be a 13th team or not and decide on whether to punish Ferrari more or not at all.

At about 1400 UK time, the 2011 Calendar was announced, along with whether there would be a 13th team. The 2011 calendar features a record 20 races, starting in Bahrain and ending in Brazil.

2011 Calendar:

Bahrain - 13th March

Australia - 27th March

Malaysia - 10th April

China - 17th April

Turkey - 8th May

Spain - 22nd May

Monaco - 29th May

Canada - 12th June

Europe (Valencia) - 26th June

Great Britain - 10th July

Germany - 24th July

Hungary - 31st July

Belgium - 28th August

Italy - 11th September

Singapore - 25th September

Japan - 9th October

Korea - 16th October

India* - 30th October

Abu Dhabi - 13th November

Brazil - 27th November

* Subject to track approval

The FIA also announced there would not be a 13th Team for 2011, as none of the applicants met the criteria. 

However, the above two announcements were nothing compared to what was expected. The Ferrari team orders scandal was due to reach a conclusion today. But the result was an outrage for all non-Ferrari fans, as the WMSC decided that the team should not be punished any further than the $100,000 fine.

To put this in perspective: McLaren got fined $100,000,000 and kicked out of the Constructors’ Championship for breaking the rules. Renault got a 2 year suspended ban for telling Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash at Singapore. Ferrari get away with a $100,000 fine for manipulation a race, and the Drivers’ Championship.

Everyone that follows F1 would know that Spa, Belgium, is one of the most eventful races on the calendar. And the 2010 race did not disappoint. With 3 World Driver Championship (WDC) Contenders not picking up any points, and the 3 World Constructor Championship (WCC) Contenders having one car to finish in the points each, both championship’s are really hotting up.

In Spa, the weather is unpredictable, and when it rains, it pours. And Lap 1 was no exception to this, as everyone was caught out by a shower by the final chicane (Bus Stop), and ran wide. Rubens Barrichello, celebrating his 300th Grand Prix at the race, locked up his breaks and hit Alonso, forcing himself to retire and Alonso to have to pit, falling back into 19th. The safety car un-done all of Hamilton and Button’s hard work, taking advantage of Mark Webber’s poor start, as they jumped from 2nd to 1st and 5th to 2nd respectively. 

On Lap 18, Sebastian Vettel lost control of his car and smashed into the side of Button, causing a hole in the radiator of Button’s car. Vettel himself pitted, and resumed the race. However, things went from bad to worse as Vettel got a drive through penalty for “causing an accident”, and dropped a lap to the leaders. But that wasn’t the end of it for Vettel. Far from it. As Vettel went to overtake Tonio Luizzi, he clipped the Force India, giving him a puncture. This meant another pit stop and falling even further behind. 

Alonso’s day also got worse, as he spun coming out of Les Combes (chicance after Eau Rouge), and damaging his suspension, forcing him to retire and the safety car was deployed once again.

Race Winner Lewis Hamilton was lucky to avoid a collision with the wall, after being told (about pitting for inters): “We don’t want to jump too early”. Hamilton scrapped the wall, but did no damage to his car.

Jaime Alguesuari was given a 20 second penalty for cutting the chicane, which meant that Force India’s finished the race with a single point, with Force India getting a double points haul.

Point Scorers: 

Lewis Hamilton - 25

Mark Webber - 18

Robert Kubica - 15

Felipe Massa - 12

Adrian Sutil - 10

Nico Rosberg - 8

Michael Schumacher - 6

Kamui Kobayashi - 4

Vitaly Petrov - 2

Tonio Luizzi - 1

My race awards:

ROOKIE of the day - Vitaly Petrov, from his great drive from 23rd to finish 9th.

UNLUCKIEST driver of the day - Fernando Alonso, after being hit off the road, recovering and then spinning and retiring.

DRIVER of the day - Michael Schumacher, after his drive from 21st to 6th.

TEAM of the day - McLaren, after mechanics stared at Vettel as he served his drive through penalty.

WORST COMMENTATOR of the day - Jonathan Legard after telling the viewers Bruno Senna crashed at “Eau Rouge” when he had crashed at Turn 14!

The last 18 months have been very rocky for McLaren, a lot of up and downs. The 2009 season, with the driver line-up of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen, was started poorly by the team, only picking up 13 points in the first 4 races of the season. (Under the old scheme of 10,8,6,4,3,2,1). 

After the summer break of 2009, McLaren came back a different team. Lewis Hamilton secured two wins, at Hungary and Singapore, which boosted McLaren up to third in the constructors championship with 71 points, behind Red Bull Racing-Renault and Brawn Mercedes. 

McLaren looked to have secured the dream driver line up for 2010, keeping hold of 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton, and acquiring 2009 and defending champion Jenson Button.

But thinks didn’t go that well in Bahrain, with Button finishing 7th and Lewis Hamilton 3rd.  Australia looked better for Button, as he finished first, whilst Hamilton finished 6th.

Malaysia caused problems for all the top teams, with Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton all failing to make Q2. Jenson Button didn’t fair much better, spinning in Q2, qualifying 17th. The McLaren pair finished 6th and 8th respectively.

Things looked up from Malaysia onwards, with a 1-2 in China. Hamilton led Button to get maximum points for McLaren. Lewis Hamilton was unlucky not to finish second in Spain, suffering a puncture on the penultimate lap. Jenson finished 5th.

Monaco wasn’t much better, with Jenson this time not finishing the race, due to a mechanic not removing the radiator cover. Lewis Hamilton finished 5th. Turkey, however, was a boost for McLaren, after a mistake by Sebastian Vettel on Mark Webber handed Lewis Hamilton the win, and Jenson Button second - that was after Jenson and Lewis fought each other for first place.

A one-two was the result in Canada, where the F-Duct was always going to help the team. Less drag from the F-Duct meant the team could run more downforce, meaning they could take the corner faster.

Valencia saw some moaning from Alonso, a penalty that didn’t affect Hamilton and Button finishing third. Hamilton overtook the Safety car passed the SC line, and his drive through penalty kept him in second. The race at Silverstone saw Hamilton finished second and Button 4th, after starting from 14th. Button finished just 0.6 seconds behind Rosberg, who was nursing a brake problem.

A poor setup cost the McLaren pair at Hockenheim, running low downforce at a predominately high downforce track. Lewis Hamilton finished 4th while Jenson finished 5th. Hungary wasn’t much better for the team, with Lewis Hamilton retiring due to a drive train problem, and Button finishing 8th. Hamilton lost the lead in the WDC, and McLaren lost the leed in the WCC.

After the summer break, McLaren will be looking for strong performances at Spa where the F-Duct will help them a lot. However, the low downforce nature of Monza means that McLaren will not be running the F-Duct. This could mean closer competition. 

Don’t expect the team to be giving up on their Constructor Championship hopes, and certainly don’t think Button and Hamilton will give up trying to retain and regain their World Driver’s Championship.

So, this is my first blog post. To introduce myself, my name is Jack and I am 16 years old. I’m basically doing this because I get bored, but I will try and keep it updated during college, although I am not promising anything!

For my first blog, I think I will just write about the season so far, with a team guide.

The 2010 season:

• Bahrain: The season opener didn’t really have any excitement. Possibly Sebastian Vettel having a spark-plug problem, which led to 3 people over taking him. I think everyone thought that it was going to be the story of the season - qualifying, with the race finishing with the grid order. Fernando Alonso took the win.
• Australia: The second race proved more exciting than Bahrain, which was to be expected. The rain added to the drama in the opening laps, and a brave decision from Jenson Button to move from inters to slicks led to an exciting race. Button then took the win.
• Malaysia: A very dramatic qualifying session due to the rain led to Lotus getting into Q2, and both Ferrari’s and Lewis Hamilton going out in Q1. This led to some decent racing, as the pace-setters advanced through the field. Sebastian Vettel won, leading a RBR one-two.
• China: A rain affected race, won by Jenson Button, ahead of Lewis Hamilton. A jump start by Alonso also affected the racing, with the Ferrari driver having to advance through the field to finish 4th, behind Nico Rosberg.
• Spain (Barcelona): The start of the European season, and a not so eventful race. Mark Webber won the race from Pole, after dominating the race. Lewis Hamilton was on course for second place, but a puncture forced him to retire from the race.
• Monaco: Not the most exciting race in terms of overtaking by any means, but an accident prone track, with 3 accidents and 4 safety cars in this race. Nico Hulkenburg ran wide at the tunnel on lap 1 and retired. Jenson Button retired from an over heated engine. Alonso started from the pit lane, adding to the overtaking. Rubens Barrichello took a spin from a loose drain cover. Jarno Trulli also decided to go over Karun Chandhok.
• Turkey: What a race that was, Vettel taking out Webber, Button and Hamilton almost taking each other out. Hamilton went on to win the race, ahead of Button.
• Canada: A new circuit for 2010, although previously used up to 2008. Lack of rubber on the track proved interesting for the tyres, which didn’t last long. Hamilton won the race, ahead of Button. Schumacher also appeared to brake test Felipe Massa, which Massa then turned into the wall.
• Spain (Valencia street Circuit, European GP): A flying race, especially if you were Mark Webber. It was full of accusations of race manipulation, safety car drama and flying cars. Sebastian Vettel won the race.
• Britain: A very good start, unless you are Vettel, saw Webber take the lead, and Vettel fall to the back of the grid. A very bad qualifying session saw Button qualify in 14th, but an under fuelled car saw him finish 4th in the end. Mark Webber made it 3 wins for the season.
• Germany: A very controversial race saw apparent Team Orders being given by Ferrari to Massa, with Rob Smedley telling Massa over the radio: “So.. Fernando.. is faster than.. you. Can you confirm you understand that message?” Alonso went on to win the race, and seemed to be the only one celebrating the race result, with Vettel also having a claim of “I could of won”
• Hungary: A traditionally boring race was exactly the same this year, apart from when the safety car was deployed, leading to a chaotic pit lane. Mercedes failed to fix Rosberg’s rear right wheel, and also saw Kubica get released into the path of Adrian Sutil. Kubica served a penalty before retiring, and Sutil retired after that incident. Schumacher was also in trouble, after nearly forcing Rubens Barrichello into the pit wall. Schumacher was punished with a 10 place grid drop at Spa, the next race.

Team guide:

Red Bull Renault: The team with quite clearly the fastest car this year, although not without it’s controversy. The flexi-wing row is continuing, with the FIA making tests for front wing’s tougher by the next race at Spa. The team have also been accused of team favouritism. 

McLaren Mercedes: An up and down year for McLaren. Four wins means that Mark Webber for RBR has the same amount of wins as the team. 2 DNF’s have dented the team’s Constructor Championship hopes, however, they are only 8 points behind. I feel that this team will be the team to beat at Spa and Monza.

Ferrari: Ferrari have possibly been the unluckiest team of the year. A win in Bahrain was followed by a Jump Start in China, a Driver in the wall in Canada. Alonso also had an issue with Hamilton and the Safety car in Valencia. The team also face a hearing on September 8th, after appearing to give team orders in Germany.

Mercedes GP: The silver arrows works team brought Michael Schumacher out of retirement. However, the 7 time world champion hasn’t been winning races as he used to - down to the car? Or down to the fact he has lost his pace? Nico Rosberg has been scoring points consistently for the German outfit.

Renault: The final works team this season, having a very up and down season. Their rookie driver, Vitaly Petrov, is starting to perform well, after a brilliant drive at Hungary. Robert Kubica is also driving very well, although did retire at Hungary.

Force India Mercedes: Look out this team at Spa. A good season so far, with Sutil scoring points consistently. Luizzi has been under pressure from Paul Di Resta, and is just starting to perform.

Williams Cosworth: A very good season for this team, with their only double retirement being in Monaco, both of which were down to accidents. I could see this team start to challenge for 10 Points are more every race soon.

BMW Sauber Ferrari: A very slow start by the team who recruited Kobayashi, the former Toyota driver who drove the final 2 races of last season. The team have slowly been picking up points, and are now catching Force India and Williams.

Toro Rosso Ferrari: The third team to be using a Ferrari engine, and aren’t using it to their advantage. Jaime Alguesuari and Sebastian Buemi are picking up points every so often, but not as much as the Red Bull “Junior” team would like. Both drivers have been close to going out in Q1, behind Jarno Trulli or Heikki Kovalainen.

Lotus Cosworth: One of the three new teams, and by far the best one. Both drivers have been close to getting into Q2 at some races, but have been hit hard by reliability, or lack of.

Virgin Racing Cosworth: The second fastest, but least consistent, new team, who have been splitting up Lotus in qualifying the last few races, but do not make it count in the race. Richard Branson wants the team to finish 10th in the Constructors, to get a £17m windfall.

HRT Cosworth: The slowest of the new teams, but being more consistent than Virgin has put them above them in the Constructors Table. The team has been rumoured to have financial trouble. The team also keep switching drivers, between Bruno Senna, Karun Chandhok and Sakon Yamamoto.