Some of the more regular eye visitors to the FF1GP.com site, may had noticed the season opening date for the 2010 has slipped from 15th February to 1st March. There is a couple of reasons for that.
1. The new code wasn’t ready, that’s the main reason! Sorry about that, but other real life issues do have to come first.
2. Formula 1 testing does not complete until the end of February, and the final price list does sometimes get a final tweak as a result.
3. You would think that Formula 1 could sort out their drivers and teams before testing started, or even the first race?
In the case of point 3, the answer is no.
All except 2 teams have not confirmed their full driver line-ups for 2010. They are Campos Meta and USF1, and if you been following the F1 news lately, there is the extra complication coming in the form of Stefan Grand Prix. There was an excellent rant by the Ferrari team about the whole situation.
Let’s start with the Campos Meta, they have only confirmed Bruno Senna. The current rumour is that Jose Maria Lopez is going to switch from USF1 to Campos Meta, as they do have a chance of actually turning up to the first race, even though they had a hard time securing funds for the team, or resources to do any testing.
Then there is USF1… How would I describe them? Well I reckon the chances of one of their engineers sticking a sausage up the exhaust pipe of their cars is greater than them turning up for the first race… Oh wait they are asking to miss the first 4 races! Add funding to the list of problems and maybe include organisation issues as well, it’s very questionable how USF1 will survive.
Finally Stefan Grand Prix. Oh boy where do we start with them.
They don’t have a slot on the grid, however they are circulating like vultures around the USF1 factory hoping for them to drop out so they can take over their slot. Their car is based on the Toyota chassis and engine. Got to give them one point over USF1 who don’t have a car yet.
However they still don’t have a grid slot. If you listen to the large guy called Jean Todt, they won’t get in at all, however if you listen to the little guy call Bernie Ecclestone , you would think Stefan will get in this year. Yes this is Formula 1, you do get the Little and Large show thrown in as a free extra.
Stefan Grand Prix was due to test their car in Spain this week. (25-28 Feb 2010) However they cannot get any tyres for their car. I guess Kwik fit don’t have their franchise out in Serbia yet. Did I say the car is a Toyota car? They better take it down to the local dealer to have the brakes and accelerator pedal checked out before going racing.
That’s the end of the rant, but those 3 teams do leave the FF1GP prices slightly in the air. However if you want to start thinking of your dream combination, you can with the provisional price list for 2010. The full rules will be out when the entries are open, but here are the 3 main rules for selecting your teams and drivers.
1. You must choose 2 different drivers, and 2 different teams.
2. Your drivers must come from 2 different teams.
3. Your budget is £27 million.
Team Prices
- McLaren £14
- Red Bull Racing £13
- Mercedes GP £12
- Ferrari £11
- Williams £10
- Renault £9
- Sauber £8
- Force India £7
- Scuderia Toro Rosso £6
- Lotus F1 Racing £5
- Virgin Racing £4
- Campos Meta £3
- US F1 Team £3
Driver Prices
- Jenson Button £14
- Lewis Hamilton £13
- Sebastian Vettel £13
- Mark Webber £12
- Michael Schumacher £12
- Nico Rosberg £11
- Fernando Alonso £11
- Felipe Massa £10
- Rubens Barrichello £10
- Nico Hulkenberg £9
- Robert Kubica £9
- Vitaly Petrov £8
- Pedro De la Rosa £9
- Kamui Kobayashi £7
- Adrian Sutil £7
- Vitantonio Liuzzi £6
- Sebastien Buemi £6
- Jaime Alguersuari £5
- Jarno Trulli £5
- Heikki Kovalainen £4
- Timo Glock £4
- Lucas di Grassi £4
- Bruno Senna £3
- Jose Maria Lopez £3
The remaining seats at Campos and USF1 will also cost £3. Should Stefan Grand Prix get on the grid the Team and their drivers will all be priced £3