A personal review of the F1 year â Lotus Racing
Lotus Racing, 0 Wins, 0 poles, 10th in Constructorsâ Championship
Having lived through the political upheaval of 2009, much of which was based on then FIA president Max Mosleyâs desire to see new teams come in to F1, for me the 2010 season was notable for the birth of three new teams; Lotus, Virgin and HRT. They got a frosty reception from Ferrari for âlimpingâ into the sport and as the year went on were criticised by Bernie Ecclestone. But they survived and the most effective of them was Lotus.
A personal review of the year â Virgin Racing
Virgin Racing, 0 wins, 0 poles, 12th in Constructorsâ Championship
If Lotusâ first season on track turned out more or less how they expected it to, Virginâs fell below their expectations for a variety of reasons. First they were caught out by a couple of changes in fuel regulations which meant that the fuel tank wasnât quite big enough to do the race distance. They were given dispensation to change the chassis â something which is expressly banned nowadays for cost saving reasons.
A personal review of the F1 year â Williams
Williams F1 team, 0 wins, 1 pole, 6th in Constructorsâ championship
Williams is considered the weather vane of F1 â if it is in reasonable shape, then F1 is in good shape. The team struggled during the manufacturer era, whereas this moment should be good for the team, with the Resource Restriction Agreement pulling the staff numbers and resources of the leading teams down.
A personal review of the F1 year â Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso, 0 wins, 0 poles, 9th in Constructorsâ Championship
Probably the least talked about team in F1, I have to admit Iâve always found Toro Rosso a bit of an enigma. Why does Red Bull persist with owning a second team now that the rules prohibit the kind of chassis data exchange which used to make it a low overhead business and now that the main Red Bull team is competing at the highest level? Is there any scope for the team to grow and if so in what ways?
A personal review of the F1 year â Renault
Renault F1 team, 0 wins, 3 podiums, 0 poles, 5th in Constructorsâ championship
I found the Renault team very interesting to study this year on several levels. Organisationally, the team had new ownership in the shape of tech investor Gerard Lopez and his Genii company. It retained some participation from the Renault car company, but that ended after the season finished as Genii bought out Renaultâs 25% stake. The intention is to sell between 25% and 40% of the company to Group Lotus, which also becomes title sponsor for the next three years. Lopez has all sorts of innovative ideas of how to use the F1 team as a platform and the Lotus deal clearly has a lot more to do with a wider business play. Since 2009 this team has moved in two phases from being a manufacturer team to an independent. The problem now will be one of positioning over the use of the Lotus name, with Tony Fernandes already running Team Lotus.
