The reason, according to Colin Kolles, is that Yamamoto doesn’t feel well because of food poisoning.

It will be good to see Christian Klien back in Formula 1 which he joined in 2004 for Jaguar coming directly from Formula 3. Klien’s last racing in Formula 1 was in 2006 for Red Bull Racing and he has since then been a test driver for Honda Racing F1 Team and BMW Sauber F1 Team as well as driving the Peugeot LMP1 prototype successfully at the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 2009.

It will also be interesting to see Bruno Senna going head to head with a driver of proper F1 talent for a change.

Yes, it is. Paul Di Resta should have been in Formula 1 about the same time that Lewis Hamilton entered, but things took a slightly different route for Di Resta. Instead of keep doing the expensive single seater career move of going to GP2 after taking the F3 Euro Series championship Di Resta was taken under the wings by Mercedes and ended up in DTM (the German “Touring Car” series) in 2007. Not a bad move for Di Resta as he got to race for a large manufacturer in a high profile series, but it did leave him a bit out of the F1 race seat world eventhough he was with Mercedes.

For the last two year he has been a test driver for Force India F1 Team, which uses Mercedes engines, and the rumour mill now says that Force India are looking to promote him to a race seat next year with both Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil being question marks for 2011.

Only time will tell.

Here are the teams for the 2011-2013 GP2 Series championship:

• Arden International, Netherlands
• ART Grand Prix, France
• Barwa Addax Team, Spain
• Carlin, Great Britain
• Dams, France
• iSport International, Great Britain
• Ocean Racing Technology, Portugal
• Racing Engineering, Spain
• Rapax, Italy
• Scuderia Coloni, Italy
• Super Nova Racing, Great Britain
• Team Air Asia, Malaysia
• Trident Racing, Italy

There are two new teams in the lineup; Carlin and Team Air Asia. Carlin have run single seaters in most junior formulas very successfully in recent years and there have even been rumours of possible entry to Formula 1. Team Air Asia is closely linked to the Lotus Formula 1 team and is owned by Lotus team principal Tony Fernandes.

When two new teams join, obviously some have to go. There was a vacant spot left by the italian team Durango, who left the series in 2009. The remaining spot will be from the withdrawal of DPR.

Grosjean replaced Nelson Piquet Jr last year in the Renault Formula 1 team after the famous Nelsinhogate controversy. Grosjean struggled to join the big boys mid season without proper testing and did not get anothe chance at Renault this year. There is no doubt in my mind though that Grosjean is a real talent that really deserves a real shot at Formula 1.

His career CV speaks for itself: Formula Lista Junior champion and Swiss Formula Renault 1.6 champion in 2003, French Formula Renault 2.0 champion in 2005, European Formula 3 champion in 2007 and Asian GP2 champion in 2008.

This year Romain Grosjean has been racing both single seaters and GT cars. He started off the year driving a Ford GT for Matech Competition in the newly formed FIA GT1 World Championship. He then parted ways with the team, after winning two races in ten starts, and has made appearances in both Auto GP and in GP2. In Auto GP he was directly a winner when he joined the series at Spa-Francorchamps and he also won a race at Magny Cours. His GP2 comeback was a little harder but he was up to speed in his second outing at Spa where he finished on the podium in the feature race.

And since the FIA are very good at removing Youtube videos, here’s a still frame of the incident.

The rumours have been many about the tough times for US F1 and the saga now sadly seems to be over. What happens to US F1′s spot on the 2010 Formula One grid remains to be seen.

Mark Webber has raised concerns about the fact that US F1, Campos Meta or Stefan GP has not run a car yet:

“It’s embarrassing. It’s incredible that people who haven’t yet turned a wheel take part in grands prix. It’s the sort of stuff from Mickey Mouse, or Tom and Jerry. It would make more sense to field Valentino Rossi with his bike on the grid.”

GO TO EARLIER STORY GO TO THE NEWS INDEX GO TO NEXT STORY

Webber not making title predictions

By Jonathan Noble and Michele Lostia

Tuesday, March 2nd 2010, 14:35 GMT

Mark Webber thinks it would be ‘suicidal’ for him to say he thinks he will win the world championship this year – as he says his target is simply to win more races.

With Red Bull Racing’s new RB6 appearing to be one of the quickest cars on the grid, even though there are doubts about its ultimate long-run pace, Webber has high hopes for his chances for this season.

However, he has joined rival drivers in thinking that the competition is so tight this year that being too confident about success would be a mistake.

“Don’t expect me to say I’ll win the title this year, that would be suicidal,” Webber told Gazzetta dello Sport. “I aim to win more grands prix than I did last year. Let’s say we have a great opportunity to do something special.”

Speaking about his feelings on the RB6, Webber said: “With limited fuel on board it’s super quick.

“The tyres have gone a step backwards for lack of competition, the lap times have increased, but the aerodynamics are amazing. Anyway, it’s early to say. It will be a very close championship to the end, and it will be very spectacular, I guarantee.”

Webber has also expressed his annoyance at the situation surrounding new teams in F1 – and thinks the sport would be better off entertaining fans for the right reasons rather than getting fresh blood on the grid.

“It’s embarrassing. It’s incredible that people who haven’t yet turned a wheel take part in grands prix. It’s the sort of stuff from Mickey Mouse, or Tom and Jerry. It would make more sense to field Valentino Rossi with his bike on the grid.

As the avid Formula 1 fans are aware there are some rule changes for this season. The changes are not so drastic as they were for 2009, but they will still have an affect on things. The biggest change is the ban of refuelilng during the race. Refuelling during races was reintroduced to Formula 1 in 1993. The first yeare there were some serious problem and I think those of us who were watching Formula 1 at the time remembers Jos Verstappen’s Benetton fire ball.

In order to run on one tank of gas for the entire race the fuel tanks have been made larger, from fitting around 80 liters to around 250 liters. This change will make the 2010 cars have a different weight distribution to that of a 2009 car as the rear bodywork will probably have to be wider and the wheelbase longer.

With no refuelling during the races we will once again be able to see the cars really battling it out on light fuel loads during the qualifying sessions. The fastest car will start first in 2010, not the lightest car as it’s been the past few seasons.

The points system will be changed for the new season. The top ten finishers will now score points; 25 points, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point.

The minimum weight of the car has been changed from 605 kg to 620 kg.

The front tires will be narrower so that the unbalanced grip levels of 2009 will be fixed where the front tires had proportionally more grip than the rear tires.

The wheel rim covers most cars used in 2009 are not allowed anymore.

For a more detailed look you can head over to Formula1.com:
2010 Formula One Sporting Regulations

Ferrari admit Badoer likely to stay for Spa.

Team principal Nino Judge:
“I can confirm that we will be filing our application to the FIA today for entry to the 2010 F1 championship. This is an extremely exciting time in the history of F1 with the changes in technical and financial requirements. We have lodged our deposit with Cosworth and are extremely serious and excited about this venture. We wish all teams the very best whilst the decision process is taking place and look forward to the potential of being on the grid in 2010 and beyond.”

Source:
Litespeed lodges F1 entry ahead of deadline