A new look to Formula 1 in 2010

After the winter holiday break Force India and the 12 other Grand Prix teams are all hard at work preparing their new cars for what promises to be a fascinating 2010 season - one that will look very different from last year.

The arrival of four new teams on the scene and the return of Michael Schumacher are just two of the novelties we will see at the first race in Bahrain on March 14. Indeed the pace of change in F1 is such that Force India is one of only three teams to enter this year with the same two drivers who competed in the last race of 2009.

Even more astonishing is the fact that Force India is one of the only teams heading into 2010 under the same ownership, or at least with the same pattern of shareholders, as last year!

Amid all these changes the continuity at Force India will help the team prepare for what promises to be an intriguing challenge. While the package of technical changes for the new season is not as significant as last year, Grand Prix racing will have a fresh look in 2010 thanks to the ban on refuelling during races. There will still be pit stops for tyres, since as before the rules force drivers to use both the prime and option compounds during an event. But the way races unfold will be very different.

Since the modern era of refuelling came in for the 1994 season F1 has essentially been about sprints between pits stops, with races usually divided into three or four (and less frequently two) segments. Race strategy was all about the complex balance between the weight of the fuel load in the car, and the performance of the tyres over a short stint. Typically the guys at the front of the field have been starting races with 45-60kgs of fuel on board.

Now, once again, everyone will start with the fuel load that will carry them to the chequered flag, which equates to around 160-170kgs (and that will vary by a small but crucial amount between engine suppliers). Traditionally the race that requires the most fuel is Montreal, which is back on the calendar this year, so teams have had to determine the size of their fuel tanks based on that event.

The difference in car behaviour between the first and last laps will be significant. Teams will have to compromise with set-ups, and drivers will have to cope with a much bigger balance change than they have been used to. That will benefit drivers who can adapt more readily to changing circumstances, as opposed to those who only shine when their car is just-so.

The timing of the compulsory tyre stop will be totally flexible, as fuel is not an issue - in theory we could see stops anywhere between the end of the first and start of the last laps. There will be weekends where one compound is favoured and drivers will use up the ’problem’ tyre as soon as they can, and others where they might want to put it on late, when the fuel load is lighter and there’s less stress on it. Managing the tires when the car is ultra heavy will clearly be crucial.

One major plus is that qualifying goes back to days of pure speed on near empty tanks, with fuel no longer an issue on Saturdays. The fact that cars will always be a similar weight won’t help overtaking, but purists are hoping that since drivers know that they can’t wait to leap frog a rival at a stop, they will be forced to find their own way by. That’s the theory, anyway...

The change will also put a renewed focus on pit crews. Hitherto the driver has had to wait for the fuel hose - the determining factor in stop time. Now it’s going to be change tyres and go, and Force India has already put a big effort into preparing the crew.

The other big novelty in 2010 will be the division of points. The familiar 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 system to be replaced by a new format that rewards the top 10 finishers on the basis 25-20-15-10-8-6-5-3-2-1, ostensibly so that more drivers on the enlarged 26-car grid have the chance to score.

While the weighting of points between the top three (and seventh) places remains exactly the same, fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth are now worth less than used to be relative to the score for a win.

Although there have been small tweaks in the past, such as the move from nine to 10 for a win and more recently rewarding seventh and eighth place instead of just the top six, the new system is so different that any historical comparisons will now be impossible