Now that additional details about the 2010 rules came to light following the signing of the Concorde Agreement, let’s add a bit more info to a previous entry about what it would take to compete in 2010.

One of the major changes will be the lack of refueling. This will affect qualifying, race strategy, tire wear and much more.

QUALIFYING
Due to this dramatic change in the sport, qualifying will be updated. Q3 will now be very similar to the small amount of Q1 and Q2 fuel loads. What will be interesting to see will be the first few laps. I am guessing that some cars and drivers will struggle quite a bit with heavy fuel loads, which will put even more focus on the practice sessions.  Q3 lap times should be very telling as to the actual non-fuel adjusted pace of each individual chassis, and this will ultimately tell us who will have the greatest advantage in the closing laps of each Grand Prix.

ENGINE
As I mentioned before, Cosworth engines will not be as fuel efficient when compared to the Constructors engines. This means more fuel (and weight) on board for the new F1 entrants. More weight to pull will also translate into additional pressure on already very fragile parts, and greater wear on the tires. This in turn affects chassis weight distribution and balance, limiting the engineers options for ballast placement.

We will also see how reliable the engines are through the grueling season.  With the addition of another Grand Prix weekend to the provisional 2010 schedule, each Constructor must make each lump last more miles between changes.

New Teams may get excited about the prospect of having a ‘newcomer’ dominate in such fashion at the beginning of the season. However, the Brawn car was really financed by Honda without a budget cap, used one of the best engines from Mercedes, and developed in the 2008 season. This allowed Brawn to gain much more development and testing time, on a great engine.

Based on the 2010 rules and regulations (that we know so far), it is going to be almost impossible to reproduce the Brawn success. Why?

ENGINE
New Teams will all use the 2006-specs Cosworth engines, trimmed back to 18,000 rpm. As they are finding out, these engines are less fuel efficient than the competition. Since refueling won’t be an option, the newcomer cars would most likely be the heaviest on the grid. New Teams may have a better chance to score points next season if they can acquire engines from one of the manufacturers.

BUDGET CAP
We still don’t know the hard amount limit that Teams will be able to spend in 2010 and 2011. All we know is that the costs will be back to “early 1990’s spending budgets”. My guess is that the cap will be in the hundreds of thousands, well above what new Teams will be able to spend. The good thing going for USF1 is their cash on-hand in order to compete as they will try to offset the disadvantage of running the Cosworth engines. They had enough capital behind the Team that they felt confident entering the upcoming season without a budget cap (unlike Campos and Manor).

This will be quite a bit to overcome for a new Team. The cost-savings initiative from the FIA was a good one for the sport. The ‘knee-jerk’ reaction to add anyone on the grid who has $40M, may not have been the best idea. In the end, after weeks of breakaway threats, the final agreement was more supportive of the existing manufacturers than for the new entrants

Speaking to Autosport, Ken Anderson had the following to say about the team and the car:

“Quite a lot of it is ready to manufacture. The chassis is locked down, because we were waiting to hear if the (Cosworth) engine rev limit was 20,000rpm or 18,000rpm”.  The FOTA/FiA battle has now settled that at 18k.

“The chaps will now start building the chassis in August. We will have it rolling on the ground in late September, without bodywork or stuff, and then the bodywork will get added in October. Ken Anderson”.

Anderson also spoke of the growing squad and his closeness to signing a deal with Spain’s Aragon circuit to allow them to use the facility as a European base. This is something USF1 wanted all along, and although the car will be designed and manufactured in Charlotte, the distance involved between North America and where the majority of races are held means that a European base makes more sense.

“We were only approved a few weeks ago and it wasn’t prudent to order $5 million of machines until we were there. We have about 20 staff at the moment, but we have got 20 or 30 starting in August. The thing is we need people to run machines, and there was no point having them until the machines are there”.

Anderson went on to say,“The Aragon facility is a fantastic facility, the people there are very nice, very helpful. It is a great place for winter testing, and we would like to have our drivers based there… and run all the time.”

He also pointed out that should the Aragon deal not come together, they are also evaluating Paul Ricard in France as a possible base, the French test track proving popular with many current Formula One teams for testing purposes.

Nothing much has been said about the driver line-up, although the team must be in talks with some drivers at the moment. Last week, Danica Patrick all but ruled out a switch to Formula One, proving what many had predicted. Speaking with the LA Times, Patrick was asked if she had nailed down her chosen category for next year (IndyCar, NASCAR or F1), to which Danica replied with “it’s probably not F1”.

photo credit ©brian dowling