Mad About Cars

Sebastian Vettel became the youngest Formula 1 champion in history with victory in the final race of the season.

Sebastian Vettel led from start to finish in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to be crowned the 2010 Formula One world champion.

The German had to fend off a fast-starting Lewis Hamilton into the first turn – the Briton needing a win and a miracle to reclaim the title – but came out in front, and was able to manage a comfortable advantage as the Red Bull RB6 again proved to be the car to have.

The final margin was four points, with Alonso ending the season ten ahead of Webber, who only just survived being overhauled by Hamilton. The Spaniard vowed to bounce back next season having won as many races as his young rival but, having had a taste of top spot, Vettel will be a hard man to beat.

For everyone who loves their fast cars will love F1 and Sunday marked the start of the season in Bahrain. With 24 cars lined up on the grid and many new drivers and teams it made way for a great race many with their eyes on the return of Michael Schumacher to the track.

The new rule of no re-fueling has been criticised by many as some have suggested that it makes it impossible to overtake unless someone makes a mistake.

The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa took first and second place with Lewis Hamilton taking third spot to get a podium finish.

Five times World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb confirmed that he’s ready to try his luck by racing a Formula One car instead of the WRC:

If Toro Rosso need a driver I’d love to help out.

Sports Daily l’Equipe was interviewing the French driver who made a Citroen’s Xara WRC a legend by winning in it five time in the row. He also mentioned that as long as the F1 and Rally calendars won’t overlap he is available for Toro Rosso. The Red Bull team was doing some tests last year using the French driver in Barcelona.

But the good news is that there is no way Sebastian Loeb could start racing in F1 and forget about WRC, according to Citroen’s Rally boss Oliver Quesnel. At least for this season.

There is a new challenger at Le Mans for 2009. Yes the new Audi R15 will be turning its wheels for the first time at Sebring 12 hours on March 21^st!

The new contender is all-together lighter, with a longer wheelbase, and is much more agile. Power from a newly developed V10 TDI Engine makes over 600bhp with over 775 lb ft of torque.

Aerodynamics includes a raised nose, a rear wing – suspended from the top, and the R15 is also the first racer with low beam headlights which are entirely LED’s – an Audi Trademark!

Allen McNish will be one of two pilots testing the triumphs of the new R15 in Florida before the low down at Le Mans with the 3 car Audi Sports Team ‘Joest’…

Long before the days of high-tech development and multi-million dollar budgets from major car companies, Formula One was a much simpler affair, and still within the realms of wealthy enthusiasts and budding team owners from the junior formulae could develop a car and enter Formula One.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, entries at Grand Prix events typically exceeded 30 cars, with pre-qualifying necessary to weed out the slowest cars. Most of the small teams of this era had short lifespans of only a couple of seasons, usually terminating their interest when it was clear they would never make the step up from also-rans.

Some teams from this era barely made any impact at all, in 1990, the Life team emerged from Italy to showcase a radically designed W12 engine. Hopelessly slow, the car never made it past pre-qualification in 14 attempts.

Some failed to capitalise on early promise, the neat Coloni team gathered some decent results in 1988, before a disastrous engine deal with Subaru saw them fail to qualify for a Grand Prix ever again. The Onyx team enjoyed a podium during their first season in 1989, but by 1990 the team had been taken over by Swiss enthusiast Peter Monteverdi and soon collapsed under poor management and lack of funding.

Some teams rose from backmarkers to become top runners, the most prominent of these being Jordan, who after failing to capitalise on a good opening season in 1991, soon rose to become one of the sport’s leading teams during the late 1990s.

Sadly, the recession of the early 1990s ended the involvement of the small privateer teams, with the likes of Simtek, Pacific and lastly Forti having brief, relatively unsuccessful spells in F1 during the mid 1990s.

Soon after, the sport had closed itself off to such participants. Today, new teams entering F1 are carefully vetted, with many millions of dollars investment behind them. Many herald this as in improvement and far more professional. But others feel that with the passing of the privateer teams, something has been lost from the sport.