2010 Formula One World Championship


The 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 64th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. The season's first race was held on 14 March in Bahrain and the season concluded on 14 November in the United Arab Emirates after 19 motor races held in 18 countries on five continents. Red Bull Racing won its maiden Constructors' Championship with a 1–2 finish in Brazil, while Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel won the Drivers' Championship after winning the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi. In doing so, Vettel became the youngest World Drivers' Champion in the 61-year history of the championship. Vettel's victory in the championship came after a dramatic season finale at Abu Dhabi where three other drivers could also have won the championship – Vettel's Red Bull Racing teammate Mark Webber, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton. It was also the fourth time in Formula One history after John Surtees in, Alain Prost in and Kimi Räikkönen in that the championship had been won by the driver heading into the season finale as third in the standings.
Before the start of the season, 2009 Drivers' Champion Jenson Button joined McLaren, while the 2009 Constructors' Champion, Brawn GP, was bought by German motor vehicle manufacturer Mercedes-Benz and was renamed as Mercedes GP. The 2010 season saw the return of the most successful driver in Formula One history at that point, with seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher coming out of retirement after a three-year absence since 2006.
The points system was changed, with 25 points being awarded for first place, 18 for second, 15 for third, then 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, and 1 for fourth to tenth. The technical and sporting regulations applicable for the season were the subject of much debate. This season also saw refuelling during race pitstops banned for the first time since 1993. Until 2024, when McLaren-Mercedes won the Constructors' Championship, it was the last time a customer-engine independent team won the Constructors' Championship, before Red Bull Racing was promoted to Renault's main works partner team from the 2011 to 2015 seasons. This was also Bridgestone's final season as the sole tyre supplier in Formula One as the company announced that it would not renew its contract at the end of the season. After several months of deliberation, Pirelli was chosen as the tyre supplier for the 2011 season at the FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Geneva, in June 2010.

Teams and drivers

The following teams and drivers competed in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship. With the withdrawal of BMW and Toyota from the sport, engine diversity in Formula One dropped to a 30-year low, with just four engine producers powering the entire grid, the lowest since. Four new teams joined the grid: Mercedes, Lotus Racing, Virgin Racing and HRT. Teams competed with tyres supplied by Bridgestone.
EntrantConstructorChassisEngineNo.Race DriversRounds

Free practice drivers

Four constructors entered free practice only drivers over the course of the season.

New entries process

The FIA announced its intention to open up the grid, aiming for a total of 13 teams, and in July 2009 selected three new teams from 15 new applicants, as well as confirming the entry of all 10 existing teams. The existing F1 teams, under the FOTA organisation, are understood to have agreed a system of technical support to assist new teams. This compromise proposal would involve the supply of parts and design knowledge to the new entrants, but not full customer cars, in return for which the budget cap idea was dropped.
The three teams on the entry list released in July 2009 included Campos Meta, a Spanish team led by former driver and GP2 team owner Adrian Campos and Madrid-based sports advertising agency Meta Image; Manor Grand Prix, an F3 team run by John Booth and designer Nick Wirth ; and US F1, a team created by former designer Ken Anderson and journalist Peter Windsor. Following the withdrawal of BMW Sauber, Lotus Racing was accepted to return to the grid for the first time since the 1994 Australian Grand Prix. Manor became known as Virgin Racing after Richard Branson's Virgin Group purchased naming rights to the team, while Campos-Meta was reimagined as Hispania Racing after investor José Ramón Carabante purchased the team from Adrian Campos shortly before the first race of the season. USF1 officially withdrew from the championship in early March, following months of speculation and accusations from whistleblowers that the team had been crippled by mismanagement for months.
The FIA also had several entry bids from other racing teams including World Series by Renault and Le Mans entrant Epsilon Euskadi, Dave Richards's highly successful Prodrive outfit and Italian touring car team N.Technology as well as re-imaginings of former teams March, Brabham, Lola Cars and Team Lotus. Other expressions of interest came from Team Superfund, an Austrian outfit to be fronted by former driver Alex Wurz and myf1dream.com, a team established by fans of the sport and funded by their donations. Experienced sports car and touring car entrant Ray Mallock Limited had intended to submit an entry bid, but decided against it following the mid-season political crisis.
Of the most interest to the media was Stefan Grand Prix, created by Zoran Stefanovic and hailed as Serbia's first Formula 1 team. Stefan claimed to have acquired the remains of Toyota's abandoned TF110 chassis and engine and had access to Toyota Motorsport's former headquarters in Cologne, Germany. After being rejected from the grid, Stefanovic filed a complaint with the European Commission over the entry selection process and then announced his intentions to continue development of the Toyota chassis, re-badged as the Stefan S-01, with the team even going so far as to send equipment to Bahrain, Australia and Malaysia. After several difficulties including the cancellation of a planned test in Portugal when Bridgestone refused to supply tyres, Stefan attempted to purchase the defunct USF1 entry, but the moves were blocked. Stefan was finally rejected on 4 March when the FIA stated that it was not possible to issue entries so close to the season opener.

Team changes

  • BMW announced their withdrawal from Formula One following the end of the season on 29 July 2009, citing a lack of future viability and sustainability for the program. After a failed buy out from Qadbak Investments, the team was sold back to Peter Sauber. The FIA officially accepted the team to the 2010 grid under the name BMW Sauber on 3 December, using a Swiss racing licence and Ferrari engines after the Toyota withdrawal.
  • Toyota withdrew from Formula One on 4 November 2009, due to financial difficulties in the automotive industry. After announcing they would not sell the team, their grid slot went to the Sauber team. Stefan Grand Prix claimed that they had acquired the rights to Toyota Motorsport's former headquarters in Cologne and the TF110 that was renamed Stefan S–01. The withdrawal of Toyota meant that the sport would not feature a Japanese–licensed constructor for the first season since 2001 or a Japanese–licensed engine manufactured since 1982, up until 2015 when Honda returned to the sport with McLaren.
  • Scuderia Toro Rosso became an independent constructor in 2010, after having their chassis supplied by Red Bull Racing for their first years of racing. This had allowed the team to purchase customer chassis, despite the concept being banned by the FIA. This loophole was closed for 2010, meaning that the STR5 2010 car was the first car Toro Rosso built on their own, having spent most of expanding their base of operations in Faenza, Italy to accommodate production facilities.
  • Daimler AG, parent company of Mercedes-Benz, bought a 75.1% controlling stake in the 2009 champions Brawn GP, renaming the team Mercedes Grand Prix, Mercedes' last F1 race was the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. Mercedes's former 40% stake in the McLaren Group was purchased back by McLaren, although Mercedes would continue to supply McLaren engines and sponsorship until the end of the 2014 season. Mercedes signed a sponsorship deal with Petronas as the Malaysian petroleum company ended its association with BMW Sauber, and the team was renamed to Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One Team.
  • Renault sold Gerard Lopez and his investment company a 75% majority shareholding, in order to secure the team's future. The team continued to operate under the Renault name and the engine department remained under full Renault ownership. The deal left the possibility for Renault to regain complete ownership once the economic situation had stabilised.

    Driver changes

;Changed teams
  • 2005 and 2006 World Champion Fernando Alonso left Renault to drive for Ferrari in 2010, replacing Kimi Räikkönen who left the team at the end of the 2009 season. Alonso had signed a three-year deal up to the end of 2012, with options for further years.
  • Rubens Barrichello moved from Brawn to Williams.
  • Reigning world champion Jenson Button joined Lewis Hamilton at McLaren following the failure to negotiate a contract with Mercedes, which bought out his 2009 team, Brawn GP. This meant that McLaren had signed the two most recent World Champions, and had the sport's first double champion line-up since Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, also driving for McLaren, in.
  • Timo Glock officially joined Virgin Racing, after leaving the Toyota Racing team.
  • Kamui Kobayashi, who made his debut for the now-defunct Toyota team at the end of 2009 covering for the injured Timo Glock, transferred to the newly revived Sauber team.
  • Heikki Kovalainen joined the new Lotus Racing team, after leaving McLaren.
  • Robert Kubica left BMW Sauber to drive for Renault in 2010, as a replacement for Alonso.
  • Nico Rosberg left Williams at the end of the 2009 season after four years with the team since 2006, moving to Mercedes.
  • Jarno Trulli moved from Toyota to Lotus Racing.
;Entered Formula One
File:Bruno Senna 2010 Malaysia.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Bruno Senna made his debut with the new Hispania team.
File:Michael Schumacher 2010 Malaysia.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Michael Schumacher returned to the sport with Mercedes after a 3-year hiatus.
;Exited Formula One
  • Giancarlo Fisichella became Ferrari's reserve and test driver in 2010, having left Force India and joined Ferrari towards the end of. After failing to secure a racing drive, he signed up to take part in the Le Mans Series.
  • Romain Grosjean was unable to secure a contract with Renault, due to Petrov's appointment as Renault's second driver and competed in the inaugural FIA GT1 World Championship for Matech Competition.
  • After a poor 2009 season, Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima was unable to secure a drive for 2010. On 19 February, it was confirmed that he would join aspiring Serbian outfit Stefan Grand Prix, despite their lack of an entry to the grid.
  • 2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen took a two-year "sabbatical" from Formula One in 2010 after his managers confirmed that negotiations with McLaren officially came to an end. Räikkönen instead joined the Citroën Junior Team in the 2010 World Rally Championship, driving a Citroën C4 WRC in twelve of the thirteen rounds of the championship.
;Returned to Formula One
  • Pedro de la Rosa returned to Formula One driving for the Sauber team, having previously served as test driver for McLaren. His return ended a three-year absence from racing since 2007, his last Grand Prix start being a half-season campaign in.
  • Seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher officially joined Mercedes on 23 December 2009, ending a three-year hiatus from the sport since 2007. Schumacher had originally intended to make a comeback with Ferrari in to stand in for the injured Felipe Massa, but was prevented from doing so by a motorcycle accident injury, and the Mercedes contract was not signed until he was given a clean bill of health. Schumacher previously raced for Mercedes in the 1991 World Sportscar Championship.
;Mid-season changes
  • Sakon Yamamoto, who last drove in Formula One for Spyker and tested for Renault, replaced Bruno Senna at Hispania for the, having previously taken part in Friday practice at the. The team confirmed that Senna would return to his seat for the. Yamamoto then replaced Karun Chandhok from the onwards, except the races in Singapore, Brazil and Abu Dhabi, where the seat was filled by Christian Klien.
  • During the mid-season hiatus, Nick Heidfeld left Mercedes to take up a new role with Pirelli as their official test driver ahead of their return to Formula One.
  • Following the end of the European season at the, Pedro de la Rosa was dropped by BMW Sauber and summarily replaced by Nick Heidfeld, who last drove for the team in. It was reported that the change was made because of de la Rosa's poor performance relative to teammate Kamui Kobayashi in general and Heidfeld's knowledge of the Marina Bay and Yas Marina circuits in particular. With Heidfeld joining Sauber, former Renault driver Romain Grosjean was drafted in as his replacement for Pirelli.
  • Hispania Racing test driver Christian Klien replaced Sakon Yamamoto for the after Yamamoto allegedly contracted food poisoning ahead of the race, but was later seen in the Singapore paddock suffering no apparent symptoms, sparking talk of unpaid debts by the Japanese driver and further financial afflictions for the team to deal with when the logo of one of Klien's personal sponsors appeared on the car for the weekend. Team principal Colin Kolles confirmed that the arrangement would be for one race and Yamamoto would return to the cockpit at Suzuka, provided he recovered in time. Klien also replaced Yamamoto at Interlagos and Abu Dhabi, though no explanation was given for the change.