2010 F1 teams list sees Virgin replace Manor – and no Sauber or Toyota

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Virgin will have its own F1 team next year

The official 2010 F1 teams list published today by the FIA has confirmed long-standing rumours the new Manor entry will be branded by former Brawn sponsors Virgin.

The FIA has also noted the absence of an entry from Toyota and has not yet substituted it with another team – including new BMW owners Sauber.

Toyota may have to pay a fine to the FIA for not entering next year despite having signed the Concorde Agreement. They may be able to avoid it if they arrange for someone to take over their team and run it in F1.

Zoran Stefanovic has been rumoured to be interested in taking over the outfit and using their TF110 designs for next season. He currently has a case against the FIA being heard by the European Commission about how the 2010 team entries were handled.

Meanwhile BMW, which does not have an entry for 2010 having refused to sign the Concorde Agreement and subsequently quit F1, has cancelled the sale of the team to Qadbak and sold it to Peter Sauber instead. That surely raises the prospect of it being on the grid next year.

Also of interest in the entry list is the confirmation the 1 Malaysia entry will be known as ‘Lotus’, despite having little in the way of ties to the historic Lotus team. Is it right that such a historic name is being used in this way?

The numbers have been allocated for the four new teams with Lotus getting the lowest pair and Virgin the highest.

Although the list reveals no new information about the driver line-up, it does show Bruno Senna is down as the ‘second’ Campos driver, which could be an indication the team is expecting to find a more experienced driver for the other seat to pair with the rookie.

As for Virgin, it’s surprising they’ve allowed the official news of their Manor deal to slip out in this fashion. Did they not want to make a proper announcement with all the publicity it would bring?

2010 F1 teams entry list

1 Jenson Button, McLaren-Mercedes
2 Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes
3 Nico Rosberg, Brawn-Mercedes*
4 TBC, Brawn-Mercedes
5 Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault
6 Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault
7 Felipe Massa, Ferrari
8 Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
9 Rubens Barrichello, Williams-Cosworth
10 Nico Hulkenberg, Williams-Cosworth
11 Robert Kubica, Renault
12 TBC, Renault
14 Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes
15 Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India-Mercedes
16 Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari
17 TBC, Toro Rosso-Ferrari
18 TBC, Lotus-Cosworth
19 TBC, Lotus-Cosworth
20 TBC, Campos-Cosworth
21 Bruno Senna, Campos-Cosworth
22 TBC, US F1-Cosworth
23 TBC, US F1-Cosworth
24 Timo Glock, Virgin-Cosworth
25 TBC, Virgin-Cosworth

*Has applied to change its name to Mercedes Grand Prix

Read more: 2010 F1 drivers and teams

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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98 comments on “2010 F1 teams list sees Virgin replace Manor – and no Sauber or Toyota”

  1. I just realize that its Rosberg that has the no 3 on his car. I thought Vettel is the one who deserved it.

    1. It’s my lucky number so it’s a shame Vettel isn’t number 3 but 5 is my second lucky number and quite a few people win the title with number 5 :-D Mansell, Hill, Schumacher, Alonso… Vettel I hope :-D

      1. Well my lucky number is 13 (my birthday, but also the date I was sent over the roof of a car- and friday at that) so I guess my luck is out.

    2. Does anyone know the explanation behind the attribution of the numbers?
      All I know is the Driver’s Champion gets the #1, regardless if he changes team, and his teammate #2.
      From this listing, it looks like #3 and #4 are given the to the Constructors Championship.

      1. After the champions team gets 1 & 2, the rest of the numbers go in order of constructors’ positions from the previous year. Why Lotus got in ahead of the other 3 new teams when they were the last to be granted a place is beyond me though!

        1. Prisoner Monkeys
          30th November 2009, 23:25

          The FIA likely consulted with the teams as to which numbers they wanted. They have never let new teams in en masse before, and so there’s no real procedure for how to go about numbering them. Even if they asked Campos, Virgin and USF1 what nubmers they wanted before Lotus, Lotus would still get the 18 and 19 if noneof the other teams wanted them.

        2. lewisisoverated
          1st December 2009, 7:04

          lotus got it cos they replaced bmw…

      2. Prisoner Monkeys
        30th November 2009, 23:04

        Numbers are awarded based on World Constructors’ Championship standings, with the obvious exception of the number one, which is carried by the World Champion.

        Jenson Button has the rights to the number one, and so takes it with him to McLaren. As Mercedes won the 2009 WCC under the title of Brawn – and because they changed their name before the entry list was released – they get the rights to the three and four, the highest-placed numbers outside of the number one (and the two that goes with it).

        As for the four new teams, it seems that the FIA has grouped them all togehter under one heading and simply assigned the nubmers, or at least consulted with the teams on what numbers they wanted (it seems Bruno Senna frequently races with the nubmer 21).

        1. Unless it’s number 1, I doubt it really matters what your number is.

          1. Prisoner Monkeys
            1st December 2009, 0:00

            Well, no – but it does make it easier to identify which teams did well for themselves and which did not; those with nubers under 13 did well, and those with numbers over it did not.

          2. Unless you’re a British driver with a Mercedes engine…in which case it seems that 22 is a good number..!!

        2. 21 is my favourite number.

          Good on you Bruno $:)

        3. actually, Bruno is sponsored by Embratel, a brazilian telephone company which code number is 21, so I think it has to do with that.

          oh, and that also kind of ruins the whole “he got the lowest number because he will be number 2” theory… sorry, Keith! no hard feelings? =)

        4. 10 ford cosworth run engines wooooo

  2. Why in F1’s official website Campos Team is called “Campos Dallara” instead of “Campos Cosworth”?

    Greetings from Chile

    1. Because Dallara are building the Chassis for campos maybe?.

      Not sure why its not Campos Dallara Cosworth though?.

    2. Dallara have built the chassis for Campos.

      1. yeah but where’s the Cosworth bit? havn’t they got an engine deal yet?

        1. that’s the question!. This is like “Arrows”

          1. yeah i know. I’m don’t think keith got it.

        2. I don’t know why the FIA has written it like that, but Campos have said they’re using Cosworths.

          1. teams that don’t have engine suppliers can give a name of a sponsor to their engine, they use a cosworth engine but they just gave it the name of a sponsor

          2. I mean teams that don’t have their own engine but get theirs from a supplier can give it the name of a sponsor

  3. So much shuffling going around in F1!

    With the historical connotations that the Lotus name carries, I see it as sort of an ‘insult’ (may be too strong of a word).

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      30th November 2009, 23:09

      Why is that? They have the rights to the Lotus name, since Proton own the Lotus marque. It’s not as if they purchased the company purely for the sake of running a Formula One team with it; they’ve owned Lotus for years. The team has made it pretty clear that they’re not trying to be the Lotus of old, that they want to forge a new identity that runs parallel to the previous incarnation of Lotus. They want to add to the history of the name, not profit from it.

      1. Ford bought out Jackie Stewart’s F1 team and renamed it Jaguar, despite having nothing to do with the marque, except that they were both owned by Ford.

        F1 is a large-scale branding exercise. (Ab)use of historic names is to be expected.

    2. Its not like the pacfic F1 team from the nineties when they bought the remainder of the old team lotus and put the lotus name on the side of there cars.
      Now that was an insult

      1. My understanding was that David Hunt (brother of James and then owner of the Team Lotus name) entered into a partnership with Pacific for reasons that are not entirely clear. Hunt was trying to revive Lotus as a going F1 team at the time and may have been trying to keep the brand name in the spotlight. But it wasn’t a case of Pacific buying the remains of the old Lotus team – I think Hunt still owns the Team Lotus name today.

  4. If its a choice between Stefan GP and Sauber, surely Sauber should get the final slot? With teams having pulled out recently and the concern that not all the new outfits will make it to the 2010 grid, we need teams with good prospects and a chance of survival. I’d pin my hopes on Sauber over a Serbian-lead Toyota buyout.

    That said, my personal preference would be to have the existing teams (make that Williams) agree to a 14th slot.

    1. It says about the bottom Toyota are in with the Concorde agreement and Stefan GP have bought them so I guess they’ll be chosen over Sauber.

      1. The FIA note doesn’t say anything about Stefan GP and there’s been no official confirmation about them buying Toyota as far as I’m aware. Let’s wait and see.

        1. Stefan himself has denied it, according to Autosport.

          1. Prisoner Monkeys
            1st December 2009, 0:20

            Well, there’s no other way in.

    2. This will be determined by the legal obligations of the Concorde agreement, rather than by which is the most deserving team.

      Toyota Motorsport has an F1 entry for 2010 – the Concorde agreement obliges whoever owns that entity to field a team. Presumably it also gives them a legal entitlement to the entry – so the FIA can’t unilaterally take it away from Toyota and give it to Sauber, who don’t have an entry because BMW failed to sign the Concorde agreement when they had the chance.

      Sauber can either hope to be granted a 14th entry or arrange to buy Toyota’s. But Toyota has an entire team to offload and may not be willing to split the team from the entry – a team without an entry is almost worthless. This is where Stefan GP may well come in, given that they’re looking for an entry and a team.

      If there’s any justice Sauber will get the nod over Stefan GP – but it may well be the legal situation that decides it.

  5. What is interesting is that “Brawn-Mercedes” have applied to “change there name”! thats a good way of retaining your number and your garage slot in the pitlane :)

    Does anyone know if Ferrari are far enough up to have a double garage or will they get a single?

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      30th November 2009, 23:10

      thats a good way of retaining your number and your garage slot in the pitlane

      Actually, they keep it because they changed the name before the entry list was published. It seems they still need approval from all the teams to change their name.

  6. Keith, note that the FIA’s entry list doesn’t mention Cosworth in relation to Campos, but states ‘Campos Dallara’ as constructor. However, since there are several tiny inconsistencies on the list — e.g. Lotus-Cosworth with hyphen and Force India Mercedes without — this may simply be an error.

    1. I’ve just abbreviated some of the names for simplicity.

      1. I understand. I reckon you’ve got the right constructor name: ‘Campos-Cosworth’. It could be, however, that the team have entered as ‘Campos Dallara-Campos Dallara’, much like ‘Ferrari-Ferrari’, and ‘Renault-Renault’, and in fact have badged the Cosworth engines.

  7. Ferrari in a single garrage, wow, that would well it would make me happy. Just a vindictive smile, i’ll drop it.

    Glad to see Massa has been given the 7 to Alo’s 8, promising sign that they will be racing properly.

  8. Why isn’t Alguersuari on the list?
    I thought he’d been confirmed, he says he signed 2 months ago. Does this imply that his 2010 contract isn’t necessarily a race seat?

    1. Maybe he’s better off making paella out the back.

    2. He has said himself he is racing NOT the team. Team are yet to confirm it

  9. Prisoner Monkeys
    30th November 2009, 23:22

    Although the list reveals no new information about the driver line-up, it does show Bruno Senna is down as the ’second’ Campos driver, which could be an indication the team is expecting to find a more experienced driver for the other seat to pair with the rookie.

    Keith, Bruno Senna doesn’t actually bring any sponsorship to the team. He makes it easier for them to find sponsors, but he doesn’t have to bring them in as a condition of his contact. Campos are currently looking at Vitaly Petrov and Pastor Maldonado as Senna’s team-mate, and both of them come with the might of Gazprom and PDVSA respectively. It’s likely that either of those companies will become the team’s title – or at least major – sponsor, and so that driver will be given the “lead” seat, though as both drivers would be rookies, it would be a fairly cosmetic move.

    Also, Senna has run with the number 21 before. I think. This is because of his sponsor, telecom provider Embratel. Embratel’s international calling code is 21. I think it is more than conicidence that Senna will carry a number so closely associated with his sponsor. Especially since standard operating procedure for assigning numbers is to give the last numbers to the newest teams; by rights, Lotus would normally carry the 24 and 25 because they joined after the other three. But they’ve got the 18 and 19, so I suspect the FIA consulted the new teams as to which numbers they wanted.

    I wonder if Peter Windsor requested the 22 in the hopes that its recent run of success will rub off on him and his team …

    1. Embratel’s international calling code is 21. I think it is more than conicidence that Senna will carry a number so closely associated with his sponsor.

      Ah that’s fascinating, thanks very much PM.

      1. Prisoner Monkeys
        30th November 2009, 23:55

        It will be interesting to see if Embratel get involved with Campos as a team sponsor. Vitaly Petrov comes with the backing of Gazprom, while Pastor Maldonado has PDVSA, but I think Maldonado may also have extra sponsors. Given that telephone companies are a major drawcard for sponsor dollars – AT&T, Vodafone, MegaFon, T-Mobile and possibly Orange all have been or possibly will be involved with the teams – one of Maldonado’s sponsors could well be a Venezuelan telecom conglomerate, which probably won’t sit well with Embratel.

        Plus, I’ve ehard that Vitaly Petrov has already signed to join Campos. However, it was on the internet and it came from someone claiming to be a friend of his. It wouldn’t be the first time someone has played that card to try and make out that they know more than they really do, but they usually do it for the likes of Alonso or some other major driver move. But Petrov? He’s a newcomer. His name doesn’t have the weight the likes of the Alonsos or Buttons of this world. So maybe it’s true after all … or maybe I’m just more willing to believe it since I want to see im in Formula One.

        1. Embratel is his personal sponsor and obviously has influenced him to get the number 21 :)

          1. Bruno always has the number 21 on the Embratel caps he wears.

  10. I’ll be interested to see who USF1 get as the number 22 – that’s been very lucky for the last two years ;)

    1. I wonder what odds we’ll get on Alex Rossi or Jose Lopez being World Champion in USF1 Car no. 22! Anyone?

      1. Prisoner Monkeys
        30th November 2009, 23:57

        I’d say … one in a very large number.

        1. 1 in 22,000?

          1. At those odds, I might put £1 on it, but it’s a little like playing the lottery. You MIGHT win, but nobody thinks it’s anything other than a long shot.

          2. …like Button becoming champ after nearly being out of a job in 2009?

    2. could have made a lot of money a year ago by putting £1 on button to win the title.

      1. Hindsight is wonderful, isn’t it?

  11. No number 13 again.
    It can’t be that bad!

    1. Actually, it is. The FIA Technical Regulations clearly state the number 13 car has to paricipate with thirteen black cats strapped to the nosecone. Unfortunately all the current drivers are animal lovers (figuratively speaking) hence no number 13.

    2. Bring back number 13! I’m with you, Chalky :-)

      1. José Baudaier
        1st December 2009, 2:36

        me too. [2]

    3. Racing drivers are too damned superstitious, sometimes to even be near the number! 13 has been my number since I started racing as a kid, but when I started in late models, the owner of the first track I raced at asked me to petition the other drivers to make sure they were OK with it!

  12. I believe it’s actually Campos Dallara…

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      1st December 2009, 0:19

      No, it’s not.

      1. Go to the official FiA press release =)

  13. 9 seats are still empty,still Trulli,Kobayashi,Kovalainene,not on that list.

    Another thing why Nico is no.3,if so they will have an inexperienced driver in car no.4.Does that means no Schumacher????

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      1st December 2009, 2:17

      Jenson Button is number one. Lewis Hamilton is number two.

      Felipe Massa is number seven. Fernando Alonso is number eight.

      Are Alonso and Hamilton inexpeirenced, by deifition? Of course not. Teams are not obligated to take one experienced and one inexereiced driver; if Schumacher wanted to join Mercedes, he wouldn’t have any issues about taking the number four. Driver numbers within a are generally assigned based on championship finishing positions, anyway.

  14. Webber has the only perfect number :)

    1. On the number topic, what number car has won the most WDC’s? The number 5 has to be in with a shout. I seem to remember that Nigel Mansell (92), Michael Schumacher (94), Damon Hill (96) and Fernando Alonso (2005) all used 5 to win the WDC.

      1. Number 1 Schuey won 5 of his with no.1 on the front 1 for alonso 1 for hakkinen and that just the last 10-12 years ish

      2. Number 1, Schuey won 5 of his with no.1 on the front 1 for alonso 1 for hakkinen and that just the last 10-12 years ish

  15. José Baudaier
    1st December 2009, 2:27

    I heard Di Grassi is gonna announce he’ll be racing for Manor next year at December 15th. To be seen…

  16. Just a thought on the numberings for the new teams – would they have been done in alpha-numeric order if Lotus had originally submitted themselves as “1Malaysia”? i.e. 1Malaysia, Campos, USF1, Virgin?

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      1st December 2009, 5:07

      No – the order they joined takes priority over all the others. The fact that Senna will be carrying a numer so closely related to his personal sponsor points to it being a case of the teams being allowed to nominate which numbers they wanted.

  17. The Sri Lankan
    1st December 2009, 3:41

    i hope these Rumors come true and to see a TOYOTA powered car on the grid next year. that would keep me happy. as for sauber, BMW screwed them and screwed them hard on the pull out. no concorde agreement means no entry and if in some way toyota gets denied over sauber i expect the guys at cologne to fire back since they have signed the concorde agreement. FIA has no choice but to let Toyota’s successors to race or waive the Fine imposed on Toyota and let sauber race. either way its in FIA and to some degree in Toyotas court.

  18. We have 12 teams who have entered their names.Sauber is next using Ferrari engine with Nick & I will put Kilen on board.Then Toyota is expected to sell itself to Steven GP,so that in all puts 14 teams on grid on 2010.

    1. that in all puts 14 teams on grid on 2010.

      Well, I’m not quite sure about it. Renault still have to confirm their participation despite have signed the concord agreement, and there are some risks in the new teams to finally put a car with drivers in next year grid. (USF1?)

    2. I am really puzzled as to what is happening behind closed doors between FIA, Sauber and BMW. Surely if Sauber/BMW have agreed on the purchase/sale of the team, this would include some assurance from FIA that they would enter their car in 2010. But nothing of the kind seems to be present.

      In regards to Toyota, it seems some kind of an announcement will be made regarding its entry in the near future:

      Toyota Motorsport GmbH remains formally bound by the Concorde Agreement to put forward a team for participation, though it has indicated that it will not be in a position to do so. An announcement will be made regarding this entry in due course.

      This indicates possibility that Toyota may sell the team and enter it under another name such as Stefan GP. I hope that happens.

      1. Surely if Sauber/BMW have agreed on the purchase/sale of the team, this would include some assurance from FIA that they would enter their car in 2010.

        I had heard the other way around. Sauber has agreed to buy the team, but the sale only will go through if there is a way to get them on the grid. Therefore, Sauber’s agreement came before the grid slot. If there is no grid slot, then the sale falls through.

        1. It seems strange to me that Toyota, whether they signed any agreement or not, announced that they couldn’t afford to run a team in 2010, and yet get fined for it.
          How come BMW, who haven’t apparently signed anything, don’t get fined, even though they don’t want to run a team either? Surely Sauber (or whoever) are going to have to pay extra to enter without first signing up?
          So, in a sport which is trying to make things easier for smaller teams, you pay if you want to enter, and you pay if you want to leave, even though you’re broke anyway…..

          1. It’s because BMW didn’t sign the concorde agreement which meant they have no obligation to race in F1 in 2010. However Toyota did sign the concorde agreement,thus they do have an obligation to race, it’s basically a contract, you break the contract, you get fined. It’s basic legal process. So thats why BMW don’t have to pay a fine and Toyota probably will.

  19. After reading this im excited about watching the new teams.

  20. Lucky number 7 for Massa

  21. Does anyone know what Toyota F1 and BMW Sauber are actually doing at the moment, are they carrying on designing and building next years car or are they laying people off and shutting the factories down. I know BMW are giving F1 tests to some new drivers as they had agreed to do before they decided to pull out but that’s all I know.

    Also I thought Toyota had previously said they did not intend to sell their F1 operation, the actual factory, so if someone did replace them they would have to have their own F1 setup which is a bit short notice to be ready for next season.

    1. The rumours say that Toyota will lease their facilities out.

  22. “Is it right that such a historic name (Lotus) is being used in this way?”
    No it bl**dy isnt!
    Cynical marketing, that’s all it is.

    1. Its Hammer time
      1st December 2009, 14:14

      Its cynical marketing until Ant Davidson parks that Malaysian beauty on pole in Bahrain. Then it will be straight on the phone from Norfolk Louts owners club to get some publicity with the elise owners club. I pray that this happens. Go Ant!

      1. In that case, it is cynical marketing!

    2. Well, they are owned by Lotus, and partly run from old Lotus premises… so the name does seem rather appropriate…. anyway for me Lotus was never Lotus after Chapman died.

      Interestingly I don’t think Lotus ever ran in F1 as just “Lotus”, that as a trade mark was only used for road cars. They were either “Team Lotus” or “Team Lotus – Ford” etc or ran under the sponsors name such as “John Player Specials”…… even racing the road cars they were “Lotus Racing”….. so strictly speaking “Lotus-Cosworth” is a new name in F1….. oh what it is to be pedantic!!!

  23. It’s exciting to see this many teams on the list, with all the new drivers that can benefit from these extra seats.

    I’m still of the belief though that they should put a Q4 into qualifying – especially if they have a 14th team.

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      1st December 2009, 22:44

      No, don’t expand it to Q4! Under the current rules, we’ll see eight drivers eliminated in Q1, and eight in Q2. It’s going to be much harder to get to Q3, and I’m willing to bet we’ll see some desperate driving as driers try and get out of the drop-zone, which has the potential to produce some interesting grids, and therefore interesting races. If you expand it to Q4, the presure is off.

  24. I’d really like to know Sir Richards reason for not staying with Brawn, er oops, Mercedes Grand Prix? Could it have been they were wanting to much money or perhaps Mercedes have other ideas…

    1. I think he wanted naming rights, however he hasn’t offically stopped sponsering Brawn/Mercedes so Virgin may well sponser two teams

      1. Virgin has bought the rights to sell sponsor space on the Manor GP car as well as the naming rights. It means Virgin gets a whole lot of publicity and offsets most of the cost through advertising income. Much as Marlboro does with Ferrari.

        As such, I doubt Virgin will remain on the Brawn/Mercedes in 2010.

  25. I would be disappointed to not see Sauber/BMW on grid in some guise next year. Is there any reason at all why the grid can’t be expanded to 14 teams? Seems to me with the natural attrition that will occur with the new teams over the first couple of teams anyway, building up the numbers now to account for that would make sense to me.

    1. I think Williams are the only team to publically say they are opposed to a 14th team which is why they have received some criticism from some fans, but other teams are supposed to be against the idea also.

      The arguments against a 14th team are that some tracks just don’t have the capacity for 14 teams for example garage space, and that financially F1 cannot support 14 teams with not enough sponsors etc.

    2. hmm #22 is still vacant.. can someone, British, please occupy this slot…

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