Good question for speculation, in as much as 2010 will hardly be a status-quo season. There are enough changes and unknowns to allow for a new team to be in the points. That is, though the aero specs are not changing significantly, there are other changes happening that effect the car. The ban on refueling, improved tyre compounds, and bigs and littles will give the established teams enough rope to hang themselves. Not to mention the musical chairs going on with engine suppliers right now.

Of the teams whose bids have been accepted, I would think that Campos and Lotus have the better chance. Campos has Dallara building their chassis, and Lotus knows what they're doing too, so I'd say as far as the car is concerned they may have less to sort out than USF1 or Manor who are desinging and building their own. Manor and Campos are moving up from racing in F3 so that too ought to be a plus for them.

The 'unknowns' are the drivers. Fairuz Fauzy has been rumoured to be driving for Lotus, which hardly fills one with optimism. Campos has allegedly signed Bruno Senna and possibly Pedro de la Rossa, which would be a pretty good line up for them.

For the first time in many years I'm looking forward to the off season as we see the new teams flesh out their programs, and as the established teams cope with the changes and incorporate what they've learned from the 2009 season.

I think Ferrari will challenge for wins and podiums right off the bat. Why do I consider Ferrari a new team? Well the car they sent to the grid for much of the second half of the season was certainly not a Ferrari. I think there is evidence to support my theory that the real Ferrari abondoned F1 mid season and was replaced by an unreasonable facimile that adopted/stole the Scuderia's colours. The real team will soon stand up. If we consider Brawn to be a new team ..... why not the brave new Alonso led Ferrari!!!

Ferrari and Mclaren on top. Possible toyota upward trend. Redbull will probably be a big contender.

Usf1 ?

The odds are I think are good for 1 of the three teams to score points in 2010.

No matter who scores, the scrap to be the premier new team will be fun to follow.

Manor with Senna and (PK?), comes to mind.

massai - 01 November 2009 01:07 AM

Manor with Senna and (PK?), comes to mind.

You mean Campos?

No, because the "new" teams next year are truly new with the exception of BMW Sauber if they manage to make their way back into the grid. Plus the fact that the rules have stabilized, the established teams will be able to use to vast resources to engineer a better car for next year. Brawn GP was a new team in name only, in reality they were the same Honda team last year and they were able to take advantage of a radical change in the rules and use their awfully bad season last year to do additional research and engineering while the top teams like Mclaren and Ferrari were busy duking it out for the championship into the final race.

Lotus, probably.