2010

The 2010 World Championship ran to 19 rounds: it opened with the Bahrain Grand Prix on 14 March 2010 and closed with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 14 November 2010. Twelve teams took part — two more than a year earlier. Only three of them shared the wins: Red Bull won nine races, McLaren and Ferrari five each.

Five drivers won races: Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso five times each, Mark Webber four, Lewis Hamilton three and Jenson Button two. Red Bull took 15 of the 19 poles, 10 of them by Vettel, but pole did not always bring him victory: in Australia and Korea he retired after starting first, and in Bahrain he finished fourth from pole.

Alonso won his very first race for Ferrari, in Bahrain, where Felipe Massa finished second. After that the lead changed hands again and again: Massa went top of the table after Malaysia, Button after China (he had also won in Australia), and after Monaco Webber, who had won in Spain and Monaco from pole. From June to August first place swung from Hamilton, who won in Turkey, Canada and Belgium, to Webber, who added wins in Britain and Hungary, and back again.

Alonso, who had also won in Germany, took three of the four autumn races — Italy and Singapore from pole, then the first-ever Korean Grand Prix, where Vettel retired with an engine failure — and moved into the lead. After the Brazilian Grand Prix, won by Vettel, the standings read: Alonso 246 points, Webber 238, Vettel 231, Hamilton 222. Four drivers still had a chance of the title going into the final race.

On 14 November 2010 Vettel won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from pole, with Hamilton and Button second and third. Alonso started third but finished seventh, right behind Vitaly Petrov, and Webber came home eighth. Vettel finished on 256 points, four ahead of Alonso; Webber was third on 242 and Hamilton fourth on 240.

Until he crossed the line in that race, Vettel had not led the Drivers’ Championship once all season: the closest he came was after Monaco, when he was level on points with Webber but behind on wins. At 23 years and 134 days he became the youngest world champion in history. Red Bull had won the Constructors’ Championship a week earlier, when Vettel and Webber finished one-two at the Brazilian Grand Prix on 7 November 2010. Both titles were the first in the team’s history.

From 2010 refuelling during the race was banned: cars started with enough fuel for the whole distance. The points system changed too — now the top ten finishers scored rather than the top eight, and a win was worth 25 points instead of 10, followed by 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1. Bridgestone remained the sole tyre supplier, and this was its final season.

The line-up of teams changed noticeably. Toyota and BMW left the championship, although Sauber, the team BMW had owned, carried on racing, and Mercedes, built on Brawn, the 2009 champion team, raced as a works team for the first time since 1955. Lotus Racing, Virgin and HRT made their debuts, but none of the new teams scored a point all season. In the Constructors’ Championship, Red Bull on 498 points were followed by McLaren on 454 and Ferrari on 396, with Mercedes fourth and Renault fifth.

After three seasons away, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher returned to the championship. He finished sixth in his first race for Mercedes, in Bahrain, and ended the season ninth with 72 points; his team-mate Nico Rosberg scored 142. Others moved too: Alonso went from Renault to Ferrari, and 2009 champion Button from Brawn to McLaren, where he was paired with 2008 champion Hamilton. Robert Kubica moved from BMW Sauber to Renault.

Kubica’s team-mate was Vitaly Petrov, the first Russian driver in Formula 1 history. He made his debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix on 14 March 2010, scored 27 points over the season to finish 13th, and in the final race came home sixth — just ahead of Alonso. The rookies also included Nico Hülkenberg, who gave Williams pole at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and Bruno Senna, who drove for HRT.