TOP 10 NEWS WORTHY OF YOUR ATTENTION : THE 2009 PRE-SEASON

In plain, laymen words. That is how we intend the blog to be. Well, maybe not so laymen, as you need to be a seasoned F1 follower to capture the excitement together with us. Here are our top 10 news, to encapsulate all the events and speculations that has been going on in pre-season :

1- SPONSORS OUT, COST TO GO DOWN
Both ING and Royal Bank of Scotland has confirmed to not to continue their current sponsorships of F1 teams and races once the tenure has ended. Too bad for the sport! Not only Honda pulled out at the end of last season (but was saved by team principal Ross Brawn, which owned the team right now), it seems the global economic crunch has left the sport with lot less money to spend. Incidentally, the FIA has been exercising the cost cut since last year and the economic crisis just emphasis more about the need to cut cost. Even drivers got less salary. Excluding Kimi, maybe...

2- WEBBER IS ALRIGHT
Mark Webber has recovered ahead of schedule from a broken leg which he got in an accident. He got hit by a vehicle while participating in his own charity triathlon. Not only he recovered, both he and teammate Sebastian Vettel clocked awesome runs in their new Red Bull, at the moment seems to be the prettiest car in F1 paddock. Their pre-season form has left Christian Horner confident they'll be challenging for many wins this coming season. Hey, Vettel can win in a Toro Rosso, why not the reliably fast Red Bull?

3- McLAREN MP4-24s ARE NOT THAT FAST
Not only that, they also have problems with reliability, rear diffuser reliability and tyre wear. In spite of all these, Bernie Eccelstone still believes McLaren are sandbagging. Alonso might be right about the Ferraris sandbagging in testings in 2007, but that is simply because in initial testing they were supebly fast. In the McLaren case, they have never really been the fastest in any testing. But that remains to be seen since they have advanced computers to process any data they collected during testing. That might leave them the room to appear sandbagging. If they are really that slow, people will start to think that McLaren-Mercedes do gain advantages from Ferrari data during the spy saga and the most important thing of all, Hamilton is not that excellent of a test driver. Maybe he is missing the genius input from the man who ended Schumacher's reign, Fernando Alonso. Come to think of it, Alonso did play a part in developing the 2008 car, right? Hmmm...

4- SUPER FAST BGP001
The Year of The Dark Horse? Most probably, maybe. Although there have been unofficial protest by Flavio Briatore and Stefano Domenicali regarding their rear diffuser, they still clocked the fastest time in all their testings. For both Jensen Button and Rubens Barichello. Reminiscing the era of Michael Schumacher, the man behind him on both his Benetton and Ferrari title wins, is Ross Brawn. He's about to do it again.

5- RON DENNIS OUT OF McLAREN, JEAN TODT OUT OF FERRARI
Ron Dennis has left the team principal seat at McLaren and now Martin Whitmarsh is in command. Jean Todt has also resigned from all his Ferrari posts, after more than 15 years at Ferrari. The two men resemble one of the longest and exciting rivalry in Formula One. Statistically, Jean Todt beaten Ron Dennis hands down. According to Dennis he will still follow F1 races as he is still the CEO of McLaren Group.

6- FORCE INDIA ASPIRE TO BE MIDFIELDER
After a pointless season, Force India, with renewed confidence in McLaren engine and gearbox, declared they are aspiring to be midfield team in 2009. It is not an empty promise as they have clocked times in testing that are worthy of being a midfield team. The teams that are most probably swap places with Force India as backmarkers will be Toro Rosso, Williams, and not surprisingly, McLaren Mercedes. But it remains a speculation from the runs they clocked during testing. Who knows, maybe both Force India and McLaren are sandbagging. Then we will see them fight for the championship!

7- THREE SEBASTIANS
Of course there are slight differences in the spelling, but who cares? Bourdais remains to prove his worth in the Toro Rosso, but the likeliness of the slick tyres in 2009 to the one he had in his ChampCar years might prove a big advantage. The other two Sebs has proven themselves. Buemi is knows to be very good in testing last year and Vettel not only got the first ever pole position for Toro Rosso and the first Grand Prix win afterwards, he also collected points more than his 'seniors' in Red Bull. He might be as well fighting for podiums regularly this season. Just hope the Steves on ESPN Star Sports will not mistaken the Sebs from one another!

8- MORE WINNERS EXPECTED
Last year has been one hell of a season. There were 7 Grand Prix winners in all - Lewis Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen, Kimi Raikonnen, Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica, Fernando Alonso, and Sebastian Vettel. This season, we can expect more GP winners, provided there are no teams that have total domination, like in 2002. Raikkonen and Massa are expected, but Hamilton and Kovalainen might stay out in their current conditions. Alonso seems to be strong, twice as better as his teammate. Vettel is hungry for more, and the BMWs and Toyotas seems to be genuine frontrunner. In this kind of scenario, reliability is the key.

9- SCHUMACHER, COULTHARD AND BARICHELLO
The three of them began their Formula One career at around the same time. Two of them has retired and currently still serving their former teams. Schumacher will be given more task and are expected to give more input to Ferrari, even at the pit. The Scuderia is getting serious after losing last year's driver title by a hair's width. Coulthard will be the official reserve driver for Toro Rosso and Red Bull in the first two races. Other that that, he is attached to BBC as commentator (or pundit as they prefer to be called...). But Barichello, he is still a spirited stallion. Already being the longest F1 career in history, he is going to take the record further. Well, he seems set to be going well this season, he might stay another year or two!

10- STILL THE SAME OLD POINT SYSTEM
The proposed medal system will have to wait until 2010. This means the most win of the season might not be the World Champion. Ironically they have the system changed in the first place so that people who cannot win races but consistent throughout the year can also become World Champion. Now they are reversing it back. When most of us are still in primary school, the winner got to get 10 points and the runner-up, 6 points. Then they changed it to 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1. Next year will be different. Kimi says we might have a world champion who got less points that a runner-up or third place. Meanwhile, Alonso says FIA should not change the rules and regulations so regularly. Simon didn't say anything...