Three newcomers, a refuelling ban and a championship decided in the final race, when Sebastian Vettel took the crown from three rivals.
Sebastian Vettel won the 2010 drivers' title in Abu Dhabi, and Red Bull Racing secured the constructors' crown. The 19-race season brought three newcomers, banned refuelling and extended points to the top ten finishers. Vettel's final margin over Alonso was four points, decided in the last round.
The 2010 Formula One World Championship was the 64th season of FIA Formula One motor racing, and it ended with Sebastian Vettel winning the drivers' title in Abu Dhabi. Red Bull Racing secured its first constructors' title in the same year. The campaign covered 19 races in 18 countries on five continents, running from March in Bahrain to November in the United Arab Emirates.
What set the year apart was the absence of a dominant car. No single team could open a clear gap in the early rounds, and five different drivers won races. The title was still undecided when the cars lined up for the final race, which is why the season is remembered as a close and unpredictable contest.
What happened across the 2010 season?
The season opened in Bahrain on 14 March and closed in Abu Dhabi on 14 November. Five different drivers won races, and no driver won a race while leading the championship all season. The final round in Abu Dhabi settled the title, with Vettel finishing four points clear.
Fernando Alonso opened the year with a win in Bahrain after Vettel's engine misfired. That result set the tone for the first half of the season, when the race winner changed almost every time out. Jenson Button then won in Australia for the second year in succession, and Vettel won in Malaysia.
Button added China, becoming the first driver to win more than one race that season. Mark Webber then won in Spain and Monaco back to back, a run that put him at the front of the championship. Lewis Hamilton took the Turkish Grand Prix after Vettel and Webber collided, and he matched Webber's run by winning in Canada.
The Turkish collision showed how quickly a title battle inside one team can turn, because it handed the win to Hamilton. Valencia produced the most debated moment of the middle season. Webber collided with Heikki Kovalainen, the safety car was deployed, and Hamilton passed it before the line.
His drive-through penalty made little difference because he was already well clear of the field. A drive-through means the driver must enter the pit lane and pass through it without stopping, so the time lost is smaller than a stop-go penalty would cost. Taken together, the first half of the season showed how evenly matched the leading cars were. By Canada, each of the five race winners had already stood on the top step at least once.
Three rivals could still have won in Abu Dhabi, and the final race decided it.
Which teams and drivers joined the grid in 2010?
Three teams joined the championship in 2010: Lotus Racing, Virgin Racing and Hispania Racing. They were chosen from 15 applicants in July 2009, and during the season they were often more than three seconds per lap off the pace of the established teams.
The grid had been reshaped by departures before a single race was run. BMW announced its withdrawal on 29 July 2009, and Toyota withdrew on 4 November 2009, which left room for the newcomers. Sauber was sold back to Peter Sauber and entered as BMW Sauber, so the name stayed on the entry list even though the link to the BMW works team had ended.
Several existing teams changed names or ownership. Manor Grand Prix became Virgin Racing after a naming-rights purchase, and Campos Meta became Hispania Racing before the first race. US F1 withdrew in early March after mismanagement accusations, and Scuderia Toro Rosso became an independent constructor.
The driver market was busy as well. Fernando Alonso left Renault for Ferrari, replacing Kimi Raikkonen, and Robert Kubica moved from BMW Sauber to Renault. Nico Rosberg left Williams for Mercedes, and Jenson Button, the 2009 champion, moved to McLaren. Pedro de la Rosa was dropped by BMW Sauber, with Nick Heidfeld taking his place.
The budget cap dispute and pre-season testing
The winter was dominated by an argument over costs. The FIA proposed a budget cap of EUR 30 million ($45 million, 27 million pounds), and five teams announced they would withdraw from the 2010 championship. Eight FOTA teams planned a breakaway series, which put the teams and the governing body on a collision course.
The row eased when FOTA stayed in the sport after the 24 June council meeting. Max Mosley said he would not stand for re-election in October, and a new Concorde Agreement was signed on 1 August. That agreement settled the regulatory argument for the season ahead.
Testing gave the first clues about performance. Fernando Alonso set the fastest overall time of the pre-season programme, 1:11.470 on day three. Lewis Hamilton was quickest at Jerez with 1:19.583, and he set the fastest time of the final test in Barcelona at 1:20.472.
Not every new entrant was ready. Virgin managed only five laps at its first public test, a poor start that foreshadowed the difficulties the team faced during the season.
What rule changes shaped the 2010 season?
Refuelling was abolished during races, the field grew from 24 to 26 cars, and the points were extended to the top ten finishers. Tyre allocations fell from 14 sets to 11 per weekend, and the minimum car weight rose to 620 kg (1,367 lb).
The refuelling ban was the most visible change. Cars now had to carry all of their fuel from the start, and it was the first time since 1993 that refuelling had been banned in races. The weight change came from the same set of rules and was adopted alongside it.
The minimum weight rose from 605 kg (1,334 lb) to 620 kg (1,367 lb), and the field grew by two cars in a single step. New teams were also offered $10m in support, which helped them meet the costs of entering a season.
Scoring now reached ten finishers, paid out 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1. The previous system had rewarded only the top eight, using 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 since 2003, so the extension rewarded more of the field. A win now carried 25 points, which made every race weekend more valuable.
Stewarding changed too. The stewards were drawn from a fixed pool that included former drivers, and they gained the power to hand out 20-second and 30-second penalties. Penalties now had to be served within two laps, not three, which made it harder for a driver to delay a penalty until it no longer mattered.
Other changes were narrower. Front tyres were narrowed from 270 mm to 245 mm, pit releases waited for cars within 25 m (82 ft), and fuel samples required the car to return under its own power. The safety car rules were also revised: the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG was introduced as the safety car, and the delta time was set at 120% of a standard race lap.
Which races shaped the title fight?
The title fight was shaped by Alonso's wins in Bahrain, Germany, Italy, Singapore and Korea, and by Vettel's wins in Malaysia, Japan and Abu Dhabi. Alonso's seventh place in the final race left Vettel four points clear.
The middle rounds produced some of the sharpest contrasts. Webber won the British Grand Prix after Vettel suffered a puncture, and Hungary followed after Vettel was penalised for his safety car breach. In Germany, Alonso won after Massa moved over, and Ferrari were fined $100,000 for team orders.
Hamilton won the wet Belgian Grand Prix, and Alonso then took Italy. Singapore brought Alonso his first Grand Slam, and Korea followed after Vettel's late engine failure. Vettel won in Japan, where Red Bull reasserted its dominance, and Brazil had already given the team a 1-2 finish that secured the constructors' title.
| Grand Prix | Winner | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Bahrain | Fernando Alonso | Vettel's engine misfired |
| Australia | Jenson Button | Second year in succession |
| Malaysia | Sebastian Vettel | |
| China | Jenson Button | First driver with more than one win |
| Spain | Mark Webber | Back to back with Monaco |
| Turkey | Lewis Hamilton | Webber and Vettel collided |
| Monaco | Mark Webber | Back to back with Spain |
| Canada | Lewis Hamilton | Matched Webber's back-to-back run |
| Valencia | Lewis Hamilton | Drive-through penalty |
| Britain | Mark Webber | Vettel's puncture |
| Germany | Fernando Alonso | Team orders, Ferrari fined $100,000 |
| Hungary | Mark Webber | Vettel's safety car penalty |
| Belgium | Lewis Hamilton | Wet race |
| Italy | Fernando Alonso | |
| Singapore | Fernando Alonso | First Grand Slam |
| Japan | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull's dominance reasserted |
| Korea | Fernando Alonso | Vettel's late engine failure |
| Brazil | Red Bull (1-2 finish) | Constructors' title secured |
| Abu Dhabi | Sebastian Vettel | Title decided by four points |
Reading the table, the winners are spread across the calendar rather than clustered in one part of the year. Alonso's wins ran from the opening round in Bahrain to the Korean race, while Webber's came in Spain, Monaco, Britain and Hungary. Hamilton's wins in Turkey, Canada, Valencia and Belgium gave him the same spread, and Vettel's in Malaysia, Japan and Abu Dhabi put him at the front when the title was decided.
Who won the 2010 Drivers' Championship?
Sebastian Vettel won the drivers' title by four points after winning the Abu Dhabi finale. He became the youngest World Drivers' Champion in the 61-year history of the championship. Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were the three rivals who could still have taken the title in that race.
Vettel first led the standings in the final race. Only twice before, in 1964 and 1976, had a champion led only in the last race, so his position was rare rather than unique. The points system helped make that possible, because the top ten finishers all scored and a win was worth 25 points.
The margin of four points depended on Alonso's seventh place, so Vettel's championship rested on the final race rather than on a lead built up earlier in the year.A few places on the final afternoon would have changed the outcome, and the title was decided by the finishing order rather than by the season's total wins.
What the 2010 season left behind
The newcomers struggled to keep pace. Virgin's fuel tank was too small, which delayed its development by five races, and the team's first public test ended after only five laps. These problems showed how much groundwork a new team needed before it could challenge the established teams.
Red Bull's sixth year of competition ended with the constructors' title, a result that gave the team its first championship. Bridgestone's final season as sole tyre supplier made way for Pirelli, which was chosen for 2011 at the Geneva meeting in June 2010.
Taken as a whole, the new teams made the grid larger without making it more competitive in the short term. Lotus Racing, Virgin Racing and Hispania Racing filled places left by withdrawals, and the gap between them and the established teams was the clearest lesson of their first year.
Looking back, the season is remembered for its unpredictability more than for any single car's superiority. Five drivers won races, and the title was settled only in the final round.
