The FIA which is the governing body for formula one has announced the last day to apply for the 2011 formula one season. The purpose of the announcement is to fill in any vacancy that might be created in the 2011 season.

The FIA will judge the new entrants on the following parameters :

1) the technical ability and resources of the team

2) the ability of the team to raise and maintain sufficient funding to allow participation

3) the team’s experience and human resources

4) the FIA’s assessment of the value that the candidate may bring to the championship as a whole.

Teams which were trying to enter this year but couldnt are also expected to apply via this scheme. The FIA will announce the list of accepted F1 teams later on in the 2010 formula one season.

The German Red Bull F1 driver Sebastien Vettel edged Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso to grab the first pole of the 2010 season. Seven time formula one world champion Michael Schumacher who is returning to the track after a sabbatical was seventh in the qualifying with his team-mate Nice Rosberg doing better at 5th place. Vettel’s team-mate was 6th.

Ferrari were the team with most consistent performance in practice and qualifying alike, it seems that this season they might very well be the team to beat, but its still to early to tell.

Newcomer teams like Lotus F1 and HRT F1 (Campos Meta) struggled to make their mark. Some of their times were beyond 2 minutes with Indian rookie Karun Chandhok bringing up the rear for the grid in his HRT F1 car.

Sorry for no qualifying review, but tomorrow, I have an interview with the one of the best schools in India and I wish to get in

In what is surely going to make the day of any Indian Karun Chandhok has been chosen to represent the Campos Meta F1 team or the newly rechristened name HRT F1 team. Karun Chandhok will be racing besides Bruno Senna nephew of the great Ayrton Senna.

We will be able to see him racing in Bahrain !

It is interesting to note that it is Colin Kolles who is giving Karun Chandhok this chance of a lifetime. He was formerly associated with the Kingfisher Force India F1 team, earlier also he had given the Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan a chance with the Russian Midland formula one team. It looks like he has a certain fancy for Indian drivers. He replaces Adrian Campos in the Campos F1 outfit.

It may be noted that HRT F1 team is not really expected to do well in F1 , they are cash strapped at this point.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, there is no one who seems to understand this better than Fernando Alonso, its probably due that that that our two time world champion in a Renault car has called the Ferrari F10 the best car he has ever driven.

This ‘epiphany’ came to him after testing at the Jerez tracks with other teams and being able to score the sixth quickest and second quickest times in testing. He had also set the best time in the first session of testing at Valencia.

“As of today, this is the best car I’ve ever had,” Fernando Alonso told the media.

“The two days that I tested it was sunny and the track was dry and I could work more than I thought so I’m very happy. We have done a good job in terms of reliability and long runs.”

Photo : Ferrari Spa

One may remember the blonde (nothing except hair colour intended, I swear)  Finn Heikki Kovalainen crashing his Renault car at the Sakhir circuit in 2007 during testing at Bahrain.

It seems history had to repeat itself with the Finn crashing his Lotus Cosworth T127 at the Jerez testing and throwing the Lotus testing schedule out of gear as the car could not be repaired.

Mike Gascoyne wasn’t very angry though, he decided to play down the incident and his comments were full of euphemisms, see and observe the official comments from the Lotus website :

Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne reasons to be positive.

“Unfortunately a small off and a lack of spare parts curtailed the amount of laps we were able to do today, but fortunately we’ve got spare parts arriving this evening. Up to that point we’d got on top of some reliability issues from the previous day and the car was running very smoothly. Although we have lost some track time, the changing conditions made it very difficult, so we haven’t lost too much and we’ll be ready to continue with Heikki in the morning.”

Heikki Kovalainen added his thoughts, saying:

“My initial feeling from the car is good – it fundamentally feels right. I’m disappointed the day came to an early end, but feel good about the team and I’m looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow.”

Whatever be the reasons, we hope that the Lotus team resumes soon and keeps its reputation