The Lotus formula one team today unveiled its 2010 challenger , draped in yellow and green the ride was unveiled at London’s Royal Horticultural Museum (Though nothing Horticultural about it , except the colour ) the Lotus F1 team has experienced drivers Jarno Trulli and Heiki Kovalainen driving for them this season and Mike Gascoyne is heading the team as CTO.

Does anyone know the reason for the Outer Green Stripes on the tyres of various teams ? I have seen inner Green grooves, or am I forgetting something from last season.

Are the Green Stripes on the cars’ tyres are for the Make Cars Green initiative ?

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The Force India formula one team unveiled their 2010 Challenger today named after Vijay Mallya the VJM3. The car is as usual in the colours of the Indian tri-colour. The car has a shark fin and also a sophisticated front wing. Looks like a good amount of aerodynamics went into this car.

The FORCE India team would be participating in the next stage of formula one tests. It would be interesting to see where they lie compared to the other teams.

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Former formula one team owner Eddie Jordan seems to have picked Lewis Hamilton as his favourite driver for the 2010 formula one season. The prediction is important because last year’s formula one champion Jenson Button will be driving the same car as Lewis Hamilton disregarding the fact that McLaren has had Lewis Hamilton with them for a long long time and in the past there have been some pretty strong accusations of favouritism within the team.

“I can’t get my head away from Lewis Hamilton,” said Eddie Jordan.

“He’s sharp. He’s got talent and the return to the sport of Michael Schumacher will only add to that aggression for him to succeed.

“It is perfect for him. My money wouldn’t be anywhere but on Hamilton.”

But more interestingly Eddie Jordan seemed to be hinting that the testing times at Valencia didnt matter where Felipe Massa proved to be the fastest. Eddie insisted that the McLaren team would eventually come through. One may remember that he had called Hamilton’s chances slim in the 2007 season when Hamilton was new to the grid. The fact that he is praising Lewis Hamilton now does seem to be a pretty strong backing for formula one’s young Brit sensation.

“If anybody understands about trying to fool the bookies into a false sense of security, then this is what’s happening.

“I wouldn’t put any credence at all on what’s going on at the moment. What matters is what happens in Bahrain on that first Sunday.

“We saw how bad McLaren were in the first half of last season. I went on record saying it was the worst car ever and they still came back.

“I think the momentum is with McLaren and Hamilton is a class act.”

Mercedes GP revealed their new challenger on 25th January 2010. Stupid me thought that a new media ID was needed to access the site, turns out the BrawnGp era ID works on the media site, so we have the new photos of their challenger and ofcourse of Michael Schumacher who looks 30 and not 41 and also Nico Rosberg who looks 16

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Just got the following press release from Narain’s camp :

“The Fastest Indian in The World”, Narain Karthikeyan has been honoured by the Government of India by bestowing upon him the Padma Shri Award in recognition of his distinguished contribution in the sphere of sports. This is a great honour, not only for Narain himself, but also recognizes Indian Motorsport for the first time in history. Up to 2009, only 2,255 people have been granted this distinct honour.

Upon learning of his award, Narain said, “I am deeply honoured and humbled by the Government of India in receiving this award. It is truly a great day, not only in my life, but also in the life of Indian Motorsport. I have countless people to thank and credit for this achievement – first and foremost of which is my family, without whose unrelenting support, my career would not have taken the path it has. My sponsors, the Tata Group, Bharat Petroleum, JK Tyres and Amaron, who have supported me for so many years, as well as MRF Tyres, with whom I have recently entered into a partnership, have also been crucial to my success as a racing driver. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every person at all of these companies who have supported and believed in me for so many years. Last, but not least, I owe a huge debt of thanks to all of my fans, who have cheered me on through all of my successes. I dedicate this award to all of them.”

The Castrol Motorsport Rankings powered by Autosport, the world’s leading publication on motorsport, were recently launched at the Autosport International Exhibition in Birmingham, UK. In these first ever definitive motorsport ranking system, Narain Karthikeyan has been rated as the top Indian racing driver in the world, ranking 126^th out of 2,000 drivers in the overall world classifications, a massive 1,353 points, and 75 places ahead of his nearest Indian rival.