2010 F1 Season Review Part 8- The Boys are Back in Town

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2010 F1 Season Review Part 8- The Boys are Back in Town

By Bev Rimmer on Wed, 12/01.2011

The 2010 Formula One season was one of the most exciting to date, with a heady mixture of new teams, new regs and a four-way title battle to keep even the least enthusiastic petrol-head glued to their telly screen. In my extensive season review, I'll be taking you through each of the 12 teams' performances, who was hot and who most certainly was not and I'll be giving my raw and unsolicited opinion on whether each team deserved their final finishing place. Rolling in at number eight is a returning outfit, Sauber...

Drivers: Kamui Kobayashi / Pedro de la Rosa / Nick Heidfeld

Team principal: Peter Sauber

Car spec: C29

Engine: Ferrari

When Peter Sauber bailed out of F1 at the end of 2005, little did he suspect that within five years he'd be back at the helm of his beloved outfit. Thanks to the sudden departure of manufacturers BMW, Sauber found themselves in a spot of bother with their 2010 season unlikely to happen unless a knight in shining armour rode in with wads of cash and years of experience to save the day.

Perennial test driver Pedro de la Rosa was billed to line up alongside Kamui 'Kamikaze' Kobayashi, the aggressive young Japanese driver who'd taken the last two races of 2009 for Toyota. Like many new partnerships at F1 teams for 2010, the Sauber pairing made for a strange combination of serenity and mayhem; chalk and cheese at its finest. Surely this would be de la Rosa's final chance to shine before the gnarled hands of retirement beckoned, and Kobayashi would be equally eager to show his mettle as one of the sport's latest hot talents.

Chaotic would be an approproate word to describe Sauber's start to the season. No points were scored until Round Seven in Turkey, the build-up to that momentous occasion strewn with debris from Kobayashi's numerous moments in the barriers and oil from de la Rosa's seemingly powerless engine. Only twice in the opening six races was the chequered flag even reached. Kobayashi raking in a single point at Istanbul was the turning point for the eager youngster, but things were not looking so rosy for his team mate.

The decision was made after the Italian Grand Prix at Monza to let de la Rosa go following just one points finish (7th in Hungary) in 14 races. Drafted in to replace the Spaniard was Nick Heidfeld, a regular half-decent driver at Sauber from the BMW days. The reliable German brought the C29 home in all but one of his five races, being taken out by Michael Schumacher on his comeback in Singapore.

But it was erratic Kobayashi, now starting to keep a lid on his mad on-track moments, who stole the show. A well-times safety car at the European round benefited him enormously, as he weaved around both Fernando Alonso's Ferrari and Sebastien Buemi in the Toro Rosso to bring it home in seventh. He repeated the result at his home event seven rounds later, and impressed enough to keep his seat for 2011. He will be partnered by Mexican rookie Sergio Perez.

Kobayashi finished: 12th

de la Rosa finished: 17th

Heidfeld finished: 18th

Bev's verdict: It's nice to see old hands come back to take over where they left off. It's just like selling your old car to the man at the bottom of the street, then deciding months later you're going to buy it back at a knock-down price. Welcome back, Peter Sauber. We never did like BMW all that much anyway...