Formula One Features

One way and another Renault, or Lotus Renault GP to be precise, was very much in the pre-season news. There was the row over the Lotus naming rights, the ground-breaking front exit exhaust, and Robert Kubica's rallying accident.

Force India turned in a fine 2011 performance to finish sixth in the constructors' championship, just four points adrift of Lotus Renault GP.

Sauber started the year in fine style with a double points finish from rookie Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi at the opening race in Melbourne. Unfortunately, a rear wing infringement led to the disqualification of both cars and technical director James Key was left to contemplate how much that might cost them in the final analysis.

Toro Rosso finished the 2010 season ninth in the final championship classification. Matter-of-fact technical director Giorgio Ascanelli thought that was about right. If they'd been tenth, he said, they should have been shot, and if they'd been eighth it would have been a miracle.

For a team that has nine constructors' championships to its credit, ninth place and just three point-scoring finishes in 2011 - in Monte Carlo, Montreal and Spa - was not what the doctor ordered at Williams.

The 2011 season was not Team Lotus's first season, but in many ways it might have been. The team had a new, young design team and it had a change of engine/gearbox.

After its hand-to-mouth opening season, HRT continued in similar vein although there was the luxury of a gearbox/hydraulics deal with Williams that addressed a number of reliability issues that had plagued 2010.

Statistically, Marussia Virgin Racing finished below HRT in the final championship classification, but in reality, although hamstrung by a disappointing lack of performance from the MVR02 on track, the team made strides operationally.

Fernando Alonso had a much stronger race than qualifying session in Malaysia but a DRS wing failure and a coming-together with Lewis Hamilton meant four stops and just sixth place. Nevertheless, he left Sepang happier.

Ferrari had a difficult qualifying session in Malaysia but a stronger race that was ultimately handicapped by a left-front wheel problem at Felipe Massa's first stop and a failure of Fernando Alonso's DRS rear wing.

McLaren pushed Red Bull hard for pole position in Malaysia and then Jenson Button kept Sebastian Vettel honest in the race. Team principal Martin Whitmarsh is not daunted by five Red Bull wins in the last six races and hopes to carry the fight to Christian Horner's squad in China.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner gave his thoughts on his team's victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix and a race which saw the RB7s use KERS selectively on race winner Vettel's car, and not at all on Mark Webber's.

Sauber rookie Sergio Perez, who finished seventh on his GP debut and did an amazing one-stop race, was unfortunate to have his result annulled as a result of Sauber's rear wing infringement. Tony Dodgins spoke to Technical director James Key about Melbourne in the immediate aftermath of the race.

Kamui Kobayashi was responsible for some of 2010's more memorable moments in his first full year with Sauber. Now he heads into the new season as the man Sauber will be looking to for direction given that new Mexican team mate Sergio Perez is in his rookie year

In 2010, Red Bull Racing overcame Establishment goliaths Ferrari and McLaren. Jaguar Racing had a vision and got nowhere near it. Red Bull pulled it off spectacularly. The great irony is that Jaguar stood more chance of poaching Adrian Newey than Dietrich Mateschitz.

McLaren's MP4-25 will best remembered for its pioneering F-duct but it was an interesting car all around.

Ferrari started well in 2010, lost its way a little and then finished strongly. Post British GP, nearly 50 points adrift, many thought it was merely bravado when Fernando Alonso said he was still aiming to win the championship. In the end he only missed out as a result of the strategic error in Abu Dhabi.

You could see the attraction of Brawn to Mercedes. Despite being a large stakeholder in McLaren they didn't control the team and never would, whereas here was a chance to do just that, and with a championship winning car and team with Ross Brawn at the helm.

Renault's performance was one of the unexpected highs of 2010. Yes, they finished fifth, and yes the core of the team had taken Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso to world titles, but at the end of '09 the whole team was shrouded in uncertainty.

The 2010 season saw Williams back into the constructors championship top half for the first time in three years - eighth in 2008, seventh in 2009 and sixth this time was indicative of forward progress even if the team is not the force it was in its halcyon days of the '80s and '90s.

Force India was happy with its 09-10 winter and progressed during a season that saw several innovations, but technical chief Dominic Harlow admits that resource was needed to optimise all of those.

Going into 2010 Sauber's position looked precarious. There was the BMW withdrawal, the buy-back by Peter Sauber, the 11th hour entry debacle and promising testing times that looked increasingly like sponsorship runs when the C29's performance was revealed in the first few races.

For the first time Toro Rosso had to build its own chassis. Giorgio Ascanelli explains that when you haven't got huge resources you have to lay down the chassis patterns relatively early, and at the time the team did that in 2009 the wind tunnel wasn't working and they didn't know how to use CFD properly.

Lotus Racing's first season, and its 'best of the new teams' achievement has probably got lost in the row over the rights to the name. Although, like HRT and Virgin, they failed to score a point, it was a more than decent effort from a standing start.