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The full 2010 provisional schedule is as follows:

March 14 – Bahrain (Sakhir)

March 28 – Australia (Melbourne)

April 4 – Malaysia (Sepang)

April 25 – Turkey (Istanbul)

May 9 – Spain (Barcelona)

May 23 – Monaco (Monte Carlo)

June 6 – Canada (Montreal)

June 27 – Europe (Valencia)

July 11 – Great Britain (Donington Park)

July 25 – Germany (Hockenheim)

August 1 – Hungary (Budapest)

August 22 – Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)

September 5 – Italy (Monza)

September 19 – China (Shanghai)

September 26 – Singapore (Singapore)

October 10 – Japan (Suzuka)

October 24 – Brazil (Interlagos)

November 7 – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina)

YAS MARINA RACE TRACK from Paul Anthony Tamin on Vimeo.

Late Thursday night FOTA issued a statement on behalf of its members (BMW-Sauber, Brawn, Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, Red Bull Racing, Renault and Toro Rosso and Toyota) that it is starting preparations to form a new series.

The statement follows:

“Since the formation of FOTA last September the teams have worked together and sought to engage the FIA and commercial rights holder, to develop and improve the sport.”

“Unprecedented worldwide financial turmoil has inevitably placed great challenges before the F1 community. FOTA is proud that it has achieved the most substantial measures to reduce costs in the history of our sport.”

“In particular the manufacturer teams have provided assistance to the independent teams, a number of which would probably not be in the sport today without the FOTA initiatives. The FOTA teams have further agreed upon a substantial voluntary cost reduction that provides a sustainable model for the future.”

“Following these efforts all the teams have confirmed to the FIA and the commercial rights holder that they are willing to commit until the end of 2012.”

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At the start of the season I was delighted to see Brawn doing so well. It was great to see a new team enter the fold and doing so well. They had broken the monotony of every qualifying or race being dominated by either Maclaren or Ferrari.

But now its even worse. At least last year tehre were 2 teams who were always at the front, but now there is only 1. Red Bull are snapping at their heels but apart from the blip that was Shanghai, they are still behind.

Can someone else please win a race?

McLaren have today been handed a suspended three-race ban as the ’lie-gate’ saga reached its conclusion today. The team’s pro-active approach in the run up to the extraordinary hearing of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris played its part in softening the blow as McLaren could have been more heavily penalised. However, the WMSC appear to have taken into account a number of mitigating circumstances after McLaren pleaded guilty on all five counts of breaching the International Sporting Code.

via BreakingNews.ie

Motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, has ruled the Brawn GP car, which has taken Briton Jenson Button to two wins this season, is legal. A panel heard eight hours of strongly worded evidence on Tuesday after complaints that Brawn, Toyota and Williams, use an illegal diffuser. And the five International Court of Appeal judges said the designs "comply with the applicable regulations".

All three teams are free to race in the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.

"The decision comes as no great surprise," said BBC Radio 5 Live Formula One commentator David Croft. "Already this season two sets of stewards, an FIA president and an FIA race director have thought that the diffuser design of Brawn, Williams and Toyota was OK.

"It’s a sensible decision for Formula One. The FIA’s court of appeal were highly unlikely, on technical grounds, to go against the decision of the stewards. Seven teams are now playing catch up and have to do something about it very, very quickly."

Brawn GP currently lead the constructors’ world championship with 25 points, with Toyota in second place on 16 points. A Toyota statement issued immediately after the ruling said: "Our team studied the wording of the new 2009 regulations in precise detail to ensure we interpreted them correctly.

"We also made full use of the consultation procedure with the FIA which was a helpful process to ensure our interpretation of the technical regulations was correct.

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Lewis Hamilton and McLaren have been disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix after stewards decided that Hamilton had deliberately misled them when providing evidence about an incident that saw him passed by Jarno Trulli during a safety car period.

The Italian was handed a 25-second penalty following the incident on lap 57 at Melbourne, which relegated him from third to 12th in the final classification and saw Hamilton promoted from fourth to third.

But both drivers were called before the stewards in Sepang today to address new evidence on the incident.

Following the hearing, the stewards decided to reinstate Trulli’s third place and to sanction Hamilton and McLaren by excluding them from the race classification.

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Thank you jesus for the new F1 season. I watched the qualifying and the race last weekend and it was one of the more entertaining Grand Prix weekends I have watched in a long time. Even the qualifying was great. Non-stop changing of P1 right up until the last seconds. And even though I did confess to not being able to stand Jenson Button, I did find myself secretly routing for the new Brawn GP team.

What a start for the new team, although it should really be “new” in quotations. Honda have been working on that car since last season, when they gave up hope on the 2008 car and dived into developing the 2009 car – and didnt it pay off. Well remains to be seen if the diffuser used by Brawn, Williams and Toyota will stand up to the scrutiny of an appeal. I hope it does. It looks like a bit of a tantrum from the teams that complained about it, throwing their toys out of the pram etc.

I dont think it will be long before the rest of the teams catch up. And Lewis Hamilton showed what a talented driver he really is by claiming a third spot (but no podium though – ha ha) when starting from practically the back of the grid in a less than perfect (ie shite) car. Of course the crashes, retirements, 2 safety car periods and a 25 second penalty for Jarno Trulli did work in his favour.

Next race is Malayasia this weekend, another early race, or very late if you stay up to watch it. I dont, thank god for sky+

It's fairly clear from comments on BBC Sports Director Roger Mosey's latest blog entry that Formula One won't be available in high definition, despite the BBC taking over the rights to show it from ITV this season.

It's worth noting that many F1 races aren't currently shot in high definition (it's been a long enough time coming to get them in 16:9 widescreen format) and therefore the BBC has little control over them. Singapore's night race was the first.

Many suggest that it's an issue with Bernie Ecclestone and the way that Formula One is currently run. Whatever the reasons, F1 won't be available on the BBC HD channel in native HD at least this season.

via HDTV UK.

Honda have announced that they are pulling out of Formula 1. they have spent €500 million on the sort in the last season and in the current global economic climate, they felt that this was too much. They have said that they will wait until the end of the year to find a buyer, before closing down the team. If the team does indeed shut down, there will be only 18 cars on the grid next year, with also the possibility that more teams will follow suit.

Max Moselly will be using this as an example to try and bring down costs for Forumla 1 teams. He is trying to bring in a standard engine and gear box for all teams. While this would reduce costs, it would leave F1 only a slight step above the A1GP series, which uses the same car, engine and chasis for all teams.