We are slightly over a month away from the Bahrain Grand Prix that will mark the start of the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship. Teams are now busy launching their 2010 contenders and have started to test out their cars in test sessions held in Valencia. Teams will also test in Silverstone as well as in Jerez before the Bahrain event at the Sakhir race track on March 14th.

During the sessions held in Valencia, Ferrari has been posting fastest lap times with Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. However its very hard to derive conclusions from these test sessions as cars will be running on different setups to test different aspects of the car. Michael Schumacher who makes a sensational come back with the Mercedes GP Petronas team also took part in some test sessions and proved that he is still quick, but then again we will have to check out the opening race first.

Teams that have launched their 2010 cars include Mercedes GP, Ferrari, McLaren, Sauber, Renault, Toro Rosso as well as Virgin Racing. All race seats have been filled except for two, for USF1 and Campos. Speaking about USF1 and Campos, Formula 1 boss Bernie Eclestone has revealed to the media that he is not confident about their entries and has announced that he is supporting Stefan GP to come in, should any of the teams fail to be present on the grid in the Middle East.

For those of you who are unaware of the latest news, Stefan GP is a Serbian team owned by Zoran Stefanovic and has revealed that it is ready to take over an empty slot within the grid should a team drop out. The team has even purchased various components from Toyota’s Formula 1 team which has decided to leave the sport in 2009.

Furthermore, according to some reports the team has already shipped a 12 meter-long container to Sakhir incase it can race. The team also said that if it doesn’t make the entry, it will continue to test out its F1 car. Former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher has also confirmed that he has engaged his services as a driver with the team.

Ralf who is brother to Michael Schumacher expressed his interest with the team and would love to make a comeback after leaving Toyota in 2007. So whether a team drops out and Stefan GP comes in remains to be unseen.

We will bring you the latest updates from the sport, meanwhile you can continue reading to view the latest confirmed driver line-up.
Mercedes GP (confirmed)
Michael Schumacher
Nico Rosberg

Red Bull (confirmed)
Sebastian Vettel
Mark Webber

McLaren (confirmed)
Lewis Hamilton
Jenson Button

Ferrari (confirmed)
Felipe Massa
Fernando Alonso

Williams (confirmed)
Rubens Barrichello
Nico Hulkenberg

Force India (confirmed)
Adrian Sutil
Vitantonio Liuzzi

Renault (confirmed)
Robert Kubica
Vitaly Petrov

Toro Rosso (confirmed)
Sebastien Buemi
Jaime Alguersuari

Sauber (confirmed)
Kamui Kobayashi
Pedro de la Rosa

NEW TEAMS

Virgin Racing (confirmed)
Timo Glock
Lucas di Grassi

Lotus F1 (confirmed)
Jarno Trulli
Heikki Kovalainen

Campos
Brunno Senna (confirmed)
EMPTY

USF1
Jose Maria Lopez (confirmed)
EMPTY

source : icars.sg