Difference between revisions of "2010 Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series season"

Latest revision as of 11:35, 22 February 2020

The 2010 F1RWRS season was the inaugural season of the F1RWRS. It consisted of 9 races, starting with the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring and ending with the Australian Grand Prix at Eastern Creek Raceway. The Drivers' Champion was Gary Cameron, driving for Team Calinetic, despite not winning a race all year. Prospec won the Constructors' Championship.

The points system was 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 for the top 10 finishers.

Season Review

The first season of the F1RWRS was met with great anticipation from everyone involved. Though the FIA had predicted that the Zimmers' breakaway series would fall apart, the series was already gaining international coverage, especially in Australia. Tickets for the first round in Germany were already sold out as crowds flocked to see the big names that had already moved into the series. But in terms of judging overall competitiveness, most of the racing world was completely in the dark. The two big draws, four-time champion Daniel Melrose and British veteran Sammy Jones were mentioned often in the media while others looked at the series' founder and ex-Brawn driver Frank Zimmer, Ferrari driver Phoenix McAllister and ex-Toro Rosso driver Thomas De Bock as possible championship aspirants. The F1RWRS descended on the Hockenheimring on the 21st of April in preparation for the inaugural round of the series.

The German Grand Prix was a hotly contested affair. The entire field was separated by just two seconds in qualifying, a trend that would continue throughout the season. Dave Simpson took the first pole in series history but Ashley Watkinson came across the line first to win for CR Motorsport. Because of the odd points system which rewarded consistency over outright speed, Watkinson was unable to build much of lead. Simon Redman joined the Kahama team for the Luxembourg GP at the Nürburgring to bring the grid up to a full contingent of 19 cars. Dave Simpson continued his good form by winning the race by just 1.88 seconds over Luca Pacchiarini. The final German race on the calendar, the Saxon Grand Prix was won by American Dan BH. His win would be the first and only win by an American driver in the entire history of the series. With six rounds to go, Gary Cameron took the championship lead for Calinetic, ahead of the likes of Watkinson, Jones and Zimmer. The series then moved across the world to China where Dave Simpson became the first driver to win two races in the series but a third placed finish from Zimmer put him in the championship the lead.

The first of two rounds in Australia took place at Adelaide but the four Australian drivers in the field were denied victory by Hungarian David Koczo in the Prospec. The championship tussle got ever hotter in Bahrain where Koczo took his second consecutive victory, becoming the first driver in F1RWRS history to take two wins on the trot. Cameron regained the lead by one points over Koczo, BH and Frank Zimmer. The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa gave Simpson his third victory of the season but his inconsistency left him only in fifth in the standings.

Nine drivers entered the next round in Great Britain with a mathematical chance at the title. The winner, Nathanael Spencer, kept himself in the title hunt with Koczo and Cameron as the other drivers still in the running. Cameron had a nine point lead in the championship going into the final round at Eastern Creek by finishing in second, despite not winning a race all season. Spencer's first career victory also left Prospec in a commanding position in the Constructors' Championship. It was also the first race of Former F1 legend Chris Dagnall, filling in for Daniel Melrose in JLD when the Australian decided to focus solely on Formula One for the second half of 2010 before moving to the F1RWRS permanently in 2011. Dagnall took pole for the event at Eastern Creek but in the end, it was Frank Zimmer who emerged victorious in front of his compatriots. This was inconsequential to Cameron, however, who won the first ever F1RWRS Drivers' Title by finishing in tenth. Dan BH took second place in the race, bringing him to third in the championship behind Frank Zimmer.

Despite many doubting the viability of the series, the first season of the F1RWRS proved to be an enormous success and helped launch the careers of several drivers including Cameron, Koczo and Spencer. At the end of the year, the F1RWRS Commission decided to change the points system for 2011 and beyond, which shifted the balance back to race wins over the sort of consistency which gave Cameron the title.

Drivers and teams

Team	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Tyre	#	Race Drivers	Rounds
West Cliff Racing	West Cliff	WC001	Chevrolet V8		2	Douglas Mann	All
					3	Sammy Jones	All
Rosenforth Engineering	Rosenforth	RF10	Jaguar AJ-V8		4	Thomas De Bock	All
					5	Frank Zimmer	All
KQ Motor Sports	KQ	K-2010	Hyundai Theta III/H		6	Adam Lewis	All
					7	Hagane Shizuka	All
Team Calinetic	Calinetic	CAL1	Ford Boss 302 V8		8	Phoenix McAllister	All
					9	Gary Cameron	All
Kahama Motor Sport	Kahama	KT-1	Ford EDA		10	Simon Redman 1	2-9
					11	Kay Lon	All
JLD Motorsport	JLD	JLD 01	Porsche 366 Flat-6		12	Daniel Melrose 2	1-6
					Chris Dagnall 2	8-9
					13	Dave Simpson	All
Prospec	Prospec	PRS 261	Prospec PT-2010 V8		14	Nathanael Spencer	All
					15	David Koczo	All
Club Bangelia Racing	Bangelia	BH10	Alfa Romeo V6 Turbo		16	Dan BH	All
					17	James Davies	All
CR Motorsport	CR	CR F210	Ford EDA		18	Ashley Watkinson	All
					19	Darren Older Jr	All
Pacchia-Coswojuddhartlambo	Pacchia	LP-01	Coswojuddhartlambo V.1		20	Luca Pacchiarini	All

• 1 Kahama only entered one car for the first race before hiring Redman as their second driver
• 2 Melrose was declared unfit to race at Spa Francorchamps due to dental surgery. He was then replaced by former F1 World Champion Dagnall for the final 2 races when Melrose later decided to focus solely on winning a fifth F1 World Championship instead.

Calendar

Testing

#	Date	Venue	Teams Present	Fastest Driver	Fastest Team	Fastest Time	Main Article
1	13-14 February	Donington Park	All	Nathanael Spencer	Prospec	1:10.17	2010 RWRS Pre-Season Test 1
2	6-7 March	Circuit Park Zandvoort	All	David Koczo	Prospec	1:14.33	2010 RWRS Pre-Season Test 2
3	20-21 March	Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit	All	Frank Zimmer	Rosenforth Engineering	1:08.22	2010 RWRS Pre-Season Test 3

Races

Race	Track	Date	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning constructor
German Grand Prix	Hockenheimring	25 April	Dave Simpson	Phoenix McAllister	Ashley Watkinson	CR-Ford
Luxembourg Grand Prix	Nurburgring	2 May	Frank Zimmer	Frank Zimmer	Dave Simpson	JLD-Porsche
Saxon Grand Prix	Motorsport Arena Oschersleben	23 May	Frank Zimmer	Nathanael Spencer	Dan BH	Bangelia-Alfa Romeo
Chinese Grand Prix	Shanghai International Circuit	6 June	Nathanael Spencer	Gary Cameron	Dave Simpson	JLD-Porsche
Tasman Grand Prix	Adelaide Street Circuit	20 June	Gary Cameron	Gary Cameron	David Koczo	Prospec
Bahrain Grand Prix	Bahrain International Circuit	4 July	David Koczo	Daniel Melrose	David Koczo	Prospec
Belgian Grand Prix	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps	18 July	Luca Pacchiarini	Kay Lon	Dave Simpson	JLD-Porsche
British Grand Prix	Silverstone Circuit	8 August	Frank Zimmer	Nathanael Spencer	Nathanael Spencer	Prospec
Australian Grand Prix	Eastern Creek Raceway	22 August	Chris Dagnall	Nathanael Spencer	Frank Zimmer	Rosenforth-Jaguar

Points system

For the 2010 season, championship points were awarded for finishing positions down to 10th place, in a uniform manner with each place lower receiving one point less. Both drivers' scores for each team contributed to the team's overall total.

Drivers' Standings

Pos Driver GER LUX SAX CHN TAS BHR BEL GBR AUS Points 1 Gary Cameron 4 3 5 15 4 3 4 2 10 53 2 Frank Zimmer 15 4 2 3 3 8 10 6 1 51 3 Dan BH 10 12 1 2 2 5 9 7 2 50 4 Nathanael Spencer 6 15 4 5 5 11 3 1 5 48 5 David Koczo 2 18 6 10 1 1 11 3 7 47 6 Luca Pacchiarini 9 2 9 11 4 2 2 4 6 43 7 Dave Simpson 14 1 11 1 8 16 1 15 13 33 8 James Davies 7 14 19 4 13 12 7 5 3 29 9 Ashley Watkinson 1 5 10 6 10 10 13 8 12 27 10 Sammy Jones 3 11 3 13 6 9 Ret 18 14 23 11 Phoenix McAllister 8 16 8 8 7 15 Ret 11 4 20 12 Adam Lewis 16 6 15 16 9 17 6 10 9 15 13 Simon Redman 17 7 7 12 14 5 12 16 14 14 Kay Lon 17 9 16 14 15 7 12 13 8 9 15 Douglas Mann 13 10 13 12 17 4 14 19 11 8 Hagane Shizuka 5 19 14 18 11 19 15 9 18 8 17 Daniel Melrose 11 13 12 9 16 6 INJ 7 18 Darren Older Jr 12 8 17 19 18 18 8 16 15 6 19 Thomas De Bock 18 7 18 17 19 13 16 17 19 4 20 Chris Dagnall 14 17 0

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Orange Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) Pale Blue Withdrawn (WD) Blank Did Not Enter (No text) Excluded (EX) Did not Start (DNS) Did not Arrive (DNA) Event cancelled (C) Injured (INJ) Bold denotes pole position Italics denote fastest lap † Classification despite retirement ‡ Race not run to scheduled distance

Constructors' Standings

Pos	Constructor	#	GER	LUX	SAX	CHN	TAS	BHR	BEL	GBR	AUS	Points
1	Prospec	14	6	15	4	5	5	11	3	1	5	95
		15	2	18	6	10	1	1	11	3	7
2	Bangelia	16	10	12	1	2	2	5	9	7	2	79
		17	7	14	19	4	13	12	7	5	3
3	Calinetic	8	8	16	8	8	7	15	Ret	11	4	75
		9	4	3	5	15	4	3	4	2	10
4	Rosenforth	4	18	7	18	17	19	13	16	17	19	55
		5	15	4	2	3	3	8	10	6	1
5	Pacchia	20	9	2	9	11	4	2	2	4	6	43
6	JLD	12	11	13	12	9	16	6	INJ	14	17	40
		13	14	1	11	1	8	16	1	15	13
7	CR	18	1	5	10	6	10	10	13	8	12	33
		19	12	8	17	19	18	18	8	16	15
8	West Cliff	2	13	10	13	12	17	4	14	19	11	31
		3	3	11	3	13	6	9	Ret	18	14
9	KQ	6	16	6	15	16	9	17	6	10	9	23
		7	5	19	14	18	11	19	15	9	18
	Kahama	10		17	7	7	12	14	5	12	16	23
		11	17	9	16	14	15	7	12	13	8

Harvey Jones Memorial Trophy

Pos	Tyre Manufacturer	GER	LUX	SAX	CHN	TAS	BHR	BEL	GBR	AUS	Points
1		1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	90