F1: Leading Constructors and Drivers Set To Battle for F1 Supremacy in 2011

With the F1 teams now more or less decided for the 2011 season, preparations are now fully underway to meet the start of the season, which begins on March 13th with the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Winner of the Drivers Championship in 2010 was German Sebastian Vettel, who will once again be lead driver for Red Bull, despite that team confirming that each of their drivers will be given equal chances.

He will be partnered (or rivalled) by Australian mark Webber, whose poor finishing at the end of last season cost him his first world championship crown. In the event, Webber ended up winning four Grand prix’s while Vettel won five including three of the last four, which effectively saw him home to the title.

As far as the F1 betting is concerned, Vettel has been installed as the favourite to retain his crown, but the Bookmakers have it close between Vettel at +300 and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso who is priced at +350.

Surprisingly, Webber is only given a +1400 chance, while Britain’s big two, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, who remain team mates at McLaren are +400 and +1600 respectively to win a second world title.

Button, who won the Drivers title in 2009, in fact made a good start to the season in 2010 winning two of the first four races, but he failed to win another chequered flag for the rest of the season, while Hamilton managed three wins in total.

However, the new rules in Formula 1 for the start of the forthcoming season see the scrapping of the rule which previously banned team order interfering with race, allowing teams to have a preferred driver and it is thought that of the two British McLaren driver, Hamilton is the number one pick to represent the team on podium.

Ferrari began last season in Bahrain with a one-two, Alonso winning from Massa, but like the McLaren team, Ferrari failed to remain competitive with any degree of consistency.

Alonso battled hard throughout the year, but teammate Massa had a poor year and will need to improve if he wants to hold down his privileged position.

With the first Grand Prix of 2011 set to take place in Bahrain on March 13th, F1 fans are set for another exciting season which finishes in Brazil on November 27th and both the Drivers and Constructors Championships promise to be close run three horse affairs with Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren and their respective lead drivers, Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton set to battle out of the course of 20 Grand Prixs.

Teams for 2011:

Red Bull: Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber

McLaren: Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button.

Ferrari: Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa.

Mercedes: Michael Schumacher. Nico Rosberg.

Renault: Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov.

Williams: Rubens Barrichello, Pastor Maldonado

Force India: Adrian Sutil, Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Sauber: Kamui Kobayashi, Sergio Perez.

Toro Rosso: Sebastian Buemi, Jaime Alguersuari

Lotus Reanult: Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovalainen

Virgin Cosworth: Timo Glock, Jerome d’Ambrosio

HRT Cosworth: Narain Karthikeyan, TBA.

The 2011 Grand Prix Calendar is as follows:

Mar 13 – Bahrain

Mar 27 – Australia

Apr 10 – Malaysia

Apr 17 – China

May 8 – Turkey

May 22 – Spain

May 29 – Monaco

Jun 12 – Canada

Jun 26 – Europe

Jul 10 – British

Jul 24 – German

Jul 31 – Hungary

Aug 28 – Belgium

Sep 11 – Italy

Sep 25 – Singapore

Oct 9 – Japan

Oct 16 – Korea

Oct 30 – India

Nov 13 – Abu Dhabi

Nov 27 – Brazil