Greetings Chaps:So. In less than two weeks now the 2010 F1 season opens with practice and Qualifying for the Bahrain G.P. According to sources, Bernie E. has 'allowed' Peter Sauber to put his teams Sauber/Ferrari's in the garage there as a 13th team.
Which is interesting because, so far, only eleven teams have actually tested cars.
According to more than one source, some mysterious Stephan from the Balkans has purchased some chassis and engines from Toyota and will unload said cars at Bahrain, although he will apparently have to park them on their wheel rims until he can get Bridgestone (official tyre maker for F1 ... at least until they get tired of the job
) to sell him some tyres. 
Well, if Bernie deigns to recognize said UNpersons with UNCosorth engines, I don't know what Team Stephan would look like, but at least there would then be 12 Teams in the garages and, presumably, lining up to practice and, hopefully, Qualify for the G.P. But would Sauber STILL be Team 13, hence running cars 25 & 26?
I also read somewhere that tomorrow, March 3, the 'Official List of Teams' will be published by F1. On their web page, "The Official Formula One Website," which I just looked at today, still lists USF1 (which, apparently, is even more 'virtual' than Virgin Racing's VR-1!) as well as something called ‘Campos’ which also appears to exist only as a rumor (the team is supposedly Spanish because F1 since Fernando has turned Spain into a new Italy? Really?)
They, if Campos IS their name, are said to be borrowing some chassis from Dallara and stuffing a Cosworth engines in them... somewhere... at sometime.
But word now is that they are changing their name --even before they deliver a car!? I guess this means there is a garage at Bahrain waiting for this phantom team?
Now most F1 fans are aware that Mercedes Benz’s entry is, in fact, a Honda chassis re-worked by maestro Braun.
And Renault’s entry is, mercifully, no longer a Benneton, but one wonders how long it will even remain a Renault.
I guess the Serbian Stephan’s machines if we ever see them race could fairly be called Toyotas, but not for long --and, if Bernie gets his way, not ever!
Fiat, of course, really is (like Renault) a manufacturer of motor cars on a large scale, probably even larger than Daimler Benz, but calling Ferrari a ‘manufacturer’ is rather like calling Faberge a dealer in eggs.
So the notion that people will ‘identify’ with the teams the way they supposedly ‘identify’ with what NASCAR laughingly calls Fords, Chevys, Toyotas, and Dodges, is simply ludicrous.
Indeed there will apparently be four Renault powered cars on the grid; six will have Ferrari power plants and six will have Mercedes engines.
Six will be powered by Cosworth which might most charitably be called a small engineering firm supplying a varied clientele.
It appears, in short, that we’re heading back to the origins of F1; we have a German Team, a Swiss Team, an Austrian Team, a couple of Italian Teams, an Indian Team, a Malaysian Team, A French Team and three (3!) British Teams. Oh, and as I said above, MAYBE a Spanish Team.
Naturally, then, we have two races in Spain (for the maybe one Spanish Team?) and one race (unless Bernie throws a fit and walks out again) in Britain for the three teams to contest.
We have no races in Austria; one race in Germany, no races in France (unless, of course, you count Monaco as French), but one in Malaysia for the Malaysian Team. And we have no race in Switzerland. But we have two in the whole Western Hemisphere (one in Canada & one in Brazil, naturally) whereas we have six in the Far East and three in the Middle East. Heck, even have one in Hungary. Who's next, Finland?
But one thing you may be sure of: millions of Euros, Pounds and dollars rolling steadily into the company Bernie sold F1 to and for which he manages it.
He said recently he hoped another good used car salesman would take over for him when he lays down the mantle.
Right. I’d rather F1 simply took its rightful place alongside the East India Company, the Great Tulip Bubble, Enron and the Trading Houses & Banking Firms on the Exchanges of the world in the past fifteen years.
end of rant. let the racing, finally, begin.
Jim Watt
