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Views from the Grandstands

March 1, 2010

| by: Kay Bell

Around the Circuits

NASCAR started its engines last month, but March brings even more motorsports

Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe in Valencia Street Circuit — Nico Rosberg with FW31 of Williams Toyota -- on Aug. 22, 2009, in Valencia, Spain.

The green flag dropped on NASCAR’s 2009 season at Daytona last month, but March is when most of the big racing series fire up. Let’s take a quick spin round the tracks and see what’s what.

FORMULA 1

F1 has featured 20-car grids the last several seasons, but as many as 26 are scheduled to line up in Bahrain on March 14 to start a 19-race slate. Even more noteworthy is the shakeup in the grid’s makeup.

Toyota and BMW are gone, leaving Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes-Benz as the only three factory teams — and Mercedes pulled out of its longtime partnership with McLaren, bought the 2009 title-winning Brawn GP team and will race as Mercedes GP. The old McLaren-Mercedes team will still race as McLaren-Mercedes.

Just as mixed-up is the driver lineup. For starters, 2008 champion Kimi Raikkonen has left Ferrari and will race for Citroen in the World Rally Championships. He’s replaced by 2005 and 2007 champion Fernando Alonso, who comes over from Renault. Meanwhile, 2009 champion Jenson Button was released when Mercedes bought Brawn and now will race for McLaren-Mercedes, where he’ll team with 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton.