The Korean Grand Prix Preview

The 5 contenders recreate the famous 1984 photo of all
the main championship rivals

With all eyes focussed on the various factors surrounding this weekend's Korean Grand Prix, it is also firmly in people's minds how critical this new event could be to decide who becomes 2010 world champion, all of these ingredients could make for a special weekend so who could come out on top and who could falter?

The major factor all weekend will be grip levels and who can deal best with the changing track conditions as the weekend progresses, the person who can do that may well take the chequered flag after 55 laps on Sunday. On Friday the track will be very, very slippery as the freshly laid tarmac deals with the stresses and strains of F1 cars for the first time, many have pointed to oils that normally absorb into the tarmac to cause the problem of low grip but also there is the factor that the track is still a building site on the outside and mud and debris will make the track dirty as well. The aggressive driving styles of Hamilton and Vettel may have to be toned down to avoid any incident that would damage their chances in the championship, however they will be on the attack and will be in the fight for the win on Sunday. Some forecasts are pointing towards rain on Sunday and if that were to be the case or even if the track was still very low on grip Jenson Button may well be the man to watch, his wins in Australia and China were inspired and he is able to control the car in the slippery conditions. Alonso and Webber are in between the two extremes but I would expect it to be close between all 5.

The track layout is not likely to give one clear team an advantage as one car will be fast in one area and another car fast in another area, very much like Turkey and we saw what happened there. The first section will be Mclaren and Ferrari territory as power and straight line speed will give them advantage on the long straights. The middle sector is a mix of slow and high speed corners which is likely to be very close between the 3 teams as they all have roughly the same downforce through those corners. It is only in the medium corners where Red Bull would have the advantage which here is the 3rd sector, so I would expect over the course of a lap the Mclaren's and Ferrari's to gain half a second in the first sector, The time to be very close in the 2nd sector and finally the Red Bull's to gain it all back in the 3rd sector.

Behind the big 3 Renault and Mercedes will continue their battle for best of the rest, with Mercedes and Schumacher having the edge as Michael is one of the greatest driver's ever at adapting to the changing conditions. Williams and Force India will be close behind, Sauber, Toro Rosso will have a private battle with Sauber ahead due to usage of their F-Duct. In the new teams finally I expect business as usual with a very small gap between Virgin and Lotus with HRT bringing up the rear as the perennial under-achievers in 2010.

That's my thought and opinions on how the 2010 Korean Grand Prix will play out, the track certainly has the characteristics to give us a great weekend, the factors surrounding the track also should provide us with action and remember those factors are similar to the Turkish and Canadian Grand Prix's and they were two of the best this year!