Patronise F1

The pre-season lappery steps up a gear this week, with the seven teams from last week arriving in Jerez for the first of two back-to-back tests and being joined by three more 2010 contenders. It's almost getting exciting now, people.

After last week's Ferrari domination in Valencia, where Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso blitzed the timesheets in their F10 to record levels of red car domination not seen since the last time Michael Schumacher was around, the big question for this week's test will be whether the team can keep their pace up. True, testing figures matter little, but even in something as chaotic as F1 testing there are the occasional trends to be spotted, and Ferrari continuing to top the times in Jerez as well would be an eye-opening trend indeed.

The Italian team will have to beat competition from the fourth and final member of F1's 'big four' if they are going to succeed in their domination efforts, as this Jerez test sees the new Red Bull RB6 make it's track debut, while Mercedes and McLaren both have teething problems to iron out with their new cars. Force India and Virgin Racing will also join the testing party in Jerez.

The dark clouds on the horizon for all the teams, though, are not just metaphorical this week. Early weather forecasts suggest that after three days of largely uninterrupted lappery last week in Valencia, this first Jerez test of the month could well be blighted by rain, particularly at the start and end of the test.

Such a scenario would be a bit kick in the soft bits for Red Bull in particular, who gambled on missing the opening test in favour of further wind tunnel testing of the RB6 hoping for 12 full days of testing across the remainder of February. But then the caffeinated lot not only skipped the opening test of last winter, but also saw a number of days washed out due to rain, and it didn't seem to hurt them too much in the season itself.

As an aside in familiarity, the Jerez track provides the setting for over half of the pre-season testing in 2010, with this four day test being followed by another identical one next week. So get used to this place, or else.

The Track

Circuito de Jerez
Location: Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
Length: 4.428 km
Turns: 13
Lap Record: 1:23.135 (Heinz-Harald Frentzen, 1997)

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Weather Forecast

Wednesday: Heavy Rain, Max Temp: 13°C
Thursday: Sunny, Max Temp: 15°C
Friday: Rain, Max Temp: 7°C
Saturday: Cloudy, Max Temp: 11°C

On Track

To suggest that "all eyes" will be on any one team or driver this week would be slightly wrong, with so much to follow that eyeryone will run the risk of going cross-eyed for good.

Red Bull will obviously be the main focus, with Mark Webber set to drive the cars on the first two days and Sebastian Vettel rounding off the final two days of the test, and this test marks the first chance to see all four of 2010's expected 'big teams' on track at the same time. Ferrari will start with Fernando Alonso for Wednesday and Thursday, before Felipe Massa takes over for the rest of the test.

Jenson Button will run the MP4-25 for McLaren's first two days of testing, with Lewis Hamilton taking over afterwards. As for Mercedes, the marque has confirmed that they certainly won't be letting new test driver Nick Heidfeld do anything silly like test the car. Their actual driver timetable for this week sees them alternating Rosberg and Schumacher in the car, conveniently ensuring that Rosberg gets to drive on the day with the wettest forecast (Wednesday), while Schumacher gets the driest day (Thursday) while still making their standing in the team appear equal.

The Red Bull team won't necessarily be worried if the RB6 struggles to beat the team's rivals straight out of the box, but much is expected of this Adrian Newey design, so don't rule out the odd quickest time from Messers Vettel and Webber.

But aside from the big teams, there will be plenty of other interesting titbits to follow throughout the four days. Virgin Racing will become the first bona-fide new startup team in well over a decade to hit the track in anger with their striking VR-01, which came through a shakedown at Silverstone last week without incident and will now look to prove that an all-computer based design process isn't the hapless shambles it was back in the Mastercard Lola era. Lead driver Timo Glock will race the car for the first two days, before Lucas di Grassi takes over.

Force India will also hit the track with their VJM03, with Tonio Liuzzi taking the first two days in the car before handing over to Adrian Sutil. After the surprise successes of late-2009 for the former backmarkers, this will be the first chance for them to go up against the sports of teams they'll be looking to fight with in 2010, with Williams, Renault and BMW Sauber all in their sights.

Confirmed Team-by-Team Driver Schedule (as it stands)

On PatroniseF1

Once again, should you want to keep up to date with all the times from every day of the Jerez test, then, um, you should probably look elsewhere. But if you want a poorly-written hasty write-up based on a timesheet and some static photos, then Patty will have one after every day of the test.

We'll also be potentially looking to give some new liveblogging kit we've set up for the 2010 season a trial run over the course of this test, with some sort of live coverage of the final day of the test on Saturday a possibility. But we'll reveal more about that as and when it happens/fails to happen.