After finishing the decade with one of the worst cars they’ve ever produced, this year is all about Ferrari restoring a bit of man-pride at the front of the F1 field. And judging by their pre-season form, they might just be in good enough shape to do it.

The F10 (the team’s latest charger) started off testing with a bang, being both quick and incredibly reliable straight out the gates, with Massa managing a massive 160 laps in a Jerez test. Whilst no-one can be quite sure about where they stand as teams try to work out how best to test their new cars’ giant fuel tanks, the danger of repeating last season’s pointless first three races (their worst ever start to a season, in almost 60 years of racing) looks to be firmly out the door. In fact, the reasons the F9 failed so badly will be the reason the F10 will thrive.

Ferrari were massively undone by the huge regulation changes to the cars that hit last season, largely because they had a championship to fight for in 2008. Whilst they carried car developments on in a fight ultimately lost on the last corner of the season, the likes of Red Bull and Honda put much more attention into getting the very best out of their newer challengers.

Since those two teams were then locked in a fight until the end of last year, and Ferrari stopped developments as soon as they’d claimed a race win, the initiative should really be with Ferrari. Couple this with another set of car-changing regulations (the massive fuel tanks, leading to heavier cars and harder tyre wear), and it won’t simply be a case of the team at the front just adding small new bits to their already fast cars – unlike in the Schumacher era when evolution rather than revolution brought a host of titles to Maranello.

However, the Adrian Newey designed Red Bull looks to have picked up where last years car left off – right on the pace. And with Mclaren and Mercedes all predicting big things, the big points will be harder than ever before to win. Word on the street is that even if Ferrari’s pace advantage has diminished, their car is the most consistent of the bunch; I expect early wins aplenty.

This is helped by their line-up looking strong, even with arguably the most competitive field ever lining up for 2010. Whilst Fernando Alonso has spent a few years in the midfield wilderness with Renault, his class can never be doubted. A pole position and 26 points from 2009 tells a different story to his teammates Nelson Piquet Jnr and Roman Grosjean, who together rarely qualified in the top 10 and never even managed to make the points. Add to that two world titles, and you’ve got yourself a cracking looking CV.

Felipe Massa will also be well in with a shout this season. After essentially having a bullet through his helmet and living to tell the tale, he’ll be praying for a car that can make up for the half-season he had to spend on the sidelines to recover. Whilst some will argue that drivers aren’t quite the same after huge accidents, Massa has had some hefty crashes in his time and has only come out of them stronger. You only need to look at the fact that Robert Kubica’s horror smash at Canada was followed the next year by a Robert Kubica win at Canada. These guys have cajones like watermelons, make no mistake.

In only his second Ferrari race Massa managed to upstage Michael Schumacher, and he’s showed himself to be completely untouchable at tracks like Bahrain and Turkey. With Schumacher out of retirement at Mercedes, beating him consistently is a must. As is one of the drivers in red getting their gloves on the Drivers Title.

Ferrari will no doubt head to Bahrain extremely confident of their chances – pre-season has seen them excel. But after having their reputation destroyed last season, they really need to find something to brag about again – a pole position and convincing one-two would fit the bill nicely.

Join me and Victoria on Formula1FanCast.com’s Fantasy League Formula 1 2010. Our league is called Formula1Fancast.com and the league pin is 722. Try and beat us if you can, but be warned we’re good!

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