With Karun Chandhok confirmed at HRT last Thursday, the Formula 1 grid is complete for 2010 – and with all of a week to spare.

There has been talk of how international the sport is this year: HRT is the first Spanish team, Chandhok is only the second Indian driver.

But how international is it, really? I thought I’d find out. Using the mighty Google Maps, I’ve mapped drivers, teams and circuits. Look (bigger version here):

Little men indicate a driver’s place of birth. Teams are in yellow – spanners for factories, houses for nationality, where different. Grand Prix circuits are marked by the red symbols.

A few observations. Most obviously, there’s a huge US F1 shaped hole over the USA. South America is unfortunate too: the four drivers were all born in Sao Paulo, which is also the location of the Brazilian Grand Prix. There’s not a bad smattering of map activity across Asia, but Africa is distinctly unrepresented.

Moving into Europe, France is a pretty vacant area, with no race or drivers, and only the nationality of the Renault team representing it at all. Six drivers from Germany is pretty impressive; Timo Glock and Sebastian Vettel weren’t born far from each other, were they? Britain is still the home of motorsport though, with eight teams based in the UK.

Virgin Racing is one of them, but the exact location is debatable: the team is currently based at Wirth Research in Bicester, which is where I’ve put the team, but is due to move to Manor Motorsport in Sheffield. Spain’s HRT is equally uncertain: I’ve marked the Campos base in Alzira, but there are plans to build a base in Murcia.

So the map isn’t perfect, but it is indicative. For the moment, at least. If last season is anything to go by, we’re likely to see at least a driver change or two; and with the financial state of some teams, we could even see changes there.

But this is Formula 1 2010 as of now, with the Bahrain Grand Prix mere days away. Exciting, isn’t it?

The 2010 Formula 1 season has almost taken shape, with the FIA publishing another entry list, the only unknown now being the second HRT F1 Team driver.

Yes, HRT F1 Team, short for Hispania Racing F1 Team. Or, as many have already pointed out, Hormone Replacement Therapy. It is, of course, what was Campos, and Jose Ramon Carabante wanted to name it after one of his other companies. But why not, then, just Hispania? Much less stupid.

But it’s not my favourite thing on the entry list. No, that’s the constructor BMW Sauber Ferrari. How, exactly, is that satisfactory for any of the three parties involved – BMW, Sauber, or Ferrari? Campos managed to be renamed with much less notice, so why is the BMW name still there? Madness.

The other entry list news is that US F1 definitely isn’t racing this year – hardly news, I know – and that there will not be a replacement team. In other words, Stefan GP won’t be racing either.

No, instead there will be another selection process for a new team in 2011. The FIA is getting better at selecting teams: only Virgin Racing really made it out of the first three, but Lotus was clearly a good choice second time round. And of course this new selection process gives Prodrive a chance to fail to get into Formula 1 for a fourth time in recent years.

I was sorting through some old VHS tapes at the weekend, and in the process ended up watching the ITV1 qualifying show for the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix in the early hours of Sunday morning. Rock, and indeed, roll.

The news segment before the qualifying session was fascinating. The big story was the FIA Contract Recognition Board deciding that Jenson Button had to stay at BAR for 2005, rather than move to Williams. BAR boss David Richards was confident that it would actually improve their relationship, and suggested that straightforward relationships rarely achieve extraordinary things. I suppose he was right, ultimately: had Button moved to Williams, he’d not have been world champion.

Also on the news agenda was the British Grand Prix, which was, as always, at risk. There was Bernie Ecclestone complaining about Silverstone, as he does, but also about the ban on tobacco advertising – which seems like an outrageous thing to complain about now. It was only five and a half years ago, but how quickly we take things for granted.

It was Jaguar’s last weekend, and there was scant optimism of a buyer being found. Little did they know, they needn’t have looked further than the Red Bull logo on the nose of the car. But with far larger Red Bull branding on the Sauber cars, there was no reason to look there at that point.

There was uncertainty too over the future of Jordan, which was losing a Ford engine supply with Jaguar’s exit. Minardi, too, had troubles, and wanted to run its 2004 car in 2005 to give it a chance of being less far behind.

All that led to plenty of talk of a ‘different kind’ of Formula 1 in 2005 – which seems oddly familiar, doesn’t it? Martin Brundle was “almost certain” that top teams would be running third cars – which wouldn’t have been eligible for points – in 2005. Some ideas never go away.

That didn’t happen, of course: Red Bull Racing has worked out nicely; Jordan was bought by Midland early in 2005, changing name in 2006, before becoming Spyker and finally Force India; and Minardi survived another season before being bought by Red Bull.

As for on-track action, practice had seen dogs on the circuit, and Michael Schumacher crash and catch fire. Then there was qualifying itself. This was back in the days of single lap qualifying, when a first run decided the order of the second run, which determined the grid – and was the only one broadcast. Needless to say, the current knock-out format is more entertaining, though the single lap system did allow for more analysis of each driver’s performance.

Finally, news broke at the end of the programme that qualifying would change for 2005, to a two session aggregate system, one on Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday morning. David Richards was all in favour; Mark Blundell – talking to Count von Count himself, Jim Rosenthal, both with their stupid little headsets on – was less sure. It lasted six races.

Virgin Racing is promising to really focus on the fans, and engage with us through the likes of Twitter and YouTube. The team may be having a few issues getting to grips with its first car, but otherwise I think it’s doing a rather splendid job.

Take its most recent YouTube effort – plugged on Twitter of course – featuring footage from testing in Jerez. It’s a very finely put together piece of work, and managed to make me chuckle rather than cringe. Virgin Racing has judged the tone of its fan-facing stuff just right, for my money. Suffice it to say, I like the cut of their jib. Which I’m sure is the intention.

You have to love the internet though. The first comment I saw was from ‘Frintenzza’ and said, quite simply:

“The car is a shit, but the video is great.”

That also made me chuckle. But you do have to love the internet because, mere minutes later, that comment has become hidden by default, thanks purely to user feedback. The system works!

With plenty of talent floating around, there was hope early in the winter that some of the new and vacated seats in Formula 1 might be taken up by Brits. It’s not really turned out that way, has it?

Some time ago James Allen gave a bit of a shout to Anthony Davidson, Paul di Resta, Gary Paffett and Jamie Green. A couple of them did rather nicely in the rookie test late last year.

The closest to getting on the grid was di Resta, who is Force India’s new reserve driver, tipped to step up to a race seat next year. Davidson will be back commentating on BBC Radio 5 Live, and is rumoured to be looking at DTM. The other three are confirmed DTM drivers.

Mind you, there are still two seats up for grabs. On paper they are at Campos and US F1, but the state of those teams is hotly debated. It looks like Campos will morph into either Serbain mystery machine Stefan GP, or something to do with A1GP’s Tony Teixeira.

There’s a degree of optimism to be had if Teixeira gets involved, in that he could put Adam Carroll, who took Team Ireland to the A1GP title, in the empty car. I’m not sure if Carroll considers himself British, Irish or Northern Irish, but in any case, it would be superb to have him in Formula 1.

Otherwise, it seems entirely plausible that a driver would need to bring money to the teams with vacancies. Vitaly Petrov is due to be in one of the Renault cars backed by Russian money, but that might not be as forthcoming as hoped.

Maybe that creates an opportunity for a British driver, but if a Russian driver can’t find backing in his home country, what hope does a Brit have?

And of course there are plenty of other names who haven’t managed to secure a race seat: Nick Heidfeld, Giancarlo Fisichella, Takuma Sato, Jacques Villeneuve – and so on.

There are more cars on the grid, but it seems harder than ever for drivers to get to – and stay in – Formula 1.

Formula 1 testing is well under way, two days having been completed in Valencia. There’s massive interest, which has led to a battle to produce the best live text coverage – because there’s no footage or live timing available – between the BBC, autosport.com, and James Allen’s new Twitter aggregation website.

Usually the BBC live text is unbeatable, but it was Andrew Benson on duty today, and he’s just not as good as last season’s regular Caroline Cheese; autosport.com’s effort was probably better. Twitter is definitely the place to follow the action, but I’d rather use it as it is, so James Allen’s service is a little redundant, if neat.

His assessments of the two days of testing thus far are very helpful, however. The summary, of course, is that we don’t really know who’s genuinely fast at this point. If Friday practice sessions tell us little, then pre-season testing tells us even less.

So, before we get bogged down by too many reliable facts, I thought I’d put my money where my fingers are on the drivers’ championship.

First, and most vaguely, my gut feeling is that Lewis Hamilton will take it. It just feels like it should be his. There’s nothing more to it than that.

I really want it to be Felipe Massa though. My money was on him in 2008, and I maintain that he’s good enough to do it. To beat Fernando Alonso, even. He’s been top on the first two days of testing, but I take nothing from that. It would be a fantastic story if it happens though, after the horrendous accident last year. It would be great.

Logic however, at this stage, points me towards Sebastian Vettel. There’s the driver: he was absolutely on form at the end of last season, winning two of the final three races. There’s the car: the 2010 cars we’ve seen so far have all owed something to the 2009 Red Bull Racing, so Red Bull Racing should be most advanced along those lines. And there’s the engine: people are saying that the Renault unit is rather fuel efficient, which will be important with the refuelling ban.

Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher are the favourites at the moment though. I have no interest in either one of them taking the title. Please don’t let it be.

It’s a funny old time for A1GP. The series sort of horribly fell apart, just before the first race of what should have been the current season. Now more rounds have been cancelled, it would be surprising if any of this season takes place, and the website is down.

But A1GP boss Tony Teixeira seems to think that things are just dandy, and is one of the parties talking to new Formula 1 team Campos Meta about potentially stepping in as an investor. He told Reuters:

“It’s all for A1. My ambition is to bring A1 into F1.”

Which is what he’s been saying for at least a year or so. But as it stands, there is no A1 to bring into F1. Would it not perhaps be wise to fix that first? One thing at a time, surely.

The BBC’s Andrew Benson points out that Formula 1 teams are becoming increasingly nation-specific: from the obvious Force India and USF1 (though now with Argentinian backing), and the the Malaysian-owned Lotus team, to the less intentionally British McLaren and German Mercedes teams.

So we could have the curious situation of an A1GP team in the minority as a non-national team in Formula 1, when A1GP itself is all about national teams. If things keep going in the direction they seem to be, anyway. How galling would that be for Teixeira?

Rumours are that Adam Carroll – who won the last A1GP championship for Ireland – could be lined up in the second Campos Meta seat if Teixeira buys into the team. That would be excellent. Formula Two champion Andy Soucek is reportedly another option, and fittingly he would be a Spaniard in a Spanish team. That would also be excellent. So it’s A1GP vs Formula Two, and also A1GP up against its own principles of favouring nationality.

Confusing, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, Superleague Formula has been quietly getting on with it. I was hugely sceptical about the whole concept, but now it seems like Sebastien Bourdais has been proven right: it probably is the best option for drivers outside Formula 1 in Europe.

It could of course suffer a huge A1GP-style collapse, but from the outside things look pretty great: the season is extending to 12 rounds, and the prize fund is over €5 million. Perhaps most importantly, it’s had a title sponsor – Sonangol – since last season.

Which all just proves, once again, that I know absolutely nothing.

Mercedes GP launched their 2010 car in Germany yesterday, by unveiling last year’s Brawn GP painted silver. Brilliant. The big news to come out of the event, as far as I’m concerned, is that there’s a bit less minty green than the mock up released when Petronas was signed up as the team’s title sponsor.

Inevitably, Formula 1’s proper news sites have made the most of the opportunity to hear what the team has told their drivers to say to the media. It’s too closely controlled to get anyone to say anything interesting. So what purpose does it serve? I’ve no idea.

Ferrari and McLaren are both launching their 2010 cars this week, and I fully expect them to be similarly underwhelming affairs.

What we need is for Bernie Ecclestone to get involved. He never misses an opportunity to create headlines, as proved by his trip to Ferrari and Ducati’s Wrooom ski shindig, where he proposed having short cuts on all Formula 1 tracks to generate more overtaking. It’s ludicrous, and clearly never going to happen. But does he let that get in the way of a good story? Of course not!

If he was involved in launching Red Bull Racing’s 2010 contender, for example, he’d have an actual bull’s head, painted red, mounted on the front wing. He’d claim it’s there to intimidate other drivers, and that it’s well within the regulations. That would, of course, be a massive lie, and it would be gone when the car hits the track. But it wouldn’t matter by then; it would be a surprise, it would be plastered over the news, it would get people talking, and it would be a whole lot of fun.

Pedro de la Rosa being signed up by Sauber to drive for the team in Formula 1 this year is a good thing. When he got the chance to race during his long stint as McLaren reserve driver, he performed rather well, unlike certain reserve drivers last season. So it’s an opportunity well deserved.

McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh agrees, though goes rather overboard in talking about de la Rosa on autosport.com:

“He’s been a fantastic team player for the past seven years, has contributed a huge amount to our successes in that time, and will remembered by all at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes as not only an esteemed colleague but also as a good friend.”

Someone should tell Whitmarsh that de la Rosa has only moved along the pit lane, not died.

It’s time I wrote about something that isn’t the Dakar, so what better than taking a quote about Michael Schumacher testing a GP2 car out of context? Nothing, of course. Series boss Bruno Michel said:

“The goal of the GP2 Series is to prepare young drivers for Formula One.”

So helping a seven-time Formula 1 world champion prepare for Formula 1 is… an own goal? Conceding a goal? Hand ball?! Okay, the football analogy doesn’t work.

But presumably it’s a good deal for all involved – as people less stupid than me have pointed out.