So perhaps that’s why Codemasters is so keen to trumpet the high definition nature of its F1 2010 game, which has just been given a September release date for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

If last year’s game is anything to go by, and it probably is, then we should get more details over many of the Grand Prix weekends before then, along with images and videos of that weekend’s track. But for now, we just have these work in progress images, which are pretty pretty.

An “extensive” and “innovative” career mode is promised, but the real improvement over F1 2009, which was rather good in itself, is going to be the EGO engine, which powered the excellent likes of Race Driver: GRID and Colin McRae: DiRT 2. The extra grunt of the big boy consoles will also bring with it an advanced damage model, fully dynamic weather and, you know, much prettiness. Expect online multiplayer too.

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?

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.

Sebastien Loeb
Remarkably, nearly didn’t win 2009 championship. Not nearly enough though.

Mikko Hirvonen
Loeb’s competition. Has to win it sometime, surely. Hates Loeb?

Kimi Raikkonen
The same as the Formula 1 one? Yes. I see.

Ken Block
An American! Fond of stunts, YouTube and energy drinks. Extreme.

Petter Solberg
Last non-Loeb champion. Has his own team now. Likeable.

Henning Solberg
Petter’s older, crazier, crashier brother. Orange car. God bless Norway.

Dani Sordo
Tarmac specialist. Can nearly driver on gravel too. About time.

Jari-Matti Latvala
Impressively unreliable, but has won a rally. Always good value.

Matthew Wilson
Advantaged by being Ford boss’s son. Disadvantaged by own ability.

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.

There’s a very significant similarity though: both have lost a top team. Due to a lack of sponsorship to replace Airwaves, GSE Racing won’t be competing in BSB; and Vaxhall pulled VX Racing out of the BTCC last year.

Glance at the 2010 BSB grid and it’s a virtually complete picture. In a relatively last minute change, Hydrex Honda has become Swan Honda, but otherwise it’s familiar teams: HM Plant Honda, Worx Crescent Suzuki, Motorpoint Yamaha, MSS Colchester Kawasaki, Relentless Suziki by TAS, Buildbase Kawasaki. Plus Michael Rutter returning with RidersMotorcycles.com Ducati, and a good smattering of other entries. All with confirmed riders.

It’s a less certain world over in the BTCC. It should all become clear on 23rd March, when the annual media day is held, this year at Brands Hatch. Until then, we have to rely on Wikipedia to keep track of the grid.

Sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed is the only one of last year’s teams to be fully formed, while Team Aon and WSR both have one driver confirmed. David Pinkney and Andrew Jordan have each gone out on their own. There are new teams: Forster Motorsport with a couple of Mat Jackson’s old BMWs; AmD with a pair of VW Golfs. Tom Boardman returns to the BTCC from the WTCC with the SEAT Leon; Bamboo Engineering have gone the other way, and taken Harry Vaulkhard with them.

So it’s by no means an empty grid at this point, but there are lots of missing pieces. Both Team Dynamics and Motorbase have been testing, running Matt Neal and Robert Collard respectively, so they seem like announcements to come. Colin Turkington has been busy for WSR too, so perhaps we’ll see him confirmed before long.

What of the other big name drivers? James Thompson is already looking busy, tackling the DTC (Danish), STCC (Scandanavian), ETCC (European Touring Car Cup), and a bit of WTCC. There could yet be a splash of BTCC on the side too.

Jason Plato is the interesting one though: he’s made a rare appearance on Twitter today, alerting us to announcements to come in the next few days. What announcements? Well, RML running the Chevrolet Cruze seems likely, given that it was announced and unannounced on Twitter earlier this month.

But there’s also Triple Eight, the team behind VX Racing, which is hoping to be back. Fabrizio Giovanardi, perhaps? Who knows. Certainly not me.

I’ve confused myself just writing this. And that’s without getting into sponsorship: Team Dynamics has a Honda tie-in, but WSR has lost RAC, and Motorbase has lost Airwaves. Again, BSB seems to have fared better, for reasons beyond me.

Roll on the first race of the season, when I can stop trying to juggle all this in my head.

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!