Just a few more days to go until 2010 is kicking off -  the eleven AutoGP World Championship teams are now doing some last heavy tests on the desert's circuit, preparing for the first round of the season.
With re-fuelling banned and a couple other new rules, racing in 2010 is going to change massively and we'll take a brief look and check how a couple of teams are dealing with some of the new challenges.

The 2009 World Champion Team, Twister-Racing, is surely once again the team to beat going into the new season. With Bruno Marques and Domagoj Malezic, the team provides one of the strongest AutoGP WC line-ups despite the departure of the dominating 2009 duo of Kolbe and Hirrle.
The 'TR2010' car is currently being tested and improved with loyal chief engineer and World Series driver Joakim Bengtsson once again playing a crucial role.
Apparently the team is mainly focussing on long-runs with tribute to the rule changes. Domagoj Malezic is said to be as quick as ever, whereas Bruno Marques due to technical difficulties apparently couldn't get as much track time onto the desert road. It remains to be seen on what the main favourite team is able to deliver on Bahrain, but opponent team boss Johannes Kunkel (Precision Motorsports) quotes that Twister "is looking extremely strong over a race distance" and it remains to be seen whether they actually will be come Sunday.

Talking of Kunkel and Precision Motorsports, the team has just made a late big-deal by securing the services of young talent Ronny Hähnel, who in Germany is known as THE top touring car simracer. Whilst making the switch to Formula cars is not easy, trying to be successful in FSR is definitely hard! Apparently, 17-year-old Hähnel is currently in a shoot out for Precision's second AutoGP WC outfit, battling a couple other team members. We will only see in Bahrain who will actually be in the cockpit.
The team's star driver, however, is Jaakko Mikkonen. After finishing third in the 2009 standings, the Finn is definitely looking out for the title in 2010. As expected, the finnish winter has been pretty calm and we'll only know more when Iceman has to go sweating in Bahrain.

GhostSpeed stands for victories in all sorts of tracks with all sorts of vehicles, but after a somewhat disappointing 2009 the team around Pedro Rodrigues is willing to go for the title again in 2010, with David Greco and Laurent Keersmaekers. We haven't heard many news and rumours from the Portuguese team but what we do know is that David Greco seems extremely motivated trying to win what would be his first ever title in Formula SimRacing. After a strong showing of the Italian in the Monterrey event last week, we can definitely expect a strong showing in Bahrain this Sunday.

SB Motorsports is one of the new teams in FSR's highest category but undercover is more like a Twister-B-Team with Mikko Puumalainen and Karol Poniatowski on the steering wheels. The team is managed by 2009 Champion Roy Kolbe for whom it is his first season as a team manager. Both Puumalainen and Poniatowski have made the switch from World Series to World Championship, after a dominating 2009 season with Puumalainen being crowned champion - it remains to be seen if the Finn can achieve a championship hattrick (2008 WS Pro, 2009 WS Ace, 2010 - ?). Also, Poniatowski is the only driver in the field with the somewhat outdated oldschool technique of right-foot-braking, which however might give the German a crucial tyre advantage with the new rules in place.

Torrent Motorsports has signed Blair Disley and Timon Bolier for this year. With Disley winning the Turkish GP in 2009 and generally showing a strong performance throughout the past year, the team is now hoping for their first ever WC racewin in 2010. After a somewhat disappointing 2009 season, the team is shaping up fresh for this year after getting rid of a few somewhat controversial team members, with new team manager Simon Melhuish trying to get the team back to glory. An Australian and a Dutch in the cockpit sounds like an interesting pairing but we'll only know more after Bahrain.

At Ash Racing it's all around Lee Morris and Ben Phillips. Whilst the latter is making his full season WC debut, the first has already proven to be a fast sim racer by winning the 2009 Monaco GP, but also had a few somewhat controversial moments during the rest of the year. The Brit has announced to be a different driver in 2010 - Bahrain is (hopefully) going to be the first stage. With recent strong showings, in any case, Morris is one of the drivers fighting for the title, and it remains to be seen if he can drag young team mate Phillips with him along the way.

Even more controversion is around Patrick De Wit who will once again steer Faster Than Speed's first car. Already before the first season race, The Dutchman is under final warning by the Race Director - we will see if 'Quick De Wit' can finally put his undoubtetly huge talent on the actual tarmac - and more importantly, on the race result tables. With one WC win already on his record, anything is possible - literally.

Racing Factory is the other new 2010 entry. The spanish team around team boss Josep M. Paris has been shaping up calmly but very determined for round one with Sergio Casalins and David Dominguez in the cockpits. Casalins probably being THE spanish simracer is going to lead the team into 2010, trying to drag young Dominguez along the way. Bahrain should give a first indication on what the team can do in its first year - FSR is definitely wishing some good luck!
 

Roaldo Racing, during the winter, has already announced its departure from Formula SimRacing due to financial difficulties but is now finally back in the grid, with a completely new lineup of Marco D'Acunto and Fabrizio Gobbi - both from Italy. Team Manager Roald Reurink is probably still a bit unsure himself about how his traditional team will do in 2010, and to bring the standard phrase of this article once again...we'll know more after Bahrain.
 

Last but definitely not least, DHR GP. The team around team principal Damian Dainhumain has worked extremely hard in the winter, not only on the AutoGP WC line-up, but also on its other division entries. Famous Xosé Estrada now becoming a part owner of the team, the team is now definitely looking out for some decent success after  its debut in 2009. Apparently, LFS legend Vincent Staal is (still) in talks with the team for a cockpit, which would be another fantastic addition to FSR.

So, that's it all in raw text - which is somewhat theoretical - but the talking will stop this coming Sunday evening when the lights are finally out for Formula SimRacing's first round of 2010 in Bahrain - LIVE on multibc, 18:00GMT.