This Time Last Year...

This is just a short post comparing the change in fortune for each of the teams and drivers over the first 4 grand prix. At the 2008 Australian GP, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton dominated by getting pole position and going on to easily win the race, with his team mate Heikki Kovalainen obtaining fastest lap, Ferrari only managed an 8th place with Kimi Raikkonen as Felippe Massa retired.

For the next 3 races, Ferrari got max points with a 1-2 in each race except for Malaysia where Massa retired. Hamilton picked up some points with 5th and 3rd places in the Malaysian and Spanish GPs respectively, although only managed to finish in 13th at the Bahrain GP. This is a big contrast to the Honda team (now Brawn GP) that only had 3 points in total after the first 4 races last year, and now have a commanding lead in the championship.

The following is a table showing the difference in the top teams of both years:

Drivers

2008 Points (4 races)

1. Raikkonen - 29 Points
2. Hamilton - 20 Points
3. Massa - 18 Points
4. Button - 3 Points
5. Barrichello - 0 Points
6. Vettel - 0 Points

2009 Points (4 races)

1. Button - 31 Points
2. Barrichello - 19 Points
3. Vettel - 18 Points
4. Hamilton - 9 Points
5. Raikkonen - 3 Points
6. Massa - 0 Points

Constructors

2008 Points (4 races)

1. Ferrari - 47 Points
2. Bmw - 35 Points
3. McLaren - 34 Points
4. Toyota - 9 Points
5. Red Bull - 8 Points
6. Honda (Brawn GP) - 3 Points

2009 Points (4 races)

1. Brawn GP - 50 Points
2. Red Bull - 27.5 Points
3. Toyota - 26.5 Points
4. McLaren - 13 Points
5. BMW - 4 Points
6. Ferrari - 3 Points

Max. Grid Size Increased to 26

The maximum number of cars allowed on the grid has increased to 26, 15 years since the last time that number of cars has been found on the grid.
The increase from 24 to 26 has been implemented by the FIA due to the recent budget cutting measures that have been put in place. It is hoped that this will encourage more teams to join the championship, which is the most expensive in the world.

It has already been speculated that both an American Team and the Prodrive team owned by David Richards and looking into getting into the sport.

The accepted list of teams and drivers will be published on the 12th June 2009 by the FIA.

Budget Increase and Introduction of Refuelling Ban

The FIA have announced an increase to their proposed team budget for 2010 from £30 million up to £40 million. Any teams that exceed this budget will have to face a penalty from the FIA although the severity of this penalty is not yet clear.

Other major changes to take place next year include the allowance of movable front and rear wings, engines without rev-limiters and the allowance of unlimited out of season testing. A ban on tyre warmers has also been proposed which will hopefully bring us some interesting driving as cars leave the pit lane in the middle of a race.

One of the most controversial changes for next year is the ban on refuelling. This means that teams will have to incorporate a tank big enough to hold a whole race worth of fuel into their designs for the 2010 season. I looks like we will have another unpredictable start to the season in 2010, and some interesting designs as the teams incorporate full race sized tanks.

McLaren - Suspended 3 Race Ban

After their meeting with the World Motor Sport Council, the McLaren team have recieved a suspended 3 race ban in return for their behaviour in the "Liar-Gate" scandal from the opening grand prix of the season at Australia.

For those of you that dont know, the "Liar-Gate" affair stems from the final safety car period of the Australian Grand Prix. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was running in 3rd place ahead of the Toyota of Jarno Trulli. Under the teams orders, Hamilton pulled to the edge of the track and began to slow down, this let Trulli gain 3rd place. The Toyota team then got a penalty for overtaking under the safety car, McLaren didn't let the FIA know of the fact they let them past, and therefore withheld information allowing another team to lose points.

Once this was found out, Hamilton was disqualified from the race and Trulli was allowed to retain his 3rd place. The "suspended" 3 race ban means that they are allowed to continue to race unless more information relating to the incident is found, or if they infringe on the rules again during the season.

Bahrain GP Review

The Bahrain GP proved to be another race full of surprises, but unlike the previous three races, there was no sign of rain in this desert nation and there is rarely a safety car due to the long run-off areas.

Qualifying brought us another pole position holder in 2009. The first session proved to us how quickly the field are improving their cars. The Torro Rosso drivers were both knocked out in the first session having scored regular points in the previous races thanks mainly to the rookie Sebastien Buemi, they were also accompanied by the usual front runner Mark Webber who was held up by the Force India of Adrian Sutil at the final corner on his flying lap, and he didnt have time to do another. Sutil later got a 3 grid place penalty for this behaviour promoting Webber to 18th.

The Second Session delivered another hammer blow as Robert Kubica, who was fighting with Vettel for second place in Australia, only achieved 13th place closely followed by team mate Nick Heidfeld, other drivers knocked out included Nelson Piquet, who is being put under pressure by the team to perform, aswell as Kazuki Nakajima for Williams alongside the under-performing McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen.

The Final Session proved unpredictable as the Brawns were not dominating as expected, the Ferraris seemed to have improved their car, managing to get 10th and 8th places, surrounding the Williams of Nico Rosberg. Hamilton made a breakthrough for McLaren getting 5th, the best qualifying place for the team so far this season. The Toyotas of Trulli and Glock locked out the front row, ahead for Vettel and the Brawn of Jenson Button. They were shown to be running light however once the pre-race weights had been released to the public.

The Race was action-packed from the very beginning, the KERS enabled car of Lewis Hamilton shot off the grid, as did that of Jenson Button, Hamilton got 3rd going into the first corner which pushed Vettel off line, allowing Jenson Button to gain 4th, and quickly 3rd after passing the McLaren. The grid quickly split into two seperate races as the back eight looked like they were driving bumper cars, instead of delicate F1 cars, this allowed Webber to gain some places after his disastrous qualifying. The two BMW also suffered aero damage from this which compromised their race.

The Toyotas looked in control until their first pit stops where they put on the harder tyres for a long middle stint, which proved significantly slower than the option tyre. This gave Button a couple of laps to make up some time and rejoin ahead of them after his stop. Glock dropped out of contention then and it was up to Vettel, Trulli and Hamilton to fight for the final podium positions. Ferrari scored their first points of the season after Raikkonen scored 3 points for 6th place, Massa had problems with his KERS system and finished in 14th. Alonso gained the finla points scoring position for 8th place.

The final points scoring drivers are as follows:

1. Jenson Button
2. Sebastian Vettel
3. Jarno Trulli
4. Lewis Hamilton
5. Rubens Barrichello
6. Kimi Raikkonen
7. Timo Glock
8. Fernando Alonso

This extends button lead to 12 points over team mate Barrichello, ahead of Vettel in third a further point behind

Chinese GP Review

The Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai proved to everyone that it was certainly not going to be a one horse race for the championship, as Brawn's initial domination atfter the first two races came to an end.

Having looked strong all weekend, the Red Bull team put their drivers in 1st and 3rd, with Vettel being the lead driver, the pair being split by a light-fuelled Fernando Alonso in his Renault. Meanwhile the Brawns only achieved 4th and 5th with Barrichello out-qualifying his teammate for the first time this season. They were closely followed by the Toyota of Jarno Trulli.

Due to heavy rain, the race began behind the safety car. The race finally began proper after eight laps and it was only a couple of laps later when Webber and Vettel pitted for their first stops of the race. This allowed Button to lead after passing his teammate on lap 11, and the early stopping Alonso. Button proved to be the only driver to really challenge the Red Bull of Mark Webber, Vettel on the otherhand drove a perfect race in the wet and looked untouchable in a race reminiscent of Micheal Schumacher. The McLarens also performed well, Hamilton having fought his way up to 5th but dropped back down the field following a spin. This was another race that Ferrari would rather forget after 2008 runner-up Felippe Massa retired with an electronic problem and 2007 Champion Kimi Raikkonen failed to break into a points scoring position finishing tenth.

The final points finishers were as follows:

1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Mark Webber
3. Jenson Button
4. Rubens Barrichello
5. Heikki Kovalainen
6. Lewis Hamilton
7. Time Glock
8. Sebastien Buemi
   

Malaysian GP Review.

Due to the way Button dominated the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne, alot of the fans expected to see another domination by the Brawn GP team. This was far from true as the other teams had managed to close the gap, even thought there was only a 1 week break between races.
The race was scheduled to take place much later in the afternoon than in previous years which would prove to have a dramatic effect on the race as it is not un-common for it to rain at that time of the day.

Q1 proved to be a shock for the Ferrari team, as they thought they had the lap time required to get them into Q2, but they were soon proved wrong as 2008 runner-up Felippe Massa was knocked out after finishing the session in 16th place. The McLaren also had a big lack of pace as they qualified in 13th and 14th with Hamilton leading the pair. Button once again achieved pole position but was now only 0.1s ahead of the Toyota of Trulli, with Vettel in third and team mate Barrichello in 4th.

There was another slow starter on the Malaysian grid, this time being the BMW of Robert Kubica who dropped to the back of field, and then went on to retire the following lap. On the otherhand the Williams of Nico Rosberg was very quick off the grid and managed to jump from 6th place to be the first driver into the first corner. Heikki Kovalainen had another first lap accident, this time having a self-inflicted spin in turn 5 and ending his race. Button was pushed down to fourth after being pushed wide by Rosberg at the first, but was able to retake 3rd by passing Alonso on the pit straight the following lap.

As the teams had predicted, it was about 20 laps into the race that the heavens opened, and the track was hit by what can only be described as monsoon type weather. This now turned into a race of correct tyre choices and weather anticipation. Ferrari got this badly wrong as they sent Raikkonen out on wet weather tyres before the rain even started, who then went on to destroy them and virtually end his race as he dropped down the pack. All of the drivers put the wqet weather tyres on once the rain started except for the Toyota of Timo Glock who put on intermediates and then proceeded to scythe his way through the pack. This got the Brawn team worried who also decided to put intermediates on, but soon the rain got too heavy and had to put wets on again.

Due to the many of the cars constantly spinning and going off track, many of the drivers called for a red flag which was approved by race director Charlie Whiting on lap 31, this brought an end to the race due to time and light restraints.

The following drivers scored half points due to the fact that less than 75% of the race distance was completed:

1. Jenson Button
2. Nick Heidfeld
3. Timo Glock
4. Jarno Trulli
5. Rubens Barrichello
6. Mark Webber
7. Lewis Hamilton
8. Nico Rosberg
   

Australian GP Review.

The first race of the season is the first time the teams are able to really size each other up as each of the teams may not be driving to their full potential during pre-season testing.

Australia proved to us that the Brawn GP team was really a force to be reckoned with, having only been in existence for a couple of weeks prior to the maiden race of the season due to the liquidation of the Honda Racing team, they wowed onlookers in testing with fastest times in almost every session.

The main title contenders from 2008 however had a more difficult time getting to grips with things. I believe this is because they were busy trying to win the 2008 championships as opposed to developing their car for 2009 which many of the mid-field and back-marker teams had the time to do as they didnt need to worry about any championship battles.
With their impressive pace, the Brawns put both their cars on the front row of the grid, Sebastian Vettel and a surprisingly quick Robert Kubica were the closest to them, although they were a full 0.6 seconds off the pace of Jenson Button.

The start of the race proved an easy getaway for Button, which is more than can be said for his team mate, Rubens Barrichello suffered an apparent clutch problem at his initial getaway and fell far down the grid. He then managed to out-brake himself into turn 1 and hit the Red Bull of Mark Webber, who then continued into the side of Heikki Kovalainen along with other collisions further down the pack.

Button continued to pull away from the field without much difficulty, with Vettel having a secure second position, the rest of the field was left to fight it out for the remaining points positions. The crash of Kazuki Nakajima saw the field close back up again, and Nelson Piquet Jr. careered off the track after the restart having suffered a break failure. Lewis Hamilton proved impressive in an under-performing car and managed to climb into the points. A second safety car was required only a couple of laps from the end when the cars of Vettel and Kubica, in 2nd and 3rd places respectively, collided at turn 3, and then went on to hit the wall on the exit of turn 5. Vettel tried to continue the race and get points with his severely damaged car, but this earned him a fine for contravening the rules.

Controversy then followed after the race as the McLaren team allowed Trulli to pass for 3rd place while under the safety car, and claimed they were overtaken unfairly, they have now been requested to appear in front of the FIA to attempt to defend their actions. Hamilton was then disqualified and Trulli was allowed to claim his 3rd place.

The final points scorers were as follows:

1. Jenson Button
2. Rubens Barrichello
3. Jarno Trulli
4. Timo Glock
5. Fernando Alonso
6. Nico Rosberg
7. Sebastien Buemi
8. Sebastien Bourdais

A New Order To Things?

Given the huge amount of regulation changes that have been put in place for the 2009 season, there has certainly been a re-shuffle to the pecking order on the F1 Grid.

The new regulations have given all of the teams a chance to put there creativity to the test and find innovative ways to interpret these regulations. The most notable of these creative developments so far has been the "Double" diffuser that was employed by Brawn-GP, Toyota and Williams.
This seems to have been a huge advantage as the only team that were able to keep up with them was the Newey-Designed car of Red Bull Racing. All of the other teams apart from McLaren and Force India objected to this interpretation of the regulations and promptly filed for an appeal, even though the design had already been approved by the race stewards. The appeal was refused and this led to most of the teams to beginning to invest in designing a double difuser of their own.

Welcome to my new blog!

Hello everyone and welcome to my new blog F1 Now!

I have started this blog in order to discuss everything to do with Formula 1, from the latest news and action on the track, to the politics and gossip that happens behind the scenes.

I will start with a couple of posts to recap the season so far as I have started this blog a bit late, and I will then continue to add new posts every 1-2 days