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

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

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.