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4 weeks ago, Brawn GP did not exist, now they are on top of the F1 world after becoming the first team to win their debut race since Jody Scheckter won on the debut of the Wolf team in 1977, the man courtesy of bringing this historic achievement to Brawn GP was Jenson Button who drove brilliantly in a lights to flag win. Even better for Brawn was teammate Rubens Barrichello coming through to finish 2nd giving Brawn a memorable 1-2 finish. F1's established order however struggled to make an impact although McLaren's Lewis Hamilton drove a storming race from 18th on the grid to finish 4th which would later become 3rd after a 25 second penalty was handed out to the original 3rd placed finisher Jarno Trulli for overtaking during safety car conditions.
THE RACE
The Brawns were all set after locking out the front row in qualifying ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica and the fastest man in practice Nico Rosberg, as the lights went out, Button's start was perfect but Barrichello suffered an anti-stall system fault and fell down the field initially, he was then part of the now normal opening race 1st corner pileup after being shoved by McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen into the side of Mark Webber's Red Bull causing carnage involving those 2, and Nick Heidfeld all of which resulting in the retirement of Kovalainen due to a wrecked left front suspension, the big winners were the Ferrari's who took advantage of starting with the super soft compound tyres to jump up 3 places each as did Nico Rosberg who emerged from the mayhem in 3rd place, Rosberg however lost 3 places to Massa, Kubica and Raikkonen after runnign wide in turn 3, but upfront, Button and Vettel were racing well clear of the chasing pack.
Rosberg and Barrichello were now together on the track in 6th and 7th places respectively and settled to a steady pace, they got their chance to move up the field on lap 8 as Ferrari's soft tyre gamble failed miserably as their tyres began to lose grip ealier than expected, after a hurry up from Rosberg's race engineer he made the pass on Raikkonen at the beginning of lap 9, Barrichello then took advantage of a struggling Raikkonen 2 corners later losing part of his front wing in the process but the damage was only superficial. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton had managed to pick his way through the mayhem and was progressing through the field at a rate of knots, using the advantage of his KERS system, he made a clean pass on Nelson Piquet on lap 8 meaning Hamilton in that time had moved up from 18th to 9th, but he also had started on the super soft tyres.
One driver that had suprised many in the early stages was Kazuki Nakajima who had fought his way into an excellent 5th place, but he proceeded to throw away his good work after getting the exit to turn 4 all wrong and smashing into the barrier on lap 17, this brought out the safety car for the first time, during which everyone that started on the harder compound of tyres made their 1st pitstops and all bar Rosberg and Giancarlo Fisichella had smooth stops, the latter had trouble after nearly running over half of his own pit crew. 6 laps later the race restarted, a restart which only lasted one corner for Piquet who got his braking all wrong while trying to defend his 6th place from a recovering Nico Rosberg, as a result he slid off into the gravel into retirement and very likely into the path of a big verbal rollocking form his team boss.
The race then settled down with the only interruptions being the completion of a bad day for Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen spun out of 10th place with 15 laps to go and just 3 laps later, Felipe Massa pulled into the pits to retire with a rear suspension failure. But the drama didnt end there, Button suffered a slow final pitstop after his original refuelling rig failed, now he had both Vettel and Robert Kubica breathing down his neck with barrichello lurking in 4th ahead of an ever charging Lewis Hamilton and the Toyota pairing of Trulli and Timo Glock sandwiching Rosberg.
But the race was brought to a premature end with just 3 laps to go, Kubica who clearly had the faster car attempted to take advantage of a mistake by Vettel, but Vettel (trying desperately to defend his 2nd place) turned into the side of Kubica eliminating both drivers and earning Vettel the wrath of the stewards, the race finished under safety car conditions, only the second time in the history of F1 that it has ever happened, and Button was left to celebrate an emotional win with his teammate in 2nd place. But arguably the happiest man in the paddock was Lewis Hamilton managing to claim a top 3 finish with what was universally described as a poor car. As a result of his penalty, Jarno Trulli was demoted to 12th place promoting Hamilton to 3rd, Trulli's teammate Timo Glock inherited 4th, 5th was a relieved Fernando Alonso with Nico Rosberg 6th, Sebastien Buemi capped a fine debut to finish 7th ahead of his teammate Sebastien Bourdais who took the final point
AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX TOP 10 FINISHERS
1st. JENSON BUTTON - Brawn Mercedes ................ 1h 34m 15.784
2nd. RUBENS BARRICHELLO - Brawn Mercedes ................ + 0.807
3rd. LEWIS HAMILTON - McLaren Mercedes ............... + 2.914
4th. TIMO GLOCK - Toyota ................ + 4.435
5th. FERNANDO ALONSO - Renault ................ + 4.880
6th. NICO ROSBERG - Williams Toyota ................ + 5.728
7th. SEBASTIEN BUEMI - Toro Rosso Ferrari ................ + 6.004
8th. SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS - Toro Rosso Ferrari ................ + 6.298
9th. ADRIAN SUTIL - Force India Mercedes ................ + 6.335
10th. NICK HEIDFELD - BMW Sauber ................ + 7.085
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP: 1st Jenson Button 10pts, 2nd Rubens Barrichello 8pts, 3rd Lewis Hamilton 6pts, 4th Timo Glock 5pts, 5th Fernando Alonso 4pts, 6th Nico Rosberg 3pts, 7th Sebastien Buemi 2pts, 8th Sebastien Bourdais 1pt
CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP: 1st Brawn Mercedes 18pts, 2nd McLaren Mercedes 6pts, 3rd Toyota 5pts, 4th Renault 4pts, =5th, Williams Toyota 3pts, =5th. Toro Rosso Ferrari 3pts
FERRARI
--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM PRINCIPAL - Stefano Domenicali
TEAM COLOURS - Red
CAR - Ferrari F60
ENGINE SUPPLIER - Ferrari
TYRES - Bridgestone
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR(S) - Aldo Costa
MAJOR SPONSORS - FIAT, Alice, Shell
--- STATS ---FIRST SEASON - 1950
GRANDS PRIX - 776
WORLD DRIVERS TITLES - 15
WORLD CONSTRUCTORS TITLES - 16
WINS - 209
POLE POSITIONS - 203
POINTS SCORED - 4,024.5
--- DRIVERS ---
3 - Felipe Massa (Brazil)
4 - Kimi Raikkonen (Finland)
TEST DRIVER - Luca Badoer (Italy)Ferrari are back for 2009, and they're both angry and hungry for revenge, after an impressive start to 2008 when they won 4 of the first 5 races, they still managed to lose the drivers championship (albeit in dramatic circumstances) due to many self-inflicted faults, and when Ferrari get it wrong, they really do get it wrong. For example last season, they spent too much time trying to decide on which driver to favour in the battle for the drivers crown and their problems were compounded with baffling strategic decisions and pit lane calamities, this overshadowed the fact that Ferrari had on paper the best car on the grid.
Still though, Ferrari won the constructors title and Felipe Massa would have been world champion despite all this had Lewis Hamilton not overtaken Timo Glock on the very last corner of the very last lap at Interlagos. So this year, Ferrari want to put that right and bring the drivers championship back to Maranello for the 16th time. But again its difficult to see which driver Ferrari will favour in the challenge after Massa's valiant attempts last season and Kimi Raikkonen reportedly coming back a different person more hungrier than ever.
Despite some decent times being set during testing, they have had some setbacks, firstly their exhaust system had to be re-designed after the FIA had deemed it was illegal and they have been behind on development compared to the early starters like BMW Sauber and Williams so it may take time for them to be up winning races consistently.
2009 PREDICTION FOR FERRARI
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
Felipe Massa - 2nd
Kimi Raikkonen - 4th
CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st
BMW SAUBER
--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM PRINCIPAL - Mario Thiessen
TEAM COLOURS - White, Blue
CAR - BMW Sauber F1.09
ENGINE SUPPLIER - BMW
TYRES - Bridgestone
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR(S) - Willy Rampf
MAJOR SPONSORS - BMW, Petronas, T Systems, Intel
--- STATS ---FIRST SEASON - 2006
GRANDS PRIX - 53
WORLD DRIVERS TITLES - 0
WORLD CONSTRUCTORS TITLES - 0
WINS - 1
POLE POSITIONS - 1
POINTS SCORED - 272
--- DRIVERS ---
5 - Robert Kubica (Poland)
6 - Nick Heidfeld (Germany)
TEST DRIVER - Christian Klien (Germany)The target in 2006 was respectability, they achieved that, the target in 2007 was to be competitive at the front, they achieved that and in 2008 the target was to win their first race and, yes they achieved that too. So whatever their target is for this year (by law of averages) they should be able to fulfill it.
Well the signs are very good indeed, along with Brawn (nee Honda) and Williams, BMW Sauber began development on the 2009 car very early and testing the new aero regulations began for them before the 2008 season even finished and as a result, they are well ahead of most of the competition setting an excellent pace in testing.
And in their driver lineup, they have the perfect blend of youth and experience, Robert Kubica, the young charger has just been getting better every year with his win in Canada last year being just another tick in the list of progression, the next step is to go on and win your first title and i think that Kubica can do it this year. And joining him again is Nick Heidfeld, now in his 10th season, yes he has failed to win races, but he is a solid team player and a consistent points scorer, just what a championship challenging team needs in my view.
But how BMW does this year depends a lot on how early they stop development on the car and begin switching attention to next year's chassis, this has contributed to them having very poor end of season form. If they devote more of their efforts to their current machine, i think they will deliver a first world title for the young Kubica, a real star of the future.
2009 PREDICTION FOR BMW SAUBER
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
Robert Kubica - 1st
Nick Heidfeld - 6th
CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP
2nd
RENAULT
--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM PRINCIPAL - Flavio Briatore
TEAM COLOURS - Yellow, White, Orange, Red
CAR - Renault R29
ENGINE SUPPLIER - Renault
TYRES - Bridgestone
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR(S) - Bob Bell
MAJOR SPONSORS - Renault, ING, Total, Elf, Mutua Madrilena
--- STATS ---FIRST SEASON - 1977
GRANDS PRIX - 249
WORLD DRIVERS TITLES - 2
WORLD CONSTRUCTORS TITLES - 2
WINS - 35
POLE POSITIONS - 50
POINTS SCORED - 1,056
--- DRIVERS ---
7 - Fernando Alonso (Spain)
10 - Nelson Piquet Jr (Brazil)
TEST DRIVER - Adam Khan (Pakistan)After a barren 2 year spell by their high standards, Renault are looking to get back to championship winning form and their form near the end of last season when Fernando Alonso took wins in Singapore and Japan certainly suggests that they can once again mount a serious challenge for the drivers crown, but if they do, it will be in one of the ugliest cars ever designed for Formula 1 with a vomit coloured livery to match, yuck!!
But ugly cars can be winners like Graham Hill's "stalk wing" championship winning Lotus in 1968 so proves and pre-season testing has shown that Renault can ocne again challenge on a consitent basis, what has really helped them though is dispensation from the FIA last season to develop their underpowered engine in order to be in line with the rest of the field, and it paid off after the team's lead driver, 2 time world champion Fernando Alonso scored more points in the second half of the season than any other driver, this helped Renault achieve 4th in the constructors championship after a poor start with the old engine.
The improved engine doesnt shy away from a radical design with the main feature being the slabby square nose section which is shaped into a Lotus 72 style wedge shape, included though are side splitters to direct the airflow. And it has worked, to a degree. Alonso has set a competitive pace himself with the new car while his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr has struggled with the setup. Lets hope for his sake that his race pace is not linked with it.
Overall i think the best Renault can hope for is to maintain their 4th place finish, Alonso im sure will improve to challenge for a top 4 placing but the onus will be on Piquet to deliver or else he could end up in the F1 scrapheap, its a big year for the young Brazilian.
2009 PREDICTION FOR RENAULT
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
Fernando Alonso - 4th
Nelson Piquet Jr - 16th
CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP
4th
TOYOTA
--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM PRINCIPAL - Tadashi Yamashina
TEAM COLOURS - White, Red
CAR - Toyota TF109
ENGINE SUPPLIER - Toyota
TYRES - Bridgestone
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR(S) - Pascal Vasselon
MAJOR SPONSORS - Toyota, Panasonic, Denso, KDDI, Esso
--- STATS ---FIRST SEASON - 2002
GRANDS PRIX - 123
WORLD DRIVERS TITLES - 0
WORLD CONSTRUCTORS TITLES - 0
WINS - 0
POLE POSITIONS - 2
POINTS SCORED - 219
--- DRIVERS ---
9 - Jarno Trulli (Italy)
10 - Timo Glock (Germany)
TEST DRIVER - Kamui Kobayashi (Japan)A reported $500million annual budget has so far only returned 8 podiums from a possible 246 results, not good enough for a major Japanese effort that aspires to dominate the sport one day, and now with the withdrawals of both Honda and Super Aguri, the team reperesnts the land of the rising sun's only chance of future F1 success and after a good improvement shown in 2008, they have decided to stick with their tried and tested lineup of the experienced Italian Jarno Trulli and the young German Timo Glock who between them managed 56 points last season, good enough for Toyota to return to the top 5 in the championship.
Jarno Trulli will begin his 13th season in F1 and also begin by celebrating his 200th Grand Prix start in Australia, but his career has been more solid than spectacular, he may only have scored 1 win but has averaged just over 1 point per start, partly down to poor years with Prost, Jordan and (at times) with Toyota too. One thing you can guarantee with Trulli though is consistent qualifying performances, he is renowned as a single lap specialist and when Qualifying consisted of just that, he was rarely out of the top 5 in qualifying. He has also proved that with the right car, he can deliver int he races too although his one and only win (Monaco 2004) was more down to a combination of luck and some excellent defensive driving.
Timo Glock has had a mixed career, this infact being his 2nd spell in F1 after his first stint with Jordan back in 2004 where he stood in on the odd occasion for Giorgio Pantano, in between he went to race Champ Cars in the USA before coming back to Europe to win the 2007 GP2 title, that earning him a chance with Toyota with which he has excelled, he managed to finish in the top 10 of the drivers standings with his standout performance being an excellent run to 2nd place in Hungary. So in his second season, lot more is expected from him.
Pre-season testing pace of the team's new car (the TF105) has gone well, the car itself features a narrow nose design with walrus-like front wings, not as dramatic as the design of the 2004 Williams but its a similar concept, overall they will be lookign to improve on last season's 5th place finish and challenge for their first race win after 7 years of trying, i dont think they will but another season with a top 5 finish will do them well.
2009 PREDICTION FOR TOYOTA
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
Jarno Trulli - 10th
Timo Glock - 11th
CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP
5th
TORO ROSSO FERRARI
--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM OWNER - Franz Tost
TEAM COLOURS - Dark Blue, Claret, Gold
CAR - Scuderia Toro Rosso STR4
ENGINE SUPPLIER - Ferrari
TYRES - Bridgestone
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR(S) - Giorgio Ascanelli
MAJOR SPONSORS - Red Bull, Puma
--- STATS ---FIRST SEASON - 2006
GRANDS PRIX - 53
WORLD DRIVERS TITLES - 0
WORLD CONSTRUCTORS TITLES - 0
WINS - 1
POLE POSITIONS - 1
POINTS SCORED - 47
--- DRIVERS ---
11 - Sebastien Bourdais (France)
12 - Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland)
TEST DRIVER - Jaime Alguersuari (Spain)Last seasons big suprise package are back again and with a new driver lineup after the departure of their young starlet Sebastian Vettel to Red Bull's main team. But last year mainly thanks to Vettel, they more than gave their more illustrious rivals a run for their money and ended up being the top privateer team in 2008, this year though will be tough as with Vettel's departure, the team will go in being the only ones to field a rookie.
That rookie is Swiss youngster Sebastien Buemi, the first swiss driver in F1 since Jean Denis Deletraz raced for the Pacific team in 1995, he has shown good pace in the lower classes including a run to the runners-up spot in the F3 Euroseries in 2007 behind Romain Grosjean, his progress continued in GP2 in 2008 where he finished a creditable 6th in his rookie season in the category, now he gets his chance in the big time with Toro Rosso alongside Sebastien Bourdais. Bourdais had a very up and down, if not unspectacular debut campaign where he was overshadowed by Vettel, netherless he managed to put together a solid campaign, scoring points on his debut race (where he ran as high as 4th but ended up 7th) and qualifying well elsewhere, now with a season under his belt and now being burdened with number 1 status in the team, it will be interesting to see how Bourdais copes with the new found pressure.
The car itself is basically a Red Bull RB5 which has been re-worked in order for it to fit a Ferrari engine, otherwise its the same car with a different paint job. In my view, the targets for this team will be way way down on the highs of the previous season, Buemi has talent but it may take a while for him to get used to the new surroundings and with Brawn and Force India showing good competitive pace, the aim for Franz Tost and his team will probably be to avoid the wooden spoon.
2009 PREDICTION FOR TORO ROSSO
DRIVERS
Sebastien Bourdais - 18th
Sebastian Buemi - 20th
CONSTRUCTORS
10th
RED BULL RENAULT
--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM OWNER - Dietrich Mateschitz
TEAM COLOURS - Dark Blue, Red, Yellow
CAR - Red Bull RB5
ENGINE SUPPLIER - Renault
TYRES - Bridgestone
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR(S) - Adrian Newey
MAJOR SPONSORS - Red Bull, Rauch, Total, Metro
--- STATS ---FIRST SEASON - 2005
GRANDS PRIX - 72
WORLD DRIVERS TITLES - 0
WORLD CONSTRUCTORS TITLES - 0
WINS - 0
POLE POSITIONS - 0
POINTS SCORED - 103
--- DRIVERS ---
14 - Mark Webber (Australia)
15 - Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
TEST DRIVER - Brendon Hartley (Australia)Like Williams, this is a make or break season for the team owned by the energy drinks magnate Dietrich Mateschitz, in the 4 years since he bought the team from Ford (the team at the time was known as Jaguar) their performances have been stable but for large periods they have flattered to decieve, just when they have the inklings of positive progress, development of the current car seems to stop, focus shifts towards next seasons car and their season just fritters away, but this year it is expected to be very very different as again like Williams they attempt to take advantage of the new regulations, but unlike Williams, they have made a very significant change to their driver lineup, one of only 2 teams this winter to do so.
Mark Webber stays with the team as defacto number 1 driver but alongside him now is one of Formula 1's brightest and most talented young stars Sebastian Vettel, who managed to take a stunning lights to flag win last season for the sister team Toro Rosso in Italy, before going on to finish an incredible 8th in the championship and by far the best privateer driver, he replaces David Coulthard who has now retired to become a team ambassador and a pundit for the BBC's new F1 coverage.
The car itself is designed by former Williams and McLaren designer Adrian Newey and if it is to be believed, this will be his final car. Unlike most of the teams on the grid, Red Bull have opted for a high and narrow nose design to allow space for underbody aerodynamics, but the most stiking feature on the car is at the rear with an old skool style rear suspension layout, plus their partnership with Renault has brought them a new and improved engine which both they and the works Renault team will use this season.
Pre-season testing has done a lot to suggest that Red Bull will be a lot further up the grid than before, especially Sebastian Vettel who has shown blstering pace but there have been suggestions that the team has been testing under qualifying conditions and with Red Bull's recent poor reliability record, it remains to be seen whether Red Bull can finally hack it at the business end of the grid, still though i think Vettel will show an improvement and with a bit of luck should deliver at least the team's first ever win, Webber however i think will be stuck in the midfield and maybe be out of a drive at the end of the season with talented drivers like Mika Maki, Jaime Alguersuari, Daniel Ricciardo and fellow Aussie Brendon Hartley coming through the ranks of Red Bull's junior development programme.
2009 PREDICTION FOR RED BULL
DRIVERS
Mark Webber - 17th
Sebastian Vettel - 8th
CONSTRUCTORS
8th
WILLIAMS TOYOTA
--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM OWNER - Sir Frank Williams
TEAM COLOURS - Dark Blue, White
CAR - Williams FW31
ENGINE SUPPLIER - Toyota
TYRES - Bridgestone
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR(S) - Patrick Head, Sam Michael
MAJOR SPONSORS - AT&T, RBS, Phillips, Reuters, Randstad
--- STATS ---FIRST SEASON - 1978
GRANDS PRIX - 517
WORLD DRIVERS TITLES - 7
WORLD CONSTRUCTORS TITLES - 9
WINS - 113
POLE POSITIONS - 125
POINTS SCORED - 2,600.5
--- DRIVERS ---
16 - Nico Rosberg (Germany)
17 - Kazuki Nakajima (Japan)
TEST DRIVER - Niko Hulkenberg (Germany)Now a team that deserves to be named alongside the true legendary manufacturers of the sport and now one of the last of the true privateer teams, Frank Williams and his ever popular, hard-working team enter their 33rd season of competition at their lowest ebb since 1988. And unsuprisingly, due to the ongoing credit crunch, Williams is a team that has been feared for its existence being one of 4 teams that still pay for an engine supply (Red Bull, Brawn and Toro Rosso being the others) and also the demise of one of their major sponsors, Royal Bank Of Scotland and another bmajor backer, Lenovo, switching teams to McLaren.
But despite all this, the team have pressed on, they were one of the teams that began their development of their 2009 car very early after abandoning work on last seasons efforts so you could say that they are looking to take advantage of the new aero regulations, some would even say it was a big gamble as the teams future all depends on this season's efforts.
But so far during testing, the gamble looks as if it has paid off with the car showing good pace in testing, the car itself (the FW31) has some interesting features including cockpit mounted turning vanes, a bulky nose and a controversial rear diffuser design (later declared legal by the FIA) all of which have contributed to competitive performances so far, plenty to suggest they can improve on their dismal 2008 season form when despite scoring 2 podium finishes (Courtesy of Nico Rosberg in Australia and Singapore), they slumped down to 8th in the constructors championship.
Despite that, Williams have kept with the trend over the winter and kept faith with their current driver lineup of Nico Rosberg (in his 4th season with the team) and last years suprise package Kazuki Nakajima. Rosberg has been seen since his GP2 title success in 2005 as one of the most talented and level headed young drivers out there able to give consistently good performances if the car setup was right. As for Nakajima, he suprised everyone with his smooth and calm driving style enabling him to pick up points on a regular basis by driving through the field as his weak area is qualifying.
Overall, i can see Williams making a big step in improvement this season to hopefully challenge for a top 6 constructors championship placing and challenge Red Bull for the title of the best privateer team.
2009 PREDICTION FOR WILLIAMS
DRIVERS
Nico Rosberg - 9th
Kazuki Nakajima - 14th
CONSTRUCTORS
6th
BRAWN MERCEDES
--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM OWNER - Ross Brawn
TEAM COLOURS - White, Yellow & Black
CAR - Brawn BGP-01
ENGINE SUPPLIER - Mercedes
TYRES - Bridgestone
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR(S) - Jorg Zander
MAJOR SPONSORS - TBA
--- STATS ---FIRST SEASON - 2009
GRANDS PRIX - 0
WORLD DRIVERS TITLES - 0
WORLD CONSTRUCTORS TITLES - 0
WINS - 0
POLE POSITIONS - 0
POINTS SCORED - 0
--- DRIVERS ---
18 - Jenson Button (Great Britain)
19 - Rubens Barrichello (Brazil)
TEST DRIVER - Alexander Wurz (Austria)Until a week ago, this team had no future after Honda's decision to quit the sport back in December due to the ongoing credit crunch, but after reported interest from the likes of F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, Aston Martin owner David Richards and the entreprenur Sir Richard Branson, instead Honda approved a management buyout of the team giving the team a stay of execution for 12 months so they can take their time to find a buyer. More importantly however, it will also allow the team to continue racing (now under the Brawn GP banner) which keeps the grid size at 20 cars.
The team is now owned and run by the former Ferrari tacical chief Ross Brawn and former Honda team boss Nick Fry with the same driver lineup as the previous season (when they were known as Honda) of both Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, the 4t season running they have been paired together, also its worth noting that Button agreeing to a substantial pay cut helped Brawn to secure the deal to buy the team and put together a budget for the season. After a disastrous 2007, last season showed some slight improvement depsite another wretched car, Barrichello managed a superb podium finish at Silverstone and the team managed to score a healthy 14 points.
One big plus for the team is that despite the uncertainty at boardroom level, the team were still developing a car for the new season, while Honda desperately looked for potential buyers, the car itself was launched on the day the deal was announced, another plus is an engine supply deal with Mercedes after an agreement with the other teams for the German engine manufacturer to supply 3 teams (the other 2 being McLaren and Force India) the car was quickly re-designed to accomodate the powerplant before the first test. And it seems to have worked.
To the shock and amazement of every team in the paddock during the pre-season tests at Jerez in Spain, Button comfortably topped the timesheets. It is a good sign for the team but despite the use of the hi-tech facilities avaiable to the team at the former BAR/Honda base in Brackley, i can see the team jsut beign happy to see out the season, and i dont blame them for thinking that. Early season promise i think will be weighted down with and end of season slump as i think the car wont go through as much redevelopment as most teasm on the grid, still though they're happy to jsut be there on the grid, and i would'nt be lying if i said that all F1 fans are happy about that too.
2009 PREDICTION FOR BRAWN GP
DRIVERS
Jenson Button - 12th
Rubens Barrichello - 13th
CONSTRUCTORS
7th
FORCE INDIA MERCEDES
--- TEAM INFO ---
TEAM OWNER - Vijay Malliya
TEAM COLOURS - White, Green & Orange
CAR - Force India VJM-02
ENGINE SUPPLIER - Mercedes
TYRES - Bridgestone
TECHINCAL DIRECTOR(S) - Mark Smith, James Key
MAJOR SPONSORS - Kingfisher, Medion, Whyte & Mackay, ICICI, Bangalore Royal Challengers Cricket Team
--- STATS ---FIRST SEASON - 2008
GRANDS PRIX - 18
WORLD DRIVERS TITLES - 0
WORLD CONSTRUCTORS TITLES - 0
WINS - 0
POLE POSITIONS - 0
POINTS SCORED - 0
--- DRIVERS ---
20 - Adrian Sutil (Germany)
21 - Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy)
TEST DRIVER - Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy)
With the new Grand Prix season less than 3 weeks away, its time to start looking forward to the new season and i will do so by looking at each team individually, starting with last season's backmarkers Force India.
Indian Billionnaire Vijay Malliya, the owner of a Brewery company and Kingfisher Airlines, bought the team formerly known as Jordan (1991-2005) Midland (2006) and Spyker (2007) and has invested a lot of his own fortune in trying to get the team further up the grid, and last season, there were signs of great potential, Chief designer at the time Mike Gascoyne had designed a neat chassis coupled together with Ferrari's latest spec V8 engine in an attractive white, red and gold livery, yes the car was mostly to be found at the back of the grid battling with the Super Aguri's before that teams demise due to financial difficulties but on average they were only between 1.5 and 2 seconds off the pace of the leading cars which is quite an achievement.
It helped also that the team had 2 very talented drivers, and for 2009, they will keep the same lineup, their lead driver will be the Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, a F1 veteran of 13 years and 3 time race winner whilst with Renault, easily the most successful Italian driver of modern times with his smooth racing style, he curtails his Grand Prix racing nowadays with the running of his own team in F1's feeder series GP2 (Fisichella Motorsport International) in partnership with ex F1 team owner Enzo Coloni and his son Paolo Coloni.
And joining Fisichella will be the German youngster Adrian Sutil for his 3rd season with the team after joining when the team was called Spyker in 2007, he was a frontrunning driver in Formula 3 and is a friend of ex F3 team-mate Lewis Hamilton, and like his friend, Sutil has driven his best races in wet conditions, msot notably at Monaco last season when in changable conditions, he managed to get up to as high as 4th place with a handful of laps remaining before beign cruelly taken out by Kimi Raikkonen after the finn misjudged his braking for the harbour chicane and crashed into the back of Sutil's car.
They do hope though to be higher up the grid, and most of the pundits agree tha they probably will be up in the midfield this season too, mostly because of a brand new techincal partnership with McLaren, after signing an agreement with the Woking based frontrunners, they will have use of McLaren seamless shift gearboxes, use of McLaren's KERS system, assistance of loaned out McLaren engineers and most of all, a customer engine deal with McLaren's engine suppler Mercedes. The only problem with that deal was because it was signed so late and that the team had already sacked Mike Gascoyne as designer, the team had to re-design a new car to fit the Mercedes powerplant and to conform to the new strict aero' regulations in just over 3 months. The result is a simple design with main features being bargeboards underneath the nose section and a high chassis/high nose concept which brings about its own fears over the car's centre of gravity and load on the front suspension which would mean the front tyres going off more quickly.
But the fears over the car's late completion have so far not materialised as in pre-season testing, the new car (the VJM-02) has been quick straight out of the box posting times within a second of the Ferrari's and McLaren's. But with 2 extremely talented drivers on board and with this years cars being more focused towards driver skill, its to be expected. I can see Force India mixing it in with the midfield runners and hopefully for their sake, nicking the odd points finish too
2009 PREDICTION FOR FORCE INDIA
DRIVERS
Giancarlo Fisichella - 19th
Adrian Sutil - 15th
CONSTRUCTORS
9th
