Race One: Melbourne GP

In case you didn’t see, or haven’t heard, the first race of the 2009 Formula One season took place on Sunday in Melbourne, Australia. There are many stories to get to and because of that, I will only hit on a couple that I think are the top ones.

            First off, is the story of Brawn GP. The former Honda F1 team not only swept the front row in qualifying, but ended up – through a racing snafu – taking first and second place in the race. Not since the 1970s has a team brought out a new race car, put it on pole and gone on to win the race. The surprising thing though, was not the finish, but the pace of the car throughout the race. Fernando Alonso has tipped them to sweep the entire season! Basically, if their pace can be kept (and they continue at the same pace of development as the rest of the field) they could make this season a blow out. Not only was this a great day for Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello – who placed first and second respectively – it should also turn out to be a better day for Ross Brawn, the brains behind the team. Because his team is new, they showed up to the track with a plain white livery and a bright, neon yellow stripe on the nose. By race day, Sir Richard Branson had shown up to put his Virgin brand on the sides and nose. However, the car still doesn’t have a title sponsor and this dominant victory will go a long way toward making sure that the Brawn GP car has people lining up at the door.

            Next up on my list is the story of Lewis Hamilton, or as I deemed him last year, Lucky Lewis. You see, Mr. Hamilton has a crappy car this year. In fact, he actually ended up starting from 18^th on the grid after a penalty for changing the transmission in his car in between qualifying and the race. Eventually he worked his way up through the field with some good driving and then, with only a few laps left, Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica couldn’t hold it together and wrecked both their cars. Lewis was then up to fourth. And because of the wreck, a yellow flag came out. This is where it gets tricky because Jarno Trulli was running in front of Lewis at the time, but he made a mistake and went off the road. He then went around Lewis for the position because Jarno saw Lewis slow down and thought he had a problem. Even Hamilton admits that he was being told at the time by McLaren to give the position back. (The conspiracy theorist inside of me wonders whether or not McLaren told Lewis to let Jarno past in an attempt to get him a penalty so that Lewis would eventually end up third because of the rules…but that is just silly, right? Right?) Jarno eventually ended up third according to how they passed the finish line. Jarno then got his trophy and walked away happy only to find out that the race directors had stripped him of his trophy and given him a 25 second penalty. This pushed him down to 12^th place and gave Lewis third. Some would say that this is the exact thing that happened to Lewis in Spa and that the race directors finally made up the call. I put it down to him having some of the best luck in the world, even when he has a bad car.

            The other big news that is not-really-official-but-still-sounds-very-promising is the fact that THE CANADIAN GRAND PRIX in Montreal may make a return to the calendar THIS YEAR!!! Apparently, the race that is to take place in Abu Dhabi as the final one of the season is behind schedule. The Canadians have raised their hands and said that they have a perfectly acceptable track that offers the only race in North America and one of the best racing atmospheres in the world. Abu Dhabi is denying the reports that the track is not going to be finished, but all will come out in due time.

            The next race is already upon us too, as the Malaysian Grand Prix takes place this weekend.

Protests and Bickering Ahead of Melbourne GP

This will probably be my last post before the race in Melbourne so I just want to get a few things out there. First off, it seems that once again Bernie is being an ass and that he is steadily going downhill and careening out of control. And secondly, there may be some protests before the start of the Australian GP from a few teams.

            For the three people out there who actually read this blog (first off, thank you) you will know that I am not the biggest supporter of Bernie Ecclestone. I feel that he has become senile and is a big baby when it comes to not getting his way. He seems to want to see F1 die before he does and will stop at nothing to get that done. This time, it really does seem as though a storm is brewing between the teams, represented by FOTA, and the commercial rights to F1, held by Bernie. It has recently come out that two team bosses, including Flavio Briatore of Renault and Ron Dennis of McLaren, were ready to boycott the Melbourne race because of unpaid money from Bernie. Bernie came back at the teams saying that he hates empty threats and warned that if they want to put a gun to his head it had better have bullets in it. Some will see this as just another way that Bernie is able to pull out hard-tactics negotiations while more will see it as another way for Ecclestone to keep the teams locked in a box that they can’t get out of. It’s Bernie’s way or the highway, even though the teams are the ones doing all the racing and they are out there risking their cars and their drivers. I hate the way that F1 can be completely ruled by a tyrannical dictator like Bernie Ecclestone. If the teams have no power, then why even have an alliance? Isn’t that what you are for? For the teams to have real say in how to move F1 forward, they should put their foot down for once and get Bernie to put up or shut up, not the other way around. In fact, I see no way out of this for the teams because Ecclestone only does what’s best for him and no one else. Want proof? Here’s a quote and a link to the quote.

 

“Everything I have done, I have done for myself or the company that I run. I have never done it thinking it could be good for somebody else.”

 

            Bernie the Tyrant is going to run F1 into the ground because that is the way he wants it to be. Everything is for Him and no one else has a say…even if that other party is a whole Formula One paddock, all the fans and the sponsors who put up millions upon millions of dollars.

            This second item has been floating around the F1 paddock for a couple of weeks now, but it might finally come to a head this weekend. Apparently, the Brawn GP machine, Toyota F1 and Williams F1 cars are illegal according to Red Bull. They have supposedly found a loop-hole in the rules that allows them to run a “double diffuser” of sorts and it apparently takes off five tenths of a second per lap. There are seven teams – of the ten – that are ready to declare these diffusers illegal. They are ready to issue a formal protest at the first race of the season, even though the diffusers of the teams have been inspected and passed. I guess that we will see who is fastest come Friday practice and qualifying on Saturday. Maybe then we can all judge who has the best cars for the race. It will be interesting to see where these double diffuser cars land on the grid. What I don’t get, though, is if there is a loop-hole, then why not exploit it for your own use Red Bull? F1 is all about innovation (or it used to be) so why not take a bunch of pictures and then copy it? If it works and it passes tech inspection and it makes your car that much faster, then YOU SHOULD BE USING IT TOO! Stop your complaining, exploit the rules like the other teams and get five tenths of a lap back in your possession.

            This is going to be one hell of a season already, and it hasn’t even started yet. Stay tuned.

New Point System Goes Away and McLaren at the Back

After first imposing a “winner takes all” system of scoring for the F1 World Championship, the FIA is thinking about re-instating the normal points system. This comes after many current and former drivers, including Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Jarno Trulli and now Lewis Hamilton, along with a majority of the team owners, spoke out on the system calling it “nonsense” and wondering if the FIA is trying to kill off F1. Well maybe someone in a head office that doesn’t say Bernie Ecclestone on the front of it is finally paying attention to what a MAJORITY of the F1 teams and fans want, which is a points system to determine a Formula One World Champion. I am glad that so many of the teams, fans and drivers have publicly spoken out against this outrageous system. It would be an atrocity to have to watch as a driver that earned more wins, but less points, won the championship. I feel this way because it only makes sense that the driver who has been the most consistent over the entire season should get the crown. All the FIA needed to do, instead of get everyone pissed off, was to listen to the teams – and not Bernie – and increase the points spread between first and second place.

In other news, the McLaren-Mercedes F1 team is expecting to be in the back third of the qualifiers for the Melbourne GP. Norbert Haug, Mercedes chief has acknowledged that their challenger for the title is not coming along as they had hoped it would. What this means is that, if they are not lying of course, we will get to see who is really up to speed. With McLaren at the back of the grid, the fans will get to see if the Brawn GP machine has the pace that it showed in testing or if the Toyota team is finally up to the challenge. Also, we will get to see the pace of all the other cars relative to a major player in the F1 championship. This reminds me of the Ferrari of 2005 when they were very uncompetitive for the entire season and only scored a victory at Indianapolis because the Michelins couldn’t handle a high speed turn. What this also means, assuming that someone else can come up and challenge Ferrari, is that we may see a big mix up in the World Championship for a few races until McLaren gets their act together. Stay tuned to this blog and the season to find out how all this stuff turns out.