Formula One 2009 I

[Black Wizard]

What an odd qualifying session. It must have been the longest one ever. I cannot believe that Jenson Button is screwing this up so badly. If Barrichello wins tomorrow and Button doesn't score then the gap will be 4 points. Incredible.

[Slick Mongoose]

Absolutely bizzare. Vettel 16th and Button 14th, while their teammates are 1st and 2nd!

It would be nice if Rubens won it, he's never won Brazil and it'd make the final race awesome.

[williamjm]

What an odd qualifying session. It must have been the longest one ever.

After about an hour and a half of the hour-long qualifying session I decided there was unlikely to be much more action so I went off and did something else. An hour later I switched on the TV and they were just starting the final qualifying.

It would be nice if Rubens won it, he's never won Brazil and it'd make the final race awesome.

Agreed. He's definitely in a good position to win it, although I wouldn't be too surprised to see Mark Webber standing on the top step of the podium tomorrow.

[Black Wizard]

There's so many different weather predictions for Sao Paulo today. Absolutely anything could happen!

If it stays dry then Button probably won't score more than three points and Barrichello will probably win. If it rains then anyone could win. Rosberg, Raikkonen and Sutil are dangerous (although Sutil will probably get taken out by Raikkonen) and the safety car could change everything.

[red snow]

Qualifying was insane last night. After an hour of it I went out for a meal, got back an hour later and it was still on! It's ridiculous considering an actual race is only allowed 2 hours but it did make things interesting.

I can see how people who aren't fans of the sport may have been bewildered seeing theor programming dalayed for footage of a sport being delayed.

I hope we get some wet weather in the actual race as it could make things really interesting. Part of me wants the season to be tied up as I probably wont be able to watch the final race as i'm on holiday.

[Slick Mongoose]

Best F1 race since.... Brazil last year. Why can't all tracks be like this?

Button was amazing, overtake after overtake. And Poor Barrichello, getting a puncture.

[Black Wizard]

If that was the best race since last year's Brazilian GP then it shows that the new techincal regulations have not done much to improve overtaking. The early part of the race was shaping up nicely but then not much happened later on.

A great drive from Button today. He really won the world championship in the first seven races and thereafter the other three contenders failed to take full advantage of his mistakes. Barrichello really has a tough time at Brazil, I thought he had a great chance of winning the race but after his first stop he was absolutely nowhere and then the puncture just rubbed salt in the wounds.

I was surprised that Kovaleinen wasn't given a drive-though for dragging the fuel hose out with him and then setting Kimi on fire. Massa got one in Singapore last year after all.

That Kobayashi kid seems pretty mental. He appears to have the speed but not the knoweledge. His chop across Nakajima was pretty appalling.

[red snow]

Great way for Button to win the championship. He showed in this race that he has that racing drive that all the greats need and now broke the limp to victory of this last half season.

I was amazed at how well Hamilton did. 17th to 3rd; that's pretty good driving and race strategy there. It's a real shame the Mclaren was a piece of shit at the start of the season as Hamilton would have had a real good chance at defending his title. Then again Hamilton's resurgence (and his knock into Barichello this race) acted as a great buffer against Button's rivals when Button couldn't deliver. Button owes Hamilton a beer :)

Kobayshi did a great job of getting noticed. Considering the lacklustre performances of other new drivers this season, he seems to be doing a great job - although he won't have made many friends in the paddock. If he'd spent more time going fast than blocking other drivers he could have done better.

I know there's another race left but I'm already looking forward to next season. I'm hoping the cars will be as evenly matched (on average) as this season because there are a lot of skilled drivers in the paddock now. I'd say Alonso is still the best but hopefully he wont be in the best car. Button, Hamilton, Vettel, Webber (if he shakes the bad luck), Massa and Raikkonen are all evenly matched. There's going to fireworks within the Ferrari and Mclaren teams next year!

[Slick Mongoose]

If that was the best race since last year's Brazilian GP then it shows that the new techincal regulations have not done much to improve overtaking.

That's hardly news.

Personally, and i'm not an expert, I think that they've been completely wrongheaded in how they've gone about it. Reducing aero may well inprove airflow off the back of the car, but it also makes it harder to follow a car, because your aero isn't as good. It's also harder to make a daring move on a corner stick around the bend if you've not got as much aero.

Increasing braking distances is the way forward, and that means reducing mechanical grip, not increasing it like they did. Also circuit design - We saw today that it's perfectly possible to overtake in these cars, as long as the circuit will let you.

[williamjm]

If that was the best race since last year's Brazilian GP then it shows that the new techincal regulations have not done much to improve overtaking.

I think the attempts to improve overtaking both this season and every other time they've tried it over the last decade have been a complete failure, unfortunately.

A great drive from Button today. He really won the world championship in the first seven races and thereafter the other three contenders failed to take full advantage of his mistakes.

It was good to see a fighting drive from Button to win the championship rather than just a dull race to finish in a minor points place. He probably got the maximum possible result today in the race given the position he started in.

I was surprised that Kovaleinen wasn't given a drive-though for dragging the fuel hose out with him and then setting Kimi on fire. Massa got one in Singapore last year after all.

Surely you're not expecting consistency in Formula 1 judgements? ;)

That Kobayashi kid seems pretty mental. He appears to have the speed but not the knoweledge. His chop across Nakajima was pretty appalling.

He did have impressive pace, but I do have to wonder what they teach young drivers in the Japanese racing formulas. Just about every Japanese F1 driver seems to come in with decent raw pace but a tendency to get involved in lots of incidents and collisions - see the likes of Sato, Katayama or Nakajima himself. Speaking of lack of consistency, I don't know how Kobayashi seemingly avoided any steward's investigation for running Nakajima off the road.

[Gerold Hightower]

That's hardly news.

Personally, and i'm not an expert, I think that they've been completely wrongheaded in how they've gone about it. Reducing aero may well inprove airflow off the back of the car, but it also makes it harder to follow a car, because your aero isn't as good. It's also harder to make a daring move on a corner stick around the bend if you've not got as much aero.

Increasing braking distances is the way forward, and that means reducing mechanical grip, not increasing it like they did. Also circuit design - We saw today that it's perfectly possible to overtake in these cars, as long as the circuit will let you.

No they were wrongheaded when they reduced the mechanical grip in the 90s. Obviously the rules on aerodynamics aren't nearly strict enough and allowing the double diffusor brought back the dirty air problem. Aerodynamics is also very expensive.

[Antonius Pius]

Great way for Button to win the championship. He showed in this race that he has that racing drive that all the greats need and now broke the limp to victory of this last half season.

Yesterday he finally showed he wanted to win it. After the lacklustre performance (and simple whining) from the second half of this year, it was a welcome sight. And the way to win the championship, although a win would, of course, be the icing on the cake. Webber deserved it though.

Button owes Hamilton a beer :)

I think Button owes Ross Brawn a truck of beer. Without Brawn's tactics and advantage that car had over the competition for the first six/seven races, Button would never have won. A great driver he is not. He deserves this championship, as the competition wasn't able to take advantage of his near-catatonia, but that's it. Barrichello and Vettel gave him a real hard time, which is curious since he won the first six races this year and had a big lead. People with that good a start usually only get in trouble if one guy starts winning all the other races, but this time around there were several different winners.

Anyway, he's the world champion, congrats and good luck, and let's see what happens in Abu Dhabi and, more importantly, next year.

[burnt hound]

It was a good race. And it was nice to see Button so aggressive, to really overtake other cars instead of hanging back and be content with a few points. He had a great race.

Poor Barichello: he had it all lined up. Pole, and a fast car. And then it slipped through his fingers.

Cannot wait for next season.

[DJDonegal]

That was Barrichello's last chance at Interlagos, I fear. Even if he stays with Brawn (which I doubt), I can't see their budget being big enough to be as competitive as they were this season. The double diffuser threw them out in front when they took a gamble on it in the face of it possibly being banned, but as we saw they couldn't keep development to a high standard for the whole season. They were being caught by several teams. The KERS teams improved (or their primary drivers did anyway) and Red Bull came to the fore to make it squeaky bum time for Brawn. And I doubt they abandoned development on this years car in favour of their 2010 car considering they were leading the championship, but then maybe Ross Brawn can pull another miracle from nowhere. I'd be surprised though.

I don't think anybody can say Jenson Button didn't deserve to win the 2009 Championship, even if they feel he's not of a World Champion level of quality. The chasing pack didn't catch him, and his teammate had the exact same car as Button did the whole season, and over the whole season Button scored more points.

[polishgenius]

I don't think anybody can say Jenson Button didn't deserve to win the 2009 Championship

I find myself quite comfortable with saying that... the man's been on the podium once since the seventh race of the season, and has been more likely to drop places off the grid than go up it. Fair play that he did take the opportunity when presented with it at the start, but he's been fortunate that everyone caught up at more or less the same time so they shared out the wins.

[Slick Mongoose]

And I doubt they abandoned development on this years car in favour of their 2010 car considering they were leading the championship,

Brawn claim to have done exactly that, thinking that their lead was big enough. Whether that's true, or it's just a ploy to attract sponsors remains to be seen.

You've also got to realise that the Brawn was a botched car. It was designed for a smaller engine and some major compromises were made for the Mercedes. The only way to fix it properly would have been a new chassis, which they didn't have time to do this season - But they will next year.

[Slick Mongoose]

has been more likely to drop places off the grid than go up it.

Nonsense. His qualifying's been poor in the 2nd half of the season, but he's regularly making up for it in the race and getting in the points. I'm sure he's done more overtaking than anyone else, and that's without the KERS.

What exactly are the arguments against him being a worthy champion? That he had the best car? Show me a champion who didn't at least have a car equal with their main rivals. And the Red Bull was the better car for much of the season. That he didn't win enough races? He won more than Hamilton last season. That all his wins came at the start? So what? Since when did a race at the start of the season count for less?

[theMountainGoat]

Personally I don't think you can make any assumptions on next year's form based on this year. Running an entire race distance on one tank of fuel means the fuel tank cell needs to be significantly larger and redesigning this means an almost completely new car next year. The weight distribution and balance will be completely different and whomever can stabilise their car the best is going to be at the front of the grid.

While having a lot of money for R&D will help, this is still going to come down to technical engineering ability and who can find the best solutions to the problems.

In my opinion Jensen is a worthy F1 World Champion. He had the most points at the end of the year and simply put that is what you have to do. Just because he suffered some bad form through the second half of this year and didn't overtake someone on the last lap of the last race to take the championship by the slimmest of margins does not make his success any less great. He was absolutely peerless in 7 races this season which is far more than anyone else can say this year and just because some of us may have forgotten that now is no reason to slate him for it.

The 2009 season will be remembered for Brawn's rise from the ashes of Honda and it truly is a memorable and uplifting story worthy of a World Championship team.

[Eurytus]

I find myself quite comfortable with saying that... the man's been on the podium once since the seventh race of the season, and has been more likely to drop places off the grid than go up it. Fair play that he did take the opportunity when presented with it at the start, but he's been fortunate that everyone caught up at more or less the same time so they shared out the wins.

He's scored more points than the opposition all of whom (Barrichello, Vettel and Webber) had equal opportunities to win it. Ergo he is a worthy world champion. I have seen more whinging about Button winning from F1 "fans" than any other driver and invariably it is from people who completely fail to understand that winning in F1 has ALWAYS been 95% about the car. This is the first time Button has had a car to win and he did it. All that can be asked of him.

Vettel is often trumped as the next big star of F1 and he did not win it. Some people like to claim this is because the Brawn was dominant in the first half of the season. Nonsense. The Red Bull was better when it was wet, as it was at both Malaysia and China and the Red Bull was better in the second half of the season. Vettel lost the WDC because he made far too many errors whereas Button made hardly a single one.

That was Barrichello's last chance at Interlagos, I fear. Even if he stays with Brawn (which I doubt), I can't see their budget being big enough to be as competitive as they were this season. The double diffuser threw them out in front when they took a gamble on it in the face of it possibly being banned, but as we saw they couldn't keep development to a high standard for the whole season. They were being caught by several teams. The KERS teams improved (or their primary drivers did anyway) and Red Bull came to the fore to make it squeaky bum time for Brawn. And I doubt they abandoned development on this years car in favour of their 2010 car considering they were leading the championship, but then maybe Ross Brawn can pull another miracle from nowhere. I'd be surprised though.

Not overly sure about that. There are heavy rumours that Mercedes are to pump a lot of money into the Brawn at the same time they are slowly moving apart from Mclaren (the forthcoming Mclaren supercar not using a Mercedes engine being an example of this) with Mclaren looking at building engines inhouse. The widely rumoured move of Rosberg to Brawn supports this.

With money being less of an issue next year due to further restrictions on its use and Mercedes backing I think Brawn will remain there or thereabouts even if they fall behind a recovering Mclaren and Ferrari.

But Brawn have more than a good chance of being the solid 3rd best team.

[Black Wizard]

Personally, and i'm not an expert, I think that they've been completely wrongheaded in how they've gone about it. Reducing aero may well inprove airflow off the back of the car, but it also makes it harder to follow a car, because your aero isn't as good. It's also harder to make a daring move on a corner stick around the bend if you've not got as much aero.

I think the Brawn double-diffuser didn't help much. Although it was within the rules, it did appear to create more turbulent air than the Red Bull (which had a single-tier diffuser). The radio 5 commentators were saying during the practice sessions that the flat bottom doesn't help either. If the designers were allowed to get some downforce from the bottom of the car and get less from the wings then mabye there would be less turbulent air. However, that's what the Americans do and I doubt that Formula 1 would want to follow the Americans.

Also circuit design - We saw today that it's perfectly possible to overtake in these cars, as long as the circuit will let you.

The problem with changing circuits is that it often doesn't have much affect and leads to crappy stop-start circuits. Barcelona was altered a few years ago to improve overtaking but it has had no affect. China, Singapore, Bahrain and Turkey were all supposed to give us plenty of overtaking but it hasn't really worked. Herman Tilke may be a good architect but he's not a racing driver.

I think Interlagos is so good for overtaking because that braking zone for turn one is probably one of the most difficult in the sport. I also have a theory that the altitude lessens the turbulent air problem, but I have no evidence for that.

I think the attempts to improve overtaking both this season and every other time they've tried it over the last decade have been a complete failure, unfortunately.

It's because Max Mosely kept on screwing things up by adjusting the minimum ride height.

Surely you're not expecting consistency in Formula 1 judgements? ;)

Of course not. I wouldn't dream of suggesting such a thing.

He did have impressive pace, but I do have to wonder what they teach young drivers in the Japanese racing formulas. Just about every Japanese F1 driver seems to come in with decent raw pace but a tendency to get involved in lots of incidents and collisions - see the likes of Sato, Katayama or Nakajima himself. Speaking of lack of consistency, I don't know how Kobayashi seemingly avoided any steward's investigation for running Nakajima off the road.

They seem a bit like drivers who come over from America: talented, but lack something that makes them succeed in an F1 car. Montoya is the only driver I can think of who's come over from the states and been successful in F1. Sebastian Bourdais is a good driver but didn't seem to get to grips with F1. The Japanese drivers are a bit nuts, all of them. Nakajima hasn't actually shown the same kind of agression that Sato, Ide or Kobayashi exhibited. Last year he was very consistent, qualifying badly but keeping himself on the track and finishing in the points. He's been pretty unlucky this year and having an on-form Nico Rosberg for a team-mate doesn't help.