Formula One 2009 I

[williamjm]

Also good to see Alonso getting up there in 2nd place, the new Renault package performed very well despite zero testing. But on the other hand Piquet was nowhere again. My feeling is his time in F1 will be pretty short, sadly he does not have the same level of talent as his father did.

I was a bit surprised that Piquet got a second season at Renault after his often poor performances last year. I can't imagine he'll be in F1 for much longer unless he improves dramatically. I think Sebastien Bourdais may be on borrowed time as well, he seems to keep getting outqualified by his less experienced team-mates, first Vettel completely outpaced him last year and now the unheralded Sebastien Buemi gets into final qualifying whereas Bourdais fell at the first hurdle.

[Gerold Hightower]

Being Renault's No 2 driver isn't a job you get the really good ones for. It's part of the price of getting Alonso back.

Another race with lots of rain and the safety car. Solid 1-2 win for Red Bull. Another disaster for Ferrari. Lots of mistakes by Hamilton. Buemi scores for Toro Rosso.

[burnt hound]

Red Bull Racing!!! Yeah :) ! A 1-2 win in heavy rain. Vettel didn't make one mistake; he was in control during the whole race. He must really like the rain. His only win before was with similar conditions. Webber made some small mistakes, otherwise he might have battled with Vettel for the win. Webber and Button had a fine couple of laps, overtaking each other. Red Bull was better than Brawn this race. Too bad that it wasn't a dry race; I wonder just how close the teams are to each other. Would Toyota have squeezed into the top then? We'll see next week I hope.

I feel sad for Sutil. He did a tremendous job, so close to taking points in the race. And then he lost control over his car, and the whole thing was over.

Buemi is a pleasant surprise. He is so much better than his teammate . Bourdais is toast if he continues this way.

And Piquet must go. Alonso just missed a point.

WTF Ferrari? What is happening to you? No points for the third race in a row. You have to go back to the eighties for for Ferrari to find such poor results.

I liked the race, but I am beginning to get tired of wet races.

[polishgenius]

Decent race. Irritating that Kubica made one mistake all race and cost himself 6-10 places, whereas Hamilton made six or seven mistakes of a similar type and still finished in the points. If it rains at Monaco Hamilton's going to hit the wall. Hopefully not too hard.

Well done Vettel, future champion.

[Slick Mongoose]

Hamilton pushed way too hard to try to get 4th.

Wierd how the red bull is great in the wet. If it rains in every race, they'll be champions. :P

[williamjm]

Decent race. Irritating that Kubica made one mistake all race and cost himself 6-10 places, whereas Hamilton made six or seven mistakes of a similar type and still finished in the points. If it rains at Monaco Hamilton's going to hit the wall. Hopefully not too hard.

Well done Vettel, future champion.

If the drivers drive the same way at Monaco in the wet that they did in Shanghai I think we'd have another Monaco grand prix where only 3 drivers finished.

I thought Kubica was lucky to still have a car that could be driven after that accident consider how much damage seemed to be done.

I agree Vettel is a likely future champion, especially considering he's so young that he could easily have more than a decade of contending for championships ahead of him.

Red Bull was better than Brawn this race. Too bad that it wasn't a dry race; I wonder just how close the teams are to each other. Would Toyota have squeezed into the top then? We'll see next week I hope.

The BBC's analysis of qualifying suggested that Brawn would have been comfortably on pole if they hadn't had much more fuel than the Red Bulls or Alonso, so it looks like they still have the fastest car in the dry even if Red Bull are not far behind and RB also seem clearly the best car in the wet.

[DJDonegal]

Every week that goes by, the other teams will catch Brawn.

Especially with the diffuser now being ruled legal.

[Slick Mongoose]

By the time they're caught up, they'll have a decent lead in the championship (as long as it stays dry). Plus they won't be standing still, they've got improvements coming as well.

And there are several teams getting close to them. If they have a decent lead and there's three or four other teams splitting the points, they'll still win.

[burnt hound]

Exciting race. Too bad that the Toyotas couldn't take that elusive first win. They were fast, but light on fuel. Button took the win, his third this year. Leading the championship quite comfortable with 31 points. His fourth win overall. His Brawn sure is working. Barichello's is not working as well.

Vettel sure is on form.

And Ferrari did finally take some points. 3 points courtesy of Kimi Raikkonen. Sweet.

[Slick Mongoose]

Exciting race. Too bad that the Toyotas couldn't take that elusive first win. They were fast, but light on fuel. Button took the win, his third this year. Leading the championship quite comfortable with 31 points. His fourth win overall. His Brawn sure is working. Barichello's is not working as well.

Vettel sure is on form.

And Ferrari did finally take some points. 3 points courtesy of Kimi Raikkonen. Sweet.

Yeah, it was a decent race, and the Brawn is still out in front. Barichello just doesn't push it hard enough, IMO, although he was let down by his strategy in this race. Highlights include watching the Brawn engineers bash holes in their car before the race and an amazing drive from Alonso, who had no water during the race and still got a point.

Pics of Alonso getting out of the car.

How he finished i've no idea.

[burnt hound]

Holy crap!!! Alonso is pretty badass.

[Slick Mongoose]

McLaren have been given a 3-race suspended ban. So that's over, unless they do something else.

Next drama, then: Almost every team has major upgrades coming for the Spanish GP. Will any more loopholes in the rules get exploited? And who will be fastest? :wideeyed:

[williamjm]

McLaren have been given a 3-race suspended ban. So that's over, unless they do something else.

Given their recent record of getting into trouble with the FIA I wouldn't be too surprised if they do end up doing something else that gets them into more trouble.

[burnt hound]

Yet another Pole for Button. Vettel continues to be fast. Should be a good race.

WTF Raikkonnen :o . He decided he had a good enough time to make it to Q3, and stopped. When everybody else was getting faster and faster around the track. This is how you lose the Championship, not how to win it. Jeeez! Didn't he get a new lighter car? Just to do a rookie mistake and loose the advantage straight away. At least Massa was fast.

A final note; I have great hopes for the Toyotas... i hope they win.

[Slick Mongoose]

Brawn are unstoppable. Their qualifying pace may not be much better than anyone else's, but their consistency during the race is frightening.

[burnt hound]

True. But did Brawn screw over Barrichello for Button? Is Brawn already putting Barrichello down as a second driver, with Button first? It's the Ferrari years all over again for poor Rubens.

Webber did good. I expected Massa and Vettel to fight hard for the third spot, only to see Webber snatch it. Cool.

[polishgenius]

Wasn't there a part of the race where Barrichello held Button up for a fair amout of time? Button won because Button's better, I think.

Frustrating to see two average drivers topping the field comfortably by virtue of their cars. I mean they do a job but there's just no competition and it's dreadful for the spectacle, especially considering there's good racing down further down the field being sidelined by the procession at the top.

[Gerold Hightower]

Red Bull has the speed to beat the Brawns. What they lack is good starts. Vettel was overtaken by Barrichello and Massa at the start and then got stuck behind Massa. The rather early last pit stop together with the abysmal performance of the hard tyres didn't help either. Before that Vettel was consistency faster than Webber, who finished right behind Barrichello.

[DJDonegal]

I agree with polishgenius in that Button won because Button's better - I don't think the strategy change was intended as a sleight to Barrichello in favour of Button.

Alonso - good effort. He looks completely exhausted in those pictures from earlier in the thread. But we've always known if there was one thing Alonso did not lack it was passion to win and do as well as he can.

I want to see Red Bull winning some more races - Webber in particular. :thumbsup:

[DJDonegal]

Man, F1 just loves the drama, doesn't it? First we had Ferrari threaten to pull out if a two-tier racing system was adopted for next season with the big wigs offering the option of a 40million cap and less development restrictions, and others not adopting the cap but having development frozen, and now Renault have joined the same call. I thought Ecclestone was hoping to expand the grid to 26 cars next season, not reduce it to 16?

To stick my two pence in, I don't want to see a two tier championship, but it's clear from the global situation that F1 is in a precarious position. Car companies are not riding the storm well, and there are a lot of manufacturing teams in F1 - Renault, Toyota, BMW - who are wriggling uncomfortably while their profits fall elsewhere. So in summary, something has got to give. Well, I suppose you could say Honda already have, but unless action is taking, Honda won't be the end of it all.

I think a good idea I've heard about is to introduce a cap, but in some kind of parachute format. For example, we hit them with a $100m cap this season, $80m the year after, $65m, $50m and perhaps by then stop there for either the global crisis will be over, inflation will have risen enough to make that $50m similar to the $40m that is being proposed today, or the deal they propse will have run its course and a new one is to be drafted.