F1 - Silly Season Update

It’s all beginning to happen.

The final 2010 driver line up will be very interesting and probably the biggest change for many a year. Jenson is off to Mclaren and that will be a challenge for him and I have to say a mistake as he risks being put in the shade by Lewis.

Nico Rosberg is rumoured to be replacing Jenson at Brawn and with Nico being much more aggressive and in a great car it will confirm his talent. Kimi is taking a sabbatical in 2010 and interviews will never be the same, he won’t come back!

I am pleased to hear Timo Glock is confirmed at Manor Grand Prix and that will be an interesting partnership for the new team.

Flavio is claiming 1 million Euro’s in compensation and retraction of the life ban! Best of luck Flavio. Mercedes are buying 75% of Brawn and will run under the banner of the Silver Arrows again in 2010 and Mclaren say they are happy about it!

Toyota have decided to sign out after many millions over the past 4 to 5 years after being accused of trying to buy a championship. That didn't work and the current financial climate is as good an excuse as any.

And it goes on and there are those that still suggest F1 is boring, it may be sometimes on the track but off it is certainly very interesting at this time of year. There will certainly be more to come and I will continue the updates as news worthy stories come along.

F1 - Lewis versus Jenson

Firstly I must congratulate Jenson on winning the World Championship in 2009. His decision to stay with Honda, latterly renamed Brawn was well justified on balance. However, one has to ask where else could he have gone. His CV wasn't exactly illuminating and the results simply weren't there.


However, I was somewhat surprised to hear Jenson is moving to Mclaren for 2010 as he will surely be tested there more than ever before. Rubens out drove Jenson in the final races of the season and it was only the first 6 races that gave Jenson the final edge.

None of that takes away the fact he did win the championship with finally some excellent driving and particularly overtaking in Brazil, his race of the season.

From a bad start Mclaren recovered in 2009 and improved the car by a greater margin than the other teams and Lewis certainly made capital of the resurgence. He out scored Jenson by 40 points to 34 in the last 7 races and proved he is simply in a class of his own.

It is a long time since we had such a prodigious talent in F1 and one must compare him with the likes of the late, great Ayrton Senna, our Nige (Mansell) and Alain (Prost) who have nothing to prove. Without doubt 3 years at Mclaren has seem him mature and he is better for that.


Lewis's rise to fame was prolific since joining Mclaren in 2007. His record speaks volumes, narrowly missing the championship in 2007, world champion in 2008 and had it not been for the diffuser issue and Liegate early in 2009 I think he would have been champion again.

Mclaren also had to concentrate on winning the title in 2008 and hence development on the 2009 car was seriously affected.

On the other side of the fence we have Jenson who's F1 career has been much less sparkling. His winning streak has been almost entirely achieved during the initial races of 2009 where Brawn started the season with a much better car. After Brawn started the season with the controversial double diffuser they had an immediate edge.

None of this makes Jenson's achievement in 2009 less deserved but all one can say he was in the right place at the right time.

So, Lewis versus Jenson. I am surprised Jenson has put his self in this position as in my opinion he will always be No 2 following in the footsteps of Heikki (Kovalinen) who one wouldn't have thought was driving the same car in 09.

Politics and financial gain aside I would have thought Jenson would have been better stopping where he was. With Mercedes buying into Brawn at the level they have suggests they are going to be front runners in 2010 and with the rumoured Nico Rosberg behind the wheel that will be a prolific partnership.

It will be nice to see 2 British drivers in a British team but I see it being a one sided affair in the favour of Lewis. If that is the case it will take away Jenson's 2009 achievement as the pundits will suggest the controversial double diffuser won him his races.

I wish both Lewis and Jenson all the best for the 2010 season and let us all hope I am wrong.

Formula 1 2009

The 2009 Formula 1 season started in Australia as has been the norm over past years, however, controversy wasn't far away. Liegate started the problems as Mclaren were accused of lying to the stewards and Lewis was eventually banned from the results and Mclaren disgraced.

Then the Diffuser issue had to go to the world council to confirm whether the teams using the double diffuser were actually legal. Eventually the fitment was deemed legal so the teams that adopted it from the start obviously retained their edge. So, this gave teams like Red Bull, Mclaren and Ferrari on the back foot.

However, no-one can take away the fairy tail developing at Brawn. After a critical winter after Honda's retirement from the sport the Brawn team didn't even exist. Out of the ashes came the team rebadged with Ross Brawn's name above the door and the fairy tale began. Jenson and Rubens had remained loyal through the winter and the rest is history.

A drivers World Champion and consecutive British champions on the back of Lewis last year and of course the Constructors Championship. Well done to all at Brawn for a fantastic team effort.

Then came a major storm as FOTA came into conflict with the FIA. The threat was to create a breakaway championship and I cannot report any further about that as I am too close to the sport. Fortunately for us all the threat went away and a new Concorde Agreement signed to the relief of all concerned.

Then came a report that Renault had instructed one of its drivers to crash at the Singapore GP in 2008 allowing its other driver to win the race. After a major storm 2 of Renault's top men were banned from the sport, one for life and the other for 5 years.

Once again the sport was thrown into disarray but it soon went away as there were other issues developing in the background.

Max had decided he wasn't to continue as President of the FIA and 2 men came to the fore. Jean Todt and Ari Vatanen went head to head but Jean Todt won the day and took up his position straight away.

There were some great drives on the circuit and Jenson proved overtaking is possible all season long. Mclaren started way behind but Lewis scored more points than anyone else in the second part of the season. The team had advanced 2.3ish seconds from the beginning of the season and stand alone at the front.

Red Bull confirmed their class and were kneck and kneck with Brawn all the way through. Surely one of their drivers will win the championship at some point. Sebastian Vettel, having age on his side may be the one to achieve it.

Rosberg drove brilliantly all year showing Williams are not far away. New stars emerged in Jamie Alguersauri, Adrian Sutil and in the latter stages Kamui Kobayashi starred and hopefully we will see him on the grid in 2010.

On the team from Force India confirmed they are now in the mix and whilst I appreciate Fizzi's desire to drive a Ferrari one has to say it hasn't done his career any good at all and he would have been better staying with Force India.

We all welcome the new teams coming in for the 2010 season and it will be great to see the name Lotus back on an F1 grid. Let us also hope we see BMW back in whatever guise after the manufacturers confirmation it is pulling out at the end of the season.

The driver line up has still not been confirmed with only a few placings known. Fernando is off to Ferrari to join Massa on his return. Red Bull is retaining its very strong 2009 line up, Jenson has not secured his drive yet with Brawn but it is felt to be very close. The talk is that Rubens will swap with Nico but not confirmed as yet.

The rest will I have no doubt become known fairly shortly and once known I will publish it on the blog.

So by the time we came to the last race the past problems of the season gone had settled down and hopefully we can all enjoy a better start in 2010, concentrating on Motor Racing and leave the politics behind.

I will talk again soon.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Abu Dhabi and the Yas Marina Circuit, what a spectacle and I have it on first hand experience the TV doesn't do it justice. I am advised the circuit, the facilities, the approach to the circuit and the pit facilities are unknown in F1.

The circuit was obviously very smooth and needed some rubber down to achieve better grip. Being the first twilight race it presented a few problems for the drivers and they had to have special visors with tinted ones coming off when the dark came.

Quali started with the same ferocity and Fizzi did uit again, 20th and last which is quite unvbelievable accepting what he is driving. The other 4 drop outs of Q1 were both Force India's which was a surprise and of equal concern was Heikki.

Quali 2 really was no surprise as Kimi was 11th, that man Kobayashi, Kazuki, Jamie and another surpise as Fernando came in 11th. So the scene was set for a real challenge at the sharp end.

Lewis appeared to be in a class of his own and marched to pole with a fantastic lap some .5 in front of Sebastian. Then we had the main protagonists like Jenson, Mark and Rubens fighting it out for the lower places on the grid.

So it finished Lewis, Sebastian (V), Mark, Rubens (in front of Jenson again), Jenson, Jarno, Robert, Nico and 10th came Sebastian (B).

So as everyone marvelled at the surroundings Martin's grid walk with Eddie was a little different to usual and very interesting. The teams in the meanwhile were all getting ready for racing amongst all the mayhem.

The warm up lap finished off they launched into turn 1. Lewis went from the start and everyone thought that was it, what we didn't know is he was in trouble with brakes. Sebastian kept Lewis in close company followed by Mark. To be fair the race wasn't a spectacle like Brazil, just a different circuit.

Eventually Lewis was brought into the pits by the team with an offside rear brake problem yet to be confirmed what exactly happened. Sebastian went away after Lewis's demise followed by Mark which was to finish as another 1, 2 for the Red Bull team and well done to them.

Behind Mark, Jenson and Rubens were fairly close but not really in competition but that man Kobayashi was firing on all cylinders. In the latter stages Jenson began to put Mark under pressure and it went until the flag was very thrilling and Jenson very nearly took second but in the end it it finished Sebastian, Mark, Jenson and Rubens.

At least finished on the podium in his final race in his world championship season. Well done Jenson.

So the season is finished and what a season it has been for all sorts of reasons, some good, some bad. We all have to wait now until March 2010 in Bahrain for the first race of what should be a different season with no refuelling and some new blood on the grid.

Thank you to all those who have read my blog and I look forward like all of you to 2010.

Brazilian Grand Prix

In past few years Brazil has been the scene of the crowning of the world champion and we were all hoping it could be Jenson's title this year. The highlight of this years qualifying was the weather. All the cars went out in Quali 1 which caused one or two surprises to say the least.

Instead of the usual contenders we lost Lewis, Heikki, Sebastian, Nick and Vintanio.
Then the heavens opened and nothing happened for at least 2 hours and it was getting close to finishing qualifying using the grid positions from quali 1. After what seemed like an eternity quali restarted on a wet circuit.

Jenson then struggled and finished a very lonely 14th which wasn't where anyone expected him to be but in front of the even more lowly Sebastian. So Kamui, Jaime and Kazuki made 11, 12 and 13.

Off we went into quali 3 and the fight for pole. We were to have a very mixed up grid anyway apart from 1 and 2. Mark and Rubens fought it out at the front and after a thrilling fight Rubens took the pole at his home Grand Prix. Adrian shot the Force India into 3rd followed by Jarno.

Kimi followed in front of Sebastian (Buemi) in front of Nico, Robert, Kazuki and finishing the top 10, Fernando.

So into race day and whilst there was a slight chance of rain at least it started in the dry. Rubens led away from pole followed by Mark and what was to be the best race of the year commenced. There are those that suggest, including me sometimes, that F1 is boring with no overtaking.

With Jenson, Sebastian and Lewis at the back we were set for a thriller. An accident took out a very unhappy Fernando as he tangled with Adrian and Jarno and Nick also had a coming off. That took 4 out of the race and obviously moved up the 3 rocket ships coming at speed.

Lewis, Sebastian and Jenson sliced through the grid dispelling the myth about no overtaking in F1. Jenson particularly drove a fantastic race overtaking with unbelievable accuracy, nothing was to stop his dream.

So with some thrilling drives the race finished with Mark in P1 followed by Robert, Lewis, Sebastian (V), Jenson, Kimi, Sebastian (B) and the last points went to Rubens.

Jenson's 5th place was enough to take the World Championship and for the 2nd year in succession we had another British World Champion. The points of the 2 Brawn's also gave the Constructors Championship to Brawn so it was a double celebration.

I cannot end this report without mentioning Kumai Kobayashi after his first race in F1. His was a fantsatic drive to 9th and it may even give him a Toyota drive for 2010.

So what a race, great driving, tremendous overtaking and 2 championships concluded during the day.

Now with baited breath the Forumla 1 circus sets off to Abu Dhabi and the second new circuit in the desert and part of the United Emirates.

Japanese Grand Prix

So from the night race in Singapore off they all went to Japan and the Fuji circuit. Quali 1 saw the usual protaginists go out with the exception of Mark who just couldn't get it right and the same for Fernando. The other 2 were Romain and Vintonio and the luckless Timo who had a big accident and couldn't carry on after his visit to hospital.

So, Toyota were down to 1 car as Jarno progressed onward into quali 2. The usual protagonists were at the front locked in battle with maybe Sebastian (Vettel) having the edge. Quali 2 saw no real surprises as Heikki was 11th followed by Jamie, Sebastian (Buemi), Fizzi and Kazuki.

So, the top 10 shoot out commenced with an almighty battle at the front. After a great battle for top between Sebastian (Vettel), Jarno and Lewis it finished in that order followed by Nick, Kimi, Rubens, Nico, Adrian and the again out of form Jenson.

The race didn't bring out any real surprises as the top 3 on the grid finished in the same position on the grid. Kimi drove well and finished 4th followed by Nico, Nick, Rubens, a lowly Jenson and the top 10 finished with Robert and Fernando.

The result in Japan tightened the points and put Sebastian into second ahead of Rubens and now in closer touch with Jenson.