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.
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