2009 Formula One Thread (R)

[SirFozzie]

Wow. What an insane first race to the F1 season.

To recap some of the drama that took place in the offseason, after Brit Lewis Hamilton won the F1 champioship with a last second pass in the final race:

The Honda F1 GP Team went bust after Honda pulled out, due to the global financial crisis.

The Honda F1 GP assets was bought up by Ross Brawn, a former boss for the Ferrari team, and rechristened Brawn GP. However, they entered the first qualifying round without a sponsor.

There was a ton of changes made due to the economy.. teams are limited to 8 engines for the whole season, and the engines were tuned for better reliability. Add to that a ton of aerodynamic change, and a ban on in-season testing, and you can understand how no one knew where everyone stood at the beginning of the year.

Also, some teams are now testing out a "regenerative braking" system, where they have a system installed to capture some of the energy created by breaking in a capacitor, and then use it for a boost later.

The cars apparently are designed to make overtaking and passing a lot easier Before, there was some valid criticism that most times during a race, it was just a parade, because you really couldn't overtake unless you were way faster or the person ahead of you made a mistake.

The F1 organization tried to slip in a rules change at the last moment, replacing the traditional point system (10 for a win, 8 for 2nd, 6th for third, and then one less point per position down to 1 point for 8th place), with a system that only counted one thing. How many races you won.

The Collective Formula One teams were.. to put it politely, not amused. They forced Formula 1 to back down for this year (although F1 insists that the "race wins" championship will go forward in 2010)

Then we get to the Aussie Grand Prix in Melbourne. And the controversy was just beginning.

Three teams had come up with an ingenious way to get a huge boost. They had found a grey area of the rules where they could modify one of their parts to be within the reading of the rules, but to get a lot more performance out of it. The three teams were two of the classic F1 teams.. Renault and Williams.. and our good friends at Brawn GP.

Three other teams filed a protest. Not so much that per the rules, it wasn't legal.. because even they say it's within the letter of the rules. Instead, it was more on the grounds of the scene from Liar Lair, when asked why he was objecting, the lawyer replied "because it's devestating to my case...". They claimed that while complying with the letter of the law, it violated the spirit.

That protest by the three other teams (and a fourth) was dismissed.., but is being appealed. The Appeal won't be held until AFTER the 2nd grand prix, so who knows what they'll do if they find it does somehow violate the rules..

after qualifying, Brawn GP had three bits of great news to celebrate.. they had qualified in the top two spots on the starting grid, and they had signed a sponsor for their previously bare car, Virgin Group.

So, off we go to the race..

Now, Formula One doesn't use the Flying Start that most US racing leagues use. Instead, they start from a dead stop, which is exciting, but when one car stalls, and the rest bunch up, can lead to.. this.




The Brawn GP cars did end up 1-2, after a fun day of racing. Lewis Hamilton, who started 18th, ended up 4th, so that was a good day for him, and maybe a good sign that this year's F1GP will be exciting racing..

[PilotMan]

Thanks for the recap. Brawn is a genius.