Archive for April, 2009
New Team Brawn GP Dominates in Australia
In December the Honda F1 team announced to the astonishment of the racing press that they would immediately discontinue their efforts in Formula 1 racing. After months of speculation and mere weeks before the start of the season, a management buyout of the team was completed by Ross Brawn and others to keep the team involved in F1. Brawn GP soon topped the timesheets of the few remaining pre-season test sessions in what most assumed was a low-fuel configuration designed to attract sponsors for their strikingly bare white and chartreuse cars.
The first race of the 2009 season showed that the Brawn GP cars weren’t faking it–they had real pace in Friday practice. Virgin was announced as a partial sponsor just prior to qualifying, although most of the money for running the team in 2009 has apparently come from Honda as a sort of dowry to keep the team from closing abruptly and putting people out of work. The race itself was a real treat, with Jenson Button racing away only to be reeled back in by the field during two safety car periods. Button was able to hang on to take the checkered flag and give Brawn GP victory in its first race; it was the second ever victory for Jenson. Rubens Barrichello had a difficult race in the other Brawn, messing up the start and being swallowed up by the field going into the first corner. In the end he finished second, after Robert Kubica, Sebastien Vettel, and Kimi Raikkonen all crashed out in the closing stages of the race.
Lewis Hamilton was finally classified third disqualified on Thursday after Jarno Trulli was penalized for passing while running behind the safety car. Both Ferrari and McLaren were off the pace in Australia, perhaps due to pushing for further development of their 2008 cars in an attempt to win the championship at the end of last year. Honda, on the other hand, sacrificed their 2008 season to develop the 2009 car to the new regulations. Other teams such as Red Bull and Williams seem to have done the same, and are now much closer to the front as a result. The real irony of the situation is that Honda left the sport at the end of 2008 after a terrible season with nothing to show for their efforts. They gave Brawn the keys to the 2009 car (which he helped design)–and the team came out of the gate dominating the competition.
The Malaysian Grand Prix is coming up next and most analysts agree there won’t be much change in the running order, with only a week between races and in-season testing banned. Will Brawn still be the dominant car, or will BMW or Red Bull rise to the challenge? Will the new tire regulations provide further drama as the drivers attempt to cope with the different compounds? Will we see a monsoon during the race? Will the FIA continue to meddle with the race results through ridiculous decisions and irregular penalties? I’m eager to find out.
The race is this Sunday on Speed Channel, in HD for extra awesomeness.