I thought perhaps we should have a review of the 2009 season and have some discussions about the good and bad bits.
First a few stats:
17 races with 6 different winners
10 teams with 25 different drivers appearing on the grid during the course of the season
A first time World Drivers Champion in Jenson Button
First time Constructors Title winners with Brawn GP
A first time race winner in Mark Webber
First time race winning teams in Brawn & Red Bull
First ever pole positions for Brawn, Red Bull & Force India
The Malaysian Grand Prix became only the fifth ever to be awarded half points
For the first time in the history of the F1 World Championship there was no race in France, the birth place of Grand Prix racing.
It was very much a season of two halves with the first belonging to Button & Brawn and the second to Red Bull. The Brawn car, in Buttons hands at least, was so far ahead of the others at the start of the season it allowed Brawn to stop developing the car from the British Grand Prix onwards and still win both titles. Red Bull found more speed in the second half of the season but improvements in the Ferrari and McLaren cars hampered Red Bull's chances of challenging Brawn & Button in both titles races.
So was it an exciting season? Martin Brundle thinks so:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsp ... 337646.stm
Me, I’m not so sure. Button’s dominance in the early part of the season pretty much meant that the title was his to lose. His nervousness in the later races gave others an opportunity to catch up but with Red Bull allowing both drivers to chase the title and Barrichello, apart from occasional high quality drivers such as in Valencia, unable to match Button his title was never really seriously under threat.
Rule changes between 2008 and 2009, supposedly to allow more overtaking, failed to live up to expectations. The early races, with the deployment of the safety car in Australia and rain in Malaysia and China seemed to suggest that the cars could run closer together but, alas, as the season progressed we saw almost identical problems to previous years. The emergence of KERS added a new dimension to F1 but with only a few teams using the system those with KERS flew off the start line and had a significant advantage when overtaking and also when being overtaken. The return to slick tyres didn’t really seem to make much difference in the racing as, combined with the teams clawing back the aerodynamic grip, the mechanical grip offered by the tyres meant laps were faster than ever.
The emergence of Brawn & Red Bull as race winning constructors, overturning the McLaren/Ferrari duopoly of the last few seasons, was welcome. Jenson Button was a revelation. For a man whose career looked to be on the skids at the end of 2008 he silenced his critics by winning six of the first seven races at a canter and pretty much tied up the WDC by half way. Sebastian Vettel confirmed his place as a major new star in F1 winning 4 races and taking the runners up spot in the championship. Mark Webber finally emerged from the shadows and won two races as did Rubens Barrichello who, despite his years, put in some worthy performances but never had the raw pace of his team-mate. McLaren and Ferrari worked their back to race winning ways after creating cars which were less than good at the start of the season. Lewis Hamilton won two races which must have been much more than he expected at the start of the season and Kimi Raikkonen seemed to rediscover his “mojo” after the horrible accident which befell Felipe Massa.
Perhaps what did mark 2009 out as an “exciting” season were the off-track shenanigans. The season started with much discussion about the eligibility of the double diffusers employed by Brawn, Toyota and Williams. Hamilton was disqualified in Australia for lying to the stewards. FOTA threatened a break away series as the FIA pushed to cap the teams budgets. BMW and Toyota withdrew from F1 racing blaming the world economic climate but, more realistically, due to their less than stellar performances on the track. Renault were found guilty of ordering a driver to crash in Singapore last year costing Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds their jobs, causing Renault’s two title sponsors to withdrawn and making Renault questions their whole involvement in F1 racing. We had the election of a new President of the FIA with Jean Todt winning over Ari Vatanen amidst a variety of accusations of the incumbent, Max Mosley, unfairly trying to influence the FIA members as to how they should vote.
All in all I would give the 2009 season 6/10. FOM’s commitment to some mediocre race tracks didn’t help the spectacle, especially the two races we have to endure in Spain. The 2nd running of a night race in Singapore was pretty tepid and the first ever day/night race in Abu Dhabi was an interesting idea at a very bland circuit. Despite the hype from the press and TV pundits the driver’s title race was over by mid-season. The rule changes prevented teams with bad cars from being able to catch up with those that had got it right first time and the failure of the authorities to enforce their own rules regarding aerodynamic changes didn’t create any more action on the track.
Let’s see what 2010 brings us. I'm sure I've missed lots, or you may not agree with some of my comments. Please feel free to add your views, counter arguments and opinions.
First a few stats:
17 races with 6 different winners
10 teams with 25 different drivers appearing on the grid during the course of the season
A first time World Drivers Champion in Jenson Button
First time Constructors Title winners with Brawn GP
A first time race winner in Mark Webber
First time race winning teams in Brawn & Red Bull
First ever pole positions for Brawn, Red Bull & Force India
The Malaysian Grand Prix became only the fifth ever to be awarded half points
For the first time in the history of the F1 World Championship there was no race in France, the birth place of Grand Prix racing.
It was very much a season of two halves with the first belonging to Button & Brawn and the second to Red Bull. The Brawn car, in Buttons hands at least, was so far ahead of the others at the start of the season it allowed Brawn to stop developing the car from the British Grand Prix onwards and still win both titles. Red Bull found more speed in the second half of the season but improvements in the Ferrari and McLaren cars hampered Red Bull's chances of challenging Brawn & Button in both titles races.
So was it an exciting season? Martin Brundle thinks so:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsp ... 337646.stm
Me, I’m not so sure. Button’s dominance in the early part of the season pretty much meant that the title was his to lose. His nervousness in the later races gave others an opportunity to catch up but with Red Bull allowing both drivers to chase the title and Barrichello, apart from occasional high quality drivers such as in Valencia, unable to match Button his title was never really seriously under threat.
Rule changes between 2008 and 2009, supposedly to allow more overtaking, failed to live up to expectations. The early races, with the deployment of the safety car in Australia and rain in Malaysia and China seemed to suggest that the cars could run closer together but, alas, as the season progressed we saw almost identical problems to previous years. The emergence of KERS added a new dimension to F1 but with only a few teams using the system those with KERS flew off the start line and had a significant advantage when overtaking and also when being overtaken. The return to slick tyres didn’t really seem to make much difference in the racing as, combined with the teams clawing back the aerodynamic grip, the mechanical grip offered by the tyres meant laps were faster than ever.
The emergence of Brawn & Red Bull as race winning constructors, overturning the McLaren/Ferrari duopoly of the last few seasons, was welcome. Jenson Button was a revelation. For a man whose career looked to be on the skids at the end of 2008 he silenced his critics by winning six of the first seven races at a canter and pretty much tied up the WDC by half way. Sebastian Vettel confirmed his place as a major new star in F1 winning 4 races and taking the runners up spot in the championship. Mark Webber finally emerged from the shadows and won two races as did Rubens Barrichello who, despite his years, put in some worthy performances but never had the raw pace of his team-mate. McLaren and Ferrari worked their back to race winning ways after creating cars which were less than good at the start of the season. Lewis Hamilton won two races which must have been much more than he expected at the start of the season and Kimi Raikkonen seemed to rediscover his “mojo” after the horrible accident which befell Felipe Massa.
Perhaps what did mark 2009 out as an “exciting” season were the off-track shenanigans. The season started with much discussion about the eligibility of the double diffusers employed by Brawn, Toyota and Williams. Hamilton was disqualified in Australia for lying to the stewards. FOTA threatened a break away series as the FIA pushed to cap the teams budgets. BMW and Toyota withdrew from F1 racing blaming the world economic climate but, more realistically, due to their less than stellar performances on the track. Renault were found guilty of ordering a driver to crash in Singapore last year costing Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds their jobs, causing Renault’s two title sponsors to withdrawn and making Renault questions their whole involvement in F1 racing. We had the election of a new President of the FIA with Jean Todt winning over Ari Vatanen amidst a variety of accusations of the incumbent, Max Mosley, unfairly trying to influence the FIA members as to how they should vote.
All in all I would give the 2009 season 6/10. FOM’s commitment to some mediocre race tracks didn’t help the spectacle, especially the two races we have to endure in Spain. The 2nd running of a night race in Singapore was pretty tepid and the first ever day/night race in Abu Dhabi was an interesting idea at a very bland circuit. Despite the hype from the press and TV pundits the driver’s title race was over by mid-season. The rule changes prevented teams with bad cars from being able to catch up with those that had got it right first time and the failure of the authorities to enforce their own rules regarding aerodynamic changes didn’t create any more action on the track.
Let’s see what 2010 brings us. I'm sure I've missed lots, or you may not agree with some of my comments. Please feel free to add your views, counter arguments and opinions.