If you ask most people they will tell you that 2009 was a boring season of F1 that was dominated by Jenson Button in a car that was massively superior to all the others. That's what they'll say but it really wasn't like that. An under-funded team came out of a massive rule change with an advantage and couldn't afford to develop the car. So then everyone else caught them up and we ended up with a second half of the season where nearly anyone on the grid could pull off a win depending on what weekend and track they were at. But 2009 has a lot more of a legacy than that and lots of things that happened that year started F1 down the path that has lead it into all the issues it has today.
2009 was a revolutionary year in F1 as for the first time in 25 years that the drivers and constructors titles were not won by one of the big four teams. Not only wasn't it won by one of them but it wasn't even contested by any of them. The pecking order had been well and truly shaken. From 1984 onwards the 3 main teams dominating the sport were Ferrari, McLaren and Williams. The 4th team that was an interloper was the team based at Enstone (many name changes). Whilst other teams might have been competitive at times it was these 4 that always led the way, with 2 always being in ascendency whilst the others were in decline. Through 84 to 87 it was McLaren and Williams in ascension with McLaren making the best of it. Come 1988 Williams went into decline and Ferrari were on their way up to compete with McLaren without actually every making it. 1991 saw Williams come back to the fore and Ferrari going into a decline. McLaren's eventual decline started in 93 and this is where the team from Enstone came to the front after many years of being the 4th team. Enstone were at the front for only a couple of years between 94 and 95 before Ferrari then became the main competitor to the dominant Williams team. Williams long period of dominance came to an end in 1998 when the classic Ferrari/McLaren duel resumed until the early noughties when Ferrari became a huge dominating force with both Williams and McLaren nipping at their heels. Ferrari stayed at the front until 2005 when the team from Enstone reached the top of its 10 year cycle and hit the front again before once more falling back down the order after 2 seasons. This left McLaren and Ferrari to dice it out for the next couple of years. It was a simple pattern - one of the teams would be leading the way whilst a couple of the others reset themselves to rebuild back to the top. All until 2009 where the order finally shaken up.
A lot of people think badly of Red Bull due to their years of dominance and the fact they have a massively unlikable team principal but we shouldn't forget that they stepped in and save two spate F1 teams that were heading for the scrap heap. Originally the promising Stewart team that had well and truly been crushed by the wrecking ball of the Ford corporation under the Jaguar name, the fact the team survived long enough to fight its way back up the order is credit to them. But for the fact that one of the teams had found a technical loop hole Red Bull would have come out of the rule change as the front team and in reality it is they who broke the F1 monopoly of the other teams. Whilst they are currently struggling they have established themselves as one of the top teams and I have no doubt that they will come back round again and that is one of the legacies of 2009. The other is that the Brawn situation allowed Mercedes an easy option in to have their own team without having to develop from scratch, something that as you can see has worked out well for them. But not all the repercussions of 2009 have been positive for the sport.
2009 was a year of financial crisis across the capitalist world and whilst F1 usually finds itself immune from this on this occasions it didn't. Having spent a large amount of money on the developing new technology for the rule change for 2009, and seeing no return whatsoever, the financial market meant that BMW, Toyota and Renault had no other option to pull out of F1. Added to that fact that Honda had pulled out at the end of 2008 this meant the sport had lost 4 major constructors. Thankfully Renault were still going to supply engines but it still meant that F1's engine suppliers had been cut by 50% since 2008 something that has repercussions to this day. During the 2009 seasons a certain Max Mosley attempted to implement the now famous budget cap rule. He introduced 3 new teams who entered thinking that's what the rules were and arranged for Cosworth engines to be supplied to all. The rule was vetoed by Ferrari, BMW, Red Bull and Renault and never came to fruition and somewhat ironically probably spelt the end of BMW and Renault as teams because they couldn't afford to keep up with their other voting partners. It really pains me to have to prise such a man but Max Mosely was right to try and introduce that rule. What he was trying to do was to make sure the sport was full of racing teams who had a chance of being competitive and not dominated by manufactur teams. You see the reality of it is that a manufactur may supply engines to multiple teams but if they have their own team there is no way they are going to stand for the customer team beating them. Which means as the 3 engine suppliers were Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault it meant only those 3 teams (Renualt's being Red Bull) were really every going to win in F1. The other teams are just filler. The budget cap was an attempt to stop the sport being dominated by those big names and give the small racing teams a chance of being in the sport. It was rejected - by the people it was designed to hold back - and what we have been left with is a sport that is far less competitive. McLaren's link with Honda may be a disaster but their thinking was sound. They were never going to win with a customer engine so they had to go a different way. Why has it failed? Well the same people that are at the top of the sport have closed the doors to allow anyone else to be able to develop and catch them up which is what your true legacy of 2009 is. The big corporate companies rebelled against the FIA and now dictate the rules to the sport rather than the other way round. They are now in a position to prevent any other team knocking them away from their spot at the top which in turn means that 2009 will probably be the last time for a long time that any team ever breaks into the front runners.
One last legacy of 2009 is the constant change for a dramatic rule changes. Everytime a team becomes dominant a massive rule change is called for mainly because they look back at 2009 and see how the order was shaken up and hope that if they do it again its their team that comes out on top. The fans hope it will produce the close racing and competitiveness again but the truth is it never will. The reason 2009 became such a competitive season was because the team that came out of it in front technology wise had no money to develop that and everyone else caught up. Now days there is no such thing as an underfunded team, and as we saw with the 2014 rule changes, once one of the big boys has an advantage there is now way to catch them.
2015 and the complaints of dull racing and lack of competition can all be traced back to 2009, the breaking of the mould and then the team revolution to make sure they kept their place in the then new order. The lunatics are now in charge of the asylum and a fix for F1 is not going to be easy. No turkey ever votes for Christmas
2009 was a revolutionary year in F1 as for the first time in 25 years that the drivers and constructors titles were not won by one of the big four teams. Not only wasn't it won by one of them but it wasn't even contested by any of them. The pecking order had been well and truly shaken. From 1984 onwards the 3 main teams dominating the sport were Ferrari, McLaren and Williams. The 4th team that was an interloper was the team based at Enstone (many name changes). Whilst other teams might have been competitive at times it was these 4 that always led the way, with 2 always being in ascendency whilst the others were in decline. Through 84 to 87 it was McLaren and Williams in ascension with McLaren making the best of it. Come 1988 Williams went into decline and Ferrari were on their way up to compete with McLaren without actually every making it. 1991 saw Williams come back to the fore and Ferrari going into a decline. McLaren's eventual decline started in 93 and this is where the team from Enstone came to the front after many years of being the 4th team. Enstone were at the front for only a couple of years between 94 and 95 before Ferrari then became the main competitor to the dominant Williams team. Williams long period of dominance came to an end in 1998 when the classic Ferrari/McLaren duel resumed until the early noughties when Ferrari became a huge dominating force with both Williams and McLaren nipping at their heels. Ferrari stayed at the front until 2005 when the team from Enstone reached the top of its 10 year cycle and hit the front again before once more falling back down the order after 2 seasons. This left McLaren and Ferrari to dice it out for the next couple of years. It was a simple pattern - one of the teams would be leading the way whilst a couple of the others reset themselves to rebuild back to the top. All until 2009 where the order finally shaken up.
A lot of people think badly of Red Bull due to their years of dominance and the fact they have a massively unlikable team principal but we shouldn't forget that they stepped in and save two spate F1 teams that were heading for the scrap heap. Originally the promising Stewart team that had well and truly been crushed by the wrecking ball of the Ford corporation under the Jaguar name, the fact the team survived long enough to fight its way back up the order is credit to them. But for the fact that one of the teams had found a technical loop hole Red Bull would have come out of the rule change as the front team and in reality it is they who broke the F1 monopoly of the other teams. Whilst they are currently struggling they have established themselves as one of the top teams and I have no doubt that they will come back round again and that is one of the legacies of 2009. The other is that the Brawn situation allowed Mercedes an easy option in to have their own team without having to develop from scratch, something that as you can see has worked out well for them. But not all the repercussions of 2009 have been positive for the sport.
2009 was a year of financial crisis across the capitalist world and whilst F1 usually finds itself immune from this on this occasions it didn't. Having spent a large amount of money on the developing new technology for the rule change for 2009, and seeing no return whatsoever, the financial market meant that BMW, Toyota and Renault had no other option to pull out of F1. Added to that fact that Honda had pulled out at the end of 2008 this meant the sport had lost 4 major constructors. Thankfully Renault were still going to supply engines but it still meant that F1's engine suppliers had been cut by 50% since 2008 something that has repercussions to this day. During the 2009 seasons a certain Max Mosley attempted to implement the now famous budget cap rule. He introduced 3 new teams who entered thinking that's what the rules were and arranged for Cosworth engines to be supplied to all. The rule was vetoed by Ferrari, BMW, Red Bull and Renault and never came to fruition and somewhat ironically probably spelt the end of BMW and Renault as teams because they couldn't afford to keep up with their other voting partners. It really pains me to have to prise such a man but Max Mosely was right to try and introduce that rule. What he was trying to do was to make sure the sport was full of racing teams who had a chance of being competitive and not dominated by manufactur teams. You see the reality of it is that a manufactur may supply engines to multiple teams but if they have their own team there is no way they are going to stand for the customer team beating them. Which means as the 3 engine suppliers were Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault it meant only those 3 teams (Renualt's being Red Bull) were really every going to win in F1. The other teams are just filler. The budget cap was an attempt to stop the sport being dominated by those big names and give the small racing teams a chance of being in the sport. It was rejected - by the people it was designed to hold back - and what we have been left with is a sport that is far less competitive. McLaren's link with Honda may be a disaster but their thinking was sound. They were never going to win with a customer engine so they had to go a different way. Why has it failed? Well the same people that are at the top of the sport have closed the doors to allow anyone else to be able to develop and catch them up which is what your true legacy of 2009 is. The big corporate companies rebelled against the FIA and now dictate the rules to the sport rather than the other way round. They are now in a position to prevent any other team knocking them away from their spot at the top which in turn means that 2009 will probably be the last time for a long time that any team ever breaks into the front runners.
One last legacy of 2009 is the constant change for a dramatic rule changes. Everytime a team becomes dominant a massive rule change is called for mainly because they look back at 2009 and see how the order was shaken up and hope that if they do it again its their team that comes out on top. The fans hope it will produce the close racing and competitiveness again but the truth is it never will. The reason 2009 became such a competitive season was because the team that came out of it in front technology wise had no money to develop that and everyone else caught up. Now days there is no such thing as an underfunded team, and as we saw with the 2014 rule changes, once one of the big boys has an advantage there is now way to catch them.
2015 and the complaints of dull racing and lack of competition can all be traced back to 2009, the breaking of the mould and then the team revolution to make sure they kept their place in the then new order. The lunatics are now in charge of the asylum and a fix for F1 is not going to be easy. No turkey ever votes for Christmas
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