Formula 1 - 2009 Season

[korkenzieher]

Not too many to talk about it here, but I feel like chucking this one out:

Barrichello may have effectively ended his career yesterday. His obvious concern at having to play second fiddle again, is causing him to make mistakes. Mistakes which Ross Brawn is probably totting up, having seen it all before at Ferrari. If Barrichello is forced now - 26 points back - to act in Button's (Brawns) Championship interests rather than his own, then he is unlikely to stay at the end of the season. He is also unlikely to get another drive as number 1. So, if we could perhaps predict graceful retirement as the honourable way out, who gets the BGP Seat 2 next year? My money would be on Vettel.

[Galee]

Looks like FOTA have had enough of Mosely and Ecclestone and are to start their own F1 competition.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/108 ... ompetition

Personally I think it's a good developement.

[BobHelm]

Wow the teams certainly have not held back in their statement that is for certain.
It is difficult to see where FIA can go from here - they may own 'rights' & have venues under contract but if they cannot actually hold a race that people want to see, TV & sponsors are happy to pay to be involved in then it is difficult to see how they will fulfil their part of the contract.
Personally I will be happy to see the back of FIA, Ecclestone & Mosely have treated the sport as their personal fiefdom for far too long....
Now maybe if FIFA can go the same way!!!!

[saint]

ITS OFFICIAL , THERE IS A GOD , AND HE OR SHE IS A MOTOR RACING FAN. [-o< [-o< [-o< brilliant news for all of us fans , the poison dwarf can go back to the forest and cry on snow whites shoulder . mossely can go back to his hookers and maybe get one to whip some sense into him . good riddens to the both of them i say . long overdue . i dont think anyone connected to motor sport will be in the least bit upset , in fact im guessing it will be like a giant cloud lifted to most of them . maybe not next year , but mark my words very soon we will be seeing some fantastic racing with many more teams taking part , and 30 or 40 cars on the grid . now those two ego maniacs are off the scene . and as a personal note , i hope we see famous old circuits like spa , brands , and nurburgring back in the top league . =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

[JimboPSM]

It is fascinating how the apparent greed and intransigence of the poison dwarf and his reichsführer has actually managed to make allies of two of the sports bitterest enemies (Ferrari and McLaren) - in my opinion something like this has really been on the cards and gathering momentum since the (IMHO wholly avoidable) fiasco of the US Grand Prix a few years back.

One note of caution - if it does happen, there will still be a lot of prima donnas and divas around

[Rod & May]

Forget F1 .... what is this about motor racing on a street circuit in Udon this weekend?

[farang]

FIA to sue over breakaway attempt

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... efault.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 108492.stm

[saint]

anyway lets forget the politics for a while . today is qualy for the british grand prix at siverstone tomorrow . can our boy do the business on home soil ? i think so . i hope so . what a celebration that will be !!!! could very well be the last at silverstone for a while , although donnington is very doubtfull to be ready for next year . that is of course if the FIA are still in existance .

[BobHelm]

Back to politics saint!!!
Interesting piece from BBC....because first it looks like they actually had a deal & then Mosley ****ed it up (yet again). Second to do with the engineering changes that are being muted for 2010.
No wonder the teams are in a bit of a quandary about signing on....It looks like next year will be another lottery of whoever makes the 'smart' engineering decisions wins. If they then have further changes for 2011 then it must be a nightmare for them.
I know everyone who watches F1 wants a race that is exciting & that being first into turn one does not mean that you have one the race. However watching the equivalent of a 100 metres race where the fastest runners have various handicaps inflicted on them is probably not the way to go either!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/f1mole/2009/ ... e-hot.html

Congrats to Red Bull & Vettell on winning in England.....

[arjay]

It was a good race to watch yesterday, even though Britain's Jenson Button only came 6th and Lewis Hamilton way down at 16th. It was a good win by Vettel and a strong consistent performance by the Red Bull team. I was pleased that Barrichello held it together and didn't do anything rash this time to take third place. Jenson despite some handling difficulties with the Brawn managed to get a point or two coming in at sixth, as well as improving on his starting position. In the last few laps he was gaining on the 4th and 5th cars.

There was also some good scrapping between Hamilton and Alonso.

I was surprised not to hear the British National Anthem being played for the winning team - Red Bull, only to hear the commentators explain that Red Bull are in fact Austrian owned. Otherwise I was smuggly thinking that 5 of the first six cars were from British teams!!

A report from BBC News website below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsp ... 111672.stm

Vettel romps to Silverstone win

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel scored a crushing victory in the British Grand Prix as championship leader Jenson Button's Brawn struggled to sixth.

Vettel took advantage of his team-mate Mark Webber being caught behind Brawn's Rubens Barrichello to build a decisive lead in the first stint of the race.

Webber passed Barrichello at the first pit stops to complete a Red Bull one-two ahead of the Brawn driver in third.

Last year's winner Lewis Hamilton was 16th in a car he said had "no grip".

Felipe Massa's Ferrari was fourth after winning a battle with the Williams of Nico Rosberg. Behind Button, Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen took the final points positions in seventh and eighth.

The result leaves Button with a reduced but still substantial championship lead of 23 points over Barrichello, with Vettel two further points adrift and 3.5 ahead of Webber.

Button's advantage is still more than two clear victories but, with more than half the season still to go, he will be concerned by the startling pace shown by Red Bull, who introduced a major upgrade to their car and were in a league of their own throughout the weekend at Silverstone.

"It was a completely seamless race by both drivers and they completely dominated it," said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

"We can really mount a championship challenge from here."

Brawn's potential was reduced by the low temperatures in Northamptonshire - both Button and Barrichello struggled to get their tyres up to the temperature at which they give their optimum grip.

That put the season's dominant team back into the battle with Williams, Toyota and Ferrari behind the leaders - a position from which they did well to finish third and sixth.

Red Bull, by contrast, had looked strong favourites as soon as their updated RB5 car showed its pace in practice in Friday.

Vettel was on pole by more than half a second and he made the most of the fact that Webber, after a frustrating qualifying session, was stuck behind Barrichello on the grid and could not pass him in the opening laps.

The German rising star, 21, pulled away by about a second a lap over the first stint, and was nearly 20 seconds in front of Barrichello by the time the Brazilian became the first of the top three to stop on lap 19.

"It's never easy it's a long race - you have to stay focused and keep your eyes open all the time," said Vettel.

"The start was very important and in the first stint I tried to push as hard as I could and make a gap.

"That worked perfectly and I had a fantastic car. The tyres were fantastic as well. This was a step in the right direction."

Webber, who spent the first stint less than a second behind the Brawn, came in on the next lap, and made up enough time to exit the pits just ahead of Barrichello.

From that moment, a Red Bull one-two was locked on barring any unforeseen misfortune.

Barrichello found himself holding off the Williams of Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa's Ferrari - a battle he won by staying out for a couple of extra laps before his final stop and rejoining with a comfortable advantage.

Massa jumped Rosberg at their final stops and in the closing laps they found themselves coming under increasing pressure from Button.

Brawn had decided to save a set of the quicker softer tyres until the final stint, when both Massa and Rosberg were on the harder and slower of the two tyre compounds teams are obliged to use in the race.

That meant Button was much faster than the Ferrari and Williams in the final few laps. The home crowd cheered him on, but although the Englishman closed in on them he was unable to pass.

"I didn't know what was going happen today," he told BBC Sport.

"I had good pace when I was on the soft tyres. The pace in the last stint compared to Rosberg and Massa was magnificent. [But] I had nowhere to go at the start. Everybody shot by on the outside. It is down to [our] tyre temperatures today."

World champion Hamilton - now 11th in the 2009 drivers' championship - started the race in 19th and, after a brief but engaging battle with Renault's two-time former world champion Fernando Alonso, finished 16th.

"I was pushing all the way and I the most important thing for me today was to give something to the fans," he said. "All I could do was try my best.

"This has been the best race in terms of the crowd for a long time in F1. I enjoyed it because of the fans and they gave me so much energy today, regardless of how bad we are doing."

[Galee]

One down, one to go.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ve-F1.html

[BobHelm]

Oh my, my, my FIA seem hell bent on destroying F1 as it exists today...

The eight members of the Formula 1 Teams Association (Fota) walked out of a meeting with the sport's governing body, the FIA, on Wednesday.

The meeting, at Germany's Nurburgring, was held to discuss next year's rules and Fota's proposed changes to them.

But the Fota teams left when told they had not entered the 2010 championship and therefore had no voting rights on technical and sporting regulations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsp ... 141428.stm

[saint]

looks like the F I A are hell bent on destruction . it looks like theyve managed to do something i thought impossible !!!! shoot yourself in the foot with both barrels , whilst your head is lodged firmly up your ar~e . oh how i would love to see FOTA run thier own series next year , ive got no doubt which series the money and fans will go , and it wont be with williams , force india , and a few wanna bes . racing fans want to see the best there is , and that includes all the FOTA teams and contracted drivers . please , please FOTA stick to your guns , and tell the poison dwarf , to go f~ck himself .

[Galee]

looks like the F I A are hell bent on destruction . it looks like theyve managed to do something i thought impossible !!!! shoot yourself in the foot with both barrels , whilst your head is lodged firmly up your ar~e . oh how i would love to see FOTA run thier own series next year , ive got no doubt which series the money and fans will go , and it wont be with williams , force india , and a few wanna bes . racing fans want to see the best there is , and that includes all the FOTA teams and contracted drivers . please , please FOTA stick to your guns , and tell the poison dwarf , to go f~ck himself .

=D> =D> =D>

I second that.

[seymourbutts]

this may open be a surprise to some!!! not only is max a nazi............................

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article then read teh leo mcinstry article!!

[Fawn]

Webber lands first Formula 1 pole

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 145826.stm

Not a bad day for Aussies is it....

Saw Webber going up the hill at Goodwood last saturday.

[Fawn]

Mark Webber's won the German Grand Prix - not a bad day for Aussies.

[seymourbutts]

It certainly was an exceptional win... After doing a drive through penalty..Wow!!

if you saw after race interviews it seems Rubens has talked himself out of formula 1 next year and maybe even this year!!

And of course goodbye to Adrian Sutil,.

[BobHelm]

while Lewis Hamilton was last

What a difference a year makes.....

[747man]

And what's happened to Jensen Buttons UNBEATABLE Brawn....