Malaysian Friday

Looking forward to the race day on Sunday. Got a grandstand ticket and will be watching this year F1 race live in Sepang.

Looking outside my office windows (my office is less than 20km away from Sepang F1 Circuit), suddenly I felt that I made a wrong decision by getting the ticket for Sunday race.

Not only raining here, is pouring and the thunder storm is so loud that I can hear it with my headphone on. If this happen during the race, I am sure that we will see red flag and the race will not be able to complete like last year... The team should consider put in 3/4 of fuel so that can qualify better.

Since two weeks ago, the weather timing is more accurate that a chronometer watch. Right on the dot, 10 minutes before 5 start pouring. And I bet today rain will start at 6pm.

F1 2009 Turkish GP Race Result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	58	1:26:24.848	2	10
2	14	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	58	+6.7 secs	4	8
3	15	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	58	+7.4 secs	1	6
4	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	58	+27.8 secs	5	5
5	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	58	+31.5 secs	9	4
6	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	58	+39.9 secs	9	3
7	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	58	+46.2 secs	10	2
8	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	58	+46.9 secs	13	1
9	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	58	+50.2 secs	6
10	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	58	+62.4 secs	8
11	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	58	+64.3 secs	11
12	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	58	+66.3 secs	12
13	1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+80.4 secs	16
14	2	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+1 Lap	14
15	12	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap	18
16	8	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	57	+1 Lap	17
17	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	57	+1 Lap	15
18	11	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap	20
Ret	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	47	Gearbox	3
Ret	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	4	Brakes	19

2009 Monaco Monte Carlo GP Race Result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	78	1:40:44.282	1	10
2	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	78	+7.6 secs	3	8
3	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	78	+13.4 secs	2	6
4	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	78	+15.1 secs	5	5
5	14	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	78	+15.7 secs	8	4
6	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	78	+33.5 secs	6	3
7	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	78	+37.8 secs	9	2
8	11	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	78	+63.1 secs	14	1
9	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	78	+65.0 secs	13
10	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	77	+1 Lap	19
11	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	77	+1 Lap	16
12	1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	77	+1 Lap	20
13	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	77	+1 Lap	18
14	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	77	+1 Lap	15
15	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	76	+2 Laps	10
Ret	2	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	51	Accident	7
Ret	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	28	Brakes	17
Ret	15	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	15	Accident	4
Ret	8	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	10	Accident damage	12
Ret	12	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	10	Accident	11

F1 2009 Spain GP Race Result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	66	1:37:19.202	1	10
2	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	66	+13.0 secs	3	8
3	14	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	66	+13.9 secs	5	6
4	15	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	66	+18.9 secs	2	5
5	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	66	+43.1 secs	8	4
6	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	66	+50.8 secs	4	3
7	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	66	+52.3 secs	13	2
8	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	66	+65.2 secs	9	1
9	1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	65	+1 Lap	14
10	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	65	+1 Lap	6
11	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	65	+1 Lap	10
12	8	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	65	+1 Lap	12
13	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	65	+1 Lap	11
14	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	65	+1 Lap	20
Ret	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	17	+49 Laps	16
Ret	2	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	7	Gearbox	18
Ret	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	0	Accident	7
Ret	12	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	0	Accident	15
Ret	11	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	0	Accident	17
Ret	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	0	Accident	19

Who will win in Spain

Brawn (Terminator) dominate once again, this time in Spain, Jenson Button clocked the fastest time 1:20.527 beating Sebastian Vettel by 0.133 seconds, that’s faster than a blink on your eye :D

FIA making the car weight public:

1. Jenson Button, Brawn GP, 646kg
2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 651.5
3. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn GP, 649.5
4. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 655
5. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 651.5
6. Timo Glock, Toyota, 646.5
7. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 655.5
8. Fernando Alonso, Renault, 645
9. Nico Rosberg, Williams, 668
10. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber, 660
11. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams, 676.6
12. Nelson Piquet, Renault, 677.4
13. Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber, 676.3
14. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 683
15. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 678
16. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 673
17. Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso, 669
18. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, 657
19. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 675
20. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India, 656

Jenson Button was the lightest among the top 5.  Watch out Felipe Massa and his KERS, the KERS is able to produce 80bhp more on during the start, very likely Barrchello will be overtaken in the first corner.

Ferrari shows that their cars have improved but on the other hand, the strategy still did not quite work out.  Can you imagine they make the same mistake twice. 

They thought Kimi’s time was able to bring him to the Q2, they were wrong.  While Jarno Trulli pushing him out of Q2, Kimi Raikonnen was sitting in the garage.  Boooo to Ferrari!!

Renault promise a lot, but they did not make a good progress, look at the Fernando Alonso’s car weight, he is the lightest among the 20 cars, but only managed 8th place, a disappointing one for him.

My prediction for this race, Button will be first, as out of 14 races in the past, 13 of the race winner was on pole (for this circuit), as Button having the best grid, I think he will be able to take his 4th win.

Second Felipe Massa, third Ruben Barrichello. :p

Three Race Ban to Troubled McLaren

The FIA finally bring this issue to an end by handing a three race ban to McLaren F1 Team for bringing the sport into disrepute after they were found to have misled race steward at the Australia GP.

However three race ban will be allow to be executed in the period of 12 months.

Formula One 2009 – The Beginning of European Races

After four races, Jenson Button leading the result sheet scoring 31 point (10, 5, 8, 10). Three wins out of four races, pretty impressive.

From the past performance on various races, I noticed that the rest of the field are improving significantly. The upcoming races will definitely be more exciting and you can expect more wheel to wheel actions.

Team running without the legalized double diffuser will upgrade their car, most of them will have their new parts fitted onto the machine on the Spanish grand prix. Renault made a quick upgrade on their car and shows quite a promising improvement. This definitely will be worthwhile investing R & D effort into this area.

Brawn was designed to run without KERS, their machine carried a much larger fuel tank compared the others. Will they invest their time in KERS? Never know, of course the more power a car can produce, a better chance of overtaking and winning. On the other hand, the more gadget you put in, the chances of causing problem will be higher as well. Personally I don’t think that is necessary for Brawn at the moment.

When Ferrari will pick up the pace? They did score their first point on the last race. Good upgrades have to come quick before it is too late.

Testing are restricted this year, as for Brawn they did not have the time to perform enough testing. Don’t forget the team got the approval almost last minute to be allowed to race in the 2009 season.

Toyota will be a strong contender, they have not win a single race. Despite that, the chances of stepping on the top step of podium is high. Trulli able to score on the Saturday qualifying session, lets hope he is able to hold on the position during the race.

Despite the advantage is fading, Brawn and Button still my favourite. Oh ya, I would like to see the oldest driver win the race as well. Barrichello is driver a race winning machine, he might be able to pocket one or two win this year!? :D