2009 Malaysia F1 GP - Prediction

Malaysia, my home.  The race will be held on this Sunday 5th of April 2009.  For me, it will be different from last year, I will be stuck in front of the television monitoring all corners on Sepang F1 Circuit.  Sadly, I will not joining the crowd on the track this year, its ok at least I will not suffering from sun-burned (sour-grape)

Malaysia GP expecting to be a hot and humid race, apart from the speed, engine reliability is the key to success in the race. 

 

Everyone is expecting Brawn GP to dominate again, I will think so too, but definitely will be a closer, tougher fight compare to Melbourne last weekend.

Renault will be competitive, watch out for Alonso.

 

I don’t think the big boys (McLaren Mercedes and Ferrari) can do wonders in one week time, but Ferrari should perform better than McLaren team.  We will see.

Williams-Toyota and Toyota themselves should continue the great performance last weekend, too bad that crashed at the closing stage of last race.

Red Bull Sebastian Vettel should perform will, but due to the 10-place grid penalty as the incident with Robert Kubica,  it will be a tough race for him.

Last but not least, BMW Sauber.  This will be home of major sponsor Petronas, and do not forget, last year they collected 11 points in total in this same circuit

 

The teams running KERS - Ferrari, McLaren, BMW Sauber and Renault - may enjoy more of an advantage here thanks to those long straights, but now that air extraction chimneys have been banned, the heat may prove too challenging for those teams that have marginalised their cooling systems in the interest of aerodynamic efficiency.

 

Brawn will still be running without KERS, if the car is fast enough to win the race, they can take their time.

Little bit on KERS…

2009 Malaysia GP - Promotion Event

Some of the photo taken from shopping mall in Malaysia. The heat is not as great as last year for some reason.

2008 Renault – This car collected 80 solid point home for the last F1 season

Front view – As you can see, no one is interested in this car

Top view – ING is going to pull out at the end of 2009 season

From a higher angle – The floor is deserted (sort of)

In a separate place, Petronas Malaysia did a larger scale of promotion in Suria KLCC shopping complex.

BMW Sauber booth

2009 BMW Sauber – 135 was the total points collected by this machine

Black face – Not so professional model standing next to the car (she’s not even smiling!)

Rear View – This rear wing design is a history

Apart from displaying the F1 machine, there was a challenge event as well. The prize was a watch from Cortina watch worth RM1500. I was too late, no change on participating the event (last year I did!)

And the challenge was…

Refuelling Challenge (refuelling or refueling… who cares)

Acrylic F1 car and refuelling simulator, all the way from Germany

Front view – Fragile! Handle with care!

The “Real” Fuel hose

Fill it up, the light will be lighted up when the fuel hose touches the sensor.

When the lights reach the top (the white triangle piece), pull it out place it on the stage and you are done.

The score board. 10 seconds of fuel, this one is an incomplete cycle

Answer behind the BRAWN logo

This is definitely an coincident, but I am not sure if anyone have discover this.

Why the BRAWN logo looks like this? The BR is separated with AWN, and the AWN is italic for some reason.

 

BRAWN GP, taken from the team principle’s name Ross Brawn (British) based in Brackley, UK. Currently (should I say sole sponsor) sponsored by Richard Branson (British) the founder of Virgin Group.

The team powered by Mercedes, pilot by the two talented driver Ruben Barichello and Jenson Button, from Brazil and British respectively.   No doubt about it, the team is running on Bridgestone tyres as well the sole tyres supplier for the year 2009 season.

 

If you pay more attention on the above paragraphs, you will notice there are some link between these words.  Lets make it clearer.

 

BRwan – the team principle

BRitish – the nationality of Ross Brawn

BRackley – the base of the team

BRanson – the sole sponsor

BRitish – the nationality of Richard Branson

BRazil – the nationality of Ruben Barichello

BRitish – the nationality of Jenson Button

BRidgestone – the name of the tyres on Brawn’s machine, last but not least,

BRilliant – the brilliant engineers behind this fantastic machine.

These words above are making sense, the BRAWN logo probably design it with these “terms” in mind?!

What do you think?

2009 Australia GP Race Result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	58	1:34:15.784	1	10
2	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	58	+0.8 secs	2	8
3	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	58	+1.6 secs	20	6
4	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	58	+4.4 secs	19	5
5	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	58	+4.8 secs	10	4
6	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	58	+5.7 secs	5	3
7	12	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	58	+6.0 secs	13	2
8	11	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	58	+6.2 secs	17	1
9	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	58	+6.3 secs	16
10	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	58	+7.0 secs	9
11	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	58	+7.3 secs	15
13	14	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	57	+1 Lap	8
14	15	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	56	Accident	3
15	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	55	Accident	4
16	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	55	Differential	7
Ret	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	45	Suspension	6
Ret	8	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	24	Spin	14
Ret	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	17	Accident	11
Ret	2	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Accident damage	12
DSQ	1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+2.9 secs (DQ)	18

Hamilton finished fourth, was promoted to third after Trulli was penalised for passing him under the safety car, but was ultimately disqualified after stewards decided he and McLaren had provided 'misleading' evidence relating to the incident.

Albert Park – Penalty Causing Race Result Changed

Updates: Trulli retain third place, Hamilton and McLaren disqualified

 

The celebration lasted less than a day.

Jarno Trulli was penalized by the steward due to the overtaking under the safety car.

I saw it on the television, before the safety car came out, Lewis Hamilton was third.  After that Hamilton and Trulli’s position switched, I was wondering for awhile.  But this is how Jarno Trulli quoted:

"I can't say how disappointed I am to finish third but have the result questioned," he said. "When the safety car came out towards the end of the race Lewis passed me but soon after he suddenly slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road. I thought he had a problem so I overtook him as there was nothing else I could do."

This is very disappointing for Toyota, and Jarno Trulli.  He drove a fantastic race despite starting from the pit.

After applying the penalty of 10 seconds 25 seconds (as it happened within the last five laps), third place stripped from Trulli and dropped to 12th place, the final podium slot was passed down to Lewis Hamilton who starting grid was 18. 

 
Apart from that, Sebastian Vettel was penalized as well for the collision with Robert Kubica.  The clumsy move cause Robert Kubica third place, cause himself a second place and 10-place grid penalty on Malaysia Grand Prix, which will be held on 5th April.

Touched - Robert Kubica on the left, Sebastian Vettel on the right

BRAWN ONE TWO – Australian GP

Jenson Button is the driver of the day no doubt about it.  Thanks to the the Sebastian Vettel And Robert Kubica, Ruben Barichello took the second step of the podium.  Another driver benefit from the stunt was Lewis Hamilton Jarno Trulli, the final driver to complete the podium.

What a dramatic event in Albert’s Park.  The race was sort of completed under the safety car (the safety car put off its light on the final corner), but do not forget the first appearance of Brawn GP!

Big smile on Ross Brawn and Richard Branson face!

Do not forget Sebastian Vettel, he did a fantastic job as well until the last 3 laps of the race.  Clumsy, the only word can be used to describe his move to defends his second position from Robert Kubica.

I was still watching the television while I blogging this post.  Trulli was talking to Ross Brawn, Jenson Button and Ruben Barichello.  I am very happy with you guys, and Barichello was delighted screaming “ONE TWO?!” to Ross Brawn.  Brawn just cool, smiling to both of the driver.

First Debut One two after year 1954! Same engine manufacturer! Amazing!

2 British, 1 Brazilian, Bridgestone tyres, a group of Brilliant team member and a Brawn team… That’s how you spell BRAWN!

Go-ahead – Taller diffuser

 

Albert Park stewards have rejected the protest against the diffusers on the Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams machine.  These three teams race car design will remain unchanged and will be free to compete in this weekend.

 

Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull have confirmed that they will now take the matter to the FIA Court of Appeal, which cannot convene until next weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix has been run. Thus the outcome of the opening two races could be in doubt.

 

This is how F1 works, if you can’t beat them on track try off-track…