F1 2009 Prediction - China GP

Renault powered engine sweep the top 3 position in Shanghai circuit. Sebastian Vettel scoring his first ever pole position, with Fernando Alonso second and Mark Webber on the 3 spot.

Ruben Barichello will start at the third row as well, whereas Jenson Button will start on the forth alongside with Jarno Trulli sixth on the grid.

I believe that both Brawn and Toyota are in the similar strategy, they will have slightly longer first stint the other top 3 car will have short ones.

The result very much depend on the first pit stop, despite Ruben Barichello and Jenson Button start forth and fifth on the grid, my money will still be with Brawn. Renault powered machine will be a strong contender especially Fernando Alonso, he is famous for his swift start up, he might be leading the field for awhile, we will see.

Brawn, Toyota and Williams Diffuser are Legal

After a series of appeals and protests, FIA Court of Appeal (ICA) has rejected it all and concluded the “double decker” designs comply the 2009 regulations.

This diffuser had gone through the race stewards both in Australia and Malaysia, now ICA.  Meaning that these three teams will have peaceful mind on the following race.

On the other hand, Ferrari having a headache as they are going to modified the existing F60 design.  They reckon that with the “double decker” design, the race machine will gain 0.5 second a lap.  However, it going to take time and involve R & D investment, we will not be seeing the revamped Ferrari in this coming China GP, probably in Catalunya, Spain or Monte Carlo which is 2 to 3 races from now, the soonest.

What will happen to the rest of the teams, perhaps they are not as rich as Ferrari, but I believe that with the clearance given by the FIA, the rest of the field will at least invest some time to improve their car on these.  We’ll see…

Jenson Button and Sir Richard Branson in Fight over Jessica Michibata

It does not matter how much you pay to stuck your logo on my car, just don’t touch my girlfriend!!

Melbourne Grand Prix celebrations turned sour last month when winning driver Jenson Button had a bust-up with billionaire sponsor Sir Richard Branson over his lingerie model girlfriend.

 

The pair clashed when Button thought the Virgin boss was coming on to his 24-year-old partner Jessica Michibata, during a boozy dinner at upmarket Melbourne restaurant Nobu.

"Richard was clearly very, very drunk and took a shine to Jessica during the evening," a source said.

 

"But there was a misunderstanding and Jenson became angry. The whole thing got very, very heated.

"Richard thought Jenson was over-reacting, and gave as good back. Both of them were livid."

Brawn team officials and Virgin executives watched the confrontation in "stunned silence".

The blow-up reportedly happened only hours after Sir Richard, 58, announced a sponsorship deal to put Virgin's logo on the side of Button's car.

Button, 29, won in Melbourne and in Malaysia a week later to help improve relations with his new sponsor.

"This was before Jenson and the Brawn GP team won in Melbourne and Malaysia, and they were an untested team looking for sponsorship," the source said.

"So for Jenson to lose his rag at Richard, it was serious. But things were fine by the next day."

Sir Richard, worth more than $6 billion, is married but frequently surrounds himself with glamorous women to promote the Virgin brand.

McLaren – Still the same old McLaren

From spy scandal to false report… McLaren Mercedes reputation is falling, I believe lots of people will lose interest in this team. Myself is one of them, the way they do things is just unethical. The current world champion so what? There are rumours saying Lewis wanted to quick racing with them… Ferrari is dirty? You have not seen McLaren….

They are invited to WMSC by the FIA, below are the statement release by FIA:

"Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has been invited to appear before an extraordinary meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Wednesday, 29 April, 2009, to answer charges that, in breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, it

- on 29 March, 2009, told the stewards of the Australian Grand Prix that no instructions were given to Hamilton in Car No. 1 to allow Trulli in Car no. 9 to pass when both cars were behind the safety car, knowing this statement to be untrue;

- procured its driver Hamilton the current World Champion, to support and confirm this untrue statement to the stewards;

- although knowing that as a direct result of its untrue statement to the stewards, another driver and a rival team had been unfairly penalised, made no attempt to rectify the situation either by contacting the FIA or otherwise;

- on 2 April, 2009, at a second hearing before the stewards of the Australian Grand Prix, (meeting in Malaysia) made no attempt to correct the untrue statement of 29 March but, on the contrary, continued to maintain that the statement was true, despite being allowed to listen to a recording of the team instructing Hamilton to let Trulli past and despite being given more than one opportunity to correct its false statement;

- on 2 April, 2009, at the second stewards' hearing, procured its driver Hamilton to continue to assert the truth of the false statement given to the stewards on 29 March, while knowing that what he was saying to the stewards was not true."

In response, McLaren issued the following press release:
"McLaren acknowledges receipt of an invitation to appear at an FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris on April 29, received this afternoon. We undertake to co-operate fully with all WMSC processes, and welcome the opportunity to work with the FIA in the best interests of Formula 1.

"This afternoon McLaren and its former sporting director, Dave Ryan, have formally parted company. As a result, he is no longer an employee of any of the constituent companies of the McLaren Group."

Source: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/4/9159.html

Ferrari – Not the old Ferrari

After the departure of Michael Schumacher, Ross Brawn, and Jon Todt, the Ferrari we seeing now is not the old Ferrari anymore.

The matter of fact, Michael Schumacher still with the prancing horse as an advisor occasionally test driver, but it seems that things are not moving in the right direction for Ferrari.

On Malaysian GP Saturday qualifying session, Ferrari pace was not  that far off.  But Felipe Massa failed to progress beyond Q1 after the team mistakenly assumed his time would be quick enough to progress into the second qualifying phase.

On Sunday itself, Kimi Raikonnen was running a set of full wet tyres on a practically dry track expecting the rain to fall, another silly assumption.

At the moment Ferrari is not the fastest car but they definitely can do better than this, score some point Ferrari!

2009 Malaysian GP Result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	31	55:30.622	1	5
2	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	31	+22.7 secs	10	4
3	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	31	+23.5 secs	3	3
4	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	31	+46.1 secs	2	2.5
5	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	31	+47.3 secs	8	2
6	14	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	31	+52.3 secs	5	1.5
7	1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	31	+60.7 secs	12	1
8	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	31	+71.5 secs	4	.5
9	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	31	+76.9 secs	16
10	11	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	31	+102.164 secs	15
11	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	31	+109.422 secs	9
12	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	31	+116.130 secs	11
13	8	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	31	+116.713 secs	17
14	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	31	+142.841 secs	7
15	15	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	30	Spin	13
16	12	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	30	Spin	20
17	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	30	+1 Lap	19
18	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	29	Spin	18
Ret	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1	Engine	6
Ret	2	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Spin	14

Race stop with 23 laps remaining due to extremely heavy down pour.  Less than 75% of lap completed, all awarded point will be multiply by 0.5

No Restart – Half point awarded

Dramatic event, back to back victory for Brawn GP.

More update coming after the break…