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.
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
My favourite on top!
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 56 | 1:57:43.485 | 1 | 10 |
| 2 | 14 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 56 | +10.9 secs | 3 | 8 |
| 3 | 22 | Jenson Button | Brawn-Mercedes | 56 | +44.9 secs | 5 | 6 |
| 4 | 23 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn-Mercedes | 56 | +63.7 secs | 4 | 5 |
| 5 | 2 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 56 | +65.1 secs | 12 | 4 |
| 6 | 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 56 | +71.8 secs | 9 | 3 |
| 7 | 10 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 56 | +74.4 secs | 19 | 2 |
| 8 | 12 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 56 | +76.4 secs | 10 | 1 |
| 9 | 7 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 56 | +84.3 secs | 2 | |
| 10 | 4 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 56 | +91.7 secs | 8 | |
| 11 | 11 | Sebastien Bourdais | STR-Ferrari | 56 | +94.1 secs | 15 | |
| 12 | 6 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 56 | +95.8 secs | 11 | |
| 13 | 5 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 56 | + 106.8 secs | 17 | |
| 14 | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Mercedes | 55 | +1 Lap | 20 | |
| 15 | 16 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 55 | +1 Lap | 7 | |
| 16 | 8 | Nelsinho Piquet | Renault | 53 | +2 Laps | 16 | |
| 17 | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 50 | Accident | 18 | |
| Ret | 17 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 43 | Transmission | 14 | |
| Ret | 3 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 20 | Electrical | 13 | |
| Ret | 9 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 18 | Accident damage | 6 |
Brawn Three and Four. Sebastian Vettel is the new rain master, he drove a fantastic race. He deserved it!
He won first race for Toro Rosso, and now won the first race for Redbull, and not just winning the race, he started on pole and finish first. Mark Webber get the job done by scoring second place.
Perfect race for Redbull!
Rolling start for China GP, Alonso with very light fuel load bad for him. Brawn duo will have advantage as they are on more heavy fuel load, however, Brawn cars have not experience prolong wet condition.
Very wet condition, the real racing will kick start when the safety switches off the light. We’ll see…
More after the break
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.
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…
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.
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
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!
| 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
Dramatic event, back to back victory for Brawn GP.
More update coming after the break…
With 23 laps remaining, extremely wet. Race track turning into river, cars spinning…. Felipe Massa losing his temper!? That’s why.
Jenson Button leading at the moment, Timo Glock second, Nick Heidfeld third. I have not seen anything quite like this before, lets see what will happen next
Jenson Button on pole, Jarno Trulli Second.
Sebastian Vettel and Ruben Barrichello set a good time as well (third and forth)
But Vettel got 10-place grid penalty, and Barichello 5-place grid penalty for changing his gear box on practice.
Jenson Button first, both Liar Team McLaren were out.
Toyota has got pace as well, second for Jarno Trulli.
Q3 after the break…
Massa unable to squeeze himself into Q2, silly mistake by Ferrari. Ferrari practically parked their cars in the pit try to save another set of tyres, bad decision.
Kimi Raikonnen was in a dangerous position too, 14th. Luckily he made it to Q2
More to come after the break….
This was the story: (All these happened under the safety car period)
The Toyota driven by Jarno Trulli went wide at the second corner Lewis Hamilton overtook him. The McLaren Team gave an order to Hamilton to allow the Toyota through.
Hamilton obey the team order, allow Trulli to pass. Hamilton was confused and realized that he need not let him past he should be able to take that position back, if Trulli made a mistake.
The team ask him to hold position and get ready to overtake when the safety car light if off as the KERS is fully charge at that point.
When the race end, the FIA steward penalized Trulli for overtaking under the safety car. They question both the drivers and teams.
Trulli mentioned: “Lewis slow down and allow me to pass, I have not choice but to pass him”.
During the hearing, held approximately one hour after the end of the race, the Stewards and the Race Director questioned Lewis Hamilton and his Team Manager David Ryan specifically about whether there had been an instruction given to Hamilton to allow Trulli to overtake. Both the driver and the Team Manager stated that no such instruction had been given. The Race Director specifically asked Hamilton whether he had consciously allowed Trulli to overtake. Hamilton insisted that he had not done so.
Trulli telling the truth, McLaren and Lewis Hamilton are lying. They shouldn’t have done that, Hamilton could be at the podium or in worse case a forth place. After all these lies, he and the team were disqualified.
"Nonetheless, the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Team now regrets that it did not do so, accepts the Stewards' decision and will not appeal."
The new results (Full Australia GP Result):
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…
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
