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Thursday 30 April 2009

FIA Regulations for 2010, How will they impact the sport?

With the announcement of the FIA £40 million budget cap the regulations for 2010 have also been released.

FIA - 2010 - Sporting Regulations
FIA - 2010 - Technical Regulations

So what this means for the budget capped teams/F1 in brief is:

3 extra teams could be bought into F1 with a 26 car grid now agreed
Wind Tunnel testing will have no restrictions for Budget capped teams
Budget capped teams won't be restricted to engine and gearbox restrictions (unlimited engines & gearboxes)
Engine revs are unrestricted for Budget capped teams and 18,000 rpm's for the others
KERS systems are also upped for non Budget teams from 400KJ release per lap to 800KJ's (KERS is restricted to speeds lower than 300KMH)
Transmissions to budget capped teams are unrestricted (so 4 wheel drive is permitted)
KERS will be able to used all round in a 4 wheel drive scenario
Front wing driver adjustment will increased to 10 degrees for Budget capped teams
Rear wing driver adjustment will be available to budget capped teams

All teams will be affected by the next rule change: Tyre warmers will be banned for 2010

Sporting Regulations

2.1 All drivers, competitors and officials participating in the Championship undertake, on behalf of themselves, their employees, agents and suppliers, to observe all the provisions as supplemented or amended of the International Sporting Code (the Code), the Formula One Technical Regulations (the Technical Regulations) and the present Sporting Regulations together referred to as "the Regulations".
UCompetitors who have agreed to abide by the regulations governing the voluntary cost cap for the Championship year, ("Cost-Regulated Teams") will be permitted certain additional freedoms where specifically stated within these regulations.

13.6 No more than 26 cars will be admitted to the Championship, two being entered by each competitor.

22.1
a) Track testing shall be considered any track running time undertaken by a competitor entered in the Championship with the exception of :
a1) promotional or demonstration events carried out using tyres provided specifically for this purpose by the appointed supplier ;
a2) three one day young driver training tests carried out between the end of the last Event of the Championship and 31 December of the same year, any such driver having not competed in more than two F1 World Championship Events ;
a3) eight one day aerodynamic tests carried out on FIA approved straight line or constant radius sites between 1 January 2010 and the end of the last Event of the Championship.
b) No competitor may carry out more than 15,000km of track testing during a calendar year.
c) No track testing may take place between the start of the week preceding the first Event of the Championship and 31 December of the same year.
d) During all track testing cars must be fitted with the FIA ECU required by Article 8.2 of the 2010U FIA Formula One Technical Regulations. 2010 F1 Sporting Regulations 9 of 48 30 April 2009
e) No track testing is permitted at sites which are not currently approved for use by Formula 1 cars. In order to ensure that venue licence conditions are respected at all times during track testing, competitors are required to inform the FIA of their test schedule in order that an observer may be appointed if deemed necessary.
f) During all Formula One track testing :
- red flag procedures must be respected ;
- no other type of vehicle is permitted on the track ;
- every reasonable effort should be made to ensure that the recommendations concerning emergency services detailed in Article 16 of Appendix H to the Code are followed.
g) If, after an incident during track testing, the Medical Warning Light signals that threshold forces have been exceeded the driver must present himself for examination in the circuit medical centre without delay.
h) No wind tunnel testing may be carried out using a scale model which is greater than 60% of full size.
i) No wind tunnel testing may be carried out at a speed exceeding 50 metres/second.
Paragraphs a), b), c), h) and i) will not apply to Cost-Regulated Teams.

28.4
a) Each driver may use no more than eight engines during a Championship season. Should a driver use more than eight engines he will drop ten places on the starting grid at the first Event during which each additional engine is used.
An engine will be deemed to have been used once the car’s timing transponder has shown that it has left the pit lane.
b) If a driver is replaced at any time during the Championship season his replacement will be deemed to be the original driver for the purposes of assessing engine usage.
c) After consultation with the relevant engine supplier the FIA will attach seals to each engine prior to it being used for the first time at an Event in order to ensure that no significant moving parts can be rebuilt or replaced.
2010 F1 Sporting Regulations 14 of 48 30 April 2009
Within two hours of the end of the post race parc fermé exhaust blanking plates (with one 10mm diameter inspection hole per cylinder) and further seals will be applied to all used engines in order to ensure that these engines cannot be run between Events. Upon request to the FIA these additional seals will be removed after the start of initial scrutineering at the next Event at which the engines are required. All such engines must remain within the team’s designated garage area when not fitted to a car and may not be started at any time during an Event other than when fitted to a car eligible to participate in the Event.
d) If any of the FIA seals are damaged or removed from an engine after it has been used for the first time that engine may not be used again unless they were removed under FIA supervision.
e) If an engine is changed in accordance with Article 34.1 the engine which was replaced may not be used during any future qualifying session or race with the exception of the last Event of the Championship.
28.5
Only engines which have been homologated by the FIA in accordance with Appendix 6 may be used at an Event during the 2008-2012 Championship seasons.
28.6
For the purposes of this Article only, an Event will be deemed to comprise P3, the qualifying practice session and the race.
a) Each driver may use no more than one gearbox for four consecutive Events in which his team competes. Should a driver use a replacement gearbox he will drop five places on the starting grid at that Event and an additional five places each time a further gearbox is used.
Any replacement gearbox must be fitted with the same gear ratios that were declared under d) below and will only be required to complete the remainder of the Event in question. Any change to the gear ratios declared under d) below will incur a further five grid place penalty. In either case a new four race sequence may start at the following Event.
Unless the driver fails to finish the race (see below) the gearbox fitted to the car at the end of the Event must remain in it for three further Events. Any driver who failed to finish the race at the first, second or third of the four Events for reasons which the technical delegate accepts as being beyond the control of the team or driver, may start the following Event with a different gearbox without a penalty being incurred.
A gearbox will be deemed to have been used once the car’s timing transponder has shown that it has left the pit lane.
b) If a driver is replaced after the first, second or third of a four Event period, having finished the first, second or third Events, the replacement driver must use the gearbox which the original driver had been using.
c) After consultation with the relevant team the FIA will attach seals to each gearbox in order to ensure that no moving parts, other than those specifically permitted under d) below, can be rebuilt or replaced.
d) At each Event seals may be broken once, under supervision and at any time prior to the second day of practice, for the sole purpose of changing gear ratios and dog rings (excluding final drives or reduction gears). Competitors must inform the FIA technical delegate which ratios they intend to fit no later than two hours after the end of P2.
Gear ratios and dog rings (excluding final drives or reduction gears) may also be changed under supervision for others of identical specification at any time during an Event provided the FIA technical delegate is satisfied there is evident physical damage to the parts in question and that such changes are not being carried out on a systematic basis.
e) Other than under d) above, a replacement gearbox will also be deemed to have been used if any of the FIA seals are damaged or removed from the original gearbox after it has been used for the first time.
Articles 28.4 and 28.6 will not apply to Cost-Regulated Teams.

29.1
a) Refuelling is only permitted in the team’s designated garage area
b) Refuelling during a race is forbidden.

33.1
The qualifying practice session will take place on the day before the race from 14.00 to 15.00.
The session will be run as follows :
a) From 14.00 to 14.20 (Q1) all cars will be permitted on the track and at the end of this period the slowest eight cars will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session.
Lap times achieved by the eighteen remaining cars will then be deleted.
b) From 14.27 to 14.42 (Q2) the eighteen remaining cars will be permitted on the track and at the end of this period the slowest eight cars will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session.
Lap times achieved by the ten remaining cars will then be deleted.
c) From 14.50 to 15.00 (Q3) the ten remaining cars will be permitted on the track.
The above procedure is based upon a Championship entry of 26 cars. If 24 cars are entered seven will be excluded after Q1 and Q2 and if 22 cars are entered six cars will be excluded after Q1 and Q2.

Technical Regulations

2.4 Automobiles must comply with these regulations in their entirety at all times during an Event.
Competitors who have agreed to abide by the regulations governing the voluntary cost cap for the Championship year, ("Cost-Regulated Teams") will be permitted certain additional freedoms where specifically stated within these regulations.

3.4.2 In order to prevent tyre damage to other cars, the top, forward and outer edges of the lateral extremities of any bodywork more than 450mm ahead of the front wheel centre line and more than 750mm from the car centre line must be at least 10mm thick with a radius of at least 5mm.

3.10 Bodywork behind the rear wheel centre line
3.10.3 In order to ensure that the relationship between these two sections cannot change whilst the car is in motion, other than when the upper section is being moved in accordance with Article 3.18.2, they must be bridged by means of rigid impervious supports (including any adjustment mechanism) arranged such that no part of the trailing edge of the forward section may be more than 200mm laterally from a support.

3.10.8 In side view, the projected area of any bodywork lying between 300mm and 950mm above the reference plane between the rear wheel centre line and a point 600mm behind it and more than 355mm from the car centre line must be greater than 330000mm²

3.18 Driver adjustable bodywork :
3.18.1 A single closed section situated each side of car centre line in the volume bounded by :
- lines 450mm and 800mm in front of the front wheel centre line ;
- a vertical plane which intersects these lines at a distance 250mm from the car centre line ;
- and the inboard face of the bodywork described in Article 3.7.5 ;
is allowed to change incidence while the vehicle is in motion within a maximum range of 6º, provided any such change maintains compliance with all of the bodywork dimensional regulations. This figure will be increased to 10º for Cost-Regulated Teams.
Alteration of the incidence of these sections must be made simultaneously and may only be commanded by direct driver input and controlled using the control electronics specified in Article 8.2. Except when the car is in the pit lane, a maximum of two adjustments may be made within any single lap of a circuit. UThis paragraph will not apply to Cost-Regulated TeamsU.
3.18.2 The incidence of the upper section described in Article 3.10.2 (if two sections are used) may be varied whilst the car is in motion, provided any such change maintains compliance with all of the bodywork dimensional regulations.
Alteration of the incidence of this section may only be commanded by direct driver input and controlled using the control electronics specified in Article 8.2.
This Article applies only to Cost-Regulated Team.

4.1 Minimum weight :
The weight of the car must not be less than 620kg at all times during the Event.

5.1.3 Crankshaft rotational speed must not exceed 18,000rpm.
This Article will not apply to Cost-Regulated Teams

5.2 Other means of propulsion :
5.2.1 The use of any device, other than the 2.4 litre, four stroke engine described in 5.1 above and one KERS, to power the car, is not permitted.
5.2.2 With the exception of one fully charged KERS, the total amount of recoverable energy stored on the car must not exceed 300kJ. Any which may be recovered at a rate greater than 2kW must not exceed 20kJ.
5.2.3 The maximum power, in or out, of any KERS must not exceed 60kW.
Energy released from the KERS may not exceed 400kJ in any one lap.
Measurements will be taken at the connection to the drivetrain.
For Cost-Regulated Teams only the following will apply :
- the power in is unrestricted ;
- the power out is limited to 120kW ;
- the energy released per lap is limited to 800kJ ;
- measurements will be taken at any FIA approved point in the drivetrain.

5.2.4 The amount of stored energy in any KERS may not be increased whilst the car is stationary during a race pit stop.
Release of power from any such system must remain under the complete control of the driver at all times the car is on the track.
The KERS may not be operated whilst the car is travelling above 300km/h.
5.2.5 All KERS energy storage devices must be situated between the front face of the engine and the driver's back when viewed in lateral projection. When establishing the front face of the engine, no parts of the fuel, oil, water or electrical systems will be considered.

9.1 Transmission types :
No transmission system may permit more than two wheels to be driven.
This Article will not apply to Cost-Regulated Teams.

9.9.1 The KERS must connect at any point in the rear wheel drivetrain before the differential.
The restriction to only the rear wheel drivetrain will not apply to Cost-Regulated Teams.

11.7 KERS brake valve :
The pressure generated by the driver in the rear brake circuit may be reduced during KERS operation by the use of a brake pressure reducing valve. The valve must be manufactured, installed and operated in accordance with FIA specifications, details of which may be found in the Appendix to these regulations.

12.5.1 All tyres must be used as supplied by the manufacturer, any modification or treatment such as cutting, grooving, the application of solvents or softeners, the fitting of heat retaining devices or pre-heating is therefore prohibited. This applies to dry, intermediate and wet-weather tyres


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FIA Budget Cap for 2010 - Brawn GP

So the FIA have decided that the cap is to be set at £40 million for 2010.

Lots of rules to consider, most notable among these is that engine costs will not be included in the budget capped expenditure for 2010.
Also excluded from the budget cap are marketing and hospitality, driver pay, fines and penalties imposed by the FIA, anything that teams can demonstrate has no influence on its on-track performance and dividends paid from profits relating to participation in the championship. The FIA will allow those teams that sign up to the budget cap to have increased technical freedom to make it easier to compete with the uncapped teams. This includes adjustable front and rear wings as well as an engine that can run without a rev limit. In addition, the budget cap teams will be allowed unlimited testing outside of the racing season, and will not be restricted by the wind tunnel scale and speed stipulations.
The FIA have also announced that the ban on in race refuelling will come into force fo 2010 and the maximum number of cars allowed on grid is increased to 26 from 24 paving the way for 3 new teams.

All very interesting as this will force even the likes of Ferrari and McLaren to think about the cap

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Brawn GP - Updates

Not only will BGP make updates to the BGP001 in Barcelona a few updates will occur around the site in and around now and Barcelona with updates to the driver profiles and a weekly podcast will be coming to the site.

Race fans will all know that the return to Europe normally brings changes to the cars and this can impact the championship. This year will see the biggest change around ever in my opinion with all the teams amassing a raft of aero changes to the car. For Brawn GP this is the ideal opportunity to fully integrate the Mercedes powerplant. Leading upto the start of the season the Mercedes engine was drafted in as a quick replacement for the Honda engine that the team couldn't use. This lead to some packaging compromises to integrate the engine quickly with as least initial cost to keep the team racing. The only real showing of this from our perspective as fans is that the gearbox integration solution lead to Rubens having to have a gearbox changed (The Mercedes engine does not lubricate the gearbox like the Honda engine did and has a separate system) and also suspension travel was compromised at the last few races causing issues not only to the engine/drivetrain but to the overall aero setup.
Looking at advancements for Barcelona and the biggest advantage being bought forward will be the repackaging of the engine/drivetrain as this will increase balance/weight distribution Ross commented on the BBC forum programme post Sakhir that there will be a weight reduction because of this too which will help the drivers to place more ballast in the places they need it. Aero wise it's been remarked that BGP have a trick up their sleeves that no-one else will be able to follow so it must be an inherent design component of the setup they already run thats been redeveloped. I also expect some revisions to the front and rear wings and talks of revisions to the sidepods has already been mentioned by Ross. Expect an asymmetrical design to feature just as McLaren used last season as the Mercedes engine is much better at cooling than it's Honda counterpart. I will update the BGP001 analysis after the Barcelona outing to show the difference (where I can) to the first iteration of the car.

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Wednesday 29 April 2009

Q&A - Ross Brawn

Q. Three race wins from four races. Has the start to the season gone a little better than you expected?

Ross Brawn: Yes, it has. Just getting to the first race was a huge challenge. We had a feeling the car would be competitive after what we were seeing from other car's performance, and that proved to be the case. But what we have seen in the races is really unbelievable.

Q. Were you expecting victory in Bahrain because after qualifying people were not so sure?

RB: It was a tough one today. It wasn't a given. Perhaps Australia was one we could only throw away, whereas here was one we had to win. My worry was really to look after the engine because in qualifying the engine was running too hot because of the cooling, and because it all got thrown together at the last minute we have underestimated the water cooling and since it was so hot on Saturday it was compromising the car.
They could only do one fast lap and then they had to cool the car down. And that is not great for using the tyres and getting into it. So qualifying was compromised. We felt we could cope with it in the race, and we did that. Friday had shown we could look after the tyres.

Q. So can that issue be corrected in Spain and do you have enough of an upgrade to keep yourself ahead of the field?

RB: Well, the cooling will not be a problem in the normal European climate, but there will be some races like Hungary in July/August and Abu Dhabi at the end of the year where there might be some problems. But we have got to do something about it, because when the engine runs that hot we lose some power. We will fix it, and we have a series for upgrades for Barcelona and beyond. We have to be optimistic. We have had no upgrades for the first four races, because there was nothing there. Getting to the first race was as much as we could manage and there was nothing in the cupboard. The process is starting again from the point at which we were able to buy the company and we got our programme well into the swing again and Barcelona will show us the benefit of getting it running again.

Q. How crucial was it to maximise your chances in the first four races, because you had the development advantage and now the others will catch up?

RB: Yes, it was fairly important. You always sneed to maximise your chances when you have a strong group performance. But it is also taking the points when you are not so on top of things, like we were in China. We were not fastest, and that is important as well because those points will be vital towards the end of the season. You need to strike when you've got the tools.

Q. Can you believe that you have enough budget/staff to win the title?

RB: I believe so, but I am not thinking that way. We are going out there to win races. We have got a great driver pairing and we've had a painful restructuring of the company, that is behind us now, and everyone can see what can be achieved. I am optimistic. We have some great drivers the rest is up to us.

Q. Where do you think you stand at the moment pace wise - are you the quickest?

RB: It is pretty close. There are two or three cars that are all quite similar, as we saw today. We had a good race strategy and that is what made the difference today.

Q. Do you feel they have developed more towards you in these races, or are they just getting more out of the cars?

RB: A bit of both. I think probably they are optimising the package they have and adding bits. Quite genuinely we've had nothing on the car since it was launched in Barcelona. Now is the time that we can start adding things and trying to improve.

Source: www.autosport.com/F1

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Brawn GP - Virgin staying on board

With Barcelona rapidly approaching Richard Branson has made it clear that he intends to stay on board as a sponsor. His level of interest is said to be Title Sponsor however he has also said that should a more substantial offer come BGP's way then he won't stand in the way. This could give the team a total rebranding should the funds be sufficient. I love the current livery but it is a bit marmite and I know a few BGP fans hate it so with Virgin on board those fans could get what their after with a facelift to the car scheme. We may even still see another name change to include the Virgin branding. Branson will undoubtedly have to have adjusted his tact to secure sponsorship with the team as with 3 wins in 4 BGP are a team to be in bed with. Barcelona will also see a raft of updates to the car which are said to offer around a further 3 tenths, this should keep BGP towards the sharp end of the field thus offering great exposure to Virgin.

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Sunday 26 April 2009

Super.....Super Jense

Another stellar performance by Jenson to bring home another GP win! He managed to do well off the line even though he lost position, however it was the way he came back from this and took it to his opposition that impresses once again. In the pit stage window he produced some more stellar laps, coupled with a great pit stop from the team. Kudos to everyone in the team as they all seemed to be a little down over the qually performance.

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Brawn GP - Sakhir, Bahrain Qualifying & Weights

Hi BGP fans apologies for my lack of posting yesterday one of our vans snapped its cambelt 150 miles away so I had to go and rescue it. Another great job done by the team however it does seem that the field is starting to equalise and for the 1st time this season a KERS car is in a place to make a threat. Qualifying and Weight positions are as follows

1 Jarno Trulli 648.5 - 12 Laps
2 Timo Glock 643 - 10 Laps
3 Sebastian Vettel 659 - 15 Laps
4 Jenson Button 652.5 - 13 Laps
5 Lewis Hamilton 652.5 - 13 Laps - KERS
6 Rubens Barrichello 649 - 12 Laps
7 Fernando Alonso 650.5 - 12 Laps KERS
8 Felipe Massa 664.5 - 17 Laps KERS
9 Nico Rosberg 670.5 - 19 Laps
10 Kimi Raikkonen 671.5 - 20 Laps KERS
11 Heikki Kovalainen 678.5 - 22 Laps KERS
12 Kazuki Nakajima 680.9 - 23 Laps
13 Robert Kubica 698.6 - 29 Laps KERS
14 Nick Heidfeld 696.3 - 28 Laps KERS
15 Nelson Piquet Jnr 677.6 - 22 Laps
16 Sebastien Buemi 678.5 - 22 Laps
17 Giancarlo Fisichella 652 - 13 Laps
18 Mark Webber 656 - 14 Laps
19 Adrian Sutil 679 - 22 Laps
20 Sebastien Bourdais 667.5 - 18 Laps

The obvious immediate threats are Hamilton and Alonso but looking further down the field you would be wrong to write off Kubica and Heidfeld both of which are going 10 laps further, have KERS and can manage their tyres quite well. A great race in prospect.

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Friday 24 April 2009

Brawn GP - Sahkir, Bahrain - Free Practice 2

Yet another tight practice session with the times reflecting this, only a 1.4 margin between top and bottom driver


Rosberg 1:33.339
Alonso 1:33.530
Trulli 1:33.616
Vettel 1:33.661
Webber 1:33.676
Button 1:33.694
Sutil 1:33.763
Glock 1:33.764
Barrichello 1:33.885
Nakajima 1:33.899
Hamilton 1:33.994
Fisichella 1:34.025
Buemi 1:34.127
Bourdais 1:34.366
Piquet 1:34.411
Massa 1:34.564
Kubica 1:34.605
Räikkönen 1:34.670
Kovalainen 1:34.764
Heidfeld 1:34.790

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Brawn GP - Sakhir, Bahrain - Free Practice 1

Well the F1 circus has arrived in Sakhir and at least we can say that we won't have a rainstorm, however we may get a sandstorm. It seems some teams have come to Sakhir with some interim updates before the teams converge back in Europe. Free Practice 1 was business as usual with times all over the show and not really giving an indication of any real true pace.

Times are as follows:

Hamilton 1:33.647
Heidfeld 1:33.907
Kubica 1:33.938
Rosberg 1:34.227
Button 1:34.434
Kovalainen 1:34.502
Barrichello 1:34.531
Massa 1:34.589
Webber 1:34.827
Raikkonen 1:34.827
Nakajima 1:34.880
Vettel 1:34.938
Piquet 1:34.974
Sutil 1:35.021
Trulli 1:35.036
Fisichella 1:35.042
Glock 1:35.333
Alonso 1:35.348
Bourdais 1:35.353
Buemi 1:35.369

It just goes to show how close the teams are lining up at the minute with only 1.722 seperating the top driver to the last. It would appear from the footage that turns 9 and 10 are where most drivers are having trouble dialling in and I would suggest that cross winds here at Sakhir are playing havoc with setting up the cars.

BGP have fielded some livery on the car for Virgin which in all honesty should have stayed as it was. This new livery has no definition and you can't make it out when they are out on circuit. I'll try to grab some pics of it.

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Thursday 23 April 2009

Brawn GP - Jenson on Bahrain and his closest competition

Q: Jenson, for so many years you’ve been the ‘maybe guy’ and now - almost out of the blue - you’re a championship contender. Has your mind been able to keep up with this rapid development?

Jenson Button: Well, the last couple of years have been quite difficult but I wouldn’t say that made me a ‘maybe guy’! Formula One is all about being part of a team and if the team as a whole is not doing well you’re not going to be competitive. Now it is fantastic to be with a team that is very competitive and I am able to do a good job - and for sure it is overwhelming to lead the championship by six points. That is where I should be, and I am very happy. This was always my belief that I belong there, because if you lose that belief in yourself you won’t be in Formula One any more.

Q: There are currently a few drivers in the paddock who have gone ‘from hero to zero’. You’ve done the opposite. Did you ever dream that your career could still have such a stunning turnaround in store?

JB: That’s always what you hope and the reason why you continue in Formula One. Even if you’ve had a couple of bad years you always think that there is a possibility. I always knew that we had a competitive car for this season - sure, not how competitive - but that is why I pushed so hard to be on the grid. Q: In nine years you won one Grand Prix - and then you won two within the space of a week, followed by a third place in China. Will the podium be your new home? JB: Hopefully! In Formula One the way is you want to win every race - although there is always the consistency question. In 2004 I had 11 podiums but I didn’t get anywhere near to winning the championship. This year my belief is that we can do much better than that and be on the top spot more often.

Q: According to Renault boss Flavio Briatore, the wrong guy in the wrong car is leading the championship. What’s your stance on that?

JB: I think it is the wrong guy making an opinion. Flavio is a very outspoken man and if he means that us leading the championship is wrong for the sport then his comments might be wrong for the sport. He doesn’t understand the way Formula One is in the way of how a car performs and how a driver performs, because I think that I am the right man to lead the championship and us as a team being competitive has made Formula One a bit more exciting. Seeing new drivers at the front, on the podium and winning races is good for the sport. The feedback that I have had from people underlines that. Hopefully it continues a long way because I have worked my ass off for this and nobody can take that away from me.

Q: The Brawn was declared legal by the FIA. What if the verdict had been a different one?

JB: It wasn’t! That’s the way I always work! The verdict has shown that we’ve made the best out of the regulations and the good thing is that most teams have realized that and they’ve had to actually start working hard on improving their cars to be competitive.

Q: You didn’t win in China, but how welcome was that Vettel victory? It demonstrated that a different diffuser on its own does not guarantee a winning car, and that anyone who did their homework over the winter now has a chance to win…

JB: Well, in the first two races we’d been very competitive. In the wet in China that wasn’t the case. It is nice having competition up there in the front, and the Red Bulls were very quick in China. We couldn’t get anywhere near them. And also Toyota is showing very strong performance, so it wasn’t the runaway victory that I had in the first two races. The first race was still tough, as we had the safety car and at the second race there was a downpour of rain, so neither victory was a walk in the park. It will be very interesting to see where we stand this weekend.

Q: Are you surprised that the usual frontrunners are experiencing such a slump?

JB: Yes, for sure I’m surprised that Ferrari so far hasn’t scored any points, but we saw McLaren doing a very good job in Shanghai with both drivers, so they have made quite an improvement. No doubt the top teams of last year will improve - the question is when. My guess is that when we get back to Europe we will see McLaren much stronger - but whether it’s enough for the front I don’t know. At the moment we’re looking more at the Red Bulls and the Toyotas.

Q: At the first two races the Brawns clearly dominated - in China the situation was slightly different. Did the others catch up or did the BGP001 let you down a bit?

JB: In Australia the car was quick, for sure. In China there were also other teams that were competitive, especially in the wet conditions which made it very difficult for us. Last weekend I don’t think that we were able to get the maximum out of the car - and even if we had I doubt that we would have been as quick as the Red Bulls. It is just the way their car is built. It works better in the wet conditions. We have to look at the reasons and try to improve.

Q: What will we see from you this weekend? And from the three races so far, who do you think is your biggest challenger?

JB: I am pretty sure we will be competitive here - and our competition will again be Red Bull and Toyota. For sure, my team mate will also be a big challenger. But I am looking forward to the race and it is important to be on the podium. But this time I want to be on the top step again!

Source: www.f1.com

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Tuesday 21 April 2009

Brawn GP Race Review - Shanghai, China

Another great result in qualifying by Rubens & Jenson taking 4th & 5th respectively and following on later news that the positions were vindicated with Vettel, Alonso and Webber all carrying much less fuel to the grid. Hopes were high that with the strategy in place and the BGP performing at a great pace that the pair may be able to slip forward throughout the race. Sunday came and so did the rain along with another safety car. A procession of cars followed the safety car around the first 8 laps all desperately trying to keep some heat in the tyres. All the time behind the safety car Alonso's race was being compromised as his first stint was only to take him to around lap 10. Lewis was the 1st to make a move, taking a place off of Kimi in the first real lap of the race. Vettel with a clean road ahead and no spray immediately began to pull away from the pack, pulling out a 2.4 sec lead over 2nd place Webber. Lap 10 and Lewis has hauled in Jarno and puts a brave move in just lightly touching the grass before the corner. Lap 11 and Lewis dropped off the road and seemingly couldn't get the car back upto operating speed too quickly. Buemi put a move on Kimi and next to do the same thing was Felipe baby on Kimi. It wasn't long before everyone was overtaking Trulli as he slid further down the pack. Lap 14 and Webber made his 1st stop luckily for him he emerged just in front of Trulli and the train of cars in his wake. Next lap in and Vettel made his scheduled stop taking just over a second less in the box to stay in front of his team mate. Lap 17 and Robert Kubica decided to mount Jarno Trulli's Toyota coming into the last corner totally finishing Jarno's race. This left a huge amount of carbon fibre littering the circuit at this turn so once again the safety car ventured out onto the circuit. BGP took the opportunity to make both drivers pit stops before everyone caught upto the back of the safety car. Vettel and Buemi both had a lucky escape slowing down for the safety car when Buemi ran into the back of Vettel taking off his front wing. Whilst the safety car was out Felipe came to a grinding halt out on track it is believed he had an electrical problem. Lap 22 and we were back under way and Vettel soon started to pull away again. Jenson and Webber then began sparring for 2nd place with each driver dropping the car in corners and being over taken by the other. Webbers car in the wet was behaving much better than Jenson's and finally he overtook Jenson on the outside of turn 3 from there in Jenson tried his hardest to stay with Webber but couldn't keep pace with the RB5. Having now made his 2nd stop and Jenson still only having stopped once Vettel was once again coming to overtake showing the RB5's superior pace at Shanghai in the wet. Lap 42 saw Jenson making his 2nd stop whic put him back into 4th behind Vettel, Webber and Rosberg with the latter being out of sequence. With 6 laps to go Sutil got the car a little sideways between corners and ploughed into the barrier taking the front end off the Force India.
With the chequered flag falling Sebastian Vettel took a maiden win for Red Bull Racing followed by Mark Webber followed by both BGP001's of Jenson (3rd) and Rubens (4th). I must just say congratulations to Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and the whole Red Bull Racing team for their first GP win. A great result for BGP once again with the weather compromising the strategy and both Jenson and Rubens driving excellently to pick up the points/positions they did.

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James Allen interviews Ross Brawn

The interview can be found over here on James's Blog http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/index.htm

I have taken the excerpt which you will all read and posted it below:

What happened to your pace in the second part of qualifying?
“We had a bit of a problem with some settings on the car, it’s not quite right in some parts of the track. We have a problem with the suspension topping out and as the grip has improved it’s been getting worse because we haven’t got enough rear suspension travel. It’s a legacy of fitting the Mercedes Benz engine because we had to lift the gearbox up to fit the engine and it’s causing a few problems.
“So when we went out on low fuel with new tyres in the middle part of qualifying, we didn’t get the temperature in the tyres. It wasn’t particularly critical but I think we got a bit confused in where we really were because Red Bull were really quick and we weren’t.”

Did you underestimate the likely speed of the Red Bulls in Q3?
“No our view is that we can run a good race on a two stop strategy, a three stop has higher risks, there was no point in doing a three stop strategy in our position. The problem will come as we get caught up at the start, there’s no doubt some risks. Three stops is a little quicker than two, but you need a clean race, no safety cars at the wrong time. That’s why we were a little more conservative.”

So how do you feel your tactics will work out in the race?
“If you take fuel into consideration we still look the quickest, but the difficulty will be getting in the right place at the right time. I imagine that the light fuelled teams will start on the option [soft tyre] and the last 6 or 7 laps of that will be interesting to see what happens.

How tough is it to manage the soft tyre here?
“There is an issue to get it up to temperature and get it working, but once you do the tyre is very stressed here, there are some corners here that give the tyre a really hard time, so it seems to be a compund which is hard to warm up and then is not durable. The other one takes a couple of laps to get warm then its fine, really durable.”

What have Honda said about your success this season?
“They have been very complementary. I have had some really nice letters from Fukui-san since the start of the season. They are frustrated they can’t be part of it.”

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Sunday 19 April 2009

Brawn GP - Shanghai, China Race

Hi BGP fans another race another safety car issue. It seems to me FOM's race schedule adjustment is playing havoc with the weather situation. Anyway onwards from that discussion, I will provide the usual full blown race analysis later but I would just like to say congratulations to Jenson, Rubens and the team for another great performance. With the issues under safety car and the weather I see the finishing positions we got as a best performance we could achieve without Vettel and Webber having incidents. Strategy went out the window as gaps couldn't be opened in the field during pit windows so to take 3rd and 4th I think we should be pleased and it fortifies our position up top. Kudos to Red Bull Racing for their 1-2 and a round of applause to Sebastian Vettel for his 1st race win for RBR. I will follow up later with the press conference details.

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Saturday 18 April 2009

Car Weights - Shanghai China

As we all know the car weights give a good indication as to the fuel loads carried by the teams, the weights have been announced as follows:

Sebastian Vettel 644 KG's - 15 laps
Fernando Alonso 637 KG's - 13 laps
Mark Webber 646.5 KG's - 16 laps
Rubens Barrichello 661 KG's - 21 laps
Jenson Button 659 KG's - 20 laps
Jarno Trulli 664.5 KG's - 22 laps
Nico Rosberg 650.5 KG's - 17 laps
Kimi Raikkonen 673.5 KG's - 26 laps
Lewis Hamilton 679 KG's - 28 laps
Sebastian Buemi 673 KG's - 26 laps
Nick Heidfeld 679 KG's - 28 laps
Heikki Kovalenien 697 KG's - 34 laps
Filipe Massa 690KG's - 31 laps
Timo Glock 652 KG's - 18 laps
Kazuki Nakajima 682.7 KG's -29 laps
Sebastian Bourdais 690 KG's -31 laps
Nelsihno Piquet 697.9 KG's - 34 laps
Robert Kubica 659 KG's - 20 laps
Adrian Sutil 648 KG's - 16 laps
Fishichella 679.5 KG's - 27 laps

I have guestimated at a 2.8KG per lap fuel usage (then rounded up) as a guide to how far into the race they will go

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BBC Sport Interview - Brawn GP - Rubens Barrichello

Below you will find an Interview between Ted Kravitz and Rubens discussing the BGP001 and that the diffuser is not the only determining factor for the BGP001's fast pace. Unfortunately due to the BBC's international policy the video is only available for UK viewers :(

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8004100.stm

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Brawn GP - Qualifying - Shanghai, China

Well well well, what an absolutely fantastic qualifying session! Although we haven't put the cars on the front grid as we did in the previous races we still see some fantastic pace from our cars. I have to say Kudos to the teams and drivers in front (P1 - Vettel, P2 - Alonso and P3 Webber) we take P4 with Rubens on a 1:35.503 and P5 with Jenson on a 1:35.553.

Full timings for all drivers can be found here: FIA Timings

I have to say that the race stratergies are what will be shown in the race tomorrow. As soon as the car weights are announced I will have them published to the site.

I have to ask myself how much wind speed and cross winds have an effect on this circuit. It would be interesting to see a speed trap for the long straight on the circuit too as I think that extended shark fin that the RBR's are running may be helped by side winds.

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Friday 17 April 2009

Friday Practice - China

Good Morning Brawn GP fans, The F1 circus has now arrived in China and McLaren as expected are the first team to bring a revised rear diffuser.

This mornings first test saw Lewis Hamilton back in more familiray territory take P1 with a 1:37.334 completing 22 laps meanwhile our own Jenson Button completed 18 laps in P2 with a 1:37450 followed closely by Rubens with a 1:37.566 and 19 laps

Practice 2 saw Lewis slide backwards again obviously indicative of fuel loads in the first session. Jenson took P1 with a 1:35.679 and Rubens with a 1:35.881 taking 3rd leaving Rosberg to sandwich the pair in P2.

Picking through the timings you can see that Williams, Toyota and Red Bull Racing are still the most competitive cars next to Brawn but only Qualifying and the Race can show the true pace of all the cars.

Full Blown Timings can be found here:
Session 1
Session 2

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Wednesday 15 April 2009

Situation Diffused Finally - Brawn GP

So what does this mean now?

It means that while the others have been objecting against the BGP design but still pushing on to build their own varients we have been busy carrying on with our own developments. While the team has been racing out East the team back at Brackley will have been readying a raft of developments for Barcelona. Although the Merc package was a better fit than its Ferrari counterpart it was still a design compromise. The team will have been working to negate any differences caused by the retro fit of the engine and also utilise any advantages the Merc engine brings. Cooling has been mentioned by the team as a way to extract more time, although are sidepods are already quite radical compared to the competition the new varients are said to take this even further. Balance will be another key factor with the engine being positioned more favourably now that more time has been able to be spent on setup.

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Brawn GP - Diffusers Legal!

As all Brawn GP fans thought would happen the diffusers have been given the thumbs up by the court of appeal.

A statement issued by the FIA on Wednesday morning said: "The FIA International Court of Appeal has decided to deny the appeals submitted against decisions numbered 16 to 24 taken by the Panel of the Stewards on 26 March at the 2009 Grand Prix of Australia and counting towards the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship.

"Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the Court has concluded that the Stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations."

This means that BGP keep all points currently awarded and can look forward to China with the prospect of our full package still intact. The other 7 teams will now have to catch up and i'm sure a big proportion of the teams will come armed with a new design diffuser this weekend with a full update ready for Barcelona.

The diffuser row has led to confrontations between the teams – with Brawn GP team principal Ross Brawn being on the receiving end of attacks from Renault and Ferrari about his use of the diffuser concept. Ross stood firm in his belief that the design was legal – and confirmed recently that he offered rivals the chance to close off the regulations to prevent teams exploiting the diffuser designs, but they rejected the opportunity.

"In March 2008 that was offered," said Brawn, when asked by AUTOSPORT about the matter.

"If I'm frank I didn't say 'look we are going to do this diffuser if you don't accept this rule' because I'm not going to tell people what we're doing, but I explained that I felt that we should have a different set of rules to simplify what needs to be done.

"I offered them and they were rejected, so my conscience is very clear. And those rules that I put on the table would have stopped a lot of things. It would have stopped the diffuser, it would have stopped all those bargeboards around the front, and it would have cleaned the cars up.

"Because it was clear that when we started to work on the regulations that there were things that you could do, and we needed to perhaps clean them up, but nobody was interested. They are interested now."

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Tuesday 14 April 2009

Brawn GP - D Day (Diffuser Day)

For weeks speculation concerning the rear end aero of the Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota cars have been causing a stir around the paddock. The diffuser has been the central focus of the argument and its effect on downforce (claimed to be an extra 20% by many) It is not only the diffuser that makes the downforce but the way the floor and forward leading aero has also been developed on the cars in question. These teams found a loophole in the regulations that allowed slots in the floor to feed a seperate channel in the diffuser to create the extra downforce. This in turn will not only help these teams corner faster but will help with tyre degredation. The FIA have a tough task at hand as the cars have already passed through scrutineering at both Melbourne and Sepang succesfully. By definition it appears that the teams are within the letter of the law, but some of the other teams still cry foul play claiming that the diffuser/floor designs are not within 'the spirit' of the rules. I have to say that the spirit of the rules to me cannot exist? If it's not written down does that mean it can still be applied? Perhaps Bernie's medal system is still in existance as its within the spirit of the rules? Perhaps these teams believe in Santa Claus or Ghosts? When they refer to the 'spirit of the rules' they are saying that amongst the teams/FIA there is an unwritten code that prohibits designs that cause a detrimental effect to other teams. Perhaps Michael Schumacher should have been banned from driving under the 'spirit of the rules' then. One way or another someone will be drastically out of pocket and i'm sure if not this season the gaps in the rules will be tidied up for next year. If BGP, Williams and Toyota are allowed to continue with the Diffuser and the others have to catch several seem to have adapted designs ready for China but the others will be playing catchup. On the other hand BGP, Williams and Toyota could be told to remove them which would also be a costly exercise unless they have pre thought this scenario and developed another solution (I believe BGP have).

As soon as I hear the news, I will post here.

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Saturday 11 April 2009

BRAWN GP Aero/Diffuser - Video Intepretations

I have found a few videos from the media relating to the aero package and diffuser arrangement on the BGP001.

Would be great if someone could email me an interpretation of the videos in other languages so I can remake them into English speaking versions.

Remember that these are not made by the team so certain elements will have been surmised.





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Thursday 9 April 2009

Q&A with Ross Brawn by Welt.de

The following interview has been taken from http://www.welt.de/sport/formel1/article3504076/Ferraris-Aufregung-betrachte-ich-als-Kompliment.html and translated by AFCA over on the Autosport forum.

Q: How would you describe the past few months when the team was fighting to survive ?
Brawn: ''It was dramatic. The entire company basically fell in a deep dark hole in December last year. The only thing that still mattered was to survive. I knew that in Formula 1 there can be a whole lot of mixed emotions. You can win in great style but you can also dramatically lose: you can make a fool of yourself and you can come out on top as the big winner. But what I've gone through in the past few months I wasn't yet familiar with. It has outdone everything I previously experienced, it was a roller coaster ride.''

Q: What was the problem ? What would have been the consequences if you had not solved it ?
Brawn: ''The entire factory with all its 700 employees would have had to be closed down in case hadn't found a solution with Honda. Unfortunately with the new set-up of the team we soon have to dismiss almost 250 people, but the rest can keep their job.''

Q: What would have been your alternative ?
Brawn: ''Perhaps I would have gone back fishing and would have simply looked after my garden again. I didn't have a plan (B) should it have been necessary, the only plan I had was to save the team. The chance in doing so, even with the help of Honda was only 50:50.''

Q: Apart from Honda weren't the alleged investors not good enough ?
Brawn: ''I'd say that in this period we've had some experiences with certain investors and characters that I hadn't had before in this form. In any case, at least by that time it became clear to me in what kind of dangerous world I actually live. Therefore I was relieved that we found a sound solution with Honda at the end of January, beginning of February. At the end of February the case was sanctioned by Honda's board of directors, only then we knew that we'd be at the start in Australia.''

Q: Where did you get the idea for the name of the team ?
Brawn: ''At the start we thought about several different names, but they were all too artificial, smelt too much of marketing, were too abstract and didn't have any reference to Formula 1. We even involved our new partner Mercedes and after a long time of thinking someone came up with the idea to name the team after me.''

Q: Why ?
Brawn: ''Because it's a familiar name in Formula 1 and one knows what's behind it. To be more straight forward: it was never been my intention to have the team being named after me. But the proposal was on the table and everyone welcomed it, now I'm even a little proud that it's like this.''

Q: There's still a lot of trouble. Your former employer Ferrari protest against your allegedly illegal aerodynamics. Renault, BMW Sauber and Red Bull are annoyed that your car, including its diffuser, is working so well...
Brawn: ''I especially consider the commotion at Ferrari as a compliment. If my former employer wouldn't accept me as a real rival then they wouldn't protest against us. They wouldn't be interested in us at all. But the fact that our car is in front of theirs and the fact that we're a challenge to them valorises us. That's pleasing and even good for us.''

Q: With due respect: how is it possible that a team that was faced with ruin, in the end survives as a private team clearly beating a big organisation like Ferrari, in fact downright annihilating them ?
Brawn: ''As a matter of principle Ferrari shouldn't be underestimated - but neither should we. Fact is: Ferrari - having being involved in the title fight with McLaren in the past two years - didn't have as much time to intensively get to grips with the new regulations and to start working on the new car as early as we did. Therefore we were and are in front in all areas.''

Q: How is it possible that a part of the car that's been okayed by the FIA has all of a sudden become illegal ? On the 14th of April the Court of Appeal will come up with a definitive verdict.
Brawn: ''It's a matter of interpretation. Especially since we're dealing with very radical changes in the technical regulations, which is something that always goes hand in hand with different interpretations and concepts in a development process. In this respect I think this whole discussion is normal and as far as the outcome is concerned I'm more than calm. Our aerodynamics are in compliance with the regulations. It's just that, apperantly, we've better dealt with the whole problem that the new regulations posed the teams with. It's not the way to make friends in Formula 1.''

Q: Apperantly you're not just in breach of the written regulations, but also of the interpretation or a form of agreement that regard the new regulations (I think the grey area is meant here - AFCA).
Brawn: ''I'm not aware of any agreement. I'm only familiar with the written regulations and accordingly, I consistently comply with the principle that says you have to try and build the fastest and best Formula 1 car. If I've understood (the principle behind) Grand Prix sport correctly, this is the generally accepted and binding formula for competiton.''

Q: What consequences would it have for you if the Court of Appeal deems your diffuser to be in breach of the regulations ?
Brawn: ''We would lose a part of our competitiveness and it would take time to come back to the current level of performance.''

Q: Apart from the controversial aerodynamics and the diffuser problem, what are the strong points of the BGP001 ?
Brawn: ''Contrary to our competitors we basically had 15 months to develop this car. That was possible because Honda wasn't involved in the 2008 title fight. We had the time to look after the aerodynamic concept intensively, primarily working with two windtunnels. Only after that we had to deal with the rest of the car: the chassis design, the gearbox, the overall mechanical side that is. In this way we were able to configure the basic concept of the car at a very early stage and in a very sophisticated way without friction losses. Then, unhurriedly, we built a very sophisticated and well-thought-out car around this basic concept. The design is a great piece of engineering from its suspensions to every single structure and detail. Especially its aerodynamics are outstanding and importantly, keeping the ban on testing in mind, it's further upgradable in the windtunnel. The other segments of the car can hardly be further developed with the testrestrictions that are in place since the beginning of 2009.''

Q: What will the further development of the car look like ?
Brawn: ''The installation of the engine and its integration in the chassis aren't perfect yet. We still have to make the car lighter and occupy ourselves with KERS, and we still have to make a lot more progress aerodynamically.''

Q: How long will the team be able to work without a big sponsor ?
Brawn: ''For the short term there are no problems.''

Q: Then how do you define 'short term' ?
Brawn: ''For one and a half to two years we'll be able to work withouth dramatic restrictions. We're looking for a partner that's willing to team up with us for the long term and works and operates at the same level we do. What we want is a qualitatively solid financial fundament for the future of Brawn GP and not a bridgeover solution that doesn't offer any planning reliability to any of those involved. We're not in a hurry, there's no problem, and we know that we have to be patient finding a partner that is suited to us as far as the level and quality of the product are concerned.''

Q: Surely you'll find someone, after all you're being credited with winning the title this year.
Brawn: ''I haven't thought about that a single time yet ! It would be just as incredible as it would be unrealistic.''

Q: So what will become of the life you planned as a rose-cultivator, hobby gardener, wine collector and angler ?
Brawn: ''Unfortunately I haven't gone fishing for the past eight months. I still look after my wine cellar, but unfortunately at the moment there's not much time to do any gardening.''

Q: Did you drink more red wine when times were tough ?
Brawn: ''Fortunately not.''

The diffuser situation is raised in the interview and Ross aludes to the fact that the written regulations haven't been broken and as others have said there is no such thing as the 'spirit' of the regulations. An interesting statement is that he wishes to make the car lighter and occupy themselves with KERS. I have talked briefly about KERS and BGP here before as we don't have it it sometimes seems irrelavant. However being a Mercedes customer the option will be there to also purchase the KERS package at a later point. This will obviously cost more money and whilst we are towards the front and the KERS cars are rearward it is advantages for us to sit it out and wait for the KERS package to become enticing.

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Monday 6 April 2009

Sepang - Brawn GP - Race Review

Firstly I would just like to say a huge congratulations to the Team, Jenson, Rubens and Ross for another great GP and another victory for Jenson. The Sepang GP always had weather issues written all over it. Teams were reporting rain for the start of the GP and when it rains there it pours. With Jenson starting from Pole position and Rubens back in 8th (5 place grid penalty for a gearbox change) we were looking in a great position. Jenson had a bad start from the grid and lost ground to Rosberg, Trulli and Alonso who all had fantastic starts. Rubens however had a little better start and pitched the car into 6th by the 2nd corner. Rubens quickly dispatched of Kimi and started to hunt both Alonso and Jenson. Turn 13 and Jenson dispatched of Alonso who had really put himself out of sync in the race as he was running with a substantial fuel load. Alonso was really easy pickings in this part of the field due to his weight disadvantage, Rubens passed him before having to yeild as he ran wide into the last corner on lap 2. He used the slipstream down the pit straight following this corner to easily sail past Alonso into turn 1.
With Rubens released from behind the slower Renault he could lead an assault on the 3 in front, Jenson meanwhile also released from the Renaults grasp set a fastest lap and charged towards Jarno.
Rubens responded to Jenson recording the next fastest lap, trying to reel in the front 3. The next few laps are the front 4 trading fastest laps and sector times, all of which are running similar fuel strategies.
Lap 10 and Alonso can no longer keep Kimi at bay and goes to deep into a corner allowing the Finn to fly past.
Some great racing followed in the midfield with Webber, Alonso and Glock all battling for 5th position.
Lap 15 and Rosberg is the first frontrunner to make his pitstop taking on fuel and new tyres (soft tyres) This promoted the BGP's to 2nd and 3rd still to stop. Jenson at this stage started to step rather loudly on the loud pedal and reeled in Jarno at a staggering pace. Jarno peeled away to the pits another lap later at the end of lap 17. So commencing lap 18 Jenson has an open field and pushes the BGP001 to it's limits for the next 2 laps. Rubens meanwhile now in 2nd also has some clean air and is pushing hard.
Kimi decided at the end of lap 18 to pit and go to the full wet weather tyre, a gamble (although in the opposite direction) we have seen him make at Silverstone last year. The rain although spitting was not warranting the full wets.
Jenson came in at the end of lap 19 for fuel and new tyres taking another set of the soft tyres and a little less fuel than Rosberg and Trulli, Jensons pitstop timing in at 8.7 secs compared to the nearer 10 secs stops of Rosberg and Trulli. This coupled with the storming 2 laps in clean air allowed Jenson to easily clear the Williams and Toyota's of Rosberg and Trulli. The pit stop timings were something that were clearly missed in the UK commentary and I believe this was a crucial tactical decision taken by Ross and the team to get Jenson out in clear air at the front of the field. Ultimately this is what gave Jenson the win in my opinion.
Rubens came in for his pitstop at the end of the next lap and took a 9.4 sec stop, unfortunately for Rubens the slippy gearbox situation reared its ugly head as he tried to exit the pit box and lost him some valuable seconds. Had he cleared the stop cleanly he would have jumped Jarno in the pit stop instead he came out level with Jarno into turn 1 and had to yield the position and take 4th.
Lap 21 and Rubens was starting to make a charge on Jarno but the heavens started to open and put pay to any overtake being able to stick.
Jenson was the first to come in and change onto the wet weather tyres (with the exception of Kimi and Bourdais who had previously gambled and not paid off) The same lap saw everyone coming in for a change of tyres. Almost everyone going for full wets (Except for Glock).
The next few laps saw a great battle emerge between Webber and Hamilton with Lewis using all his might and KERS to keep Mark at bay all until Lewis had a problem reaching the rev limiter in 6th and Mark went passed.
In this stage of the race RBR and Glock really starting to relish the conditions and seemingly putting in some great lap times.
Rubens still pushing hard and on lap 26 he passes Jarno for 3rd, Rubens then at the end of lap 26 puts a move on Nico for 2nd place and with that Nico goes into the pits (taking intermediate tyres) and leaves Rubens in 2nd, the grid starting to turn upside down as the wet weather tyres on a dryish surface starting to fade. Glock is storming through the field even passing his team mate Jarno and taking 4th place behind Webber. Rubes unfortunately couldn't hold on in one corner due to tyre degradation and let Webber and Glock through. A great bit of racing between Mark and Timo followed where Timo overtook Mark and then we saw the side of Timo's car from Mark's perspective as they exit the last corner onto the pit straight.
Just behind this battle Rubens comes to the pit box and takes the inters and also loses out to Jarno in the pit stop. On their outlap Rubens manages to squeeze Trulli out and take back the position.
The following lap sees Jenson come into the pits for a set of inters and a tweak on the front wing and due to Timo's timely change of tyres he now takes charge of the race with Jenson slotting in 2nd. Jenson made up the 3.3 sec deficit in the following lap to take the lead from Timo once more. Timo decided to yield and went on into the pit lane to take a set of full wet weather tyres.
The rain is really lashing down now along with some lightning, and the track is starting to get quite trechorous with cars flying off all over the place. Jenson and the team make the sensible decision to jump in for Full wet weather tyres again and manages to jump both Timo and suprisingly Nick Heidfeld who's long fuel stratergy played into his hands and is now placed 3rd (But struggling on inters). Rubens follows everyone else into the pits taking the full wets option.

Lap 31 and the safety car is deployed as its just terrible out there with some corners looking more like rivers. With that the race is red flagged and everyone dispatched back to the grid slots to await a restart. This leaves Jenson in 1st, Glock 2nd and Heidfeld 3rd. The race was abandoned after the red flag due to poor weather conditions and the inability to make 75% race distance.

In this circumstance the result goes to count back by one lap and only half the championship points are given out.

1st Jenson Button 5 Points
2nd Nick Heidfeld 4 Points
3rd Timo Glock 3 Points
4th Jarno Trulli 2.5 Points
5th Rubens Barrichello 2 Points
6th Mark Webber 1.5 Points
7th Lewis Hamilton 1 Point
8th Nico Rosberg 05. Points

Something I noticed from some of the in board views of Vettel is just how much flex is in the top fence of the RBR's front wing. Questionable legality?

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Sunday 5 April 2009

Brawn GP - Post race press conference - Sepang

Q. Jenson, it is never easy. Very difficult at the start and what calls you had to make with changing weather conditions as your pit stop approached.

JB: What a crazy race. It really was. My start was pretty bad. I had a lot of oversteer in the car. I don't think I got heat into the rear tyres and went back to fourth, got up to third and eventually got back to the front and I was pretty happy with that. Our pace was good and then the rain started but choosing the tyres was very difficult. Normally here when it rains it pours but it didn't to start with.
We went for the full wet tyre and it just destroyed itself and we saw Timo flying up behind us on the inter, so we put the inter on. Then just as he came by I saw his tyres were bald and it was raining out the back and he was struggling quite a bit on it and had to pit. I got one lap in on the inter with reasonable pace and I was able to get in and put the wet tyre on and come out in front. A very interesting race and I still haven't seen the chequered flag without a safety car in front.

Q. Jenson, in those closing laps just before the safety car came out you were racing with Timo in dreadful conditions.

JB: It was really bad conditions and you could not actually see the circuit. I mean it was that bad. We were behind the safety car and my team, who did a fantastic job, said all you have got to do is drive around and that was difficult enough. A few moments I was almost off the circuit. We are going around at running pace, that slow. The safety car was pulling away from us. All I had to do was drive around and stay on the circuit. But how slow it looks. It is embarrassing but that was as quick as we needed to go and if I'd gone any quicker I'd think I would have ended up in the gravel.

Q. Jenson, you had a bit of a moment on the outside of turn one?

JB: I mean all weekend the circuit has been quite similar but there was such little grip I was really, really surprised and I went a little bit deep into turn one and got a big snap of oversteer and that carried throughout the first lap. I was really, really struggling with the rear end as (Fernando) Alonso was in front of me. I have never seen a car so sideways before. But I eventually got past Alonso coming into the second to last corner and then I had to chase down Jarno (Trulli) and Nico (Rosberg). An exciting race. I would rather have a boring race but we had an exciting one today and I came out on top, so I am happy.
One final thing. Can I just say a massive thank you to my engineer who was on the podium with me today. We have been through a lot of tough times but he has been wicked and today as we saw we came out on top and a lot of it was down to him, so ‘thank you very much.'

Q. Jenson, this could become a habit.

JB: Finishing behind the safety car you mean. Wow, what a race. We had everything in that race. It was very enjoyable. It was not the easiest start for me and I had a big snap of oversteer, pretty much at every corner on the first lap from the grid. I really struggled with the rear end. But then I closed up to Jarno and Nico and knew I was going longer and when they pitted I could put in a couple of quick laps. It got me in front and it was looking like it was going to be fine until I looked up and saw the clouds come over and it started raining. Unusual for Sepang it just started spitting and we went for the full wets thinking it is going to chuck it down.
But it didn't to start with. A few other people made the correct choice but we had a 16-18 second lead at that point. So I carried on and it started chewing itself up, so I pitted for inters as this guy (Timo) was flying. I came out just behind him but my inter was obviously new and his was very old and I was able to get past him on the wetter part of the circuit just before he pitted.
I got one good lap on the inter but then it started chucking it down, so I came in for the full went but then it was the safety car. It was a tough race and it was tough keeping it on the circuit. We were driving around it as if it was walking pace and you are still scared that you are going to chuck it off because you could not see the circuit to start with. It was not like it was rivers, it was a lake.

Q. You were worried about going off the grid anyway because you were on the dirty side of the grid?

JB: Yeah, it was true. Timo also suffered from the grid. I didn't get a bad start. The start was reasonable but the right hand side just shot past and the KERS cars came up, so I lost time there and turn one was messy really. I got a massive snap of oversteer at the exit and I couldn't get back from there.

Q. And you have never driven on the wets before?

JB: No, and the balance was definitely not right on the full wet. The circuit was reasonably dry, so it was difficult to get a balance. But I had massive oversteer on the first couple of laps and then the front started graining. There is a lot of work we need to do to sort our pace and balance out on the wet tyres but as I said it is just nice to get to the end of the race and we ended up on the top because, I think, of a good strategy and also looking at what other people were doing on the different types of tyres and we ended up on top. Congratulations to all the guys who work on the car but also the engineers and the strategy guys who got us here really.

Q. (Paulo Ianieri - La Gazzetta dello Sport) Do you think the decision to stop the race came a little bit too late? Do you think that a five o' clock start is still a good idea?

JB: We thought it was a fantastic idea before. The reason for it in Melbourne was because of the light and the poor light and the reflection you get on the visor, I found it very difficult to see the corner exits. But here, it obviously gets dark very quickly and as we all know, there's normally rain storms here at five or six o' clock in the evening and that proved to be correct. The race was way too wet and I think that the call was correct. It rained so hard so quickly that I think they did the right thing. It was very difficult for them to judge how wet the circuit is and in Fuji, for me, two years ago it was too wet but this year I think they made the right call to stop it at the right time.

JB: When the safety car is pulling away at 20 seconds a lap, you know that it's too wet for an F1 car.

Q. (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Two wins in a row, is it more than you expected?

JB: For me I think it's more amazing that we've done it in these conditions, because Australia wasn't easy with the safety cars and here with the changing weather conditions it made it a lot more difficult. These two here were not the guys that were fighting me at the start of the race, so the great thing is that we could see what was going on behind us and we could react to it and react to it quickly and that's why we're sat here at the moment. I'm very happy and it would be nice going to Shanghai leading by a few points, I think five points, and hopefully we can have a straightforward race and we can see where we stand.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) To all of you, when you stopped the cars on the straight after the red flag, did they listen to you regarding the possibility of continuing the race?

JB: Yes, that was always a possibility and as far as I knew we were always planning for a restart, that's why all the cars were moved around, but the problem was that so many cars span off on the last lap that I think it was very difficult understanding who was in what position.
So that was why we were all moving around a lot on the grid, but we were all planning to start the race again. I am happy it didn't start again because we would have spent ten laps behind a safety car and every lap, every corner you got to you would be scared that you were going to throw it off the road, it's out of your control, it matters what position the river is in on the apex, you can't see it. So I think it was the right thing to do for sure. But we were planning for a restart.

Q. (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) If it was up to you, would you want to start again?

JB: No, I would obviously love to have the ten points, but this is the best we could have done, I think, and realistically it was the right thing to do. I'm sure some people will say ‘we didn't see the whole race and it's disappointing' but you have to think about the safety sometimes. I am here to race, as we all are but there are limits to what we can do with the cars that we have.

Q. (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Jenson, if I'm not wrong, I think it's the first time you drove the Brawn in wet conditions. How was the behaviour of the car and can we say that the Brawn is suitable for every situation?

JB: Yeah, I'm sure it is but the conditions that we were running in today was a very unusual situation to have: full wets, or the extremes as they were, in slightly greasy conditions. We had to go for that option because we thought it was going to rain. There was no use taking a gamble being in the lead, so we took that tyre and obviously it felt pretty terrible. At high speed, you were slowing the car down to third gear because you just couldn't carry any speed because the rear was always trying to break away.
So the balance felt pretty awful but I think that's more down to the conditions we ran the tyres in, it was not the correct conditions. When we put the intermediates on for one lap, the car felt reasonably good. I had a good balance, because that was the correct conditions for that tyre until it started raining hard and then obviously no tyre was useable.

Excerpt taken from http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74310

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Brawn GP Blogspot Milestone

Today we have achieved the 10,000 visitor milestone (14,534 pageloads). So I must say thank you to all the Brawn GP fans around the world for visiting my site. I'm still aiming to be as informative as when I first started the site just 3 and a bit weeks ago. I'm looking at some more progressions to the site for the future, with a Podcast as my initial thoughts. Please let me know your thoughts on how I could improve by posting a comment here or sending me an email via KontactR.

I would also like to say a HUGE congrats to the team out in Sepang and back in Brackley for the massive achievements the team have made thus far and long may they continue.

Thanks Brawn GP's No1 Fan

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Brawn GP - Sepang Race Summary

Well we all thought the weather would play a massive part in the proceedings of this race and we were not dissapointed. I have to say that I was impressed by the wheel to wheel action on display before and during the rainfall. I will add a full blown race account to this post later on but please leave any comments on this post regarding the race.

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Jenson Takes win No 2 in Sepang

Congratulations to Jenson after another sterling victory, he showed the raw pace of BGP001 as he caught and passed Trulli and Rosberg in the pit window. Rubens did very well too and took 5th place. This puts Jenson on 15 points and Rubens on 10 Points. I will add a standings board to the Blog later. I will also do a race summary as per the Melbourne one later.

"What a crazy race," said Button, who had won the Australian Grand Prix behind the safety car.

"My start was pretty bad. I don't think I'd got enough heat in the tyres and had a lot of oversteer. But I went back to fourth, got up to third, eventually got back up to the front, and I was pretty happy with that, our pace was pretty good."

"Choosing the tyres was very difficult, because normally here when it rains it pours, but it didn't to start with. We went for the full wet tyre and it destroyed itself, and then I saw Timo (Glock) flying up behind us with the inter, so we put the intermediates on."

"Just as he came by I saw his tyres were bald and it was raining out the back, so he was struggling quite a lot and had to pit."

"I got one lap in on the inter at a reasonable pace and was able to get in and put the wet tyre on and get back in front."

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Brawn GP - Sepang - Race - Chat

As per yesterday I'm adding the chat section for during the race. Please be aware that your comments aren't added instantly as moderation is in place.

So you all know a tropical storm happened at Sepang this morning

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Saturday 4 April 2009

BMW join the diffuser row

With their appeal thrown out in Melbourne under a technicality BMW were bound to complain at Sepang. They have done officially and looking through the reports the stewards have cleared the Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota cars. It looks as though BMW have used the sporting regulations to complain according to the official documents whereas I believe that the other teams used the Technical regulations in their arguments? This could further compound the court case which is due to be heard on the 14th

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1_media/Documents/mal09_document_29.pdf

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1_media/Documents/mal09_document_32.pdf

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Car Weights announced

Hamilton 688kgs
Heikki 688.9kgs
Massa 689.5 kgs
Kimi 662.5kgs
Kubica 663 Kgs
Heidfeld 692kgs
Alonso 680.5 kgs
Piquet 681.9 kgs
Trulli 656.5 kgs
Glock 656.5 kgs
Bourdais 670.5 kgs
Buemi 686.5 kgs
Webber 656 kgs
Vettel 647 kgs
Rosberg 656 kgs
Nakajima 683.4 kgs
Sutil 655.5 kgs
Fishichella 680.5 kgs
Button 660 kgs
Barrichello 664.5
kgs

More good news for Brawn GP as we are not way under fuelled compared to the rest of the field

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Brawn GP - On the Button

Another race and another pole position for Jenson. A sterling drive by Jenson again to keep Jarno at bay. Rubens also fought well to take fourth which with his 5th place grid penalty and Vettel's 10 place penalty he will line up 8th.

1 Button Q3=1:35.058 Q2=1:33.784 Q1=1:35.181
4 Barrichello Q3=1:34.681 Q2=1:34.387 Q1=1:35.651 WILL BE DEMOTED to 8th

All in all another great day for the team, I will announce the car weights as soon as I can find them. This will give us a clearer indication of our race pace. I assume that Rubens is running more fuel.

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Brawn GP - Sepang Qualifying - Chat

During the lead up and the qualifying session I have added the live box below so that you chat amongst yourselves about the session. All comments are moderated.

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Brawn GP - Free Practice 3 - Sepang

1 Rosberg - 1:35.940 19
2 Webber -1:36.048
3 Massa - 1:36.089
4 Trulli - 1:36.132
5 Glock - 1:36.189
6 Vettel - 1:36.194
7 Räikkönen - 1:36.322
8 Nakajima - 1:36.325
9 Barrichello - 1:36.519
10 Button - 1:36.541
11 Kubica - 1:36.563
12 Hamilton - 1:36.657
13 Kovalainen - 1:36.742
14 Alonso - 1:37.004
15 Heidfeld - 1:37.026
16 Piquet - 1:37.032
17 Sutil - 1:37.118
18 Buemi - 1:37.282
19 Bourdais - 1:37.322
20 Fisichella - 1:37.398

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Friday 3 April 2009

Brawn GP - Friday Press Conference - Sepang

Here is the section related to Ross Brawn:

Q. Ross, your feelings so far?

Ross BRAWN: Well, obviously Australia was, as has been said many times, a fairytale. Thinking about what the team has gone through for the past few months then to have the result we had in Melbourne was unconceivable and unbelievable. I have been through many things in Formula One. I have been lucky enough to have some very special experiences and that certainly ranks as one of the best, if not the best of my career. It was achieved with a lot of things from within the company but there are a lot of people outside the company who helped us survive.
Martin was one of them and Ron did his elder statesman part and did a very good job and I must say FOTA rallied around. We would not have survived without the help of those people. Whilst it was a wonderful it shows that even though we are going through a little bit of a difficult period with protests and things at the moment there is another side of our business which is very united and very together in trying to solve and improve Formula One.


Q. Ross, has the phone been ringing with people wanting to give you money since last weekend?

RB: It is not quite that simple but there has been a lot of interest and of course given the result we had last weekend it was perfect to develop the commercial side. If we had been at the back of the grid it would have certainly been a lot more difficult. But it is a tough market out there at the moment and we all know what the economic situation is.
But things are developing reasonably well but the key objective for us is to find partners that we can have for the next two, three or more years, not just someone to come along and have a quick splash and disappear. We will take our time to develop the right partners. With Virgin it is starting small but with a lot of potential for the future, so I think we have made as good a start as we could have dreamed of with the results we have and the car we have got. With regards to KERS it is not high on the agenda for us at the moment.
We had to make some compromises to change the engine in the car, so the car has got to be heavier now than originally intended and that makes it quite difficult to install KERS. We will have to work hard to get some weight out of the car before we can get to a position where KERS is a possibility. Like the rest of the group we will be monitoring the situation. This, I think, is one of the best tracks for KERS according to our simulations when we did it and I think you may see that KERS-equipped cars will be more to the fore here than they perhaps would be on other circuits.

Q. Someone suggested last weekend that is costs more money to have KERS. Is that right?

RB: It certainly costs money.

Q. Is it part of the deal? Is it extra?
RB: No, our engine agreement with McLaren Mercedes is purely an engine supply agreement. We have had some tentative discussions about KERS but it is a little bit early for us to engage properly on that.

Q. (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Ross, how do you see the situation here compared to Australia one week ago?

RB: It's still a little bit too early to say. We're struggling a little bit with the balance of the car today, it's not quite as nice as Australia. Despite what the perceptions are of the car it has actually very good low speed grip, it's very good on traction. It's not a track that perhaps rewards those elements quite as much and neither driver was particularly happy with the balance of the car today, so we've got to do a good job tonight to improve that, but I think we'll be near the front and fighting at the front. Whenever anyone said a car or a team were going to be dominant, don't believe it because this business is too competitive for anyone to be dominant. We're going to have to fight very, very hard to get points this weekend and hopefully get podiums.

Q. This is for Ross Brawn, can you explain for us the development plan for your car this year? Do you have enough resources to develop the car while other teams develop their cars, of course?

RB: Yes, we've been through a pretty traumatic winter and unfortunately that still continued this week because we had a lot of restructuring of the team to do. We're not a team with a budget that Honda had, so this week there has been some unfortunate restructuring. We hope we're going into next week with our new team and we can then look forward and the restructuring has been very focused on performance. It would be no good having a team with fantastic production facilities and no ideas, so the team has been structured very strongly around maintaining a good development programme, so we've tried not to impact the technical areas too much and yes, the development is on-going.
We're planning an upgrade for Barcelona or just after Barcelona. We obviously have this appeal hearing next week or the week after next and we need to see what comes out of that because that may change direction. I'm reasonably confident but you can't be one hundred percent confident. So yeah, we've got to move forward. I think these new rules, by definition, being a new set of rules, the rate of progress will be very rapid as Martin touched on. At one stage in winter testing they were quite a long way behind and now they're getting into the pack and making rapid progress, so it is an era of very rapid progress and we've got to progress as well as our competitors if we want to have a hope of winning another race this year.

Q. (Benny Casadei – Il Giornale) Ross, which is the most important thing you learned at Ferrari that you are applying leading your new team?

RB: Non mollare mai – you never give up and there were times over the winter when it was easy to think this was actually not worth it. It was very, very difficult at times. The great thing, I must say, is that the team stuck together. I've said before, I had some black days over the winter. Luckily they didn't coincide with Nick's black days or some of the other management team's black days.
As I said at the beginning, the support from McLaren and Mercedes was exceptional. They didn't know whether we were going to make it or not but they just gave us 110 percent all the time. There was no doubt from their side that they were going to give us everything we wanted. So if I took something from Ferrari and from Luca (di Montezemolo) and Jean Todt and Michael (Schumacher), it was just never give up.

The rest of the press conference can be viewed here http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74208

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Rubens gets 5 place grid drop

A gearbox replacement after the end of Free Practice 2 will demote Rubens down the grid by 5 places after Qualifying. IF Rubens can stick it on pole in Q3 he will be demoted to 6th.

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Practice 1 & 2 - Malaysia

Good morning Brawn GP fans, got into work just before the end of Free Practice 2 so saw a little of what went on and reported as so. As I mentioned yesterday the weather could play a crucial role in the Sepang GP at the start of session 2 the track temperature was 41 degrees and by the end had dropped to 37. The rain stayed away but always looked like threatening. Here are the session times for Practice 1 and 2

Free Practice 1


1 Rosberg - 1:36.260
2 Nakajima - 1:36.305
3 Button - 1:36.430
4 Barrichello - 1:36.487
5 Massa - 1:36.561
6 Räikkönen - 1:36.646
7 Hamilton - 1:36.699
8 Webber - 1:36.703
9 Vettel - 1:36.747
10 Glock - 1:36.980
11 Trulli - 1:36.982
12 Fsichella - 1:37.025
13 Kubica - 1:37.039
14 Piquet - 1:37.199
15 Sutil - 1:37.241
16 Alonso - 1:37.395
17 Buemi - 1:37.634
18 Heidfeld - 1:37.640
19 Bourdais - 1:38.022
20 Kovalainen - 1:38.483

Free Practice 2

1 Raikkonen - 1:35.707
2 Massa - 1:35.832
3 Vettel - 1:35.954
4 Rosberg - 1:36.015
5 Webber - 1:36.026
6 Barrichello - 1:36.161
7 Button - 1:36.254
8 Nakajima - 1:36.290
9 Kovalainen - 1:36.397
10 Piquet - 1:36.401
11 Hamilton - 1:36.515
12 Trulli - 1:36.516
13 Buemi - 1:36.628
14 Glock - 1:36.639
15 Alonso - 1:36.640
16 Sutil - 1:36.875
17 Kubica - 1:37.267
18 Bourdais - 1:37.278
19 Fisichella - 1:37.432
20 Heidfeld - 1:37.930

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Thursday 2 April 2009

Brawn GP - Sepang/Malaysia - Weather


The weather might well be the biggest factor for this weekends race in Sepang. Brawn GP have done no wet weather testing due to the short period of testing time available to the team. Comments made by Jenson suggest that the weather could hinder the teams performance, without the testing that others have been able to do in wet conditions setting the car up could be difficult. Expect Jenson and Rubens to put in ALOT of laps throughout qualifying to get the setups right. To further compound the weather situation, light could be another major problem for visibility.

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Diffuser debate

The diffuser situation is going to rage on until the hearing on the 14th but reports are that another team will join the other 3 teams in Sepang to bring into question the design of the diffusers seen on the Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota cars. Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull Racing all lodged complaints against BGP, Williams and Toyota over the legality of the rear end design of the car, namely the crash structure and diffuser. Ferrari, Renault and RBR believe that the diffusers break the regulations as they form what is being classed as a double decker diffuser. BMW couldn't make their complaint stand at Melbourne under a technicality and so are assumed to be the other team joining the row. I ask though why are Torro Rosso not complaining? You would have thought as sister team to RBR they would be encouraged to throw their weight behind the situation too. However think about how the RBR and Torro Rosso designs differ and should the hearing go in favour of Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota the Torro Rosso team would seem to be able to impliment the diffuser arrangement more easily than RBR.


Personally my inteprtation of what is happening/going to happen will be down to the sporting regulations as dimensionally these diffusers are legal (as was decided in Melbourne) The sporting regulations however will come into play as this years regulations were designed to reduce the 'wake' of the car to the following car to enable more overtaking. Should the FIA decide that the 'wake' being produced by these diffusers is detrimental to overtaking I foresee them being banned.

An interesting picture I found (above the post) of Ruben's car after the Heikki incident shows the level of damage done to the rear diffuser. Couple this with the damage to the front wing endplate and Rubens should surely have just dropped to the rear of the pack. He didn't and in my opinion this shows that the BGP001 package in general is a quick one.

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Lewis Hamilton DQ'd and Trulli 3rd Again

Following on from the Melbourne GP the stewards decided to reopen the case on the Trulli/Hamilton incident. The stewards have decided that Lewis was not passed under the safety car it was simply Jarno taking his place back (he spun on the grass)

A statement issued by the stewards said: "The Stewards having considered the new elements presented to them from the 2009 Australian Formula One Grand Prix, consider that driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and the competitor Vodafone McLaren Mercedes acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the Stewards at the hearing on Sunday 29th March 2009, a breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code.

"Under Article 158 of the International Sporting Code the driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and the competitor Vodafone McLaren Mercedes are excluded from the race classification for the 2009 Australian Grand Prix and the classification is amended accordingly."
Further to the Hamilton decision, the race stewards have scrapped the penalty against Trulli and he has now been awarded third place for the Australian Grand Prix.

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I would just like to thanks Adam Guppy for the new banner we have been using for the past few days.

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About Me

I have been an F1 fan from a very early age, however in my very early years I didn't really support a team just loved the racing. Since the BAR years I have been supporting this team through it's highs and lows. I'm confident under Ross Brawn's control the team will go from strength to strength and hopefully Jenson and Rubens can find themselves in a competitive car once more.

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