Jenson Button increases his lead to 15 points

Lewis Hamilton had to turn off and then reboot his KERS system in order to interrupt possible problems with the system. Other than this small problem, his car ran beautifully all day and he was able to make up for his crash at Monza with a win. Heikki Kovalainen didn’t have a good a day but still managed to finish seventh and bring McLaren’s point total for the race to 12 and decrease their distance to Ferrari by three points.

Toyota had a much better result with Tim Glock grabbing the second position on the podium, even though the win is kind of a let down, after a less then stellar season. Glock was actually behind the front runners for most of the race but stayed close enough to the three front cars to grab a well deserved second when Rosberg made an error exiting the pit. The points Toyota grabbed here are important and they could go along way to determining their future in Formula One.

Renault had a great day as Fernando Alonso grabbed a little redemption and satisfaction with a third place finish that isn’t a win, but must still be gratifying after the season they have had. The Renault team has had a frustrating and long year on the track and they needed to have a result that would let the pressure off a bit.

Vettel was a podium contender the whole day, until he lost his concentration and let his adrenalin get to him and was caught speeding in pit lane. It was certainly an entertaining show to watch as parts were flying off Vettel’s car all day as he tried to do his best to win. He later admitted that he had to baby the brakes during the later part of the race and this slowed him a little at several points during the final laps.

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Jenson Button Moves Closer to His Dream

Red Bull has had McLaren's number so far this year

They were probably very surprised to find themselves almost 3 seconds off the pace being set by the leaders at the beginning of the season. They had a pretty fierce battle with Ferrari for the 2008 Formula One championship and were probably convinced that the MP4-24 was going to be a solid entry for the 2009 Formula One season. To find themselves lacking down force and needing to scramble to improve their aerodynamic performance was probably a troubling position to find themselves in. A total rethinking of the aerodynamic foundation of the MP4-24 was necessary and after a good result in Hungary they seem to have recovered quickly and well.

It’s certainly possible that the battle with Ferrari and their approach to the changes to the rules for 2009 Formula One season might have put them behind the eight ball. The efforts of the other teams might have been under estimated and they might have been a little more inventive using the changes to their benefit. The result of all of these mistakes seems to have put them eight or nine months behind the other teams at the start of the 2009 season. All is forgiven if they can get back on track and give Lewis Hamilton a car that he can compete with and they seem to at least be on the right path.

The rest of the season should be a real race right to the last competition of the season and increase expectations and the energy for the 2010 season if the MP4-24 gets up to speed. Hamilton is pretty far back in the standings currently but you never know what can happen with a fast car and motivated driver.

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McLaren Finally on Track After First Win

Hungarian Grand Prix will run on Sunday July 26, 2009

Lewis Hamilton reinforced McLaren’s fast pace by registering his best lap time of 1m 22.554s, just ahead of German Grand Prix winner Mark Webber’s Red Bull race car, which had a best lap time of 1m 22.615s. Kazuki Nakajima in the second Williams car qualified third in the first session, a fraction of a second behind at 1m 22.619s

Jarno Trulli finished the session with the sixth fastest time in his Toyota, Kimi Raikkonen was seventh, Felipe Massa eighth, Fernando Alonso was ninth in his Renault, and Jenson Button qualified tenth for Brawn.

Lewis Hamilton was able to dial his McLaren in a little better in the second session in the afternoon on the pavement of the Hungaroring circuit near beautiful Budapest, Hungary. The field had been trying to best the 1m 22.126s of his teammate Heikki Kovalainen since he had made his appearance on the track early in the session. Hamilton was one of the last cars to finish and zipped around the track in 1m 22.079s to just beat the time of his teammate and record the fastest time of the session. Nico Rosberg had a strong second session for Williams and finished third, Mark Webber had the fourth fastest time, Kazuki Nakajima was fifth, and Sebastian Vettel had the sixth fastest time of the second session. Rubens Barrichello had the fastest time of the session for Brawn but was still seventh, just ahead of Jarno Trulli in his Toyota and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld, while Tim Glock in the second Toyota rounded out the top ten in the second session of qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

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Hungarian Grand Prix Tomorrow

BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica thinking about his year, so far

Let’s quickly go over BMW Sauber’s year so far and a few of the less than stellar moments of their 2009 campaign.

2009 was going to be BMW Sauber’s year for major improvements in their car and final standing in the race for the world championship. Considering their steady progress since 2006, expectations were of BMW Sauber challenging for the championship and maybe even winning. This was not to be however, as instead of rising to glory, BMW Sauber has lost ground with both their car and their final standings in the races.

Pre-season testing seemed to indicate too many that BMW Sauber’s F1.09 was fast, quick, and reliable, and drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica were talking excitedly about their cars and chances for the 2009 Formula One season. Unfortunately, as the season has progressed, it has become clear they can’t currently compete with the front running Brawns and Toyotas. They have only managed four top ten finishes this season, far behind what they were expecting considering last year they had 74 points after eight races.

BMW Sauber really got left behind when they concentrated on KERS over aerodynamics at the beginning of the year. They are now coming up with their own editions of Brawn/Toyota/Williams double-diffuser, but they’re still way behind this season, and refuse to admit defeat.

In the Turkish Grand Prix they tried out their first editions of the two-tier diffuser, and there were a few signs of improvement, with Kubica grabbing his first points of the 2009 Formula One season. The Silverstone race saw both BMW Sauber drivers finish a lap down, so if the team is going to compete, they need to get their car running faster.

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BMW Sauber’s 2009 Formula One Season

Brawn GP has dominated the 2009 Formula One season so far

To date Brawn has won six of the eight races completed and currently have a healthy points lead in the constructors championship. Let’s do a quick run through of the Formula One season so far…

What a turn around for the former Honda team! After a terrible 2008 in which Honda withdrew its support, they spent the off season battling to keep the team afloat, before ending in a 2009 Formula One season in which they have been on top of the podium race after race.

Ross Brawn has done an excellent job driving his team through a rough period and putting two experienced drivers in Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in a position to race and win. Honda showed great maturity in realizing their RA 109 just wasn’t going to be the car to win for them and re-focused their development on the BGP001. Their courage paid off as their new entry was surprisingly fast in pre-season tests and hasn’t disappointed them so far in 2009. To date the BGP001 has only retired from one race in eight tries and has put at least one Brawn driver on the podium in every race so far.

There has also been plenty of controversy surrounding Brawn’s dominance, which was due to the BGP’s innovative double diffuser, something that the other teams protested. In the end however the FIA’s Court of Appeal found in favor of Brawn and they were clear to put the pedal to the metal.

The last race at Silverstone did see Red Bull make a dent in Brawn’s advantage, but we have yet to see if this was a fluke of a true improvement on the part of Red Bull.

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Brawn GP’s 2009 Formula One Dominance

Formula One 2009 Pulls into Shanghai

The flag will drop on the Grand Prix of Shanghai at the Shanghai International Circuit in a week or so, and the drivers and teams have probably been contemplating the winding turns and high-speed straights designed into the amazing architecture of the circuit. The track combines a nice variety of high-speed corners and slow turns that put demands on the grip of the cars, and throws a few wrenches into the mix. The most challenging and enjoyable corners for both the racers and the drivers will probably be turns six and seven, sweeping left and right hand turns. The Shanghai circuit has always been hard on tires because of the severe lateral forces the cars will experience at speed. The track design requires a medium down-force setup for the race cars because of the two long straight stretches combined with many technical turns. The cars need the right setup to race effectively and fast with the heavy braking, fast accelerations, and constant changes in velocity.

The Shanghai Grand Prix is a technical track that Lewis Hamilton won on last year, so expect McLaren to do well, although, they probably won’t do as well as last year because they won’t have the same performance advantage they had last year. It will be even more important for Hamilton to start farther up the grid, if he’s able to do so; he might be able to finish high in the points or even on the podium, even though his car is running a little slower.

The Shanghai Grand Prix kicks off earlier this year than in previous years, so the temperatures should be a little easier to handle for both the drivers and the cars, but the chance of rain will increase, and they will need to keep their rain tires close by. The first turn should be spectacular and might be the real eye-grabber of the race as the drivers take their cars in a high speed on the throttle, then suddenly drop the car into second gear as the track tightens up.

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Formula One 2009 Goes to Shanghai

Can Lewis Hamilton do it again for McLaren?

Ferrari’s Formula One F60 will be driven by Kimi Raikkonen from Finland and Felipe Massa of Brazil for the 2009 season, both experienced drivers and proven winners, even if Kimi did have an off racing season last year. Ferrari’s team principal, Stefano Domenicali has stated that Ferrari will be concentrating on trying to make the car more reliable by taking care of the small things in 2009. Reports out of Spain and Bahrain had Ferrari running a little slow due to the weather, but more recent reports indicate that at Jerez and Barcelona Ferrari was showing signs of improving their cars overall performance and speed.
McLaren will field the current world champion Lewis Hamilton from Great Britain and Heikki Kovalainen of Finland for the 2009 F1 season. Current reports out of Jerez and Barcelona indicate McLaren is having problems with the rear-end aerodynamics of the MP4-24; both Lewis and Heikki have reported disappointment in the cars performance, so far. McLaren says it has scientists and technicians working on the problem and they hope to have a few changes that will fix the problem by the time they pull into Melbourne at the end of the month.
BMW Sauber’s drivers for this season are Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld, BMW has been really quiet during testing, but the F1.09 has shown every sign of being able to compete head-to-head with the other teams. The Swiss-German combination will be implementing a KERS system in their car this season and team principal Dr. Mario Theissen has indicated the system is ready for race testing. Will BMW Sauber be able to compete effectively for the world championship this season, is the question?
Renault will put Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet in the drivers’ seat of their R29 race car this season. Initial reports indicate the R29 ran slow in the early stages in Spain, but that lap times at Jerez were much improved and clearly progress is being made on the R29. Renault will also implement a KERS system in their race car this F1 season, but any advantages a KERS system may give cars implementing such systems has yet to be shown.

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The Formula One 2009 Season Preview