2009 Formula One Season Official Thread

[RacingManiac]

But Alonso also don't know what they BGP is running.....Running on fumes at 600kg will bound to be different than running on fumes at 550kg.....that is the reason why there are rules for min weight, and that they are inspected for it at a race....F1 cars now are probably designed for ~480KG or less.Before KERS a fifth of the car's 600kg is probably ballast. With KERS its probably less, but BGP stated pretty clearly they won't even have KERS integrated before May. So It is not unlikely they have more ballast to add and subtract, and get the weight distribution that's representative to their "ideal" setup but at a lower weight.....so their aero/chassis balance can still be "realistic" but at a slightly lower weight, and at a slightly higher speed.

I maybe just blowing smoke here and they are geneuinely that fast, and JB or RB will be WDC and BGP will be WCC, but F1 being the way it is, it is very hard for me to believe its the case....

[LTSmash]

JB or RB will be WDC and BGP will be WCC, but F1 being the way it is, it is very hard for me to believe its the case....

It would be cool though. Just imagine the press.

[Jack_Bauer]

But why would they waste so much time in one of their only tests before the season starts by running with unrealistic weight loads? Obviously a few headlines here and there never hurt, but surely it is far more beneficial to the team to spend time running genuine race and qualy sims to see how the car reacts and treats its tyres etc under realistic conditions. Spending your only test session at a full GP circuit showboating for the journos doesn't seem like a very sensible use of time, and one would think Ross Brawn is far too much of a pragmatist to indulge in such ego stroking.

You have to remember that Honda started work on this car back in late 2007/early 2008 when it was clear from the start that the 08 car was a dog. They put a heck of a lot of development and resources into the car before they eventually pulled the plug. Perhaps their pace isn't as unlikely as it first seems?

Whether they will be serious contenders for the titles is a completely different question. I doubt very much they will have the resources and funding to keep on developing the car throughout the season at the pace Ferrari and McLaren et al typically do.

A few interesting quotes from the other teams:

FERRARI: Die sind eine Sekunde schneller als wir. Das ist doch gar nicht möglich", sagten Ferrari-Techniker unisono
Ferrari-technician: "They are one second faster than us. It can't be real."

RENAULT : "Als ich hier ankam war ich noch optimistisch, was unsere Chancen betrifft. Jetzt bin ich es nicht mehr"
Flavio: "When I arrived here I was still optimistic as far as our chances are concerned. Now I am not optimistic any more."

WILLIAMS : "Wenn sie die Rundenzeiten in Melbourne wiederholen können, die Button am Mittwochmorgen bei seinem Dauerlauf gezeigt hat, gewinnen Button und Barrichello den Grand Prix von Australien mit einer Runde Vorsprung"
Sam Michael: "If they can repeat these laptimes in Melbourne which were set by Button on Wednesday morning during his long stint, Button and Barrichello will win the Australian Grand Prix by one lap advantage."

Mercedes : "Das Team hatte viel mehr Zeit, das 2009er Auto zu entwickeln als alle anderen. Das zahlt ich jetzt aus"
Norbert Haug: "The team have had more time for developing the 2009's car than the others. It seems to pay off."

From Brawn-Mercedes: Der Favorit, der aus der Pleite kam? - Formel 1 bei Motorsport-Total.com

Seems Brawn has got some of the other teams rattled.

[RacingManiac]

Not to forget though there were windtunnel problem at Honda at somepoint, and they lost a ton of development for their then-current car or whatever else they use the tunnel for.

For me though, the other teams' comments points more to the suspecting nature of the time. All of them have fairly sophisticated simulation/modeling capability, and one would think that they would know given their best optimized design and setup the laptime should be in some ballpark. To be THAT MUCH faster, they would have to have found something really extraordinary, and there aren't many things that can give you a second over all the other team's best effort. For something as complicated as an inerter, thats by estimation worth 3/10th of a sec, and we are now talking a whole second, for a team whose last 2 effort was basically the worse car on the grid.

[Dino Scuderia]

Woah.

Wins to decide world champion in 2009

By Pablo Elizalde Tuesday, March 17th 2009, 13:35 GMT

Formula 1's world champion in 2009 will be the driver with the most wins during the season, the FIA said on Tuesday.

The governing body also announced that it had rejected a proposal by the Formula One Teams' Association to change the current system. The proposal had been sent by FOTA to the FIA earlier this year.

The FIA announced the current 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 system will stay in place, but confirmed the world champion will be the driver who wins the most races in a season.

The points system will be used for the remaining championship positions and in case two or more drivers win the same amount of races during a year.

The Constructors' Championship remains unaffected by the changes.

"The WMSC accepted the proposal from Formula One Management to award the drivers' championship to the driver who has won the most races during the season," said the FIA in a statement.

"If two or more drivers finish the season with the same number of wins, the title will be awarded to the driver with the most points, the allocation of points being based on the current 10, 8, 6 etc. system.

"The rest of the standings, from second to last place, will be decided by the current points system. There is no provision to award medals for first, second or third place. The Constructors' Championship is unaffected.

"The WMSC rejected the alternative proposal from the Formula One Teams' Association to change the points awarded to drivers finishing in first, second and third place to 12, 9 and 7 points respectively. "

FOTA had called for a points system overhaul after it conducted a survey in which fans asked for a greater gap between the points for first and second places to encourage drivers to go for victory.

"FOTA set out and conducted what has been a unique survey," said McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh earlier this month. "That audience survey told us that they wanted greater differentiation for winning and FOTA then considered a broad range of alternatives.

"Inevitably there is a balance to be struck on everything that you do. If you have a very large differentiation between first, second and third it is easy to envisage and to model that seasons may end sooner because championships will be determined sooner.

"And if we reflect on the last two championships they have been quite exciting climaxes and one would say on the face of it why would we want to change? What we felt within FOTA was having conducted a very thorough survey of audience views and advice we shouldn't ignore it.

"There were people who felt status quo was the best thing but I think what swung it was the opinion of the audience. We, as FOTA, have unanimously agreed that is what we want to see introduced this year. We now have to work with the commercial rights holder and with the FIA and seek their endorsement of that proposal."

When the idea for Ecclestone's medals system was aired earlier this year, the FIA produced a document detailing research it had conducted about the impact the concept would have on F1.

It suggested that there would have been 13 occasions when the world title would have been won by a different driver - although the most recent two occasions would have been last year, when Felipe Massa would have won, and in 1989 – when Ayrton Senna, not Alain Prost would have been champion.

autosport.com - F1 News: Wins to decide world champion in 2009

[LeonOfTheDead]

I have the feeling this would only affect the fight for the first position, but a driver in say 6th position is still not enough encouraged to fight to gain a position for just a point or two.
on the other hand, they usually show on tv only the first 2 or 3 drivers so...

[Dino Scuderia]

There are some possible scenarios which could make them look really stupid for going with this rule.

FIA, put down the crack pipe.

[scottie300z]

Qualifying might be nuts this year because of that rule.

And last year was bad enough with drivers forcing passes when they weren't really there resulting in an accident, wonder how it's going to be now that they are even more desperate to win the race.

[fpv_gtho]

I dont think its going to change anything when it comes to drivers duelling for a win. You could say it changes the meaning of driving with the championship in mind, but i think if the drivers are smart enough and they know their car might not be the fastest package on a particular day, they still wont push themselves for the win.

[scottie300z]

I dont think its going to change anything when it comes to drivers duelling for a win. You could say it changes the meaning of driving with the championship in mind, but i think if the drivers are smart enough and they know their car might not be the fastest package on a particular day, they still wont push themselves for the win.

I can see the logic in that but I can't see that logic in the drivers.

[Kitdy]

Alright the season starts in just over a week, so now here's the questions: who are you pulling for, and why?

[Zytek_Fan]

Brawn GP and BMW-Sauber.

Brawn because they're this year's Cinderella story already.

BMW-Sauber because they are capable of winning a championship.

[cmcpokey]

Brawn GP and BMW-Sauber.

Brawn because they're this year's Cinderella story already.

BMW-Sauber because they are capable of winning a championship.

same for me... brawn for WCC and Kubica for WDC.

[fpv_gtho]

I can see the logic in that but I can't see that logic in the drivers.

I'd expect it from the Alonso-Schumacher type of driver. Its hard to say with someone who's a bit more impulsive like Hamilton

[Zytek_Fan]

same for me... brawn for WCC and Kubica for WDC.

I really hope Brawn can get a decent amount of sponsorship to stay afloat.