Formula One 2009

[Adam]

I don't think a new thread's been created yet, so here goes!

The season starts in just a couple of weeks, and the BBC's drive to push F1 to the forefront of their coverage now they have the rights back has helped to get me psyched for the new campaign. That and the rule changes that promise more competition, which equals a lot more entertainment!

What are everyones thoughts on the regulation changes and the changes to the cars set-ups this year? And who will be in the hunt for the Championship?

[DFF]

Team Line-Ups for 2009

McLaren-Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton

Heiki Kovalainen

Ferrari

Kimi Räikkönen

Felipe Massa

BMW Sauber

Robert Kubica

Nick Heidfeld

Renault

Fernando Alonso

Nelson Piquet Jr.

Toyota

Jarno Trulli

Timo Glock

Toro Rosso-Ferrari

Sébastien Bourdais

Sébastien Buemi

Red Bull-Renault

Mark Webber

Sebastian Vettel

Williams-Toyota

Nico Rosberg

Kazuki Nakajima

Brawn-Mercedes

Jenson Button

Rubens Barrichello

Force India-Mercedes

Adrian Sutil

Giancarlo Fisichella

What are the major rule changes for this season?

Edited March 8, 2009 by Winter-F'n-Sun!

[TheArsenal]

What are the major rule changes for this season?

It's the biggest major overhaul of the rules in over 20 years.

THIS BBC ARTICLE is probably the best explantion of the major changes - including:

* Introduction of the KERS system

* Bringing back Slick Tyres

* Overhaul of regulations concerning the shape of cars

* Cost cutting measures - including just 8 engines for the WHOLE SEASON, and elimination of testing during the season

* Getting rid of the stupid rule that closed the pit lane when the safety car was deployed so that cars that were running out of fuel were given stop-go penalties for refueling

[Fry_4000]

is anyone using KERS this year seeing as it's optional this year?

[TheArsenal]

Williams, Toyota and Red Bull have said they won't be using KERS at the first race of the season in Australia.

Only McLaren has said they probably will be using it for the Australian GP.

[KoA]

Team Line-Ups for 2009

Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton

Heiki Kovalainen

McLaren-Mercedes

Kimi Räikkönen

Felipe Massa

BMW Sauber

Robert Kubica

Nick Heidfeld

Renault

Fernando Alonso

Nelson Piquet Jr.

Toyota

Jarno Trulli

Timo Glock

Toro Rosso-Ferrari

Sébastien Bourdais

Sébastien Buemi

Red Bull-Renault

Mark Webber

Sebastian Vettel

Williams-Toyota

Nico Rosberg

Kazuki Nakajima

Brawn-Mercedes

Jenson Button

Rubens Barrichello

Force India-Mercedes

Adrian Sutil

Giancarlo Fisichella

What are the major rule changes for this season?

McLaren and Ferrari have swapped drivers then, have they?

[Adam]

So who's everyone supporting this year then? I've been a Williams fan for years, since I first got into the sport, but I find it so difficult to follow them with Kazuki Nakajima at the wheel. He doesn't inspire me with much confidence.

Mark Webber remains my favourite driver, I hope he can bounce back from his injuries and do well, especially now Vettel is gonna be pushing him for the top spot at Red Bull.

Edited March 8, 2009 by 1PWCorino

[EddieG]

Haven't watched F1 in years.. hoping to get really into it again this year.. anybody give me a quick who's who?

[Adam]

Well, the drivers and their respective teams are listed above, only McLaren & Ferrari's drivers are the wrong way around. I think there are three former world champions on the grid in Raikkonen (2007 champion), Alonso (2005, 2006 champion?) and Hamilton (current champion).

Brawn are the newest team if you like, having just bought out Honda, who used to be BAR. Force India came in last year and haven't scored any points yet thanks to Kimi Raikkonen hitting Sutil in Monaco last year when he was 4th. They used to be Jordan and went through a couple more changes before becoming the team they are today. Red Bull are a parent team to Toro Rosso (literally Red Bull in Italian) even though they finished below them last season.

I don't know what else you wanna know, but the BBC's new revamped F1 subsite is really good with profiles & interviews with all the teams, drivers & bosses, plus info on the new broadcasting team for this year. Jake Humphrey's started up a blog too.

[DFF]

The team error has been corrected.

[Lineker]

Hopefully Vettel will have another stellar season. He is utterly fantastic.

Oh, and bring on the Chain!

[Adam]

McLaren have confirmed that they are off the pace, following a poor testing run in Barcelona this week. This is glorious news for myself, as it seems they won't be challenging for wins at the start of the season.

We are not competitive - McLaren

McLaren say they face a race against time to match the pace of their rivals ahead of the opening Grand Prix of the 2009 Formula One season on 29 March.

World champion Lewis Hamilton's car has performed poorly in pre-season testing.

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh said: "We are working hard to resolve a performance shortfall."

Norbert Haug, engine partner Mercedes' motorsport boss, added: "We are definitely not fast enough and not competitive enough to aim for wins."

During this week's test in Barcelona, Hamilton and his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen were well adrift of rivals Ferrari, BMW Sauber, Renault, Toyota and the cars of the new Brawn team, who have only been officially in existence for a week.

Hamilton finished bottom of the timesheets on Wednesday after damaging his car's front wing and nose in a crash and was almost two seconds slower than Rubens Barrichello's fastest time for Brawn GP on Thursday.

When asked if the MP4-24 was fast enough, Whitmarsh conceded: "Not at the moment - and certainly not by our team's extremely high standards.

"Next week we will be testing at Jerez [in Spain], which many of our rivals will not be.

"We aim to continue to develop the car, and the result should be measurable on the stopwatch.

"Will MP4-24 be as quick as we want it to be by 29 March? Perhaps not.

"Will it be quicker than it has been this week at the Barcelona test? Yes."

The 2009 season, which kicks off with the Australian Grand Prix, sees the sport's biggest rule changes for 25 years.

The new regulations, designed to increase overtaking, have reduced the cars' aerodynamic downforce, reintroduced untreaded "slick" tyres and given teams the option to employ a kinetic energy recovery system (Kers).

McLaren's poor performances over the winter have led to suggestions that the team have not effectively interpreted the rule changes.

McLaren chairman Ron Dennis conceded this week that the development of the car was a little behind schedule.

The team did not begin consistently running with the car's 2009 rear wing - which rules demand must be taller and narrower than the 2008 version - until Barcelona this week after using last year's model during earlier testing in Portugal and Jerez.

Whitmarsh confirmed the car's new aerodynamic package is at the root of the team's problems.

"Initial testing of the MP4-24, which first ran with an interim aero package, went in accordance with our early developmental expectations," he said.

"This week the car has run in Barcelona with an updated aero package and a performance shortfall has been identified

"Our Mercedes-Benz engine is strong so the MP4-24's performance shortfall is clearly chassis-centric.

"Ron, Norbert and I have enormous faith in the ability of our engineers and we are working as hard as they are to make the MP4-24 competitive enough to win Grands Prix."

But Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who lost the 2008 championship to Hamilton by a single point, said he was surprised by McLaren's apparent lack of pace in Barcelona.

"I have never seen McLaren so far behind," Massa told Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.

"However, they have another test to see what is not working.

"They are a team which can improve from one day to another, so you always need to respect them."

Whitmarsh and Haug are adamant that they will find the performance to challenge their oldest rivals Ferrari, and the rest of the field, over the 17-race season.

"Expect us to fight back even if it takes some time," warned Haug.

Whitmarsh added: "I am utterly certain that, once we have ironed out the issues the MP4-24 currently faces, we will win as a team again."

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Vettel has been driving very well so far and Red Bull are really flying. Love them to have a great season and I second the Mark Webber love.

I'd love old Jenson to have a decent season too and I'm still a fan of Fisichella!

[erperro]

Speaking of car shapes, the cars now look so ugly and so old.

[Summers]

BrawnGP are scary.

[Katsuya]

Soooo...yeah. It's probably been the most thrown around term right now, but "most open season ever" seems to be very applicable right now, albeit as it stands, it might be "Brawn win"..."Brawn win again"..."and again"...

Anyhow, since I've been addicted to the pre-season stuff, and for people who don't know what's going on, I might as well do this:

Ferrari - They look pretty strong as it stands, and probably will challenge for the titles this year. Kimi looks like he's regained some of his fire again, while Massa's been fairly steady. I believe that they've said they won't be running KERS for the first couple of races. Their fastest time of the week in Barcelona was a 1.20.168, set by Massa on the third day.

McLaren - Erm...yes. They're shit, essentially, and they've admitted that. Both Lewis & Heikki have struggled throughout testing, with the rear wing apparently being the major problem - and they've more or less run out of time to correct it, since the wind tunnel they've been using doesn't represent on-track results. Their fastest time was set on the last day by Hamilton, a 1.20.869. Unclear if they're using KERS.

BMW Sauber - Right now, they're probably Brawn's only credible threat at Melbourne. Heidfeld's seemingly on par with Kubica in testing, so hopefully that will mean there's less focus on helping him, detracting from Kubica (who's got a shot at the world title, I'd say). Their fastest was a 1.20.217 on day three, but if anyone is running KERS in Melbourne, it will be them, which will boost their times.

Renault - They have an ugly car. That's been the main thing people have said about Renault; otherwise, they're probably lumped in with McLaren in the "struggling" category. Not using KERS in Melbourne, and their fastest was the last day, a 1.20.664 by Alonso.

Toyota - Seem to be doing fairly well, overall. They've got a chance of nabbing a few early podiums, I'd say, albeit Glock has pretty much been thrashing Trulli. No KERS early on; fastest time was Glock's 1.20.091 on the last day.

Toro Rosso - After last year's heroics, it doesn't look like there's going to be much happening for Toro Rosso (albeit they might come on later on, like last year). They'll probably come under some pressure from Force India at the back. No KERS, and a fastest time of the week set by Buemi with a 1.21.013.

Red Bull - Strong and reliable for a change, it seems, but look like they might have to settle for a 4th/5th Constructors battle, having been outpaced in the latest tests by others. They too won't be using KERS for a good portion of the season, with Vettel setting their quickest time on day four, a 1.20.576.

Williams - Despite a rather significant lack of money for this season, it seems, Williams have actually shown a little bit of pace. Nakajima's not sucking as much as he usually does, too. Their fastest was on the last day with a super-impressive 1.19.774 by Rosberg, but that will be qualifying pace - they're probably around the McLaren/Renault battle otherwise.

Brawn GP - Well...having been saved from the brink of collapse a week ago, they're currently kicking everybody's ass. I don't even think the new car has broken down yet. To make the point, but Jenson & Rubens have pretty much eclipsed everybody else by around about 1-2 second...and the two "vets" of F1 appear to have a win in Melbourne all sealed up, unless something goes wrong (or their lack of KERS plays a major problem). Fastest time? 1.18.926.

Force India - They're...trying. That's probably the best thing to say about Force India right now. The car still looks like it will be occupying the back of the grid most of the time, but it might spring a couple of lower points during the year. 1.21.045 was their best time of the week.

Of course, everything could/will change between now and Melbourne, so really, it's hard to predict what will happen. We might find this time in two weeks that we have a Ferrari/McLaren top four...or we might have a Brawn/Williams top four. Who knows.

Edited March 14, 2009 by Katsuya

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I'd love Button to get some victories under his belt.

[DFF]

How the hell is Bwan GP so quick? Especially, than, say, Ferrari?

[Zaz]

If y'all interested, Vector is trying to get a BATracer Formula One game going here. We need as many as we can get, it's only us two right now >_>

[Summers]

How the hell is Bwan GP so quick? Especially, than, say, Ferrari?

Basically, Brawn is a genius.