Thursday Thoughts: Young Drivers

This week's Thursday Thoughts question comes from RG of The Northern Waffler, who asks:

Which young driver, who is currently not in Formula 1, would you like to see in the series in the next few seasons?

This is a great question. When I'm asked about drivers who should be in F1, the default position is to look straight at GP2 - and if this had been asked three months ago it would have been a case of "well, pick one of these" from Lucas di Grassi, Nico Hülkenberg and Kamui Kobayashi (and he only on the strength of those stand-in drives at Toyota, his GP2 career was not great). Now each of those has been signed, to Virgin, Williams and Sauber respectively! So who's left?

Frankly the remainder of the GP2 pack hasn't yet impressed me enough, though I grant you I hadn't kept up with GP2 very well in 2009. Paster Maldonado is fast and furious yet has apparently calmed down a bit, could he now be ready? What of Jerome D'Ambrosio and Giedo Van Der Garde? I like both of them and I would really like to see them in F1. Romain Grosjean was fantastic in GP2 but hopeless at Renault, does he deserve another shot in a different environment?

This question can't pass without a nod to the oft-discussed Anthony Davidson and Paul di Resta, the Brits seemingly having lost their deserved F1 opportunities to an era when test drivers were ample and race drives were few. With the situation reversed they seem to have been passed over for drivers behind them on the escalator. The same could be said of Adam Carroll. I'd love to see Adam in a Formula 1 car. I think these are probably too old to be considered 'young' drivers now, but they should be there.

I was going to go for Ryan Hunter-Reay. The man is fast on the IndyCar road courses and is the perfect fit for F1 in terms of speed and image, and he should be in a McLaren or a MercedesGP (but not a USF1.. yet). Unfortunately at age 29, for the purposes of this question he is too old (as are some of the other names above).

Then there are the Red Bull proteges Daniel Ricciardo and Jules Bianchi, both are hotly tipped and I'd be very surprised if they didn't make it to F1 eventually, Brendon Hartley could be another. I think they are a while away yet though and to be fair I don't know enough about them.

So who do I pick?

After a lot of deliberating I'm going to go for Vitaly Petrov. I've been watching him for a while and I think it would be very interesting to see him in a Formula 1 race. He finished 2nd in the GP2 points last year and has scored some wins over the last couple of years, and while he may not be the out-and-out fastest driver around he is a fighter, and I do like to see a fighting racing driver - that's something that seems to have been missing lately in F1 aside from Hamilton (no I'm not saying he's as good as Lewis), look at Vettel who is a great lap-time driver yet seems to have an aversion to overtaking anybody. I think Vitaly is your classic underdog and I always love to root for that kind of driver, even if it rarely pays off.

Of course I could be proven wrong when I eventually get around to watching last year's GP2..

2010 Race Calendar

During the 2009 season I thought it would be a great idea to create a race schedule in Google Calendar featuring different racing series. I was busy with accounts studies at the time and I never got around to taking it further. Early last month I decided it was worth exploring so I set up a trial with F1 and IndyCar dates. I'd add more later if I decided it looked okay. Again I let it drop when other things got in the way.

Christine from Sidepodcast recently created a calendar highlighting F1 events and the SPC / F1 Minute podcast schedules and she did a great job, enough to inspire me to get on and finish my idea.

Here it is!



My schedule includes F1, F2, GP2, IndyCar, Le Mans 24hr, ALMS, LMS, MotoGP, WRC, IRC and WTCC. I've also put in Dakar, Goodwood and a couple of other things. I'll add NASCAR Sprint Cup and DTM soon - there are categories already so if you add them the events will hopefully appear in your calendar automatically.

Christine's calendar is F1-specific and it includes Free Practice, pre-season testing and car launches. My calendar includes none of these things, only qualifying and race. I highly recommend adding Christine's F1 calendar if you would like this extra information.

Click the "+GoogleCalendar" button to add to your own Google Calendar account. I have split events by race series so you can just pick the ones you want. I think there is a way to get them into iCal and other systems, though I don't know how.


The calendar is set to UK time because that's where I am and that's most useful to me. I'm not sure but I believe when you import it, it will adjust it to your own default timezone. Have a play with it and see.

Race start times are estimates apart from F1 and Le Mans. This information is surprisingly hard to find. E.g. IndyCar.com only lists TV start times, not race starts. Many sites only give the dates and I've had to improvise. Then there's the issue of timezones which I may have got wrong. I plan to make each forthcoming weekend as accurate as I can, beyond that just use this as a guide.

I've included qualifying for F1, Le Mans 24Hrs and IndyCar (times estimated). I don't intend to include any more qualifying.

I hope you find this useful and please let me know if there is anything you would like to add. If the demand is there and I think it warrants adding, I'll do so. I'm already considering Indy Lights.

As you can see I've also added a list version to the sidebar. When I create the new site I will have a version similar to the one above on its own page.

F1 Minute Video

F1 Minute is now available as a video podcast!

I like to plug the work other people are doing if I enjoy it, and our favourite purveyor of minute-long daily audio news updates is now providing them in video form.

Here is the first video, which is for the update of January 4th:

Kubica Set to Stay at Renault - F1 Minute (4 January 2010)
Uploaded by f1minute.

Keep in touch with new releases at F1Minute.com's video section (or via DailyMotion or YouTube), there is a slight lag at the moment while they find their feet but they'll soon be released in sync with the audio version. For the moment I'll keep the audio player embedded here on this blog, if you prefer to use that.

Tangentially, F1Minute.com is also the home of F1 Big Picture which is always worth a look, and a good place to source the text from original press releases from teams and the FIA. I think it is an under-appreciated site so let's give it some love.

An Aside With Joe #16

Today the latest 'An Aside With Joe' podcast was released and amazingly they are up to no.16 already. It doesn't seem long since the first one.

These chats with journalist and author Joe Saward are always very revealing and in this edition you can find out about:

• making Grands Prix green;
• a Grand Prix for electric cars;
• Silverstone's deal;
• an update on the Motorsport Business Forum, not the Monaco one like much of the F1 media but the Orlando event (and the reasons why he went there);
• hydroplanes - yes, really;

I've said it before and it is ever true - after listening to Joe speak for just under an hour you come away feeling a lot wiser about motorsport and you look at it through different eyes - plus you can impress your friends with the knowledge. Of course, your friends don't care about motorsport and they still think Button is called Jason, hah, what do they know, nothing.

Thanks to Sidepodcast and especially to Joe for making the time to produce these, and particularly this episode which was an unexpected addition.

I know it is Christmas but you should make time for this one, LISTEN HERE.

Schumacher's Return Isn't So Bad

It became official this morning: Michael Schumacher has departed his advisory role with Ferrari to take a race seat at Mercedes GP, where he will be reunited with Ross Brawn.

I'm surprised at this news, in the beginning I thought it was a ploy by Mercedes to extract a better deal first from Jenson Button, and then Kimi Raikkonen. It looks like they were serious all along!

I am not a fan of Michael Schumacher. He has a known history of "bending the rules" (I'm being charitable, it is Christmas) at both Benetton and Ferrari and the FIA consistently let him off with weak penalties or none at all. He is the man who took Senna's swerving and weaving to a new level, to the extent that all the young drivers in lower formulae starting doing it, thinking it was normal. Yet I find myself excited at his return. Why?

You have to say this wouldn't have happened had Ross Brawn not been involved with the team. The two have enjoyed a lot of success together and I for one am not looking forward to the kind of dominance they so frequently displayed. Schumacher and Brawn's unique combined skill was to do things with fuel strategy that no other driver/strategist combination could. Schumacher has the ability to drive the car to a target laptime, relentlessly. It was this ability that allowed Brawn's to put into play fuel strategies that just wouldn't have otherwise worked. The combination of the two was dominating.

The rules have changed now. There is no more in-race refuelling, so this advantage no longer applies. The most they can do is be creative with tyre strategies while managing the weight of the car. It will be very interesting to see how this pairing copes under the new rules, probably more so than anyone else.

We have a level playing field again and one in which the driver has more say - and we know Schumacher prefers an open track to wheel-to-wheel racing. Over a lap he is better than nobody but he doesn't like the wheel-to-wheel, where he panics. This is where Alonso beat him before, and I believe will again - even better, he'll be driving Michael's red car! Then there's Hamilton and we know he's not scared of a fight either, with Button, Vettel and hopefully Massa making life interesting too.

2010 will feature one of the strongest grids in years among the 'regular' runners, then add in the new teams who will almost certainly be getting in the way for much of the year as an added distraction (and possible Safety Car enabler) and we have the recipe for an amazing season. It was shaping up to be so anyway, and now everybody will have just one man in their sights.

I am looking forward to Schumacher attempting to best this new generation of racers, many of whom have never raced him in F1 - and the 'new Button', the champion Button, could surprise him too.

I feel relieved for Rubens Barrichello who could easily have played the role of Schumi's Lapdog once again, Williams may be a step down but he is team-leader at last and it'll suit him well, and he can now play a role similar to that of his good friend Tony Kanaan.

I feel bad for Nico Rosberg who may have expected to be sitting alongside Nick Heidfeld next year and now faces the inevitibility of being No.2 in a team revolving around Schumacher, for it is clear even before it has been mentioned that MS will be the de facto Number One.

I even feel bad for Heidfeld who is probably going to be stuck with Sauber again, the Merc seat was probably his last shot at a race-winning drive.

In summary then, I fully expect Schumacher to play his old tricks again but the other aspects of his return outweigh that for the short term at least, and the sudden jump in media coverage and internet discussion is testament to ability to draw fans back to F1 - perhaps his return will see a rise in TV ratings and race attendances once more, after 2009's dip.

The thing I'm really not looking forward to is dealing with the pro/anti MS arguments again, the bane of internet discussion for the bulk of this decade. Twitter is going to be a nightmare.

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I promised to update my entry list after every driver annoucement, here is the first update:

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
McLaren	Mercedes	MP4-25
1. Jenson Button	2. Lewis Hamilton	T: tbc
Mercedes GP Petronas
Mercedes	Mercedes	tbc
3. Michael Schumacher	4. Nico Rosberg	T: tbc
Red Bull Racing
Red Bull	Renault	RB6
5. Sebastian Vettel	6. Mark Webber	T: tbc
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Ferrari	Ferrari	tbc
7. Felipe Massa	8. Fernando Alonso	T: G.Fisichella
AT&T Williams
Williams	Cosworth	FW32
9. Rubens Barrichello	10. Nico Hülkenberg	T: tbc
Renault F1 Team
Renault	Renault	R30
11. Robert Kubica	12. tbc	T: tbc
Force India F1 Team
Force India	Mercedes	VJM03
14. Adrian Sutil	15. Vitantonio Liuzzi	T: tbc
Scuderia Toro Rosso
STR	Ferrari	STR5
16. Sebastien Buemi	17. tbc	T: tbc
Lotus F1 Racing
Lotus	Cosworth	tbc
18. Jarno Trulli	19. Heikki Kovalainen	T: F.Fauzy
Campos Meta 1
Campos Dallara	Cosworth	tbc
20. tbc	21. Bruno Senna	T: tbc
US F1 Team
US F1	Cosworth	tbc
22. tbc	23. tbc	T: tbc
Virgin Racing
Virgin	Cosworth	VR-01
24. Timo Glock	25. Lucas di Grassi	T: A.Parente T: L.Razia
Sauber
Sauber	Ferrari	C29
26. Kamui Kobayashi	27. tbc	T: tbc

There is also the Stefan GP team waiting in the wings to get an entry either in 2010 or 2011, they say they have signed drivers already, the buzz says one of those drivers is likely to be Vitaly Petrov.

2010 F1 Entry List Roundup

The last few weeks have seen a flurry of announcements of driver movements and other changes within teams for the 2010 Formula 1 season, including the first real presentations from some of the new teams.

I thought it would be a good idea to keep a note of what has been announced up to the Christmas break. For the moment I am assuming the Mercedes / Petronas deal (and wow where did that come from?) is the last announcement for 2009. The best format for this seems to be a table rather than a really long write-up, so I'll list the entrant name, then the constructor, engine and chassis, followed by the race and test drivers.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
McLaren	Mercedes	MP4-25
1. Jenson Button	2. Lewis Hamilton	T: tbc
Mercedes GP
Mercedes	Mercedes	tbc
3. Nico Rosberg	4. tbc	T: tbc
Red Bull Racing
Red Bull	Renault	RB6
5. Sebastian Vettel	6. Mark Webber	T: tbc
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Ferrari	Ferrari	tbc
7. Felipe Massa	8. Fernando Alonso	T: G.Fisichella
AT&T Williams
Williams	Cosworth	FW32
9. Rubens Barrichello	10. Nico Hülkenberg	T: tbc
Renault F1 Team
Renault	Renault	R30
11. Robert Kubica	12. tbc	T: tbc
Force India F1 Team
Force India	Mercedes	VJM03
14. Adrian Sutil	15. Vitantonio Liuzzi	T: tbc
Scuderia Toro Rosso
STR	Ferrari	STR5
16. Sebastien Buemi	17. tbc	T: tbc
Lotus F1 Racing
Lotus	Cosworth	tbc
18. Jarno Trulli	19. Heikki Kovalainen	T: F.Fauzy
Campos Meta 1
Campos Dallara	Cosworth	tbc
20. tbc	21. Bruno Senna	T: tbc
US F1 Team
US F1	Cosworth	tbc
22. tbc	23. tbc	T: tbc
Virgin Racing
Virgin	Cosworth	VR-01
24. Timo Glock	25. Lucas di Grassi	T: A.Parente, L.Razia
Sauber
Sauber	Ferrari	C29
26. Kamui Kobayashi	27. tbc	T: tbc

Notes:
- This only covers what has been announced not what has been rumoured, nor deals with conditions (such as Lopez at USF1 which depends on raising a budget).
- Jaime Alguersuari is likely to retain the STR seat.
- Lotus F1 Racing is operated by 1Malaysia F1 Team.
- The Renault team is now 75%-owned by Genii Capital.
- Car number allocations remain fluid until March. #13 is not used.
- For the first time in years we have the return of the famous 26 and 27!

I'm really pleased to see Sauber back in their original guise, complete with 'C' designation for the chassis. I'm also pleased to see Cosworth on the grid again! Let's hope they can regroup, and the new teams can do a respectable job over the coming years.


Here is the 2010 Calendar:

14-Mar	Sakhir, Bahrain
28-Mar	Melbourne, Australia
04-Apr	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
18-Apr	Shanghai, China
09-May	Barcelona, Spain
16-May	Monaco
30-May	Istanbul, Turkey
13-Jun	Montreal, Canada
27-Jun	Valencia, Spain (European GP)
11-Jul	Silverstone, Britain
25-Jul	Hockenheim, Germany
01-Aug	Budapest, Hungary
29-Aug	Spa, Belgium
12-Sep	Monza, Italy
26-Sep	Singapore
10-Oct	Suzuka, Japan
24-Oct	Korea*
07-Nov	Sao Paulo, Brazil
14-Nov	Abu Dhabi

* pending circuit homologation

I will post updated lists throughout January and February as more is released. I am tempted to do the same for IndyCar and GP2, would that be interesting to people? I am much less sure what has been completely confirmed in either of those but I am willing to try and find out.

Belated Thursday Thoughts: An F1 Christmas

I have been offline for a few days after my computer's power supply decided to fail, I am glad to say I'm back now and here is my belated response to the most recent Thursday Thoughts question, this time posed by Gavin from Making Up The Numbers.

What do you want to get F1 for Christmas and why?

The first thing I would get is clip 'round the ear for Michael Schumacher for considering a return to racing. I can see that it'll be really interesting to see how he'll get on after some time away and with a new team, albeit still working with Ross Brawn. I just don't want him back, we've moved on from that era. Still, I suppose it prevents him from being Todt's F1 Commissioner so that's one positive.

I would buy a new online timing/telemetry system for Formula1.com and it would include video options. And it would work.

I'd buy Peter Sauber a huge thank you present for saving the team he created so long ago. Anything he wants. I had a soft-spot for that team during the late 90s, despite their Ferrari-leanings and my bias against Ferrari in that era. Peter is one of the good guys and I'm so glad he's still in F1.

I'd get the four new teams some good-luck charms. Horse's shoes, four-leaf clovers, that sort of thing because frankly they need it. I wish them well and will give them the benefit of the doubt - for a little while anyway. They've got a difficult year ahead.

Finally, if I had the money I would give every motorsport blogger and podcaster (and regular commenters) free tickets to an event - the same event, so that we could have one mega-big meetup. It could be Goodwood, or an F1 GP, or Le Mans.
I've really enjoyed this new world of blogging get even bigger in 2009 than it was in 2008, reading and hearing what everyone has to say, and even more than that I've enjoyed the meetups held during the year and this would be my way of saying thanks to you all.

Thursday Thoughts: The Future of F1 Content

Thursday Thoughts visits different blogs and is hosted here this week, so it is my turn to ask the question. Here is my response.

- What innovations would you like to see in F1 content delivery?

I think most of us by now are aware how far F1 lags behind other motorsports, even other sports entirely when it comes to delivering their product to the end user, the customer, the fan. It is quite frustrating to be told repeatedly how F1 teams use the most advanced technology to create these fantastically fast cars and yet the rights-holders are in some cases years behind the game in introducing the technology needed to provide real insight to the fan.

The rights-holders to Formula 1 are the collection of companies owned by CVC and controlled on their behalf by Bernie Ecclestone, I am not sure which company controls which element but I think FOA runs the races or at least the bits the FIA don't run, and FOM handles the TV and online offering. For the sake of argument I'll use FOM.

FOM seems insistent on relying on traditional avenues to get their message across, whether it be TV, magazines or newspapers. They seemingly reluctantly got themselves involved with the web business with www.formula1.com but they only did so in 2002 or thereabouts. Given the web recently celebrated 25 years of existence and most forward-thinking companies have been on it in some for or another since the mid-90s it was a curious oversight.

Why is it that F1 keeps talking about "embracing the internet" as if it's 1994 and it's a clever idea? Perhaps get on with it?

Ed Straw, F1 Editor of Autosport, via Twitter yesterday

Two major gaffes have appeared on Formula1.com. There may have been more.

One was the SMS text service. This was a great idea in principle: sign up to the service and you would receive a text message after every session informing you of the fastest drivers, and the points positions after races. The problem was they introduced it with the pricing structure of a decade earlier and the world had moved on, at least in the more developed mobile phone markets.
While I forget the specifics, the prices would have looked reasonable in 1997 when the mobile market was enjoying rapid growth and a plethora of new applications but in 2007 they looked utterly ridiculous and far too high. I would like to see this adjusted so that the more casual fan who isn't able to watch all the sessions or even all the races can receive updates at reasonable rates. My Dad gets a text message whenever his football team scores a goal. It can't be that hard.

The other was the web shop, again a good idea in principle - yet the original version was stocked with the wrong goods. Like so much in F1 it was pitched towards the premium customer, the more affluent fan who wants something special. Only in F1 could you buy an official carbon-fibre mouse mat, replete with F1 logo, for £200. Which is fine - I actually like the fact these items are there because I appreciate it helps position the brand of F1 - they just forgot to include things mere mortals could afford, a position they have gone some way to correcting in 2009.

Another aspect website is the live timing. When it works it is very informative, unfortunately it has a lot of glitches. It has been used ever since the site went live and is probably due a rethink. It could be bigger and contain more information. F1 is full of data, let's make use of it. Again, this year they've gone some way to making the info they offer open to more fans by creating the iPhone app which I've heard is tremendously useful, if pricey (there seems to be a theme here).

While I'm on the subject of timing, the TV coverage desperately needs to cut back on the "1-stop" graphic and tell us how far apart the cars are! Of course if they borrowed from DTM they could just mark a little '1' on the vertical position graphic that appears to the left of screen from time to time. If I don't have an iPhone or can't get near a computer to access live timing, I shouldn't be deprived of the basic car-to-car gaps, these should be available to all on the main feed and if I want the extra info like sector times then that's when I should look it up elsewhere. With any luck this data will be rolled out to further mobile platforms in future.

I must admit, other than the iPhone timing app I don't know what else is offered officially for mobile devices because I don't own a modern smartphone - but soon I and most others will do, I suspect I am already in the minority among mobile-owners.

I see no reason why FOM cannot offer an app offering short video clips to mobile devices, for a small fee. I see no reason why they cannot offer those same videos on their website, although I think most of us expect web video to be free unless it is of some length. On the website I would therefore offer short, free videos to anyone who visits. I would also offer a premium subscription ('premium' in name only, priced at a level we can afford!) where you can watch entire races, let's say until Jan 1st. They could expand that to show classic races and send FOM TV to each test session to provide us with reports from winter testing.

FOM claim they don't offer these because the commentary and ownership is specific to particular broadcasters, yet the broadcasters claim they can't provide online coverage because the video is owned by FOM. The only notable exception seems to be the BBC's iPlayer (an excellent service) and the FP sessions trialled last year by ITV. At the end of every session aired on the BBC there is a particularly large copyright notice stating that the production is copyright of FOM. If FOM owns the video,can they not put it online, even a version with no commentary? Even better, work with each broadcaster to offer the same footage with different reactions. It would fascinating in the week after a race incident to go to Formula1.com and compare the reactions of crews from BBC, SPEED, Globo, RAI, RTL, etc, etc. They could make a montage and sell it for money.

They also need to bring in High-Def coverage to those who will take it and offer that as a quality option for the downloads. There are HD channels in more and more countries and even the little devices support it now. They've been using HD cameras for a year or so now but they still won't release a true HD feed for broadcast or sale, which is crazy, why invest in the technology if you aren't going to use it?
This is the most technologically advanced sport in the world and it is still in fuzzy-vision. NASCAR has 36 races per year and most, if not all of them, are available in HD in the US (and sometimes in the UK). It doesn't matter if you don't have an HD TV or monitor, you still notice a difference. I think Abu Dhabi was in HD and it looked fantastic on my SD TV on the SD digital broadcast.

Conclusion: FOM are applying 20th Century solutions to 21st Century fans. They need to change. Fast.

There are signs that they are changing slowly. The iPhone app. The F1 2009 Wii and PSP games, and the 2010 PC, Xbox and PS3 games. These should be released annually in the way that the FIFA, Madden and other licensed games are, there is a demand for it.

Perhaps they are starting to wake up?

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You can read the Thursday Thoughts of my fellow bloggers by following the links in the Question post!

Thursday Thoughts: Question

For the last few weeks I have taken part in the 'Thursday Thoughts' initiative, which calls for bloggers to respond to a question set by a colleague. This week it is my turn to ask the question.


- What innovations would you like to see in F1 content delivery?


This came up on Wednesday at the Motorsport Business Forum in Monaco in relation to Formula 1's reluctance to embrace new technologies and content delivery systems, and you can read some of the reports from Autosport here and here as well as some excellent entries from Stuart Codling's new blog here and here. The main point coming from it was people want more than just the TV experience, they want more online and mobile content.

All of which was fascinating from those in the industry but what I want to know is what my fellow fan thinks, after all we are the end users. What sort of online and mobile content do you want to see? How do you want to consume F1 in the near future, say by this time next year or going into the following season?

This question is aimed at F1 but if you want to expand it out or talk about other racing that's fine. This is a multi-series blog whose remit is to get people talking about different racing (including how F1 relates to various other racing), which is why I included WRC's fascinating announcement in the links above.

* *
I will update this post as blog entries come in, please feel free to link to your blog in the comments or if you don't have a blog perhaps you may like to post your thoughts here. I look forward to your opinions!

- Ollie at BlogF1 already wrote about this yesterday;

- A month ago Allen from The Furious Wedge wrote about the online services provided by IRL and A1GP;

- StartledBunny of Another Planet and RubberGoat from Making Up The Numbers both mention joining in with the race while it is in progress, which is an interesting idea;

- Over at Sidepodcast they are already a few years ahead of many of us when it comes to consuming video away from the TV, and Christine considers the only way forward may be to change the man at the top. (Mr C also wrote something on online content recently).

- Dylan from the new Triple League Racing blog offers an interesting perspective on how IndyCar and NASCAR approach things.

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Thursday Thoughts: F1 Engine Parity

Pitlane Fanatic is the host of this week's Thursday Thoughts question, which is this:

Is engine parity necessary for 2010?

Absolutely not. With engine parity we have seen the F1 grid close up like never before but it has come at the expense of passing. I would argue that it is this factor which is offsetting the improvements made by the aero changes - there is less wake behind the cars yet nobody has enough grunt to take advantage, unless they have KERS in which case their KERS-less victim is a sitting duck (see Kimi and Giancarlo at Spa), yet if both have KERS we are back to square one.
With differences between engines we would find some drivers have a power advantage, but perhaps not enough that a well-driven disadvantaged car couldn't still beat them from time to time.

Without differences between engines what is the point of having different engine manufacturers? Perhaps this is a ploy to get us used to similar engines should the 'world engine' concept come about. Let's hope not. Some engines are more powerful than others. Some are more fuel efficient, and their time would (or should) have come in 2010 with the ban on refuelling. While none of us (except the Tifosi) like to see domination, I don't think many of us want to see top line racing reduced to a group of spec series - and occasional domination is part and parcel of the sport anyway.

The differences between equipment make up a fundamental part of the sport, and let's not forget this is a sport, not entertainment. If I wanted to watch entertainment I'd watch a comedy show. Sport is about tackling a problem with different techniques to see which comes out best. In some sports that's using similar equipment in different ways or simply being better than the others. In motorsport you are and should be allowed to find a better way.

The cost issue is a concern. Manufacturers were spending ridiculous amounts of money on engines in the V10 era and the beginning of this V8 era and that had to end. Yet consider all the money currently being spent on aerodynamic work which bears absolutely no relation to anything else done not just in the car industry but anywhere. It has no other purpose. Yet the area the car industry needs to explore most urgently right now is engine efficiency or even alternative engines, and this is the area being cut back in the arena which develops tech faster than no other? I find that absurd.

Let's reduce the aero spend - OK I accept they already are - and allow the teams and manufacturers to explore different engine technologies with their money, should they wish to. There is nothing wrong with a new concept being five seconds per laps slower at the beginning of its life. If you believe it works, persevere and make it faster. They did it with turbos. They did it with V6s, V8s, V10s, V12s in the 1990s when engines were more open. That's how it should be. That's F1.

Is parity necessary in 2010? No. I'd get rid of it completely.

Thursday Thoughts: F1 Launches

This week's Thursday Thoughts question from Sidepodcast:

Should F1 teams launch 2010 cars in a single launch event?

When I first read the question I thought I would be in favour, but after considering the pros and cons I've turned out to be against the idea. Let's run through them.

In favour of a group launch:

- It cuts costs for everyone. Perhaps they would each pay a flat rate to FOTA who would hire a venue, perhaps they could even get a neutral company (say a series sponsor like LG) to sponsor the event and make it break even.

- All of the world's F1 media would be in the same place at once. Not only would this cut their costs but it would mean not having to choose between competing events held the same day.

- It would create a huge pre-season buzz with all the new cars appearing before the world at once, or in reality probably in stages through the day. The publicity would be huge! You could even set up a dummy grid, though I'm sure you'd have to draw lots for the order.


In favour of individual launches:

- 'Launches' these days aren't the frivolous affairs of the late 90s with the Spice Girls and the dry ice. The cost of plonking a tarpaulin-covered car in the pitlane in Jerez really isn't that high when it is there for testing anyway.

- If there are launches held on the same day in different countries, the bigger players tend to have enough staff or freelancers to be able to send one or two to each.

- We already have a huge pre-season buzz, it just isn't concentrated into a focal point, it is spread over many weeks or even months. This for me as a fan is the clincher. The anticipation builds from late January as car after car is steadily launched right up until we can visualise the full grid in early March, just days before the real thing. No other form of motorsport can or does do this.

- If they launched at the same time only the specialist motorsport press will cover every team. At the moment the general media might have a larger story for McLaren and a smaller one for Force India, but they'd pretty much all get something, at least in newspapers. If they launched all at once the editors would have the same space to cram in 13 or 14 teams and it just isn't going to happen, they'd pick Brawn, McLaren, Ferrari and maybe one other. This should be the clincher for the teams but they seem to have missed it.

The group shot idea I had above - it would look cool to have the cars lined up together but the team sponsors would probably prefer the focus to be on their car on that day. With an individual launch you get the focus on your team and your sponsors. For this reason alone I am amazed a team like McLaren, with their focus on "corporate partners" (never "sponsors" for McLaren) is prepared to even entertain the idea let alone consider it seriously.

In other responses I have seen it said the new teams would prefer individual launches to get the focus but actually I disagree with that. I think they are pushing for a group launch. Why? Because it legitimises them to be seen alongside Ferrari and McLaren and so forth. At this stage that is worth a considerable amount more to them than a single-focus launch - but that isn't enough of a reason to go for it.

Then you have other issues such as the invited guests. Would you have one conference room, wheeling in each set of sponsor's bigwigs before wheeling in the car? Then getting them all to leave in a timely manner before the next group, bearing in mind you have essentially 8am to 8pm to launch 13 teams?

I think the cons outweigh the pros on this one, not just in number but in gravity. It was a good idea and let's not fault them for coming up with radical ideas for they are needed, but the execution of it is a logistical nightmare and the media benefits - which after all is the point of holding a launch - are diminished in my view.

Mercedes Grand Prix

Yet more big changes among the F1 teams for 2010! Not only do we get get a raft of new teams, the departure of BMW (who may yet come back in a new form) and Toyota, now we also have Mercedes completely restructuring their involvement after a long unbroken run with McLaren.


McLaren
Mercedes presently own 40% of the McLaren F1 team (not the group as a whole though). The problem Mercedes faced is that while they are the largest single shareholder, the others hold an agreement by which they vote as a single block, thus having the power to veto Mercedes. There is also the new supercar which is the first McLaren-built road car in years not to feature a Mercedes engine.

Plan: The 40% shareholding will be reduced gradually over the next 18 months or so and for the 2010 season (and beyond??) the team will still be called Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. The engine supply agreement remains and, for now, so does the colour scheme.


BrawnGP
After Honda departed F1 the team has had to cut back somewhat in personnel, and it still seemed to suffer the same problem as it always had under every incarnation, that of not being able to attract long-term sponsors. With benefactors like BAT and Honda it was never necessary only desired, indeed Honda effectively bankrolled the 2009 season. It was anyone's guess what would happen in 2010 and beyond. Yet amazingly the came from nowhere to dominate the first half of the season, and while it went south after that they managed to battle on to secure both championships.

Plan: Mercedes have bought 75.1% of the team in an agreement with a Middle Eastern investment company. The team will henceforth be known as Mercedes GP and the cars branded as 'Silver Arrows', harking back to the famous cars of the 1930s and 1950s. Ross Brawn remains in charge but will liaise with Norbert Haug.


Drivers:
Rubens Barrichello left Brawn last month and had already signed for Williams to replace Nico Rosberg, who was looking to leave that team. Nico had therefore been linked with the vacant Brawn seat in a straight swap and now Mercedes have a greater involvement the deal appears as good as done.

The big question is over the future of Jenson Button. There are strong reports placing him at McLaren with a pay rise, doing nothing to quell his reputation as a money-chaser. At least this time he's earned it. I am not sure what placing himself in what is Lewis Hamilton's personal team is going to acheive for Button other than damaging his career, he must be confident in his ablility to beat him. It will be interesting to see him try!
At this stage it could still be an elaborate bluff and Kimi Raikkonen could still get that seat, though you have to say that possibility is shrinking daily. In fact just this evening Kimi's manager has stated any chance with McLaren has now disappeared.

That leaves a space at MercGP. Will Kimi end up there? Are the Heidfeld rumours a ploy by the Kimi or Jenson to get more money (either take us for mega $$ or end up with Nick), and is that how he gets himself hired? What is the fate of Heikki Kovalainen?

Lots of questions still need answering. One thing's for sure, this is a much bigger deal for the ex-Brawn team than the Virgin deal suggested a while back and perhaps that's why Virgin are now hooking up with Manor.

One final point I saw mentioned:
Among entrants this makes BrawnGP the most successful team in history, in terms of strike rate.
Years entered: 1
Drivers titles: 1
Constructors titles: 1
Maximum score.

Thursday Thoughts: F1 Team Principal 2009

Who do I think deserves the theoretical title of F1 Team Principal of the Year 2009?

There are some strong candidates, particularly the men running the teams battling for the championship - after all most of expected it to be a fight between the 'usual suspects' of McLaren and Ferrari so the emergence of Brawn and Red Bull came as a pleasant surprise. That's not to take away from McLaren in particular who improved their car enormously.

When this question was first asked of me I only had one response. Ross Brawn. It had to be, didn't it? Brawn and his lieutenants not only developed a fantastic car pre-season but also found time to save the team from extinction. They'd built up such an advantage that the wave carried them through some pretty lean times in mid-season when the car just wouldn't work with the tyres, and yet despite those characteristics they still salvaged points from crap qualifying positions.

This is actually a close run thing. Christian Horner has arguably run the more sporting campaign with what would probably have been the fastest car on the grid if double-diffusers had been outlawed (their DD wasn't added until later) while allowing the drivers to race each other until surprisingly late into the season, which is how I prefer it to be. Webber was deployed in a 'support' role only when it became essential to do so. Now this may be an unfair comparison because Barrichello was still in the title running until Interlagos, yet it wasn't as clear cut at Brawn.. it almost seemed as if Rubens was being shuffled out of the way at times.

Still, the way RBR racked up points in the latter portion of the season shows they did a fantastic job and Horner has clearly turned the outfit into a Championship operation just as his fans from the Arden F3000 days, and I count myself as one of them, always hoped and suspected he eventually would - even if we didn't expect it this season! Still, RBR were a midfield team and Honda had fallen from even that position.

So, on balance, I give this award to Ross Brawn for his achievements in turning the team from back-of-the-grid no-hopers in 2008 to title winners in 2009. Frankly that's a hell of an accomplishment even without rescuing the team from extinction in the middle of it!

* * *
Blog Note

This is the first in what will hopefully be a weekly series as part of Sidepodcast's Thursday Thoughts initiative, in which a collection of F1 bloggers write about a chosen theme and post their entry at roughly the same time, currently slated to be 9pm GMT (a little late this week, it being the first week). Check out the idea here and if you have a blog feel free to join in!

Regular readers may remember I participated in a similar scheme during last off-season which was slanted around IndyCar. Unfortunately I couldn't keep up with it as I was studying heavily at the time, and it seems the concept has since been dropped entirely. I used my posts in that series to take a different angle to my colleagues, trying to relate the IRL questions to other championships as part of this blog's remit to cover a variety of racing. I plan to do the same with Thursday Thoughts wherever the questions allow it.

Race Notes: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2009

Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Date: 1 November 2009
Circuit: Yas Marina Circuit
Location: Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Distance: 55 laps
Tyre choices (red): SS / S / M / H

Coverage: BBC One
Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)
Interviewers: Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie

For this race I did not have the 5Live audio option on Freeview and the BBC's streaming version made each of my browsers crash (I tried FF and IE).

Does anyone know why this isn't called the UAE Grand Prix? Seems strange that after years of naming GPs after countries or territories we're naming this one after a city. Maybe the locals are trying to promote the place and get one up on their neighbouring Emirates.

Coverage begins at 12pm UK time.

A quick review of Brazil with new World Champion Jenson Button, Muse as backing music, works well. He says the last 3 laps were the longest laps he's ever driven. Very pleased to get it after 21 years of working for it, 21 years since his Dad put him in a kart.

Live in the paddock. Brawn garage. JB has a 'World Champion' sticker on his lid. Coulthard says for them this race is a celebration of a championship-winning year but he doesn't think they have the pace here to win.

A look of the points: The interest this weekend is that one point gap between McLaren and Ferrari.

Chatting with Richard Cregan, ex-Toyota F1 and has spent the last year or two overseeing the Yas Marina construction project. He says he likes the 'can do' attitude of the people in this part of the world.

Quali recap with Lee McKenzie, she points out:
Q1. Grosjean and Kovalainen spun. Alonso was very slow but he seemed to be expecting it.
Q2. Kovalainen then had transmission failure. Raikkonen slow.
Q3 in darkness. Hamilton very fast, Vettel tried hard but Hamilton lowered the bar considerably at the flag. Webber 3rd. Button had vibrations on the brakes.

Grid
Hamilton, Vettel
Webber, Barrichello
Button, Trulli
Kubica, Heidfeld
Rosberg, Buemi
Raikkonen, Kobayashi
Nakajima, Alguersuari
Alonso, Liuzzi
Sutil, Kovalainen*
Grosjean, Fisichella

*Kovalainen had a 5-place drop for a gearbox change.

We go to a review of Renault's year. A very fast review. Lots of ups and downs with the whole Piquet thing, Grosjean coming in, car sometimes fast and sometimes slow and now Alonso is off to Ferrari.

Review of BMW. Less of a review, more a 20sec montage to music and maybe two sentences after it. This is their 70th and final race and they only had one podium all year.

McLaren. Started with a terrible car and turned it around to become winners. The guys say Kovalainen is expected to leave the team (most of us expect Raikkonen to come in). DC says Heikki is capable of winning, given the chance - he just hasn't had the chance. (DC has been in the exact same situation against Mika.)

Ferrari. Worst ever start to a season, and the first season without a pole position since 1993. Massa injured, Badoer and then Fisichella in. Both they and we are looking forward to Alonso alongside Massa in 2010, it'll be a great partnership.

Seems that's it for the recapping the teams, apparently nobody cares about the rest.
We jump into a skit with Humphrey taking part in his first ever race in a Lotus Elise championship at Silverstone. This is show how hard it is to race, and also to promote GoMotorsport, getting more people involved in racing. (They cleverly used only a .net domain so I had to Google it to find it.) This piece is badly edited - he damaged the front of the car but it has mysteriously repaired itself..


Gridwalk
Martin Brundle and Eddie Jordan on the grid.

Boris Becker: "Amazing, they all say a lot before races how its gonna be but its all true what they say, amazing place."

350 British marshals are helping here, here's one of them: "Really good, fantastic experience, thanks to BARC for the opportunity and the ATC for accomodating us. I've been doing this 30 years, I've seen a lot of changes, its in my blood so I'll carry on. We're all a team."

Lewis Hamilton: "Great job all week, incredible feeling to be up front at the last race. We've got the pace and a good strategy to win. We never anticipated we'd be so fast at the end of the season though that was our goal."

Mark Webber: "Went pretty well yesterday in quali. Sensational circuit. Predict a good fight with JB, Lewis pretty strong and Seb and I, all three of us. For sure I'm not gonna do anything to hurt Seb's chances, totally in the team's interest not to lost too many points on that front."

Quick chat with cricketer Andrew Flintoff.. but I don't care. He says this is his first experience at a GP but I swear Brundle has talked to him elsewhere..

Richard Branson, arm in a sling. Says he turned a quad bike over and he just had an operation on the shoulder. EJ thanks him for swearing on TV before when everyone said Eddie would be the first (at the first race, no less).

Jay Kay. Says compared to this race, we've got a lot of catching up to do at home. One of the finest tracks in the world. Looking for a Ferrari podium.

Crown Prince of Bahrain: "It is spectacular, it does so much for the sport in the Gulf region." EJ layers on platitude after platitude on the Prince and Bahrain for introducing the sport to the region. The first race of 2010 will be held in Bahrain on March 14th.

Anthem of the UAE

Shots of the King Carlos of Spain walking on the grid with Bernie. Martin Brundle walks up and chats to him casually, as you do.. Not on mike this time.

Flypast by an Etihad jet. Jake calls it an Emirates jet despite the race being named after Etihad and there being giant Etihad banners all over the place. Sponsorship fail.

Replay of yesterday's piece with Martin and David racing two-seater F1 cars around the track a few weeks ago when it had just opened.. dust everywhere. Showing us the racing lines.

Ted Kravitz tell us who has improved the most since March. Ferrari are 2.8sec faster, Force India 2.6, Red Bull 2.0, BMW 1.8, Toyota 1.6, Brawn 1.0, with Renault and Ferrari much smaller gains. I recognise the music but I'm not sure what it is..
He also tells us about the fuel weights but it doesn't interest me.

Lee has found Ron Dennis. He's in an overview role at McLaren now. He says the team are doing a great job, quick interview because it is time to race.

Hah, the lead-in music is the KLF! 90s classic.
We're into the FOM intro.

Engines fired.

FORMATION LAP

55 lap race

1.2.3.4.5.hold.GO!

Hamilton leads immediately. Everyone clear and through lap one.

Replay: Webber cuts across Barrichello's nose and little pieces of Brawn go flying.

BMW and Toyota fighting.. I am having big trouble getting Firefox to stay open without crashing as it loads the 5Live audio feed, so I'm trying to fix that while following the busiest part of the race..

Hamilton building a big lead already!

L5 - Great helicopter shots.
L7 - CGI of the first corner showing everyone's positions! Not sure it was all that useful in this instance but it will be in future when existing camera angles aren't enough.

Heikki is told if he can't pass Kimi, he should save fuel instead. Millions of fans suddenly gather around their TVs to watch the amazing spectacle of guys saving fuel.

L10 - Not that good of a race at the moment, though Webber is fast and catching his teammate.

L13 - Lewis is told he has to pick up the pace, or fall into the clutches of the 1-stoppers.

F1 journalist @WillBuxton via Twitter:
"Apparently the Yas Hotel will be lit up in the colours of the flag of the winning driver at the end of the race."
That's crazy!!

L17 Barrichello and Kubica are the first to pit. They succesfully negotiate the tricky pit exit.
Hamilton sets the Fastest Lap.

L18 - Hamilton pits, so does Button. Button beats Kobayashi... no, side by side.. hairpin, and again along the straight, Button brakes too late and Kamui takes the position! He's a feisty one this new guy, isn't he?

L19 - Webber, Trulli, Rosberg, and Buemi pit. Hamilton is told he may have a brake problem.

L20 - Vettel pits and comes out in the lead!!

Ted Kravitz says McLaren are clearing a space in the garage!

Hamilton pits. Wow, he pulls into the garage and gets out of the car. We can hear Martin Whitmarsh telling Lewis that 'the data shows a problem, they might take it off and find nothing but they can't risk it.' With that long straight I concur, very big shame though, this basically kills the race stone dead.

L23 - It has all gone quiet again. Rosberg has been told to take risks because Trulli is slow.

Order:
Vettel, Webber, Kobayashi*, Button, Barrichello, Raikkonen*, Kovalainen*, Heidfeld, Trulli, Kubica, Rosberg, Nakajima*, Buemi, Fisichella*, Alonso*, Grosjean*, Sutil*
* yet to make their first (or only) stop

Kobayashi flying!

Hamilton with Lee: "Problem with the right rear brakes, it was too dangerous to continue. Struggling to stop the car."

Getting dark in Abu Dhabi now.

Brundle is talking about how Kobayashi had a poor GP2 season and Grosjean had a good one, yet F1 is all about absorbing pressure and Kobayashi is doing well with it, Grosjean isn't.

L28 Gaps opening between cars.. not much going on..

L30 Raikkonen pits.
L31 Kobayashi also in.
L32 Now for Kovalainen, can he beat Raikkonen? Yes, by some margin!

Wow, Sutil and Grosjean are side by side *without crashing*!

It got dark very quickly..

This is one of the most boring races of the season. The images coming through the TV look fantastic but that's not really enough - we could use some racing.

Kobayashi and Nakajima started next to each other... Kob is now 8th, Nak still where he started.

L42 Kubica vs Buemi, contact, spin! Kubica spins trying to get around Buemi, loses a place to Rosberg while he recovers.

L43 Vettel and Button pit. Seb has a clear lead and Button beats Barrichello!

All done bar the shouting. The only entertainment is watching the decorative lights on the hotel as they change colour. Blue. Orange. Purple. Different every lap, how can you get bored? Umm..

L45, 10 to go.

L49 Button is catching Webber at half a second per lap, but we are running out of laps.

L51 Vettel is only now putting laps on the back end of the field, strong pace from everyone yet still a boring race.. I wonder if that means lapping the backmarkers helps racing?

L52 Fisichella on Grosjean! Grosjean goes across the run-off and will have to give up the place for cutting the corner.
Brundle: "Its hardly going to change our day is it?"
Hah. Snark factor 50.

Button has caught Webber! Mark is all over the place, will he hold on?

LAST LAP

Great fight between Button and Webber, nice and clean, no weaving and Mark manages to hold him off. This is how it should be done. No hard blocking a la Kobayashi in Brazil.

SEBASTIAN VETTEL WINS!
Webber 2nd, Button 3rd.

Vettel screaming on the radio: "Bitte! Bitte! Kate's dirty sister did it again!"
A reference to the name he gave his car..

Donuts from Vettel but we can't see it because the director is showing us the crowd, and the hotel again.. it was showing a chequered flag! Not as good as a donut though..

About now @WillBuxton corrects himself when he realises it was a flag they were showing rather than the winner's colours..

Parc Ferme.

Replay of the donuts. FIA likes to penalise them. Brundle says donuts should be mandatory.

Drivers head upstairs.. Button talking to Webber, swears live on worldwide TV! Despite us being able to hear them all season, the drivers still haven't cottoned on to that fact..
Legard apologises on behalf of the BBC. I just realised I haven't mentioned Legard at all in these notes, did I mentally tune him out? Did I still listen and take in the info? I have no idea.

Podium

Anthems for Germany (Seb) and Austria (RBR). Sorry Austria, your anthem is way too long.

Trophies

Back to the guys. 19 weeks, or 133 days until we do it again. DC says, "it was a great bit of action on the last lap. Great spectacle in Abu Dhabi, incredible season."

Ross Brawn: "It was a great race. There are some things we could learn from the circuit, fabulous place. We haven't quite got the pace of Red Bull at the moment but we made the best of what we had. Our reliability record is stunning."

Pit board being held up behind the BBC guys, by a BrawnGP man: "Will you marry me Fatna?"
Hopefully she is race-mad and thinks this is romantic!
Boris Becker is around again.. Get James Corden off my TV screen, he's not funny.

Conference

Vettel, P1: "Had a very good start, not enough to beat Lewis but it was good, I was surprised. I was able to stay close enough, we were a little heavier. In the last sector the car was a dream today. Nearly went wide at pit entrance, unfortunately then he had to retire but up to that point it was a fantastic race, then we had a cushion to Mark and I could pace myself."

He's been drinking his sponsor's product, I can't keep up with his fast talking.

Webber, P2: "Made a pretty good launch (start), tried to get back on the inside, got hit quite hard on the left rear and was worried about a puncture, relieved it wasn't. Seb was just quicker today, especially the last stint. At the end, thought this is gonna be quite tight, we had a slight top speed advantage, we had a good clean fight. Want to thank the team for their patience with what happened (broken leg), my best season, 16 podiums together, very good."

Button, P3: "Fun race. Lot of understeer on the Prime tyre. Outbraked myself against Kobayashi but he was faster at the point anyway. The last couple of laps were a lot of fun, I was very excited about that battle, Mark is always difficult to overtake and it was clean but on the edge, it was perfect, I really enjoyed the fight. Today was a bonus after the championship in Brazil. Thanks to everyone at Brawn and Mercedes. Congratulations to Seb, sterling pace today and we didn't have the legs and we couldn't challenge them. I'm looking forward to coming back to Abu Dhabi."

Vettel again, what's next? "We'll face a long winter with no testing. The guys in the factory are pushing hard. No refuelling next year. This was a special season all round, hopefully next season will be just as exciting."

And so say we all!


Race Result

	Driver	Gap	Pts
1	Vettel	55 laps	10
2	Webber	17.8sec	8
3	Button	18.4sec	6
4	Barrichello	22.7sec	5
5	Heidfeld	26.2sec	4
6	Kobayashi	28.3sec	3
7	Trulli	34.3sec	2
8	Buemi	41.2sec	1
9	Rosberg	45.9sec
10	Kubica	48.1sec
11	Kovalainen	52.7sec
12	Räikkönen	54.3sec
13	Nakajima	59.8sec
14	Alonso	69.6sec
15	Liuzzi	94.4sec
16	Fisichella	1 lap
17	Sutil	1 lap
18	Grosjean	1 lap
DNF	Hamilton	Brakes
DNF	Alguersuari	Gearbox

Another win for Vettel and a deserved one. Even without Lewis' problems he could well have still won this race, he was fast enough and was catching Hamilton before the retirement.. of course we don't know how much of that was down to the brake issues.
I like the symmetry of the best four drivers and two teams of the season taking the top four positions in the final race, despite the resurgance of McLaren and Ferrari in the second half of the year.


Drivers' Championship

	Driver	Prev	AD	Total
1	Button	89	6	95	C
2	Vettel	74	10	84
3	Barrichello	72	5	77
4	Webber	61.5	8	69.5
5	Hamilton	49		49
6	Räikkönen	48		48
7	Rosberg	34.5		34.5
8	Trulli	30.5	2	32.5
9	Alonso	26		26
10	Glock	24		24
11	Massa	22		22
12	Kovalainen	22		22
13	Heidfeld	15	4	19
14	Kubica	17		17
15	Fisichella	8		8
16	Buemi	5	1	6
17	Sutil	5		5
18	Kobayashi	0	3	3
19	Bourdais	2		2

The top four drivers hammer home their advantage, yet it is the Red Bull drivers who made the most of this race with a maximum score for them. Surprisingly given recent form neither Raikkonen or Hamilton scored.
Heidfeld asserted himself over Kubica at the last gasp.
Buemi scored a decent haul this year for a rookie and a Toro Rosso driver.
Good to see Kobayashi get on the board, he's a hot prospect for the future.


Constructors' Championship

	Constructor	Prev	AD	Total
1	Brawn	161	11	172	C
2	Red Bull	135.5	18	153.5
3	McLaren	71		71
4	Ferrari	70		70
5	Toyota	54.5	5	59.5
6	BMW	32	4	36
7	Williams	34.5		34.5
8	Renault	26		26
9	Force India	13		13
10	Toro Rosso	7	1	8

Brawn and Red Bull cemented their significant advantage over the field, with RBR fighting to the last even though the titles had already been wrapped up.
McLaren and Ferrari are unchanged as the 'best of the rest'.
Toyota are a clear 5th with Williams just losing out to BMW at the final hurdle.
Toro Rosso prove that the last-placed team doesn't always have to score a flat zero.


Next Event

That's it for the season! Thanks to the BBC for their coverage, better than ITV's but still room for improvement in many areas. Thanks also to everyone for reading these and for bearing with the delays in these posts this season due to my studies. The next race is the 2010 Bahrain GP in March.

In the meantime I'll continue to blog through the winter as it takes my fancy, you may have noticed I don't really keep to a schedule! Watch out in particular for the F1 car launches in Jan/Feb, but before then I am going to try and catch up on the IRL and GP2 seasons. I'll also be active on the Twitter account and at Sidepodcast and in blog comments here, there and everywhere.

If you are the type to stop reading blogs during the offseason have a good break and I'll see you in March, I hope. If you are as obsessed with this stuff as I am, I'll be back very soon..


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