The Abu Dhabi circuit’s grandstands are now empty, and the Formula One teams pack up one last time. Cars are loaded into crates, overalls are signed by team mates and well-wishers, champagne is poured into plastic cups as friends say goodbye. The circus will not reconvene before testing resumes in February. By then, there will be new arrivals and one team, maybe more, missing.
This season is likely to go down in F1 history as one of the most remarkable, not for the headline grabbing Renault ‘crashgate’ scandal, Lewis Hamilton’s ‘liegate’ folly, and incessant political games, but for the reversal in fortunes that teams like McLaren and Ferrari suffered, and Red Bull and Brawn were rewarded with.
Round one in Melbourne read like a Hollywood script. After an uncertain winter, due to Honda’s withdrawal, the newly christened Brawn GP team did well just to make it to the grid. They then dominated, scoring the first 1-2 for a debutant team since 1954.
Rival teams tried, and failed, to have its clever double diffuser banned. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that the BGP-001 was quick. Three wind-tunnels had been working 160 hours a week for 18 months to fine-tune that car. R&D estimates indicate Jenson Button was driving a billion dollar machine, but with six wins from seven races, you couldn’t take anything away from him.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel drove peerlessly in the wet in China, and a crushing performance at Silverstone showed it wouldn’t be a walkover for Button. In the second half of the season, Brawn team mate Rubens Barrichello got on top of the car and overshadowed Jenson, taking emotional victories in Valencia and Monza. JB was under immense pressure.
Ferrari’s campaign was compromised by a car that was tremendously difficult to drive, and the casualty of their favourite son, Felipe Massa, who suffered a skull injury in Hungary. His replacements, Luca Badoer and Giancarlo Fisichella, struggled. We can only wonder what Michael Schumacher could have done, if it weren’t for his own skull fractures that prevented his comeback. Meanwhile Kimi Raikkonen turned in some heroic drives, not least in Spa – his first victory in 16 months.
McLaren got over its nightmare start and turned a dog of a car into a race winner. Lewis Hamilton drove at 100 percent to beat more fancied rivals and take two wins away from a very difficult year.
Jenson may have driven more conservatively in the second half of term, as the other teams caught up, but he still managed to claim the title at the penultimate race in Brazil. He’s a popular champion, and a terrific ambassador for F1.
In Abu Dhabi, Vettel claimed second in the championship with a brilliant victory. He was up until 5am the following morning, celebrating with his team and Metro, as BMW-Sauber boss Mario Theissen tried to forget about the fate of his team by throwing himself in the swimming pool. BMW helped bring Vettel into F1, who has a fabulous future ahead of him. The future of Sauber is dependent on another team dropping out, after BMW withdrew its support and failed to sign the concorde agreement.
It would be a huge loss if the talented Sauber team are not with us again next year, but there are many exciting things to look forward to in 2010, not least Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari and the promise of a more competitive car from McLaren. Still, it would be a shame if things went back to the way they were – a two horse race between those teams.
In 2009, there were times when every team looked capable of winning and races were utterly unpredictable.
This season is likely to go down in F1 history as one of the most remarkable, not for the headline grabbing Renault ‘crashgate’ scandal, Lewis Hamilton’s ‘liegate’ folly, and incessant political games, but for the reversal in fortunes that teams like McLaren and Ferrari suffered, and Red Bull and Brawn were rewarded with.
Round one in Melbourne read like a Hollywood script. After an uncertain winter, due to Honda’s withdrawal, the newly christened Brawn GP team did well just to make it to the grid. They then dominated, scoring the first 1-2 for a debutant team since 1954.
Rival teams tried, and failed, to have its clever double diffuser banned. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that the BGP-001 was quick. Three wind-tunnels had been working 160 hours a week for 18 months to fine-tune that car. R&D estimates indicate Jenson Button was driving a billion dollar machine, but with six wins from seven races, you couldn’t take anything away from him.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel drove peerlessly in the wet in China, and a crushing performance at Silverstone showed it wouldn’t be a walkover for Button. In the second half of the season, Brawn team mate Rubens Barrichello got on top of the car and overshadowed Jenson, taking emotional victories in Valencia and Monza. JB was under immense pressure.
Ferrari’s campaign was compromised by a car that was tremendously difficult to drive, and the casualty of their favourite son, Felipe Massa, who suffered a skull injury in Hungary. His replacements, Luca Badoer and Giancarlo Fisichella, struggled. We can only wonder what Michael Schumacher could have done, if it weren’t for his own skull fractures that prevented his comeback. Meanwhile Kimi Raikkonen turned in some heroic drives, not least in Spa – his first victory in 16 months.
McLaren got over its nightmare start and turned a dog of a car into a race winner. Lewis Hamilton drove at 100 percent to beat more fancied rivals and take two wins away from a very difficult year.
Jenson may have driven more conservatively in the second half of term, as the other teams caught up, but he still managed to claim the title at the penultimate race in Brazil. He’s a popular champion, and a terrific ambassador for F1.
In Abu Dhabi, Vettel claimed second in the championship with a brilliant victory. He was up until 5am the following morning, celebrating with his team and Metro, as BMW-Sauber boss Mario Theissen tried to forget about the fate of his team by throwing himself in the swimming pool. BMW helped bring Vettel into F1, who has a fabulous future ahead of him. The future of Sauber is dependent on another team dropping out, after BMW withdrew its support and failed to sign the concorde agreement.
It would be a huge loss if the talented Sauber team are not with us again next year, but there are many exciting things to look forward to in 2010, not least Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari and the promise of a more competitive car from McLaren. Still, it would be a shame if things went back to the way they were – a two horse race between those teams.
In 2009, there were times when every team looked capable of winning and races were utterly unpredictable.