Forumla One 2009

[Mike]

(Or not, obviously, for whoever was involved...)

Rubens Barrichello. His engine was spitting oil towards the end of the race and it must have caught fire due the the heat!

[Mike]

Renault fixed the 2008 Singapore GP?! Wft? I am amazed by this allegation and rather surprised that Briatori and Simons have resigned - surely that is just an admission of guilt! I read about this when I got back from my holiday.

[Mike]

The BBC article about the Renault incident!

[mr_e]

I was slightly surprised at Eddie Irvine's comments when he said that bending/breaking the rules and sabotage (what the!?) was quite normal when he was racing. In hindsight it was probably a bit silly to let a driver go within a year or two of being asked to deliberately crash.

[Mike]

Lotus are returning to Formula 1 in 2010 after securing slot 13 on the grid. That will be quite exciting, I wonder how well they will do. Historically they have been very strong but the sport will have changed so much in the interviening years it will be difficult to retain that winning streak.

Investment Bank Qadbak have bought the BMW F1 team. I can't imagine that an investment bank will be a good team owner. I guess most of the teams are not particularly profitable but are used as a promotion device. How is the investment bank going to benefit from the increase in visibility?

[Mike]

2 year suspended ban for Renault! I think this means that they will be banned if they break the rules again in the next couple of years. That is quite light considering that they have all but admitted to blatently fixing the race.

[Mike]

Ferrari hint that Kimi Raikonnen may be dropped from Their team next year. That is no surprise given the attitude near the start of the season and the rumours around the paddock in recent races.

[Mike]

Singapore GP looks like it was very good. Given the highlights that is. Jenson Button now extends his lead at the top of the table by two points. If he manages to score 5 points more the Rubens in the next race he will take the championship. Vettel now has to score 30 from 30 in the next three races to stand a chance of beating Button - although it would be unlikely for Button to fail to score any points at all in the last three races.

Good race for Lewis. Nicely done!

Ecclestone threatens Donnington Park to step up the preparations to host the 2010 British GP. Apparently they have been given 'a little more time' three times and his patience is running out. I would not like to be the Contractor's on that building project!

[mr_e]

Aargh! I managed to watch only the first ten laps or so of the race this time and somehow managed to miss all the good stuff. Will have to go and watch the highlights now.

Edit: Sutil sideswiping Heidfeld, what the hell? That was awkward. Seemed very dusty (and hot) as well which was causing some problems for the cars and the drivers.

[Mike]

BBC article about Jenson Button winning the Drivers World Championship!. Well done Jenson and congrats for taking the title. British to British hand over excellent news especially since Brawn GP now have the Constructors Championship too - Ross Brawn has done it again in spectacular style. It is interesting that the Championship race did not go down to the last corner like last year. My tag line for the year would be, 'Jenson Button's opponents failed to capitalise on his wanning performance as the season progresses'.

The race itself was very nail bitingly good. Just the right amount of tense!

One final thing to mention was the Lewis Hamilton 'Schumacher-esq' race from 18th on the grid to 3rd. Very good racing in what he described as a very poor car.

[Andy]

My personal tagline for the year would be ''The bosses at Honda seek to castrate the individual who said ''let's leave F1 and let that mug Brawn have a go!''

From what I heard on the Talksport radio they are still plugging Brawn with some form of deal even though they left and their name isn't on anything. Muppets.

[Mike]

I bet the person who made that mistake has been kicking him / herself all season! It has to be one of the biggest cluck ups of corporate sponsorship. On the flip side, if they could not afford to run the team then it would have been wrong not to leave. You can't bankrupt the whole company just to win the F1 World Championship.

[Mike]

Button linked with a Mclaren drive in 2010?. Might be the money he is chasing now (after taking a £10m to £3m pay cut at the start of the 2009 season).

[mr_e]

A wee bit late (not checked the forums properly in ages), but this was one of the first races this season I've watched most of. Worth it for the random crash-drama and the epic title win, but missed the Barichello puncture (had wondered why I came back to find he'd dropped several places!). There were some excellent individual performances as well.