So as it’s quite a late reflection I won’t go into too much detail as you’ve all probably read more than enough reviews of Australia already.

The Good

Change of fortunes

Having the Brawn team rise from the ashes of Honda and the have an almost perfect weekend in the first race was an absolutely fantastic start to the season. I, like pretty much everyone it seems, was really happy to see Jenson, Rubens and Ross on the podium.

Also seeing Williams regain some form really pleased me and I believe (like Rosberg) that this year it won’t be a single flash of brilliance of the season like his Podium was at Australia last year.

Thanks go to the OWG for the regulation changes

Although very early days for the new regulations the signs were quite positive after Australia. To my amateur eye it did seem that the cars were able to get closer to each other (just ask Kimi and Rubens) and were able to fight more. We had a few gripping battles, with the highlight for me being Vettel vs. Kubica. Exactly what Bernie (and everyone else) wants from the sport — all without a silly winner-takes-all points system.

I think that Kubica and Vettel will really feel the pinch of that accident after a couple of races. As if Brawn continue their dominance throughout the next few races then there will likely be very few chances to get on the bottom step of the podium never mind challenge for 2nd or 1st.

The KERS assisted drivers also seemed to be able to use it to their advantage both in defending their position (see Alonso vs. Glock) and overtaking (of which Lewis’ charge through the field in a less than perfect car is a great example) and the teams without KERS are looking to get it on the car as soon as possible.

Welcome back BBC, we missed you

Finally the BBC coverage was really top notch, except for a couple of issues — which I’ll leave for the next section. Live coverage of all sessions and commentary, check. Great presenting team with good discussion (and some proper debate with disagreements), check. No adverts, check. Extended coverage, discussion and dissection of the race, check. It had almost everything you could want from F1 coverage and the team seemed to get into their stride quickly. This post by Jake Humphrey really shows the dedication to great coverage that the team aimed for in Australia:

…until word filtered through that there may be an issue with Toyota’s rear wing.

Cue a dash all the way back to the circuit in the dark to track down the Toyota boss John Howett, get the full sp and then re-record the closing link for the re-run of qualifying that was transmitting minutes later.

I love this type of skin of your teeth, reactive broadcasting and the teams were very understanding of our extra-late shift, so kept us happy with coffee and rather odd apricot pastry things.

We piled in the car at about 12.45am local time, back to the hotel 1.15am, into bed 1.45am.

The Bad

More information please

There was very little information on the use of KERS (and zero information on the use of the adjustable front wing) throughout the race. When the KERS info was presented it was a really good graphical representation giving you all the information you need in a succinct and efficient manner. However this information shouldn’t (in my opinion) be classed in the same category as the other information it was presented with (what gear the car is in or what revs they’re at etc.) - that information is superfluous most of the time, but nice to have every now and then.
At a minimum I would like to see KERS icons for all cars you are currently watching on screen, just a little roundel next to their names (maybe on the leader board) would suffice; green for having charge, red for when activated and grey for when depleted. As this was the first race in the season and the KERS graphics were announced very late (I think they were confirmed the Thursday before the race) I’m hoping that we will get adjustments here.

The split screen view on the BBC red button was awful and completely useless for me. The second screen appeared to be the size of an envelope and was really pixelated, while the large screen was reduced in size quite a bit as well with lots of empty space on my lovely new TV making me feel cheated. I tried watching this for about 3 minutes before giving up on it altogether.

Those pesky stewards

Like I said at the start is now over 5 days ago since the chequered flag fell on Australia and I’m still not 100% sure that third place onwards will remain what I currently understand them to be. I have a longer post planned on this topic but this continued changing of the results after the race makes a mockery of the sport and no-one likes it. Never mind the fact that Trulli’s and Vettel’s penalties seemed very harsh and somewhat un-justified.

Vestigial rules creating a mess

The mandatory usage of 2 compounds of tyres has always seemed a slightly forced-way to introduce a shake-up in the order and to "encourage overtaking". Widening the gap between the compounds for 2009 has made it much more glaringly silly. All it did was undo the hard work of people like Rosberg when driving on tyres that were completely un-suited for the conditions.

Un-lapping under the safety car; OK I understand the reasons behind this rule and it does make some sense, but why-o-why did we have to wait sooooo long for it to take place. I think Nakajima’s car was out of the way after one lap under the safety car but we had at least 4 or 5 laps behind the safety car for nothing. At least it gave me chance for a bathroom break (maybe I do miss the adverts… erm nope definitely not).

Overall

Overall the good points we can take away from Australia far out weigh the bad; and all the bad points could be addressed in some way or another. It really is looking like it could be the truly fantastic season that winter testing was suggesting it could be. Although I would dearly love for Button & Brawn to win the championships I do also hope that they don’t get it too easy for the rest of the season. Here’s looking forward to Malaysia!

From watching the way Lewis used KERS in Australia (shame the KERS graphics weren’t as prevalent as we hoped, more on that in another post though) it did seem to have a good effect on overtaking but less impact on overall lap time. So maybe that is a trend we will see as the season goes on, hopefully this new race results table will help show that.
Who’s running KERS in 2009

Who else thinks that the McLaren diffuser in that last picture is a sneaky "we’ll see if the others get through and if so take this cover off" version? Joe Saward certainly seems to think they have one ready at least. The mid-section looks a lot like the Brawn diffuser to me and surely you’d want maximum height there. So maybe Lewis won’t be scrapping for 15th like he expected.

Landau said the fact that the Formula One Group was the only organisation organising F1 races "does not mean that the public will perceive F1 as a trademark.

"It just means that currently it enjoys a monopoly on the races. However, if private owners of F1 cars race them on a friendly basis is that not an F1 race, if not on a commercial basis?"

I realised that this kind of tie-ins quite nicely with the recent quotes by Martin Whitmarsh on trying to return F1 to North America:

"Rather than leave it in the hands of a promoter, how do we develop the interest? How do we develop the excitement and take up of F1 in North America? Be it Ferrari, be it Daimler, or be it BMW. You look at all of the principle investors in F1; the vast majority of them would consider the US to be a significant market."

If that ruling still stands then could they quite conceivably have a non-championship F1 race in North America if Bernie doesn’t want to help organise it and still call it an ‘F1′ race? They could even maybe take in a couple of races in America and Canada and call it a ‘US F1 Championship Cup’ or something.

However I’m pretty sure that if FOTA really want to help organise races in North America again, and even stump up some cash themselves, then as long as there is any chance of FOM taking a profit from it then Bernie would welcome it with open arms.

KERS is a new system introduced for the 2009 season, and if you haven’t heard of it yet (you will do aplenty as soon as the season starts) is a Kinetic Energy Recovery System that takes energy that would be wasted during braking. The driver can then use this stored energy as a boost for up to around 6.5 seconds per lap (for example when trying to overtake another car) and is expected to give enough of a boost to gain a car 0.2s over that lap. I could explain it in more detail, but Grand Prix TV have got a great video and short text explaining it.

So why isn’t everyone planning on using KERS at the start of the season? Well it’s been quite a difficult development challenge and there is also a weight implication (around 35kg) which will give the car a less-than-ideal weight distribution (as there will be less moveable ballast available for the car).

So onto the main point of this post, who’s said they’re using it and when will they be using it:

I hope that helps you all in these final days of the build up to the season opener, hopefully the teams will provide this data (and some sort of on screen graphics of when a driver activates their boost) to the TV audience once things get under way.

Updated 2009/03/24 8:41 PM GMT:
Red Bull, added extra detail: Mark Webber recently stated "not for 5 or 6 races"

Updated 2009/03/26 11:42 AM GMT:
BMW, added extra detail on reports that Kubica won’t use KERS in Australia, but Heidfeld will.

Upatded 2009/03/30 10:00 PM GMT:
McLaren, Ferrari, BMW, Renault, removed planned status as all used KERS in Australia.
Force Indian, added note on Vijay Mallya’s comments that they are targeting Barcelona for introduction.
Drivers, add the drivers table with Australian results.

Brawn

Out front, leading with a gap of around 3/10ths per lap finishing with both cars about 15 seconds up the road from the next car. The leading driver of the two? I’d have to say Button, but I can’t see Barrichello making it easy for him.

Ferrari

Probably the strongest podium contenders from the rest of the field, with my heart also hoping that a KERS assisted Kimi makes things very difficult for those around him to really show us what the 2009 regulations have in store for the rest of the season.

Williams

I seriously think this could be a strong year for Williams. There is still no confirmation (as far as I’m aware) on whether they’ll be using their different KERS system, which I’m lead to believe is far lighter and simpler than the rest. Either way I just can’t write off a repeat of Rosberg’s podium from 2008.

Toyota

Have been showing strong form and look like possible podium contenders, with the revelation that it was a very close call between them staying in F1 or following Honda out of the door, they really need to make 2009 count.

Red Bull

They have not really featured much on my testing radar other than having a fantastic looking car with some nice touches. However I can’t help but feel that if all the clever stuff is right on the car it won’t be long before they’re on the podium and reaching for their first win, and Webber has been strong at his home race in the past.

BMW

Another team that has been quiet in testing, but if they’re doing the same thing as prior to 2008 you’ve got to say they’re in with a chance of podiums again at least.

McLaren

I personally feel that McLaren made some clear steps forwarding in the final test, and although they have started to publicly play down their chances for the opening races I can’t see them being as bad as their initial testing performance suggested. Maybe not quite bothering the podium in Australia, but probably not too far off.

Renault

They’ve had a consistent pace with a showing of speed a couple of times (with both Fernando and Nelson at the wheel — so it’s not just the Fernando factor), most likely behind Brawn and Ferrari, but I could quite easily see Fernando grab a podium at Australia.

Force India

Their 2009 package is a clear improvement over their offerings for the last few years, they’ll probably still be at the rear but not as far off as in 2008 and may even mingle deeper in the mid field.

Torro Rosso

I totally forgot about Torro Rosso in my original post, I guess that tells you my expectations of them for the start of 2009. I really don’t know much about Buemi but Torro Rosso were very quick to snap him up while leaving Bordais hanging, who I really like — but not sure how well he’ll be able to do at Torro Rosso. Hopefully the podium at Sebring this weekend will have warmed him up, but it doesn’t give him much time to acclimatise to the Aussie timezone.

What about reliability? I think that the season opener does see a higher number of reliability-related DNF’s just because it’s the first real full-on punishment that the cars get to experience. However with the further reduction in the rev limit (now down to 18,000 from 19,000 last year) on engines that were designed to be tipping the 20,000’s revs the engines must have it easier than ever in F1. Obviously look out for the teams that are using KERS, as that, and the associated forces of suddenly getting an extra kick in the rear when you the button is pushed, will probably be the weak point early in the season. And finally there is a strong chance that a few of those wide front wings will litter the track early on in the race.

So there are my predictions, I think that’s 8/10 teams that I’d say have a shot at the podium in Australia. So in reality it’s probably going to be a very tight midfield with Brawn and another team (I would dearly wish it were Williams or Red Bull, but probably Ferrari) leading. All this is of course without seeing how the 2009 cars deal with racing & following each other while adjusting their wings and pressing the "boost" button — how much they will affect things no-one is sure of.

I think that is as far as I can be pressed on the situation until 2nd practice on Friday, roll on Friday I say!

Update: I totally missed out Torro Rosso, have now added them.

Like everyone else I haven’t been this excited about a new season of F1 for as long as I can remember. I think that previous to this year I had been most excited was for the 2006 season, that was also the first season where I really started to pay attention to things during the off-season. That’s when I started read as much as I could — my first introduction to Autosport too, as my copy of F1 Racing would usually be read within days of it arriving.

Something I clearly remember about the build up to the 2006 season was a conversation I had with a friend of a friend in a bar about 2 weeks before the start. This guy was absolutely F1 nuts and we spent ages talking about it (I think I probably ignored most of the other people for most of the evening), we got started talking about Jenson Button as Honda had been showing some promising form in the tests and he told me that he had put some money on Jenson to win the championship. Neither of us really thought that he was going to win the championship, but that wasn’t the point.

That conversation introduced me to F1 betting, which I have been mildly successful with since then. I placed my bets for the 2009 championships the day after Honda announced their decision to withdraw from F1 in December, and while I had always had plans to put a stake on both Jenson and Honda being champions I was relieved I waited as I think I probably got better odds. Of course at this point none of the 2009 cars had rolled a wheel on the track, but I knew that Honda had diverted their attention to their 2009 car well before anyone else had and I assumed that the combination of that plus the first season of a Brawn-lead design would make it a very promising year for Honda. Because of this I also assumed that Honda would easily find a buyer for the team, like everyone else I don’t think I expected it to be as drawn-out as it was, and that it wouldn’t affect the team too badly in the short term. Looking at the testing pace this does appear to be true, but lets not forget their promising start to that 2006 season either, with good testing form and pole Australia. It was a break-through year, with Jenson posting his and the teams first win and finishing the season very strong, but not enough to make my new friends bet pay off. I think it’s probably a very rare occurrence (or maybe has never happened) where a team posts its first win in F1 and clinches the championship in the same year.

So do I seriously think that Jenson and Brawn GP have what it takes to win in 2009? Quite simply, yes. I would have said yes before the testing started and now I would be a bit of a fool not to think that they are real championship contenders. Obviously the testing times have to be taken along with the usual testing caveats, but the opinions I’ve read that say that Brawn could be simply show-boating (never mind the fact that their long-runs were super consistent and equally as fast as their short runs) to try and gain media and sponsor interest seems very wrong to me. I couldn’t imagine that Ross Brawn or the rest of the team would really be thinking that right now (unless as part of the buyout they kept that stupid marketing team that created the “My Earth Dreams” campaign), after spending so long on the car and with such little testing time available to them they must have had to really focus on getting useful data from the tests - so will have had no time to be playing games like sandbagging or show-boating.

So my money is firmly on Button and Brawn GP, and now the silly winner-takes-all points system has been put on hold for another year my enthusiasm for 2009 can hardly be contained. Roll on Friday morning (it’ll be an early one, but well worth it).

I have been thinking about writing articles on F1 on my personal site for quite a while, as I have found myself getting more and more interested by the sport (as of writing it is currently less 4 days, 1 hour and around 10 minutes before the start of the 2009 season and I can’t wait!) and getting more involved on F1 sites, with comments etc. I have also started to notice that in quite a lot of places that I would like to write more than short comments (I don’t like to read essays in comments, so I try not to leave them too) but also I feel that I have more to add with original articles of my own.

So I’m going to give it a whirl, it might be rubbish - but lets hope not.

So why aren’t these just posts under an F1 category on my personal site? Well that site is quite technically-orientated (I’m a computer programmer/web developer/design by trade) and I wanted to keep any posts on F1 separate - so people who didn’t care about F1 (or programming) didn’t have to filter posts on a subject they didn’t care about. So I decided to create a separate site for these posts, and here it is, I set it up quite quickly and haven’t added some of the things I want to yet - and only tweaked a theme slightly, so excuse the dust for now.

If you want to know more about me and the other things I do, then please drop by my personal site. ]]> http://f1heat.com/2009/03/hello-site/feed/ http://f1heat.com/2009/03/hello-site/