Brawn and brains

The 2009 Formula 1 Season is finally up and running again with the customary first race in Melbourne. Being the first race of the season, where every team are still not 100%, Melbourne usually creates a lot of surprises, like Mark Webber's one and only podium finish in his debut race in a MINARDI, which was a really really bad car, struggling at times to even finish in a fast enough time to start the race! But to many, the 2009 Melbourne GP has yielded THE most surprising result EVER, with Brawn GP, a NEW team which has risen from the ashes of the Honda F1 team, popping their cherry by getting a VIRGIN 1-2 finish in their VIRGIN race!

But IS it really a big surprise, or even a FLUKE? Well, NO. So okay, for a manufacturer-backed team, Honda were abysmally bad for the last couple of years. But then Ross Brawn, who helped Schumacher win all those titles with Benetton and Ferrari, unexpectedly joined Honda as Team Principal at the start of last year. As the first few races proved that last year's car was a dud and there was no point spending resources improving it, Brawn quickly set on developing the car for 2009. With the raft of new changes introduced for 2009 which almost meant that all the teams had to start from scratch, this decision to develop the car much earlier than others proved significant. So if Honda were still around, their car WOULD be the Brawn car. I'm not sure how better the customer Mercedes engine is, but I doubt it has given them significant advantage over the Honda engines. Anyway, as we have learnt over the years, the chassis aerodynamics and tyre choice make much much more difference to lap times compared to the engine itself. This was proved at Melbourne where the top 3 teams in practice all had controversial rear diffusers which the other teams are protesting. The protest is still under appeal, and if found guilty the Melbourne victory for Brawn might be taken away. So all is not as rosy yet.

So what team do I support then? Well, it has always been Williams. A lot of the so-called local F1 fans don't know that before the era of Schumacher and Hakkinen, the Williams F1 team won a few titles in a row with DIFFERENT DRIVERS. Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Jacques Villeneuve, Damon Hill. Year after year, title after title. They've been in a bit of a rot recently once BMW left and they turned private. But even then with customer Toyota engines, they consistently beat the bigger-budgeted Toyota team. The new 2009 rules seemed to have brought new hope, with Williams doing well in testing, and Nico Rosberg even topping all three of the Melbourne practice sessions. He was on course to get at least 3rd place in the race before a disastrous pitstop and the wrong choice of tyres at the end meant he was lucky to come home in 6th. The less said of his teammate Nakajima the better. I'm just happy for him to FINISH a race, which was a target too far for him in Melbourne as he crashed his car on his own. You could see that his being in Williams is part of some deal that involved the use of the Toyota engines.

On to Sepang then. Should be interesting to see if Brawn can build on their strong start. Also, to see if Ferrari and McLaren can do something about it. But with the race coming so soon after Melbourne, and with similar racing conditions, I doubt it. Accidents and mistakes aside, I FULLY expect the podium to be taken up by drivers from Brawn, Williams and Toyota. Thanks to the Missus' employers, we got a good deal for seats in the K1 stand, which to me provides the best view in Sepang. It's at the end of turn 1, which gives you a view of the starting grid, and the first few turns, where usually most of the overtaking (and accidents!) happen.