2009 F1 Season - My Thoughts

[KANdaddy]

One of the best seasons I have watched in a long time. Can't think of a more enjoyable one since Michael Schumacher's last. Sure, last year went down to the wire but I have never been that interested in Massa or Hamilton.

Loved that the season heroes were drivers that I have always really liked and rooted for but who always seemed to missing the one break they needed....Button, Rubens, Webber. Also, to see my new favorite driver, Vettel, come so close was great. The way the last GP ended was perfect...all three of my current faves (except Alonso) on the podium in pretty much the order I like them too.

Some great new circuits and of course great politics and gossip in the background. I am really, really looking forward to 2010 for a couple reasons:
Can't wait to see how Red Bull does. I will go out on the early limb and say that the championship will come down to Alonso and Vettel. Vettel is the next great F1 driver and Alonso is going to be deadly in the Ferrari. There is no doubt in my mind with all the early development, that the Scuderia is already ahead of the others and with Alonso's development skills.......damn....look out.

Very sad to see BMW go of course but hopefully they will be back. One can only wonder what might have been had they laid out the cash to get a driver like Alonso a couple years back. Lord knows they have had the means to pay him whatever he may have wanted.

Equally excited to see how the new teams will do...particularly Jag and US F1. Hoping that we can see less of the Nakajimas and Grossjeans of the world and more of new real talent like Kobayashi.

Lastly, really looking forward to how the no refueling will effect strategy. Hopefully resulting in more strategies involving on-track passing and less pit overtaking.

Anyway, that's all for now. Looking forward to 2010...... any other thoughts/reflection welcome

[E90SLAM]

The only thing I wouldn't agree was technically, after Schumi retired from F1 drivers, the season had been very interesting and excited. Some might say because of the Schumi-dominance was gone and most drivers had a more even playing field. Anyhow, both 2007 and 2008 season had the Championship decided in the last race in Interlagos. How great was that???

This year is even better, the rise of RedBull and Brawn who wasn't even a team 10 months ago. Strap a Mercedes engine and off they go and clinch both WDC and WCC!!! What a great fairytale to tell! RedBull had an awesome year, from last year's mid-field cars to this year's top notch Adrain Newey's work. If the season has 19 races. Jenson won't be so comfortable.

The comeback of McLaren makes me smile too, Hamilton took the two wins in Hungary and Singapore was great, even tho came with a bit of luck, but we can see such drastic improvement of chassis within a year. From a complete dog to a competitive race car. Even tho Hamilton still doesn't like it as much.

2009 also made a lot politics and drama, as usual in every season, but this year is huge, the breakaway from FOTA, diffusor drama, liar-gate, race-fixing, Max Mosley stepping and Jean Todt becoming the new FIA chariman. Some we didn't enjoy and some just hurting the name and integrity of the sport. But afterall, the race is self was still exciting!

The other disappointment was the new aerodynamic regulations in the name of overtaking was overrated IMO. (possible that the "legal" Double Diffusor nullify the aero changes and generated equavilant turbulence behind the car). But the KERS and new aero-changes spoiled the look of the car, and didn't provide too many awesome overtaking moves until Interlagos. Basically overtaking is not just about regulations, also the track design and how ambitious are the drivers. But changing regulations is not helping as we seen this season.

Still not a lot drivers concrete thier contrats for racing seats next season. We should see a lot musical chair shuffeling around, as well as some new drivers like B. Senna, Kobayashi (with 2 races experience) and some others joining the new teams in 2010. we might even going to see Piquet Jr. next season! This time without pressure and being yelled by Flavio, see if he really has what it takes to become a F1 driver.

Next year will be very excited, new drivers, stronger teams (Ferrari, McLaren, Brawn, RedBull, Toyota....) with no refuelling, we shall see the true engineering and epic driving skills of all teams and drivers respectively.

Still.....133 days to go?

[KANdaddy]

Yea....forgot to mention KERS. SO glad to see that go. Vettel would have easily overtaken Hamilton in the opening laps if not for KERS and Force India would have gotten their first win if not for a KES equipped Ferrari...in Monza I think....

The battle between Button and Webber at the end of Abu Dhabi was stupendous. I was on the edge of my seat. Really hoping for more of that come 2010.

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by KANdaddy

Yea....forgot to mention KERS. SO glad to see that go. Vettel would have easily overtaken Hamilton in the opening laps if not for KERS and Force India would have gotten their first win if not for a KES equipped Ferrari...in Monza I think....

The battle between Button and Webber at the end of Abu Dhabi was stupendous. I was on the edge of my seat. Really hoping for more of that come 2010.

Force India would've won their first race and their first podium, and first points in Spa if it weren't KERS...
KERS concept is brilliant in terms of "technology advance" and "enviroment friendly", but its realistic advantage in motor racing is minimum, we rarely see cars been overtaken by KERS except for a few occassion where long straights....unfortunately, we did see lots of KERS defensive moves, pulling away from corners and prevent following cars get into the slip stream...its doing more harm than good in Formula 1, and its an expensive toy to add on.

The only thing i can think of being advantage is have the similar and cheaper system on Hybrid cars or electric/solar powered cars....recharging battery when braking......

[NYSPEM3]

What a bummer season for Hamilton. Even when vastly improved his car is still clearly inferior to Red Bull and Brawn.
Yet he scored more points than all other drivers in the 2nd half of the season, and that is with 3 DNFs--two of them through no fault of his own (got hit from behind in Spa-Francorchamps, and brake failure yesterday).
When McLaren becomes McLaren again Hamilton sure will be the driver to beat. If Red Bull keeps up their good work it will be between Hamilton, Vettel, and Alonso, but I wouldn't put so much faith in the Italian team.

[nmulax]

I was torn on the season; great to see some new faces at the front, but I'm really not a fan of Button or Barichello. IMO this season was also proof that drivers are being promoted to F1 too soon. It's going to be odd without BMW on the grid next yearh

[GuyOh]

i for one actually thought this f1 season was a joke......

[yermo]

I thought that the season was a failure. Not a complete failure but a failure because, double diffusers, KERS and scandals. Some good things new tracks, tire differences, new pit/safety car rules, reliability rule changes and aero changes.
If Button doesn't have double diffuser he doesn't win the championship (and that is what this whole F1/racing sport is about: winning the championship) and WTF they knew that they were going to run the DD during the first race why couldn't they (FIA) make a ruling prior to the race and not the third race or whenever that happened. That is a major failure for me and handed Button the championship. KERS was a failure, they (speed channel guy) said that because KERS only gave the cars 6 seconds of boost that it didn't make a big enough difference in weight for the teams to use them. Why not give them 12 seconds to make up for the difference?? Whatever, still a failure and waste of money. Aero changes sans diffuser I like them made the cars look cleaner without all the wings all over the cars. I like the tire differences that Bridgestone came out with made strategy important but was not a big enough factor that it completely ruined the racing i.e. Michelin vs. Bridgestone (I don't care about tire company battles). Finally they fixed some of the rules that were a joke some of the previous years (new pit/safety car rules). Also as I mentioned I like the reliability rules, it makes a difference in the racing and I like that this is something that can be carried over to the street cars and their reliability. I wish it was more about the racing and less about the drama of all the scandals. Yeah, yeah I know that it has always been part of F1 but it seams that they are getting bigger and affecting the racing more. It is sad when I am very excited to watch F1, even my wife, dad and mom would watch because I am such a fanatic and they are over watching because of all the drama off the track and the rule changes every year that you can't keep up with. They need more consistency in F1.
But having said that... I can't wait for next year should be fun I hope that they have experienced drivers in the new cars otherwise there is going to be turn 1 crashes every race (which I feel like this year there were not as many incidents in turn 1), also 19 races will be great.

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by yermo

I thought that the season was a failure. Not a complete failure but a failure because, double diffusers, KERS and scandals. Some good things new tracks, tire differences, new pit/safety car rules, reliability rule changes and aero changes.

To sum up, the seed of "failure" planted way back in 2008 when Overtaking Working Group was studing and develop the aero regulations of 2009...

Ross Brawn warned the FIA and OWG about the loophole in the regulations and apparently they ignored him. So Brawn, Toyota and Williams ran the DDD in Melbourne. Plus OWG has been over-estimate the effeciveness of KERS, and ends up doing more harm to overtaking than helping to improve overtake.

I wouldn't conclude DDD is the only reason Jenson won the 6 races in the beginning, it sure helps, but his driving style suits the BGP001 in warmer temperature and works well with both tire compounds. (which his driving style also harmed him in cooler temperature back in Europe races)...

[Ramos]

Originally Posted by KANdaddy

There is no doubt in my mind with all the early development, that the Scuderia is already ahead of the others and with Alonso's development skills.......damn....look out.

Alonso won't get to test the new car until February due to the lack of testing rules in place. I doubt his development skills will help the initial design of the car at all. Maybe he can help improve it over the course of the season though

[KANdaddy]

Originally Posted by Ramos

Alonso won't get to test the new car until February due to the lack of testing rules in place. I doubt his development skills will help the initial design of the car at all. Maybe he can help improve it over the course of the season though

I am talking about his development ability over the course of the season. Of course no one is going to get in a car and dramatically effect change after one test session. Unless the car is a total POS to begin with, but we know the Ferrari will not be crap on Day One.

[MontegoblueE92]

Originally Posted by KANdaddy

Equally excited to see how the new teams will do...particularly Jag and US F1.

What? The new teams are Campos, Manor, USF1, and Lotus.

Originally Posted by NYSPEM3

What a bummer season for Hamilton. Even when vastly improved his car is still clearly inferior to Red Bull and Brawn.
Yet he scored more points than all other drivers in the 2nd half of the season. When McLaren becomes McLaren again Hamilton sure will be the driver to beat. If Red Bull keeps up their good work it will be between Hamilton, Vettel, and Alonso, but I wouldn't put so much faith in the Italian team.

Hamilton has one of the better cars now. He's been qualifying great everywhere except Brazil, where a lot of people had issues because of the car setups for wet qualifying/dry race. So he qualified low there because his car was setup for the race, which is another part of the reason he clawed his way to the podium. Clearly, you are a McLaren fanboy, so it will be hard to reason with you. I'm not sure why you don't think Ferrari will be on top. They have the best driver in a car that's had the most development.

Originally Posted by yermo

If Button doesn't have double diffuser he doesn't win the championship.

I've said this over and over, BMW and Red Bull did well in Australia. Kubica was on pace to possibly win the race until he hit Vettel. Red Bull never used the DDD yet they came second. Toyota and Williams were much lower down. It was not just the DDD.

Originally Posted by Ramos

Alonso won't get to test the new car until February due to the lack of testing rules in place. I doubt his development skills will help the initial design of the car at all. Maybe he can help improve it over the course of the season though

What you have to remember is that unlike Raikkonen/Massa, Alonso and Massa have the same driving style, with an emphasis on understeer. Raikkonen, much like Hamilton, prefers a sharp front end with oversteer. So the fact that Alonso is coming means the Scuderia are building a dream machine for their drivers instead of trying to compromise between the two. Granted, they have admitted that some things were geared more towards Massa's style the passed few years. But now that the drivers' style is the same, they don't have to settle in a gray area between what the two say. So the initial car design will have that much more of an edge from the get go.

[KANdaddy]

Originally Posted by MontegoblueE92

What? The new teams are Campos, Manor, USF1, and Lotus.

Doh! I meant to say Lotus.

[E90SLAM]

Now i'd say its a sad year too, BMW and Toyota is leaving F1...

[yermo]

MontegoblueE92: If you re-watch the first couple of races Button was talking about how he wasn't even pushing the car and that he was cruising to victory. It has been brought up several times that if the season started after everyone got the DDD, Brawn and Button wouldn't have won the Championship. Even if the other teams didn't have the DDD they still had to work all season to get the down force that the Brawns had from day one and once they did they dominated the Brawns. Beside that fact I still think that the FIA should have ruled on the DDD's before the season (which they had plenty of time to rule on, as previously pointed out).
I think that Mclaren will be strong next year. Hamilton has to be recognized as a good driver (which in the past i thought that he was just in the best car) just look at what Kovalainen did with the same car.
Plus Ferrari and Mclaren won't have to worry about KERS next year ... but they might be better off that they were running KERS all year because of the no refueling rule. They get rid of the weight of the KERS, which they were running very close to the fuel cell (same area) but they are gaining the weight of the fuel. All of the other teams are going to have figure out the balance of the car again, where Ferrari and Mclaren might have a head start (especially with no testing)… Just a thought?

[Ramos]

Originally Posted by MontegoblueE92

What? The new teams are Campos, Manor, USF1, and Lotus.



Hamilton has one of the better cars now. He's been qualifying great everywhere except Brazil, where a lot of people had issues because of the car setups for wet qualifying/dry race. So he qualified low there because his car was setup for the race, which is another part of the reason he clawed his way to the podium. Clearly, you are a McLaren fanboy, so it will be hard to reason with you. I'm not sure why you don't think Ferrari will be on top. They have the best driver in a car that's had the most development.



I've said this over and over, BMW and Red Bull did well in Australia. Kubica was on pace to possibly win the race until he hit Vettel. Red Bull never used the DDD yet they came second. Toyota and Williams were much lower down. It was not just the DDD.



What you have to remember is that unlike Raikkonen/Massa, Alonso and Massa have the same driving style, with an emphasis on understeer. Raikkonen, much like Hamilton, prefers a sharp front end with oversteer. So the fact that Alonso is coming means the Scuderia are building a dream machine for their drivers instead of trying to compromise between the two. Granted, they have admitted that some things were geared more towards Massa's style the passed few years. But now that the drivers' style is the same, they don't have to settle in a gray area between what the two say. So the initial car design will have that much more of an edge from the get go.

I think you are confusing car design and car setup... Ferrari does not design and build a new car to suit a particular driver preferance.. They design and build the best car they car in the wind tunnel and then it's up to the drivers to individually set it up to suit their driving styles..
Kimi was just never a good driver for set up, so he ended up using Massa's setup often even when it did not suit him very well just because he could not get his own setup to work any better

[MontegoblueE92]

Originally Posted by Ramos

I think you are confusing car design and car setup... Ferrari does not design and build a new car to suit a particular driver preferance.. They design and build the best car they car in the wind tunnel and then it's up to the drivers to individually set it up to suit their driving styles..
Kimi was just never a good driver for set up, so he ended up using Massa's setup often even when it did not suit him very well just because he could not get his own setup to work any better

Ferrari themselves have admitted to gearing the car towards Massa's preference. Wouldn't they just say that Kimi couldn't set his car up for himself instead of issuing a public apology to Raikkonen for not giving him everything he needed the passed two years?

And Coulthard and Montoya both had different preferences to Raikkonen when he was at McLaren. So he was more than capable of setting up his own car. I don't think a man that holds 35 fastest laps is someone that doesn't know how to set his own car up. He just isn't great with development.

[Zoli007]

Yes teams absolutely develop cars to suit their drivers. There are specific ways to construct a car which will make it inherently more favorable to understeer or oversteer. If you give a driver a car that doesnt suit his style, he can set it up to correct some of the differences, but he will not be as fast as if the car is built to favor his style and then he sets it up to suit even more.

[MontegoblueE92]

Originally Posted by Zoli007

Yes teams absolutely develop cars to suit their drivers. There are specific ways to construct a car which will make it inherently more favorable to understeer or oversteer. If you give a driver a car that doesnt suit his style, he can set it up to correct some of the differences, but he will not be as fast as if the car is built to favor his style and then he sets it up to suit even more.

+1

My point exactly. Next season Ferrari has two drivers with similar styles. So the entire build of the car can be geared towards one that suits them both instead of negotiating between two different styles. Ferrari WILL be at the top next season. The guessing game is who else will be up there with them.