Jenson Button pledged complete allegiance to his team, and stood by them in the face of a real threat of forced retirement for himself – very fitting, then, that he should take the first victory of 2009

The 2009 Formula 1 season is finally underway – and what a start it’s been.

No one could possibly have scripted the start to this season, or the preceding few months leading up to it for that matter. The erstwhile Honda F1 team, now Brawn GP, made a historic debut – finishing 1-2 in a magical Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne. In doing so, they matched a feat achieved by a team only once before on its debut – Mercedes Benz in 1954, led by the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio.

Executives at Honda, who chose to pull the plug on the cost intensive F1 program in light of the current economic slowdown, will undoubtedly have had mixed feelings, to say the least, as they witnessed the podium celebrations with former driver Jenson Button on the top step, and teammate Rubens Barrichello beside him – and to rub salt into their wounds, standing beside them was Jarno Trulli, driving for arch rival Toyota.

With technical genius Ross Brawn, the architect of Michael Schumacher’s seven titles, at the helm, Honda spent tens of millions over the course of 16 months developing the current car – putting in much more time and effort than any other team, and in the process neglecting their uncompetitive 2008 challenger to the detriment of their worldwide image. After they withdrew factory backing, Brawn and CEO, Nick Fry, were able to secure financing, to a large extent from Honda itself, and buy out the team. They also secured customer engines from Mercedes Benz, and redesigned the car to fit its new power source. They managed only one real test a few weeks prior to Melbourne – where their incredible pace was already apparent.



For a team that was unsure, until a few short weeks prior to the start of the season, if it was even going to make the starting grid, the results in Melbourne were poetic justice indeed. Even when the team’s future looked bleak, there appeared to be a real sense of belief, not only from Ross Brawn and Nick Fry, but the entire crew at Brawn GP that they could, and would, make it to the starting grid in Australia. And it was this belief and determination that kept the development work underway. Their lead driver, Briton, Jenson Button, also pledged complete allegiance to the team, and stood by them in the face of a real threat of forced retirement for himself – very fitting, then, that he should take the first victory of 2009.

Jenson was the great British hope when he made his debut in 2000, at only 20 years of age. Unfortunately, things never really fell into place for him, and, thus far, had only been able to secure a single Grand Prix win in his entire career. His dominant performance in Australia, however, will certainly have his doubters thinking twice. Button took pole from teammate Barrichello, led the entire race, set fastest lap, and brought the car home for the victory – a convincing win, then, from a man who says there’s more to come from himself and his car. Needless to say, the competition is concerned – so concerned, in fact, that several of the established teams have lodged a protest against the design of the rear diffuser of the Brawn GP car. In fact, the rear diffuser design is similar to that of the Toyota and Williams cars, both of whom also demonstrated great pace in Australia – both are also included in the protests. The stewards at Australia deemed the diffusers legal, and the appeal will only be heard in the second week of April, after the Malaysian Grand Prix. Brawn GP say they’re not concerned since they were in touch with the FIA thorough development of the diffuser. Thus far, at least, it does appear to be a case of some of the less established teams having been more innovative versus the establishment. My guess is that you’ll see similar diffusers on most cars in a few races time.

Jenson’s teammate meanwhile, veteran Brazilian, Barrichello, inherited second place in the closing laps of the race when a hard charging Robert Kubica, in his BMW, and Sebastian Vettle, in the Red Bull, collided in a battle for position. Vettle was on the soft compound tires, which performed at their optimum for only a handful of laps. As they began to deteriorate, Kubica, on the harder rubber, gained ground and made an attempt to pass around the outside of a right hander. Vettle tired to defend his second place, and ended up understeering into Kubica as he attempted to drive past – leading to retirement for both cars after a challenging and long afternoon. Vettel apologized, but has been handed a 10-grid position penalty for the next race. BMW feel that Kubica would have been able to challenge Button for the win, since the Brawn GP car was also on soft compound tires, and Jenson was within sight. Jenson, however, said he was managing the pace towards the end, and was driving conservatively to look after his tires.



Jarno Trulli, on the other hand, may have enjoyed the podium celebrations, but didn’t get to keep his trophy. An error by Trulli under the Safety Car allowed Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren to get past. Following this, Trulli repassed Hamilton while they were still under yellow flags. According to Trulli, Lewis slowed suddenly, and left him with no choice. Following the race, however, the stewards handed Trulli a 25 second penalty, dropping him outside the points and into 12th place. Needless to say, the Toyota driver was disappointed after he earned his position through some hard driving and overtaking – having started from the pit lane because Toyota was penalized for a flexing rear wing following Qualifying. Fixing the part in question didn’t dampen their speed in the race, and the Toyota’s appear to have the pace thus far in 2009. Resulting from Trulli’s penalty, reigning world champion, Lewis Hamilton, inherited 3rd place. Hamilton proved yet again that he’s a true racer at heart, and a worthy champion, as he made the most of his KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) equipped machine and fought his way through the field – having started from 18th place, after having to change his gearbox following qualifying.

Force India had a respectable start to their season, as both cars made it to the finish in 9th and 11th place in their first race with Mercedes power. Ferrari, on the other hand, had a disastrous weekend with neither car scoring points, and Massa retiring from mechanical failure. While the Ferrari’s demonstrated reasonable pace in practice and qualifying, relative to the non diffuser pack, their race pace was abysmal and their strategy fell apart.

The Malaysian Grand Prix, being a more conventional circuit, compared with Albert Park in Melbourne, will allow for a more thorough interpretation of the 2009 regulations, and what it translates to on track. Suffice to say, if the first race of the year is anything to go by, brace yourself for an extremely action packed and exciting year ahead.