Formula 1 is funny. If you’ve been following the F1 drivers’ market over the past few months, or years for that matter, you’ll undoubtedly agree with that statement. More on that in a minute, but for those of you who’ve been living in a cave recently – Brawn GP were crowned world constructors champion, while Brit driver, Jenson Button, claimed his maiden F1 drivers crown.

Coming back to the drivers’ market, one did expect the pace to pick up after Ferrari announced their signing of Fernando Alonso. However, till only a day of penning this piece, most of the top teams were still contemplating their driver options. New entrant, Manor GP, however, have chosen Timo Glock as their lead driver for their 2010 campaign!

Now, we were wondering which of the two is bigger – Jenson Button signing a multi-year deal with McLaren or Kimi Raikkonen deciding to take a one year sabbatical from Formula 1. Yes, after much speculation, 2009 Formula 1 champion, Jenson Button, decided against renewing his contract with his championship winning team, Brawn GP, and opted to jump ship to McLaren instead. Whether money was the sole motive behind the move is debatable, but two English men in an English team do make a good pairing for the sponsors and marketers – and yes, of course, two World Champions in one team also means that McLaren will have the strongest line up (at least on paper) going into the 2010 season. The last time two British world champions were teammates was when Graham Hill partnered Jim Clark at Lotus, back in 1968.

Ferrari and Red Bull were one of the first top teams to confirm their driver line-ups for next season. With Toyota and BMW gone, and Renault on the verge – drivers do find themselves with limited options for 2010. In this entire musical chair sequence, the luckiest has been Fernando Alonso. After self-quitting McLaren and going back to Renault, only to see them being uncompetitive and double-checking their commitment to the sport ever so often, Ferrari was the only team on the grid that could offer him a competitive chassis – and thankfully for him, they did throw him a lifeline!

Brawn GP, which is now Mercedes Grand Prix, is one enviable setup for any driver. Leading the team from a technical front is still Ross Brawn, and powering the car in the rear will once again, of course, be a Mercedes engine! The newly set up German team is rumoured to be looking for an all-German set of drivers – which might just mean that Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld will be in strong favour, with their nationality and talent proving to be a formidable combination. Someone also mentioned a Schumi comeback special, but we’d bet our money against it.

Now that pretty much leaves us with the mid-grid teams. While Renault is still considering their participation for next year, they have confirmed Polish driver Robert Kubica for 2010. Similarly, Sebastian Buemi has been awarded an extension with Scuderia Toro Rosso for a spectacular showing in his debut season. However, I’m still wondering what made Timo Glock commit to Manor F1 – the money? Or was he out-of-demand altogether with the bigger teams?

Force India, on the other hand, is considering signing up Adrian Sutil, who delivered the goods last year. However, his teammate might just be Neel Jani or Karun Chandhok – one of whom could just be given the nod thanks to their Indian roots. Karun wins that round of course, but there are other factors as well, as you could well imagine. Similarly, Malaysian rookie, Fairuz Fauzy, is attempting to grab a seat with the Malaysian owned Lotus outfit. With an all German, all English, and all Latino (Ferrari!) line-up expected in 2010, Formula 1 teams do seem to be taking their driver origins quite seriously.

Well, talking about teams looking for drivers? Naturally, the same is true in reverse as well – with some unexpected drivers looking out for teams too. Changed 2010 regulations have led former world champ, Jacques Villeneuve, to believe that he might still have what it takes to be among the drivers on the grid for next year. And I would have to agree – pure talent indeed, it would be great to see him make a comeback. The other driver attempting to find a racing seat is Giancarlo Fisichella, who will be allowed to race along with performing testing duties for the Scuderia. And yes, of course, how can one forget the bad boy of F1, Nelsinho Piquet Jr., who is attempting to lure one of the new teams to sign him for next season – the kicker being that he does bring a few truck loads of cash with him! Will you Campos?

Lastly, I almost forget to mention the Senna name amongst all this. He has signed up for Campos F1, but he needs to prove his potential before we start going ga-ga about the Senna name once again!

2009 was, in a lot of ways, a season that was much-awaited. Old regulations were scrapped, and new ones were introduced. Reasons weren’t much different than before – i.e. to aid overtaking, increase the excitement on track, and to reduce costs! Also, it was a good opportunity for a lot of teams to start their designs afresh, and that, in a way, offered them an opportunity to innovate, rather than simply update their cars from previous seasons.

It also was a season that was much heralded as Formula 1’s attempt to move to the next-gen – not only in terms of circuits and markets, but also in terms of technology – with the introduction of KERS and slick tires!

While its one thing for every management to make changes, and adapt to a constantly changing environment, it’s unfortunately true that many changes simply won’t have the desired effect. Here’s my attempt to gather what were the hits and misses of F1 2009:

Lest you thought that appeals, hearings, and contentious rulings were exclusively the preserve of the pinnacle of motorsport, Formula 1, think again! Our very own JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship had an intriguing end to the championship.

During the final round, in the first weekend of October, championship rivals Ashwin Sundar and Saran Vikram, who were separated by just a handful of points, were involved in two separate racing incidents. This led to championship leader, Sundar, being excluded from both races of the final round on grounds of dangerous driving. Needless to say, he appealed the decision of the stewards, which was heard by a 3 member team of the IMSAC (Indian Motor Sports Appeal Court) Tribunal in the middle of November.

The tribunal reinstated Sundar’s position in Race 1, which he finished in 3rd place. They did, however, uphold his exclusion from Race 2, and, in true FIA fashion, imposed a penalty banning him from 3 rounds of the 2010 championship. However, this has been awarded as a suspended sentence, which, effectively, means that he’s on probation, and won’t have to serve the penalty if he’s well behaved in 2010.

The end result of all this is that both Ashwin Sundar and Saran Vikram finish the championship with 64 points each – with championship contender, and provisional champion in the interim, Gaurav Dalal just one point behind. Consequently, Sundar goes on to claims the Formula Rolon title since he has a greater number of wins than Vikram. Sudarshan Rao wins the Formula LGB Swift class in much less contentious fashion, while Akhil Devrag takes the Formula LGB Hyundai title, and veteran B. Vijaykumar is victorious in the Saloon class.