Lewis Hamilton was on an unconventional three stop strategy and in the end that seemed to have made the difference with his McLaren outclassing the Red Bull of Vettel. The fresher tyres ensured he was able to overtake the Red Bull. It was nice to see strategy again playing a part in the races after the Red Bulls have truly shown technological dominance on the racetrack (Interpretation of Rules again ?, someone please enlighten !). Sebastien Vettel has already won the 1st 2 formula one races and does seem to be on-track for a successful title defense.

Mark Webber was third and Jenson Button took the 4th place. Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg outclassed Michael Schumacher once again and was 5th while the veteran German could manage only 8th. Questions are again being asked about the German’s comeback decision and whether it was a disastrous decision to make. Personally I am proud of him, it takes courage to put your legacy on the line like he has

Sorry for the short and intermittent updates, too much work these day ! But like all things , this too shall pass !

To start winning all you have to do is head on over to the website and register yourself. After registering you will be asked to choose the top ten drivers and that’s it.

If you score high then you get to take home the prizes. I am playing too

Contest Ends 15-November-2010 !

Register for the Race To Finish contest here

Thanks to them we will also be holding a giveaway for some cool Vodafone McLaren Mercedes sometime in the future. Stay Tuned for that !

The Indian Grand Prix which is scheduled to be organised from the 2011 season is very much on track if the officials involved with the track, its construction and operation are to be believed. The Indian Grand Prix circuit which is coming up in Noida near New Delhi in the NCR region has been marred by hiccups with the sports ministry refusing to recognise formula one as a sport and refusing to sanction tax breaks and incentives for the same. The company incharge of the track and the race isnt worried though. The Jaypee Group, one of the leading conglomerates of India is the company entrusted with organising formula one in India for the next ten years.

Mark Hughes who is the former boss of operations at the Bahrain Grand Prix is the man incharge of the Indian formula one circuit. He is very optimistic about the Indian Grand Prix race in 2011. Addressing a section of the media, he was quoted as saying :

“We fully expect the race to go ahead next October,” vice president of JPSK Sports, a Jaypee Group subsidiary, Mark Hughes said.

“The circuit is part of a sports city being constructed 35 kilometres outside the Indian capital on a 2,800 acre site with areas set aside for the Formula One track and a 100,000-seater international cricket stadium,” Hughes added.

“Jaypee Group head Jaiprakash Gaur is passionate about sport and he has a dream to develop Indian youngsters with talent and prospects to progress,” Hughes added. “The sports hub is part of that dream.”

“We expect to complete construction by July 2011 and once the FIA has given its approval we can finalise training for marshals, track officials and medical staff in time for an October race.”

He also revealed details about the track and that formula one teams were sent simulations of the Indian Grand Prix track and asked for their inputs to the same.

“We sent the details to all the teams and they programmed the information into their simulators and gave us feedback on where we could make improvements and add overtaking opportunity points.”

P.S. The logo above is not the Official logo, its a fan logo designed by us.

Apologies for no photo of the winning driver, apparently Red Bull’s media department is not approving our application to use their photos for editorial purposes.

Red Bull really did give Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber wings with the duo grabbing a 1-2 at the 2010 formula one Malaysian Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg was third for the Mercedes GP formula one team (erstwhile Brawn GP) while his teammate Michael Schumacher was unlucky yet again as a nut came off his car’s wheel and he was forced to retire. Before that Michael Schumacher in a strong start had made up 2 places.

Sebastien Vettel proved that if you are good enough and if you drive good enough, victory will come and luck factor will diminish. After 2 unlucky races, Malaysia proved to be third time lucky.

Lewis Hamilton was another the start performer of the day though, the Briton made his way up from 20th on the grid to sixth place. His teammate Jenson Button was 8th at the finish line.

Meanwhile Spaniard and Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso called the Malaysian Grand Prix the toughest race of his life. He suffered a gearbox problem and apparently no clutch in the race.

“Right from the start things went wrong. On the formation lap, my gearbox broke, and I had no clutch during the race,” Fernando Alonso said.

“So I had to brake in a weird way. I had to first gear down and then push the throttle hard so it would engage the gear for that corner.

“So it was probably the hardest race of my whole life in terms of driving, because I had to improvise for every corner.

Final Classification of the Malaysian Grand Prix 2010

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts

1 5 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 56 1:33:48.412 3 25

2 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 56 +4.8 secs 1 18

3 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 56 +13.5 secs 2 15

4 11 Robert Kubica Renault 56 +18.5 secs 6 12

5 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 56 +21.0 secs 4 10

6 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 56 +23.4 secs 20 8

7 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 56 +27.0 secs 21 6

8 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 56 +37.9 secs 17 4

9 17 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 56 +70.6 secs 14 2

10 10 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 56 +73.3 secs 5 1

11 16 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 56 +78.9 secs 13

12 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 55 +1 Lap 7

13 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 54 +2 Laps 19

14 25 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 53 +3 Laps 24

15 20 Karun Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 53 +3 Laps 22

16 21 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 52 +4 Laps 23

17 18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 51 +5 Laps 18

Ret 19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 46 +10 Laps 15

Ret 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 32 +24 Laps 11

Ret 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 12 +44 Laps 10

Ret 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 9 +47 Laps 8

Ret 23 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 8 +48 Laps 9

Ret 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 2 +54 Laps 16

DNS 22 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 0 +56 Laps 12

Toyota had their rear wings marked illegal by F1 Stewards due to too much flexibility

Who in their right minds would have bet their money on Brawn GP, a team which until a few weeks ago didnt exist, the erstwhile Honda team whose fate was uncertain after a disastrous season and on Jenson Button who has often been called just another British driver and has been thoroughly overshadowed by McLaren’s own Brit Lewis Hamilton.

Wee this Saturday at Melbourne was not the place to make informed guesses and preditctions, because things didnt go as expected. The McLarens and the Ferraris werent the forces to be reckoned with, but it was the Brawn GP car of Jenson Button which took the pole position. And as if that wasnt enough, forgotten Brazillian driver and Jenson Button’s teammate at Brawn GP Rubens Barrichello was 2nd and will accompany Button in the front row.

Sebastien Vettel was a cool third in his Red Bull Racing car. While Robert Kubica (whom i had considered a favorite) was only 4th fastest. The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Raikkonen were 7th and 9th respectively. The McLarens were even more pathetic in 15th and 16th place with world champion Lewis Hamilton 16th.

Force India continued their dismal run despite more marketing efforts (that doesnt work, does it ?). Meanwhile Toyota were banned from the qualifying and relegated to last places after their wings were found to be too flexible. In a statement sent to use by their media team, they claimed :

Toyota Motorsport has been informed that the rear wing of the TF109 has been found to demonstrate “extreme flexibility” by the Australian Grand Prix stewards.

The design has passed our own internal test procedures which are designed to reproduce twice the proscribed official load tests. In light of this decision it is clear we must review these procedures to ensure there is no repeat of this situation and we will also review our production processes to ensure there is no variation between parts.

We naturally accept and respect the decision of the race stewards.

We intend to modify the components overnight and we are confident these modifications will not result in any performance drop.

2009 Australian Grand Prix Qualifying result :

Pos Driver Nationality Team Time

1. Jenson Button Britain Brawn GP-Mercedes 1:26.202

2. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Brawn GP-Mercedes 1:26.505

3. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1:26.830

4. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber 1:26.914

5. Nico Rosberg Germany Williams-Toyota 1:26.973

6. Timo Glock Germany Toyota 1:26.975

7. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari 1:27.033

8. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota 1:27.127

9. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari 1:27.163

10. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1:27.246

11. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW Sauber 1:25.504

12. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault 1:25.605

13. Kazuki Nakajima Japan Williams-Toyota 1:25.607

14. Heikki Kovalainen Finland McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.726

15. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes No Time

16. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:26.508

17. Nelson Piquet Brazil Renault 1:26.598

18. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Force India-Mercedes 1:26.677

19. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 1:26.742

20. Sebastien Bourdais France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:26.964

Brawn GP Logo

Its official, Honda F1 is saved. The Japanese outfit Honda agreed to the sale of the formula one unit Honda formula one to ex-team boss Ross Brawn. The team has been re-christened Brawn GP. The message on the Brawn GP official site read:

On behalf of everyone at Brawn GP, welcome to our new team and our new website BrawnGP.com

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you – our fans, our partners and our media colleagues – for your tremendous support during the past few months. It has been a challenging period but we have now achieved a very pleasing conclusion to the strenuous efforts which have been made to secure our future. We have also been left in no doubt as to the level of enthusiasm for the team and our ambitions.
Our focus now is on preparations for the first race of the 2009 calendar in Melbourne on 29 March. Over the coming weeks we will bring you the very latest news and pictures from the build-up to the Brawn GP team’s debut season plus our plans for the development of BrawnGP.com
Enjoy the new season.
With very best wishes

Ross Brawn
Team Principal

The team also confirmed that Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will be their drivers for the 2009 season. The press release on the Brawn GP site read Ross Brawn’s message to Honda’s fans :

“The past few months have been extremely challenging for the team but the announcement is a very pleasing conclusion to the strenuous efforts that have been made to secure its future,” said Brawn

“Firstly, it is a great shame that having worked with Honda Motor Company for so long we can no longer continue together.

“I would like to thank Honda for the fantastic co-operation and support we have received throughout this process – particularly those members of the senior management who were closely involved with concluding our agreement – and for the faith they have demonstrated in myself and our team.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to pay due credit to our staff at Brackley. The levels of motivation and commitment that I have witnessed at the factory deserve the highest praise.”

Bernie Eccelstone has gone public with his intentions of not letting the ailing F1 Racing outfit Honda F1 die an untimely death. He said that he was willing to assist the team financially.

The Mercedes team also said that it would supply engines to the Britsh team. The Formula One manufacturer’s association can also be expected to chip in and assist Honda in whatever way it can.

“We’ve been talking to them,” Bernie said.

“Whatever happens we’d like to see the Formula 1 team stay in business.”

“I’d rather not comment on that but we will do whatever we have to do to try to make it happen,” said Ecclestone.

“I don’t even know whether we could legally be involved (but) we probably couldn’t.

“The Commission might say that because we are the commercial rights-holder we shouldn’t be part of it.”

“I don’t know at this stage, but there is a possibility that loans could be made or something. (to assist Honda)”

Ferrari formula one has offered to assist the Honda F1 team in a bid to revive the now defunct outfit. Ferrari F1 who were dumped by the Force India formula one team who moved to McLaren have offered to supply Engines to the Honda F1 outfit.

Currently the Italian outfit supplies engines to Scuderia Torro Rosso. Its revealed that Ross Brawn has been in talks with the Ferrari team for the engine supply in case the outfit is revived and a bidder is seen. There was also a rumour that despite shutting down its F1 division, Honda would continue to supply their team with their own Honda engines.

The Italian team would need a lot of time though to make new engines for a new car, therefore time is running out to revive the Honda formula one team. The season opener at Melbourne (Australian Grand Prix) is about 80 days away.

A Ferrari spokesperson confirmed that Honda had asked them if they would be able to supply engines and they said yes.

The Honda formula one team claimed to power dreams, one lap at a time, but it seems their batteries ran out of juice, just a metaphor for the fact that they probably ran out of money to sustain a fully featured formula one team.

Car makers have been one of the worst affected by the ongoing global financial meltdown triggered by idiotic bank policies in the west where they would give credit to any loser who had defaulted on scores of loans in his past. As a result, the money available in the market is less, and couple that with low liquidity, the working capital has shrunken and so has the market, facing such a crunch, Honda decided it was best to pull out of the money guzzling sport of formula one. You may read the official reactions from the Honda formula one team.

Nick Fry:

“Despite the obvious disappointment that we all felt on hearing the news from Honda Motor Co. we do understand that this decision was one which they felt they had to take in light of the current global economic situation and the resulting impact on the worldwide automobile market.

“Last night’s meeting with the staff was difficult for everyone but judging by what we have seen here in Brackley today, that has quickly given rise to a steely determination. The directors of the Honda Racing F1 Team now intend to make every effort possible to secure the future of the team and we know we can count on the continued support and fighting spirit of the great team of people we have here in Brackley. Our staff have been a credit to themselves, to our team and to Formula One over the past 24 hours and I would like to take this opportunity to say how proud we are of them today.

“The RA109, our 2009 F1 contender, is our first car developed under the technical leadership of Ross Brawn. With the resources Ross has at his disposal and confirmation that Honda will provide the necessary support to complete the car in time for the first race in Melbourne, I am sure that we can still have a very successful 2009 season if a new owner can be found. One new major sponsor is already signed for 2009 and discussions are well advanced with others. Offers of support from around the world have been generous and I’m sure that with that kind of goodwill towards the team we have a good chance of competing even in this difficult economic situation.

“We have had a number of potentially suitable investors approach us since the news broke and we now we want to make sure that we have the right owner for the team to enable to us to continue at the right level.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Formula One can have a good future and that this team can be part of it. The sport, including FOTA, the FIA and FOM, is already well down the road of ensuring a more sustainable existence and I’m sure that this work will continue to accelerate in the coming weeks, making our team a very good investment for the right buyer.”

Ross Brawn:

“Our information is that, relative to the other teams, we have a very strong car in development here at Brackley and we will continue to develop the RA109 to ensure a strong start to 2009 and improvement through the season.
“This is a unique opportunity. The facilities we have here are among the best in the sport as a result of multi-million pound investments over the past 24 months. We have a fantastic workforce and a car that could be one of the best.
“Honda are keen to help us try to preserve the team and fortunately we have some time to react. If this had happened closer to the season it would have been much more difficult. It’s a fantastic opportunity for someone to step into what will be a very competitive team next year. The facilities here are amongst the best in Formula One, the workforce is definitely one of the best in Formula One and we have a great car in progress for next year. We have aspirations to be at the front of the grid and we want to find investors who have the same ambitions.

“I would like to thank the staff here at Brackley for a fantastic demonstration of courage and fortitude today despite difficult circumstances. I am proud to be part of this team.”

Jenson Button:

“As you can imagine, I was totally shocked by yesterday’s news. The process of absorbing it is one that will continue for some days to come, so the only focus today was being here at Brackley to return the support I have counted on throughout our past six years together. I am sure I will have more to say in the coming days but today is about the people I consider my team – and what a fantastic group of people they are.”

Lewis Hamilton came one step closer to winning his maiden formula one driver’s title by winning the 2008 formula one Chinese Grand Prix from pole. His closest competitor Felipe Massa was second in his Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton was fast from the start pulling away easily and making the Ferraris look gasping for pace. What is interesting though is that Kimi Raikkonen had slowed down to let Felipe Massa through much like a lot of the other formula one teams do within their teams. So when are team orders prohibited ? It did affect the outcome of the race. The swap reduced the damage to the Massa championship campaign but may just prove to be futile in the last race.

Fernando Alonso put in another strong(er?) performance to get a 4th place finish. The BMWs were 5th and 6th with Heidfeld finishing ahead of Robert Kubica this time.

The Red Bull of David Coulthard was 10th while teammate Mark WEbber was way back in 14th place.

Force India were as dismal as ever with Adrian Sutil not finishing the race and Fisichella finishing in 17th place (last).

The top 8 drivers were :

1 L. Hamilton  Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
2 F. Massa      Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
3 K. Raikkonen  Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
4 F. Alonso    ING Renault F1 Team
5 N. Heidfeld  BMW Sauber F1 Team
6 R. Kubica    BMW Sauber F1 Team
7 T. Glock      Panasonic Toyota Racing
8 N. Piquet Jr. ING Renault F1 Team

So the title fight goes down to Brazil now, stay tuned for a post on that

Image: McLaren.com Media