Final Thoughts On '09 F1 Style

The new F1 season is upon us.

Before long, millions of people around the world will bear witnesses to the multicolored almost-blurs of carbon-fiber and noise zoom past the cameras into the new era of F1.

And my God does it look beautiful.

As cars were unveiled, one word was used to describe each one: "Ugly."

Although some, such as the McLaren MP4-24, shined as a beacon of hope, none of them truly raised themselves into the good-looking category. One could at best argue that at least they all looked better than the Dallara IndyCar.

Those of us more aware of the importance of performance kept our opinions to a minimum, waiting to see the new machines on the track in Melbourne. Hoping they looked better on the track than they do in still photos.

Do they look better on track? Well, after watching Friday practice, I believe the answer is a resounding YES.

I appear to be a rarity amongst F1 fans: I liked the winglets on the old cars. Even when they were ugly, I liked how obviously they showed off the insane amounts of effort put into the designs of these cars. That effort is one thing that will likely never be obvious in these new cars.

But does it matter? Despite the reduction in downforce, that effort combined with the return of slicks has provided the teams with cars that appear just as nimble as the vehicles we watched last year. And because of that, it feels like F1.

Several times watching practice, I felt like I was watching a practice session from the late 1990s. Before the winglets began popping up. Everything just looked so....right!

On a scale of one to 10, I ranked the Renault R29 as a three. It's just hideous. Worst-looking car of the 2009 challengers. By comparison, all the cars on my top ten ugliest open-wheelers rate a two or lower. But when I saw it running around the Albert Park circuit, my rating jumped up to an eight. It was the best-looking car on the track—appropriate as it looks the most like a late '90s car.

I'm sure everyone has their own opinion about which car looked the best out there, and by how much their appearances jump up in quality when seen in action, but I think we can all agree on two things:

1. The only time anything truly looks WRONG is when we see the back of a car from another car's onboard camera. It looks like someone vertically stretched the image. But by the end of this weekend's race, I'm sure we wont even notice it anymore.

2. The 2009 season of F1 is looking a LOT better than it did just a month ago.

With luck, by Monaco, the current diffuser debacle will be a mere unpleasant memory no worse than that of the '06 Renault mass damper issue.

We no longer have to worry about whether looking at this year's F1 races will make us physically ill. Lets bring on the new season and see what kind of drama it brings us. Hopefully all that drama will be on-track and not the result of moronic management.

GO BOURDAIS AND HAMILTON!