Earth Dreams Finally Come True As Brawn GP Races to Conquer Australian GP

Here comes my first full review of the team I love so much.  What a start! I could not be happier right now! A Brawn one, two and my hero, Jenson Button leads the Drivers' World Championship standings!


Thursday tenterhooks! 26th March 2009

After finally creating a car that goes pretty fast, Brawn GP, (along with Williams and Toyota), were told that all of their hard work may well have been for nothing!  A soured beginning to Brawn GP’s first race saw the new car in front of the Stewards on a tense Thursday.   

Rival teams, (to my understanding initially headed by Red Bull), accused the three 2008 midfielders of finding a loophole in F1 regulations which allowed them to run a different diffuser and possibly shoot them up the grid to become front runners.  

I would argue, (though I am biased), that a loophole is not cheating…it’s simply interpreting the rules in a clever way.  Surely the whole point of competitive sport is to constantly try to create the best you can compared to your rivals?  Oh and whilst we are on the subject of loopholes and dodgy designs…are Ferrari and Renault, (the other two protesters) whiter than white?

Remember if you will, the many complaints Ferrari have had come their way in a less than innocent past and all the trouble Renault had in 2006 with their mass damper.

Tiny rant aside, my fears were at least temporarily appeased when the Albert Park stewards ruled in favour of Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams.

The problem now is that Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault then lodged an official protest, questioning the legality of the designs.  This means a probable hearing of the FIA’s International Court of Appeal and yet another controversy to add to the annual list in F1.

I think Rubens put it best in a Friday interview when he said, “I don’t think that the car is illegal at all. If the FIA has approved it now, why should they say in ten days that the car is not right? The car is correct and it is up to the others to make a better car.”

So not a perfect start to the weekend for we Brawn fans but would Friday bring smiles back to our faces?


Friday Practice: 27th March 2009

Practice One

Initially it looked like business as usual with Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari topping the time sheets.  However, amazingly, (and thanks to yesterdays decision), the two Williams stormed up to one-two right at the end.  That’s right! Kazuki Nakajima put in a faster time than Kimi!?.

For we Brawn fans, the worries of yesterday seemed like a distant memory as Jens and Rubens began a battle with McLaren, Williams, Toyota and Red Bull.  Rubens Barrichello knocked Kimi and Hekki off the top spot with a 1m 27.743s lap.  Then Raikkonen fought back to lead right up until the blue bullets took his place at the top.

Brawn GP were consistently fast and were it qualifying, would have comfortably made Q1.  Despite extreme visibility difficulties, (thanks to the Australian sun), Rubens was fourth with 1m 27.226s and Jenson, sixth with 1m 27.467s.

Practice Two

Extremely exciting stuff as Williams, Toyota and Brawn GP obliterated the rest of the pack.

With Ferrari and McLaren clearly struggling, Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock, Kazuki Nakajima, Rosberg and Jenson Button all had turns at the top of the timesheets.  The final victory came for Williams’s Rosberg.

Good old Rubens put in a time fit for second (1m 26.157s) and Jenson an encouraging fifth (1m 26.374s).

Rubens Barrichello stated "To be here in Melbourne is a real achievement for the team and it feels good to be back in the car and working towards a race weekend strategy again. Despite the limited testing time that we were able to do before this race, we have proved that we have a competitive car and we achieved some good work today. We evaluated both tyres and are happy with the overall performance so I think we have a good chance of a strong qualifying performance tomorrow."

When asked what was the secret to the team’s success Rubens replied: “It’s the whole package. The mechanical part of the car, because it is giving good traction, aerodynamically the car is very well balanced, the engine is very, very driveable with good power, and the drivers are fantastic - so it’s a good combination.” I couldn’t have put it better myself!

Jenson Button had much the same to say, when he stated "It was great to finally get the season underway today. We had a good first day of practice and the long run performance looks competitive, particularly on the harder tyre. We still have some work to do on the softer tyre so that will be a priority for tomorrow's practice session. I had traffic on both of my new tyres runs at the end of the day which was a shame so we don't know how quick we are over one lap yet but there is plenty of time to find that out tomorrow."

(quotes taken from F1.com)

In conclusion, Friday was yet another mesmerising day for me as a Brawn fanatic.  The only problem I had was that Jenson seems to be behind Rubens again; (not a major concern of course, I simply want Jenson to prove his critics wrong).  I then waited, excited, for the events of Saturday! Could Brawn GP qualify in the top 10? In the top 5? Pole position!?  

Friday Final times (very, very, exciting stuff!)

 1.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:26.053            36
 2.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes      (B)  1:26.157  + 0.104   38
 3.  Trulli           Toyota                      (B)  1:26.350  + 0.297   42
 4.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:26.370  + 0.317   30
 5.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:26.374  + 0.321   38
 6.  Glock        Toyota                        (B)  1:26.443  + 0.390   42
 7.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:26.560  + 0.507   33
 8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault         (B)  1:26.740  + 0.687   19
 9.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:27.040  + 0.987   29
10.  Massa        Ferrari                       (B)  1:27.064  + 1.011   35
11.  Raikkonen    Ferrari                    (B)  1:27.204  + 1.151   32
12.  Alonso       Renault                     (B)  1:27.232  + 1.179   28
13.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:27.282  + 1.229   32
14.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:27.317  + 1.264   34
15.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:27.398  + 1.345   36
16.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:27.479  + 1.426   36
17.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes (B)  1:27.802  + 1.749   35
18.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:27.813  + 1.760   31
19.  Piquet       Renault                         (B)  1:27.828  + 1.775   35
20.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari     (B)  1:28.076  + 2.023   33


Saturday Qualifying: 28th March 2009
 
When questioned on Friday as to whether Jenson saw himself as the favourite for Sunday he replied, “Well I still think of us as the underdogs really.”  Considering those thoughts I can only guess that Jenson was as happy as I was to see that he had stuck his car on the front of the grid for the first time since Melbourne 2006.  Button’s achievement also marked the first time any team had been on pole position with their first car built since Jackie Stewart for Tyrrell in Canada in 1970.

Saturday began very encouragingly for both Brawn Drivers, who were as strong in the morning practice as ever before.  Williams again topped the sheets in Practice 3, but Patrick Head was not exactly brimming with confidence for qualifying.

Yet more great news hit my ears as I watched the early morning coverage on the frankly excellent new BBC show.  Richard Branson has joined Brawn GP and Virgin has become a significant sponsor bringing great marketing skills in.  Now the cynic in me would argue that Virgin only got involved after witnessing the new teams pace in testing.  This view was temporarily strengthened when Brawn said the company’s involvement was “not a deep [one] but [that he is] hoping for more in the future”.

Arguably Branson had every right to be cautious and I completely respect him for that.  I think he was still pretty brave to put his name on the car before any actual competitive racing and I greatly enjoyed trying to smile harder than him at the end of Q3.  I look forward to a relationship with perhaps one of the few genuinely nice business men, and I believe that before long the clear white livery of Brawn’s car will be teeming with corporate stickers (lets hope they don’t weigh the car down like the RA107’s livery did!).

On to the qualifying now and I never thought I’d say this but Brawn were dominant throughout!

Qualifying One

Initially the Williams were the cars to beat.  Rubens was fast and Jenson took his sweet time to leave the pits.  There were shock poles, with Kimi and Fernando both taking turns but Rubens was on fire.  The Brazilian shot to the front with a time of 1:25:815 and was followed by Jenson, just 0:205s behind.

Q1
P1: Rubens Barrichello: 1:25:815
P2: Jenson Button: + 0:205s

Qualifying Two

The race was pretty much between the two Brawn drivers with Rubens looking as if he had the edge again.  I was slightly worried when towards the end Jenson was fourth, Rubens seventh.  However, after a great lap each from the fluorescent pair it was once again Rubens P1, Jenson P2.

Q2
P1: Rubens Barrichello: 1:24:783
P2: Jenson Button: + 0:072s

Qualifying Three

By this stage both McLarens were out and I thought that I had slipped back into a slumber!  Jenson smashed onto the scene with a 1:26:600 time and remained unbeaten for the rest of the show.  The only man who came close to toppling Jens, was Rubens.  In fact the Brazilian put in the fastest time of qualifying with a mesmerising 1:24:783.  A truly great day for Button and I wasn’t able to stop smiling until Sunday morning!

Q3
P1: Jenson Button 1:26:505
P2: Rubens Barrichello: 1:26:202


Sunday Race: 29th March 2009

The most exciting and nerve racking race that I have ever seen as an F1 fan, began with a tense build up.  I loved re-living Saturday as the clock ticked down to 07:00.  Team Brawn stated that the most important thing was to get past the first corner without taking each other out and my heart stopped as those red lights went out…..

Jenson stormed off into the lead whilst poor old Rubens’s car went into anti-stall throwing the unfortunate Brazilian back to fourth place.  The two Ferraris took advantage of KERS and got off to a rocket start, but after three laps Jenson was 4.4 seconds ahead.  

As the coverage continued, it became clear that Rubens had been in a scrap in turn one and had damaged his front wing.  This, on top of the immense pressure Vettel was putting on Button from the onset nearly killed me!

The damage was visible but, as we heard over the radio, Rubens was able to stay out.  The race then turned into a head to head between Button and Vettel, with each trading fastest sectors.  At this stage Massa was beginning to enter the equation and if I hadn’t cared so much about Jenson I probably would have enjoyed myself a lot more!

Whilst the battle at the front developed, Rubens had some work to do.  He first dispatched Niko Rosberg and then Kimi Raikkonen in a struggling Ferrari; (poor tyre choice, going with the Super Softs).  However, Rubens again damaged his car passing the Fin leading me to believe the Brazilian’s laps were numbered!

With Jenson lapping well, (heavier than Vettel), and Rubens now up to P4 (thanks to stops from Kubica and Massa), I felt I could calm down a bit.  However, the calm didn’t last long as Rubens soon began to feel the presence of Nakajima.

Vettel took to the pits on lap 16 and Jenson now had to push for all he was worth.  He did so, clocking in an amazing 1m:28:020 (the fastest lap so far).  It all looked to have been for nothing though when a silly mistake from Nakajima led to the race’s first safety car period.

Both Brawn cars took to the pits, (Rubens first, Jenson one lap later).  My heart skipped yet more beats as I remembered Ross Brawn joking that the team were relatively unpractised at pit stops!  Thankfully all was fine and the stops were slick.  The strategic genius of Brawn saw that Button emerged ahead of Vettel to keep the lead as an added bonus.

However, Jenson didn’t make it easy for himself as his tyres began to give him a bit of trouble.  He even locked up just before re-starting the race!

The race was eventually re-started on lap 23 with Rubens being told he would be strong from P10 and Jenson feeling the pressure from a young German in a Red Bull.

Sure enough Rubens managed to claw his way up to P7 and thankfully Jenson managed to put a 1.1 second gap between him and his followers.

The Ferraris looked as if they may cause problems but eventually fell out of contention and by lap 37 Jenson was leading with Rubens in fifth.

Around this time Robert Kubica came into play. Thanks to a decent BMW strategy, the Pole was charging with the benefit of having used his Super Softs.

The fight was then between Button, Vettel and Kubica with the gap getting ever smaller and my heart leaping from my chest!

Vettel pitted on lap 13 leaving Jenson with the hard task of pushing like crazy! The Brit delivered but mistakes were made in his second pit stop, (thanks to a fault in the first fuel hose).  A poor second stop fortunately didn’t prove too problematic as Button exited ahead of his rivals.

Then the race was a bit of a blur for me, with less then 20 laps to go the three way battle got hotter by the minute!  With just seven laps left Rubens pitted releasing Kubica (who had been slowed by the Brawn man).

Rubens rejoined in fifth but despite the problematic super softs almost immediately took Niko Rosberg’s fourth spot.

The contest for P1 got better and better with Vettel eating away at Button whilst holding off Kubica.  I truly thought Kubica was fast enough to take both leaders when a mistake made trying to pass Vettel took both runners out! An absolutely fascinating end to the race saw Jenson lead the last three laps behind a safety car.  

By the end, I felt as if I had gone ten rounds with Mohammad Ali, but Jenson and Rubens had finished first and second rounding off a perfect start for F1 2009.

For the first time since Fanjio in 1954 Jenson Button won a race for a debuting car!  He thanked everyone, and looked moved on the top spot of the podium.  Rubens was like an excited little boy! Apologising to Ross Brawn about the damage he had caused to the car!

A great weekend topped with my hero on the top spot and my team leading the constructors!

I will just say that since 2006, the race winner at Melbourne has won the World Title. I know it’s far too early to be stating things like that but at the moment I am on cloud nine! God knows how the boys in Brackley and Melbourne are feeling!