Formula One: It's a Casino Out There

There is an old saying, that in the olden days in the Arabian Desert, there used to be a bird which would burn itself only to rise again, from the dead.

This creature was commonly referred to as the Phoenix.

Brawn GP, a team which was sold by its parent company and was without a buyer till three weeks before the season, not only managed to rise from the abandoned head but also scripted a fairy tale victory here on Sunday.

It is not a mere character of imagination, but a story out of true existence.

Jenson Button finally got the machinery he deserved, demonstrating sheer grit and speed to register his second victory of his career. It was a controlled drive by the Brit, who kept his composure through out the 58 laps which was marred by crashes, and incidents involving two safety car periods.

They seemed to be in their own league through out qualifying and race, outclassing the others, exhibiting how far the team has reached after some torrid times in the last couple of years.

Much of the credit should go to the team’s think tank—Ross Brawn and his men—for giving top priority to the 2009 season early in 2008 itself, when the team was struggling in all departments.

Toyota and BMW look like potential challengers to Brawn’s dominance. Apart from Brawn, the rest of the pack consisting of BMW, Toyota and Williams appear to be competing for podiums, while the big guns comprising of Ferrari and McLaren need to identify their pace if they have any hopes of fighting for the Championship.

Ferrari looked rather humble during the weekend, never really in a chance to fight for the podium. They did decently well in qualifying, but it never appeared with Massa and Raikkonen that they were in a position to aim for the top spots.  With the mechanical failure on Massa’s car and Raikkonen’s unnoticeable drive, Ferrari have some work to do before they embark to Malaysia.

Desperation seems to have worked for McLaren, at least to a certain extent with an inspirational drive by Hamilton to finish at the podium, and silencing the ghosts for now.

Things have improved, but there is a lot of work to do before Lewis can hope to defend his title. The car looked competitive in the second and third stint, coming close to the pace of Brawns and showing some signs of resurgence.

Red Bull’s Vettel drove beautifully till the 55th lap of the race, but a mistake with BMW’s Kubica when the latter was trying to make a move outside the German cost him a strong second-place finish.

The season started with some drastic changes, and it is still in the early days of evaluating how far we have reached with the new regulations in place, specifically the new aero rules which were implemented to improve overtaking. Teams are still learning how to make the most of Slicks, and KERS doesn’t seem to be popular with majority of the teams.

A lot can be expected to change in the coming races, with the hearing to take place on 14th on the diffuser row, teams still learning about the new regulations and how the car will behave in the upcoming races in Malaysia and China. Ferrari and McLaren will be aiming for some developments on their car and it shall not be long before we see them vying for the podiums and victories.

The pecking order is expected to shift, but with Brawn having drawn first blood, it looks that they will be a force to reckon with this season.

Formula One is a game of uncertainties, with testing banned between races and so many new changes having taken place. It is a casino out there, which will be one by the team which plays its cards smartly and sensibly.