F1 2009: Man Vs. Machine: Was It?

So the 2009 World Championship is over! The season will go down in history as the season of the Brawns! After struggling to make it to the grid in Australia to winning the first 7 races of the season on the trot to their mid-season slump to finally clinching both their World Titles in Brazil – the Brawn GP have created history as the only team ever to have clinched the World Championships in their debut season.

Pin up boy to World Champion – Jenson Button too has come a long way. After being hailed as Britain’s next racing prodigy while in his debut F1 year with Williams to being tagged as the Playboy of F1 during his days as Renault and of course being referred as ‘dying talent’ during his Honda days, Jenson Button endured and supported Ross Brawn in his attempt to resurrect the dying Honda team and re-christen it to Brawn GP before of course leading the team to their first ever Driver and Constructors Crowns.

Before I move on with history, I would like to congratulate Ross Brawn for winning his 8th Formula1 World Championship and then of course Jenson Button for winning his first ever! The Brawns did beat the rest in business by purely using their ‘brains’ – whether it was the double deck diffuser or with Ross Brawns’ near perfect race strategies. Bravo!!

However, going back to history, Formula1 has undergone massive changes over the last few years. That the changes haven’t been well accepted by many is a different story altogether, but F1 has witnessed 4 different World champion drivers and teams in as many years – with nearly all the title fights going down to the wire! [oh boy! My mind shifts back to Brazil 2007 & 08!] However, did the fastest driver or the best team win? The answer might not be as simple the question!!

Post the era of the late 90s – global economies were booming and as a result Formula1 become a lucrative and exciting platform for any global car manufacturer to been seen. Manufacturers that sold cars at both ends of the spectrum – from the expensive BMWs to the affordable Renaults and Hondas – all wanted their own share of the pie of this global sport. Hence, from being engine suppliers many manufacturers actually ended up being team owners – with one vision – to be a Formula1 World Championship winning team. [but of course!] While it only made the platform of Formula1 more credible and brought in more moolah in the sport – it also made the sport very technically correct. Advanced technology was introduced – the much banned traction control systems were back. Advanced telemetry and engine mapping systems, state-of-art simulators, wind tunnels, etc. all became a part every team’s arsenal.

The result of the influx of technology was visible in the cars and can still be if one were to map their evolution 2000 onwards. However, as a result the dependence on technology to win championships only increased making the driver a mere operator. While, the terms are harsh to read many pundits do agree that modern day Formula1 cars are highly automated and that technology has only made ‘racing’ easier! Highly debatable I would agree!

However, I do believe that modern day Formula1 lays more emphasis on the car and other mechanicals than pure driver talent. Yes, F1 is a man-machine sport and always one superior will rule over another, but in the last decade or so the balance has only been skewed and that too in the favour of the machines! Battle of the machines – a la Matrix style!

Taking cue from fellow racer Karun Chandhok, who during his commentary stint during the last GP mentioned that current day F1 is 85:15 ratio in terms of car to driver performance as opposed to a near 50:50 in the 90s era. Testament to this is when you look back to the early 2000s when Ferrari and Schumacher stomped their way to 5 successive titles – particularly in 2002 when Ferrari built a tank of a racing car. Their success was mainly down to their machinery, which was much superior to any other on the grid. Going forward, the battle of the tyre manufacturers played a major role in the outcome of the 2005 & 2006 seasons – this time the beneficiary being Renault & Fernando Alonso. Early 2009 was dominated by teams that had mastered the ‘double diffuser’ et al.

Leaving these technicalities aside, I am hoping that going forward we get to witness some real racing action and fights between drivers en route to their titles! Whether Jenson is a worthy champion or not is highly debatable, but the matter of the fact is that not only did he stamp his authority on the 09 title but he also didn’t ‘entertain’ us enough during his title charge! Talking of entertainment, it was unfortunate that Trulli was ‘fined’ for his verbal charge on Sutil post their crash in Brazil.

With Jean Todt at the helm, I am only hoping that regulations stabilize and that the onus on drivers to ‘drive to win’ increases and the balance shifts from machine to man! With the new era seeing manufacturers withdraw, this might just be possible…