Formula 1 2009: The Launch Season

[KSaiyu]

Well, it was stated several times that customer chassis are banned after 2009, because this subject came up a lot with the whole Prodrive entry into 2008 thing. It was the main reason they didn't end up joining the paddock.

It was also mentioned before quite a bit too because we heard about Red Bull having to sell the STR team before the end of 2009 and recently they bought out Berger's share of the team (to make it easier to sell).

Its not exactly something that was barely mentioned or discussed....so although some of us could be a bit more thoughtful, it isn't exactly surprising when we roll our eyes...

Edit:
Nice video of testing today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEaCjaBmsgY

Thanks....for the explanation and footage 👍

 

[Blake]

Well, he could at least posted it a little bit more polite as in "That's because it is an RB5" instead of a smiley which comes over as "Are you completely blind?! That IS a freagin' RB5 you idiot! Read some more F1 news on a daily basis!"

Sorry, I thought it was kind of obvious since STR has been using a chassis provided by Red Bull since 2007.

 

[Metar]

Apparently it is: JB topped the timing sheets at Barcelona yesterday for most of the day, before ultiamtely finishing fourth when apparently all they were aimng for was reliability.

I don't know what Brawn what Brawn has been doing, but it must be something goo.

Yet we'll never know, since they're still quite sponsorless and must impress - and nothing does that better than removing 50kg of ballast and topping the sheets for a few days (BrawnGP, without KERS, is one of the teams that can hold around 70kg of ballast). We'll see in Australia: The car looks very solid - beautiful, too - but we'll never know until the first round of qualifying.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Yet we'll never know, since they're still quite sponsorless and must impress - and nothing does that better than removing 50kg of ballast and topping the sheets for a few days (BrawnGP, without KERS, is one of the teams that can hold around 70kg of ballast). We'll see in Australia: The car looks very solid - beautiful, too - but we'll never know until the first round of qualifying.

They have the money to do the 2009 season so a sponsor is not an immediate concern, just something they should deal with as soon as possible for their future development.

They also have just four days track time to get the car ready for the first race so running light to give good lap times would be incredibly self defeating since any fixes you find for any issues you have might turn out to be irrelevant when you add 50-70kg to the car.

I'm not saying that they are not doing it, I just don't see it as a good idea nor do I think Ross Brawn is stupid enough to do that.

You are correct though. All will be revealed in Melbourne which at this point can't come soon enough.

 

[Metar]

My point was simple - we have no idea. On the surface, McLaren appears to be in deep trouble - lapping two seconds off the pace, stints ending with shredded tyres, and pace only with the 2008 rear wing - but for all we know, they've just been testing a Monaco/Monza setup. By the same token, BrawnGP could be doing qualifying-simulations on a package that fits Barcelona...

 

[J-PaP]

Unofficial Tuesday times from Barcelona:
1. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari F60, 1:20.314
2. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams FW31, 1:20.907
3. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn BGP 001, 1:20.966
4. Jarno Trulli, Toyota TF109, 1:21.182
5. Mark Webber, Red Bull RB5, 1:21.347
6. Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber F1.09, 1:21.615
7. Adrian Sutil, Force India VJM02, 1:21.834
8. Fernando Alonso, Renault R29, 1:21.937
9. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren MP4-24, 1:21.991
10. Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso STR4, 1:23.039
11. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso STR4, no time

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/3/9005.html

 

[Hyst]

Probably a stupid question, but unless a sponsor is found soon is that likely to be the race livery for the Brawn BGP 001?

 

[ExigeEvan]

probably a stupid question, but unless a sponsor is found soon is that likely to be the race livery for the brawn bgp 001?

"TO ADVERTISE HERE CALL BRAWN1"

Maybe.

 

[Ardius]

Probably a stupid question, but unless a sponsor is found soon is that likely to be the race livery for the Brawn BGP 001?

Well, as has been discussed a lot in the Honda/Brawn thread, they don't need a sponsor for this year, as Honda have paid Brawn quite an amount to run the season.
I would have thought they have at least already sorted out a couple of sponsors before even last week's news.

Even if they find a sponsor, I doubt the livery will change much.

Also, according to Brawn: "If everyone knew how much fuel we had on board, they would be surprised" during yesterdays testing, and added that "Even our engine partner Mercedes didn't believe it when we told them".
Now, this could very well be (and probably is) Brawn hiding the fact they ran low fuel or whatever but its interesting anyway to see that the Brawn car is fairly reliable so far and can at least perform similar laptimes (depending on how much people are sandbagging).

This is definitely going to be the team everyone will be watching this season, and I sincerely hope they don't do a Williams'08 and go the reverse of what their testing times suggest.

 

[NapoleonMikey]

finally an explantion on why the 'skate' fins are allowed on the williams car

http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2009/0/629.html

apparently the immediate surrounding area of the cockpit is void of the no aero rule. so now i can only imagine the amount of aero bits and pieces the teams will start connecting to the cockpit area.

 

[Only_in_f1]

I heard bwin.com might be the BrawnGP sponsor.

 

[Ardius]

finally an explantion on why the 'skate' fins are allowed on the williams car

http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2009/0/629.html

apparently the immediate surrounding area of the cockpit is void of the no aero rule. so now i can only imagine the amount of aero bits and pieces the teams will start connecting to the cockpit area.

Actually, we found that out a while ago, or at least I did.

Also, I doubt many teams will be focusing on this area just yet because apparently:
- Williams flew in their management as well. Head and Michael personally wanted to be convinced that the modifications to the diffusor and sidepods have brought progress. There was a nasty surprise, Head: ''It looks as if we've made a step backwards.'' The vertical fins next to the drivers head have remained on the car but didn't bring the progress that was hoped for. They are to improve the airflow towards the rearwing.

Source: http://forums.autosport.com/showthread.php?postid=3505559#post3505559

 

[Metar]

finally an explantion on why the 'skate' fins are allowed on the williams car

http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2009/0/629.html

apparently the immediate surrounding area of the cockpit is void of the no aero rule. so now i can only imagine the amount of aero bits and pieces the teams will start connecting to the cockpit area.

This area, the location of the (smaller) sidepod shields, as well as a small strip along the bottom of the car (where BMW placed cooling-gills) are the three main "unrestricted" areas.

I heard bwin.com might be the BrawnGP sponsor.

Them, Pepsi, and a whole lotta others have been mentioned. We'll have to wait and see...

 

[Ardius]

This area, the location of the (smaller) sidepod shields, as well as a small strip along the bottom of the car (where BMW placed cooling-gills) are the three main "unrestricted" areas.

Also, McLaren have been experimenting with a cut floor too, another area where teams can change a bit, as the rules state something along the lines of "engine parts cannot be visible from underneath the car", which allows some cars to cut parts of their floor out for additional air flow. Not all teams can do this without massively changing their sidepods though.
The Brawn car can do it though I think.

 

[wrcsti]

finally an explantion on why the 'skate' fins are allowed on the williams car

http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2009/0/629.html

apparently the immediate surrounding area of the cockpit is void of the no aero rule. so now i can only imagine the amount of aero bits and pieces the teams will start connecting to the cockpit area.

BMW also has shark gills in that area due to the aero allowed grey area there.

 

[Lee]

(Ok so I'm catching up..)

I'll just go out on a limb here and say this is probably the first season I've felt genuinely excited over a Formula One car that has came out of Brackley. Let's just hope it's reliable.

And yeah, that STR livery still rules all.

 

[SUPER NUMBBER]

Hmm, so this is what McLaren's been doing while sandbagging:

http://www.kontraband.co.uk/videos/16478/Formula-Fun-Racing/#show

 

[J-PaP]

That's just cool! I say if mclaren win the championship early their remaining races should be as an rc car.

 

[livemusic]

Very cool indeed.

 

[GT4 genius]

Probably not the best place to post this, but I didnt think it needed a thread of its own, so here it is:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7937753.stm

A lot of those 'inventions' dont seem all that practical, but I'm sure for each one of those theres thousands more that are extremely useful but maybe not all that interesting in a science exhibition.

 

[J-PaP]

Unofficial Wednesday times from Barcelona:
1. Jenson Button, Brawn BGP 001, 1:19.127
2. Felipe Massa, Ferrari F60, 1:20.168
3. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber F1.09, 1:20.217
4. Timo Glock, Toyota TF109, 1:20.410
5. Fernando Alonso, Renault R29, 1:20.863
6. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull RB5, 1:21.165
7. Nico Rosberg, Williams FW31, 1:21.324
8. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India VJM02, 1:21.545
9. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso STR4, 1:21.569
10. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren MP4-24, 1:21.657

Don't know what to say about mclaren or BGP. I guess I expected something kind of the opposite.

 

[livemusic]

Hamilton crashed again. Damn wind!

 

[GT4 genius]

Hamilton crashed again. Damn wind!

Well you hardly think Hamilton crashed all on his own?

 

[mu22stang]

Maybe Simon and Steve sabotaged the MP4/24...

 

[Ardius]

Maybe Simon and Steve sabotaged the MP4/24...

I think someone else.....

Seems Schumi is relegated to spying duties nowadays.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I think someone else.....

Seems Schumi is relegated to spying duties nowadays.

Or Gloating Detail; "It's not our car that landed in the tyrewall ..."

 

[Ardius]

I suppose they had it coming after laughing at the Ferrari mechanics in Singapore.

 

[Alex.]

Seems Schumi is relegated to spying duties nowadays.

or In poster form

well, I laughed anyway

 

[Famine]

I've heard something interesting about the Brawn GP car...

Like it's the finished race package and isn't running anything different to how it's going to turn up at Melbourne in a couple of weeks...


This information has come from someone who, until about 10 minutes ago, I didn't know works, shall we say, "in that field".

 

[Only_in_f1]

But they still only have the one car?

I heard no spare for Aus so they need to keep it on the balck stuff