F1 Abu Dhabi

Thank you Mark Webber and Jenson Button for giving us a thrilling end to the season. The last couple of laps were just brilliant. I bet Bernie Ecclestone wishes he could arrange every race to end like that!

The Webber-Button duel made the race worth watching. It always seemed like potential fights would develop but they would peter out one reason or another. Vettel looked like he might have to fight Hamilton for the lead, but then Hamilton retired with a brake problem which handed Vettel the lead. On the other hand, if Hamilton had had a trouble free race, he might well have been untouchable anyway; his qualifying performance was awesome!

I don't have an opinion of the new Abu Dhabi circuit yet but the drivers seem to like it, which is the only opinion that really matters. The pit lane exit tunnel is interesting but a bridge would have been better, as spectators would be able to see the cars from the grandstands. And the poor marshals stuck in the tunnel would have seen more racing!

Well, it was an amazing season but I'm already wondering about next year. Several teams seemed poised to start next season well, which means we may have much closer racing that ever before. We can only hope! I haven't been this fired up over Formula 1 in maybe 10 years. The 2009 season was a real game changer for a sport which had become a little too predictable.

F1 Brazil

The Brazilian Grand Prix lived up to its reputation for deciding championships once again as Button and Brawn GP clinched their respective titles. Button turned an awful grid position into a truly world championship drive with some of the best passing manoeuvres of this season. Brawn GP topped off a fairy tale season as the constructor's champions.

An incessant downpour made a mess of qualifying but Barrichello somehow managed to get poll position at his home race. He was in a perfect position to continue the championship fight with Button only in fourteenth. However in the race, Barrichello chances were dashed by bad luck, by poor strategy, and ultimately by Button's better performance. Button gained nine place over the course of the race while Barrichello lost seven. That says it all really.

Webber showed us his talent once again by qualifying second place on the grid under the atrocious conditions, and then by driving a perfect race for his second career win. Here's hoping we hear more of the Australian anthem in 2010.

I'm talking like the season is over when of course there is still one more race. After such an exciting season, it feels strange now that everything has been decided. Hopefully, Abu Dhabi won't be too anticlimactic.

F1 Japan

It is great that F1 has returned to Suzuka, a track that is a serious test of driver skill. With the Friday practise sessions washed out, Saturday qualifying was an even greater challenge as drivers were still struggling to find the right set up. Webber crashed in Saturday practice and couldn't even take part in qualifying which was a total mess, with two red flags in session two and a double waved yellow in session three. The latter had a knock on effect as the drivers who did not slow down where penalized and given grid place penalties on Sunday.

Vettel completely dominated the weekend with a poll and then by leading the entire race for the win, which suddenly puts him back in contention for the driver's championship. However, it may not be a serious threat. The Redbull isn't been very consistent and Vettel has used up all of his eight engines, which could become a factor in the remaining races. But, like everything else this season, you just never know...

Button managed to score one point which was great considering how poorly he started. Barrichello was not happy with his setup and was actually threatened by Button after the safety car bunched everyone together. I assume Barrichello's troubles started on Friday with the wet practice sessions.

Button and Barrichello have consistently finished together in the points scoring positions in the last few races, which suggests that Brawn GP is giving equal equipment to both their drivers. Unfortunately, that works against Barrichallo since he needs a significant advantage to out score Button by seven points per race. I think DNFs are the only way Button can lose the championship now.

F1 Singapore

Street circuits are all about the location but it is difficult to build an exciting race track on city streets. Singapore at night is certainly a spectacular location, but the race itself was one of the most boring I've seen all season.

Hamilton and McLaren were untouchable. They qualified on poll, had a perfect strategy, and ran a faultless race for the win. Meanwhile, everyone else floundered. The Redbulls looked threatening in qualifying but then couldn't make the same impression in the race for various reasons. Rosberg also looked like he might challenge Hamilton at one point but a drive through penalty sent him to the back of the field. The Brawn GP team did not qualify well, but got lucky in the race and scored some points as other teams had their problems.

Button put in a few great laps to pass Barrichello in the pits. This means Button actually increased his championship lead, which will boost his confidence nicely. I'm still hoping Barrichello wins the championship as it would be a perfect fairy tale ending for this amazing season. But, unless Button has problems, Barrichello's chance slipped further way after this race.

Renault Sanctioned

In a season of highs and lows for F1, thankfully the latest scandal was resolved quickly. I'm still dumbstruck that someone could actually instruct a driver to crash on purpose, and that any driver would agree to that level of insanity. That is just way beyond being told to let your team mate pass.

Given that Renault is contemplating leaving F1 anyway, suspending Renault's disqualification until the end of the 2011 season, is not that harsh given the severity of what occurred. I suspect that this guarantees that Renault will leave F1 at end of the 2009 season. There just isn't any compelling reason for them to stay any more.

And you know what? If Nelson Piguet Jr hadn't been fired, none of this might ever have come to light. Which makes me wonder, has anything this severe ever happened before? We may never know. Until now, I never thought anyone in F1 could stoop this low.

F1 Italy

It was a good race but it was won on strategy, so there was not much on track action. Both Barrichello and Button delivered on their end by driving faultlessly. Hamilton made an error which cost him third place. I get that he is a racer but did he really think that he had a chance to catch and pass Button? Force India qualified second which once again showed how good their car is, but again ended up stuck behind a Ferrari to much of the race, much like what happened at Spa.

Redbull had a terrible weekend which has all but killed Vettel's and Webber's championship aspirations. Redbull still have a mathematical chance of winning the constructor's title but only if Brawn GP scores no points, which is not very likely. Ross Brawn is feeling confident enough that he is willing to let Button and Barrichello have a straight fight for the driver's championship.

The bad news for Barrichello is that Button seems to be back on form. Barrichello has a mathematical chance to win the championship, but that requires Button to have problems in the final races. Barrichello is going to need some luck to pull this off.

F1 Belgium

Ah, Spa! Eau Rouge! What a circuit! Has this place ever had a boring race? OK, possibly back in the Michael Schumacher dominated days, but this season is nothing like that. This season continues to be full of surprises.

I would never have imagined a Force India on poll but Fisichella managed it while most of the front running teams were floundering. Even fuel adjusted, he was still fourth so the car was genuinely fast. Fisichella has a real chance for a win but for the safety car after the first lap carnage which is so common at Spa. This enabled Räikkönen to get close enough after the restart to "kers" past Fisichella. So instead of extending a lead over Räikkönen, Fisichella was using his faster car to catch up. Still, it is good news that a low budget team can be competitive, something that was impossible in the past.

If's, but's, and maybe's don't really count in motor racing. If Button had qualified better, maybe he would avoided the first lap carnage, but who knows, right? Luckily for him, Barrichello only scored two points. Button needs to get the finger out otherwise he will lose the championship as his rivals nibble away at his lead. Button needs to prove he can be the world champion, and he needs to start doing it now.

Talk about luck! Barrichello just barely managed to avoid the first lap incident himself after his failed started put him at the back of the pack. And then, with two laps remaining, his engine started smoking! Talk about a nail biter! He was so much more circumspect about the problems in the post race interview than he was a few races ago.

Anyone want to bet on the next race? Yeah, I didn't think so.

F1 Europe

Finally watched the European GP. Barrichello deserved that victory. He drove a faultless race and the team made absolutely no mistakes. Did Hamilton lose the lead because of McLaren's pit stop error or was it a lack of race pace? I think it was the latter. Barrichello definitely had the faster car but he chose to use it only when the McLaren's pitted. Both times he managed some stunning laps which allowed him to use the classic "pass 'em in the pits" strategy. Perhaps as result of that, the race was not very exciting. The saving grace was that nobody had the ability to dominate the race, which would be even more boring.

Button isn't driving like a world champion otherwise he would have tried harder to recover from the miserable start. Compared to the beginning of the season, he does not look like the same driver. I still have a suspicion that something has changed at the team, like maybe Barrichello isn't sharing as much information about car setup as before. I just can't accept that he has lost that much pace compared to Barrichello for no reason whatsoever.

There is no doubt that McLaren are back in game, as are Ferrari. It was to be expected of course given the huge budget's these teams have, but it took McLaren much longer than I anticipated. Thankfully, Brawn GP have also improved but is it enough? Their lead in the constructor's standing isn't all that comfortable. Now it is Redbull's turn to struggle. They didn't score any points for only the second time this season. More troubling is that Vettel has only two unused engines for the remainder of the season and there is a stiff ten place grid penalty if they use a ninth engine.

F1 Hungary

Massa's crash in the second qualifying session was bizarre. A piece from the rear suspension of Barrichello's car broke loose and hit Massa in the head. The strange part is they were not very close to each other at the time! It is just incredible that the debris could tumbled down the track for such a long way and then actually hit Massa on the head, almost the smallest target possible. Thankfully, with Massa likely already unconscious, the car crashed straight into a tire wall and not something more solid, which could have had a far more tragic result.

The timing system went down near the end of Q3 so it was all confusion in parc ferme as the driver's had to compare lap times to figure out their positions. I was surprised that Alonso got pole position but the fuel loads revealed that it was due to an aggressive low fuel strategy. The other surprise was that Brawn GP was seriously off the pace at a track that was supposed to favour their cars. This is not a good sign.

The race was not really that exciting. Maclaren emphatically showed how much they have improved with Hamilton dominating the race from start to end to get his first podium finish of the season. Ferrari's improvements allowed Räikkönen to net a second place finish. Webber finished third and Button managed seventh place, so Redbull crept a little closer in the championship, but not by much.

Although Brawn GP and Redbull are the only real championship contenders, with many more teams squabbling for points, the opportunities for scoring maximum points is now greatly diminished. Neither Redbull nor Brawn GP can afford any missteps now, as evidenced by Brawn GP's sudden reversal of the how the car treats the tires. Luckily for them, Redbull didn't do much better in this race, but it could easily have been much different. Both teams will be under much more pressure now to squeeze as many points from every race.

F1 Germany

A damp track made qualifying very interesting with lots of surprises. The second session was kind of funny. Everyone went out on slicks in a long procession, skated around the slippery track once, and then promptly went back in to get intermediates.

Mark Webber didn't look that great in Q1 and Q2 but he was unbeatable in Q3 when it counted. Barrichello managed to out qualifying Jenson for the second race in a row. It seems Jenson only does well when the car is going perfectly, which isn't the mark of a champion in my opinion. For only the second time this season, Vettel qualified out the top three, in fourth position. I expected him to do better at his home race on a track he knows very well. MacLaren made a huge step forward for this race and their efforts got fifth and sixth on the grid. The biggest surprise was Sutil and Force India who made it into Q3 for the first time, and even out qualified both Ferrari's! How sweet is that?

The race was equally exciting with good action everywhere down the field. Webber scored his first win but it certainly was not easy. Before the first corner he had contact with both Barrichello and Hamilton, who had used his magical KERS button to storm to the front. Barrichello took the lead in first corner but Webber would be running longer so it really wasn't so bad. But then Webber received an undeserved drive through penalty for the contact with Barrichello. The penalty should have ended Webber's chance for a win, but the team saved it by having him serve the penalty when Barrichello pitted. After that, Webber drove like a demon to make up the lost time, and earned a well deserved first win.

It was bizarre watching Button weaving down the straights to keep the tire temperatures up. I can understand Barichello's frustration, but with the Brawn GP Achilles heel in full effect, blaming the race strategy doesn't make any sense. Brawn GP have lost a lot of ground and I still have doubts they have the budget to keep up with the rest of field.

I wonder if Hamilton regrets using so much KERS power at the start. He was barely able to slow it down for turn one but his sudden appearance must have surprised Webber quite a lot. The resulting contact with Webber gave Hamilton a puncture which ended any chance for a good result and all that work from the team went down the drain.

Sutil is on the other end the heart break scale. He was having a great race with an excellent chance to score some points when Räikkönen basically drove over Sutil's front wing. Sutil was on the racing line after exiting the pits and really had no where to go. Will Räikkönen apologize like he did after Monaco 2008? Well, it looks like that won't necessary.

So an exciting F1 season continues. Unfortunately, so does the politics. Will this nonsense never end?

F1 Great Britain

Redbull have really turned it up notch. Vettel got his second poll in a row and Webber came really close to making it an all Redbull front row. Brawn GP were definitely off the pace but the real surprise was that Barrichello out qualified Button for the first time this season. I have a suspicion that Barrichello may not have shared all of his practise data with Button this time. I have no evidence to support my theory; it is just a hunch.

In the race, Vettel kept it on the track for the first lap this time and pretty much cruised to the victory, with Weber passing Barrichello in the pits to make it a Redbull one-two finish. Thankfully, there was plenty of good racing in the rest of the field. Who could have imagined Hamilton and Alonso fighting over fifteenth place, but it was fun to watch them throwing their poorly handling cars around the track. Unfortunately this is the only proof that McLaren were actually at the race. Ferrari showed better performance in the race than in qualifying but were completely unable to explain why. Williams is also improving. The rest of the season is going to be interesting.

Finally, Silverstone is an historic F1 circuit. The fact that the F1 management are willing drop it from the calender is, I think, indicative of what has gone wrong with the sport. The modern circuits might be better in some technical ways but they feel sterile compare to places like Silverstone.

F1 Turkey

When Vettel grabbed poll position, I was really looking forward to a good race between the Brawns and Redbulls. Unfortunately, Vettel threw it away before the first lap was over and Barrichello's bad luck continued with a horrible start and the first retirement for Brawn GP this season. This race proved that passing remains a problem in F1 when Vettel closed up on Button but then could do nothing more.

The problem with the season so far is that nobody else has consistent pace which is practically handing both championships to the Button/Brawn GP combination. Even if the other teams somehow get their act together, Brawn GP would have to not score any points to loose their lead in the constructors championship. But more importantly, the season is at risk of becoming totally boring if the other teams don't get it together soon.

F1 Monaco

Qualifying was so very close once again. Kimi Räikkönen almost had pole position but once again Button managed another heroic last lap to grab the pole. Ferrrari has improved significantly and their drivers are also starting to deliver. I predict that a Ferrari will be on poll very soon. Barrichello needs to up his game if he wants ensure the equal treatment continues. This was the second time that Button apparently struggled in the early practice sessions but still out qualified Barrichello.

The race was a little boring. Most of the field was spread out after the first round of pit stops. Brawn completely dominated the race. Bernie Ecclestone made a somewhat cheeky remark that the racing has become predictable again. As much as I respect what Brawn has accomplished, I sincerely hope someone will be able to challenge them soon. Ferrari's race pace was good but their strategy wasn't flexible enough to capitalize on having the better tire early in race. However, third and fourth is very respectable considering how badly their season started.

It is easy to see why Ferrari are so opposed to a budget cap. I'm sure that they spent ridiculous amounts this year already in order to move up almost 15 places on the starting grid. Under a budget cap, if you've blown it on a poor design, you would never be able to recover during the season as Ferrari are doing now.

Anyhow, it looks like the budget kerfuffle will be over before the May 29 deadline for the 2010 registration. A breakaway series would have harked back to the pre-WWII days when there was only a constructors’ championship but what chance would it have under current economic conditions?

F1 Spain

All the teams brought upgrades to Spain. Ferrari improved the most but threw away any technical benefits with bad strategy and poor race craft. McLaren, on the other hand, appear to be going backwards. I can't recall Hamilton ever being so blunt about how bad the car was.

I feel bad for Barrichello. He looked like he had a good chance of winning this race but something just wasn't working for him after the second pit stop. But that's motor racing. The media made too much of his statements afterwards as it is way too early for the team to be favouring one driver. Barrichello will be pushing himself much harder over the next few races to prove that he deserves the equal treatment. That should be fun to watch!

Webber made the bravest move of the race when he passed Alonso after the safety car restart. Webber is another driver with something to prove since Vettel has out shone him so far this season. That's probably indicative of this season, as there are so many drivers who are hungry for success and who finally have cars that will let them achieve something. It makes for some great racing.

F1 Bahrain

The first dry, incident free race of the season gave us a chance to judge true comparative pace of the the front runners. Brawn GP is obviously still the leader but Red Bull and Toyota put on a good show to give us three different teams on the podium. It is the unpredictability that is making this season so enjoyable.

McLaren is definitely improving and might be back on the podium soon. Ferrari finally scored some points. I'll bet there must be some relief to get that monkey off their back. There was some good wheel banging action several times during the race, and yet not a single incident which took any cars out the race. The reliability was also quite astonishing, with only one retirement given the extreme heat.

F1 China

Shanghai was not the most exciting race, but the best part was Brawn GP didn't have it all their way. If Redbull really have the pace and this race was not just a flash in the pan, this season could be very interesting indeed. It's really great to have new faces and teams on the podium. Alonso on the front row was a surprise but everything hinged on race strategy, which was destroyed by the rain.

Both Redbull drivers had much more confidence in the wet than the Brawn drivers. I was surprised at how easily both Rebulls passed the Brawn cars under these conditions. On the other hand, this race provided excellent data for the Brawn team who had no wet track testing at all, so I don't think Brawn are going to be as disadvantaged next time.

And so much for the kerfuffle over Brawn's rear diffuser which did not provide any advantage in this race. What is really funny is that Ross Brawn apparently warned everyone about the potential loop holes in a meeting many months ago, but his concerns were shot down by the other teams. It goes to show that once the lawyers get involved, things spin out of control faster than slick tires on a wet track.

F1 Malaysia

Qualifying was amazingly close again and it won't be long before there is a different driver in poll position. The race was very exciting until the rain came down. There was always a half joke that a wet track spiced up the races and made them more unpredictable. I suspect that will no longer be the case under the new regulations. The racing was very close in the dry and there was a lot of passing going on. There were even some ding dong battles as drivers traded places several times over the coarse of a lap, something that had become quite rare in recent memory. I'm still not convinced that Kers is worth the extra weight.

It is quite shocking how badly the the big teams are stumbling. Ferrari seem to be all at sea. The car is not competitive and even their race strategy seems dubious. And how does Mclaren get itself into these messes? I just stunned that one of their most experienced team members could do something as stupid as lying to race officials. It would be completely unbelievable if the proof wasn't so damning.

F1 Australia

The 2009 Formula 1 season started this weekend. I am hoping to watch the race on Monday evening rather than wait until the following weekend like I did last year.

With all the sweeping changes to the regulations this year, it would have been anti-climatic if the same old teams still held the top positions. In qualifying the rule changes have definitely had an impact. The grid was almost turned upside down compare to 2008 and with less than .5 seconds separating the top 10 positions, it was the closest qualifying I've ever seen.

Unfortunately, the race itself was not as exciting. The aerodynamic rules are suppose to enable more passing but I didn't see much improvement in that area. F1 has always had the problem that so few teams are able to get the package right. In order to have close racing and more passing, there have to be more cars in same performance range, otherwise they become spread out around the track and are not really racing each other. The new rules have not changed this problem as far as I can tell. The only real surprise was the names of the teams who got it so badly wrong.

But it was only the first race so it will be interesting to watch the bigger teams improve over the season. Most of the big teams performed so abysmally in Australia that any improvements will be quite obvious.