F1 Charging Forward into a Bold New Era

And so finally the joy of winning and the crystal sweet taste of success returns to British shores as not just a British driver, but a whole British team win the 2009 F1 Grand Prix season, and they still have a whole race left to go. Not without its faults, hick ups and dramas the world of F1 as we know it draws to a close at the season finale in Abu Dhabi in two weeks time.

The whole world of driving has been thrown around a bit of a roller coaster this year, and we have to wonder if the changes that approach with the 2010 season will evenly spread the field out or are going to make teams more desperate to chance the disgrace of being caught cheating. Never before did we think that a team would actually go to the extent of putting a driver at risk by insisting that he crash and forfeit his place to allow his colleague to climb up the ranks through securing an win, but the more I think about it the more logical it seems. I mean these guys are the highest driving professionals in the world and its stands to reason that they know how to crash a car safely. Granted it could all have gone very wrong, but on the Singapore circuit with the walls crowding the car in on the track, it would seem logical that it was the safest place to try such a crazy plan.

The whole season has seemed to be a whirl wind affair as so much has happened. It is not normal for so much to unfold during the action of the racing season, it is normally through sensational announcements that we discover what has been taking place behind the scenes of F1 as Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosely tightly ruled F1 with an iron glove between them. Now with the advent of new leadership, in my opinion the infamous Ari Vatanen is the only real hope for a free and fair FIA body, as Jean Todt is currently too close to F1, we are waiting to see how the new 2010 season will unfold before us. So it is till the 23 October that we will have to patiently wait to see who will take the helm.

But back to the team that has brought credit back to the British racing tradition that we were once proud to dominate. Brawn in name and in person has worked damn hard to get to where he is and through his technical brilliance and steadfast management he has produced a team that I believe will be a feature and a prominent one at that for many years to come in F1. With no official word as to what their 2010 season will hold, it is hard to see any change in the drivers for a well formulated and very agreeable team going into 2010, unless Rubens believes he stands a better chance at a shot for the title with Williams as rumours would lead us to believe. I do feel for the Brazilian who has chased and chased all of his driving career for that ever elusive prize. Even he must feel a gutted and frustrated feeling in the depths of his stomach as once again he comes up just short of the golden glory of being a F1 champion. All I can hope for is that he pulls enough points out of the bag to make it a Brawn one two in the championship to finish a truly golden year for the debut team.

And so the moves and surprise announcements begin to pile up as we get into that time when we all keenly watch who’s going where in the 2010 season. With as many as eight new drives on the track for 2010, a lot more doors open and there are chances for a whole breed of new talent to make their way into the sport. On the eve of a Sena being introduced back into the sport, it will be interesting to see who eventually lands up were. With Cosworth set to make a return to the F1 track, and the pedigree of Manor GP entering the ring we can only wait to see what will happen as the whole new world begins to unfold in F1.

I am not 100% sure about the new rules. The idea of a fuel laden car thundering into turn one at some of the circuits makes me wonder exactly how wise a full tank of fuel is going to be from a safety point of view. The extra weight alone is going to mean that drivers will be thumping onto breaking systems that quite possibly will fail do to temperature or stress. While safety under carbon fibre has improved tenfold I am not sure that weight and fuel ratio will be the most sensible new rule that the FIA have come up with. I also believe that there is a tier within the driving world that means unless you are very lucky indeed, you enter the sport with a drive of lesser capability than the elite drivers, and this means without the equation of race tactics that we will be drawn back to the days when a driver of excellent class over shadowed the sport with his skill, keeping those with less ability, maybe through a poor car, or just the lack of experience sadly lacking the opportunity of uncanny team bosses using race tactics to their advantage to produce some surprise results.

With Virgin crossing over to Manor next season the scramble is on to sponsor the world champions, and one wonders if Sir Richard is now scratching his head as the wisest move he ever made was swopping seats. But this is the world of F1, and it will unroll to keep us all at the edge of our seat to see what does come of the new look F1. A season with new leadership, more cars than ever, more races than ever, and a British GP at erm…. yes well yet to be announced. Just out of interest, who is your money with for Constructors and Drivers for 2010. Leap of faith asking I know as there is so much we still don’t know, but I’m interested to know based on what we do know, who’s backing who!