Australian Grand Prix

Most of the time they are really designed to upset the apple cart and not let one team walk away with every single race. We saw this year bring smaller wings, lower revving engines, fewer aerodynamic accoutrements, and slick tires. All except the last one basically make the cars easier to pass without being buffeted by weird wakes coming off of the rear of the car that could only be described using three dimensional computational fluid dynamics.

That said, Bernie et. al. got all they were hoping for. Just a few weeks ago, Honda was trying to salvage some value off the team they had tried to build up from the ashes of the old BAR team with brief flashes of mediocrity. Everyone knew that Ross Brawn was one of the sharper knives in the drawer in the circus, but no one expected that the team that was teetering on bankruptcy moments ago would be not only quick out of the box, but dominate the race to finish 1-2 for the first time that a team has debuted 1-2 since a small company named Mercedes Benz did it in 1954. Even Ross’s mum wasn’t expecting this.

The cynic in me is reminded of watching Williams Renault in the mid 90’s when a trained monkey could drive the fastest car in the grid to a world championship. Neither Jenson Button nor Rubens Barichello ever showed any talent in a second or third rate car, but when they have the best equipment, they both looked like they knew what they were doing. Who didn’t look like they knew what they were doing was pretty much everyone else on the gird. Jarno Trulli was on the last step of the podium after starting on the pit lane. And he’s still in a Toyota.

Where were the Ferraris? The McLaren-Mercedes? The Renaults? Basically, in the also ran category. Lewis Hamilton played politics and was promoted to third after Trulli was hit with a 25 second penalty for passing behind the safety car. Blatant meddling with the results to make Hamilton look like he could defend the title? Something like that would never happen…

With the global economy in the toilet, this was not the start of the season that these huge organizations that burn cash faster than the US Treasury is doing trying to unwind AIG. The difference is that the sponsors have more control of their funding rates than the average tax payer does. I’m expecting to hear race principals uttering the phrase “thou doth protest to much” at several points this season to CEOs of companies that are emblazoned on the sides of an even smaller wing.

The remaining points went to Glock in the Toyota, Alonso in the Renault, Rosberg in the Williams, and both Toro Rossos. Lesson of the week? Spend less money and you have a better chance of doing well.

The major scuttlebutt of the weekend was the rear diffusers that showed up on the back of the Brawn, Williams and Toyotas. All of the bitching and moaning (and yes, Flabio was part of the ruckus, some things in F1 will remain constant) was put aside for this race, but probably will come up in later issues. Usually those that complain in racing are those that didn’t find the loop hole in the rules first.

Brawn was clever at Bennetton and Ferrari; you just knew that there would be something up his sleeve this year. The question is how much was Honda holding him back when others were calling the shots. One could only imagine how quickly models were created to run in the computer after the first pictures of the weekend were available at all of the rival teams. After all, they were supposed to limit the amount of time in the wind tunnels. All advantages are eventually copied. If this was a game changer, the major question is how long will the advantage remain.

It is way too soon to draw any conclusions other than Brawn has caught the others asleep at the wheel. Ferrari ran off most of the foreigners after Stepney-gate, so they have to dig deep in the local talent pool to get their game back. Expect the team to fight as hard as they can with the stewards to gain any advantage back. The real question that I have is if Brawn keeps this up, and a certain Herr Schumacher’s contract is up at the end of this season as a technical advisor, can we see the pairing that won so many championships in the two decades make a comeback? It’s going to get interesting.

Race Results

1	BUTTON	Brawn-Mercedes	1h34m15.784s
2	BARRICHELLO	Brawn-Mercedes	+ 0.8s
3	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 2.9s
4	GLOCK	Toyota	+ 4.4s
5	ALONSO	Renault	+ 4.8s
6	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	+ 5.7s
7	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	+ 6.0s
8	BOURDAIS	STR-Ferrari	+ 6.2s
9	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	+ 6.3s
10	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber	+ 7.0s
11	FISICHELLA	Force India-Mercedes	+ 7.3s
12	TRULLI	Toyota	+ 26.6s
13	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	+ 1 lap
14	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	+ 2 laps, accident
15	KUBICA	BMW Sauber	+ 3 laps, accident
16	RÄIKKÖNEN	Ferrari	+ 3 laps, differential
17	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 13 laps, suspension
18	PIQUET	Renault	+ 34 laps, spin
19	NAKAJIMA	Williams-Toyota	+ 41 laps, accident damage
20	KOVALAINEN	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 58 laps, accident damage
Fastest Lap	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	1m27.706s

NOTE: Trulli was originally classified third, but had 25s added to his race time for passing under the safety car.

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	BUTTON	Brawn-Mercedes	10 Points
2	BARRICHELLO	Brawn-Mercedes	8 Points
3	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	6 Points
4	GLOCK	Toyota	5 Points
5	ALONSO	Renault	4 Points
6	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	3 Points
7	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	2 Points
8	BOURDAIS	STR-Ferrari	1 Point

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	BRAWN-MERCEDES	18 Points
2	MCLAREN-MERCEDES	6 Points
3	TOYOTA	5 Points
4	RENAULT	4 Points
5	WILLIAMS- TOYOTA	3 Points
6	STR-FERRARI	3 Points