The Chinese Grand Prix
by Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media
I can remember in the late 90s when Ferrari wasn’t on the top of their game and the faithful tifosi would pray that it would rain so a certain Herr Schumacher could drive an underperforming car to victory.
The also-rans this year (Ferrari and McLaren) were both hoping that the rain would help their struggling performances, but the new pecking order has been revealed and it is the newer teams that don’t seem to have the organizational legacy issues clouding their judgments that are making the biggest impressions in 2009.
Red Bull has finally scored their first victory with Sebastian Vettel putting in a tremendous drive to win the race in soaking wet Nomex. The young German had been picked up by those following the sport in the father land a while ago as the potential successor to Herr Schumacher, and with a dominant win, people are starting to believe that the youngster may be the real thing. The cynics out there will try and say something about a lesser car winning in the rain, but the fact that his team mate ended up on the second spot of the podium proves that the RBR chassis is good, at least in the rain. Flavio immediately called for an inquiry to see if the team had installed windshield wipers or a defroster to gain an unfair advantage. The start behind the safety car didn’t help any of the teams that had opted for a lighter fuel load.
Proving that they were not just a two hit wonder, the Brawn cars finished 3-4, extending their lead in the championship since full points were awarded in the wet conditions this weekend. Button finished ahead of his Brazilian team mate and the strong performance has caused some drivers (cough cough Kimi cough cough) to question whether they should try and improve the ’09 car or just give up and start developing the ’10 car. Regardless of what happens with Scuderia Ferrari this year, one has to think that the removal of most of the foreigners after Stepney-gate has worsened their performance. The question becomes will we see the revolving door as engineers and team principals get the blame for the team’s performance?
Kovalainen actually managed to finish his first race of the season and more importantly out shown the reigning driver’s champion. If you start to follow the snippets coming out of Woking, you could be accused of being hooked on soap operas. After the
“he passed me/no I lied story,” it seems that all is not well in the team and the mechanics feel that the wrong person was punished. Lewis Hamilton still seems to be the favored driver of Ron Dennis, but with Dennis now focused on McLaren’s road car project and Mercedes very happy with their support of the Brawn team, could Lewis be following the career tracks of Jacques Villeneuve?
After the McLarens came the Toyota of Timo Glock, trying to prove that Toyota hadn’t fallen off the cart, and the junior Red Bull of Buemi. Alonso could do nothing with his front row start and ended up in ninth.
Fans that are familiar with the Shanghai circuit may have noticed the absence of some of the stands that had been there in years past. Could it also be that the novelty of the sport is wearing off and there isn’t a sustainable level within the mainland of fans?
Ferrari is now off to their worst start since the early 80s, expect the fair weather fans to start heading for the exits soon. The faithful that were there from the mid 80s to the mid 90s are praying for sunshine in the desert since Ferrari was the fastest in Bahrain in the preseason. The fans will not have to wait long, racing continues this weekend.
Race Results
| 1 | VETTEL | RBR-Renault | 1h57m43.485s |
| 2 | WEBBER | RBR-Renault | + 10.9s |
| 3 | BUTTON | Brawn-Mercedes | + 44.9s |
| 4 | BARRICHELLO |
Brawn-Mercedes | + 63.7s |
| 5 | KOVALAINEN | McLaren-Mercedes | + 65.1s |
| 6 | HAMILTON | McLaren-Mercedes | + 71.8s |
| 7 | GLOCK | Toyota | + 74.4s |
| 8 | BUEMI | STR-Ferrari | + 76.4s |
| 9 | ALONSO | Renault | + 84.3s |
| 10 | RÄIKKÖNEN | Ferrari | + 91.7S |
| 11 | BOURDAIS | STR-Ferrari | + 94.1s |
| 12 | HEIDFELD | BMW Sauber | + 95.8s |
| 13 | KUBICA | BMW Sauber | + 106.8s |
| 14 | FISICHELLA | Force India-Mercedes | + 1 lap |
| 15 | ROSBERG | Willliams-Toyota | + 1 lap |
| 16 | PIQUET | Renault | + 2 laps |
| 17 | SUTIL | Force India-Mercedes | + 6 laps, accident |
| 18 | NAKAJIMA | Williams-Toyota | + 13 laps, transmission |
| 19 | MASSA | Ferrari | + 36 laps, electrical |
| 20 | TRULLI | Toyota | + 38 laps, accident damage |
| Fastest Lap | BARRICHELLO | Brawn-Mercedes | 1m52.592s |
Driver’s Championship Standings
| 1 | BUTTON | Brawn-Mercedes | 21 Points |
| 2 | BARRICHELLO | Brawn-Mercedes | 15 Points |
| 3 | VETTEL | RBR-Renault | 10 Points |
| 4 | GLOCK | Toyota | 10 Points |
| 5 | WEBBER | RBR-Renault | 9.5 Points |
| 6 | TRULLI | Toyota | 8.5 Points |
| 7 | HEIDFELD | BMW Sauber | 4 Points |
| 8 | ALONSO | Renault | 4 Points |
| 9 | KOVALAINEN | McLaren-Mercedes | 4 Points |
| 10 | HAMILTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 4 Points |
| 11 | ROSBERG | Williams-Toyota | 3.5 Points |
| 12 | BUEMI | STR-Ferrari | 3 Points |
| 13 | BOURDAIS | STR-Ferrari | 1 Point |
Constructor’s Championship Standings
| 1 | BRAWN-MERCEDES | 36 Points |
| 2 | RBR-RENAULT | 19.5 Points |
| 3 | TOYOTA | 18.5 Points |
| 4 | McLAREN-MERCEDES | 8 Points |
| 5 | BMW SAUBER | 4 Points |
| 6 | RENAULT | 4 Points |
| 7 | STR-FERRARI | 4 Points |
| 8 | WILLIAMS-TOYOTA | 3.5 Points |