Lewis Hamilton

The Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton has been fined for his car stunts in front of Australian fans outside of the Melbourne race circuit.

Just two days before the Australian Grand Prix in March, Hamilton performed a series of burnouts and other moves to impress his fan base ahead of the race, in a borrowed Mercedes until he was spotted by local police.

Although not present at the hearing, the F1 driver pleaded guilty to the charge of improper use of a motor vehicle and was fined 500 Australian dollars.

Jenson Button 2010

The McLaren driver Jenson Button took the victory at the Australian Grand Prix at the weekend while his team-mate was heard angrily calling his team on the public radio over his second pit-stop decision.  Button took a massive risk coming in for slick tyres after just seven laps on a drying track but the move paid off and he proved his point by taking the chequered flag.

The weekend was a disaster for Hamilton after having his road car impounded outside of the circuit on Friday.  The McLaren driver apologised for the “silly  mistake” he made after he was pulled over by the police and charged for driving in an “over-exuberant manner”.

The Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel, was forced to retire from the lead of the race after suffering a mechanical problem with the left front wheel.  The German driver reported a problem with his brakes on lap 26 of the race before sliding off track and into the gravel trap.

As the yellow flags were waved after Vettel’s car went off circuit, a battle was beginning between Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes, Hamilton and Mark Webber in the second Red Bull.  Hamilton made a move on Rosberg, taking the Mercedes driver around the outside of turn 12 and was then chasing down the Renault of Robert Kubica.  Kubica held his ground leaving Hamilton to return to the pits for another set of tyres and the loss of a place on the podium.

Mark Webber ploughed into the back of the McLaren just as Hamilton was lining-up Alonso for a pass, taking the both into the gravel and allowing the Ferrari driver to make his break.

Kubica finished in second place ahead of the two Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso.  The Mercedes of Rosberg came in fifth followed by Hamilton, Vittonio Liuzzi in seventh and Rubens Barrichello in eighth.  Mark Webber managed to recover and took ninth place ahead of Michael Schumacher in tenth place.

The Formula 1 teams and drivers now head to Sepang for this weekends Malaysian Grand Prix, however, the weather reports have not been great so far leading to the a repeat of last years race which was abandoned.

POS	DRIVER	NATIONALITY	ENTRANT	LAPS	TIME/RETIRE
1.	Jenson Button	Britain	McLaren-Mercedes	58	1h33m36.531
2.	Robert Kubica	Poland	Renault	58	12.034
3.	Felipe Massa	Brazil	Ferrari	58	14.488
4.	Fernando Alonso	Spain	Ferrari	58	16.304
5.	Nico Rosberg	Germany	Mercedes GP	58	16.683
6.	Lewis Hamilton	Britain	McLaren-Mercedes	58	29.898
7.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italy	Force India-Mercedes	58	59.847
8.	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	Williams-Cosworth	58	1m00.536
9.	Mark Webber	Australia	Red Bull-Renault	58	1m07.319
10.	Michael Schumacher	Germany	Mercedes GP	58	1m09.391
11.	Jaime Alguersuari	Spain	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	58	1m11.301
12.	Pedro de la Rosa	Spain	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	58	1m14.084
13.	Heikki Kovalainen	Finland	Lotus-Cosworth	56	2 Laps
14.	Karun Chandhok	India	HRT-Cosworth	53	5 Laps
R	Timo Glock	Germany	Virgin-Cosworth	41	Suspension
R	Lucas di Grassi	Brazil	Virgin-Cosworth	26	Hydraulics
R	Sebastian Vettel	Germany	Red Bull-Renault	25	Brakes/Spin
R	Adrian Sutil	Germany	Force India-Mercedes	9	Engine
R	Vitaly Petrov	Russia	Renault	9	Spin
R	Bruno Senna	Brazil	HRT-Cosworth	4	Hydraulics
R	Sebastien Buemi	Switzerland	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	0	Accident
R	Nico Hulkenberg	Germany	Williams-Cosworth	0	Accident
R	Kamui Kobayashi	Japan	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	0	Accident
R	Jarno Trulli	Italy	Lotus-Cosworth	0	Hydraulics
FASTEST LAP:
	Mark Webber	Australia	Red Bull-Renault	47	1:28.358

Despite the protests from Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso that the race was not boring and that the rule changes need to be given time to see the difference they make to the sport, remains to be seen, if not perhaps the viewers will take the Spaniards advice and chose a different sport to watch on their television’s in the future!

Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton give their views on this weekends second race of the season in Melbourne, Australia in this exclusive interview.

The duo take time out from their busy training schedule to test drive a V8 Supercar, discuss how they can improve on their performance in Bahrain and their enjoyment of the Melbourne track.

Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso 2009

It has now been confirmed by the Toro Rosso team, that Sebastien Buemi will be given a second season with them after signing his contract for 2010.

Buemi out-qualified his team-mate Sebastien Bourdais in his first race in Formula One at the Australian Grand Prix of 2009, finishing the race in eighth place, which later became seventh after Lewis Hamilton was disqualified.

In the third race of the season at the Chinese Grand Prix, he again finished in eighth position despite starting the race from tenth on the grid.  Things were relatively quite for a period as the rookie driver struggled to handle the pace but all that changed again at the Brazilian Grand Prix where he achieved seventh.

At the final round of the 2009 season in Abu Dhabi, he again scored eighth position and was awarded a drive for the team in the 2010 season.

It is expected that the Swiss driver will be joined by Jaime Alguersuari, who joined the team midway through the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where after qualifying in last place due to a mechanical problem he ended the race one place ahead of Buemi.

Australia has now been chosen as the second round, allowing the race to begin at 5pm to fit in with the television broadcasters who favour racing in ‘twilight’ rather than the dark.  However, the Singapore round will still be under full floodlights when it takes place in late September.

Although as yet no contract has been signed, the Canadian Grand Prix has been pencilled in for the 13 June, if the contract fails again this year the Turkey Grand Prix will be held later to compensate.

South Korea is a new circuit on the calendar, set to take place in mid-October with the final round being held in Brazil as usual but it will be held in November.

Here is the calendar;

Australia          March 28
Malaysia           April 4
China              April 18
Spain              May 9
Monaco             May 23
Turkey             May 30
Canada*            June 13
Europe (Valencia)  June 27
Great Britain      July 11
Germany            July 25
Hungary            August 1
Belgium            August 29
Italy              September 12
Singapore          September 26
Japan              October 3
Korea              October 17
Abu Dhabi          October 31
Brazil             November 14

*Subject to the completion of contract negotiations with Formula One Management. If these are not completed then the Turkish Grand Prix will be moved to 6 June.

Note: The race in Australia will start at 1700 local time, in Malaysia at 1600 local time, in Singapore at 2000 local time, and in Abu Dhabi at 1700 local time.

FIA Statement

On Monday it was reported that after the Australian Grand Prix, the Toyota driver Jarno Trulli who finished the race in third place, had been stripped of his points for overtaking McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton while behind the safety car.

Trulli was handed a 25 second penalty for the breach of rules dropping down into twelfth place, however, since then new evidence has come to light and showing how dirty the McLaren Mercedes team can play.

The FIA has today published a statement of their findings;

Jenson Button - Brawn GP Team - Australia 2009

The first Formula One Grand Prix of the season got underway yesterday and what a fantastic result for the brand new Brawn GP team.

As Jenson Button got a great start from the off, Rubens Barrichello didn’t appear to have noticed that the race had started but soon had his sights set on the job ahead.

At the first turn Mark Webber in the Red Bull appeared to turn-in on Barrichello.  The BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld, the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen and Adrain Sutil in the Force India car were also collected in the clash.  Heidfeld came into the pits with a rear right puncture, Webber came in for a for a new front wing while Kovalainen’s car limped around the circuit before he retired from the race.

Britain’s Jenson Button led the 58-lap Melbourne GP from pole position  pulling away from the rest of the pack and continued to make progress until lap 19 when the safety car was deployed after Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima hit the wall on exiting turn 4.

The McLaren of Lewis Hamilton had now moved into 11th place after qualifying in 18th, he benefited from the incident at the first corner and also by being one of the first to pit and refuel, taking on new prime tyres.

Williams driver Nico Rosberg, looked to be in with a podium finish until a very slow pit stop after a problem with the the left front wheel and then the  FW31 developed a problem late on in the race seeing him fall back into seventh place.

On lap 25, Renault driver Nelson Piquet went off into the gravel after locking his brakes and spinning the car leading to his retirement, while his team-mate Fernando Alonso finally finished in sixth place.

Felipe Massa and fellow Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen had a relatively quiet day with neither driver finishing the race and no points for the team.  Massa retired his car on lap 47 after developing a mechanical problem and Raikkonen who had previously made contact with a retaining wall retired after his final pit stop while under the safety car.

Rookie driver Sebastien Buemi in the Toro Rosso finished in seventh place earning his team some valuable points on his first outing, while his team-mate Sebastien Bourdais finished in eighth.

Barrichello didn’t have it quite so easy and was behind Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull and Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber.  Kubica began to put pressure on Vettel as his tyres improved but on lap 55 with only 3 laps left to run, Kubica was alongside Vettel when the two made contact, spinning them both.  Vettel minus a front wing tried to continue but crashed out almost immediately while Kubica did the same a little later, once again deploying the safety car.

After the race it was declared that Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team would be penalised for the crash with  Kubica and he was handed a ten-grid penalty for the next round of the championship in Malaysia next week.  The team were also fined $50,000 after it emerged that members of the team had radioed Vettel and instructing him to continue driving on three-wheels rather than retire his car.

A disappointing day for the Toyota team after third placed man Jarno Trulli had his position put back to twelfth after stewards decided that he illegally overtook Hamilton under the safety car.  The team are appealing the decision after Trulli explained that he had no choice but to overtake as Hamilton had slowed down leaving him to think he had a problem.  Both Toyota drivers had started from the pit lane after being excluded from the afternoon qualifying session where Timo Glock had finished in sixth and Trulli in eighth.

In a post qualifying inspection it was discovered that the TF109 contravened the the FIA technical regulations with their new rear wing.  The wing was deemed to be too flexible and the team agreed to modify the part overnight.   Not a great result for the Toyota team but an added bonus for the McLaren team and Hamilton who is now placed in third place.

Here are the results;

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Button        Brawn GP              (B)  1h34:15.784
 2.  Barrichello   Brawn GP              (B)  +     0.807
 3.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +     1.604
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +     2.914
 5.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +     4.435
 6.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +     4.879
 7.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +     5.722
 8.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +     6.004
 9.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +     6.298
10.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +     6.335
11.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +     7.085
12.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +     7.374
13.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    2 laps
15.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +    3 laps
16.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +    3 laps

Fastest lap: Rosberg, 1:27.706

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Massa         Ferrari               (B)    46
Piquet        Renault               (B)    25
Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)    18
Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)    1

Formula One’s newest superpower Brawn GP, born from the ashes of former constructor Honda, managed to field both drivers at the front of the grid after qualifying, and the positions held fast at the end of the thrilling race as the team showed they are serious contenders for this season’s crown.

“This is a fairytale ending for the first race,” said Button. “Some people may say it’s a pity the race finished under the safety car but I don’t care, I won the race and that’s all I care about.”

The Englishman led throughout after some stylish driving, yet expects Brawn GP to demonstrate further speed over the course of the championship:

“It wasn’t the perfect race and there’s room for improvement, but we got the win and hopefully this is the first of many. I can’t wait for Malaysia now.”

The race was full of spins, collisions and pile-ups from the green lights and many now believe F1 is back after a few seasons of tepid contests.

In other revelations, we saw just how off the pace the McLaren Mercedes proved to be in qualifying. With world champion Lewis Hamilton securing a mere 15th place on the grid, later put back to 18th  for alterations.

These are exciting times for F1, as we wait to see if Jenson Button can fulfil the potential once evident in the young driver, and if the prodigy that is Lewis Hamilton can demonstrate real driving talent in a car with far less promise than last season.

McLaren 2009

With only a few days before the start of the F1 2009 season and the grievances over both the ‘wins over points’ fiasco and the cost of drivers licences seemingly resolved for this year at least, the most eagerly anticipated Formula one season for years gets under way in Melbourne this weekend.

As the other teams have enthused about the new 2009 cars during the short practise period afforded through the new ruling, McLaren appear to have lost ground on the competition and believe that they will start the season at a disadvantage to their rivals as they struggle to overcome handling problems with the new race car.

In an F1 update after testing in Jerez last week McLaren suggested that they had made up some of the ground already, closing in on the fastest time set by the Williams team and I would be surprised if Hamilton and team mate Kovalainen are not in contention come race day.

For various reasons it would be interesting to see just how far off the pace the McLaren really is when it comes down to racing and for me an under performing car would be the greatest test that the reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton has ever had in his short F1 career. He has never shown anything less than total commitment to racing at this level but on the other hand has enjoyed the benefits of  having driven what has probably been the best car on the track for two seasons.

Hamilton has previously shown controlled aggression, particularly at the start of races, but with no driver aids he will have to rely on his own skills and driver ability to pursue his dream of retaining the title.

An F1 preview of the 2009 season is practically impossible given the new rules that have been enforced over the winter, but if the short testing period is anything to go by the racing should be much closer than in in recent years. Toyota, Williams, Brawn and BMW all appear to have found an edge over the last few weeks with nothing to really seperate them,but it is impossible to detect a great deal of difference until the cars are racing each other on track.

I am excited by the evolution of the Brawn team and Jenson Button in particular, but I will stop short of making any predictions as I am always totally wrong!

Honda F1

You would have to go  a long way back in the history of Formula One to find the kind of excitement and comraderie currently on display in the sport, if there is a positive to come out of the financial crisis, then it seems that F1 have grabbed it with both hands in a bid bring back the halcyon days of motor racing.

The eleventh hour management buyout of the Honda team, led by Ross Brawn will not only ensure a full grid for the start of the 2009 season, but also ensures the future of the team in the UK. Brawn has said that it wasn’t a difficult choice given the circumstances, if the management team had decided not to take it on, there would be no team.

Brawn GP driver Jenson Button is rumoured to have taken a 50% pay cut to drive for the team this season and it is almost certain that many of the team would do the same if they have not already. But money isn’t everything and it was reassuring to hear Button talking like an F1 rookie after testing the 2009 car;

“It feels like 2000 again but with nine years of experience, so it’s the perfect position to be in. We all do feel like kids again and you can see that within the team, the smiles on people’s faces, and that was before we drove the car today. There’s a great atmosphere and it’s brought everyone that much closer together, and it’s a great thing to be part of.”

That is generally how F1 appears right now, every team and driver has enthused about their chances in the coming season and while practise times should not be used to guage progress in race conditions, it is none the less reassuring to see how close the cars have been so far in performance.

The test will obviously start in Australia in just a couple of weeks, when it will be interesting to see whether the new found openess extends into the racing season.

Here’s hoping!