Alternate 2009 Season - No Brawn

[Jack O Malley]

Since these first seven race in 2009 season have been boring me over any accettable limit, due to the embarassing dominance of Button&BrawnGP, and since the WDC is practically over, I decided to set up an alternate 2009 season, simply scrapping all Brawn GP results.

During the 08-09 winter, Honda said they were going to abandon F1 racing. Due to the global economical crisis, in order to mantain alive the HondaF1 team, they would have to close many factories, leaving thousands of workers unemployed. This, along with the poor and nearly embarassing results of the 2007 and 2008 season, made the team decide to stop their F1 adventure.
The Brackley factory looked for a buyer for all winter, but, albeit some speculations, a serious buyer was not found.
Rubens Barrichello, at 36 and 267 GPs entered, decided to end his F1 career and taking a sabbatical year staying in his homecountry Brazil, maybe to return to racing (in the US?) in 2010.
Jenson Button, after 9 unlucky seasons during which he promised much but delivered little, looked for a seat, even as a test driver, but didn't managed to sign for any F1 team. He is often seen in the Paddock, trying to get some drive with some random team, and not to losing contact with the circus scene.
Team principal Ross Brawn takes another sabbatical year, but everybody thinks he won't have many problems to make another comeback - at Ferrari, maybe.

Australian Grand Prix
Qualyfing times were very close, with Vettel taking pole position, less than a tenth under Kubica's lap. Even Rosberg and Glock were very close, but the latter, as well with his team-mate Trulli who qualified 6th, was demoted to the last row, for running illegal wings. Massa's Ferrari so obtained the 4th spot, ahead of his team-mate Raikkonen in 5th. Lewis Hamilton was forced to start 16th, after a 5-places grid penalty for gearbox change.
The race saw an outstanding race by the two Toyotas, with Trulli and Glock running 3rd and 5th in the last laps, with Hamilton between them, while Vettel and Kubica were still leading the pack, with Rosberg losing four position . Both the Ferraris were out due to technical woes.
In the dying laps, Kubica on harder tyres was much faster than Vettel on softer. When they were very close in the third-last lap, they collided in turn 3, the collision sending both out of the race. With this absurd crash, Toyota were awarded a double podium finish - starting last and second-last! Hamilton was second. But after the race, with the then-called "lie-gate", Trulli was first disqualified, handing the victory to Hamilton, but later the dsq was reversed, Trulli given back of his 2nd F1 victory, and Toyota awarded of a 1-2 finish, to the excitement of all the team. Fastest lap was marked by Rosberg. Buemi was 5th at his first grand prix. With a strong and consistent drive, Sutil managed first point (pointS, after Hamilton's dsq) for Force India.
After the race, some teams strongly criticized Toyota and Williams' "double-deck-diffuser", considering it a violation of the techincal rules and appealing to the FIA.

After the first race, the 2009 Drivers' standing reads:
1- Trulli 10 pts
2- Glock 8 pts
3- Alonso 6 pts
4- Rosberg 5 pts
5- Buemi 4 pts
6- Bourdais 3 pts
7- Sutil 2 pts
8- Heidfeld 1 pt

While the constructors'
1- Toyota 18
2- Toro Rosso 7
3- Renault 6
4- Williams 5
5- Force India 2
6- BMW Sauber 1


thank you for reading and sorry for poor english - next GPs will be posted later!

[TomWazzleshaw]

Just one problem that I'ld like to point out.
I assume this is in the wrong forum but that's no big deal. We all live and learn.
I was planning to do something similar to this but at the end of the season.

[Jack O Malley]

I decided to think about this during the season, to focus on something more interesting than Button's endless wins (and Barrichello endless 2nds)

Malaysian Grand Prix
Australia winner Jarno Trulli tops the qualifying session and takes the pole. The 2nd fastest lap is set by Vettel, but he is demoted ten place because of the last race accident with Kubica. So, the first row is all Toyota, with Glock promoted to 2nd. 3rd is again Rosberg, with Webber 4th. Ferrari and McLaren in big trouble, the highest is Raikkonen in 6th, with Hamilton 10th.
The start of the race saw Rosberg taking the lead, followed by Trulli and Alonso. But as rain started to fall in lap 19, all positions were nearly randomized. The trick was that rain began as a light shower, with many cars pitting for inters, but ten laps later it became a heavy precipitation. Handling was extremely difficult and many drivers (included Vettel) spun, and visibility was awful as well. The race was red-flagged at lap 33, with the results taken at the end of lap 31. This means BMW's Nick Heidfeld was leading the pack at that time, less than a second ahead of Glock's Toyota. The cars stopped on the grid, and after an embarassing wait of half an hour, the race was declared over. This means Nick Heidfeld has finally won a race, after 154 GP entered. He has been very lucky this time, since when the red flag was shown he had spun off the track, but thanks to the countback rule results were taken at the end of the penultimate completed lap, when he was leading. A really lucky strike, after years of bad luck. Since less than 75% of racing distance had been completed, half points were awarded. The podium was completed by Glock and Trulli (who set the fastest lap), extending Toyota's lead over constructors' standings. Hamilton in 5th and Massa in 7th obtain first points for their teams, but Ferrari and McLaren's pace still must be improved a lot.

Drivers' standings after round 2:
1- Trulli 13 pts (1 win)
2- Glock 12 pts
3- Rosberg 6,5 pts
4- Heidfeld 6 pts (1 win)
5- Alonso 6 pts
6- Buemi 4 pts
7- Bourdais 3,5 pts
8- Webber 2,5 pts
9- Hamilton 2 pts
10- Sutil 2 pts
11- Massa 1 pt

constructors' standings:
1- Toyota 25 (1 win)
2- Toro Rosso 7,5
3- Williams 6,5
4- BMW Sauber 6 (1 win)
5- Renault 6
6- Red Bull 2,5
7- McLaren 2
8- Force India 2
9- Ferrari 1

After only two races, every team has scored at least one point.


Chinese Grand Prix
The main news is that the appeal against the double deck diffusers ran by Toyota and Williams has been rejected, and those diffusers declared legal. Renault and McLaren therfore ran an updated diffuser on their cars, a move followed by the other teams in the next races.
Qualifying was dominated by Sebastian Vettel, who clocked the fastest lap in Q2 and Q3, winning pole position. He was followed by a low-fuel Alonso and his team mate Webber. Drivers' standings leader Trulli was 4th, ahead of Rosberg, Raikkonen and Hamilton, while Glock was demoted to 17th for a gearbox change.
Race was marked by heavy rain from start to finish: first eight laps were ran behind the Safety Car. Massa's Ferrari suffered an electronic failure while running in 2nd, while Safety Car was running again due to an accident between Trulli (whose pace was very very slow) and Kubica. After the restart, Vettel was leading his team-mate Webber, followed by Raikkonen and Hamilton, with the finn losing many positions after his pit stop. After many mistakes Hamilton was overtaken by Kovalainen and Sutil, the latter screwing a 4th place when crashing in the wall with 5 laps to go. Vettel won (scoring also fastest lap) followed by Webber, giving Red bull first win and first 1-2 finish. Kovalainen came 3rd, after two races ended in the first lap. Hamilton was 4th, and Ferrari only scored one point with Raikkonen. Glock's 5th meant that he took the lead of drivers' standings.

Drivers' standings after round 3:
1- Glock 16 pts
2- Trulli 13 pts (1 win)
3- Webber 10,5 pts
4- Vettel 10 pts (1 win)
5- Alonso 8 pts
6- Hamilton 7 pts
7- Buemi 7 pts
8- Rosberg 6,5 pts
9- Heidfeld 6 pts (1 win)
10- Kovalainen 6 pts
11- Bourdais 3,5 pts
12- Sutil 2 pts
13- Massa 1 pt
14- Raikkonen 1 pt

constructors' standings:
1- Toyota 29 (1 win)
2- Red Bull 20,5 (1 win)
3- McLaren 13
4- Toro Rosso 10,5
5- Renault 8
6- Williams 6,5
7- BMW Sauber 6 (1 win)
8- Ferrari 2
9- Force India 2


Bahrain Grand Prix
Toyota is back, and dominates the qualifying session, with Trulli on pole and Glock 2nd. Their are followed by Vettel (their most likely competitor for WDC) and Hamilton. Ferrari is still in bad shape, with Massa and Raikkonen 6th and 8th. Webber is only 17th, blocked by Sutil during his flying lap. For this, Sutil is demoted to 17th place.
At the start, Glock took the lead and Hamilton overtook Vettel, running a heavy fuel load. The two Toyota were very light instead, pitting at laps 12 and 14. Their pit strategy was a blunder: they put on slower, harder tyres for the middle stint. In a few laps, Glock fell down to 5th, and Trulli lost many seconds to Vettel. After the second stop, the German was able to overtake Trulli, clocking some fast laps once Trulli stopped. This means that, despite scoring pole position and fastest lap, Trulli came home 2nd behind Vettel, and ahead of Hamilton, Raikkonen and Glock. Massa fell down to 12th due to KERS problems, and poor pace. Vettel back-to-back wins put him second in the standings, only one point behind Trulli, and tie to Glock.

Drivers' standings after round 4:
1- Trulli 21 pts (1 win)
2- Vettel 20 pts (2 wins)
3- Glock 20 pts
4- Hamilton 13 pts
5- Alonso 11 pts
6- Webber 10,5 pts
7- Rosberg 8,5 pts
8- Buemi 7 pts
9- Heidfeld 6 pts (1 win)
10- Kovalainen 6 pts
11- Raikkonen 6 pts
12- Bourdais 3,5 pts
13- Sutil 2 pts
14- Massa 1 pt
15- Piquet 1 pt

constructors' standings:
1- Toyota 41 (1 win)
2- Red Bull 30,5 (2 wins)
3- McLaren 19
4- Renault 12
5- Toro Rosso 10,5
6- Williams 8,5
7- Ferrari 7
8- BMW Sauber 6 (1 win)
9- Force India 2

[bduddy]

I have to say, this is a lot more exciting then the real season so far!

[andreamodawf1]

Mybe you shuld have got rid of red bull as well...

[StoneColdSpider]

even im on the edge of my seat reaing this!!