Hard to believe that’s the F1 season nearly finished for this year isn’t it. It seems like no time at all since Brawn GP stormed onto the race track to take the rest of the paddock by complete surprise in Australia!
As we’ve also said several times this year – what a strange season it’s been! Just about every team, at some point or another, has had huge performance gains at one track and then residing at the rear of the pack the next. You’d have to assume the massive changes to this years cars and lack of in season testing has played a big part in this – teams are still finding loads of improvements for their cars, due to the new design regulations, but simply just don’t have the track time to test and fine tune these parts and components quick enough.
Think about it. Who would have thought Force India would be challenging for a race win in Belgium or that, after seeing the McLaren’s pace at the start of the season, they would be pulling off not one but two race wins in a car that, according to some very knowledgeable people in Formula One, just wasn’t capable of winning races.
So Jenson Button still remains at the top of the championship and now appears to be depending on other people’s misfortunes rather than getting stuck in and showing us his incredible racing skills as he did at the start of the season.
Cmon Jenson – Don’t freeze now mate. The biggest pressure you’re receiving is from yourself – just remember that 15 months ago there wasn’t even a Brawn GP team and YOU weren’t going to have a drive for 2009. Things changed – the team was saved and at the start of the season you were driving like a man who didn’t care about anything or anybody else because you’d received a lifeline – you were able to do what you love most in the world and go racing in F1 again – take yourself back to that mindset and the rest will take care of itself.
So a quick catch up on who’s where:
| 1 | Jenson Button | Brawn-Mercedes | 84 | |
| 2 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn-Mercedes | 69 | |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 59 | |
| 4 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 51.5 | |
| 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 40 |
And who’s been on the podium this year so far?
Jenson Button: 1st Place – Australia | 1st Place – Malaysia | 3rd Place – China | 1st Place – Bahrain | 1st Place – Spain | 1st Place – Monaco | 1st Place – Turkey | 2nd Place – Italy
Rubens Barrichello: 2nd Place – Australia | 2nd Place – Spain | 2nd Place – Monaco | 3rd Place – Great Britain | 1st Place – Valencia | 1st Place – Italy
Sebastian Vettel: 1st Place – China | 2nd Place – Bahrain | 3rd Place – Turkey | 1st Place – Great Britain | 2nd Place – Germany | 3rd Place – Belgium
Mark Webber: 2nd Place – China | 3rd Place – Spain | 2nd Place – Turkey | 2nd Place – Great Britain | 1st Place – Germany | 3rd Place – Hungary
Kimi Raikonnen: 3rd Place – Monaco | 2nd Place – Hungary | 3rd Place – Valencia | 1st Place – Belgium | 3rd Place – Italy
Lewis Hamilton: 1st Place – Hungary | 2nd Place – Valencia | 1st Place – Singapore
Fernando Alonso: 3rd Place – Singapore
Timo Glock: 3rd Place – Malaysia | 2nd Place – Singapore
Jarno Trulli: 3rd Place – Australia | 3rd Place – Bahrain
Felipe Massa: 3rd Place – Germany
Nick Heidfeld: 2nd Place – Malaysia
Giancarlo Fisichella: – 2nd Place – Belgium
On the driver front rumour has it that: Alonso is heading to Ferrari for 5 years, Raikonnen is heading back to McLaren, Rosberg is heading to Brawn GP and Robert Kubica is heading to either Renault or Williams. We’re sure most of these changes will occur but you have to love the silly season don’t you – when everyone wants to be the first one to break the news and are more interested in reporting the future rather than simply enjoy the now!!!
So it’s Japan this weekend and we’re really chuffed the race is back at Suzuka. In our mind F1 should never have moved to Fuji in the first place – it couldn’t tie Suzuka’s boots. Bring it on.