German Car Zone

I can't believe how some of us here are complaining just because Brawn is winning and not your fav. team/drivers.

Personally, for me, I've been a Ferrari die hard fan for years now. But. after what Honda and Jenson, and Rubens have been thru this past few years, it's nice to see a new team challenging for wins.

It's no fluke how they became winners. It's down to pure hard work. Whether not they have the Mercedes power, don't frget that this car was originally designed for a Honda engine, not a Merc powerplant. That was just a 11th hour plan.

Honda, together with Renault, was originally allowed by the FIA to tweak it's engine performance to be on par with the rest of the field, hence RedBull's excellent performance so far.

Brawn isn't as solid as many think. In Australia, Kubik could have won if he didn't 'overtake' Vettel like how he did. In other words, the SC also played a major factor Button won there.

Malaysia was a washout, but noticed that Hamilton was performing solidly that day, as well as the Williams, RedBull and Toyota, IIRC. So, again, it was pretty lucky win for Button.

China brought them back to earth.

Bahrain, Button won fair and square, but both he and Rubens were pushed right till the very end, and Toyota screwed up their strategy for the race. Kimi could have finished 4th ahead of Rubens, IIRC, if that left wheel fairing didn't give some bloopers during his final stop.

In Spain, noticed how close Webber was to Rubens and Jenson, after a jammed fuel hose? And what if Vettel didn't get bottled up behind Massa?

In my view, Brawn is fast, but they're slowly fading. But i'm happy and i appreciate their hard work, and they deserve to be winners. I'm not bitching and whining that neither Ferrari boys have won yet, but i'm sure they will.

Spain in terms of performance, was a great step for Ferrari, but they need to tweak their management side, pit strategies side, as well as realibility issues.

My prediction for Monaco : RedBull.

>
^ The shady 40 mil. cap will still f*** things up next year.

Technically you can go for the cap and spend 180 mil. like Toyota on the unrestricted engines and if you get good result FIA will step in (as they're allowed for the capped teams) to slow the fast cars down.

More shady rules and grey areas because 2 geriatric old men won't let go.

If FOTA stand their ground the 40 mill would not come to fruition, but FOTA have proven to be wimps so who knows how it will all pan out. FIA were the architects behind the intense drama of Brazil last year, but what will they do about Brawn. There is a likelihood that they will have sealed the championship by Germany or Hungary and that would be incredibly bad for business because public interest in attending races will drop, in addition to all the other teams scrapping 2009 which would lead to even less interest in F1. As of result, the winners of 2009 would be Brawn and the losers would be Bernie & Max, bodies hosting the GPs, the other constructors and the fans.

I'm so disappointed with FOTA.
The new rules to increase overtaking have not worked at all. And they where designed with Barcelona in mind. It was as boring as ever if not not worse. I can just image (a dry) Monaco or the God awe full Valencia
I want heads to fall for this **** it.

Aerodynamic gurus, tire gurus, track designers, engine rev limit geniuses, I don't give a damn how many or how high up the hierarchy, FIA/FOM/FOTA brainiacs, their heads must fall.

Valid points. Brawn are excellent on strategy and we saw that today when Vettel was within arms reach of victory if his team wouldn't have handled strategy so poorly. And like you outlined, Toyota were smashing during qualification in Bahrain but ended up not winning the race.

I do feel sorry for Rubbens. That man is so desperate to win and is suffering from the Alonso syndrome in which his British team mate is the one winning the races and getting all the cheers. But his time will come, the reason isn't over, all he needs is to work a little harder with his race engineer.

Last year's championship protagonists on Sunday wrote off their chances of contending for the 2009 crown.

In 2008, Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa finished the drivers' title in first and second places respectively. But this year, with Brawn Mercedes and Red Bull Renault leading the pace, the drivers' respective cars are no longer up to the task of joining the battle for the sport's new pecking order.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton finished the Spanish Grand Prix out of the points and ninth. "It's just a shame they haven't given me a car to defend the championship with," the Swiss resident told the BBC after the race. "The car is that bad. I'm driving the socks off it. There's just no hope."

2008 runner-up Massa fared better in a significantly improved F60 this weekend, but he categorically ruled out having another shot at the championship.

"No, no way," he told reporters in Barcelona, insisting that championship leaders Brawn are poised for the honours. "Even if we improve massively and we are three or four tenths if front of them, they will still score points. So forget it," added Massa.

The spectre of racism on Sunday again raised its head at the Circuit de Catalunya, more than a year after last winter's incident.

Then, the Spanish circuit was lucky to escape formal sanctions, after a group of testing spectators screamed foul insults, blacked out their faces and wore t-shirts bearing the words 'Hamilton's family'.

Race organisers promised there would be no recurrence, but the BBC broadcast of the Spanish Grand Prix showed images of at least one spectator in the crowd with a blacked out face.


Former McLaren driver David Coulthard said it was ‘not a good thing to see’, while Eddie Jordan warned the FIA it needs to ‘come down heavily’ on the venue because racism is ‘totally and absolutely unacceptable’.

Referring to the 2008 testing incident, the former team owner added: "I think there is a suspended sentence still hanging over them because the FIA did come down very strongly, and rightly so."

Rubens Barrichello on Sunday made clear he is no longer willing to play second fiddle to any teammate.

The Brazilian veteran finished second to Brawn Mercedes teammate Jenson Button in Spain, after the team decided to switch the championship leader to a two stop strategy.

Barrichello, who passed Button at the first corner and led early, remained on his three-stopper. "I had the race in my hands and I was quite surprised when they told me they were switching Jenson to two," the 36-year-old said.

"I would like to understand why they changed that," he added, explaining that his third set of tyres also slowed him down.

For six years at Ferrari, Barrichello was Michael Schumacher's 'number two', ceding to team orders on many occasions, including the infamous radio call of the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix.


"If that happens I won't follow any team orders anymore," Barrichello told reporters in Barcelona. "I'm making it clear now so everyone knows."

The intimation is that Brawn deliberately changed Button's strategy to favour the championship leader over Barrichello, but Button denies it is the case.

"We are all here to win, and today it just went my way and it didn't for him," the Briton said. "It could swing around for the next race, that's the way things go in F1."

The Spanish fans are hooligans, they all jizz in their pants the minute Alonso face is shown on the big screens. With racism amongst the grandstands it's unacceptable that Spain is the host of two races. They need to be stripped off one of the venues and that shouldn't be a problem given that several countries are lined up to host a race.

Is the diffuser loop-hole still in effect? Looks like it in the results.