Viewing Thread:
"The 2009 F1 Season"

This is my little place where I get to chat to myself about the new F1 season.

I'll update this main post with new car pictures later and a link to my super detailed and ultra long preview post.

For all the launch pictures: Click Here

Ferrari - Click Here

Toyota - Click Here

McLaren - Click Here

Renault - Click Here

Williams - Click Here

BMW - Click Here

Red Bull - Click Here

Force India - Click Here

Brawn GP - Click Here

Toro Rosso - Click Here

Well, Brawn GP were particularly dominant and an F1 report says they were heavier than their rivals, which is even more impressive.

Both Toyota's excluded because of a flexing rear wing piece so they have work to do to get their car legal even before they go racing.

Hamilton's gearbox change puts him back to 18th, which isn't that far back from the 15th he originally qualified.

All in all, a good qualifying session, particularly the elimination sessions.

Saturday practice was interesting. Raikkonen pulled off the track early with hydraulic problems and 'something broke on the brakes' as said by Vettel, which was later mentioned as a broken wheel nut.

And Rosberg at the top again. Looks like a 4 team scrap for pole position.

Interesting day of practice. Williams obviously the big surprise but if you believe the whole diffuser debate, maybe it's not as big a shock. Ferrari is the only team that looks like challenging outside of those using different diffusers.

The BBC's red button interactive TV service will broadcast live coverage of all on-track sessions - Friday and Saturday practice, qualifying and race.

There will be an additional interactive analysis programme following on from the end of the BBC One coverage of each race.

On race day, viewers will be able to choose from three different video streams.

These will be: the main network feed with a choice of commentary from BBC One and BBC Radio 5 Live; a split screen comprising the main network feed; an in-car camera feed and leaderboard; rolling highlights.

We will not be able to provide F1 coverage in high definition this year. The BBC relies on Formula 1 Management (FOM) for the provision of all of its live pictures and as such the broadcasting of high definition pictures is dependent upon whether FOM uses HD cameras or not.

For LIVE LAP TIMES, TXT COMMENTARY & STATS on all practice sessions, qualifying sessions and race click here

Nice thought pb, but i think thats all it is, Button has been going great in testing but sadly pre season testing aint normally a realiable benchmark due to the top teams sandbagging etc as i'm sure you know.

Would be great to see it though, having a wizard like Ross Brawn behind the car will help greatly towards making it happen, plus it would give Jenson the chance to justify why he's been the 3rd highest paid driver in F1 for the past few years.

Race wins deciding the title was, is and always will be a crazy change to F1, ok it would encourage 2nd & 3rd place driviers to challenage for 1st place and as a result should make better TV viewing. This formula is the pinnacle of motor racing and making a consistant podium place count for nothing if making the whole thing pointless. I can understand why some say F1 has become boring due to lack of overtaking, but there are very often some great scraps between drivers that are outside the top 4-5 place. These battles usually go unseen as the TV producers would rather (maybe due to sponsors advertising) follow 1st place around the track even if they have a 30 sec lead. A simple answer to making F1 more interesting for the TV viewer would be to bring back F1 multiscreen which was available back in 2001 and let use choose what drivers and battles etc we watch.

Bringing in this change after official testing had started was madness, it was just another change in favour of Bernies favourite team.

It was a bit odd for them to come up with a new system so quickly, and seemingly without approaching the teams as well. I'm not surprised that there was a backlash from the drivers and teams.

If you think about it, it would feel like ignoring this might lead to other last minute changes that the FIA could sneak in before asking the teams. For the teams to turn around and say 'not this year' it's just sending a message to the FIA that they can't make up new rules without the proper process being followed.

And now they've gone back to the old points system. The season just needs to start and get this farce out of our faces.

I'm still in two minds about the decision, but I'll see how it goes.