Racing Eagles

The first F1 Power Rankings for 2009. (March 30th, 2009)

 

Last year, I did a weekly round up of where I think the teams are in relations to each other. These were put on the website, f1-pitlane. I will continue this in the 2009 season. I will also be cross posting this on this blog here. So enjoy!

(Note: The numbers in parenthesis are the final rankings from the last Power Ranking of 2008.)

The Irresistible Force...

1: Brawn GP (NA): A dream weekend for the team. Just everyone (including me) jumped on the bandwagon for good reason; it is just an awesome story that will be retold for years to come... we'll... except at the board rooms at a certain Japanese car company.

Yet if you look behind the headlines, it all comes down the Ross Brawn and his staff designing one hell of a race car. It is by far the most stable car of the field and teamed up with that Mercedes engine, is one potent racing package. The only thing that really bothered this weekend was Richard Branson. I personally found the way he was trying to hone in on the team achievement a little bit tacky. Then again, both F1 and Branson don't do subtle.

All in all, a wonderful weekend. Seeing the strength of the Brawn, Button, Barrichello connection; I think it will be the first of many. The only thing I am wondering is if they have the talent and resources to keep the developing the car throughout the season.

On the heels...

2: Toyota (3): Forget all the stupid and deserved penalties for a second, that Toyota is a really strong car. The fact that BOTH of their drivers started in the pit lane and BOTH cars got into the points (before the rather harsh penalty) was an amazing thing. Both Glock and Trulli drove the wheels off that car.

The Independents Strike Back!

Last night' qualifying session in Australia was amazing. It was...it was... (breathing into a bag, trying not to pass out).... it was just outstanding.

The pace of the Virgin-Brawn's was just... wow. Button and Barechello, back from the brink of unemployment, have come back to lock out the grid in Melbourne. The Brawn (or is it "The Virgin?") just looked glued to the track with pace to spare. They looks great for tonight' race after qualifying one-two with more then enough fuel to spare. After being left beaten and left for dead by Honda, they have come back in the most spectacular way.This is the most amazing example of the "Patrick Ewing Theory" I've ever seen.

However, last night' qualifying was more than just Brawn' amazing feat. Four out of the top five spots on the grid were taken up by non-manufacturer teams. Red Bull, despite not having the super-fantastic diffuser, looked very strong with Vettel getting third in qualifying and Webber doing so well after breaking his leg. Williams have finally translated their normally strong winter form into the first race this season with a strong performance by Roseberg, who finally looks like he will live up to his potential.

Isn't ironic that the three teams that basically wrote the regulations this year, (Ferrari, McLaren, and Renault) were the teams that were hurting the most last night. The BMW's and the Ferrari's don't look like race winners yet and need some work. McLaren is a few miles off the pace and the tail of the good ship Renault seems to be rising above the water. Only Toyota seemed to improved by any large degree from last season.

This is amazing for the sport. After a winter of worrying about teams, Bernie and Max' usual craziness, sponsors, drivers, and the very future of the sport; Formula One has come back in spades. Also, last night has proved the one thing in the world true about F1, Hollywood, and most anything; you can have all the time and money in the world, but if you don't have the talent you will not succeed. Last night we saw the amazing talent of Ross Brawn, Adrian Newey, Patrick Head, and their collective staffs on full display. If anything, it gives me hope for USGPE. If Brawn can do it after everything they been through, why not us? It is a matter of finding the talent now that time frame and money for USGPE has been found.

After years of languishing in the midfield, the independent teams have finally come back... in spades. The revolution has finally come! Viva la revolucion!!!

USGPE news round-up (3/26/09)

 

As we enter the 2009 F1 season, here are some of the latest news about USGPE.

• GrandPrix.com has reported that USGPE has found a home with the opening of a design office in Charlotte.
• David Tremayne wrote an interesting piece about USGPE in the latest edition of GrandPrix+. (Subscription required, and worth the $40ish.) I won't go into some of the details of the story, but there is a sense where the team is being more concrete and settled as they work towards next year.
• Also in the latest edition of GrandPrix+, (subscription required, but like I said, very much worth it!)  David Tremayne does an interesting profile of Teddy Mayer. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Mayer was one of the team principles of McLaren that bridged the team between Bruce McLaren era to the time when Ron Dennis took the team over. An interesting read of a man that I have to admit, I didn't know about.
• USGPE may not be the only new team on the grid in 2010. According to MotorAuthority.com, Bernie has stated that there might be up to three new teams on the grid in 2010. No details on who these two other teams might be.

My 2009 Predictions

 

Everyone loves predictions. Here are a few of mine going into the 2009 season.

The team that will disappoint: Williams... as always

The team that will surprise: Toyota

Most Improved Team: Brawn GP (then again, anything is a step up from Honda)

The team that will win their first race: Toyota (they're more than due)

Who will be the first driver fired: Fisichella

Who will win their first race this year: Heidfeld

Drivers' Champion: Kimi Raikkonen

Constructor Champion: Ferrari

My guess of what the constructors’ championship will look like:

(First) Ferrari, BMW, McLaren, Toyota, Red Bull, Brawn GP, Renault, Williams, Toro Rosso, Force India (Last)

My guess of what the driver championship will look like:

(First) Raikkonen, Kubica, Massa, Lewis, Heidfeld, Alonso, Vettel, Glock, Button, Kovalainen, Webber, Trulli,  Rosberg, Bourdais, Barrichello, Buemi, Nakajima, Piquet Jr., Fisichella, Sutil (last)

So how say you. What are some of your predictions?

Round One: Bernie-FOM-Max-FIA-WMSC vs. FOTA

Today it was announced among other things, that the sport will determine a the driver world champion based on the most wins instead of total points.  This is a terrible idea for so many reason. It is a departure from the F1 history, it will end the drivers championship possibly earlier, and would give an incentive to teams to quit a race to save their engines.

However, you have to look deeper. What the decisions that was made by the World Motor Sports Council wasn't about the points system. It wasn't about the cost cutting measures and the rediculous budget sceme.

In my view, this whole thing was to send a message to FOTA. Every single suggestion that they made to the WMSC, the greater FIA, and FOM has been tossed out with little regard or attention. They better be careful. After all unlike the US motorsports scene, it is the teams that have all the power in Formula One; especially since their is no long term Concord Agreement in place.

In Response...

After seeing this, I was at first rather angry. Then I realized that these guys don't know any better then to make fun of something they don't know.

The thing that I don't get is why they are so proud of their spec series. After all, is there really more to NASCAR then what is described in the video below?

NASCAR Coach Reveals Winning Strategy: 'Drive Fast'

USGPE news round-up

 

• I could put so many holes into Ed Hinton story on EPSN last week. Here is a few. 1: Hinton doesn't understand that the teams and the sport of Formula One not just want to cut costs; but have to. Formula One cannot exist with only two or four teams on the grid. Ferrari, McLaren, and the rest have realized that they need to expand the grid to ensure the future of the sport. 2: Bernie, Max, and FOTA have expressed their support of USGPE. The logo and name change also affected other teams on the grid such as Force India. It wasn't an attack on USGPE or the idea of the team. 3: The proposed $65 million budget proposed for USGPE is larger than what Minadri had a few years back, but the fact the team will save a lot by the 5 million euro standardized engine and 1.5 million euro standardized transmission requirement. All this is designed to bring new teams like USGPE in. 4: Finally, Hinton criticized drivers of NASCAR and other American drivers of thinking about going over to F1 and drivers can't be flexible. I just drop my jaw at this. Has this man ever seen the line-up at Le Mans? I'll stop now because I want to save up some ammo in my rant column on the state of American motorsports journalism.

• Steve Roy has posted a great story about Jim Hall and the remarkable innovations and designs of the Texas motorsports genius.(Photos of one of his cars above.) Definitely worth a read.

• Sorry about the delay in postings. Busy work week. I will have a lot more coming the next few weeks as we come towards Melbourne and the start of the 2009 F1 season.

Ideas for USGPE: Being Fan Friendly

One of the things from the USF1...ah... USGPE press conference from a few weeks back that really got me excited was when Windsor stated:

“We are going to make this a very fan-friendly team, not only in the States but globally. We are going to design the fan-route - they will be welcome to come to our HQ, they will be able to tour, look at an F1 car being designed and built. They will be able to touch and feel an F1 team for the first time.”

Out of all things I heard this is the one thing that got me really excited. Excited enough to start my own fan blog. This something that I and millions of F1 fans have demanded for years and have been constantly disappointed. This idea is of "fan-friendliness" is a key if Formula One is ever to grow and retain fans; not just in the United States but worldwide.

The sport has a mountain to climb in being more fan-friendly. Both FOTA and the FIA have indicated this as one of their priorities going towards the future. However there are differencing in opinion with Bernie who feels it is not job of sport but of the race promoters to deal with the fans.

USF1 + USGPE = USF&G???

I had this twilight zone moment this morning when looking through some old F1 footage.

Pictured above is the 1988 Arrows A10B powered by a turbocharged BMW.
Arrows achieve their best results in this car finishing fourth in the constructors champions.It helped that there was only four teams that stayed on with the end of the superchargers era before they were banned.

Who knew that the Arrows team had such foresight. Oh yeah, guess who the driver above is? It was the Arrows' ace who was their most successful driver of the eighties leading them to nine podiums.

That is right, American Eddie Cheever.

USGPE's new best friends... the FIA and FOTA.

 
One of the biggest criticisms of the USGPE concept is that there is no way that a F1 team can operate on such as skimpy budget and so few personal. That USGPE will get killed when they enter Formula One because they are developing the car so far away from F1's European heartland.

All of these concerns are very legitimate. However, the one thing that people make a mistake with is viewing these questions through the current F1 environment. Things are changing as we speak. Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson haven’t discussed this much, but a lot of what they are doing with USGPE is betting on the future environment.