The FIA International Court of Appeal has ruled that the diffusers run by Brawn GP, Williams, and Toyota are legal. The reasons for the decision haven’t been handed down as of writing but this means that the three teams will be able to race this weekend in China. Continue reading
F1 2009
Formula 1: How Does a Diffuser Work?
Tomorrow, the whole Formula One season will be turned on its head. Either six cars from Brawn GP, Williams, and Toyota will have their controversial diffusers found illegal which will cause them to be disqualified from the first two rounds of the world championship or they will be deemed legal forcing the other seven teams to play catch-up.
So before we get to Tuesday’s game changing meeting of the international court of appeal, I thought I would be a good idea to look at how a diffuser works on an F1 car and why the solutions the three teams under protest have developed are so far ahead of the competition. Continue reading
F1 Malaysia: TSN’s Coverage Improves…
… But that improvement didn’t come through anything that they did. TSN lucked into the fact that yesterday’s Malaysian Grand Prix turned out as it did, otherwise it would have been as big a train wreck as last week’s. Continue reading
F1 In Canada: TSN Sucks and Return to Montreal
So the 2009 F1 season kicked off with a bang. Rubens Barrichello managed to cause a four car pile-up in the first turn after chunking the start. Meanwhile, some guy named Jenson Button won the race followed by Barrichello (who got back to second after some other guys crashed) and Lewis Hamilton (thanks to a stewards’ decision that went his way for once).
Over here in Canada, things weren’t quite so rosy. Continue reading
Formula One Season Preview: Predictions
Welcome to part three of The Lowdown’s preview of the 2009 Formula One World Championship. With an examination of the teams and rules out of the way, it’s time to move on to predictions for the 2009 season. The new rules with the point system make picking a champion and sorting out the standings very difficult. However, as The Lowdown’s motto on the radio says: How hard can it be? Continue reading
Formula One Season Preview: New Rules
Welcome to part two of The Lowdown’s 2009 Formula One World Championship preview. Today, I look at the new rules that have completely changed the face of Formula One. As a bonus, I also look at the one new track that will host a grand prix this season. Continue reading
Formula One Season Preview: The Teams
Welcome to part one of The Lowdown’s 2009 Formula One Season preview. Over the next three days, I’ll do a thorough breakdown of the upcoming F1 season. Today, I take a look at the 10 teams and 20 drivers that will contest the world championship. Continue reading
F1 Shoots Itself In The Foot
If you want someone to predict the finishing order of the 2009 Formula One World Championship, their job just got a lot tougher.
The FIA, F1’s sanctioning body, has changed the method of determining the World Champion from the 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 points system that has been in use since 2003 to one where the driver with the most wins over the season is the champion. If there is a tie for most wins, the title goes to the driver that scored the most points under the old system. Additionally, only the champion is determined by most wins. All other places in the championship will be determined by points.
The FIA marched to the beat of their own drum in coming up with this solution. F1’s commercial rights holder, Bernie Ecclestone, inspired by the 2008 Olympics, thought that a medal system was the best solution. The world champion would be the man with the most gold medals with silvers then bronzes breaking any ties. The Formula One Teams Association proposed a modified point system which gave more emphasis on winning with a 12-9-7-5-4-3-2-1 system. I don’t know how the FIA came up with this solution or how they figured that this was a good idea.
The main problem with this new championship solution is that it doesn’t change anything regarding the championship. Sure it means the more you win, the better chance you have of winning the title. But will it really encourage drivers to fight to the end of a race. I don’t actually believe that drivers don’t already fight to the end of the race and push for every tenth of a second they can wring out of their car. They do eventually back off but that’s only when there’s nothing left to fight for.
What this will do is put more emphasis on fuel strategy and qualifying. While this year’s changes to the rules and cars should help with overtaking, it’s no guarantee that it’ll make that big of a difference. Therefore, it will be up to the teams not to screw up strategies and pit stops. Similarly, if you can qualify on pole or near the front, you have the best chance to pick up the win. (I’ll admit, that one is pretty obvious.) Drivers that realize that their only good chance to win a race is to be in the top two or three after the first turn will likely also try some banzai maneuvers to get ahead (not just at the start but throughout the race) which is going to lead to a lot of small fields by the end of the race.
The final big problem is that it will just confuse everyone. As simple as it seems to crown the man with the most wins as champion, every position below that will help to confound fans. Who is really second in the standing during the season? Is it the guy with four wins and 47 points or the one with two wins and 52 points? And what happens if Ricky Bobby wins the championship with 7 wins and 70 points to the second place guy’s 5 wins and 94 points? Can F1 legitimately be the top level of motorsports if that happens?
I think the FIA made a hasty decision in switching to making the champion the man who won the most races. One race is about who did the best over the course of the race while a season is about the man who did the best over the whole season. The FIA got caught up in thinking that the Olympic system was the best one without thinking what that even meant for racing. Here’s hoping that we’re not debating some other stupid points system this time next year.
The Lowdown 