Brawn GP

HOLY MOTHER BERKELEY!!!!

(that is all)

I know!

When you are good, you're good.

Ross is VERY good.

Can't wait till tomorrow. This is gonna be fun!

There are also two very good drivers there.

If the FIA changes their mind about those diffusers, I'm giving up on F1. I thought change like this was what they wanted!

The Speed TV crew gave a great explanation about why the rest of the teams were miffed at the "diffuser crew". The 3 teams with "illegal" diffusers lacked any representation at the engineering meeting where the rear diffuser rules were being discussed, where they agreed to go by the spirit of the rule to reduce rear down force which in turn would increase overtaking.

BrawnGP, Willams and Toyota engineers then dug deep and found the loopholes in the rulebook which allows them to have more downforce than the rest of the field.

Congrats to BGP, but I think the Team and Driver than deserve the most props is Sebastian Vettel and RBR, using no funky rear diffuser and using a Renault power plant.

Did they kick a$$, or what?

Wow.

Jensen wanted to help out the team, so he cut his pay in half. That was really cool.

How can he live on just 8 million dollars a year?

Nice work when you can get it..

supposedly Adrian Sutil was only earning 500,000 per year....I think it is more than that now, but crazy...

Brawn ROCKED that party. It wasn't a walk away either, Kubica, and Rosberg had faster laps, and Vettel's fastest lap was within 12 thousandths.

I like that Brawn GP drew livery inspiration from Bruce Nesbitt's late '80's Trans-Am car:

http://mwphoto-misc.smugmug.com/gallery/2766111_Lu333/1/147193471_hy2Xk/Medium

I dont think it was just the diffuser. I'm sure it helps, but Vettel seemed to be making it work w/o the diffuser.

I think it has to do with development time. Brawn / Honda started working on the 2009 car at the start of the 2008 season (when they knew they had a turd).

KJ

Awesome.

It was great to see them get a storybook weekend. Button and Barrichello are both class acts.

Imagine how fast Vettel and RBR will be once Newey incorporates that diffuser (assuming it stays legal).

Webber again with the bad luck.

I enjoyed that immensely. I'm a big fan of Button, although he did give up some of his good-guy charm a few years back with the whole Honda contract debacle, I still like that he's stuck with his team through the years and it's finally paying off in what seems like it could be a huge way. I don't think they'll run away with it, but I'll be rooting for Brawn this year based on that performance. I loved that the cars were basically devoid of livery save for the Virgin logos that were a last-minute add, wonder how many sponsors will sign on before next week based on that 18-point performance!

I'm a bit bummed that they're not with Honda, but the drivers can't say enough good things about the Mercedes power, so if Honda wasn't able to provide the necessary power, the shame lies with them. Shoulda added more VTEC.

Hamilton can still drive his pants off, too. Gonna be a good season.

Yes, they didn't show enough Hamilton. Coming from the back of the pack with a slower car was awesome. What little they did show proved it wasn't just the car last year.

Buemi didn't do too bad either, but he did look like a rookie

I really don't know how much the diffuser help the Brawn team because Barrichello's diffuser got smashed off in the first corner and he came in second.

Barichello smashed his front diffuser, and not much more than the end plate, which act like feathers in an arrow and help keep the car straight but do not add downforce. The rear diffuser is what was giving the advantage to the teams that used that design. A quick google image search came up with this:

The yellow outline is what every other team is using, but the red part is what BrawnGP, Toyota and Williams-Toyota added and thats the part that the other teams are calling "illegal". That hole is what is giving them a big downforce advantage.

A diffuser doesn't just "get smashed off", there was still a downforce benefit. And Barrichello lucked into 2nd place...he deserved it, but it was luck all the same.

I liked this quote on Fark.com:

Winner of last weekend's Australian Grand Prix to be decided April 14th. Formula 1 organizers thrilled their sport has finally reached the excitement level of a Minnesota senatorial race

At the post-race interview, Barrichello said that his rear diffuser got smashed up. I know he lucked into the second place this race but he couldn't have been getting all the downforce benefit of the rear diffuser. To me this proves that the Brawn GP cars are pretty fast in general not just because of the diffusers.

when is the Speed rebroadcast? I miss this friggin race every year!

AngryCorvair wrote: when is the Speed rebroadcast? I miss this friggin race every year!

Sorry AC, but you've missed both. The "live" broadcast was Sunday morning at 4:00AM.

The re-broadcast was Sunday afternoon at 4:00PM.

But, if you're an early riser, the Malaysian GP live broadcast is on at 5:00AM - for both qualifying Saturday and the race on Sunday.

The Malaysian GP rebroadcast is on Sunday at 1:30PM.

Enjoy!

Come on Sutil !!! Thats all I have to say....

well if we are going all fanboi, then....

FORZA ALONSO!

In other news

Red Bull is revising the F1 car for round 2:

Reviving this topic obviously gives out who took the pole...again

What happened to racing in the rain? Isn't that one of the reasons they are superior to the circle trackers? So now we have a race that will be decided in two week, and half a race, and this is supposed to be the best series in the world.