What a cracking start to the 2009 season. Brawn GP certainly kicked up a storm. Jenson put in a great performance with a pole and start to finish drive. Looks like his bright yellow helmet worked it’s magic…
Barrichello was pretty hap hazard and I’m amazed he managed to keep his second place, even with him lucking into it! He certainly had his fair share of shunts. The raw performance of his car, even with a dodgy front wing, kept him in it.
I’m particularly chuffed for them given the trouble they’ve gone through to get onto the grid. Whether their form will continue, it’s too early to say. I suspect the other teams will work on their own versions of the rear diffusers and so catch up on whatever performance gap there currently is.
The rest of the field was equally unexpected. Vettel and Kubica should have finished second and third had they not crashed into each other. I think Vettel was unfairly treated with a ten spot grid drop for the next race, given it looked to me to be a 50/50 incident.
Ferrari seemed to fall to bits as the race progressed and McLaren weren’t exactly on form. Lewis Hamilton snuck into third position after Trulli was given a 15 second penalty. But he did start 18th and would have finished top six without the last minute incidents. And it should noted Trulli, in his Toyota, started in pits, so did well to get up so high.
It seems the new regs have caused chaos. The cars look particularly odd with their large front wings and dinky rear ones, but I like them. Much cleaner looking. There did seem to be a fair bit of overtaking, but I don’t think that was down to the aerodynamic changes, but more to do with the large differences they now have in the compounds of tires. The super soft tires seem to go off really quickly and that caused the disparity.
That, and the KERS systems giving the drivers a power boosts on demand. It’s certainly an interesting addition but it’s disappointing that some teams aren’t running them (like Brawn!). It should be an all or nothing thing.
I must admit I had my reservations about F1 returning to the BBC (since the ITV coverage was better than what the BBC were previously doing), but I needn’t of worried! David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan did an excellent job as pundits. David’s knowledge of the sport really shone through and whilst Eddie was a tad waffly he put some good points across. Certainly better than the punditry on ITV and watching without adverts was ace.
Race commentary was also better than before, but I think Legard and Brundle need to work together more since they were interrupting each other a bit . The further added bonus is the new F1 website is top notch, much nicer than the increasingly advert strewn effort of ITV. Plus with iPlayer built in, its great for watching extra clips on.
So, all in all, a great start to season! Less than a week to Malaysia!
Paul
Slight concern at the interval of posts. It’ll be sixteen years before the next one, so I’ll set a reminder for 2039. See if the site is still up then. 
