Brawn GP Racing Team

On paper the result in the Chinese Grand Prix was a good one for Brawn GP 3rd & 4th in a very wet race which could have easily ended in the barrier for any driver. Both drivers first and second in the drivers championship and the team leading the constructors championship but I would be lying if i said I wasn’t at least a little disappointed with the result.

Sebastien Vettel won the race and Mark Webber was second but they were faster than the Brawn GP cars today by some margin, true they were faster in qualifying too but they were on a light fuel load so it looked like Brawn GP would have the better race pace than the Red Bull cars. However the both JB and RB seemed to struggle in the wet conditions with them both complained of difficulty getting the tyres and breaks up to temperature. We obviously got a lot of rain in Malaysia and Jenson won there but he was so far ahead once the rain came and it was so torrential we didn’t realy get to gauge the pace of the cars in those conditions. Today however it showed that BGP001 is not at its best when running in the wet and despite Jenson threatening Webber for a short time it was inevitable that he would lose out in the end.

I did say I was a little disappointed but I am trying to look at the positives, the BGP001 is a car which had zero wet weather testing before the season and only a few laps in Malaysia so to come 3rd and 4th is pretty good damn good but after the highs of the first two races its just a little less that I had hoped for. I do however believe that we still have the best pace in the ideal dry and warm conditions and that is exactly what we are going to see in the next race in Bahrain so I am looking forward to a great result there.

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Just as we expected the FIA Court Of Appeal has found that the diffusers used by Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota are legal:

FIA Statement:
“The FIA International Court of Appeal has decided to deny the appeals submitted against decisions numbered 16 to 24 taken by the Panel of the Stewards on 26 March at the 2009 Grand Prix of Australia and counting towards the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship.

“Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the Court has concluded that the Stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations.

“Full reasons for this decision will be provided in due course.”

This will mean that the teams keep their points from the first two races and will be able to continue to race for the remainder of the season with the double decker diffuser design. However this also means that the rival teams will almost certainly introduce their own double decker diffuser designs and will probably start to close the gap to the three teams in the coming races.

It will be interesting to see if any other tems are ready to use a double decker diffuser in China.

Ross Brawn had this to say:
“We are pleased with the decision reached by the International Court of Appeal today. We respect the right of our competitors to query any design or concept used on our cars through the channels available to them. The FIA Technical Department, the Stewards at the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix and now five judges at the International Court of Appeal have confirmed our belief that our cars have always strictly complied with the 2009 Technical Regulations.

“The decision of the International Court of Appeal brings this matter to its conclusion and we look forward to continuing on the track the challenge of what has been a very exciting start to the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship.”

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BREAKING NEWS:

Evening Standard
Rory Byrne is Half An Inch Tall
In a shocking revelation this afternoon Ferrari consultant Rory Byrne has admitted to being only half an inch tall. He let slip this astonishing news when being interviewed about the impending decision over the ‘trick’ diffusers of Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota. During the interview he commented that the Brawn GP diffuser is illegal because you can see parts of the suspension when the car is viewed from beneath. At first this led the interviewer to think that there was another spy scandal brewing because of Bryne having this information. The interviewer dug a little deeper and eventually Rory had to admit that it was because he is only half an inch tall and was able to sneak underneath see the design of the Brawn BGP001 when it was sitting in the garage. “After all, how else would I have known what the BGP001 looks like from underneath” he was quoted as saying.

…

All the talk today is obviously about diffusers, we aren’t due to hear the decision from the FIA appeal court until Wednesday afternoon but the hearing will start at 11am today. There isn’t much I can say on the whole thing that hasn’t been said already so below is a few different interesting stories about today’s events.

The FIA Court of Appeal - is it really important?
Views on the Diffuser Issue
Button Confident of Victory in the Diffuser Row
Racing Gets its Day in Court
Brawn Optimistic Ahead of Diffuser Day
The World Title Could Be Decided Tomorrow
Diffuser Crunch Time

… and one story not related to the diffuser hearing … 

Pitpass
Ferrari Sets Up Working Group
Not strictly Brawn GP related but I thought this needed comment. It looks like Ferrari is about to set up a new team within their team whos’ job it is to basically redesign their 2009 car to the point that they will probably end the season with a car very different from the one they have now. This of course will introduce massive new costs that they didn’t anticipate at the start of the season and I find it funny that despite all the cost cuts this season that their budget could be set to surge. There are some striking similarities between this and the 1998 season when McLaren started off the season with a very dominant car. I read one that Ferrari brought updates to every one of the 1998 Grand Prix and it is my opinion that the 1998 season Ferrari then set a precedent that other teams had to match to keep up and this was the start of the really big spending in Formula 1.

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