Red Bull Score Their First Ever Win With A One Two!

Having brought Toro Rosso their first ever win last year Sebastian Vettel follows up a remarkable season by bringing their elder brother team Red Bull their first ever win. Team principle Christian Horner and ex McLaren designer Adrian Newey must be delighted. The result still won’t having me drinking a drink that I think is a good for you as drinking detoxinated petrol.

Great to see another new team on the top step. Wonder if either of the Red Bull racers are up to sour grapes Flavio Briatore’s standards whose Renault drivers failed to bring home any points today.

Ross Brawn’s outfit did great by bringing in Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello third and fourth.

What a drive for Red Bull though! Born out of the ashes of Jaguar Racing I am sure Eddie Irvine will be taking a fair bit of the credit today for himself

Adrian Sutil and Force India must feel robbed again though having crashed out from a strong sixth position and I wonder what’s going to happen at Ferrari with their worst start to a season in decades. Michael Schumacher to become team boss?

Now Is The Time To Set Yourself Up

With the economic downturn Honda announced in early December that it was quitting Formula 1 which left the team unsure as to who would own it, if anyone, for the 2009 season. With various potential buyers dropping out of the frame it was looking like Honda was more than likely to not appear on the grid at all.

It took Ross Brawn to step in to save the team and now he’s reaping the benefits. Brawn, an englishman was the ex-team principal for Honda and the former technical director who was instrumental in building Ferrari into the superforce that aided Michael Schumacher into becoming the most successful racing driver of all time.

So why then after only making it onto the grid at the 11th hour are the Brawn GP drivers of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello appearing at the top of the timesheets? I reckon that the main reason is because they gave up work on the 2008 car early in the season when they could see that they would have had no hope in making a dent in the championship and focussed all their energies on the 2009 car. Given that there are a whole raft of changes coming into F1 from slick tyres to smaller rear wings to the largely untested KERS braking system any team who spent more time focussing on the new car would reap the benefits.

After some speculation as to whether or not Brawn GP cars were running light with fuel in order to obtain some much needed sponsorship main racers are now saying that they are in fact the real deal. With all the changes (and Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren languishing at the bottom of the timesheets) you can bet we are in for a great season. And Honda are missing out on a big slice.

This is all a great metaphor for the current economic climate and the fact that no matter how bleak it all looks there are great opportunities. You just have to make them yourself.

Lewis Hamilton Wins The 2008 World Championship!

What a dramatic race in Sao Paolo, Brazil! There will be a film made about this season. And the 2007 one. And a prequel. Also the conspiracies will start – did Toyota slow down to take the limelight away from Ferrari? My verdict? A great season with the better driver and the better team won. Congratulations Lewis!

Vettel: The Youngest Winner Of A Grand Prix

Today Sebastian Vettel became the youngest driver ever to win a Grand Prix and what a date for it to happen. He seems to have saved the sport just when this has been dominating the headlines the last week.

21 year old Vettel led from pole position to claim victory in his 22 GP start beating Fernando Alonso’s maiden victory of 22 years in a rain soaked Imola track. What was even more incredible about this victory is that the Toro Rosso car in which he won is effectively an ex-Minardi back marker.

Toro Rosso is the supposed baby sister team of Red Bull and Vettel was announced as David Coulthard’s replacement recently. He must surely be now wondering if he’s done a wise thing as the Ferrari powered Toro Rosso has been out-performing the Renault powered (and Adrian Newy-designed) Red Bull.

FIA vs. Formula 1!

Another year and another contentious decision in Formula 1 to the detriment of McLaren Mercedes and to the benefit of Ferrari. It seems nowadays that every time Ferrari can benefit from an inquiry the decision is made to their benefit. Last year the sport was a laughing stock and today the FIA have made a mockery of the entire Formula 1 season. Shame on them.

Just to recap. Lewis Hamilton was chasing down Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari and was catching him in the closing laps of the Belgian Grand Prix when the rain started soming down. Lewis, who won a fantastic rainy race in the British Grand Prix has already proved himself as the new rain master now that Schumacher has retired. Lewis was catching Kimi and it was obvious that Lewis had the better confidence under braking in the corner before he made the move that mattered. On that move Kimi squeezed Lewis out and Lewis had to cut the chicane. Lewis then yielded so that Kimi had the lead when they crossed the start/finish line. But then Lewis attacked Kimi in the following corner with the same confidence as we are now accustomed to. Lewis nailed it and the move stuck. Kimi eventually crashed out and Lewis won the race… until the stewards launched an inquiry and judged Lewis to have ”cut the chicane and gained an advantage”, thereby breaching Article 30.3(a) of the sporting regulations and Appendix L chapter 4 Article 2 (g) of the International Sporting Code.

30.3 a) During practice and the race, drivers may use only the track and must at all times observe the provisions of the Code relating to driving behaviour on circuits

2g) The race track alone shall be used by the drivers during the race.

Lewis was handed a 25 second penalty and he was demoted from 1st to 3rd meaning that his lead has been slashed from 8 to 2 points. Last year where he lost out by one point then these 6 points are all the more vital.

So today Lewis and McLaren are the losers again but more importantly the fans are losing out. And would you believe it if I told you that I am writing as a Ferrari fan? What a sad day.

Happy Easter!

Lent is over so we can all eat chocolate like a right old bunch of sinners.  Going from 5 cups of coffee down to none my kidneys started to hurt so I went back onto one cup a day. Now I am just on the tea. I went back on the chocolate soon after the beginning of Lent as it`s just too damn nice. TV I managed to stay off for the whole of Lent except for the last week when I went on a family holiday.  It doesn`t help that my cousin is Orla Chennaoui, a reporter for Sky News. Still, today I will return to London and I think I will stay off TV except for the Formula 1 races. Looks like Ferrari will take this tournament away with themselves though with the pace Raikkonen showed in Malaysia this morning.