At last, after what seems to have been the least conclusive off-season in a long while, the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship kicks off in Melbourne’s Albert Park on Friday. And, after months in which several teams appear to have achieved good things in testing, we may finally start to get some answers to that crucial question: who will set the pace?
Brawn, of course, dominated testing once they started running in March, and Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello come to Australia full of hope. Red Bull, however, have indicated that they intend to protest the Brackley car’s diffuser design if it is accepted by the Albert Park stewards.
Click Here For More Formula 1 Photos
“From our short but crucial testing programme over the past two weeks, we have reinforced our view that the BGP 001 is a good car and an excellent platform from which to develop performance over the course of the season,” said team principal Ross Brawn. “Our focus during the seven days of pre-season testing was on reliability and developing our understanding of the car in race conditions.”
Ferrari seem very happy with the development work they have done on the F60, and the only fly in their ointment all winter, reliability issues apart, was Brawn. Felipe Massa says he will adopt the same approach as he did in 2008, when he so narrowly lost out in the title fight with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
“We will work even harder to try to finish most of the races in the points because we saw that maybe one point is enough to lose the championship at the end of the year,” the Brazilian said, “so I think the approach now has to be the same in terms of driving, in terms of working with the team but trying to be a little bit more consistent.
McLaren encountered a significant aerodynamic problem during the Spanish tests in March, but modifications which appeared late in the month in Jerez went some way towards improving the car and world champion Hamilton is feeling optimistic.
“There is no better place to begin the championship than in Australia,” he said. “The weather is fantastic, the facilities are excellent and the people of Melbourne make us all feel extremely welcome. Most importantly, everyone arrives with an air of enthusiasm and expectation. Despite weeks of winter testing, it’s still difficult to know exactly who has the best package, and finding out over the weekend in Albert Park is always fascinating. Perhaps we don’t come to Melbourne with the same prospects to challenge at the front that we experienced in both 2007 and ‘08, but the whole team will be working tirelessly to help us move back to the front.”
Click Here For More Formula 1 Photos
Albert Park is a technically demanding, high-speed ‘street’ circuit. Cars reach maximum speeds of 300 km/h (185 mph) and average 225 km/h (140 mph) around the 5.3 kilometre (3.3 mile) 16-turn lap. The track surface is bumpy, particularly in the braking areas, hard on the brakes and slippery at the start of the race weekend before the road rubbers in.
Teams will run relatively high levels of downforce, and everyone will be looking for good front-end grip which is the secret of quick laps here.
| 
|