Countdown to the Indian Grand Prix

In a move that was expected to take place for more than a week now, GF has finally moved to Ferrari for the rest of the 2009 season. He will replace Luca Badoer who had one of the most disappointing stint in F1 ever.

GF thanked Force India boss Dr. Vijay Mallya for letting him go and allowing him to drive for Ferrari for the rest of the season. Mallya said he had made the decision to release his driver for the good of Fisichella and of Formula One racing, and not in exchange for any financial settlement. He also hinted that the 36-year-old’s Ferrari deal extends beyond 2009, suggesting a possible testing role for the Roman next season. Wow Dr. Mallya! Very generous indeed. He added that a competitive Italian driver in a Ferrari for Monza is a positive story for Formula One, which can only help raise the sport's profile in these difficult times.

If only everyone was this altruistic and level headed! But this is a masterstroke by the Indian boss. There was nothing that anyone could do to stop GF from moving to Ferrari and the smartest thing to do was the make the most of the situation. For sure GF has helped Force India in more ways than we can imagine. But for this exact reason it would be so hard to part ways with him and see him in a rival car. The best thing he did was to not charge any settlement fee.

Force India is truly Indian!

The next question would be, who would drive the now vacant car number 21? My guess would be Vitantonio Liuzzi who is the test driver. Well, my guess is as good as yours.

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Finally we got a result from yore!

A McLaren in first place and a Ferrai in Second. MW however takes third place with a brilliant NR in fourth.

So the final classification is:

1. LH
2. KR
3. MW
4. NR
5. HK
6. TG
7. JB
8. JT
9. KN
10. RB
11. NH
12. NP
13. RK
14. GF
15. JA
16. SB

SV, FA and AS did not finish the race.

It is the first time that a KERS car has won a GP. Not only that, the second place car was also a KERS powered Ferrari. A good race for Ferrari after the horrific crash of FM yesterday in qualifying.

A great race!

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In a horrific crash caused by a loose spring from Rubens Barrichello's (RB) Brawn, bouncing off the track and then hitting Felipe Massa (FM) on his helmet. This caused him to lose control and go off the track at 260 kph. Even though he was found unconscious after the crash, his foot was on the brakes which is believed to slow him down to 100 kph before he crashed.

Massa was then taken to the hospital where it was confirmed that he has fractured his skull. Inspite of the latest carbon fiber helmet and the HANS (Head & Neck Support) device, which had come to a lot of criticism by drivers a few years ago, he has suffered quite an impact on his head. It is quite scary to imagine what would have happened had he not braked hard enough or was at a higher speed. RB, one of his closest friend and fellow Brazilian, felt really sad that the cause of FM's accident came from his car. Ross Brawn said it can only be described as a 'freak accident'.

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Between all the hullaballoo that half the teams are making against the £ 40 Million budget cap for the next season, Williams has gone ahead and lodged their entry for next year! The deadline for submission of their entries for all the teams is not until this friday.

Williams is saying that lodging a 2010 entry was merely a formality, as the team is contracted to both the FIA and Formula One Management to participate next season. In their latest letter to the FIA, the teams have requested that the existing 2009 technical rules be retained for next season, while the future framing of the Formula One regulations is considered further.

The team that has been the most vocal in the protest is obviously Ferrari, with their mulitmillion dollar budgets. Stefano Domenicali, the team principal said, “For sure the costs are something that all the teams are fully committed to work on, but as I said before the costs are related to the business of the teams. We know what we can invest, we know what we can do and I think this is something that the teams have to discuss internally and decide on their own what they can afford, to keep the value of Formula One at the standard that we know. It is something that we feel should not be imposed on us by someone else."

Have you heard of something called as 'Recession' Stefano? Seriously, read the papers!

Anyways, who would like to guess what the turn of events are going to be from here on?

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Yes, that was the story of the Race today.

As I mentioned in my last post and as has been mentioned by so many more people around the world, Jenson Button has a Schumacheresque quality to him. So it was not a surprise to see him win the 2009 Grand Prix de Monaco. Everyone knows that it is quite impossible to overtake at Monaco and the result proved that. However, there were more changes in the order from the start than there normally is.

Button and Barrichelo finished 1-2 for Brawn and they were followed by both the Ferraris. So the story of the race is that Ferrari is closer than ever in this season to challenge for the top step of the Podium. Raikkonen drove a pretty clean race and if it was not for the start where Barichello overtook him, he would have challenged Button for victory.

The story of the race for me however was the Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella. He just about missed out on a point which would meant more than a victory to Force India. Last year Sutil missed out on a point finish after Kimi crashed into him coming out of the Tunnel. But Fisichella drove a very competitive race gaining 4 places after starting 13th.

All in all, it still is not too late for the Ferraris to challenge the Brawns. McLaren doesn't seem to be into it yet. The team I am looking forward to is Force India with more upgrades coming in Turkey and Germany.

This is bound to get interesting!

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A few seasons ago, if you missed qualifying, it didn't really matter that much. You anyways knew that Schumi would be at Pole with his team mate in the first two rows and the McLarens giving them company. History is repeating itself this season as well, but this time its the Brit Jenson Button!

However, Monaco has changed the order somewhat. Yes, Jenson Button is still on Pole, BUT, do I see a RED CAR next to him? Yes! It IS a Ferrari and the Scuderia Ferrari at that! Kimi Raikkonen has finally managed to get a Scuderia Ferrari into the front row, splitting the Brawn GP team mates. Whats more, his team mate Massa is not very far behind on the third row. Kimi however was looking good for Pole, and as he said after the qualifying, there is a much bigger difference between starting from first or second place at Monaco. He however HAS to be feeling better already. Chris Dyer, Ferrari's Chief Engineer summed it up by saying, “A great result for the team: two cars in the front three rows is a reward for all the work we’ve done. Kimi drove fantastically well, while Felipe was almost always in traffic, which prevented him from doing better. ............ The team and drivers worked really well in managing the situation and the credit for this result goes to them and everyone back at the factory who worked on preparing for this Grand Prix. ........ we will do our best to bring both cars home on the podium.” (Formula1.com)

At the other end of the grid meanwhile, there was another team rejoicing. Force India had finally managed to get BOTH their cars into Q2. They finally qualified 13th (GF) and 15th (AS) on the grid which is an excellent result for this team from India. I guess it helped that Dr. Mallya was away in South Africa to watch his IPL Franchise, Bangalore Royal Challengers, in the second Semi Final playing Chennai Super Kings. It is a very good result for this team and as Giancarlo Fisichella says, "For tomorrow I want to get to the end of the race and let's see - this is Monaco, you never know what can happen." (Formula1.com)

You want to make a guess?

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