F1 Australian GP: Preview at Grip and Hammer

The teams are now arriving in Australia for the first round of the 2009 F1 Championship. To somewhat get you up to speed here are some of the pre-season highlights that I’ve been able to catch. With almost all the teams on an even playing field with all the rule changes many of the teams feel that they have a race winning car or even a championship winning car. Of course, only time will tell.

Ferrari: Nothing major here. There were some pre-season worries about the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) but Ferrari claims that those have been sorted out and that Kimi says that it’s an ejoyable ride. Massa and Raikkonen have swapped numbers because of the order of the 2008 championship (even though Kimi is the better driver).

2009 Ferrari F60

McLaren-Mercedes: They have been voicing concerns over the last couple rounds of testing. The last testing session they had they seemed to be headed back to a winning car form but the engineers and drivers are still voicing concern and room for improvement.

2009 McLaren-Mercedes MP24

BMW Sauber: Testing seemed to be well. They’ve been repeatedly at the top of the timesheets and nothing really exciting to report.

2009 BMW

Renault: Alonso seems to have brought this car up quickly though testing and has shown the Renault has some great potential.

2009 Renault

Toyota: These guys are starting to get really quick and have posed a threat to they typical leaders. First to develop the new defuser design that was cleared by the FIA, opposing teams are quick to point out that it’s illegal and there will be protests against them and other who run a similar defuser.

2009 Toyota TF109

STR-Ferrari: Very agressive new car. People seem to have high hopes for this team.

2009 STR

Red Bull-Renault: Vettel moved to this team at the end of last year. Seems to have done well in testing. I’m not sure what to expect from this team yet since last year it got beat out by its “junior” team.

2009 Red Bull

Williams-Toyota: Again this will be one of those teams that seem to be unpredictable. Testing toward the end of the sessions, Williams seem to get it together and top some of the time sheets. However, rumor has it that they will be running that contriversial defuser.

2009 Williams-Toyota

Force India – Mercedes: As much as these guys think that they should be in Formula 1, I still question how they can servive with sponsors with such a harsh racing report. I hope that these guys will do better this year, at least scoring a point or two. Luck will have to be on their side.

2009 Force India

Brawn (BGP): This is the potential “Cinderella Story”. These guys have taken the fallen team of Honda and rebuilt their own team as Brawn (BGP). This team has topped the timesheets and has made huge leaps and bounds over the rest of the field. Going from the bottom of the timesheets (from Honda) to the top has been nothing less than a miricle. However, Ross Brawn seems to know what he’s doing… he’s only been with the top team in Formula 1 (Ferrari).