1. I love underdogs.  Ferrari, McLaren & Renault always think they’re top dog at the start of the season & the others are just for show.  Not anymore.  For this season anyway. 
2. They deserve their success so far.  Their team has been at the tail end most of the races since they joined F1.  Yes, Button won a GP for the team prior to this season but it was more of luck than pace.  It’s a different story this year.
3. Make Ferrari realize they made all the wrong moves post-Schumacher era.  They had a brilliant technical person and tactician in their stable.  They released him in favor of an Italian.  Honda hired him last season and he now owns Brawn Racing.  Guess what?  He’s now kicking the living hell out of everybody.  Bad move for Ferrari…
4. Make the big budget team look stupid.  Brawn, Toyota and Williams got this one right.  They developed the “Double-Decker Diffuser” that creates more downforce for their car.  The other teams?  Well, they were napping instead of doing their jobs.  They’re now paying for that big time!
5. To spite Flavio Briatore.  He’s blaming Brawn for developing the “double-diffuser” and demanding that Brawn pay for their development cost of it.  That’s just plain stupid!  They were caught napping on the job… Accept it!
6. To Hamilton: You need a great car to win.  Last year, Button had the time to do triathlon because he had a awful car and Lewis Hamilton made a comment that he didn’t have time for that because he was busy trying to win the championship.  Hmmm… maybe its Lewis’ turn to join triathlons this year.

 Let’s try to see if we can dissect what’s wrong with the prancing horse…

• Lack of forward planning.  They were so busy trying to win the 2008 championship that they failed to absorb the 2009 technical rules announced that year.  Brawn GP (formerly Honda) & Toyota gave up on the 2008 championship early and concentrated their efforts on the 2009 rules.  Right now, Brawn GP has dominated the 1^st two races because of an innovation allowed by the 2009 rules.  Ferrari & the others failed to take advantage of this.
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• Poor race strategies.  This is quite surprising for a team with vast experience.  Example, everything went wrong in Malaysia.  Massa qualified 16^th because the team failed to monitor the drivers standing in Q1.  Kimi was given full wet tires before it even started to rain.  It rained hard approximately 3 laps later but running a full wet on dry tracks completely destroyed Kimi’s tires in less than 3 laps.
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• No driver input.  Kimi is one of the most talented drivers out there, easily top 3!  But that’s just it, he’s just a driver.  Give Kimi a fast car and he will run circles around the very best out there.  Ask him how to improve the quickness of the car by 0.5 sec, I’m pretty sure he’ll answer back “step on the gas pedal some more!”
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• Poor utilization of personnel.  They have Michael Schumacher as their special advisor.  MS is a hands-on kind of guy and he gives a lot of inputs on the car.  The question there is if the team listens to him.  When MS was still racing, he constantly changed his strategy throughout the race, constantly discussing scenarios with his race engineers.  He was doing this while driving at 200 kph.  Now that’s mental toughness!  They need MS on the pit wall really bad.  So far the guys there are making all the wrong decisions.

Ferrari is so far behind in the development of their 2009 car.  If the FIA upholds the legality of the “double decker” rear diffuser, all the other teams without this will be in a lot trouble.  Ferrari will be forced to develop this “double decker” and it will take at least 2 months of wind tunnel testing.  Overall, it will be a good 3-4 months to perfect the aerodynamic efficiency of the rear diffuser and install it on their racecar.  By that time, Brawn GP or Toyota will be fighting for the championship, leaving the rest fighting for scraps.

Ferrari, BMW, Red Bull & Renault just filed a protest with the FIA over Brawn GP & Toyota’s “double decker” rear diffuser.  They attribute the success of Brawn GP & Toyota to this innovative design.  They don’t have it so why should the others have it.  Very typical.

Go back to 1998, Traction Control was outlawed.  Driving skill was a premium back then.  McLaren develops what I perceive as an ingenious Traction Control (TC) system that is controlled by the driver, not computer.  They installed a second brake pedal linked to the rear wheels only.  If the driver puts too much power, just step on the second brake pedal to control the rear wheel spin.  Pure genius!  Not only that, McLaren cleared this innovation with the FIA technical team, who deemed it very legal.  This was a secret for several races and Ferrari was struggling to keep up with the McLarens.  But who can keep a secret that long anyway?  Ferrari finds out and guess what?  Protest were filed because they don’t have that system.  Very typical.  In the end, spoiled brats Ferrari had their way & the TC system was banned.  Despite this, McLaren driver Mika Hakkinen went on to win his 1st Driver’s title at the expense of the Ferrari driver Micheal Schumacher.

Go back to 2006,  active suspensions are banned.  Renault develops an innovative damper system on their suspensions that makes driving a Renault around the corners as if it were on railroad tracks.  No problems with the FIA tech team.  Ferrari is struggling to keep with Alonso & Renault.  But Ferrari finds out and like a spoiled kid with no candy, they cry all the way to the FIA to have these dampers banned.  Very typical.  Ferrari gets their way in the end.  Despite this, Renault and Alonso went on to win both Drivers & Constructors championships.

These crybabies have filed protests at Australia & Malaysia over these “double decker” rear diffusers but were rejected by the Stewards.  These were deemed legal.  Because these crybabies were not innovative enough and can’t come up with their own design, they elevate their protest to the FIA.  Their sportsman rule is “If we don’t have it, nobody should have it”.

My suggestion, fire all of your technical team!  Try to recuit Ross Brawn & his tech team because right now they are the brightest of this year’s championship.  Oh I forgot, Ross owns his own team…

Lets get on with racing and stop acting like babies!

So far, Brawn GP has dominated the 1st two races so far, which left the pre-season favorites scrambling for answers.

The “rear diffuser” channels the flow of air out of the back of the car as smoothly as possible for maximum grip and down force.  An innovative design by Brawn GP & Toyota, a double decker, maximizes the performance of the diffuser & it clearly shows that they are class on their own in race track.

While Ferrari, McLaren, BMW were battling for the championships in 2008, Brawn GP (formerly Honda), Toyota were in thick of developing their 2009 cars.  They are now reaping the benefits while the 2008 top teams neglected to maximize 2009 technical specs.  According to Ross Brawn, he presented in the FIA technical meeting last March 2008 steps to simplify aspects of the 2009 regulations.  This would have included the rear diffuser modifications.  However, his proposals were rejected.

McLaren already disqualified in 2007 championship because of stealing Ferrari technical data are once again entangled in a new controversy of lying to the stewards at the Australian GP about the overtaking incident between Lewis (McLaren) and Jarno (Toyota).

The FIA has charged McLaren with breaching the international sporting code on five counts.  An extraordinary meeting was set by FIA’s World Motor Sport Council on April 29 to hear these charges.  If found guilty of the charges, McLaren faces a minimum of points exclusion/race ban or at a maximum of disqualification from the 2009 championships.

The team, including posterboy Lewis, was caught lying to the Stewards at the Australian GP about the overtaking incident between Lewis (McLaren) and Jarno (Toyota).  They did this so Lewis can be promoted from 4th to 3rd at the expense of “innocent” Jarno, who was demoted to 12th place via a 25-sec penalty.  Well, spending millions of dollars for the sport, the end justifies the means for this team.

Firing Dave Ryan, McLaren Sporting Director & so-called brains behind the lying controversy, will not exonerate the team of any wrong doing.  Now Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team Principal, is doing an impersonation of Pontius Pilate… washing his hands on any knowledge of the incident!  Really!  These people from McLaren thinks that they’re the most brilliant and the rest of us are plain stupid.

As for Lewis, he’s just so lucky that the FIA loves him.  He just got off with a little scolding like a 3-year old boy.  He states his innocence and that he was duped by Ryans into lying.  Really!?!  Doesn’t he know what is right or wrong?  Does he have a backbone?

I would prefer McLaren to be banned from this year’s championship.  This is not the 1st time they were caught cheating.  Remember 2007 when they were caught stealing Ferrari technical data?  But my guess that they will be given a slap on the wrist punishment, like a few race bans or points exclusion.  FIA needs more teams for F1 so I guess they’re willing to turn a blind eye on this.