Drivers’ championship
Jenson Button 61
Rubens Barrichello 35
Sebastian Vettel 29
Mark Webber 27.5
Jarno Trulli 19.5
Timo Glock 13
Nico Rosberg 11.5
Felipe Massa 11
Fernando Alonso 11
Kimi Raikkonen 9
Lewis Hamilton 9
Nick Heidfeld 6
Heikki Kovalainen 4
Sebastien Buemi 3
Sebastien Bourdais 2
Robert Kubica 2
Adrian Sutil 0
Nelson Piquet Jnr 0
Kazuki Nakajima 0
Giancarlo Fisichella 0
Constructors’ championship
Brawn 96
Red Bull 56.5
Toyota 32.5
Ferrari 20
McLaren 13
Williams 11.5
Renault 11
BMW 8
Toro Rosso 5
Force India 0
TommyB
7th June 2009, 17:18
Ooh the new rules have really made this championship exciting. Last year 7 different winners, this year title over in 7 races.
DanThorn
7th June 2009, 19:09
Last year was only ‘exciting’ because the leading drivers made a load of mistakes and safety cars and a large amount of wet races produced unpredictable results. This year the racing is much better and even though Jenson has won 6 races, there is still huge anticipation in quali and the race because the teams are all so closely matched. Jenson is running away with it because he’s the best driver at the moment. Having the best car helps, but this year the term ‘best car’ has a different meaning to what it did in ’88, ’92, ’02, ’04 etc…
Internet
7th June 2009, 20:28
Looks like you’ve been taken in by Button and Brawn repeating how they will Struggle against Red Bull and Ferrari before each race.
It’s clear the Brawn is a dominant car. It has 6 wins, 3 1-2s, numerous poles. It’s so dominant that had Button not been there, Rubens would have a couple of wins to his name already and would still be leading the WDC and Brawn with just Barichellos points would be 2nd in WCC. The teams aren’t closely matched at all. The only reason Vettel got the pole was that he was fueled ligther. In terms of race pace, the Brawn is even more dominant.
TommyB
7th June 2009, 23:26
I agree Internet. I’m sick of hearing Brawn complaining about how hard each weekend is and how hard they struggle in practice. It’s a gimick
HounslowBusGarage
7th June 2009, 21:09
Agreed, Dan. Agreed.
TommyB
7th June 2009, 23:27
“but this year the term ‘best car’ has a different meaning to what it did in ‘88, ‘92, ‘02, ‘04 etc…”
Because it’s not a Mclaren, Williams or Ferrari??
F1Yankee
7th June 2009, 23:40
exactly
DanThorn
8th June 2009, 0:09
By that I mean ‘best car’ as in the most consistently quick at a wide variety of circuits, rather than being utterly dominant everywhere and being untouchable.
They’re maybe ‘only’ 1 or 2 tenths ahead of their nearest competitor at any given circuit, but add to that the strategic genius of Ross Brawn and the massive confidence boost Button has got from having a winning car and you’ve got a dominant team. IMO the team and the driver(s) are the biggest factors in Brawn’s success, whereas in other years with dominant cars the car itself was a larger portion of that…
matt
8th June 2009, 0:20
It is differentto previous dominances, because in several of the races Button won despite the fact that he was racing against a better-placed or supposedley faster car. There’s no doubting that it has been dominant overall, but in quite a few races it was Button’s skill or other’s errors that allowed him to win.
Looks like everyone else is denying that there is still a fair amount of competition because they are easily dissatisfied.
TommyB
8th June 2009, 13:23
No car has been faster than the Brawn in the dry this year
matt
11th June 2009, 21:29
vettel got held up in the 2 races where he may have been faster though.
TommyB
7th June 2009, 20:01
Well Jenson wasn’t very good in the last 2 years. I’d hardly say it’s all about the driver this year. It’s Brawn-Brawn, Red Bull-Redbull, Toyota-Toyota. Last year was brilliant because you tuned in not knowing who would win. This year you do
Dougie
9th June 2009, 15:43
How can you say Jenson wasn’t very good in the last 2 years… and yet claim that Alonso and Hamilton are still the best on the grid. (you did’t say it, but I’m sure you believe it).
In Turkey Alonso & Hamilton finished 10th & 13th respectively. You’ll say “but they’ve got rubbish cars”. These were pretty much the same finishing positions as Jenson in 2007 (13th) and 2008 (11th) in an absolute dog of a car.
The guy is top drawer, give him a break!
HounslowBusGarage
7th June 2009, 22:01
I can’t help loving chaos and the upsetting of the established order.
And so when I see that last year’s top two teams combined have just over one third of this year’s Championship leader, I am happy.
TommyB
7th June 2009, 23:25
A new pecking order isn’t fun. Not when you don’t have a championship anymore.
TommyB
8th June 2009, 0:00
Did anyone see Wikipedia today by the way?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/Untitled258/Picture2.png?t=1244415334
Rikadyn
8th June 2009, 8:22
o.o Congrats to Force India on winning next race…
o.o
Martin
8th June 2009, 3:23
I dont mind so much the whole Brawn cars winning and I like Button back when he was with Williams(Before Frank screwed him over to get Montoya, and that worked out well). I also realise that anytime the Formula introduces major changes it upsets the pecking order for a year or so, but this is getting rediculoous. I guess Max and Bernie really do know what they are doing(sic). I didnt want it but now I believe that FOTA should break away and do their own thing as next year with all the cars running cosworths will be like CART racing was in the early days. Maybe it will be like the days of Formula 5000 and F1 with the drivers driving both. I do somewhat relish that Hamilton is a nonfactor this year and Alonso is also just taking up track space. At least Schumacher would take a noncompetitive car and drive the wheels off of it.
schumi the greatest
8th June 2009, 9:27
You cant take anything away from button hes driving so well this year hes making no mistakes. the only problem for him is at the moment the brawn is soo superior the only way cars can beat them is by trying high risk 3 stop strategies to give themselves a chance.
jensons tittle will be tainted despite the fact he’s benn brilliant this year
James G
8th June 2009, 18:24
Firstly, in order for a championship to be ‘tainted’, there would need to be some suggestion that Button or Brawn had intentionally acted in an improper manner and that just isn’t the case.
Secondly, the same could be said of almost any driver – Mansell in 92, Schumacher in 02 and 04, Prost and Senna in their McLaren days. I don’t recall Senna winning any championships in a Minardi.
It’s true that the car is very good, but this is F1, not a spec series. The fact of the matter is that he has driven almost flawlessly for seven races. The same cannot be said of Barrichello or Vettel. They had their chances to gain points, but didn’t take them. Vettel crashed in Australia and Monaco and threw away pole on Sunday and Barrichello clearly doesn’t have the pace or the tyre management to challenge Button.
yelrom
8th June 2009, 9:42
buttons good and all, but he bores and annoys me. we really need differnt winners up there, and most likely button will win britain. It also annoys me because of the brawn others dont get a chace to win. The last 2 yrs the title was til the last race, this year it looks to be over by italy.
if brawn didnt come into f1, redbull wld be the dominent team, sebastien wld have won in bahrain and mark webber wld have won in spain and turkey, when you think about it.
Kovy
8th June 2009, 13:51
Question: has there ever been an F1 season where the driver in the best car didn’t win the championship?
Last 2 years, Ferrari and McLaren have been the best, before that Renault and Alonso as champ, then Ferrari and Schumacher, hen McLaren and Hakkinen, then Williams, then Benentton, and so on.
matt
11th June 2009, 21:27
The McLaren was debatably the better car in 2005.
schumi the greatest
8th June 2009, 14:08
@ Martin – i think hamilton and alonso are getting much more out of their cars than the performance allows…the mclaren really is a dog. Pains me to say it as i was looking forward to seeing hamilton step up another gear thus year.
@ kovy – i cant think of any season where there was a team who had a big advantage like brawn have today and not gone on to win the tittle. there’s been a few occasions where its been close, 97, villeneuve was 2 seconds quicker than 3rd place on grid for 1st race that year but he nearly managed to balls it up. super human effort by schumacher that year.
i think there’s also a case for 95, the williams was a stronger car than schumi’s benetton they just couldnt live with him because he would change strategies and use his lighter car to make up the deficit.
I think though the most obvious 1 is 86, the williams of piquet and mansell had the advantage that year but they kept taking points off eachother while prost consistently picked up podiums and took the tittle in the last race.
Martin
9th June 2009, 14:32
@schumi, I believe you give those 2 more credit than is deserved. I have followed this sport for 40yrs and have seen good drivers and great drivers and those people just taking up track position. I believe both Alonso and Hamilton to be good drivers but not great. I remember the year that Mclaren with Prost and Lauda won every race except 1. I also remeber when Prost and Mansell out drove Senna at Monza when he had a clearly superior car. I also saw Senna do incredible things with his car(sometimes good and bad). The great drivers always find a way to be competitive even when they are outclassed with equipment. You brought up Schumacher in 95 and that is the point I am making that he found ways to overcome the deficencies of the car and use them to his advantage. I dont believe Hamilton or Alonso have that same drive to think outside the box and make everyone else second guess their own strategies. I will say that last year Alonso did try a couple of things that gave me pause to think about his abilities, but this year he has not, I will say that he does ride Renault’s back about getting him better part for the car instead of just sitting on it.
I do respect that the drivers for the most part are backing the fota teams and say they will move with them to a new series.
Bottom line- F1 is doomed in its current form and management by the 2 gentlemen that have systematically run it down for either their own fortune or power. You know who the players are and why all the good tracks in europe as well as the rest of the world are no longer on the schedule. F1 should never have left Canada, France or San Marino. Bring back the old tracks and get back to what made the sport great. You can keep malaysia, China, Singapore, Bahrain and the others, they bring nothing to the sport except for the money that goes to Bernie. If the sport cannot see this then it doesnt matter anyway, I will have a reason to sleep in on sunday mornings.
scunnyman
10th June 2009, 7:28
I disagree with the term “BEST CAR” being given to BrawnGP this season.
It would be more sensible to say the rest of the field have the worst cars. Or worst drivers. Or the worst strategies.
Or the teams have more on their minds with the FIA than jense and Brawn.
Michel S.
11th June 2009, 16:57
.. and the F1Fanatic championship?