Formula One News — March 2009

Jackie Pretorius has died at the age of 74 from injuries received when intruders broke into his house in Glen Austin, a suburb of Johannesburg, three weeks ago. It was the second such attack on the Pretorius house. His wife Shirley died as a result of her injuries in a previous assault some years ago.

Peter Cooper, a noted British motor sport adminstrator, has died at the age of 86. Cooper became Chief Executive for the Royal Automobile Club Motor Sports Association in 1982, following the death of Basil Tye.

Brawn GP's stunning victory in Melbourne was achieved despite errors by both drivers and this bodes well for the races ahead. At the same time, the team is very aware that the rival F1 outfits are going to be working on diffusers and other developments long before there is a decision about the legality of the systems from the FIA International Court of Appeal.

Formula 1 people may be kids at heart, but they don't tend to believe in fairytales. They are a little too cynical for that. And yet, ever since the retirement of Robochamp Michael Schumacher, the sport has been blessed with a series of fairytales.

Stories have been circulating on the Internet suggesting that the Abu Dhabi circuit may not be ready in time for the planned GP in November. These have been denied by the organisers.

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When he launched the Virgin sponsorship of Brawn GP on Saturday in Melbourne, Ross Brawn said that the deal was "both commercial and technical" and both he and Sir Richard Branson talked about the synergies between F1 and some of the other Virgin companies, such as the airlines, the trains and Virgin Galactic, the spaceship company that aims to develop the space tourist business.

Australian GP - Race Notes

Lewis Hamilton has been declared the third placed finisher in the Australian GP. The British driver was given the position when Jarno Trulli was given a 25-sec penalty for passing another car behind the Safety Car.

Australian GP - Sunday Photos

Australian GP - Sunday Press Conference

Australian GP - Sunday Team Quotes

Australian GP - Race Results

Brawn Grand Prix made the perfect start in Formula 1 in qualifying in Melbourne with a 1-2 on the grid at Albert Park. After practice had been dominated by Nico Rosberg in his Williams-Toyota, the Brawn-Mercedes came to the fore in the Q1 session with Rubens Barrichello ahead of Jenson Button.

The Formula 1 teams continue to try to find the limits of the new regulations with Williams protesting Ferrari and Red Bull over their aerodynamic packages in Melbourne. The protest is being held at the moment and hopefully there will be answers before long.

Lewis Hamilton will start the Australian GP from the back of the field because the team was forced to change his gearbox because of a broken fourth gear in qualifying. This meant that he was unable to set the best time possible from his car.

The FIA has announced the weights of the various cars after the qualifying in Australia and it is interesting to see that the top 10 have not really gambled much on fuel.

The FIA stewards in Australia have excluded the Toyota team from the qualifying session of the event after the cars were found to have an upper rear wing element which showed "extreme flexibility" in contravention of Article 3.15 of the Technical Regulations.

Australian GP - Saturday Photos

Australian GP - Saturday Press Conference

Australian GP - Saturday Team Quotes

Australian GP - Qualifying Results

The Williams-Toyota team was fastest again in the third session in Melbourne and the signs are that the car may be as quick as it has seemed thus far, although the ever-cautious Williams team continues to play things down, worrying that the pace of the Brawn cars may be better over longer runs.

Australian GP - Practice 3 Results

The plans for new teams to emerge to boost the F1 grids next year have been boosted significantly by the announcement that the FIA will allow budget-capped teams being allowed to operate for only $42m.