Here is the list of the provisional grid and the weight of each respective car (as released by the FIA)

1. Jenson Button, Brawn GP, 646kg
2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 651.5
3. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn GP, 649.5
4. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 655
5. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 651.5
6. Timo Glock, Toyota, 646.5
7. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 655.5
8. Fernando Alonso, Renault, 645
9. Nico Rosberg, Williams, 668
10. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber, 660
11. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams, 676.6
12. Nelson Piquet, Renault, 677.4
13. Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber, 676.3
14. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 683
15. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 678
16. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 673
17. Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso, 669
18. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, 657
19. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 675
20. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India, 656

In what will hopefully be the climax and end to the Lie-gate saga, FIA have given Mc Laren a suspended three race ban.  The Woking based outfit was dragged into the lime light once again for the wrong reasons between the Australian and Malaysian Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton and his race engineer were found guilty of misleading the race stewards.

The FIA statement said:

Having regard to the open and honest way in which McLaren Team Principal, Mr Martin Whitmarsh, addressed the WMSC and the change in culture which he made clear has taken place in his organisation, the WMSC decided to suspend the application of the penalty it deems appropriate.

That penalty is a suspension of the team from three races of the FIA Formula One World Championship. This will only be applied if further facts emerge regarding the case or if, in the next 12 months, there is a further breach by the team of article 151c of the International Sporting Code.

After the events between the races, Mc Laren proceeded to suspend the race engineer. Lewis and Mc Laren apologized to the FIA and Ron Dennis quit as the head of Mc Laren F1 team. It is still debatable if the events led to Ron Dennis stepping down as the chief.

The FIA has cleared the disputed rear diffusers of Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams as a legal interpretation of the 2009 rules. Race Stewards at the Australian Grand Prix had earlier rejected the appeal from Ferrari, Renault, Red Bull and BMW that the diffusers were illegal, forcing the teams to ask the FIA to verify the legality.

The statement from the FIA reads:

The FIA International Court of Appeal has decided to deny the appeals submitted against decisions numbered 16 to 24 taken by the Panel of the Stewards on 26 March at the 2009 Grand Prix of Australia and counting towards the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the Court has concluded that the Stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations.

via FormulaOne.com

Here is a video of Hamilton passing Trulli under the safety car after the latter went onto the grass.

I personally think Hamilton did the right thing by returning the postition to Trulli. When the safety car started Trulli was ahead of Hamilton and considering that both the cars were running very close to each other at the end, it made sense for Trulli to be ahead of Hamilton.

Either way the 25 second penalty is far too severe for a small confusion. Hope the FIA reverts the stewards decision and gives Trulli the podium.

What a race. Amazing overtakings, loads of accidents and debut wins.
My thoughts:

Brawn GP create history by winning their debut race as a team with 1-2 standings. They were helped by some late accidents but both the cars ran an amazing race with Button leading from the start to finish.

Both the Ferraris did not finish the race and scored no points.

Rosberg had a pretty good race  but lost out due to problems in the final stage, losing positions quite rapidly.

Hamilton had a very good race coming 4th from the rear of the field, helped by the multitude of accidents

Sebastian Vettel had the worst luck when he was taken out Robert Kubica with 3 laps to go. Vettel was looking good for 2nd place. Hopefully his form is the sign of greater races to come.

The KERS system provided some additional interest to the races as evidenced by the Ferrari start and its excellent use by Alonso to keep faster cars from overtaking his.

Full Race Results:

Race Results thanks to BBC

F1.com has published the pre race weights of the cars on the grid for the 2009 Australian Grand Prix. The weights, sorted by grid order, are:

1. Jenson Button, Brawn GP, 664.5kg
2. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn GP, 666.5
3. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 657
4. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber, 650
5. Nico Rosberg, Williams, 657
6. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 654
7. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 655.5
8. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 662
9. Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber, 691.5
10. Fernando Alonso, Renault, 680.7
11. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, 690.6
12. Nelson Piquet, Renault, 694.1
13. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India 689
14. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams, 612.5*
15. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 675.5
16. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 684.5
17. Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso, 662.5
18. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 655
19. Timo Glock, Toyota, 670
20. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 660

Notes:

• Clearly both the Brawn cars weren’t light and that shows the clear gap in performance between them and the rest of the grid. They will like most of the grid start with hard compound tyres.
• In the top 8 who qualified with racing fuel loads, Ferrari were clearly out qualified by Vettel and Nico Rosberg.  The difference is minimal and could have been easily due to track conditions.
• Nick Heidfeld, Heikki Kovalainen and Nelson Piquet are carrying the most fuel in the first stint.  Expect them to consider doing one stop lesser than most of the others
• Fernando Alonso is in the middle of the mix with a KERS car and medium fuel load.  This flexibility might give him a huge advantage.  Remember last year he qualified lower than this starting postion and finished the race forth.
• Kazuki Nakajima is the lightest car on the grid.  He will be most probably starting the race on the Soft tyres.
• Lewis Hamilton is starting light and will be counting on making up places on the grid during the race.  Expect some flamboyant overtaking from the current world champion.

Less than 24 hours remain to the start of the Formula One season and its time to play Pundit. 2009 is whose year, who is the best prepared for the changes in Formula One… Read our thoughts below and share your thoughts.

1. Which drivers will win their first race?
2. Which drivers will lead the WDC for the first time in their careers?
3. Which team will win their first race?
4. Which team will win the most races?
5. Who will win the 2009 World Constructors Championship?
6. Who will win the 2009 World Drivers Championship?

Leave your answers in the comments. We shall revisit them after Abu Dhabi.

My Answers:

1. Which drivers will win their first race? – Nick Heidfeld
2. Which drivers will lead the WDC for the first time in their careers? – Jenson Button
3. Which team will win their first race? – Brawn GP, Red Bull
4. Which team will win the most races? – Ferrai
5. Who will win the 2009 World Constructors Championship? -  Ferrari
6. Who will win the 2009 World Drivers Championship? – Fernando Alonso

Schedule for the 2009 Australian Grand Prix :

TV Times:
India*:
Australian Grand Prix 2009 – Qualification
Saturday, Mar 28 2009
11:20 – 12:30 : FIA F1 World Championships Qualifying(Live)

Australian Grand Prix 2009 – Race
Sunday, Mar 29 2009
10:30 – 11:15 : FIA F1 World Championship Raceday(Live)
11:15 – 13:15 : FIA F1 World Championships Race(Live)
13:15 – 14:00 : FIA F1 World Championship Chequered Flag(Live)

You can get the telecast details of different parts of the world here

* – Authors of F1Jam.com are based in India

In the final installment of 2009 rule changes we look at the sporting rule changes for this season. These changes were introduced to make the sport more transparent to the tv audience and the fans. The changes are as follows:

• The pit lane speed limit has been raised from 80kph to 100kph.
• A car starting the race from the pit lane can now make changes to improve driver comfort and the driver may do a reconnaissance lap.
• All teams must declare the starting weights of their cars within two hours of qualifying finishing.
• If a race starts behind the safety car, drivers must start the race on wet weather tyres.
• The teams cannot do more than 15,000km of testing and may not test between the first race of the season and the last day of the year. There are two major exceptions: teams can do up to eight days of straight-line aerodynamics testing, and after the last race of the season they have three days in which they may test young drivers.
• The cars must now have four onboard camera housings instead of two.
• More stats and graphics will be available for Tv audience to better understand pitstops and strategies.
• The rule stating that the pit lane is closed during a Safety Car period will be scrapped in 2009. The rule was introduced in 2007 to avoid people rushing back to the pits to refuel, possibly speeding through a danger zone, but software has been successfully developed to solve this problem.

What does this rule change mean to the fans?

Better understanding of the sport we love.  Now all the speculation of who was the fastest can stop as we can easily understand who is where after qualifying.  Even debate on who will pit when wont be necessary.  Safety car periods wont make the race into a lottery as earlier seasons, that might make the race less exciting.

Which Teams/Drivers will gain an advantage from this rule changes?

Most of these rules shouldnt aid or cause discomfort to any teams.  The safety car rule might mean that luck wont play such a big role this season but with so many rules and regulations luck always tends to be a factor.

Testing rules will seriously dent the fortunes of teams that aren’t up to speed at the start of the season.  With limited time on Fridays and Satudays to test new components, the development of new parts for a car will be much slower than earlier seasons.  Also on Fridays and Saturdays the cars that run on the track have to be legal enough to be raced, this means that aids that help to check performance of new components wont be allowed on the cars.

All in all the limited testing rule might be advantageous to teams that are better prepared for the first race of the season.

2009 will see the introduction of two new technologies into Formula One. KERS(Kinetic Energy Recovery System) and Movable Wings will allow teams to make dynamic changes to the power and aerodynamics of the car. What difference will these technologies make? Who will benefit the most from these rule changes? Lets find out…

Engine and KERS

For 2009 Formula One engines get few more restrictions as compared to 2008.

• The engines have been restricted to 18000 RPM (from 19000 in 2008).
• Each driver would be given 8 engines at the start of the season, these are expected to last the 17 race season. If a driver uses a 9th engine, he will will have a ten-pace grid penalty at the first race where they use it, and further similar penalties will follow if additional engines are used.

In an initiative to promote green technologies and make more road car relevant improvements to Formula One, the FIA decided to allow cars in 2009 to run Kinetic Energy Recovery System(KERS) on their cars. This is a regenerative braking device designed to recover some of the vehicle’s kinetic energy, which is normally dissipated as heat during braking. The recovered energy can be stored electrically, in a battery or supercapacitor, or mechanically, in a flywheel, for use as a source of additional accelerative power at the driver’s discretion by way of a “boost button” on the steering wheel. The regulations limit the additional power to around 82 hp for around six seconds a lap. The regulations do not make this compulsory.

KERS is a brand new direction of technology and required most of the teams to start from scratch. Considering the weight of the device and due to concerns about both limited performance gains and safety implications many teams are unlikely to use the new KERS systems for at least the start of the 2009 season.

Movable Wings

With the Aerodynamic regulations reducing downforce drastically for 2009, it seemed like that would have been enough to increase overtaking. But the lack of front end grip while following a car closely meant that more changes had to be made to aid overtaking. Step up the concept of “Movable Front Wings”

According to the 2009 regulations, cars will be allowed to use driver adjustable bodywork, in the form of adjustable flaps in the front wing. The flaps can be adjusted by up to six degrees, limited to only two adjustments per lap.

The basic idea of movable wings is to allow the driver who is following a car closely, to change the amount of downforce generated by the front wing. This will counter the loss of downforce allowing him to get in a better position to overtake the car in front.

What does this rule change mean to the fans?

More Overtaking! The rules are designed to increase overtaking during races. We might see more overtaking at the start of the season as teams take time to get used to the different technologies. Expect more closer qualifying and some amazing race starts.

Cars using KERS will have a major advantage over other cars on the starting grid, upto almost two car lengths by turn one(depending on the track). Expect some high energy starts

Which Teams/Drivers will gain an advantage from this rule change?

Teams running KERS should have a major advantage over non KERS cars. The boost button will not only allow them to get great starts but also help in overtaking and blocking. Will it be more advantageous to run a car without KERS and more ballast is a question that would be race track specific.

Drivers that have excellent understanding of their cars will be able to take more advantage of the movable wings. Movable wings can be used every lap for a slight advantage in controlling the amount of grip on chosen corners.

All in all KERS and movable wings looks like a move in the right direction for Formula One. How will they effect racing? We need to just wait a few more days to find out…