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.

As the chequered flag came out on Silverstone the grim reality of it all hit the F1 paddock. Renault and Alonso are unstoppable this season and the much awaited misfortune and bad luck as kept away from the French outfit. The victory took the list of consecutive podiums for Alonso to 14. The world record held currently by Michael Schumacher at 19. The recent hunger of victory has meant that, Michael’s other records are clearly threatened by the Spaniard who looks all set to rewrite record books.

The race victory means that Alonso can finish 2nd behind Michael in every race remaining in this season and still win the World championship. Winning the World Champs for the second time will mean that he would have won 2 Grand Prixs before anybody ever in the sport. The second WC victory would be at an age younger than Emerson Fittipaldi (The second youngest driver to become World Champ after Alonso) managed his first Championship victory. The successful defense of the World Championship will mean that he will automatically become the youngest driver to defend the WC successfully dethroning guess who… Michael Schumacher from the record books.

Michael’s first WC came in the year 1994 at an age of 25yrs and 10 months, Alonso’s in 2005 at an age of 24yrs 2 months. Alonso has an year advantage over Michael but the work to be done is incredibly difficult… Michael went on to win 5 of the next 10 WCs and If Alonso has to better the scales he would minimum hv to do the same… Its impossible to predict how things will turn out but so far Alonso has not only been on time wrt victories and poles wrt Schumi he is actually one better.

Here is a short comparison of the two as they headed for their Second World Championships

Stats MSc FA
races 60* 78*
wins 14 13
podiums 31 31
(* comparison upto 8 races in the season following their first championship victory)

There are intresting facts around those statstics like both won their first Grand Prix towards the end of their second season and it was their only race win that season. They both at that time were on their 5th season in F1. They both moved(or will move) from their team after 2 WC victories.

In the last 27 GPs Alonso has gone on the podium 23 times and has won 12 of those races. Stunning form similar to Michael’s domination 2002 and 2004.

If the last 3 races are any indication, Renault and Alonso look in total control of the WC. Michael has clearly never had a harder fight for the WC ever. How far will the domination last and will Michael be able to close the gap or will the Spaniard seal the WC with quarter of the season remaining only time can tell. Until then we can all sit back and watch the best racing we have watched in years and hope we are witness to something future generations may not be privileged enough to watch