The (Formula 1) World Turned Upside Down

Yes the season opening Grand Prix was held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and was held 'upside down' (according to those bigots in the northern hemisphere. ; -) But the real reason it was upside down was the results. Neither Ferrari finished the race and reigning F1 champion, Lewis Hamilton, missed the podium when he placed fourth.

Even more amazing was the Brawn team's 1-2 finish. This is the team that Honda discarded. Now running with Mercedes power, the team managed spectacular results despite the staggering odds against them. (And what does that say about Honda power? ;-)

But Brawn may have had a bit of an edge. Grip, the ability to stick to the track, in F1 cars comes from two sources, mechanical grip (tires) and aerodynamic grip (wings/diffusers/barge boards and the like.)

The governing body of F1 instituted a number of significant rules changes this year to reduce aerodynamic grip in the hopes of providing a better on track product (namely passing - which has been rare in F1 races). They gave back a bit of mechanical grip when they returned to running slick tires (unlike the grooved tires they had used in previous seasons).

Mechanical grip is fairly constant regardless of speed but aerodynamic grip is not. Airflow across the surfaces is critical to producing the grip. Reduce the airflow, by following to closely to the car ahead or going to slowly in a corner, and you lose grip. The upshot is that the car does not handle well and more speed is lost whilst attempting to regain control.

Ross Brawn is the principal of Brawn racing and he has a long and successful racing record (think Ferrari F1 during the Schumacher days). They found a 'hole' in the rules that allowed them to gain a bit of an aero advantage over their competitors (and why the rest of the teams, save two others, failed to exploit that hole too is THE big question).

While the rest of teams had some issues with rear grip, both Brawn cars were near perfect (Barrichello's driving during the race was anything but however). It was as if the Brawn cars were in mid-season form at the first race. This is going to be an interesting season.

PS - Well the stewards taketh away - Jarno Trulli, in P3 at the end of the race was penalized 25 seconds after the race and third place was awarded to Hamilton. What's an F1 race without the intervention of the stewards. It's almost as bad as NASCAR. ; -)