So the Malaysian Grand Prix didn’t end up a water fest as pretty much everyone predicted. In fact, not a single drop of rain fell during the race. Many also predicted the biggest headline out of the race would be the weather, how awful it was, and how the race time needs to be changed again etc etc.

But that didn’t happen – so the second surprise to pop out was the Red Bull 1-2 finish. Yes, I said finish. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have both been plagued recently by dodgy cars, causing Vettel in particular to lose two Grand Prix from commanding positions.

Mark Webber has fared better, however he’s had his share of gremlins too in the car, however luckily during practice sessions.

Despite all that, Vettel pipped Webber to the first corner in Sepang after lights out, and the rest they say, was a parade… (well at least for them it was). Neither Vettel nor Webber moved from P1 and P2 respectively throughout the race, and were never bothered at all by the competition.

Vettel’s now infamous “Number 1″ finger pumps told the whole story at the end of the race – he was clearly relieved to have made it (a) to the finish, and (b) in P1 – probably in that order. However, have they just got lucky this time, or have the Red Bull team figured out their issues with reliability? If it’s the latter, we can say goodbye to the championship race – it’ll all be about the Red Bulls.

That said, they were let off a bit this time over. Both Ferraris and McLarens were starting from pretty much the back of the pack, and had some 10+ cars to go through before getting close to the podiums. Lewis Hamilton predictably steamed through the pack, making up a large number of places, with team mate Jenson Button going backwards, forwards, backwards.

The Ferrari boys also rued their decision on Saturday, which ultimately screwed their race on Sunday. Fernando Alonso’s engine blowout on the penultimate lap was the signing off of a terrible weekend for the team, who were hoping to be back up there. The BBC even reported that it almost looked like Alonso forced the blowout after a frustrating race.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg needs a mention. Other than the rolling headline that never disappears that he finished ahead of his team mate (you know, Schumacher), he actually finished P3, grabbing the first Mercedes GP podium this year.

What this has done is setup an interesting top 3 in the drivers championship. A top 3 which actually holds 5 drivers:

1. Felipe Massa (39)
2. Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Vettel (37)
3. Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg (35)

That’s pretty tight, and hold’s the top 4 teams. It’s anyones game right now, but could we call it this early? Let’s have a vote:

Current F1 World Champion Jenson Button won the Australian Grand Prix today, his second race for team McLaren. Button won the action packed Grand Prix after making an early split decision around moving to dry tyres, the first driver to do so, and lived to tell that tale with the greatest of outcomes.

Many wrote off his chances as he came out of the pits, after Button skidded into the gravel trap on turn 3, but that soon disappeared as the track came to him and he made his way through the pack.

Many had complained about the dull opening race in Bahrain 2 weeks ago, and Australia did not disappoint. From lights out the action was there, light rain and a slippery track with Fernando Alonso cutting up Button on turn 1, causing his Ferrari to bump into Michael Schumacher, and then spin 180 degrees. Both drivers ended up at the back of the pack.

Shortly after the Alonso incident, Kamui Kobayashi lost his front wing under the front of his car causing him to smash into Sebastian Buemi and Nico Hulkenberg. All three drivers were out of the race, causing an immediate safety car.

Once action resumed Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica looked like the drivers on the move. Hamilton (starting from 11th) was already up 4 or 5 places by the safety car, and soon made mincemeat of his team mate.

However, Button came out on top, making a critical decision on tyres at exactly the right time, taking full advantage. Subsequently everyone followed suit including race leader Sebastian Vettel. Button’s quick thinking got him back up rankings upto P2 by the time all the pit stops had completed.

Shortly after the picture changed for the Red Bull’s with race leader Vettel retiring after what seemed to be a left front break pad failure. This gave Button pole position, and he kept that until the chequered flag.

Around 40 laps in many teams decided to come in for some fresh dry tyres as the rears were going off, however race leader Button, the two Ferrari’s and Kubica allotted to stay out on what they had. At this point this again seemed like the wrong decision, with Hamilton and Mark Webber, now on fresh tyres, quickly catching them up.

With 10 laps to go both Hamilton and Webber were up behind the two Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Alonso in P3 and P4 respectively, however Hamilton was really struggling to get past. Hamilton began to rue the decision made by his McLaren team to bring him in for fresh tyres, coming onto the radio demanding who had made the decision.

Shortly after, with 3 laps to go Hamilton had his opportunity to overtake Alonso, however the Ferrari driver quickly shut the McLaren driver down. Unfortunately for Hamilton, a speedy Webber was close behind and misjudged the breaking distance, piling into the McLaren at speed. This forced both cars into the gravel trap, with Webber losing his front wing.

This mistake by Webber was the final insult to a torrid race for the Australian. After starting in P2, Webber struggled throughout the race seemingly taking 1 step forward, but 2 steps back. This ultimately led to Webber finishing a measly 9th spot, only bringing home 2 points for Red Bull who up until lights out appeared to be on for a 1-2 finish for the team.

Australia was all about the McLaren boys though, with Button’s quick thinking, and Hamilton’s heroic battle to push through – the excitement of the race revolved around these two. Hamilton made some spectacular overtaking moves, taking Nico Rosberg in the seemingly unusual turn 12. It could have likely been a McLaren 1-2 after the Red Bull’s faded, however the second pit stop after all did ruin Hamilton’s chances.

An exciting race after the disappointment of Bahrain – however we have the weather to thank for a lot of that. It clearly caused the strategies of the teams to change everywhere, and added that extra piece of unexpected action to the race.

It’s still too early to tell whether the new no-refuelling rules have ruined the excitement of F1 for the immediate future, let’s get a few more races under our belt to make a decision on that.

With just over 1 week until the first Grand Prix race of the 2010 season in Bahrain, we thought it’s be a nice idea to summarise what’s happened between Jenson Button’s 2009 Championship win, and now.

Teams

Shortly after the end of the 2009 season, Japanese team Toyota announced that they would no longer take part in Formula One due to financial reasons. This left drivers Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock without a drive. Previous to this, BMW Sauber had also announced that they were also pulling out of F1 due to BMW not wanting to take part, again leaving drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica looking for jobs.

Sauber however managed to salvage the team, bringing it to F1 in 2010 – Although the team lost both drivers in the process, as well as the BMW Engine. Sauber are still registered as BMW Sauber, despite the lack of BMW – choosing to use a Ferrari engine instead.

Constructers champions Brawn GP were also bought out by German car manufacturer Mercedes, renaming the team Mercedes GP. Ross Brawn stays in his position as Team Principal.

4 new teams were billed to join the 2010 season, Virgin Racing, Campos (Now HRT Racing), US F1, and Lotus. US F1 recently announced that they are pulling out of the 2010 season, being unable to complete their development programme in time, and now focussing on a 2011 entry. It is understood that Stefan GP attempted to take the remaining slot on the F1 grid, however the FIA rejected their entry based on the time before the first race (some 2 weeks).

Drivers

The first major scalp in the driver juggle was Kimi Raikkonen. Mid 2009 season Ferrari announced that Renault driver Fernando Alonso would be joining the team, leaving Raikkonen without a 2009 race seat. Raikkonen was understood to only want a seat in one of two available cars, the Brawn or McLaren – however neither deal was made (likely due to the high price Raikkonen was commanding) and Raikkonen left F1 (albeit maybe temporarily).

The second biggest shock of the driver reshuffle was the move of 2009 championship winner Jenson Button over to McLaren. He joins the 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton for an all British line-up. Widely seen as a risky move, time will tell if this change was a good one for Button.

The final big news was the announcement of Michael Schumacher to the Mercedes GP team. Schumacher returns out of retirement for 3 years to lead an all German lineup with Nico Rosberg as his partner. Schumacher originally planned an F1 return in 2009 when Felipe Massa pulled out after an accident, however was unable to due to suffering a neck injury after a motorbike accident.

Remaining driver positions can be seen in our Guide to 2010 driver lineups.

Important Rule Changes

• Refuelling has been banned during the race. Drivers will only be able to pitstop with problems and tyre changes.
• The top ten drivers to qualify for the race must start the race on the same set of tyres that quaified with.
• A new points system is now in place (see here)
• KERS, although not banned by the FIA, will not be used by FOTA teams in 2010.
• A Grand Prix can now take upto 26 cars.
• Wheel covers are banned on all cars.
• Front tyres have been slightly narrowed in comparison to rear tyres
• No testing rules have been slightly amended to allow any backup drivers 1 day of testing on a circuit not part of the 2010 season in order to prepare them for racing.

Circuit Changes

British GP track Donington pulled out of hosting the 2010 GP, and any future ones after they could not secure the funding for the endeavour. After weeks of speculation, and the chance of no British Grand Prix on the timetable, an agreement was placed between F1 Administration and Silverstone to host the British GP for the next 17 years.

The Canadian Grand Prix will return in 2010. Fuji Speedway was also due to host the 2010 Japanese GP, however track owners Toyota pulled out of this as well, leaving Suzuka to continue holding the race.

Finally, South Korea will host its first GP at the Korean International Circuit in the latter part of the season.

This cost-cutting initiative is likely to take place at the Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias complex in Valencia on January 30, and is backed by most teams.

Mercedes Chief Executive Nick Fry said;

“We’ve agreed among the teams to do a joint launch. It’s a demonstration of how we’re working together.”

The boss of the new team Lotus – Tony Fernandes said that the supposed launch on January 30 2010 is too soon for his team, who plan to roll out their car in February. He joked;

“I won’t have a car at that time. I could come with a Matchbox car.”

In the final day of young driver testing at the Jerez circuit in Spain, it was reigning British F3 champ Aussie Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull who set the quickest time – a 1.17.418s, despite having a premature end to the day.

The engine in Ricciardo’s Red Bull gave up the ghost after completing 77 laps.

The second quickest driver of the day was Scot Paul di Resta in the Force India, who’s morning session was cut short when his car came to a halt in the gravel at the chicane.

Third fastest in the McLaren was yesterday’s pacesetter Gary Paffett.

Times
01. Ricciardo Red Bull 1.17.418s 77 laps
02. Di Resta Force India 1.18.736s 53 laps
03. Paffett McLaren 1.18.746s 59 laps
04. Conway Brawn 1.19.096s 77 laps
05. Hulkenberg Williams 1.19.226s 106 laps
06. Baguette Sauber 1.19.356s 70 laps
07. Turvey McLaren 1.19.358s 32 laps
08. Ericsson Brawn 1.19.382s 49 laps
09. Di Grassi Renault 1.19.602s 123 laps
10. Hildebrand Force India 1.19.873s 41 laps
11. Sanchez Ferrari 1.21.147s 39 laps
12. Zampieri Ferrari 1.21.279s 42 laps
12. Zipoli Ferrari 1.21.725s 41 laps
13. Hartley Toro Rosso 1.22.493s 50 laps
15. Bortolotti Toro Rosso 1.23.271s 34 laps
16. Tung Renault 1.32.477s 4 laps

Gary Paffett of McLaren topped the timesheets in today’s second young drivers test at Jerez, with the 2005 DTM champion and long-time McLaren test driver setting a fastest time of 01:18.718 in a day dogged by rain.

The Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg with a 2010 race seat for the team set a time of a 1:19.184 in his 94 laps to finish second fastest ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull.

Jules Bianchi could only manage 9th fastest with a 01:20.586 in his 113 laps for Ferrari, after announcing earlier he has signed a long-term contract with the team and will continue his race towards Formula One with a GP2 seat with the ART team in 2010.

The two Brawn GP drivers were almost inseperable – Mike Conway set a 01:20.222 and Marcus Ericsson a 01:20.440, despite the former completing 46 more laps than the Swede Ericsson.

The only driver who forced the red flags to come out was Mirko Bortolotti, when the Toro Rosso man stalled out on track. Bortolotti finished the session last, with his fastest time being a 01:21.761 in his 79 laps.

Times:
01 G. Paffett (McLaren) 01:18.718 80 laps
02 N. Hulkenberg (Williams) 01:19.184 94 laps
03 D. Ricciardo (Red Bull) 01:19.243 92 laps
04 P. di Resta (Force India) 01:19.411 58 laps
05 E. Gutierrez (BMW-Sauber) 01:20.190 68 laps
06 M. Conway (Brawn GP) 01:20.222 83 laps
07 M. Ericsson (Brawn GP) 01:20.440 37 laps
08 J.R. Hildebrand (Force India) 01:20.517 49 laps
09 J. Bianchi (Ferrari) 01:20.586 113 laps
10 L. Di Grassi (Renault) 01:20.898 67 laps
11 H. Tung (Renault) 01:21.492 57 laps
12 M. Bortolotti (Scuderia Toro Rosso) 01:21.761 79 laps

The young drivers test or ‘Kindergarten week’ as it was dubbed by Toro Rosso has today begun at the Jerez Circuit, Spain with 12 hot prospects all setting lap times at the circuit.

British F2 champ Spaniard Andy Soucek was the fastest driver in the 2009 Williams under the sunny skies at the circuit, where there was a track temperature of just 22′C. He clocked a 1:19.158 in his 87 laps.

However, it wasn’t all good for Soucek as twice he forced the red flags to come out, and brought the session to a temporary halt.

Scot Paul di Resta went second fastest in the Force India 0.211s off the pace, ahead of third place and former DTM champion Gary Paffett.

Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley finished last of the 12 after colliding with the barriers in the morning session.

Finishing 7th in the BMW Sauber was Alexander Rossi who’s quickest time was a 1:20.227. When speaking about his day he said;

“I very much enjoyed this day. It is impressive what the car does, how predictable and precise its reactions are, and how high the overall grip level is. But I have to admit I am also a little bit disappointed because being a racing driver you always want to be the fastest!

“I think in the afternoon we didn’t manage to find the perfect balance. Physically I have to say it was as demanding as I expected it would be. The power steering is a great help compared to GP2, but the g-forces obviously are higher.”

The Young Drivers testing runs until December 3rd.

Times
01 A. Soucek (Williams) 1:19.158 87 laps
02 P. Di Resta (Force India) 1:19.369 46 laps
03 G. Paffet (McLaren) 1:19.426 54 laps
04 D. Ricciardo (Red Bull) 1:19.534 113 laps
05 J. Bianchi (Ferrari) 1:19.626 91 laps
06 M. Conway (Brawn GP) 1:19.920 58 laps
07 A. Rossi (BMW-Sauber) 1:20.227 82 laps
08 M. Ericsson (Brawn GP) 1:20.333 50 laps
09 B. Baguette (Renault) 1:20.511 105 laps
10 J.R. Hildebrand (Force India) 1:20.537 49 laps
11 O. Turvey (McLaren) 1:20.856 27 laps
12 B. Hartley (Toro Rosso) 1:21.325 69 laps

McLaren have today announced that 22 year old Brit Oliver Turvey will test for the team at the young drivers test in Jerez, which starts tomorrow and runs to December 3rd.

Turvey is currently driving in the GP2 Asia series for the iSport International team.

Turvey gets to drive the 2009 McLaren as a prize for winning the 2006 McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year award. He said;

“I’ve gone over this moment so many times in my mind, so it’s very exciting to be getting this opportunity to test with the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team at Jerez this week. My aim is to enjoy the experience, but also to learn as much as I can from it. If possible, I’d also like to be able to help the team with their preparations for the 2010 season.”

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh said;

“We’re extremely proud of our commitment to young talent and the efforts we’ve made to ensure the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver winners are given the experience of a lifetime when they test with us.”

“A drive in a race-wining Formula 1 car is every racing driver’s dream, and I’m sure Oliver will use this week’s test as the perfect opportunity to broaden his experience as he continues his successful single-seater career.”

Kimi Raikkonen has denied talking with Brawn/Mercedes GP, saying he believes the team’s new owners, Mercedes Benz, will be taking an all-German line-up.

Earlier this week, McLaren announced that they had signed Jenson Button as Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate, leaving Raikkonen without a race-seat for next year’s Championship as the Finn had previously stated that he would only race for McLaren.

However, almost immediately reports emerged that he could head to the Championship-winning Brawn GP team after Mercedes purchased a 75.1 percent stake in the outfit.

His manager Steve Robertson added fuel to the fire, saying:

“This is Formula 1. If they can offer, or convince us, that they can provide Kimi an opportunity that Kimi is happy with, and that we are happy with, and he feels he can win races and the championship then never say never. There is always a possibility.”

But despite his manager’s claims, Raikkonen says there has been no contract with Brawn GP and nor does he expect there to be. Raikkonen told F1.com,

“No, I have not held talks with Brawn. I feel they will run two German drivers next year now that Mercedes are involved,”

The Finn also made it clear that a year out of Formula One was on the cards for next season as he won’t race for a team that cannot guarantee him a shot at the World title, in other words, McLaren.

“I could not agree terms with McLaren so I have decided to take a one-year sabbatical. I felt McLaren offered the best opportunity to win races and challenge for the Drivers’ Championship and if that would not work the one-year break is the result. And to be honest, I will only return in 2011 if a competitive drive is available.”

“I do not want to race just to make up the numbers. That does not interest me. But there’s a lot of time until then, so let’s wait and see what happens in the months ahead.”

The 2007 World Champion, however, hopes he won’t be away from motor sport entirely, targeting a possible drive in rallying.

“I do not know yet, I will look at competing in rallying. Again, naturally I want to drive a competitive car. If not I will spend more time with my family and friends.”

Brawn GP chief executive officer Nick Fry has blasted Jenson Button on his move away from the Brackley based team to McLaren for the 2010 season. Button has signed a £6mill deal to join the team next year.

According to the Daily Express, the relationship between Button and Brawn ‘broke down so badly that they removed an offer that could have been worth £12 million next year before he signed for McLaren’, after the 29-year-old ‘was left in no doubt that he had let [the team] down in a ‘phone call with Brawn at the weekend’.

Another factor in Button’s choice to move could have been the Mercedes buyout of Brawn GP, and the rumours that they have plans to create an all German ’super team’.

Fry’s stinging quote is:

“Clearly, loyalty would be nice but in this day and age you don’t expect too much of that. I’m always happy when any employee leaves our company if I think that they’ve made the right decision and they are going to a better job. They always go with our blessing if that is the situation.

“In this situation, we don’t understand the logic of the decision. I think Jenson is going to have to up his game if he’s going to beat Lewis.

“We feel that we gave Jenson a car that enabled him to win the world championship, and we hoped he’d have stuck with us for that reason as we are very confident we can provide a race-winning car for next season.”

Button had previously given his reasoning on the switch. Part of his quote is:

“It’s always a difficult decision to leave a team when you’ve been there for so long. But life is all about challenges – and, most important of all, it’s about challenging yourself. So, although I won the World Championship with Brawn GP last year, and I’ll never forget that, I was always adamant that I wanted to continue to set myself fresh challenges.”