f1buzz.net

Malaysia may have finished under red flags with less than 75% of the race run but here on f1buzz we’re awarding full points for what was still a pretty exciting race. Up until the standing around in the rain, that is.

The prediction results are up and it seems most people still haven’t got used to the fact that Ferrari can’t win races at the moment.  Like other people I had both Red Car drivers in my predictions for round two and therefore ended up with a measly 3 points.  I was still expecting some Massa qualifying magic and Raikkonen to pull out a fastest lap but when Kimi put on the shorts and pulled out the ice creams I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Andrew on the other hand successfully predicted the Button domination and leaped up the scoreboard from last to second place with a haul of 20 points.

The next race is China in ten days time.  Will Ferrari have figured out how to go fast by then?  Will the Brawn GP cars have been declared illegal?

After all the controversy of the recent days it seems we finally have a definitive result for the Australian Grand Prix.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) it means some people’s points have changed from the original result.  This was good news for Sergio and Correa but bad news for Nathan and Eygló.

All the points have now been updated on the Prediction Game Page and we are ready for round two!  With the threat of tropical monsoons, Malaysia looks like it’s going to be just as unpredictable as Australia.

Remember, you can add (or even update) your predictions until qualifying starts on Saturday (that’s 14:00 local time) so get ’em in and good luck!

If you want to keep up to date with the blog you can subscribe to the RSS feed or even get updates sent to you by email.

Oh, and I still haven’t figured out what the prize should be.  Any suggestions?

The 2009 Formula One World Championship got off to a cracking start in Melbourne last weekend and now the teams are on their way to Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit for round 2.

From a dusty, unpredictable, temporary street circuit we now go to a modern, Hermann Tilke designed track with long straights and sweeping curves.  Australia may be hot but Malaysia is really hot.  And humid.  The drivers will be hoping the late start of 5pm will make things a bit more comfortable but with the new aero regulations banning many of the cooling vents of 2008 the cars will suffer a serious test of reliability.

Can Brawn GP carry the speed they showed in Melbourne to Sepang?  Reliability is still a question mark for the team but Jenson Button reckons he didn’t have to push too hard and the cars have more to give.

Lewis Hamilton showed why he is the World Champion by driving his McLaren from the back of the grid to third place but he is under no illusions about the ability of his car to compete on raw pace:

Sepang is one of the tougher tracks on the calendar, one where we will probably be further from the frontrunners than we were in Albert Park. The track is both fast and technical so requires good mechanical and aero grip. It’s much more aero-dependent and rear-limited than Melbourne so it may highlight some of the shortcomings in MP4-24.

Rain is forecast for the weekend, and Hamilton is a master in the wet so that could help him but Jenson Button won his first podium in Hungary in wet conditions and Rubens Barrichello scored Honda’s only podium of 2008 at Silverstone in the rain so Brawn GP won’t make it easy for Lewis.

Then there’s KERS.  Alonso said it didn’t help him at all in Melbourne but it certainly made it hard for anyone without KERS to pass a McLaren or Ferrari.  The long straights of Sepang should be more suited to running KERS so perhaps we will see it play a bigger part.

So many questions, so little time to get your predictions in for round 2 of the f1buzz prediction game!

Just leave a comment on this post with your driver predictions for the race in the following format:

Pole:
First:
Second:
Third:
Fastest lap:

Points will be awarded like this:

• Predict pole position: 5 points
• Predict 1st: 10 points
• Predict 2nd: 8 points
• Predict 3rd: 6 points
• Predict correct driver on podium but not in correct position: 3 points for each driver
• Predict fastest lap: 5 points

Remember, you can enter up until the start of qualifying on Saturday and even if you missed the first round there are still plenty of races left to claw your way to the top of the standings to win the grand prize!

You can find the full list of drivers here.

It’s been nearly five months since Lewis Hamilton passed Timo Glock on the last lap of the last Grand Prix of 2008 to claim the World Drivers’ Championship but the wait is nearly over.  Winter testing in Europe and the Middle East has finished and twenty racing cars have been boxed up and flown to Australia where teams of engineers are preparing them to hit the track on Friday.

Melbourne’s Albert Park Circuit will see Formula One’s first ever twilight race on Sunday and it promises to be a thrilling start to the season but the outcome of the race is anything but certain.  Will the new over-size front wings be smashed to pieces as drivers dive for the first dusty corner?  Will McLaren reveal they’ve been sandbagging in testing and blow everyone away like they did in 1998?  Will those teams who decide to run KERS suffer reliability problems or will it give them an overtaking advantage?  Will Brawn GP finish 1, 2 (only to have them taken away when Red Bull make an official protest over their fancy diffuser?)  And will the high-tech RB5 finally give Mark Webber a decent finish in Australia or will he be outdone by his new team mate Sebastian Vettel?

All these questions and more will be answered on Sunday but now is your chance to predict the future in the 2009 Formula One World Championship f1buzz.net prediction game!

The rules are simple. Just leave a comment on this post with your driver predictions for the race in the following format:

Pole:
First:
Second:
Third:
Fastest lap:

Points will be awarded like this:

• Predict pole position: 5 points
• Predict 1st: 10 points
• Predict 2nd: 8 points
• Predict 3rd: 6 points
• Predict correct driver on podium but not in correct position: 3 points for each driver
• Predict fastest lap: 5 points

You can enter up until the start of qualifying on Saturday.  Don’t worry if you have already entered your predictions on a previous post they will still be counted!

Good luck and enjoy the race!

The 2009 Formula One World Championship promises to be one of the most open in years with any of a number of drivers potentially claiming victory starting with this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.  With the old rulebook thrown out and new technology like KERS and adjustable front wings it is almost impossible to predict the outcome of the first race let alone the whole season.

So with that in mind, here’s the 2009 Formula One World Championship f1buzz.net prediction game!

McLaren won the Drivers Championship last year and Honda languished at the back of the grid but if winter testing is anything to go by we could see that situation reversed this year with the renamed Brawn team challenging for wins and McLaren’s MP4-24 struggling for pace.

When asked about the 2009 season, Renault’s Fernando Alonso said:

I think the order of the teams will probably be different from the last few years. We have got used to Ferrari and McLaren dominating, but with the new rules I think there will be lots of cars fighting for the win. Hopefully we will be in that fight.

To be in the f1buzz prediction game fight, follow these simple rules:

Before each race weekend, I will add a prediction game post.  Just leave a comment on that post with your driver predictions for the race in the following format:

Pole:
First:
Second:
Third:
Fastest lap:

Points will be awarded like this:

• Predict pole position: 5 points
• Predict 1st: 10 points
• Predict 2nd: 8 points
• Predict 3rd: 6 points
• Predict correct driver on podium but not in correct position: 3 points for each driver
• Predict fastest lap: 5 points

You can enter up until the start of qualifying.

After each race I will update the points standings and at the end of the year the reader with the most points wins.  It’s all about points here, none of that medals crap!

The prize is yet to be decided.  Most likely it will be a smug sense of self-satisfaction.