2009 ING Australian Grand Prix

[Fergie1]

[center]2009 FORMULA 1 ING AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX
[/center]





Melbourne History:

When Formula One came to Australia in 1985 it set up home in Adelaide. However, ex-racer-turned-entrepreneur Bob Jane wanted a race in Melbourne. He created a huge "thunderdome" and invented the AUSCAR series, bringing NASCAR action to Australia.

The desire to have a race in Melbourne did not wane. Despite the popular end of season slot for the Adelaide race, pressure was growing from the Melbourne motor sport community, and in 1992 Jeff Kennett was elected the new premier of the State of Victoria. He immediately set about improving Melbourne's profile. First on his list was the Australian Grand Prix.

An agreement was reached with Formula One in 1993, but the contract with Adelaide did not expire until 1995, so Kennett had plenty of time to prepare. A track was developed in Melbourne's beautiful Albert Park, part of it using closed-off public roads, and in 1996 the city held the first round of the World Championship. Since then, the venue has become the home of Formula One's season opener. The race is very popular with drivers and fans alike, and the party atmosphere of Melbourne keeps them coming back year after year.

Race Date: 29 Mar 2009
Number of Laps: 58
Circuit Length: 5.303 km
Race Distance: 307.574 km
Lap Record: 1:24.125 - M Schumacher (2004)

2008 Results

1 Lewis Hamilton
2 Nick Heidfeld
3 Nico Rosberg
4 Fernando Alonso
5 Heikki Kovalainen
6 Kazuki Nakajima
7 Sebastien Bourdais
8 Kimi Räikkönen

Past Winners

2008 - Lewis Hamilton
2007 - Kimi Raikkonen
2006 - Fernando Alonso
2005 - Giancarlo Fisichella

Timetable (GMT)

Fri 27 March 2009
Friday Practice 1 01:30 - 03:00
Friday Practice 2 05:30 - 07:00
Sat 28 March 2009
Saturday Practice 03:00 - 04:00
Qualifying 06:00
Sun 29 March 2009
Race 07:00

2009 F1 season: frequently asked questions

Who will broadcast the 2009 F1 season in Britain?

The BBC will take over F1 broadcasts from ITV in 2009.

How will the 2009 F1 rules change car design?

Grooved tyres, which have been used since 1998, will be replaced with ordinary racing slick tyres.

F1 car aerodynamics will be subject to new restrictions. Many of the small aerodynamics details seen on cars in 2008 will be banned. Rear wings are being made narrower. Front wings will be wider and lower. Drivers will also be able to adjust the position of their wings for a limited number of times per lap.

The purpose of the tyre and aerodynamic changes is to allow the cars to follow each other more closely and increase opportunities for overtaking.

Teams will be allowed to use Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) from 2009, similar to the systems used in some hybrid road cars such as the Toyota Prius.

Engines will have to last for three consecutive race weekends. In 2008 they had to last for two.

2009 Technical Regulations - published on: 12.01.2009

Code: Select all

http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public.nsf/E280B4702B22A1E9C125753C0056FF76/$FILE/Formula%20One%20Technical%20regulations%20Sum.pdf

2009 F1 Sporting Regulations - publised on 5.02.2009, Immediate application

Code: Select all

http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public.nsf/43A265225839ECE3C1257554004C0C6B/$FILE/1-2009%20F1%20SPORTING%20REGULATIONS%2005-02-09.pdf

F1 Prediction League 2009 Links:
F1 Prediction System
LeaderBoard

Video Thread:: Coming soon.

Useful Links
Live Streams
5 Day Forecast

Ok, thought I might as well post this as the season is only a few weeks away now.
To start this off, whos getting up at 1:30am for Friday Practice 1? Who do you think will be the surprise for Melbourne?
Discuss.

changelog:
06/03/2009 [Iceman1]- updated
06/03/2009 [Fergie1] Formula 2 in title changed to caps because I like it that way.

[phil1993]

Nope. I like the race being on AFTER 6AM YAYAYAYAY i can watch it without feeling c**p on the Monday. I'll watch P2 on bbci at 5.30am; i'll get up early for school as i leave at 7am.

Winner: hhmmm, anyone.

surprise: Red Bull; Toyota fast; McLaren and BMW slower than expected. Force India get into Q3. A crazy race like 2008 Oz and lots of SC periods.

[sejtur]

Will the practices be on BBC?

[phil1993]

ALL practices on bbc interactive
Quali and Race on BBC1.

[Haukinen]

Yes! Finally they put this in the right time. Last year I had to wake up at 7.00 am, but now the race starts in 9.00 am

Just 24 days, 14 hours, 6 minutes and 10 seconds to go...

[mountford]

Yes! Finally they put this in the right time. Last year I had to wake up at 7.00 am, but now the race starts in 9.00 am

Just 24 days, 14 hours, 6 minutes and 10 seconds to go...

That's still too long

[JoostLamers]

The winner of this race will be the WC, proven for many years: of the last 9 editions, 7 of the winners of this GP became WC that year...
But anyway, don't know what to expect, i'll wait with predictions for after the practice

[Zack]

Vettel will FTW this year

[swca92]

Zack you may be right,there's an article on the BBC website about Vettel being very quick in testing and up to 0.6 quicker(taking fuel into consideration) than Massa at Jerez http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson ... ttels.html

[shailf1]

Zack you may be right,there's an article on the BBC website about Vettel being very quick in testing and up to 0.6 quicker(taking fuel into consideration) than Massa at Jerez http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson ... ttels.html

one comment left in the article:

As always, its ill advised to draw any kind of a conclusion from a pre-season test session. In early 2006 Super Aguri were topping the time boards a lot. Meaning? Nothing.

We won't get a true vision of the cars performances till Saturday morning in Melbourne at the end of the month. We can only hope for the wheel to wheel racing we've been promised for the past year.

[phil1993]

true. Tests are inconclusive, like BMW last year

[iceman1]

Ferrari look to be the pace setters right now, with McLaren a little behind and then the rest is a mixed bag. Hopefully we will get a competitive year.

Brawn GP takes Honda F1’s place on the 2009 F1 grid : http://www.f1zone.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3772

[BMWSauber5]

Brawn GP livery to be revealed on the Thursday of AGP

[Haukinen]

Vettel will FTW this year

Well... duh

I say, that the Red Bulls can suprise in the GP. Vettel of course, and why not Webber? After he's recovery from that biking accident, he could be one of the big suprises this year... and he wasn't so bad last year either.

And McLaren uses KERS, so we'll see how good advantage that is. Once again, it's all for Hammy. Whitmarsh said, that: ''I don't want to be the person, who fails to bring WC to Lewis.'' Translation: ''Heikki isn't going to win races this year''

[phil1993]

I hope Webber wins Oz