Highest Step

Feet up. Season is done. Life is good. Well, unless you are BMW or Toyota. 2009 is on the verge of being swept under the carpet well before the 2010 party rocks the house, but the brush is being stopped short as the many, many seasonal reviews begin to take shape and be spread on the internet, in magazines and on our own television screens, they take up our time, they offer us the same views, but we will all still read and watch them.

I’m afraid to say, season review haters, this blog will become one of those. Just less regular. And also quite possibly less knowledgeable. Irregular works best, just as Toyota.

So why am I wasting up potential internet space today then? Look back at the F1 season, every one talks about the drivers and the teams, who did awesome, who did less than awesome and then conveniently forget the teams who did alright. But I am looking at the Team boss. Which man has stood out ahead of the rest.

I’ll be honest, judging by driver decisions, Stefano Domenicalli isn’t going to get it. I can’t really be biased either, sadly Mario Theissen has also not been helped with that car.

I have seen all the races and I have found one person to just be more enjoyable than the others. He had two very good drivers, been very consistant throughout the whole season and quite possibly, has had more shots of his leg than his face…

Well done to Christian Horner of Red Bull Racing.

He has managed to get that car to the top, and kept it at the top. The only thing letting him down this season was sadly the poor reliability of those cars. At the start of the season, the team were the only ones who could keep up to Brawn at the start, then managed to overtake them in style in Britain. The team won a grand total of 6 races, just two shy of Brawn’s 8 wins.

I have found the running of the team to be really great, secretly, have been a fan for a few years. He’s brought some good success to the team and has managed to keep one of the best drivers on the grid for 2010.

It may come as a surprise to some that my award is not going to a certain Ross Brawn, but I have my reasons. Despite the awesome start, his team stuttered across the finish line with low point finishes (exception of Rubens Barrichello’s two wins in Valencia and Monza). A team boss would want his drivers to be going for more podiums, for that they did not get.

And while we are at it, more praise for team principals please, the little coverage they get in terms in media is not deserved. They do a fine job, it can pay off big style as well.

I may lie about one thing above, I fear it may become regular. I blame ‘Thursday Thoughts’ by Sidepodcast, the inspiration of these posts and any upcoming on Thursdays unless otherwise stated.

“So Does That Mean Brawn Will Suddenly Drop Down in Pace? Likely.”

Those were the words that I said in my season preview about the new Brawn GP. Not going to be quick, they were going to be as bad as Force India, just to bring in the sponsorship of Virgin and Richard Branson’s cash. And then disappear off down the back of the grid.

How I have massively wrong.

Since that season preview, Brawn have won twice, got two poles, three podiums and a fastest lap. That is with only two races gone and the realisation that they are quick, very quick and that they can easily turn the power down and still pull away easily. Ross Brawn has managed to pull off an absolute corker of a car. You know how good this is, so I will not bore you with superlatives about them.

This is a confession on how horrendously wrong I was. But I now have the feeling of, I really want them to get beat, it gets boring when a team win two in a row, hence my hate of Ferrari. I don’t hate them like Ferrari, but do want the other teams like Red Bull, Toyota to step up to the mark, show their true pace. Brawn will be caught up by Turkey, with all the teams improving the cars by then. Then it will be a real cat and dog fight, we could have eight teams looking for a really good result. This will be a close fight for the championship come the end of the year. Unless Brawn sweep the races until Turkey anyway.