2009 Formula One season

The 2009 Formula One season was the 60th FIA Formula One World Championship season. The season took place over 17 rounds, and started with the Australian Grand Prix on 29 March 2009. It ended on 1 November 2009 with the inaugural race in Abu Dhabi.

Jenson Button and Brawn GP secured the driver and constructor titles respectively in the Brazilian Grand Prix, the penultimate race of the season. It was both Button and Brawn's first Championship success, Brawn becoming the first team to win the Constructors Championship in their début season. Button was the tenth British driver to win the championship, and following Lewis Hamilton's success in 2008 it was the first time the Championship had been won by English drivers in consecutive seasons, and the first time since Graham Hill (1968) and Jackie Stewart (1969) that consecutive championships have been won by British drivers.

Ten teams participated in the Championship after several rule changes were implemented by the FIA to cut costs to try and minimise the effect of the global financial crisis. There were further changes to try to improve the on-track spectacle with the return of slick tyres, changes to aerodynamics and the introduction of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) presenting some of the biggest changes in Formula One regulations for several decades.

The Brawn team, formed from the Honda racing team, won six of the first seven races, their ability to make the most of the new regulations being a deciding factor in the Championship, before other teams caught up in an unpredictable second half of the season. The 2009 season was the first time since that all participating teams had scored World Championship points.

Background
FIA President Max Mosley announced dramatic rule changes for the 2009 season in a bid to improve the spectacle of the sport as well as implementing cost-cutting measures. These measures were not sufficient to prevent the withdrawal of the Honda team, who announced in December 2008 they would be leaving Formula One with immediate effect. After a Winter of uncertainty, it was confirmed on 5 March 2009 that the team would compete in the 2009 season as Brawn GP, with Mercedes engines, following a management buy-out, and would retain the services of both Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello as drivers.

The Drivers' World Championship would be decided in the traditional manner of points scored after Bernie Ecclestone's idea that the driver who won the most races be declared as the champion was scrapped following protests from the Formula One Teams Association. The teams were less successful in their attempts to have the French and Canadian Grands Prix kept on the calendar, both being dropped with the season closing at the new Abu Dhabi venue.

The first multi-team testing session took place at Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona in November 2008, two weeks after the end of previous season. All teams, except Toyota, took part in the testing session where some teams tested their new aerodynamics package and slick tyres. The new look cars did not suit everyone's taste, with BMW Sauber's test driver, Christian Klien, labelling the car the ugliest car he'd ever seen. .

On 9 March, testing at Barcelona featured for the first time Brawn GP, a new team formed over the winter after Honda withdrew from the sport. The new team, led by Ross Brawn, made an immediate impact by leading the times early in the day. This was the first test in which all teams used their 2009 cars. BMW Sauber led the times while Brawn GP finished fourth. On day three, Brawn GP's Jenson Button was fastest by just over one second to Ferrari's Felipe Massa while Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello went even faster the next day. At the other end of the timing sheets, reigning Champion Lewis Hamilton's McLaren team were struggling to adapt to the new regulations, often 1.5 seconds off the pace. Massa stated he had never seen McLaren so far behind.

A major source of controversy throughout the winter season were the rear diffusers. Three teams –Toyota, Williams and Brawn GP –launched their cars with a diffuser that uses the rear crash structure in order to generate additional downforce. These designs were quickly protested, and just days after the cars were unveiled, rival teams asked the FIA for a clarification on the matter.

On the Wednesday of the season opening race in Australia, an official complaint was launched by the seven other teams against the rear diffusers of the Williams FW31, Toyota TF109 and the Brawn BGP 001 saying that they were illegal. . The FIA scrutineers disagreed, declaring the cars legal. The other six teams filed an appeal which was heard on 14 April 2009 – the week prior to round three of the championship, the.

Report
The season was split into two halves, with the newly-formed Brawn GP dominating the first half of the season with successive wins, partially due to the team's double diffuser design, while the latter half saw an improved showing from Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren as they adapted to the new regulations. Jenson Button was able to capitalise on Brawn's advantage in the early rounds winning six of the first seven races, to give him his first World Championship. Sebastian Vettel and Button's team-mate Rubens Barrichello were his main challengers over the season, winning six races between them to finish in second and third respectively.

Button won the season opening Australian race, with team-mate Rubens Barrichello in second, giving the team a 1–2 on its début. Red Bull's Vettel had been running in second until he collided with BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica. The accident meant the race finished behind the Safety Car, with Toyota's Jarno Trulli eventually classified third despite McLaren Mercedes false protest he had overtaken Lewis Hamilton illegally. Reigning champion Hamilton was disqualified from the Australian race for lying to the stewards and at the following Malaysian Grand Prix was the centre of attention, with reports he was on the verge of quitting. There was further intrigue away from the race track as the FIA deemed the controversial double diffusers used by Brawn, Williams and Toyota legal. . The race was equally dramatic, being stopped because of monsoon-like conditions, meaning only half points were awarded for only the fifth time in F1 history. Button mastered the changing conditions for his second win. . The Chinese race also took place in wet conditions, this time Vettel lead team-mate Mark Webber home to the team's first ever win ahead of the two Brawns. A return to dry conditions in the following four races allowed Button to re-assert his authority, winning in Bahrain, Spain, Monaco and Turkey. Button had opened up a 26 point lead on his teammate with Vettel, who crashed out in Monaco and made a mistake while leading in Turkey, a further six points behind.

The British Grand Prix was seen as a turning point, being dominated by Red Bull with Vettel leading home Webber, in dry conditions. Button was not on the podium for the first time this season, finishing sixth. Red Bull also dominated the following German Grand Prix with Webber taking his first pole, and going on to win the race, despite being given a drive through penalty. Ferrari were also showing signs of improvement, Felipe Massa finishing third in what would be his final race of the season. He was hospitalised after being hit on the helmet by a flying spring when he was travelling at 162 mph in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The accident overshadowed the race which was won by Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari announced Massa would be replaced by test driver Luca Badoer, after a proposed comeback by seven time World Champion Michael Schumacher was called off due to a neck injury. Giancarlo Fisichella in-turn replaced the disappointing Badoer after a remarkable second place at Spa for Force India.

The in Valencia and  provided first wins of the season for Rubens Barrichello  and Kimi Räikkönen respectively as Button's title charge was undermined by poor qualifying performances. Brawn briefly returned to form in Italy, with Barrichello leading home the team's fourth 1–2 of the season. With Webber literally crashing out of the title race under the lights in, Vettel kept his slim hopes of the Drivers Championship alive with a dominant display in the with Toyota's Trulli gaining what would prove to be Toyota's final podium before their withdrawal at the end of the season.

The Drivers and Constructors Championships were both decided at the penultimate race in Brazil. After a poor wet qualifying session for Button, which saw him start from fourteenth, he fought up to fifth during the race gaving him enough points to clinch the title. The race itself was won by Mark Webber, followed by Robert Kubica to give BMW Sauber their best result of their final season (other than Heidfeld's second place in the rain shortened Malaysian Grand Prix) and his only podium result of the season. Lewis Hamilton completed the top three after starting 17th on the grid, moving him and McLaren above Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari respectively in the Championships. . The inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, taking place at sunset, rounded out the season, with another win for Vettel and Red Bull's fourth 1–2 result of the year, rounding of their strongest season to date.

Teams and drivers
The following teams and drivers competed in the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship:

Team changes

 * Honda F1 announced in December 2008 that they would withdraw their Formula One team from the 2009 World Championship because of the problems caused by the global financial breakdown and to focus on their core business activities. It was confirmed on 5 March 2009 that the team would compete in the 2009 season as Brawn GP, with Mercedes engines, following a management buy-out, and would retain the services of both Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello as drivers.
 * Force India changed their engine supplier from Ferrari to Mercedes in a five-year deal.
 * Gerhard Berger sold his half-stake of Scuderia Toro Rosso to Red Bull, claiming that the new regulations would "leave no room for improvement for a small team like STR", Franz Tost took over as team boss.

Driver changes
Changed teams
 * Sebastian Vettel: Scuderia Toro Rosso → Red Bull Racing
 * Anthony Davidson: Super Aguri / Honda Racing (test driver) → Brawn GP (test driver)

Entered F1
 * Sébastien Buemi: Trust Team Arden (GP2) → Scuderia Toro Rosso

Exited F1
 * David Coulthard: Red Bull Racing → consultant and test driver for Red Bull/BBC pundit.
 * Takuma Sato: Super Aguri → Sabbatical

Mid-season changes


 * Sébastien Bourdais was released by Toro Rosso following the 2009 German Grand Prix. He was replaced by World Series by Renault driver Jaime Alguersuari, who had previously served as Red Bull and Toro Rosso's reserve driver.
 * Felipe Massa was injured during qualifying for the Hungarian GP. Seven-time world champion and Ferrari advisor Michael Schumacher originally agreed to stand in while Massa recovered, but he cancelled his return because of a neck injury. Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer stood in for Massa for two races, before being replaced by Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella for the rest of the season.
 * Nelson Piquet, Jr. parted company with Renault during the four-week summer break. He was replaced by Frenchman Romain Grosjean.
 * After Fisichella moved to Ferrari, Vitantonio Liuzzi was confirmed on 7 September as his replacement at Force India.
 * Kamui Kobayashi replaced Timo Glock for the remaining two races of the season after tests showed Glock had cracked a vertebra in addition to his leg injury at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Formula One 2009 Race Calendar
After several revisions, the FIA published the 2009 Formula One World Championship race calendar on 5 November 2008

Calendar changes

 * The debuting Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has been added to the race calendar, as part of Formula One's expansion in the Middle East. The race took place at the Hermann Tilke-designed Yas Marina Circuit. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was the final round of the 2009 World Championship on 1 November 2009 and was Formula One's first day-night race.
 * After being dropped in and replaced by the Fuji Speedway, the Suzuka Circuit will return to host the Japanese Grand Prix in 2009.
 * On October 7, 2008, the FIA formalized the 2009 season calendar with the dropping of the Canadian Grand Prix (for apparent financial problems) and the rearrangement of the Turkish Grand Prix to June 7, 2009. 2009 will be the first Formula One season since 1958 with no Grand Prix in North America. The Canadian Grand Prix had been on the provisional schedule, before being dropped.
 * On October 15, 2008, the organisers of the French Grand Prix announced via their official website that the race would no longer be part of the 2009 season, citing "economic problems". This will be the second time that there has not been a French Grand Prix on the schedule since the start of the World Drivers' Championship in 1950. The only previous time was 1955. The race had been on the "final" schedule for 2009, and Bernie Ecclestone had previously stated that it would stay on the calendar, as they had a contract until 2011.
 * On November 5, 2008, the FIA World Council shifted the Chinese Grand Prix to April and reshuffled the others to accommodate the loss of the French Grand Prix.

Rule changes
On 22 December 2006, the FIA released technical regulations for the 2009 season. These have been revised several times to accommodate the findings of the Overtaking Working Group (formed in response to concerns that passing in wheel-to-wheel racing was becoming increasingly rare) and the increasing need for cost-cutting in the sport in the wake of the economic crisis. Some changes were added later.
 * Slick tyres returned for the first time since they were banned for the 1998 season. Bridgestone continued to be the sole supplier of tyres, and drivers still had to use both compounds of tyre during a race. Soft tyres were differentiated by a green marking around the sides of the tyres, rather than a white marking in a groove as used in 2008. Further, wet tyres were renamed "intermediate" and extreme-weather tyres were renamed "wet".
 * The aerodynamic regulations were radically altered for the 2009 season. The front wings were made lower and wider, while rear wings were much higher and narrower. This made the 2009 cars strikingly different in appearance from those of previous seasons, and several drivers expressed concerns that the larger front wings would trigger more accidents; especially at the start of Grands Prix when the cars are racing close to each other. As well as the changes in the dimensions of the wings, bodywork became much more regulated with many of the additional components seen in previous seasons effectively outlawed (including barge boards, winglets, turning vanes, chimneys, Viking horns and dumbo ears). The diffuser at the rear of the car was moved back and upwards. Many other minor chassis components were also standardised. The aim of the new aerodynamic regulations, as well as the reintroduction of slick tyres, was to decrease reliance on aerodynamic downforce and increase mechanical grip with the aim of making wheel-to-wheel racing easier.
 * For the first time, cars were allowed to use driver adjustable bodywork, in the form of adjustable flaps in the front wing. The flaps could be adjusted by up to six degrees, limited to only two adjustments per lap.
 * Along with changes to bodywork and tyre size, the 2006 document also included details of a Kinetic Energy Recovery System. This is a regenerative braking device designed to recover some of the vehicle's kinetic energy, which is normally dissipated as heat during braking. The recovered energy can be stored electrically, in a battery or supercapacitor, or mechanically, in a flywheel, for use as a source of additional accelerative power at the driver's discretion by way of a boost button on the steering wheel. The regulations limit the additional power to around 82 hp (61 kW) for six seconds a lap. The regulations did not make this compulsory, and because of concerns about both limited performance gains and safety implications very few cars opted to use the system; from a peak of eight cars at Bahrain to just four cars (the Ferraris and McLarens) at the last few races. Because of this, and its relative expense, KERS is to be scrapped for 2010.
 * While it was reported in 2008 that the FIA were planning on introducing a budget cap to limit the amount of spending by Formula One teams, the amount was not agreed upon and the budget cap idea was dropped. Instead, costs were brought down by a complete ban on in-season testing, a forced reduction in wind tunnel usage, the sharing of more data during race weekends, and an increased minimum engine lifespan: the engines had to last for three races, instead of two in 2008. The gearboxes had to last for four races, and a penalty of five places in the starting grid was applied, should a driver change it during the weekend before the start of the race.
 * Each driver was limited to a maximum of eight engines throughout the season, in addition to four engines for practice/testing purposes (although some drivers used all eight, no driver exceeded this limit; had they done so, they would have received a 10-place grid penalty for each additional engine use). To aid improvements in reliability, the engines were detuned from 19,000 RPM to 18,000 RPM.
 * The rule stating that the pit lane is closed during a Safety Car period was scrapped in 2009. The rule was introduced in 2007 to prevent drivers rushing back to the pits to refuel, possibly speeding through a danger zone, but software was successfully developed to solve this problem. The pit lane speed limit was also increased from 50 mph to 62 mph (100 kmh).
 * The FIA initially declared that the driver with the most wins at the end of the season would be the winner of the 2009 Formula One World Championship, but dropped the decision because of opposition from teams and drivers. Formula One Teams Association argued that FIA could not change the rules this close to the season's start without the full agreement of the teams. Other proposals rejected by FIA were the introduction of a new points system with the scale 12–9–7–5–4–3–2–1 and to award medals for first, second and third place.

Drivers
$†$ Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

$‡$ Half points were awarded at the as less than 75% of the scheduled distance was completed.

Constructors
$†$ Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

$‡$ Half points were awarded at the as less than 75% of the scheduled distance was completed.

Drivers
† Felipe Massa of Scuderia Ferrari was an entrant to the Hungarian Grand Prix but did not start the race because of an accident in qualifying.

‡ Timo Glock of Toyota was an entrant to the Japanese Grand Prix but did not start the race because of an accident in qualifying.

Race fixing controversy
In a scandal dubbed "Crashgate" by the media, allegations of race-fixing during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix emerged during the second half of the 2009 season from former Renault driver Nelson Piquet, Jr. Over the course of the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix, Piquet, who had been sacked weeks earlier by Renault, claimed he was asked to crash at the Singapore race in a strategy designed to aid teammate and eventual race winner Fernando Alonso. Renault were handed a two-year suspended ban from the sport after the FIA World Motor Sport Council decided the team's managing director, Flavio Briatore and its executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds had asked Piquet to crash. Both had left the team before the WMSC hearing, where they were given life and five-year suspensions respectively. It had been rumoured Renault were prepared to quit the sport at the end of the 2009 season had the team been heavily punished, but the FIA found Briatore and Symonds solely to blame and chose to suspend Renault's ban.

Broadcasting changes

 * The BBC regain coverage of Formula One in the United Kingdom after losing it to ITV in 1997.


 * In Spain, Telecinco loses the F1 coverage rights in favor of Mediapro, major shareholder of LaSexta.
 * In Bulgaria, TV7 have acquired the coverage rights for the 2009, and  seasons from bTV.
 * ESPN Star Sports has agreed to a new five-year deal for the exclusive rights to broadcast Formula One in 24 Asian countries, including India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea.
 * In Sweden, Viasat extends its broadcasting rights through 2011. The broadcast will be moved to the new motorsports channel Viasat Motor, but qualifications and race summaries will be on TV6 as well. This is the first time races aren't broadcast on free-to-view channel in Sweden.
 * In Denmark, TV3 Puls replaces TV2.
 * In Greece, ANT1 has acquired the coverage rights for the next three years, replacing Alpha TV.
 * In Russia, RTR Sport replaces Ren-TV.
 * In Australia, Ten and its subsidiary One will cover the season. One was launched on the weekend of the Australian GP. One will broadcast all races and qualifying live when possible. Hosted by Greg Rust and Cameron McConville, who cross to the BBC telecast.
 * In Latvia, TV3 and Viasat Sport Baltic have bought the rights for showing live races for three years, replacing LNT, which had broadcast Formula One races for more than ten years.
 * In Ukraine, K1 replaces Megasport.
 * In Middle East, Bahrain Sports replaces Al Jazeera Sports.
 * In Turkey, TRT replaces CNN Türk.
 * In Canada, TSN replaces Speed. Although TSN has had the rights for some time, it licensed the broadcasts in Canada to SpeedTV. For 2009 TSN has decided to broadcast the races themselves using the BBC Feed on their two stations TSN and TSN2 as well as their own French coverage on RDS.

New F1 partnerships
Korean electronics firm LG entered into a partnership with Formula One Management for their logo to adorn Formula One's live timing system and television timing graphics.