with Ferraris and the McLarens dominating the top 3 positions. Erm occasionally a Renault or a Red Bull will come in but not often.
Well, that was true until Honda announced their immediate withdrawal from the sport in late quarter last year, very much due to the economic downturn.
There was a mad scramble to obtain news of the withdrawal by all the sporting world (ok, I’m exaggerating) Then afterwards, a mad scramble to find buyer/buyers for the team.
Such a waste really, if the team goes down before 2009 cos the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) cars were already developed when the First Night Race was happening in Singapore.
Team Boss was left going around and sourcing for buyers. (do note that even though Honda is relinquishing all rights to the team by selling it, they do have a decision making vote as to who they want to sell the team to)
Rumours of the prospect buyer being a Mexican millionaire, Virgin Group Owner etc has been circulating around for weeks but none of them were true.
It looks as if the fate of the Honda team is sealed when just weeks before the 1st 2009 GP were to start, it was announced that Team Boss, Ross Brawn is the new owner!
The team was renamed from Honda to Brawn and given an overhauled look. The white and green liveries changed to a simple white and black one.
And just a week before F1 starts, they confirmed Virgin Group as their sponsor for 2009 (yeah!) and it seems like the budget has already been set for the whole year so whew! What a sigh of relief and boost for the team:)
Today marks the first qualifying for F1 and it was no surprise that both Brawn drivers makes the first 2 qualifying since favourable reports have been made once Brawn started testing on the strips. Its Buttons for pole and Barichello for 2nd.
Discussions with a friend showed that we were both eager to see drivers pitting their skills with each other rather then the constructors pitting their big budgets against each other.
So, its ON WITH THE SHOW tomorrow for the Melbourne GP!
Oh, incidentily Ferrari starts on 7th (Massa) and 9th (Raikkonen) tomorrow while McLaren starts 14th (Kovalainen) and 15th (Hamilton) .
Now that’s why I say the sport is interesting hehehe. Stay tuned!
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