Brawn GP Dominates Qualifying For Australian Grand Prix
Can a season be over before it starts? The way Brawn GP dominated qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix certainly makes one think it could be.
The story of the phoenix is one of resurrection. From death, a new bird is born. Brawn GP certainly seems to be following a similar theme. The offseason began with the shock announcement that Honda was pulling out of Formula One. The team appeared set to close down given the economic situation, but ultimately Ross Brawn, Nick Fry and investors were able to work a management takeover. And now this.
After a rather lackluster first two sessions of qualifying, the Brawn cars showed their muster. The final session left nothing in doubt. The only question was whether it would be Button or Barichello on the pole. A last fast lap put Button there. His screams on the radio were for winning pole, but also sounded distinctly as though the pressure of a brutal offseason was all being released.
Ross Brawn is a brilliant race AND political tactician. When he was with Ferrari, it was generally believed that in the seasons of total domination the car was only run at 85 to 90 percent capacity. Brawn seems to believe the more competitive the race looks, the easier it is to fend off challenges to the car on technical issues. This appears to be the case with the Brawn GP cars.
There are two factors in the Brawn GP that should really worry Formula One fans. First, the pole time of Brawn GP is seven tenths faster than any other car – the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel. Second, the Brawn cars are running heavy! Formula One posts the fuel weights this year and Brawn is carrying 8 and 10 laps more fuel then Vettel or the rest of the top 10.
In short, Brawn is sandbagging. The cars are not seven tenths faster than the rest of the field. They are more like 1.2 to 1.5 seconds faster. Given the lack of testing time in the offseason, you can be Brawn has pulled back on the power a bit as well to make sure the package makes it through the races. This means Brawn could actually be 1.75 or 2 seconds faster than the rest of the field.
So, is the Formula One season over before it starts? The only hope for teams appears to be the issue of reliability. Brawn did not have a lot of offseason testing, so reliability is a bit of an unknown. While it is a ray of hope, it is a flickering one at best.
Lemmy