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It's 2009 all over again in the 2014 Formula One season

Lewis Hamilton leads Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg at the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix. (AFP PHOTO / MARWAN NAAMANI)
Roar Guru
8th April, 2014
6

While rule changes have dominated the 2014 Formula One season so far, some things haven’t changed. After three rounds, the 2014 championship is reminiscent of the 2009 season, which saw Jenson Button win the world championship.

In so many ways, what is unfolding this year resembles season 2009.

For one, the 2009 championship – like 2014 – was historic for introducing new regulations to the sport. In an effort to cut costs to the teams, the FIA introduced new rules to limit the spending by each team. This included a reduction in the engines used during the season, a reduction in the revs by the engines, and a ban on in-season testing.

The biggest change was the introduction of KERS, which boosted certain teams as they were able to use and develop the system before other teams.

The team that was advantaged by the rule changes in 2009 is the same team that is dominating the 2014 season so far. Despite the different name, Brawn GP dominated the early part of the 2009 season, in exactly the same way Mercedes are doing it in 2014.

Brawn GP was formed by Ross Brawn after Honda – who owned the team in 2008 – pulled out of the sport during the off-season.

Brawn, so confident of the team’s potential success, bankrolled the team to try to deliver the results he knew the car could deliver. And boy, did they deliver.

Brawn won six of the first seven events of the year, with Jenson Button winning all six of them as he set up the platform for his 2009 championship.

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Compare that to this year and Mercedes have started in the same fashion with three straight wins – two of them going to another British driver in Lewis Hamilton.

Mercedes was the team that took over from Brawn when the German manufacturer stepped in to return to the sport as a team for the first time since the 1950s. With their success over the past few years, this team knows how to make use of the new rules in the category.

In 2009, Brawn was the only team to have KERS from the start of the season. They gained an advantage that made them unstoppable for the first half of the season.

In 2014, Mercedes have the same advantage with the Mercedes engine and the electronics in the car. They have been unbeatable in the opening three rounds of the season and no other team has gotten close to stopping them yet.

Lewis Hamilton has been the dominant driver out of himself and Nico Rosberg despite the German leading the championship. He has won the past two races and led the Australian Grand Prix before being forced to retire with terminal problems with the car, and could become the first British driver since Button in 2009 to win the World Championship.

The similarities don’t stop there between the 2009 and 2014 season.

Red Bull looks like they are replicating their 2009 season, when Sebastian Vettel debuted for the team and defeated teammate Mark Webber during the season. For Webber, it was the first time a teammate had defeated him at the end of season standings.

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Daniel Ricciardo debuted for the team this year and has so far defeated Vettel in two of the three races – ignoring the fact he was disqualified in Australia.

Similarly to Webber, Vettel has never been beaten by a teammate during his career in Formula One. I’m sure Australian fans would love to see a repeat of 2009 in 2014, where the rookie in the team defeats the established driver.

The other similarity is in the performance of Red Bull during both seasons. Red Bull slowly improved over 2009 to become one of the leading teams by the end of the season.

After a horror 2014 pre-season, Red Bull have turned it around to be the second best team behind Mercedes after three rounds. You would expect the team to further improve that over the course of the season.

It is a similar story at Ferrari. The 2009 season started poorly for Ferrari, who only had two top-ten finishes in the first three races. This season has been better, but not at the lofty heights the Prancing Horse needs to be.

While Fernando Alonso has finished in fourth position twice, Ferrari struggled in Bahrain and was swallowed up by the Renault and Mercedes cars during the race.

Like 2009, they look to be struggling and a long way from a race victory.

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The Bahrain Grand Prix continued the amazing comparison, with Sergio Perez giving Force India their first podium finish for the year. In 2009, Force India recorded their first ever podium when Giancarlo Fisichella finished second at the Belgium Grand Prix in Spa.

Given that 2009 has been an uncanny resemblance to this year, here are some of the other things that could happen this year that happened in 2009.

McLaren wins a race
Lewis Hamilton won for McLaren in 2009 at Hungary and Singapore. With the solid start in performance by the McLaren this year, they could also taste success this season.

Ferrari and Red Bull improve and take the fight to Mercedes
Both teams started to fire back against Brawn in 2009. With the power and resources of the two teams, you expect both to work their way back towards the front.

An Australian wins the first race of his career
Mark Webber recorded his first win at the German Grand Prix in 2009. With Ricciardo’s fantastic start to his career at Red Bull, and the improvement in the team, he could replicate Webber’s feat.

All teams score a point in the Formula One World Championship
The 2009 season was the first since 2005 in which all teams scored a point in the championship. While this looks unlikely to be done this year – because of no points to Caterham or Marussia in their career – you can never say never when some of the most gruelling tracks are still to be completed in the calendar.

Eight teams secure a podium in a Grand Prix over the season
In 2009 every team except for Toro Rosso and Williams secured a podium at some stage of the season. In 2014 we have had four manufacturers already secure a podium with Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren and Force India tasting success.

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Williams and Ferrari will surely get a podium during the season, which leaves Sauber, Lotus, Toro Rosso, Caterham and Marussia to make it eight. Sauber and Toro Rosso have shown top ten pace this year and Lotus made the podium last year consistently.

This could come close to fruition if things fall into place.

Team’s finish first and second in eight races over the season
In eight races over 2009, two teams – Red Bull and Brawn – recorded a 1-2 finish. So far in three races this has happened twice. With Mercedes in dominant form this could be a regular occurrence throughout the year, so eight isn’t unrealistic.

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