2009 F1 Review: Five questionable moments

1. Giancarlo Fisichella joining Ferrari mid-season
At the time Fisichella must have been on cloud nine. He had just produced arguably the best performance of his career almost winning in Spa for Force India, and then he was to fulfil his long life ambition of driving for Ferrari.

However this stint was an absolute disaster which yielded no points. On three of the five weekends in which he competed for Ferrari he didn’t reach Q2 in qualifying.

It was always going to be extremely difficult to make an impact. Firstly the F60 was a poor handling car with a lack of downforce compared to its rivals. Also having KERs on board made the car feel completely different. This in particularly caught Fisichella out. With the testing ban in force Fisichella had no time in which to get himself adapted to the F60. This along with the fact that Ferrari had abandoned this car meant that even if Fisichella had got himself accustomed to it he was unlikely to earn big results anyway.

If he had stayed at Force India which was a car he was thriving in he could have got more giant killing results. This then could have created an Indian summer at the end of his career. He would have at least kept his Force India drive, or maybe sneaked a more competitive seat elsewhere.

As it is he currently has no seat, which is likely to be a direct consequence of his poor stint with Ferrari.

This was a classic case of a driver listening to their heart before they listened to their head. If Fisichella had listened to his head he would have done the right thing and stuck with Force India.

2. Toyota throwing away Bahrain GP victory

Toyota came to Bahrain with the fastest car. Whilst most teams were waiting for the next race in Spain to bolt on their first major upgrade Toyota did it a race early. The result was that they locked out the front row in qualifying. In the first stint of the race all was going well with Glock and Trulli leading. However at the pit stop Toyota were far too conversative, and put on the hard tyre compound which was around 0.5 seconds slower than the softer tyres.

These tyres should have been saved for the final stint. This proved fatal. Both cars lost alot of time, and fell back. If the team had opted to use the soft tyres they would very likely have beaten Button. Remember that the BGP001 had over-heating issues at this race. It wouldn’t have coped with a hard race long battle with the Toyotas.

If Toyota had bagged this victory you wonder how different things could have turned out. Would that have been the confidence boost and springboard that led to more positive results, and the board deciding to remain in F1? Bahrain may well have been the weekend that ended Toyota’s F1 adventure.

3. Rosberg’s slip-up in the Singapore pit lane

Williams were supremely strong around Singapore, and Nico was demonstrating the same sort of performance that we used to see from his father Keke on street circuits.

Rosberg produced a sublime lap to qualify third. Furthurmore he was on the clean side of the grid, and easily despatched Sebastian Vettel off the line.

Throughout the first stint Nico kept in touch with race leader Lewis Hamilton.

Disaster struck on the first pit stop. On Friday practise the track had been incredibly dusty. After a while with cars pounding around the track at full speed the dust cleared on the racing line. The same though didn’t apply to the pit lane exit. Rosberg got caught out by the lack of grip, and slid outside of the white lane. The result was a guaranteed drive through penalty. Taking the penalty when the Safety car was deployed meaning everyone was bunched up compounded the misery. Race ruined.

Nico would have at least been on the podium, and maybe even a win had he pressured Hamilton into a mistake.

4. Ferrari putting intermediates on Kimi Raikkonen on a dry track

In Malaysia Kimi Raikkonen was actually having a very good race despite of his poor handling Ferrari. He was racing in a very solid 5th position. However Ferrari decided to take a gamble. When he pitted his pit crew put on a set of intermediate tyres anticipating the predicted rain. Ferrari were hoping the rain would come almost immediately, meaning the others would have to crawl to the pits to put their inters on, and Kimi could potentially take the lead.

By some miracle, despite the black skies, the rain continued to hold off. After a few laps Kimi’s inters were completely and utterly trashed. When the first drops of rain finally fell from the sky he had fallen too far back to make anything of it.

The race then became a complete lottery, as conditions changed and teams had to make difficult tyre choices. In the end Nick Heidfeld and Timo Glock got the decisions spot on, and their lottery numbers came up. Raikkonen’s lottery numbers could easily have come and he could have been on the podium, but Ferrari took away his ticket.

There is nothing wrong with making such a bold call if you are languishing down in 18th or 19th, but to make the call when you are already in a strong position is mindless. Not the sort of decision you would have expected if Ross Brawn had been sitting on the Ferrari pit wall.

5. Ferrari replacing Massa with Luca Badoer

You have to feel sorry for Badoer. For two races he became the laughing stock of the formula one world. In reality Ferrari should never have put him in the car. He was never going to be able to deliver points for the team. He hadn’t raced in F1 since 1999 when he drove for Minardi. He had never driven the F60 so wasn’t used to the lower downforce levels.

The other point to consider was that when he was racing in F1 he didn’t exactly set the track on fire. In 1999 when Michael Schumacher broke his leg Ferrari (led by Jean Todt and Ross Brawn at the time) opted for Mika Salo as opposed to Badoer.

It seems that Ferrari made an emotional decision to reward their long-term test driver a drive. The Ferrari team of old wouldn’t have made that decision as 1999 demonstrated.

What this episode also highlighted that Ferrari were very wrong not to have followed their rival’s example by not having a young drivers programme. This is something that Ferrari have very quickly corrected.

Don’t forget to check out our other Top 5 of 2009 series of articles
Top 5 moments of 2009
Top 5 drives of 2009
Top 5 drivers of 2009
5 Ugly moments of 2009