A look back at the season which saw Jenson Button and Brawn GP come back from the brink.
Mike Wise takes a look at the season which saw Jenson Button and Brawn GP come back from the brink to score title successes
When Honda announced its withdrawal from Formula One on December 5th last year,
Skybet offered odds of 80-1 on Jenson Button becoming 2009 World Champion. The Englishman spent the winter not knowing whether he would be on the grid at all; assuming Ross Brawn could not save the team, there was also the question of whether, with just one race victory in nine seasons, he would be able to salvage any kind of F1 future.
Twelve months on, Button is the World Champion and if any further proof of an enhanced - even rehabilitated - reputation is needed, the fact he now has a McLaren contract in his back pocket says it all. Not only does he have the Brawn GP team to thank for such a remarkable turnaround in fortunes, Button must also be grateful of the technical changes - mainly governing aerodynamics - introduced by the FIA that the team exploited.
Of course, the degree to which they exploited them was a crucial (but by no means the only) factor in their early-season dominance but is the fact the order was shuffled and the 2009 season consequently given such a refreshing zest not something to be welcomed? Aside from Brawn (now Mercedes) GP, Red Bull were the year's other main protagonists - a team without a win before the season started but now, like their 2009 rivals, poised to carry on where they left off.
That they will be joined by McLaren and Ferrari there can be little doubt - F1's more usual hegemony having been so absorbed in their 2008 title battle they took their eye off the ball at the start of the season and spent the rest of the year catching up. In fact, the eye-catching success of Brawn GP and Button aside, this season's main legacy could be the 2010 season it tees up: perhaps four teams in title contention? Fernando Alonso joining Felipe Massa at Ferrari? Michael Schumacher potentially joining Nico Rosberg at Mercedes GP and taking on an all-British line-up at McLaren? Bring it on...
Team of the season - Brawn GP
Only officially coming into existence three weeks prior to the first race of the 2009 season, the Brawn GP name disappeared from view in November to leave the team as the first in the history of the Formula One Constructors' Championship to achieve a perfect record. Being a contender was probably not at the forefront of Ross Brawn's thoughts as he fought to save the team formerly known as BAR and then Honda, but once their future was secured and the team gave the newly rechristened BGP001 its first run at Silverstone on March 6, its performance out of the box would have confirmed what Brawn and company suspected before their business was so rudely interrupted in December: that they had a winner on their hands. A total of eight wins in 1% races followed - a level of success that wasn't entirely down to the 'double diffuser' the team ran. The car had a strong all-round aerodynamic package and although its most glaring weakness - the tyre warming problem that so hampered Button mid-season - helped rivals to catch and pass Brawn, the strengths clearly more than compensated. Add Brawn's tactical nous into the mix and the fairytale result was two championships for a team that might not have existed at the start of the year.
Driver of the season - Jenson Button
Button teams up with Lewis Hamilton in a Brit-centric World Championhip-winning McLaren super-duper dream team next year and, given that they were the standout performers of 2009, one hopes McLaren gives them a car with which to do the job. What gives Button the edge here though is the fact that, having finally been given the necessary tools, he made the most of what was his first title shot in a decade at the top. 'Six wins in seven races' are words enough to justify Button's success and while he undoubtedly had the quickest car for the first half of the season, he still regularly scored points when this was no longer the case. He enjoyed some luck, in that not one of his title rivals was able to pick up the baton and run with it for any length of time, but such fortune was never anywhere near outrageous and let's not forget his only retirement of the season - a lap one crash in Belgium - was not his fault. Button finally sealed the title at the Brazilian Grand Prix, a race which encapsulated both his biggest frailty during the season - the overly cautious mindset which left him 14th on the grid in a wet qualifying session - and the reason why he is deserving of his World Championship: a rousing drive to fifth place in the race, right when it mattered most.
Most improved driver of the season - Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton's performance was the biggest improvement over the course of the season but that was mostly due to McLaren making his car about 2.8 seconds per lap quicker between the first and last race. Fresh from his World Championship success and yet handed a recalcitrant MP4-24 car with a woeful lack of grip, Hamilton knuckled down and gave it his all, with the result that he put the car in positions it had no right in being. Matters worsened before they improved, however, and even he was unable to score during the early summer. But the team made a breakthrough in Germany and that much was clearly apparent in Hungary, where Hamilton duly scored his first win of the season. Another followed in Singapore and he ended the year the quickest driver on the grid. Quite a turnaround in other words, although any plaudits handed to Hamilton must also be placed in the context of events at the start of the season - his third place in the Australian Grand Prix subsequently being stripped after he and (soon to depart) McLaren sporting director David Ryan were found to have deliberately misled race stewards. All in all a character-building season, and one that will serve him well.
Moment of the season - Button waxing lyrical in Turkey
Button's Austin Powers-style "Yeah baby" trills over the radio became a feature of the 2009 season but one he made at Istanbul Park at the start of June almost came back to haunt him. It came in the immediate aftermath of Button's sixth - and, as it transpired, his last - win of the year and at a time when it seemed as though he would have the title wrapped before summer was out. Of course, that was not to be and yet if it wasn't for the fact he did eventually become World Champion there would appear something rather poignant about his purring to the pitwall: "You've built me a monster of a car. You guys are absolute legends." Sure enough, his car was no longer quite such a monster next time out at Silverstone but the 26-point lead Button had built by then ultimately proved enough. Phew.
