F1 2009 - Constructors Season Review - Part 1

Welcome to part 1 of our 2009 F1 season review - looking specifically at the teams as a whole and how they managed themselves under the PR spotlight.

We start with the teams that finished in the bottom half of the point's standings: 10th up to 6th. Every team in 2009 managed to score points - but they certainly weren't all winners as Samantha Wilcox reveals in this article.

10th - TORRO ROSSO

Arguably the biggest thing to happen in Torro Rosso's year was the unceremonious dumping of Sebastien Bourdais in favour of Spaniard Jamie Alguersuari. Driving alongside Sebastien Buemi it meant Torro Rosso were the only team driving with two rookie drivers. Following the success of rookie Sebastian Vettel last year the Red Bull sister team were confident. It also raised the question of whether in-season testing should be banned and whether drivers coming onto the track haven never driven an F1 car was, in fact, dangerous. The team ended the season on a high with Buemi getting through to Q3 in Abu Dhabi but critics have argued the car would have been capable of more in the hands of more experienced drivers.

9th - FORCE INDIA

Whereas most of the manufacturing teams had a woeful 2009 campaign it will be remembered as a great year for Force India. The former Spyker team enjoyed its first points score and podium with Giancarlo Fisichella; further points followed with Adrian Sutil and it could have been more were it not for a certain Finn in a red car.

Speaking of red cars, team boss Vijay Mallya released Fisichella to drive for Ferrari following Luca Badoer's less than successful outing. The team brought in Vitantonio Liuzzi to replace him again raising the question of age versus experience when it comes to filling F1 race seats.

8th - RENAULT

The big story at Renault this year was 'spy-gate'. The company were rocked when, following the sacking of Nelson Piquet, it was revealed that Flavio Briatore, Pat Symonds and the young Brazilian had conspired to deliberately crash in Singapore in order to gift Fernando Alonso with the win; their 1st of the 2008 season.

The team handled this crisis as well as possible; prior to the court case they removed the pair responsible and inputted Bob Bell as stand-in team principal. In many ways Bob proved to be the anti-Flavio; a quiet concerned character who, nonetheless, has successfully guided the team through the final few races and proved to be very stable under pressure.

The team may have had one of their worst seasons in recent years (in addition to Singapore the team were caught out by the double-diffuser, almost banned from a race following a wheel flying off mid-track, their best result was a single 3rd place and they've lost double-world champion to Alonso to Ferrari) but with Polish star Robert Kubica joining the team, fewer new regulations in 2010, Red Bull keeping them as engine supplier and Bell likely to stay on as team principal fortunes should improve for the Enstone-based team.

7th - WILLIAMS

A lot of people will remember Williams in 2009 as a team who did the majority of their fighting off the track. The team had a strong season, mainly thanks to Nico Rosberg, and became infamous for their 'show-boating' free practice results. They were also the team that seemed to go against the grain, along with Force India they were expelled and rejoined FOTA and were the team most vocal about BMW's new team taking a place on the 2010 grid. The team have a rich history in F1 and with a Red Bull-style driver line-up (experience in Rubens and raw talent in Nico Hulkenberg) 2010 should see them put in a strong showing.

6th - BMW-SAUBER

The big news out of BMW was their departure from the team, the news could have been handled better - drivers Kubica and Heidfeld admitting he heard the news via email. The team was determined to go out on a high but for the first half that looked like being a pipedream. The team continued to push however and gleaned some decent results in the Post-European races.

The team has been bought out by a consortium group raising a few suspicions. They have also had to be subject to a vote as whether, with 13 teams already signed up, a 14th one could be allowed. Williams seemed particularly against this however with Toyota's recent withdrawl there could still be hope. In whatever guise the team returns to the grid their press department will have quite a job on their hand to build up a reputation to rival that of the popular German/Swiss-based team.

To be continued...

So they were the bottom five manufacturers of the 2009 season - check out the second part of our season review here including: Toyota, Ferrari, McLaren and the two championship contenders - Red Bull Racing and Brawn GP.