The F1 Pendulum - Monaco GP 2009 Winners and Losers

Winners and Losers from the Monaco Grand Prix

• Moving Up
• Jenson Button – Awesome win
• Kimi Raikkonen – First podium for Ferrari
• Felipe Massa – Solid result in 4th after season start
• Sebastian Bourdais – Excellent point for STR after rumours of argument
• Giancarlo Fisichella – Great drive to 9th – sick to be within 2 sec of first Force India point

• Non-Movers
• Mark Webber  - solid 5th but would have expected more with new car.
• Nico Rosberg – Yet more promise in practice sessions but couldn’t improve on grid slot.
• Rubens Barrichello – He’s the bride once again. How will he ever overhaul Jenson Button?
• Nelson Piquet – Punted out the race may have saved him as was not showing any pace.

• Moving Down
• Lewis Hamilton – Race weekend over in qualifying.
• Sebastian Buemi – Flew the rookie flag today punting Piquet off.
• Toyota – Incredible drop in pace. It’s almost unexplainable.
• BMW – No pace what so ever and mechanical problems to rub salt in

Jenson Button on fire

He may have won 3 races on the bounce and be flying high at the top of the F1 pecking order, but race by race Jenson Button is really stretching his legs on this championship that he claims he can’t even think about yet. That’s going to get harder as the wins keep rolling in and the gap to second in the F1 standings grows but I totally understand his point. When Lewis Hamilton was told to think about the championship with a few rounds to go in 2007 look what happened. He threw away the chance of being champion with 2 races to go. Jenson looks to have this season very much under control.

Kimi Raikkonen cracks a smile

A third place in Monaco is easily Ferrari’s best finish in 2009 so things are looking up for the Scuderia squad. For Kimi to say he is disappointed to finish third is quite strange. Yes, he wants to win races, he’s a world champion after all. But there are 19 other drivers out there who all believe they should be winning too. In Ferrari’s current situation I think their 3rd and 4th place (Felipe Massa) should be celebrated tonight!

Sebastian Bourdais makes his point

After a big smash with his team mate at the Spanish Grand Prix 2 weeks ago, there were rumours of an argument between Bourdais and the Toro Rosso team principle Franz Tost. He denied it out right and today in Monaco Sebastian Bourdais came home in 8th to get his second point of the season. It might not sound a lot. But Toro Rosso isn’t usually in point scoring positions and Bourdais showed great consistency in the race to try and tame his critics out there.

Giancarlo Fisichella

To rate some one highly for finishing a mere 9th usually wouldn’t usually be on the cards. But I’m impressed with Fisichella for finishing within 2 second’s of the points. He crossed the line looking at the back of Sebastian Bourdais and another opportunity had disappeared for Force India’s first ever points. He should take strength from the result and repeat the saying: “Better luck next time…”

A quick look at the non-movers...

Mark Webber grabs points

Fifth position isn’t bad when you consider it’s another 4 points towards your world championship position. But the drivers at Red Bull Racing have higher hopes now after a strong start to the season. Webber was 3rd last time out in Spain and this weekend in Monaco, Red Bull introduced new parts on the car including the double decker diffuser giving them more hope. But it wasn’t to be and a fifth position is all they could get out of the weekend.

Nico Rosberg has pace but lacks results

Another Grand Prix weekend where Rosberg was able to put his Williams at the top of the time sheets, but once again this hasn’t been carried through to the vital qualifying and race results. He started 6th and finished 6th. It’s 3 points but Williams are well aware that show boating early in the weekend isn’t going to get them big results.

Rubens Barrichello the bride

It’s a horrible phrase to be associated with as a F1 driver but Barrichello really is the bride at Brawn GP right now. His team mate is untouchable by the whole F1 field, but it’s Rubens who should be the closest as he has the same machinery. He’ll wonder how he’s going to out do Jenson this season.

Nelson Piquet still clutching on

Many think Nelson Piquet is on his last chance in Formula One before he gets the chop but it looks like he’ll make it to Turkey with his contract still in tact. He spun in qualifying and narrowly avoided the barrier which saved his bacon ultimately. He was punted out of the race by Buemi and this may have hidden another poor result should he have finished the race.

So now we move to F1’s losers from the Monaco GP...

Lewis Hamilton lost it early

It was all over by ten past 2 in Monaco on Saturday afternoon for Lewis Hamilton when he nurfed the barrier in qualifying 1. He started the race 19th and made no ground on lap one. McLaren gave him a poor strategy to get anything out of the race and that’s what happened. He got nothing, finishing 12th – 1 lap down. Chin up.

Sebastian Buemi flies the rookie flag

It’s been a good start to the season for Buemi after out scoring his team mate Bourdais so far but he showed the world he’s the new boy by ploughing into the back of Nelson Piquet. He carried way too much speed into turn 1 and Nelsons Renault just acted as another brake for the out of control Toro Rosso car.

Toyota and BMW at sea

A massive story of pure failure is both the Toyota and BMW F1 teams in Monaco. Toyota locked out the front row and was very close to winning in Bahrain 4 weeks ago. This weekend however they may well have been the slowest team on the grid. Either they were or BMW certainly were close. Both teams looked so far away from the pace it’s quite scary when they spend collectively over $400 million a year to get to where they are.