The Formula One 2009 season marked a new world champion while still leaving motor sport's most prestigious title in Great Britain. Jenson Button stuttered through much of the latter half of the season, only for a heroic drive in the penultimate Grand Prix in Brazil's Interlagos circuit crowned him his first drivers' title.
Button dominated the first half of the season, winning six of the first seven races. Capitalising on his rivals car's under-development, especially with Hamilton's McLaren and Ferrari, he coasted through to victory in Australia, Bahrain, Malaysia, Spain, Monaco and Turkey, with much made out by the media of the car's double diffuser which greatly helps the car's downforce.
Despite the victories, Button soon found out who his chief protagonists for the title were Sebastien Vettel, Mark Webber and particularly teammate Rubens Barrichello. Vettel had victories in Shanghai and Silverstone, but was hindered by his lack of consistency, while Webber only showed glimpses of sparkling form during the middle and latter parts of the season. Barrichello was found wanted for much of the season, until he pounced on his teammate's misfortunes by winning races in Valencia and Monza and grown into a serious title by the Brazil GP.
Hamilton also played a role into the destination of the title. While his car deserted him at the start of the season, his form picked up in from Monaco, and won his first grand prix of the year at Hungary. He took points from championship contenders, and made Button's title quest easier.
McLaren Hamilton's teammate Heikki Kovalainen had a stinker of a season - tallying only 22 points - not even half the points total to what Hamilton amassed (49). despite this, the Finn had a solid race in Abu Dhabi from 18th after he suffered a blown engine in qualifying. He marched all the way up to 11th, disrupting Ferrari's Kimi Raikonnen plans from stealing third in the constructors championship, in what marked a disappointing year for the two constructor giants.
Felipe Massa performed to his best in an unbalanced car; the highlights of his struggles finishing 7th in the Spanish Grand Prix after being told by his team to slow his car down while running fourth in a desperate attempt to save fuel to finish the race. His ugly accident at Hungary in qualifying still provides a warning sign the dangers of the sport.
If Ferrari and McLaren's year was a puzzling one, Toyota's problem was like attempting to solve the Rubix cube. There were stages of the season where there was glimmer of ultra lightening pace, represented by pole position in the Bahrain Grand Prix, to Timo Glock's second place in Singapore. With Toyota plunging large investments in the sport, you have to wonder their lack of achievement in the sport thus far could spark the beginning of the end for the Japanese manufacturer.
Meanwhile, at the top of the standings was Button. His performance in Brazil was impeccable and showed critics of him that he was not a worthy champion. He made five classy overtaking manoeuvres, most of them over rookie drivers who many thought at the beginning of the race could display an erratic piece of driving to take the Briton out. Romain Grosjean and particularly, the all-action Kamui Kobayashi, displayed aggression but acceptance that Button was clearly faster at the early stages of the race. Coupled with Vettel's and Barrichello's misfortunes during qualifying and the race, Button sealed the title with a race to spare.
Now onto 2010, and I'm particularly licking my lips in anticipation of key driver moves and the introduction of new teams Lotus, Campos, Manor and US GP. This would extend the F1 grid to 28 cars.
Thus far, Button has signed a contract to stay with the Brawn team, fuelling speculation that he could take a larger salary in moving to McLaren and join Hamilton's team. If this is the case, he would be very unlikely to defend his crown, being that the McLaren team is built around creating world championship success for Hamilton.
Ferrari have confirmed their 2010 driver pairing, with Fernando Alonso joining Massa for the Marenello squad. The team has the makings of putting a championship-winning season next year, and halting production on this year's cars at least six races early could put them in good stead for 2010 which sees refueling banned. Can't wait until March then...
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