This question is the subject of this week’s ‘Thursday Thoughts’ on Sidepodcast.
To be honest, it’s an interesting choice of subject in a week dominated by headlines of Brawn being bought out by Mercedes, Jenson being a turncoat and defecting to McLaren, and Kimi storming off in a huff from F1 because he can’t get what he wants…
No, it won’t be him!
Anyway…
The question was asked on Sidepodcast as part of their new ‘Thursday Thoughts’ series.
Well, to answer the question posed by Mr. C, it’s got to be Ross Brawn, hasn’t it?
Ross Brawn looking happy at winning yet another award in 2009
Why have I picked Ross Brawn? Continue reading
So what next for this blog now that we have entered the off season? Never fear, because while I have been basing a lot of my blog posts on stuff that happens over the race weekend, this does not mean I won’t have anything to write about now the season has ended.
On the contrary, in fact – I have been saving up loads of ideas for posts that simply could not have been done during the season! The most obvious I guess would be roundups of the 2009 season – which I plan to look at from the numbers perspective, of course…
Then I plan to branch out a bit into some special projects that were just too massive to attempt while the season was on – the regular posts just took up too much time to do this. And besides, I wanted to have some stuff to do during the off-season when I could really sink my teeth into it…
Other than that, if you guys have any ideas on specific stuff you would like me to look at, then please give me a shout in the comments and I’ll see what I can do – I always try and write these posts with my readers in mind, of course 
So you’ll have plenty of reasons to visit ‘Making Up The Numbers’ during the off-season – and I hope that when you do, you will be pleasantly surprised by what you see here
It’s Driver Consistency for the final time in 2009 – who was the shining star under the lights in Abu Dhabi?
In contrast to the last race, this was dull, dull, dull 
Here are some pics, which considering this was a night race, the selection was not that great today:
Sutil going so fast he’s all blurry – must be a camera effect then (PicApp.com)
Mark Webber and the hotel with the coloured lights that is in every photo (PicApp.com)
Alonso toiled for the last time in a Renault today – hoping for better things from Ferrari (PicApp.com)
Webber takes 2nd to make it a season ending 1-2 for Red Bull (PicApp.com)
The start of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (PicApp.com)
So, the final race of the season. Sadly, although the venue was fantastic, it did not produce good racing. Lewis had the race in the bag, but experienced serious brake problems which led to his retirement. This meant that Vettel cruised to a win after the first pitstop when he jumped Hamilton. There was not much action on track, although Rubens and Mark Webber were involved in a little incident at the beginning which damaged Rubens’ car (although he managed to continue without repairing it).
The only other action of note was a flurry in the last few laps for second place involving Webber and Button. It was exciting and good clean racing, although it again highlighted a major failure in the aerodynamic regulations that Button was unable to get near or get past Webber. Continue reading
So the first qualifying session at the brand new and quite spectacular Abu Dhabi circuit. The drivers coped very well with all the changes and it was an entertaining session. The main feature of the track seems to be how spectacular it looks – they are trying to be the ‘Arabian Monaco’. With that in mind, I can’t resist adding a few pics 
Vettel riding off into the sunset (PicApp.com) 
Vettel the Night Rider (PicApp.com) 
Hurry up Webber, we’re burning daylight (PicApp.com) 
Kubica racing past the hotel that changes colours, just like he will do in 2010 (PicApp.com)
Thankfully there were no crashes or bad incidents and most drivers seemed to have enjoyed the track. Hamilton took pole by seven tenths and looked very happy about it – which means he must have a decent fuel load and the Red Bulls are running light.
Fisichella was well off the pace, qualifying last, while Alonso never made it out of Q1 and Raikkonen out of Q2. Kovalainen had awful luck with gearbox problems in Q2, so will probably have to take a penalty. He thought he had a good car today too (#sorryAmy).
The Brawns were also off the pace, again the issue being heat generation in the tyres. Shame really, as people were promising Button would do really well here with no pressure. Still time though… Continue reading
