The official Formula 1 season reviews often get lumbered with bad names and the 2009 F1 DVD is no exception.

This year’s F1 review will be called “Not in a hurry” according to a sleeveshot posted on Twitter.

It’s hardly the most imaginative title they could have come up with. But then, this is from the same people who brought us the equally uninspiring “Once again” (2006) and “Luck doesn’t come into it” (2008).

I preferred Stealthman’s suggestion of: “I’ll Bet Honda Are Kicking Themselves”

Play.com revealed some more details of the official 2009 F1 season review. It’ll be a two-disc DVD set, no sign of a Blu-Ray or download release though.

There 16-and-a-half races have been distilled into 4hrs 30min of action and includes features on Brawn, the departures of Toyota and BMW, plus a feature on the new Abu Dhabi circuit.

Expect it to be blessed with lots of footage from camera angles only available on the little-seen premium feed. The review goes on sale at the end of the month.

Buy / pre order the 2009 F1 DVD review

More F1 season DVD reviews

• F1 2009 DVD review available to order
• 2008 F1 official DVD season review: “Luck does not come into it”
• Kimi made it at last! (2007 F1 DVD)
• Once Again! (2006 F1 DVD)
• Fantastic Fernando! (2005 F1 DVD)
• Michael does it again! (2004 F1 DVD)
• Michael & co. the dream team (2003 F1 DVD)

Thanks to F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship runner-up Dank for the tip!

F1 Fanatic earns a commission on products sold via the links to our affiliate partners above, however you are not charged any extra.

The Button-Kobayashi battle was a highlight of the Brazilian Grand Prix

After the millions ploughed into radically revised aerodynamic packages and Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems to improve racing, did we get a more entertaining season in 2009 than 2008? Not according to how your voted in our post-race polls.

Interlagos served up the best race of the year for the second season in a row – and Turkey was named the worst race of the year.

2009 race ratings (click to enlarge)

Here are the races sorted by ranking, with the winners of each:

Brazil 8.309 (Mark Webber)

Australia 7.937 (Jenson Button)
Belgium 7.852 (Kimi Raikkonen)
Germany 7.096 (Mark Webber)
Italy 7.049 (Rubens Barrichello)

Hungary 6.808 (Lewis Hamilton)
China 6.69 (Sebastian Vettel)
Bahrain 6.42 (Jenson Button)

Abu Dhabi 5.794 (Sebastian Vettel)
Britain 5.755 (Sebastian Vettel)
Japan 5.58 (Sebastian Vettel)
Monaco 5.504 (Jenson Button)
Europe 5.355 (Rubens Barrichello)
Singapore 5.336 (Lewis Hamilton)
Spain 5.33 (Jenson Button)
Malaysia 5.284 (Jenson Button)
Turkey 5.276 (Jenson Button)

The average ranking for a race in 2009 was 6.352 – down from 6.671 last year.

From looking at the lowest and highest-rated races it’s clear what people think makes a good race. It’s not just about having lots of overtaking as is often assumed – it’s about having a battle for the lead, it’s about unpredictability and, yes, a few crashes as well.

The lowest-rated race – Turkey – at least got a higher rating than last year’s worst, Valencia, which scored 3.977. The Turkish Grand Prix was both anti-climactic – the battle between Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel was decided when Vettel went off on the first lap – and at the time it seemed to confirm that Button was going to walk to the championship. Of course, it didn’t quite turn out that way.

It’s no surprise to see the curtailed Malaysian Grand Prix rated so poorly as well. Spain was ranked third from bottom for the second year in a row. In all nine races were rated lower than six out of ten – three more than last year.

Did you think 2009 was less exciting than last year? Do you agree with the choices for best and worst races? Have your say in the comments.

See the 2008 race ratings in full here: Valencia was least popular race of 2008

See more results of F1 Fanatic polls: F1 Fanatic polls archive

There’s a whole host of new functionality I want to add to the site and there’s a lot of work to do in making it load more quickly and less prone to crashing.

But I also want to know what your ideas are for the site. How would you change F1 Fanatic? What bits should be chucked out and what should we keep?

Feel free to suggest anything including article or series ideas, changes to the layout of the site, the live blogs, the forum or anything else.

I’m going to be working on the new version of the site during the off-season. If you’ve got web design experience – particularly with PHP and MySQL – and would like to volunteer to help out, please let me know.

Thanks to everyone who replied top my earlier request for help with optimising the site. I’ve taken lots of your suggestions on board and will be in touch with you about further developments.

In the meantime, please let me know what you’d like to see on F1 Fanatic in the future!

Ferrari believe FIA politics caused Toyota to quit

As the F1 world waits to learn whether Renault will join Toyota in quitting the sport, the finger-pointing for the manufacturers’ exodus has already begun.

The FIA reacted to Toyota’s decision by claiming it could have been avoided if Max Mosley’s budget cap had been introduced.

Meanwhile Ferrari blamed “those who managed Formula 1 over the past few years” – Max Mosley & co. in other words – for driving major car manufacturers out of the sport. So who’s right?

Defeated FIA president candidate Ari Vatanen chimed in with Ferrari when he gave this interview to CNN following Toyota’s departure:

The FIA’s view is that Mosley saw it all coming and tried to stop it with his budget cap regulations.

In all probablity, neither version of events is entirely accurate. Mosley was correct when he pointed out the manufacturers’ allegiance to F1 would prove to be fickle. But that didn’t stop him cosying up to them in the first place.

Plenty of opportunities to cut costs were missed and several teams that might have been kept going were driven out of the sport. In 2005 all the teams bar Ferrari were united on the need to cut testing, but Mosley did nothing.

That reminds us how quick Ferrari have been to turn on the FIA now the two do not have compatible aims. Rather like their harsh criticism of Williams earlier this year, there’s something decidedly odd about Ferrari’s now-infamous “Agatha Christie” press release:

It could be seen as a parody of “Ten Little Indians,” the detective novel by Agatha Christie, first published in England back in 1939, but the reality is much more serious. Formula 1 continues to lose major players: in the past twelve months, Honda, BMW, Bridgestone and, only this morning, Toyota, have announced they are leaving the sport. [...]

The reality is that this gradual defection from the F1 fold has more to do with a war waged against the major car manufacturers by those who managed Formula 1 over the past few years, than the result of any economic crisis.

In Christie’s work of fiction, the guilty party was only uncovered when all the other characters died, one after the other. Do we want to wait for this to happen or do we want to pen a different ending to the book on Formula 1?

Back when Ferrari and the FIA enjoyed a more harmonious relationship, the man in charge of the Scuderia was Jean Todt. But don’t expect the two to start getting along again just because he’s now president of the FIA.

Ferrari and the FIA are still dead set against each other and more battles could lie ahead.

Who do you think is to blame for the manufacturers quitting F1? Was the economic downturn always going to drive Honda, BMW and Toyota away? Have your say in the comments.

F1 teams quitting

• Axe hangs over Renault’s F1 team
• Toyota quits F1 after eight winless years
• Bridgestone to make surprise F1 exit
• BMW F1 exit anouncement expected

Silverstone is the last chance for a British Grand Prix in 2010

Bernie Ecclestone has told Silverstone it has until tomorrow to accept his offer to host the British Grand Prix in 2010.

Silverstone has been left to pick up the pieces after Ecclestone’s attempt to take the race from them and give it to Donington Park failed. Just as it did when he tried to do the same thing with Brands Hatch a few years ago.

But will Ecclestone give Silverstone the same generous deadline extensions Donington had? By my count Simon Gillett got at least three extensions on his deadline to prove he had the necessary funding to complete the building work.

The British government continues to refuse to put any money into the race. This would be a reasonable position if it weren’t also throwing untold billions into the London 2012 Olympics money pit (and I say this as someone who lives in London and appreciates the scale of the regeneration work going on)

The £9bn the British government is putting into holding the Olympics for one year would be sufficient to pay Silverstone’s 17-year deal 24 times over – supporting an event which is vitally important to Britain’s hugely successful motor racing industry.

The deal: 17 years, £370m

Ecclestone’s offer is believed to be a 17-year contract starting at £12m with a 7% ‘escalator’. (Some sources have reported slightly different figures, but these three seem to be the most widely accepted ones).

By my reckoning, that means the total value of the contract will be £370m ($613m / €412m) over 17 years. The final race of the deal in 2026 will cost £35.42m.

It’s important to appreciate how much of a difference that innocuous-looking 7% represents. Far from it costing them £12m per year to host the race, the circuit in fact needs that plus an average of an extra £9.7m every year. Here’s how it breaks down:

Clearly, the deal would commit Silverstone to annual increases in fees far above the rate of inflation.

Given the economic conditions, who knows what’s going to happen to inflation over the next decade-and-a-half. The rate of inflation in Britain is slightly over 1% at the moment, so even if Ecclestone applied a far more realistic ‘escalator’ of 2% Silverstone’s total bill would be slashed by around £130m.

Ecclestone says the deal is the most favourable offered to any circuit, but most other tracks – even those in Europe – enjoy some kind of government support. However the length of the Silverstone contract is atypical – the longest are usually around ten years.

Silverstone’s financial statement for 2008, published two weeks ago showed a slender profit of £662,000 from revenue of £38.2m. Even in a growing economy it would be hard to imagine where it could conjure up £21.7m on average every year to pay Ecclestone. In the current climate it’s utterly unrealistic.

Will Ecclestone accept a lower figure? Will he give them more time to work out how they might meet these extraordinary fees? Or will he not even give them as much as a deadline extension? We’ll know on Sunday.

Read what you can do to help save the British Grand Prix. If you’re on Twitter, use the #savethebritishgrandprix hashtag and wear the Save the British GP Twibbon:

2010 British Grand Prix

• Another Donington deadline missed: will Ecclestone give Silverstone its race back?
• More pictures of Donington Park 2010
• Donington Park has British Grand Prix deal until 2026, claims government
• Donington Park boss Simon Gillett on building the new British Grand Prix circuit
• Council backs Donington Park’s Grand Prix plans ahead of application hearing
• 2010 Donington Park F1 track revealed
• Donington Park, Silverstone, Brands Hatch and the British Grand Prix
• British Grand Prix switches to Donington Park from 2010. Really?
• 2010 F1 calendar

"An electric car created by ex-McLaren Formula One designer Gordon Murray has been unveiled."

Q & A with Mike Gascoyne (Autosport)

"We [Lotus] are looking for two drivers with experience. We are not looking for pay drivers or new drivers. We think that is very important for the team. What is becoming clear to everyone of the new teams, is that we have gone from last to first of the new teams very rapidly. We are being seen as a serious entity. We have got quite a lot of interest, but we want two experienced drivers there. [...] Jarno has, over one lap, always been sensational. That is even more important in a new team because you need to know where you are on a Saturday. Jarno can always give you that."

Trulli: Toyota was too inconsistent (ITV)

"In general there has been a trend in the paddock for a lot of ups and downs, but we look like we suffered a bit more – sometimes really strong performances and then stepping back really quite a bit."

Lotus design under scrutiny (Autosport)

"The team is concerned by the fact that the Lotus was fitted with wind-tunnel tyres that featured hand-writing from Force India staff – meaning they could only have come from the Silverstone-based team."

Pétition pour le circuit de Spa Francorchamps

"We are an association of people who live near the track of Spa-Francorchamps and we want to confirm that we are not disturbed by the permanent work of the circuit."

These are links I’ve bookmarked using Delicious. You can see my Delicious profile here.

Jenson Button fans will be able to find out more about his surprising championship victory when a new book covering his 2009 campaign is published later this month.

Called “Jenson Button – my Championship Year” the publisher describes it as: “a personal diary of the season by Jenson – he gives insider details on all the pre-race build-up and preparation, the race itself and the results. There’s a lot of techy detail, but also Jenson’s individual response to everything, including some of his own text messages.”

F1 books – particularly those published to coincide with championship victories – can be bland affairs, but hopefully this title will reveal rather more than we could glen from press conferences and his Twitter account.

I’ll have a review up as soon as I can get a copy, but if you’re already sold you can pre-order a copy of “My Championship Year”.

And it’s not the only new Button title coming out in time for the Christmas rush – Alan Henry’s got one too.

Here’s more on “My Championship Year”:

Press release

The book is the chance for fans to discover what it has been like for Jenson to find himself suddenly at the front of the pack, with a truly competitive car, after nine years waiting in the wings. With a foreword from Ross Brawn and an introduction on the events leading up to the first race – including the demise of Honda, the last-minute management buyout and genesis of the Brawn team and the development of the most advanced car on the grid – it is not only a fascinating and informative read, but also a must-have souvenir of a truly sensational season.

F1 Fanatic earns a commission on products sold via the links to our affiliate partners above, however you are not charged any extra.

Was Abu Dhabi the last F1 race for Renault?

Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn has said the company could close its F1 team at the end of the year.

He told reporters today a decision will be taken before the end of 2009. The team already has Robert Kubica contracted for the 2010 F1 season.

Toyota and BMW have previously confirmed they will not be racing in 2010. If Renault were to leave only Ferrari and Mercedes would remain as car manufacturers active in F1.

Like Toyota, Renault was a signatory to the new Concorde Agreement, committing it to remain in F1 until the end of 2012. The FIA has expressed concern at Toyota’s decision to leave the sport despite having signed the Concorde Agreement.

It also hinted the Max Mosley’s abandoned plans for budget capping could be resurrected by new president Jean Todt:

Toyota’s announcement demonstrates the importance of the original cost-reduction measures set out by the FIA.

There is no sign yet whether a third party might take over the Toyota entry. The slot could be taken by new BMW owners Qadbak.

Should Renault pull out the team could be taken over by another company. The Enstone operation was previously run by Benetton (1986-2001) and before that Toleman (1981-1985).

If history tells us anything about Renault it’s that we can expect them back within a couple of years if they do quit.

They entered as a full constructor in 1977 but withdrew at the end of 1985 having failed to win a championship. They remained an engine supplier to several teams in 1986 before leaving the team for two years and then returning with Williams in 1989.

After many championship wins with Williams and Benetton, Renault left again at the end of 1997. But they returned as an engine supplier to Benetton in 2001 and took over the team the following year.

They’ve had a difficult three years since their back-to-back double championships of 2005-6 with Fernando Alonso. He made a beeline back to the team after a one-year stay at McLaren in 2007. But their triumphant return to form at the end of 2008 has now been tainted by the Singapore scandal, and they had already lost title sponsor ING.

Alonso is now on his way to Ferrari and Kubica is set to take his place – but only if the team commits to F1 for another year. With the Pole potentially back on the driver market, it could lead to a further hold-up in driver signings for 2010.

Mika Salo tests Toyota's prototype F1 car in 2001

In the eight years Toyota spent in F1 there was little success and a great number of missed opportunities.

Sport has many examples of teams blessed with an abundance of resources which they proceed to squander. From day one money was no object for Toyota, yet their trio of pole positions and 13 podium finishes – with no wins – must be considered a complete and utter failure.

Toyota’s first board decision to enter F1 was taken in 1998, but it took until 2001 for them to get a working car on the track. Although they originally intended this to be their first season, the team decided it wasn’t sufficiently prepared, so they took their prototype to a range of F1 venues and ran race simulations including pit stops.

Former Ferrari driver Mika Salo was brought in to drive and was paired with a man previously thought to be one of the most promising young talents not to get an F1 driver – Allan McNish.

Driver decisions

The team expected little from their first full season of Formula 1, but the early signs were encouraging. Salo scored a point on their debut at Melbourne, partly thanks to the field being decimated by a huge accident at the first corner.

But in short order we became accustomed to a Toyota trait – they made some utterly baffling decisions, particularly when it came to hiring drivers. Salo and McNish were kicked out at the end of 2002 – in their place came the unremarkable Olivier Panis and Champ Car star Cristiano da Matta.

The sheer size of the team seemed to work against it. Being located in Cologne, Germany, made it difficult to attract experienced staff from other F1 teams, most of which are based in Britain. And when they did lure a big name – such as Mike Gascoyne – he quickly became frustrated by internal politics and left.

Toyota’s corporate culture also worked against the team came – its principal Ove Andersson had to step down from the role in 2003 due to his age.

Probably the worst single decision the team made was hiring Ralf Schumacher on a mutli-million dolar salary far in excess of what any other team would pay him. Jokes about whether they thought they’d hired the other Schumacher were impossible to avoid.

The good year

Schumacher got to drive the most competitive car to come out of Cologne, the 2005 TF105, but it was team mate Jarno Trulli who got the most out of the car to begin with, scoring three podiums in the first five races of 2005. This was the high point of Toyota’s time in F1.

Now in its fourth season, some indication of the team’s desperation to score results came as it scored its first two pole positions. Knowing it was doomed not to participate in the 2005 United States Grand Prix because of the Michelin tyre failures a very lightly-fuelled Trulli took pole position at Indianapolis, before joining the other Michelin-shod cars in withdrawing.

At home in Suzuka later that year the team the same again, this time with Schumacher, who took pole position but came in for fuel seven laps earlier than any of the front runners and finished eighth.

Their vast resources seldom led to anything in the way of innovation and a succession of conventional cars rolled out of Cologne. At one stage accusations were levelled at the team that they had used confidential information from Ferrari to design their cars, but court proceedings brought in Italy were dropped and, unlike the notorious McLaren case, the FIA chose not to investigate.

After the peak of 2005 the team slumped badly during the next two seasons. But there was no let-up in the spending. Last year they were estimated to have a budget of almost $450m, and that was after Schumacher’s wage bill was replaced by Timo Glock’s more modest pay packet.

Toyota blushes were deeper and redder in 2007 when they began supplying engines to Williams and were beaten in the constructors’ championship by their customer team. After that Toyota foisted their up-and-coming but inexperienced rookie Kazuki Nakajima on the team and consequently out-scored Williams in 2008 and 2009.

Missed opportunities

Toyota started 2009 with a car arguably capable of challenging for wins. At Melbourne Trulli and Glock started at the back of the grid following a technical infringement, but still managed to finish third and fourth. They locked out the front row of the grid at Bahrain on light fuel loads – with more realistic strategies they could have qualified similarly well but might have kept Jenson Button behind.

After a competitive start to the season – partly thanks to being one of only three teams running the performance-enhancing ‘double diffusers’ – Toyota’s form varied wildly from track to track. But they never looked like convincing candidates for victory.

It is a truism that the team with the best car in F1 usually wins. But Toyota serve as a reminder that the team with the greatest wealth won’t necessarily build the best car. They spent eight years proving that over and over.

Toyota F1 drivers, 2002 to 2009

Mika Salo (2002)
Allan McNish (2002)
Olivier Panis (2003-5)
Cristiano da Matta (2003-4)
Jarno Trulli (2004-9)
Ricardo Zonta (2004)
Ralf Schumacher (2005-7)
Timo Glock (2008-9)
Kamui Kobayashi (2009)

Toyota F1 results

Races started: 139
Wins: 0
Pole postions: 3
Fastest laps: 3
Points: 278.5
Podiums: 13
Best championship result: 4th (2005)
Laps led: 66

Read more: Toyota quits F1 after eight winless years

Toyota finished sixth and seventh in their final Grand Prix at Abu Dhabi

F1 has lost its third team in less than 12 months as Toyota has confirmed it will not compete in 2010.

It brings to an end the company’s eight-year involvement in Formula 1 during which time it is believed to have spent more money than any other team on the grid.

The team’s F1 future had been widely doubted since Honda withdrew at the end of 2008. Toyota originally entered F1 in 2002 to compete with Honda, which had returned as an engine supplier two years earlier.

Toyota joins a host of Japanese car manufacturers reducing their motor racing activity. Subaru, Mitsubishi and Suzuki have all down-sized their rally efforts, with the former quitting the World Rally Championship.

Tyre manufacturer Bridgestone has also decided to leave F1 when its exclusive deal expires at the end of 2010. And the Toyota-owned Fuji Speedway, which was brought up to F1 standards to hold the Japanese Grand Prix in 2007 and 2008, will not be holding any more Grands Prix.

There were rumours earlier this year the team would only remain in F1 if it won a race. That it failed to do, despite locking out the front row of the grid at Bahrain. The failure to seize on that opportunity, and the demotion of both of its cars to the back of the grid at Melbourne – from where they rose to finish third and fourth – may have cost it its F1 future.

It ended 2009 fifth in the championship with 59.5 points. That was its second-best ever year in F1 – its highest placing was fourth with 88 points, in 2005.

Despite its lack of success there were some grounds for optimism the team would continue. Toyota boss John Howett was the vice-president of the Formula 1 teams’ association. He played a major role in the negotiations with the FIA over how F1 costs could be reduced and the team signed the Concorde Agreement committing it to remain in F1 until 2012.

But this desire to bring costs down and commit to the future of the sport has not spared the team. Last month Toyota’s new CEO Akio Toyoda said the company was “grasping for salvation” – given that grim assessment, it’s hrdly surprising its F1 team has been clsoed down.

As well as the hundreds of staff at its Cologne headquarters, spare a thought for Kamui Kobayashi. Just three days ago his impressive performance at Abu Dhabi was praised by the team and he was expected to earn a place in Toyota’s 2010 line-up.

That will not happen, though it remains to be seen if anyone might step in to take the team’s place in F1. If not, it presents an opportunity for Qadbak, who bought the remains of BMW’s F1 team, to get on the grid in 2010.

But the bad news may not be over just yet – Renault are holding a board meeting today to decide on the future of its team. Having been the focus of a major scandal this year, and with no title sponsor for 2010, could it become the fourth F1 team to quit?

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A perfect prediction at Monaco put SaloolaS on course for the championship

SaloolaS has beaten competition from over 1,000 F1 Fanatic readers to become the first ever F1 Fanatic Predictions Champion.

A final score of 270 points means SaloolaS is the 2009 champion with 20 points more than closest runner-up, Dank.

Richard Evans takes third place and the second runner-up prize with 245 points.

But the final prize-winning place of fourth had to be decided on a count-back. In the end Dougie narrowly beat PJA – the pair both scored 240 points and both also predicted the same number of race winners (five) and second place finishers (four). Dougie took the place by dint of correctly predicting more third place finishers – four to PJA’s two.

That seems a harsh way to deprive PJA of a prize, so I’ll see if I can rustle up a worthwhile consolation gift. Here’s what the winners will receive:

First place: SaloolaS

• An original F1 painting by Rob Ijbema
• Five F1 DVDs from Duke Video: “Formula One 1970: The uncrowned champion”, “Formula Villeneuve: A tribute to Gilles Villeneuve”, “The World’s Greatest F1 Cars”, “Champion: Hill” and “Nine Days in Summer”
• £60 to spend on F1 merchandise at Onpole.com

Runners-up prizes: Dank, Richard Evans and Dougie

• Copies of “Lotus Goes Turbo” DVDs from Duke Video
• £30 to spend on F1 merchandise at Onpole.com

Thanks to everyone who joined in the predictions championship and special mentions go to all of you who entered every round and the 33 that out-scored me!

Thanks also to Ian Haycox for creating his excellent software that allowed me to run the championship much more effectively.

We’ll be back with a bigger and better competition next year so please offer any thoughts on how we can improve the contest. In the meantime, here are the 2009 F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship standings in full.