It’s probably been Formula One’s worst kept secret these past few weeks, but it’s official now: after Rubens Barrichello’s leave for Williams and Brawn GP’s sale to Mercedes-Benz, Jenson Button has left the team to join McLaren for the 2010 Formula One season.

The legend of Brawn GP, with its single season in Formula One which has resulted in both the drivers’ and the constructors’ title, is thus complete.

As for Button’s new job, consider that Lewis Hamilton has consumed two teammates over the course of but three seasons: Heikki Kovalainen over 2008–2009 and double world champion Fernando Alonso in 2007. Both left McLaren in a very unhappy state of mind.

Hamilton is McLaren’s home-grown talent, nurtured since age 13, and while he is undoubtedly scary fast in a well-sorted car, he is also a vain man known for public temper tantrums whenever things go even slightly wrong. Like in the first half of the 2009 season, when McLaren had the misfortune to produce a dog of a racing car.

So while the BBC is calling the Button–Hamilton lineup a “dream team at McLaren,” with both of them British and both of them world champions, expect rifts. McLaren already has a “one driver” and his name is Lewis Hamilton.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/Getty Images, Mark Thompson/Getty Images

The drivers are already out there. Lewis Hamilton has set the fastest time in Friday morning’s free practice. The Abu Dhabi circuit, built on the island of Yas, is as new as circuits get: its Formula One license was granted a mere 23 days ago on October 7. As you can imagine, the track is high Gulf extravaganza, snaking around a harbor and passing beneath the Yas Hotel, the curvy-bubbly building you see on the photos.

German circuit designer Hermann Tilke, responsible for much of the architecture of Formula One during its heavy eastward expansion in the last decade, has given a rare interview to the British magazine Motorsport, published in the November 2009 issue. He points out some features of his latest work:

[There is] the possibility to drive down the elevation at 190 mph into the arena. This creates a special feeling for the drivers and spectators, and the track layout guarantees a lot of action. Secondly, driving alongside the marina and underneath the hotel – this too can be found nowhere else on a permanent track. Third, the start-finish line is kept tight and short which gives a special atmosphere and a good view for the spectators in the first and the last corner.

Tilke is often criticized for his bland designs, at least when compared to classic circuits like the Nürburgring or Spa-Francorchamps, but you have to keep in mind that modern safety regulations are a heavy set of handcuffs bracing the hand of any designer. And Tilke designs can be brilliant, as he knows full well. This is how he describes Turn 8 at Istanbul Park, perhaps his greatest work:

Yes! The idea was not only to make this a very fast turn, but also to make it in the third dimension. It has waves – first it’s up, then down, up, then down. This makes it very difficult to drive. The race engineers want the cars to lay as deep as possible to achieve more downforce, but with this turn they have to lay the cars a bit higher. So it is really tricky and it influences the whole circuit.

One of the people already trackside is Tamara Ecclestone, daugher of Bernie and Slavica Ecclestone. Her features make you wonder how a British man and a Croatian woman can produce someone with such classic Levantine features.

The race will commence at 7 AM EST on Sunday.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images, Ker Robertson/Getty Images, Clive Mason/Getty Images

Button went to Japan with a 15-point lead on his teammate Barrichello as Sebastian Vettel—very fast but prone to the errors of the young—looked increasingly less of a credible challenger. Twenty-five points behind with thirty to grab in three races, Red Bull’s driver faced an uphill battle.

He began his working weekend by setting pole on Saturday with a time of 1:32.160, 60 milliseconds clear of Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, with McLaren’s incumbent champion Lewis Hamilton a further 175 milliseconds behind.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

The legs you are looking at belong to Timo Glock, Jarno Trulli’s teammate at Toyota, who finished second at the previous race in Singapore. He injured his left calf in a crash during practice and couldn’t drive in the race.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Vettel had the advantage of pole position, but could not afford to finish at anything worse than 4th to retain even a sliver of chance for this year’s title. Which would be no mean feat, as Vettel celebrated his 22nd birthday on July 3rd—if he became world champion, he would be by far the youngest champion the sport has ever seen.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Because he knows Jay Leno has a great many fast cars which he likes to drive at speed, Vettel performed a ritual transformation into The Chin as he put on his fire-retardant mask.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

And the race is on! As you can see in the lower right corner, Lewis Hamilton, driving the KERS-powered McLaren, pulled in dangerously close to Vettel from his position of 3rd on the grid. Vettel can thank Jarno Trulli, seen in his red and white Toyota on the left, for holding Hamilton slightly back. While Hamilton was at one point nosing ahead of Vettel, he was on the outside line, allowing Vettel to turn first into the first corner. This was to be a position he would never relinquish, not even for a single pitstop.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Proving how fast he is when he doesn’t have to deal with traffic, Vettel quickly built up an impressive lead as he was chased by Lewis Hamilton and Jarno Trulli.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Hamilton ran in second place for almost half of the race, having overtaking Trulli at the start, but he was never in a position to challenge for the lead.

Then came his first pitstop. McLaren threw down the gauntlet with a scorcher of a tire change and refueling at 6.7 seconds—with Jarno Trulli, running third, due for his own stop in the next lap.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Toyota rose to the occasion: they swapped out Trulli’s slicks and refueled him in 6.6 seconds. Combined with the time he gained on Hamilton during his last, fast lap out, this was enough of a margin to allow Trulli to return in front of Hamilton. The Toyota pit crew was absolutely overjoyed. Trulli would manage to hold on to his position to take the 11th podium of his 12-year career.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Here’s Jenson Button, driving out of the points after a lackluster qualifying session and a poor start. Pure luck would return him to 8th place, worth a single point: a fight ahead of him between Adrian Sutil of Force India and Heikki Kovalainen of McLaren culminated in a spin, allowing Button to slip by. He finished at 8th, one place behind teammate Rubens Barrichello, who thus gained a point on him. Brawn GP would end the race needing half a point to claim the constructor’s championship.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Poor Mark Webber, already out of the challenge for the world title, had to start from the pitlane after a botched qualification and was already on his second or third pitstop by lap five. Red Bull Racing used the opportunity to recall him to the pits a number of times during the race to test various aerodynamic bits: you’ll remember that in this season, testing is not allowed outside of race weekends.

Red Bull did a splendid job. Running dead last in 17th place with two laps down on the rest of the field, Webber set the race’s fastest lap on lap 50 with a time of 1:32.569.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Just as things were becoming a tad boring, Bernie Ecclestone—sitting in his supervillain mansion on the island of Thule in the Southern Ocean—pressed the ACCIDENT button on his control panel. Toro Rosso’s 19-year-old Jaime Alguersuari promptly disintegrated an advertising board and stuck his car nose first into the tire barrier. The Spanish kid emerged just fine, but as the track was now littered with carbon fiber, it was time to fire up the 6.3-liter V8 in the AMG Benz safety car.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

The race stewards performed with clockwork Japanese precision, but it still took them five laps to clear the track, chilling everyone’s tires. Fun was provided by safety car driver Bernd Mayländer, who let the big Benz rip, sending big gargles of V8 down the trackside microphones.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Nothing remained for the last few laps: Robert Kubica threatened Button for a while but then backed off, allowing him to grab his single point—and Vettel his full ten for the 4th win of his career. He was manic with joy. The photo above was preceded by one hell of a chest bump, captured by the cameraman to the right. If you watch the race on tape, keep an eye out for it!

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

One of these days, racing drivers will have to abandon Dan Gurney’s great invention if they don’t want to end up cross-posted to our sister site of smut, Fleshbot.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Come to think of it again: too late. Call the San Fernando Valley—or better yet, Budapest!

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

The saddest man on the entire island of Honshu! In a repeat of last weekend’s performance, Toyota inched ever closed to its first win in Formula One. But similarly to Timo Glock’s second, Jarno Trulli could not claim victory. He was full of praise for his team and his injured teammate, a stark contrast with the ever aloof Lewis Hamilton, who blamed nothing but his car for his third place.

Sebastian Vettel is now 16 points down on Jenson Button with two races to go and a maximum of twenty points to gain. Two years ago, Kimi Räikkönen was down 17 points as Formula One went to its penultimate race in Shanghai—but two flawless victories and Lewis Hamilton’s rookie shakes made him world champion by one point over Hamilton and teammate Fernando Alonso.

Let’s see if Vettel can do the same. He’s got his work cut out for him: the next race will be on Barrichello’s home turf in Brazil on October 18th.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Massa lost last year’s title fight in perhaps the most frustrating way imaginable, when on the very last lap of the season’s last race, Lewis Hamilton passed a struggling Timo Glock to finish fifth, gaining the single point he beat Massa with.

Three races earlier, Massa had been in the lead when his fellow Brazilian Nelsinho Piquet’s now-infamous staged accident bunched up the field behind the safety car, resulting in a dramatically reshuffled race from which Fernando Alonso emerged victorious while Massa came in at 13th, out of the points. Realizing that these were his only points lost due to conscious scheming, he’s lashed out at the lenient treatment Renault has received:

All of what happened was robbery. Regarding the race nothing has happened, the result stays the same. That’s not right. It changed the championship. I lost by one point…they just sent Briatore home. I don’t understand it and I don’t think it was right.

Historical revisionism, perhaps, as a Formula One season is by default laden with what-ifs. Still, it’s easy to understand his frustration. A year ago, Massa was driving a highly competitive car, fighting for the championship until the last corner of the last grand prix.

Since then, Formula One has become a mad shuffle, Ferrari’s 2009 car has proven to be a huge disappointment, new teams and young guns have emerged and matured and Massa himself took a giant spring to the head from Rubens Barrichello’s car, which nearly killed him and removed him from competition for the rest of this season.

While he is still a young driver at 28 and with a team that will surely bounce back, he is certainly no closer to winning his world championship than on that November day in São Paulo, where it slipped from his hands so cruelly, right in front of his home crowd.

Source: BBC, Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images, Clive Mason/Getty Images

As a race, it was a weird combination of boring and fun, with some crashes adding sparkle to what was otherwise a procession. A resurgent Lewis Hamilton led from start to finish, followed by Toyota’s Timo Glock. Victory has eluded the Japanese team yet again, for the 136th time since their debut in Formula One in 2002.

Last year’s grand prix, the first such event in Singapore, was the scene of Renault’s staged crash for Nelsinho Piquet, which cost Renault team boss Flavio Briatore his career in motorsports. His ex-team, however, made it onto the podium courtesy of Fernando Alonso, who brought his R29 home in third place, the first podium finish for Renault this season.

Alonso and winner Hamilton—teammates and mortal enemies at McLaren for the 2007 season—provided for some high body language fun, as they could not conceal their mutual disgust neither in the pre-podium room nor on the podium itself. A bloody fight to the death with broken bottles of Mumm champagne was, for a long time, not out of the question.

The talented Mr. Vettel of Red Bull will have to wait until next year to seriously challenge for the title, as a number of rookie errors have contributed to his poor finish at 4th, effectively putting him out of the world championship race.

Meanwhile, Jenson Button of Brawn GP gained two points on teammate Rubens Barrichello with his 5th place finish. He now leads the championship with 84 points to Barrichello’s 69, with 30 more up for grabs in the remaining races. Even though he has not won a race since Vettel demolished him in his home race at Silverstone, Button will have a hard time losing the championship if he continues to finish well into the points.

Only three more races to go in perhaps the strangest Formula One season ever. Stay tuned for the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend at Suzuka.

The case for night races! Giancarlo Fisichella in his Ferrari is a wonderful sight in his Ferrari even if he threatened nobody for points.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Even pitstops look cooler at night. Here’s eventual winner Lewis Hamilton being fuelled by his silver and red McLaren team.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Quick, silly face, you’re in focus—not! Did you know that F1 babes are officially called grid girls? I love that.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

There is a painterly quality to this photograph taken just after the start of the race. Lewis Hamilton led from pole to finish.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Contrary to her usual habit, Lewis Hamilton’s girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger did not spend every second on camera jumping up and down. Hamilton is just as perplexed as every connoisseur of the female form.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Timo Glock in his Toyota, on his way to second place, living the Toyota Curse. Still, in spite of his bad luck, he is a man named after a German handgun.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Famous people! In fact, a famous couple: Jean Todt is with his fiancée, former Miss Malaysia and Bond girl Michelle Yeoh.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

If you were a refueling hose, this is what you would see of a Formula One race. Spectacular—but I suspect rather repetitive after a while.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Jenson Button is on his way to demonstrate how to win the Formula One world championship without winning a single race in the second half of the season.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

A happy Hamilton! Look how bubbly and used up his tires are after the race.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Bursting with joy is Mr. Alonso after his first podium finish since last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix, isn’t he?

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel is obviously a future champion. All he needs to do now is not make silly mistakes. Then again, he’s 22—and I’ll just bet you can remember silly mistakes you’ve made at that age.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Watch the gap between Hamilton and Alonso. Bosom buddies, aren’t they?

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Even though there hangs a faint air of retrograde desperation about the new Gullwing, with its signature design element a structural necessity on the 1952 racing original and a mere styling choice on the new car, it is a sight to behold in the flesh.

Yes, it may be nothing more than a sports car with a quirky door. But if you do shell out the quarter million dollars it will cost, you’ll end up with a Gullwing-ish car for half the price of a vintage 300SL.

With the added benefit of AMG’s fabulous 6.3-liter V8 and the relief of not having to care about what will soon be a 60-year-old car.

If you want to go for grungy race car looks, make sure you order yours with the matte black disguising elements seen on the leaked photos of test mules, complete with the bumps reminiscent of the skin of humpback whales.

And should you look real close at the picture on top, you will see yours truly in the Frankfurt mayhem, crammed up against the right door in a lobster red backpack, aiming a white telephoto lens at Lewis Hamilton and Dr. Z:

Hi Lewis!

Photo Credit: SASCHA SCHUERMANN/AFP/Getty Images, Mercedes-Benz, Gawid/autoscoop.biz, TORSTEN SILZ/AFP/Getty Images

Since their upgrade prior to the British Grand Prix three weeks ago and contrary to the utter Brawn domination until then, Red Bull had the upper hand now. After 129 races incresingly dotted by podium finishes, it was Australia’s Mark Webber who took victory—his first ever since debuting in Formula One at his home race in 2002.

The Brawns have shown their Achilles heel yet again: the white-and-fluoro-green battleship is simply too aerodymanic to properly warm its tires on a wet and damp track like the Nürburgring or Silverstone. Adrian Newey’s lithe Red Bulls blazed to victory, with their third all-podium finish in the past three races, two of them 1–2’s.

Last year’s champion Lewis Hamilton had a dismal Sunday after a fine qualifying at 5th: he ran wide at the very first corner, punctured a tire and limped home last.

Webber was obviously overjoyed—but Brawn’s Rubens Barrichello provided a counterpoint. The 37-year-old Brazilian, second in the championship before the race, has fallen back to fourth place after finishing sixth, leapfrogged by both Red Bull drivers. His response was less than diplomatic:

I guess the strategy in the pit lane… it was a good show from the team on how to lose a race today. I’m terribly upset with the way things have gone. I did all I had to do. I went first on the first corner and that’s all I did and then they made me lose the race. If it is really what’s going on, we’re going to end up losing both championships. I feel sorry for myself, the team. To be very honest, I wish I could get on the plane and go home. I don’t want to talk to anyone in the team. It will be all ‘bla bla bla’ and I don’t want to hear that.

His boss with the giant extraterrestrial brain responded with the brutal facts:

Rubens had the 11th fastest time in the race today. You cannot win a race, whatever strategy you have, if your best lap time is the 11th quickest.

And while Ross Brawn may have dismissed his driver’s outburst as the words of a frustrated racing driver in the heat of the moment, Barrichello may well remember this interview with Brawn back in 2001.

Formula One is coming to Hungary in two weeks to race at the slow and dusty cauldron of the Hungaroring. With the Budapest midsummer approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit, it should be Brawn territory—and it is the scene of Jenson Button’s only win outside this season, at a wet and wacky 2006 race.

After nine races, Jenson Button still leads the championship with 68 points, followed by Sebastian Vettel with 47 and Mark Webber with 45.5. Rubens Barrichello is fourth with 44. These same men have buoyed the points of their constructors: Brawn's 112 and Red Bull's 92.5 are clear ahead of Toyota at third place with 34.5.

Kimi Räikkönen

Ferrari’s world champion Finn is pretty damn far from a good season this year, not even finishing the German Grand Prix, but have you seen a photo this close and visceral since Juan Manuel Fangio in his Mercedes-Benz W196?

Photo Credit: TORSTEN SILZ/AFP/Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel

It will probably be possible to take utterly boyish portraits of Red Bull’s ultra-fast young German well into the next decade.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Christian Horner (Red Bull’s team principal) and Mark Webber. Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Men would kill for Webber’s jawline. Women, too.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

The start of the race

And they’re off! Lewis Hamilton on the right in his silver McLaren is milliseconds from fucking it all up after a fine qualifying at fifth.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Ari Vatanen

If you’re a Finnish voter, you may know this man as a retired member of the European Parliament, having served from 1999 to 2009. If you’re a petrolhead, you’ll know his as a rally god and the star of Climb Dance, that ten-minute epic about the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. He may follow in Max Mosley’s footsteps this fall as the embattled president of FIA prepares to step down.

Photo Credit: SASCHA SCHUERMANN/AFP/Getty Images

Kimi Räikkönen

Yes, he is dozing through the season but he drives a red car. Isn’t it just splendid to look at?

Photo Credit: GUILLAUME BAPTISTE/AFP/Getty Images

Webber, Räikkönen and Adrian Sutil

Later in the race, ice-cream-man Räikkönen would bump into Force India’s Sutil, seen here emitting a cloud of smoke, and take him out of the race. What a shame.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Mark Webber

Two weeks after hanging out with motorcyclists, Mark Webber is driving his flat-nosed Red Bull home to his first grand prix victory. Fancy job, mate.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Mark Webber after the race

Overcome with the magnificence of it all, Webber stands after his win in front of thick Eifel Mountains rainclouds after becoming only the 102nd man on Earth to win a Formula One grand prix. The first one was Nino Farina at the 1950 British Grand Prix.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Mark Webber

This week, the obligatory misuse of architectural imaging equipment sees our Aussie hero of the week taking a corner.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton

Slow car, pretty picture.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Bernie Ecclestone

“Hey, Slavica, are you there?”

“What do you want, Bernie? We’re divorced.”

“I know, love, but I need your advice on how to look very evil.”

“Easy peasy, just skip on the hairspray on your right side.”

“That all?”

“Yes, Bernie. Then find a spot of wind and wink into it.”

“Fabulous. Honey, fancy a meet next week on my powerboa—”

BEEP…BEEP…BEEP

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Photography is complicated enough as it is, but when you add a lens that purposely manipulates the plane of focus or meddles with parallel lines, full comprehension will require a trip to the Physics section of your local bookstore to familiarize yourself with the work of Theodor Scheimpflug. The lenses used to take these photos are highly expensive and the output they produce cannot be used for straight news reportage, yet a handful a sports photographers employ them to capture the visuals of Grand Prix weekends in ways impossible with other equipment. And no, not every tilt-shift photo is a a fake miniature.

Click through for a distorted trip of the past three years of Formula One.

2008 Japanese Grand Prix

Here’s the Red Bull team having fun at Fuji Speedway. This is perhaps the most optically complex photo in our gallery and not only because you are probably spectacularly uninterested in the subjects in the plane of focus.

It’s because the girl’s left cheek also appears to be in focus, yet a blurred field separates it from the Red Bull team members. Physics majors, please explain in the comments.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Kimi Räikkönen, 2009 Monaco Grand Prix

This is classic tilted plane fake miniaturization: the chap in the red car is Kimi Räikkönen, on his way to Ferrari’s only podium finish this year.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Jenson Button, 2009 Turkish Grand Prix

A tilted focus is great for portraiture: photographer Mark Thompson can direct our gaze to Jenson Button’s left eye at the exclusion of everything else. Button here is consulting with his teammates at the 2009 Turkish Grand Prix, before his crushing victory on race day.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Jenson Button, 2009 British Grand Prix

If you tilt your plane of focus to a narrow vertical field, you can isolate a race car with sudden clarity. Jenson Button is seen here during free practice at last weekend’s British Grand Prix, where he lost by a wide margin to Red Bull’s flying Sebastian Vettel.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Felipe Massa, 2007 Monaco Grand Prix

Let’s see some Ferraris: Felipe Massa is seen here sharing a plane of focus with a bunch of yachts in Monaco harbor. He is on his way to finish third behind the twin McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Michael Schumacher, 2008 German Grand Prix

Ferrari personnel in their red getups make for great photos: here’s Michael Schumacher at last year’s German Grand Prix, looking very excited as he’s sandwiched in between two aesthetic crimson blobs as the sole punk in blue jeans.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Kimi Räikkönen, 2009 Turkish Grand Prix

Ferraris may suck this season, but even parked and hooked up to computers, they look gorgeous. 2007 world champion Kimi Räikkönen is about to go for a practice run at a race he would finish outside the points. Notice how the tilted plane renders everything but Räikkönen’s head and the yellow Scuderia Ferrari badge out of focus.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Kimi Räikkönen, 2007 British Grand Prix

Last Ferrari photo, but look at the fancy British clouds, sharp only where they line up with the starting grid of Silverstone, which photographer Clive Mason chose as his plane of focus. Kimi Räikkönen is seen here in happier times: he is about to qualify second in the 2007 British Grand Prix, a race he would win on his way to claim the 2007 championship.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Timo Glock, 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix

This photo captures like no other Mercedes-Benz’s renowned racing manager Alfred Neubauer’s observation that the racing driver is the loneliest creature in the universe. Neubauer invented pit signaling to remedy this, taking his Mercedes-Benz team to a hail of victories over three decades, while photographer Fred Dufour used a tilt lens to show Toyota’s Timo Glock practicing for the 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

David Coulthard, 2008 German Grand Prix

It’s Mr. Jawbone right there in his Red Bull, in the waning months of his long career. Wearing a flameproof balaclava, he is a lone white human figure in a scaffolding of wire and carbon fiber suspension parts.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel, 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix

Contrary to what you can read on the pit wall, this is David Coulthard’s successor Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull RB5 car, leaving the pits at the 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Hamilton, Heidfeld, Fisichella and Alonso, 2009 Spanish Grand Prix

You can also use a tilt-shift lens to cut through the clutter of people at a press conference, picking out those that your viewers are probably most interested in: bitter 2007 rivals Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, shown here at a press conference three days before the 2009 Spanish Grand Prix.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Red Bull’s Guests, 2007 Italian Grand Prix

Like any other photographic technique, a tilted plane of focus can be used to capture gratuitous shots of young women. These blondes are guests of Red Bull at the 2007 Italian Grand Prix and judging solely on appearance, they are hopped up on the team’s signature soft drink.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Jenson Button, 2009 British Grand Prix

And we’re back to toy cars. While photographer Fred Dufour probably did not know at the time he took this picture, Jenson Button’s usually dominant Brawn would actually be relegated to toy car status during last weekend’s British Grand Prix, as Red Bull’s upgraded RB5’s stormed the field, taking their second 1–2 victory of the season.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel, 2008 German Grand Prix

Black and white? Art! Focusing in a slanted plane on Sebastian Vettel’s face shows just how young Red Bull’s superfast German really is: he was born on July 3, 1987. When this photo was taken, he'd only been old enought to have a beer in America for less than two weeks.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Fernando Alonso, 2009 Monaco Grand Prix

For a final tilted image, here’s one for pure aesthetic awesomeness. Fernando Alonso is taking the Grand Hotel Hairpin of the Monaco street circuit in the Renault during free practice at this year’s grand prix.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

New to the informational deluge of Formula One this season is a table of pre-race car weights published on the official Formula One website. The published weights include car, driver and fuel, helping the erudite and mathematically inclined viewer separate a car’s performance from the hydrocarbons and the sole human sloshing inside.

Here is the table for last Sunday’s British Grand Prix, expressed in kilograms (multiply by 2.2 to get pounds):

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 666.5
2. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn GP, 657.5
3. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 659.5
4. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 658
5. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams, 652.5
6. Jenson Button, Brawn GP, 657.5
7. Nico Rosberg, Williams, 661.5
8. Timo Glock, Toyota, 660
9. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari, 654
10. Fernando Alonso, Renault, 654
11. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 675
12. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber, 689.5
13. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, 695.5
14. Nelson Piquet, Renault, 682.5
15. Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber, 665.5
16. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India, 668
17. Sébastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso, 687.5
18. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 692
19. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 666
20. Sébastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 672.5

As the combined weight of Sebastian Vettel, his load of fuel and his Red Bull RB5 race car is within rounding error of the Number of the Beast, one cannot help but wonder whether his hat trick of pole position, fastest lap and race win were achieved with netherworldly help.

He certainly looked like a man who had borrowed Lucifer’s great leather wings for the last sixty laps of F1 racing Silverstone will witness for the foreseeable future.

You will also notice that down at the bottom of the grid, BMW’s Nick Heidfeld and McLaren’s defending champion Lewis Hamilton share Vettel’s hexakosioihexekontahexaphilic heft. It only goes to show that a pact with the devil is never as simple as is looks.

Source: The Official Formula 1 Website. Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Stirling Moss: 1955, 1957

It took the Brits six tries to crack their home grand prix and it took their greatest driver and the car the Germans came back to Formula One with. Held at Aintree, it was the only race of the season where Moss managed to beat his teammate Juan Manuel Fangio, who went on to claim his third world title. As his win came after a pass at the last corner, Moss wondered whether Fangio had let him win, but the Argentine would always say: “No. You were just better than me that day.” British-Argentine relations would, in a few decades, take a turn for the worse.

Moss’s second win came two years later in a Vanwall VW5 shared with Tony Brooks, who is also credited with the victory.

Photo Credit: Daimler Global Media. Moss is driving his Mercedes-Benz W196 to victory at Aintree.

Tony Brooks: 1957

Dr. Brooks—he was a dentist by training—was the first Brit to drive a British car to grand prix victory after World War Two, winning a non-championship race in Syracuse. His win, shared with Stirling Moss, was his first of six victories in Formula One.

Photo Credit: Terry Whalebone. This is the Vanwall VW5 before the start of the 1957 British Grand Prix at Aintree.

Peter Collins: 1958

Collins was an up-and-coming driver at Ferrari, much liked by il Commendatore himself, whom Juan Manuel Fangio passed on the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 1957 to take his last win.

In 1958, driving the Ferrari 246 F1, he took his third and last victory in front of his home crowd at Silverstone. Two weeks later, he returned to the scene of his great battle with Fangio. On lap 11 of the 1958 German Grand Prix, he went over the embankment and hit a tree with his head, dying later that afternoon.

John F. Burns of The New York Times, who saw Collins drive to his last win, has written a heartbreaking report on the fair-haired young man, one of many casualties of the brutal 1958 season.

Collins is shown at the 1957 German Grand Prix in his Ferrari.

Jimmy Clark: 1962–1965, 1967

He was the fastest sheep farmer who has ever lived, the very humble soulmate of Lotus founder Colin Chapman, the man who could not put his head around the fact that everyone else was slower on the track. Chapman had a philosophy of building his Loti light enough to last only the duration of the race but not a second more. When the cars held together, Clark would usually win. When not, he would lose out on races—and championships. He dominated his home grand prix like no other Brit, winning a total of five times at Aintree, Silverstone and Brands Hatch.

Three months before he could defend his 1967 win with the dominant Lotus 49B, he lost control of his car at a Formula Two race at the Hockenheimring, crashed into a tree and died from his injuries.

Photo Credit: Allsport Hulton/Archive. Bette Hill throws her husband Graham a party to celebrate his homecoming from America where he won the Indianapolis 500 in a Ford-Lola. Graham and his son Damon Hill—who would become a British Grand Prix winner, unlike his dad—push reigning World Formula 1 Champion Jim Clark around on a toy tractor.

Jackie Stewart: 1969, 1971

The man who taught James May how to drive fast won his home grand prix twice—both times in cars which were either French or built with French money. Not that it troubled the cool Scot, who would go on to extend both of his home wins into world championships.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images. Stewart is at the 2003 Canadian Grand Prix with fellow Brit Ozzy Osbourne. No pigeons were harmed in the taking of this photo.

James Hunt: 1977

A Silverstone race, it was a battle between party boy Hunt and his Austrian archnemesis Niki Lauda, who returned phoenix-like from the ashes of his fiery crash on the Nürburgring at the 1976 German Grand Prix.

While Hunt held off Lauda by over 18 seconds in front of his home crowd, he had no chance to defend his 1976 world title, which Lauda would win by a wide margin over Jody Scheckter.

This race also marked the Formula One debut of the turbocharged engine, at this point a comically inept device campaigned by Renault, which would over a few short years come to rule the sport.

Photo Credit: Allsport UK/ALLSPORT. All smiles is Mrs. Hunt, three years before James’s home win. Note Hunt’s totally rock and roll breast patch.

John Watson: 1981

Watson was an F1 driver who later became a sports car racer and a broadcast commentator. His win at Silverstone was the second one of his career. He would win three more GP's before moving on to sports cars.

It was the car he drove which marks this race for history: Watson’s McLaren MP4/1 was the first F1 racer made of carbon fiber. Watson drove the plastic tub to its first victory. The material would take over aluminum for the construction of racing cars in a few months.

Photo Credit: Tony Duffy/Getty Image

Nigel Mansell: 1986, 1987, 1991, 1992

While Colin Chapman watched Jim Clark die, it was the other way around with the mustachioed Mansell: it was only at his third year in F1 when Chapman dropped dead of a heart attack at the age of 54. His relationship with Lotus’s new management soured after that and he moved on to Williams, then Ferrari—where he witnessed Enzo Ferrari die after selecting him as his last driver, in a motorsports career which spanned six decades.

Mansell would return to Williams to drive their high-tech active-everything cars. He won his fourth and last British Grand Prix with the Williams FW14B, one of the best F1 cars ever made, with which he claimed his only world championship.

Photo Credit: DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images. The other guys pictured here having a killer time at the 1986 Portugese Grand Prix are Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Nelson Piquet.

Damon Hill: 1994

His father Graham may be the more famous of the Hills, with his dapper mustache, his six wins at Monaco, his three Formula One world championships and his victories at the Indianapolis 500 and at Le Mans, but he never won the British Grand Prix.

Unlike his son Graham, who won at Silverstone and was then rammed by Michael Schumacher at the last race of the season, denying him the world championship.

Photo Credit: Pascal Rondeau/Allsport. Hill is in his Williams Renault before the Pacific Grand Prix at the TI circuit in Aida, Japan.

Johnny Herbert: 1995

Who’s Johnny Herbert? Why, he raced for a decade in Formula One and won three races, one of them at Silverstone, where duelling championship leaders Schumacher and Hill knocked each other out, allowing the Brit in his Benetton to slip by and claim victory.

Herbert was also on the team which drove the Mazda 787B at Le Mans in 1991, a shrikeing Day-Glo quad-rotor Wankel racer, which still holds the only Le Mans title for Felix Wankel’s wacky invention.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images. The person you are looking at instead of Johnny Herbert is British model Keeley Hazell.

David Coulthard: 1999, 2000

The man who is to jawbones what Jay Leno is to chins may not be remembered as much of a grand prix winner over his grand total of 15 years in Formula One, but he’s managed to take both Monaco and Silverstone twice. In both of his wins, he was sitting pretty in the sister car to Mika Häkkinen’s championship-winning McLaren.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images. Coulthard is showing his incredible mandible at the 2004 San Marino Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton: 2008

Last year’s race was a rain-soaked wacky waltz, notable for Felipe Massa’s numerous 360’s, a high speed track bunny and a beautiful, composed drive by McLaren’s Hamilton, who was yet to face what it’s like to race in an uncompetitive car.

The race was also a sign of things to come with Ross Brawn back in the game: in a snap decision, he outflanked the field on tire tactics to propel Rubens Barrichello to third place in that utter crap Honda My Earth Dream car—notable for always bringing up the rear—which they had already given up development on.

A year later, the tables have turned: Honda is out of Formula One, their 2009 car is powered by a Mercedes-Benz engine and is absolutely pulverizing the opposition. It is the clear favorite to win this year’s race, the last at Silverstone, with Barrichello’s teammate Jenson Button set to become the thirteenth Brit to win at home.

And there may never be a fourteenth, of course.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images. Hamilton is at a press conference before this year’s British Grand Prix, with Jenson Button looking on.

Felipe Massa of Brazil and Ferrari comes in for a pitstop during the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Jenson Button of Great Britain and Brawn GP drives on his way to winning the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Red Bull Racing is surrounded by photographers on the grid before the start of Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Renault Team Principal Flavio Briatore (center rear) talks at a meeting of Formula One Team Principals and drivers in the Toyota motorhome ahead of the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

(L-R) Renault Team Principal Flavio Briatore, Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner and supermodel Naomi Campbell are seen on the grid before the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Jenson Button of Great Britain and Brawn GP tries to keep cool on the grid before the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel (R) of Germany and Red Bull Racing leads Jenson Button (L) of Great Britain and Brawn GP into the first corner at the start of the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Felipe Massa of Brazil and Ferrari tries to keep cool on the grid before the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and McLaren Mercedes tries to keep cool on the grid before the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Drivers take the start of the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix, at the Istanbul Park circuit on June 7, 2009 in Istanbul.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Jenson Button of Great Britain and Brawn GP celebrates in parc fermé after winning the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Mark Webber of Australia and Red Bull Racing celebrates with champagne and trophy after finishing second in the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Jenson Button of Great Britain and Brawn GP leads from Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Red Bull Racing during the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Jenson Button of Great Britain and Brawn GP celebrates with team mates in the paddock after winning the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Red Bull Racing drives on his way to finishing third in the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on June 7, 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Brawn GP's British driver Jenson Button drives ahead of Red Bull's German driver Sebastian Vettel at the Istanbul Park circuit on June 7, 2009 in Istanbul, during the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix.

Photo Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Brawn GP's British driver Jenson Button drives at the Istanbul Park circuit on June 7, 2009 in Istanbul, during the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix.

Photo Credit: MUSTAFA OZER/AFP/Getty Images

The Hamilton portrait, which was paid for by McLaren’s fuel partner ExxonMobil, is far from being the only such piece in Macaluso’s extensive portfolio. While most of his motor oil paintings are abstractions, there are two portraits of another man of African ancestry who has gone where no man of his lineage has gone before: President Barack Obama.

Macaluso is clearly a fan of dead dinosaurs, as evidenced by this quote from the ExxonMobil press release:

Painting with the Mobil 1 used motor oil offered a wide range of tones and was obviously a very refined product from its texture. It was extremely smooth and very particle-rich, with all the engine dirt in perpetual suspension, making for a great painting medium.

If he ever decides to branch off into rock music, “Engine Dirt in Perpetual Suspension” would be one hell of a band name.

The depictee himself was rather pleased, saying he was “very impressed with the oil painting.”

The painting will have its first public outing at a VIP event at the British Grand Prix, where Hamilton will arrive as the defending champion. Although given the pace of his McLaren this season, he will need nothing short of divine intervention to retain that distinction at the very last Grand Prix race held at Silverstone.

Where another Brit will arrive as the clear favorite—Brawn GP driver Jenson Button.

Image Credit: David Macaluso, ExxonMobil

Stamps, then. The last time I dabbled seriously in stamp culture was in elementary school. I had stamp books aplenty. The family bathroom would be hijacked for hours as I placed slightly wet sponges on letters and postcards my family had received and stashed over the decades. Traveling one square inch at a time. To the Cayman Islands, to Ghana, to Botswana. To wherever.

Formula One back then was epic and brutal battles between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, riding their McLaren–Honda MP4/4’s to victory in 15 out of 16 races, faltering only in the House of Ferrari one month after Enzo’s death at the age of 90. I did not follow Formula One back then. Sauropods and the woodlouse Porcellio scaber were infinitely more interesting.

Nineteen years later, Royal Mail—the postal service of the United Kingdom—issued a set of six stamps commemorating Britain’s Formula One greats. It was the summer of 2007 and Britain had already given the world eight world champions, more than any other nation. Lewis Hamilton would eventually become #9, but not in his rookie year of 2007, oh no. In his rookie year, he was so busy trying not to beat but to bloody vanquish his teammate Fernando Alonso at the penultimate race in Brazil that he handed the championship to Kimi Räikkönen. This was back when, unlikely as it may sound today, Stirling Moss called him a humble young man, reminiscent of his 50s teammate at Mercedes-Benz, five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio.

Sir Stirling, of course, never won the world championship. Still, and in a manner that would be impossible to defend by statistics or rationale, he is the greatest Grand Prix driver the United Kingdom has ever produced. You may wonder why, when British racers who have won world championships include:

1. Graham Hill, who won thrice, and wore the coolest mustache this side of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
2. James Hunt, who has video evidence proving him to be the coolest man who has ever existed. Plus, he used to attend official functions in jeans and sans shoes
3. Jim Clark, who was Luke Skywalker disguised as a sheep farmer
4. Jackie Stewart, who, if mathematically possible, is even cooler than Hunt

And so on.

But then study this photo of Sir Stirling driving the stuff of legend beside Denis Jenkinson in the 1955 Mille Miglia. Study it carefully. Zoom in if necessary:

That’s settled then, isn’t it? As expected, the stamp collection is rather heavy on Moss. Here's what you get when you unfold the complete set:

Six stamps, eight British world champions at the time of publication, plus Moss. So who got the axe? Mike Hawthorn, Le Mans champion and the first Brit to win the Formula One world championship. John Surtees, the only man who have became world champion on both motorcycles and in F1 cars. Oh, and Damon Hill—but then he makes people throw up.

Not exactly slim pickings.

And why? There is no why. At least Royal Mail has no why. Mysterious are the ways of philately.

Photo Credit: Lothar Spurzem (Graham Hill), Daimler Media Services (Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson), Royal Mail and the author. Special thanks to Lili Mesterhazy for the stamps and the postcards.

Following Brawn GP’s interesting change of tactics during last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix—which contributed to denying Rubens Barrichello his first win since 2004—the Brazilian was rather vocal in his disappointment. Here’s what he told SpeedTV after the event:

If I get the slightest sniff of the fact that they have favoured Jenson, I will hang up my helmet tomorrow. But I know Ross [Brawn] wouldn’t do that. He asked me to drive for him and he knows I want to race fairly with Jenson.

Brawn was quick to retort in a BBC interview:

We don't have a one and a two driver. They’re both on equal terms and conditions. Once he [Barrichello] got back and we talked things through he was fine. Rubens is a great team player. Everyone is working so well together and Rubens and Jenson recognise that. The fact we have such a great atmosphere drives us on and we don’t want to lose that. We’ve been completely honest with the drivers. They know the situation and their engineers know that—there’s no favouritism.

It’s interesting to put his remarks in context with a profile of Brawn for The Independent in July 2001. Back then, he was technical director of a resurgent Ferrari, celebrating their first driver’s title since Jody Scheckter’s world championship in 1979. Brawn was a key element of the Ferrari team which included general manager Jean Todt, chassis designer Rory Byrne and drivers Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello—the latter clearly treated as a “two driver”. They would go on to command Formula One for the next four years, with Schumacher taking every world championship between 2000 and 2004.

At the time the interview was published, the level of sheer dominance they would demonstrate—where Schumacher would lock up championships in mid-summer—was not yet evindent. Their first balls-out year was 2002. The year when, during the Austrian Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello would be ordered to slow down in the last lap (see video) to allow Schumacher to take victory—his fifth out of six races in a season where he would win 11 races out of 17 and stand on the podium every single time.

Here’s the most interesting bit:

“We all kick bums inside the team, Michael included,” Brawn says. “But if he’s unhappy about something he’ll sit down with Jean [Todt, general manager] and me and tell us so. He’s not going to do it in public because he cares about the people here and he’s also intelligent enough to realise he will have more effect working internally than going to the press.

“As soon as people go to the press the others resent it. The last thing you want is a driver whingeing in the press. I’m surprised more drivers haven’t sussed that.”

Brawn and Todt have had to spell out that message to their other driver, Rubens Barrichello. The Brazilian has complained on a couple of occasions about the “favouritism” shown to Schumacher. The reality, as Barrichello will now appreciate, is that his team-mate is the best in the business and it makes competitive and commercial sense for the team to back him.

Formula One is a team sport like no other. Hundred of millions of dollars and the collective effort of hundreds of people focus on two drivers—and only one can become world champion. And while letting teammates compete would perhaps drive both of them to greater performances, look what happened with McLaren in 2007, where Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were at each other’s throats in dominant cars for the whole season, including the penultimate race in Brazil—allowing Kimi Räikkönen to edge past them both and take Ferrari’s sole post-Schumacher world title.

Perhaps Barrichello has just had the incredible bad luck over the years of always getting a superior teammate along with a superior car. And a boss who likes to make the trains run on time.

Source: The Independent

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Allsport, Mike Cooper/Allsport, Clive Mason/Getty Images

While the Islamic country has no alcoholic beverages for sale—which resulted in Button having to spray non-alcoholic champagne as he celebrated his victory—the team has every reason to feel jubilant: after four races, Brawn GP leads the constructors’ championship by 50 points, close to twice as many as second place Red Bull’s 27.5, with drivers Button and Barrichello perched atop the drivers’ table.

Button started his race in third place, but quickly emerged as the leader with a svelte move on Lewis Hamilton in his Kers-boosted McLaren, which put him in a lead he would never relinquish. Barrichello finished fifth, perhaps due to a less than optimal tire strategy, with Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull and Jarno Trulli of Toyota sharing the podium with Button.

Racing will take a brake next weekend as the teams head home to Europe. The next race will be held at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona on May 10.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

The horizon already looked gloomy when the field set off to run the planned 56 laps of the Malaysian Grand Prix. Fat tropical rainclouds darkened the horizon, as Jenson Button on the pole was passed by a nimble Nico Rosberg of Williams for the lead. But the real star of the start was sneaky Fernando Alonso in a heavily fueled Renault, who used his Kers button—the gizmo that stores braking energy as a readily available power pop—to great effect and zoomed throught the field up to third. Alonso then proceeded to hold up most of the field behind him in scenes reminiscent of trains on a railroad track.

The bunch around Alonso provided for gorgeous, fluid racing in the first dozen laps. Cars hugged each other with inches to spare, then a single mistake by Alonso allowed Räikkönen in his Ferrari to rocket by. He was replaced on Alonso’s heels by Red Bull’s Mark Webber—nicely recovered from his balls-freezing time in the cryo chamber—who got into a great game of cat and mouse with the double World Champion, before Alonso solidified his position in fifth. It was motor racing at its most beautiful.

Lap 18 saw a botched move by Ferrari, as they recalled Kimi Räikkönen into the pits to shoe him in full wets—with still no rain on the circuit, only those looming thunderclouds on the horizon. Räikkönen slowed down and dropped to the back of the field.

A few laps later, the rain did start, and the field dashed for the pits—except for a hypersonic Jenson Button, still on slicks with a very light load of fuel. Over two flying laps, he built up enough of a lead to pit for intermediates and come in to lead the race. Another brilliant move by Ross Brawn, similar to but the inverse of his tactics at last year’s British Grand Prix, where he put Barrichello on full wets before the rain really started to fall, which allowed the Brazilian in his abysmal Honda to zoom through the field and take third.

The zooming this time was done by Toyota’s Timo Glock, who was given a set of intermediates for a track half dry and half soaking. Glock was closing in on Button at something like 8 seconds a lap, going through the field like butter.

The rain eased up for a few laps at this point, and Button came into the pits for the fourth time to change for intermediates. He immediately charged up on Timo Glock—who had changed to full wets—and passed him for the lead.

And it was at this point that the rain clouds went medieval. Cars began aquaplaning and the safety car was followed very shortly by a red flag. The drivers pulled into the grid with rain falling in buckets as everyone ran for their lives. The cars were soon swarmed by team personnel in umbrellas, as a nervous Felipe Massa of Ferrari radioed for a new visor to replace his useless, fogged-in one, and was promptly told “Felipe baby, stay cool”.

This he did, along with the rest of the field. Grabbing snacks and drinks, they waited for the rain to stop to no avail. As a Grand Prix has to conclude within 2 hours of its start, all eyes were on the clock. The rain showed signs of abating, and the drivers got back to their cars and then time ran out and a scruffy Button was told that he had just won back-to-back Grands Prix, with Nick Heidfeld in 2nd and Tim Glock in 3rd place. Trulli was 4th, Button’s teammate Rubens Barrichello 5th, with Webber, Hamilton and Rosberg rounding out the points.

Because the race was stopped with less than 75% of the total distance covered, drivers will get half points, similar to what had happened at the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix—scene of a young Ayrton Senna flexing his rain muscles—where Alain Prost took 4.5 points and ended up losing the World Championship to Niki Lauda by half a point.

For the 70 minutes that the cars were out there racing, it was magnificent stuff. The Brawns are great but not boringly dominant, and a number of young teams are lapping at their heels. The season continues on April 19 in Shanghai.

If the 15 remaining races are half as good as these first two were, 2009 will definitely be a year to remember.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images, Paul Gilham/Getty Images, NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images

The news broke on the BBC’s live broadcast of this morning’s first practice at a humid Sepang International Circuit. At 01:14 PM local time (01:14 AM EST), Chris Whyatt reported:

McLaren sporting director Dave Ryan—who accompanied Lewis Hamilton to the fateful stewards’ meeting in Australia—has been seen leaving the track with packed bags.

At a news conference held later in the day, Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh confirmed the news of New Zealand-born Ryan’s firing, saying he had not been “entirely full and truthful with the answers he gave [to the stewards], so we had not alternative but to suspend him.”

To make an already gloomy week even worse for the house Bruce built, at today’s practice McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton could only manage 9^th and 11th place, respectively, while Ferrari ended the session with a 1–2 of Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa.

The Brawn of Jenson Button came in 6th, followed by teammate Rubens Barrichello.

Practice will continue tomorrow morning, with qualifying to wrap up by 06:30 AM EST. The Malaysian Grand Prix begins on Sunday at 05:00 AM EST with what we hope is more racing and less monkey business.

Update: Brad Spurgeon of the New York Times's Formula One Blog continues his coverage of the mess straight from Malaysia. Conspiracy theorists, ahoy!

Photo Credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images, Clive Mason/Getty Images

Sunday's Australian Grand Prix finished with Brawn GP’s Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in first and second place, with Jarno Trulli of Toyota in third. Soon afterward, Trulli was given a 25-second penalty for passing Hamilton under safety car conditions, pushing him down to 12th place, handing Lewis Hamilton the podium. Until today.

What triggered the whole sequence of events began three laps from the end of the race. Robert Kubica of BMW made a move to pass Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull for second place. Vettel defended his position in an aggressive manner, which led to the front wings of their cars tangling up. After separation, Kubica crashed into a wall, raining debris on the track. The safety car was called in to lead the field until officials could clean up the BMW’s bits.

When the safety car is out, drivers cannot pass each other, except if someone leaves the track. This is what happened at Turn 15, as Jarno Trulli of Toyota—now running in third place after Kubica and Vettel crashed out—ran wide, and Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren passed him. This was captured on video by a spectator. Watch the action unfold in the first five seconds:

The race ended under safety car conditions, with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in the Brawns first and second—but then Jarno Trulli crossed the finish line in third. Which meant that he must have passed Hamilton on his way in: an illegal move behind the safety car (unless, of course, Hamilton ran wide at some point, akin to Trulli).

No footage exists of Trulli’s re-pass. He got on the podium with Button and Barrichelo, then a few hours after the race, he was promptly given a 25-second penalty for the re-pass, demoting him to 12th place, handing Hamilton the podium finish.

What Trulli had to say:

When the safety car came out towards the end of the race, Hamilton passed me [this is what we can see on the fan footage – Ed.] but soon after he suddenly slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road. I thought he had a problem so I overtook him as there was nothing else I could do.

Hamilton, immediately after the race to Speed TV’s reporter, claimed:

I was forced to go by [referring again to the pass captured on video – Ed.]. I slowed down as much as I could. I was told to let him back past, but I mean…I don’t know if that’s the regulations, and if it isn’t, then I should have really had third.

However, this is apparently not what he told the race stewards in his testimony of the incident—which was the testimony the steward partly based their penalty of Trulli on. There is no direct quote to be found, but he apparently stated that Trulli simply sped by him. Which, of course, is illegal under the safety car. But which may not be the truth.

The FIA has now reviewed the incident, issuing the following statement:

The Stewards having considered the new elements presented to them from the 2009 Australian Formula One Grand Prix, consider that driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and the competitor Vodafone McLaren Mercedes acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the Stewards at the hearing on Sunday 29th March 2009, a breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code.

Under Article 158 of the International Sporting Code the driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and the competitor Vodafone McLaren Mercedes are excluded from the race classification for the 2009 Australian Grand Prix and the classification is amended accordingly.

These “new elements” are supposedly radio transmissions from the McLaren pits to Hamilton, telling him to slow down and force Trulli to pass him—in line with what he said to Speed TV’s reporter.

Basically, McLaren acted in a very shady way. This is what Brad Spurgeon of the NY Times wrote this morning from Malaysia, where the teams are getting ready for this weekend’s Grand Prix:

The story in the paddock is that Hamilton told the television reporter that the team had told him to let Trulli re-pass him because McLaren was worried that Hamilton should not have passed Trulli when Trulli went into the grass under the safety car. Hamilton had slowed down to let Trulli pass. But Hamilton did not tell this same story to the stewards, rather saying that Trulli had just sped past him.

He adds:

As I waited in the heat of the afternoon outside the McLaren meeting area for some kind of statement, a German journalist with whom I was supposed to have an interview with Hamilton in a few minutes—the interview was canceled—quipped to me: “Hamilton is a perfect replacement for Michael Schumacher.”

So there you have it. McLaren has just joined Ferrari in the 0 points club, while the podium of the Australian Grand Prix is now Button, Barrichello and Trulli again. For the time being.

All we need now is for Max Mosley to march through the pits with a whip in his hand, spanking both Hamilton and Trulli on the rear ends while sweltering in the Indochina heat in his SS uniform to make this whole story more intriguing.

Photo Credit: Paul Gilham/Getty Images, WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Image, PAUL CROCK/AFP/Getty Images, Clive Mason/Getty Images

This teaser video is a preview of a larger promotional video, soon to follow which apparently pits everybody's favorite racing movie star against the young phenom. There's also some form of contest involved where you guess the ending for fabulous prize, which are probably watch-based, in exchange for your personal information. Don't know that we need another Formula 1 Chronograph, but we'll happily watch The Duel. (Thanks for the tip Kyle) [Tag Heuer]

The McLaren F1 racing driver reportedly submitted to no fewer than 230 body measurements in order to facilitate the fancy mannequin, apparently between the times he's winning F1 Championships and driving his race car remotely. The resemblance is uncanny, but we're wondering if they plan to update his racing suit as his sponsorships evolve.

[WCF]