F1 2009 alternate

Israel circuit - https://www.scribblemaps.com/maps/view/Israel-track/gaT0dg8oWF

- Two new manufacturers joined F1, with Audi teaming up with Force India and Toro Rosso and Chevrolet only with Williams

- An altered calendar was put in place, with rcaes cut to make championship deciders more common and to allow team personell more rest time

- Despite this, 2 new tracks were on the calendar with 2 more returning

- The new additions were the Circuito Ricardo Tormo in Valencia and the Tel Aviv street circuit in Israel

- Returning were the Circuit Rodriguez in Mexico City and the Autodromo Oscar y Juan Galvez in Argetina.

- Honda allowed team principal Ross Brawn to take a 60% ownership of the team, renaming it to Brawn GP

- New drivers for 2009 included the Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon for Williams and the young Spaniard Jamie Algusuari for Toro Rosso

- The new regulations shaked up the grid massivley by the time the season opener began, reigning champions McLaren near the back

- While Honda, Toyota and Red Bull shot up the field in the contention for victory

- But it was BMW who got it right, Kubica putting on dominant display after beating Barrichello on the opening lap

- However, to presume this would be the order for the entire season would be wrong, the following races had a different fastest car every race

- Webber was the one who picked up Red Bull's first victory in Argentina

- But his younger teammate would struggle in the other Red Bull, accidents in 4 or the first 5 races saw him quickly get demoted back to Toro Rosso

- Meanwhile, it was Button in rude health in the first few races, taking advantage of the three races where he had the best car to pull a 13 point lead on closest rival Webber by Turkey

- But the following 6 races wouldn't be so plain sailing for Button and Brawn Honda

- A raft of rivals would challenge them, with Ferrari back on form, a 2nd half McLaren resurgance and having to deal with a second Red Bull

- The 2nd Red Bull challenger would come in form of Fernando Alonso, his Renault contract set to expire at the end of the season, and the fact that, for now at least, Renault were powering Red Bull, gave them reason to let him go.

- Renault themselves had a poor season, Alonso aside only scoring 3 points, with rookie Grosjean having a great drive at Bahrain to secure the points.

- Grosjean got his chance after Piquet was dropped, the crashgate scandal giving Renault a viable reason to drop him mid way through.

- Alonso's replacement would come from young Brazilian Bruno Senna, the 2008 GP2 series runner up

- The fact that Renault picked up 13 points in 14 races, almost 1 point per race, wasn't enough to get them off the bottom was a testament to how competetive this season was

- For a while, McLaren looked set to be near the bottom, champion Hamilton having a dismal start, scoring only 2 points by the halfway stage whilst his teammate could only manage 3

- But, almost overnight, they had the fastest car on the grid, Hamilton and Alonso the main contenders throughout the 2nd half of the season

- The long gaps in between race ironically gave the devolpment team less rest, as they tested out countless new parts in order to gain extra tenths

- This allowed teams to have insane turnarounds, like the one by McLaren, where they improved so much that, even though Hamilton only had 2 points by round 7, was still mathematically possible for the title with 2 rounds to go

- In fact, some would argue he was favourite until a scruffy race in Bahrain dashed any hope he had

- Button, still with a decent Championship lead, mainly due to the fact that their challengers were never consitent enough, took the title with the drive of his life at Bahrain, his first win in 7 races

- Come seasons end, Barrichello was the one closest to Button, finally claiming a victory at the season finale in Valencia

- Both his and Button's performance earned Ross Brawn another constructors title, and, as a team, Honda's first, albeit with the Brawn name

- The driver market was as volatile in the season than off it

- A rundown looks like this, at Turkey Vettel goes to Toro Rosso which allows Alonso to move to Red Bull, Senna to go to Renault and Bourdais is forced to leave

- Just two rounds later, Piquet is dropped for Grosjean

- In Britain, Nakijima is released after a poor season to be replaces by IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan

- In Germany, Algusuari is dropped to allow Audi sportscar driver Tom Kristensen a shot at Formula One, in which he did pretty well with a 4th position on just his 2nd time out

- And, perhaps the grandest of them all, Michael Schumacher returned to Ferrari to replace Kimi Raikkonen at Italy, the Finn bored of his role as a Ferrari driver

- The 7 time champion never got back to his brilliant best, but surely can't be considered a failure, points scored in every round he competed in and a podium in Valencia to cap it off