The 2009 season has seen the former Honda team now BrawnGP crowned the constructor champions and their driver Jenson Button the drivers world champion. Whilst we all knew that the 2009 season shook up the grid considerably, with the rise of BrawnGP and Red Bull Racing, with Ferrari and McLaren knocked off their perch. In this post I look at how the teams performed in the 2008 season and then in 2009 to see who were the winners and losers.
| 2009 | 2008 | ||||||||
| Pos | Wins | Podiums | Points | Pos | Wins | Podiums | Points | ||
| Honda/Brawn | 1 | 8 | 15 | 172 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 14 | |
| Red Bull | 2 | 6 | 16 | 153.5 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 29 | |
| McLaren | 3 | 2 | 5 | 71 | 2 | 6 | 13 | 151 | |
| Ferrari | 4 | 1 | 6 | 70 | 1 | 8 | 19 | 172 | |
| Toyota | 5 | 0 | 5 | 59.5 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 56 | |
| BMW | 6 | 0 | 2 | 36 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 135 | |
| Williams | 7 | 0 | 0 | 34.5 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 26 | |
| Renault | 8 | 0 | 1 | 26 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 80 | |
| Force India | 9 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Toro Rosso | 10 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 39 | |
With this information we can compare their performance in 2008 and now 2009:
| Pos +/- | Wins | Podiums | Points | |
| Honda/Brawn | 8 | 8 | 14 | 158.0 |
| Red Bull | 5 | 6 | 15 | 124.5 |
| McLaren | -1 | -4 | -8 | -80.0 |
| Ferrari | -3 | -7 | -13 | -102.0 |
| Toyota | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3.5 |
| BMW | -3 | -1 | -9 | -99.0 |
| Williams | 1 | 0 | -2 | 8.5 |
| Renault | -4 | -2 | -3 | -54.0 |
| Force India | 1 | 0 | 1 | 13.0 |
| Toro Rosso | -4 | -1 | -1 | -31.0 |
BrawnGP scored 8 wins and improved on their championship position by 8 places compared to the previous season as Honda. Along with Red Bull they teams scored over 100 points more than the previous season, this meant that Ferrari and McLaren scored 80 and 102 points less respectively. This point loss for Ferrari along with winning 7 less races and being on the podium 13 less times rounded off their worse season since 1993. McLaren’s resurgence over the second half of the season meant them only lose one position overall and saw them finish above Ferrari for the first time since 2005. Toyota are the only team not to have improved their position finishing 5th in both seasons, they won no races but managed to score 3.5 points more in the 2009 season.
In what became BMW’s last season in Formula One, the team scored no wins and 2 podiums compared to the 11 in the previous season and had their worse season since BMW purchased the Sauber team, however they managed to perform something of a resurgance in the later half of the season. Whilst Williams managed to more up a place in the championship they were unable to get any podiums compared to the two the scored in the previous season but managed to improve on their performance in 2009. Renault’s 8th position in this year championship was their worse since their return to Formula One in 2002. Force India had their best season in Formula One and scored their first points since the team was known as Spyker in 2007, their first podium since 2005 when the team was Jordan and their best finish after they won in 2003. The final team Toro Rosso finished 10th for the first time since they were purchased, the team last did this in 2005 when they were known as Minardi.
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