With the announcement that four time Champ Car Champion Sebastien Bourdais will be returning to the Toro Rosso team, 75% of the drivers for Red Bull’s two Formula One teams will now share the same name.

Bourdais	Vettel	Buemi

In addition to employing 100% of the F1 drivers named Sebastien, Red Bull also makes great promotional animations like the one they did for the first night race in Singapore. Now they have released a great overview of the many changes coming to Formula One in 2009.

I’ll always be a Mercedes fan but Red Bull is definitely the underdog that I love to cheer for. For more info on their teams check out www.RedBullRacing.com.

2008 was a great season for our Formula One team. Our top driver, Lewis Hamilton, won his first drivers championship and the team made a great comeback from the controversy of the 2007 season.

The changes to the rules for the 2009 season are the most significant in several years and as a result the cars will look quite a bit different. The largest change can be seen in the updated rear wing that appears to be about half the size of last years. The new rules limiting the aerodynamics of the cars have added an interesting new feature in that driver adjustable front wing flaps will be legal for 2009. While this brings F1 cars one step closer to the airplanes they share so much technology with, it will also provide one more area for an amazing driver like Lewis Hamilton to show off his skills.

2009 will also see the introduction of the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) to Formula One. These systems will store the energy used slow the car and then allow it to be used later for increased acceleration. The KERS device on the new McLaren Mercedes will be able to provide a boost of 80hp for 6.7 seconds per lap. Depending on the circuit this will decrease lap times by 0.3 to 0.5 seconds.

It’s only 67 days till the first race of the 2009 season in Melbourne, Australia. I can’t wait!

If Formula One and night race aren’t enough to get you to watch next weekend maybe this will help. (Don’t mind Alonso at the beginning. He’ll be lucky to make it out of Q1 next weekend. Something must be wrong with his money because he sure isn’t concentrating on his driving…)

Here is a video on the modifications our team is making for this race. Pretty funny…

Wow! What a finish! After qualifying in first position, Lewis Hamilton spun in the early laps of the race and seemed to have settled in for a second place finish behind Kimi Raikkonen that would have maintained his first place position in the driver’s championship. Then…

What a pass! Lewis went on to take the win with Felipe Massa in second and Nick Heidfeld in third.

— Or so we thought —

The FIA has penalized Lewis 25 seconds for the cutting the chicane before passing Kimi. Lewis came out ahead and since you can’t gain an advantage by cutting the corner, Lewis let Kimi pass then re-passed him (like he was standing still). It’s not his fault Kimi put it in the wall because he can’t drive in the rain. This is all FIA politics. Things are only illegal if you hurt Ferrari doing them… Lewis finished in third place and remains the championship leader with 5 races to go.

Lewis and Heikki qualified first and second respectively for today’s F1 race at the Hungaroring putting them both in position for a great finish. On the start Felipe Massa’s Ferrari jumped into the lead from third on the grid. Our drivers were maintaining second and third place until Lewis got a flat tire and lost a lot of time getting back to the pit lane. Lewis rejoined the field in 10th with enough fuel to finish the race. Through the next cycle of pit stops Lewis moved up to 5th where he would finish the race. With two laps to go the engine in Felipe Massa’a Ferrari gave up allowing Heikki to take the lead and the win. This was Heikki’s first F1 win and he became the 100th driver in F1 history to win a grand prix. Massa’s failure to finish also allowed Lewis to maintain the lead in the driver’s championship. The McLaren Mercedes team also narrowed the gap in the constructor’s championship, to first place Ferrari, to just 11 points.

I know it’s off topic because Mercedes isn’t involved, but if you love Formula 1 you should really check out Red Bull Air Racing. The races are aired a few months behind when they happen so I avoid the rebbullairrace.com site to prevent spoiling it. They’ve really stepped up the production value this year so check it out. On Dish Network set your DVR for Fox Sports channel 420 at 6pm et every Sunday. I just watched the second race of the nine race 2008 season so there is plenty left.

After Lewis Hamilton’s commanding win in the rain at the British Grand Prix, he came to this weekend’s race in Germany in a three way tie for the Driver’s Championship with Ferrai’s Felipe Massa and BMW’s Robert Kubica. Lewis started on pole with Heikki behind him in third. Lewis had a great start and by the end of the first lap he had opened a 1.8 second gap back to Massa in second place.

Similar to last weeks race where he won by almost a lap over second place, Lewis immediately pulled away from the field until an accident on lap 37 brought out the safety car eliminating his lead. When the pit lane reopened, almost all of the field pitted for tires and fuel to finish the race. Strangely, Lewis didn’t pit. This meant that after the safety car pulled in he needed to open up a gap of about 20 seconds so that he could pit and remain in the lead. Lewis couldn’t get that done and he rejoined the field after his stop in fifth behind his teammate. Amazingly, Lewis was able to make up a huge amount of time in just 10 laps and retake the lead. With this win Lewis has retaken the championship lead by 4 points over Massa who finished in third!