This has certainly been an unpredictable and unusual Grand Prix season - from Brawn GP emerging from the compost of Honda's F1 Earthdreams to win the opening race in Australia, and four of the next six, to Force India's second place at Spa last weekend, their first points-scoring finish.

Along the way, we've also had Ferrari and McLaren's catastrophic start to the year and gradual recovery to form, with both now having won. At the same time Brawn, particularly Jenson Button, have faded and Red Bull waxed and waned too. There has also been the threat of a FOTA break-away series, now averted, three new teams (or more) probably coming in next year and one manufacturer (BMW) going. Toyota's 2010 F1 budget has yet to be approved, though they say they are committed to and there is speculation over Renault's continuing participation. This will not have been lessened by the news that the team has been summoned by the FIA to answer allegations that the recently-fired Nelson Piquet Jnr. was ordered to crash in the Singapore GP last year to cause the Safety Car period which enabled Fernando Alonso to win. There were joking suggestions at the time that Piquet was acting on orders, but if it were true....

We also had Felipe Massa's accident and the saga of Schuey's substitution. This of course, came to naught, Luca Badoer got his chance and failed utterly and dismally. The latest is that Felipe will be out for the rest of the season and Giancarlo Fisichella will drive for Ferrari at Monza! I have never rated him, but then I never rated Button either, or Mark Webber for that matter. It really does seem that any driver is only as good as his car and the only certainty is who is the quicker in each team. This means it's hard to develop and maintain a prejudice and where's the fun in that? There's also been a (non) story that a famous Italian racing motor bicyclist was in the frame for the drive, but not really. This was a blatant publicity puff and about as credible as suggesting that Sir Stirling Moss would be getting the drive.

European GP - Valencia - August 23rd 2009

I didn't watch the European GP live and didn't get around to watching it at all until after Belgium. Like most races again it was dull on track but the background was quite interesting. McLaren's return to form continued and they qualified first and second. Rubens was third for Brawn, but carrying more fuel than the Maccas. He zapped Kovalainen in the first stops and Hamilton in the second, aided by a strategic mix-up where the team calculated that Hamilton could stay out a lap longer than originally planned, but was already on the way in when they told him. His tyres weren't ready and it was a long stop. Hamilton was sanguine about it and said he doubted he could have held Rubens off anyway. The Brazilian was ecstatic to take his first win since leaving Ferrari.

Brawn seemed to have overcome their problems in the last few races where they could not get their tyres hot enough to work. Here, Rubens did a much better job than Button, whose famously smooth style is now said to be hindering him, rather than helping as it did in the earlier races in hotter climes. He made a mistake in qualifying and ended up fifth. He dropped to eighth in the race, then ninth when he had to let Webber past for cutting a chicane. He got the place back in the final pitstops to come home seventh.

Although Barrichello won, Button's championship hopes were not damaged as badly as they might have been because his other main rivals at Red Bull had a worse weekend. Webber qualified ninth and ended up in that position - nil points. Vettel qualified fourth and retired from the race when his Renault engine blew up, his second of the weekend.

Raikkonen did a good job for Ferrari, qualifying sixth with a heavy fuel load and working his way up to third in the race. Massa substitute Luca Badoer was frankly appalling. He was dead last in qualifying, a second and a half slower than the next man, rookie Jaime Alguersuari. He finished the race as the last runner, following two spins and a drive-through penalty for crossing the pit exit line. What a waste of a Fazza. He later blamed the fact that the track was new to him and things would be different at Spa....

Belgian GP - Spa-Francorchamps - August 23rd 2009

Just a week later the circus pitched its tents at the majestic, swooping circuit in the Ardennes, a total contrast to the flat, featureless car park in Valencia docks. To be fair, the ambiente in Spain was a bit better this year and it looked like it might have been nice to be spectating there, but on the telly the concrete walls and fencing make it a yawn.

From the start, the form book was upset in Belgium. Toyota, BMW and Force India were quick in practice. This carried over into qualifying with Giancarlo Fisichella quickest in Q1, fourth in Q2 and taking pole in Q3! Even if this was a fuel-light PR pole, the earlier sessions had shown that it wasn't that slow. When the qualifying fuel weights were released, Fisi was second lightest and not ridiculously so. As the future of all of those teams is under pressure conspiracy theories abounded, the best one probably being that they had got the "Schumacher come-back tyres". The reality is that the quickest cars had less drag in the lower downforce configuration necessary for Spa and were therefore quicker.

It was reported that this was the first track this year where the cars have run significantly less than maximum downforce. Think about that for a second, near maximum downforce has been run everywhere, from Monaco to Silverstone. Just shows how many slow corners there are and their importance. Slow corners take more time, so there is more time to be gained (and lost) in them. Nico Rosberg said all the fast stuff at Silverstone is fun, but the lap time comes from the complex, and we thought motor racing was about going fast! Happily, this is still true at Spa and this shows the importance of traditional circuits and, with car safety much improved, maybe it's time to lose some of the chicanes that emasculate so many of them.

So, Fisi started from pole and took the lead. It looked like Kimi ran deliberately wide and onto the run-off area at La Source and his KERS whooshed him up to second place. Then Romain Grosjean hit Jenson Button up the rear and Jaime Alguersuari hit Lewis Hamilton, so both Brits were eliminated by rookies. This brought out the Safety Car, which closed the field up and when it went in Fisi could not resist the extra 80bhp of the Ferrari's KERS as Kimi towed up to him and pushed the button to pass on the run to Les Combes, and that was pretty well it.

Kimi was carrying more fuel, but surprisingly, both cars stopped first at the same time, maybe the Ilmor engine in the Jordan was more economical than the Ferrari engine, or maybe Fisichella managed to save more fuel. Both stopped simultaneously for the second time too, but it did look that the Force India was quick enough to have won the race. The teams chose different tyre strategies, which is interesting when you're watching the race live but doesn't really carry over to a report, which is generally true of racing again. The new regs don't seem to have done much for racing but they've certainly mixed things up. Maybe the thing to do is to change something every year and announce it a couple of weeks before the first race.

The second placed Jarno Trulli had a first corner brush with Heidfeld's Bimmer so that was Toyota's hopes over yet again - why are they in F1? Heidfeld was on the harder tyres and slipped off, ceding the place to his team mate. Kubica held it for two stints until Vettel ran longer to salvage the final podium place for Red Bull. The Bimmers ended up fourth and fifth, their best performance of the year by far. Kovalainen was sixth for McLaren ahead of Barrichello. It looked at one point as though Rubens wouldn't finish as what appeared to be a stream of oil smoke was coming from his engine, however it was just a leak and he got home, though his car did catch fire in the pit lane. Rosberg secured the last point for Williams.

As for Luca Badoer, he qualified dead last, six tenths slower than Romain Grosjean. He finished the race dead last too 44 seconds behind the man in front. His best lap time was 2.1 seconds slower than Raikkonen. I wonder if any GPs other than the last two, has ever been topped and tailed with healthy Ferraris? It was perhaps a naive hope that someone who last raced 10 years ago would be on the pace, but how much off the pace is he in testing? If he is, how useful is information from a car being driven so far off its limit? Lest you might think that he drives with a metronomic precision that gives engineers the stable platform from which to evaluate changes, he couldn't even put all the good bits from a lap together in qualifying, as a frustrated Rob Smedley pointed out. I suspect the Maranello Job Centre beckons.

Speaking of testing, some in-season sessions must be re-introduced next year. It's not only ridiculous that the highest echelon of the sport cannot test, it's also dangerous for new drivers. A few in-season tests, like the late-lamented one at Silverstone, are a must - all free entry for spectators of course.

On now to Monza, where we can hope for two competitive Ferraris once more.

Click here for FIA lap chart (Europe).

Click here for FIA lap chart (Belgium).