As with every week, a lot has gone on in the world of Formula One racing.  Here are a few interesting highlights.

•    The Chinese Grand Prix was raced on April 19, and the results were interesting.  Lewis Hamilton ended up coming in sixth, while the top two spots were claimed by Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, both driving for Red Bull Racing.  Brawn’s Jenson Button claimed third.

•    The FIA has decided that neither marketing costs nor driver salaries will be a part of their new £30 million budget cap for the 2010 season.  Despite this, some, including Max Mosley, are afraid more F1 teams may leave the sport.  A number of new teams, however, are posed to fight for the three spots created for new teams in 2010.

•    Despite losing in Shanghai, Lewis Hamilton did post the top speed in Friday’s free practice in Bahrain.  His time of one minute 33.647 seconds set the pace for the first day of practices for the Bahrain Grand Prix.  Perhaps he will bounce back?

•    Speaking of Bahrain, the head doctor who is to supervise the Bahrain Grand Prix was suspended from his medical duties due to the inquiry into a patient death.  His suspension, however, will expire three days before the Bahrain race, and FIA officials say he will serve as the race’s chief medical official despite the inquiry.

•    Finally, F1 fans will soon be able to take any of their favorite cars for a spin provided they own a PSP or a Wii video game system.  Codemasters is releasing F1 2009 for these systems soon, and F1 2010 is in the works for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

As we get further and further into the 2009 F1 racing season, more and more interesting news bits come up.  Here are some of the topics from this week.

•    The lying scandal surrounding McLaren and caused driver Lewis Hamilton to be disqualified at the Australian Grand Prix continues.  This week, Ron Dennis, McLaren’s chief executive, resigned in response to the scandal.  He will be replaced by Martin Whitmarsh when the team appears before the F1 committee in Paris on April 28.

•    First, there was concern over driving into the sun in Malaysia.  Now there are some issues concerning the tyres that the tired Bridgestone are brigning to Chinese for the Chinese Grand Prix are not the best.  Many, including Renault and Brawn team members, have made it known that they believe these medium and super-soft compound tyres are not the best for the Chinese course.  In fact, several drivers had issues using the super-softs in Melbourne and are already anticipating the same kinds of problems in China.

•    Despite the controversy surrounding Lewis Hamilton, he has recently been nominated for the Laureus Award.  The award recognizes the top names in global sports achievements each year.  Driver Sebastian Vettel has also been nominated for “Breakthrough of the Year.”

•    Finally, the diffuser issue that has plagued the F1 for the past several weeks has been settled.  The FIA has declared that the brand new diffuser design that three F1 teams (Brawn, Toyota, and Williams) used in Australia is legal.  An appeal against this decision was made and has been rejected by the FIA, leaving the matter pretty much closed.

What’s going on in the F1 racing world this week?  Read on to learn about some of the biggest names and biggest happenings.

•    Rumours that Lewis Hamilton may leave McLaren have been at the top of all F1 news stories this week.  Many report that Hamilton was upset with his team’s handing of the controversy that led to his disqualification at the Malaysian Grand Prix.  However, most believe that Hamilton won’t leave the team.

•    Other controversy in the F1 world concerns the diffusers that the Toyota, Williams, and Brawn cars are using.  Some other teams have filed a complaint with the F1 organisation over these diffusers, but many, including retired F1 racer David Coulthard, believe that the FIA will rule these diffusers legal.

•    Here’s a bit of good news: ticket sales at the Singapore Grand Prix went, unlike last year, very smoothly.  Last year, the entire ticket system crashed during the first two days of ticket sales.  This year, after some redesigning, everything went very smoothly.

•    While no one wants to see an F1 racer crash, it’s good to know that if anyone does spin out of control during the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, a large team of medical professionals will be on hand.  Over 150 medical experts will be standing by along with ten ambulances, three extrication vehicles, and six intervention cars.  Two helicopters would also be ready to air-lift any serious injuries to medical facilities.

•    Retired three time F1 World Champion Niki Lauda and his wife, Brigit, are expecting their fourth child.  Lauda is 60; his wife, a former stewardess who worked on one of Lauda’s airlines, is 30.

•    Despite their win at the Australian Grand Prix, Brawn GP announced that they’re cutting 270 jobs from their factory in England due to the economic recession.

Following the FIA’s approval for the Brawn GP name earlier this week, the team has been confirmed as an official Formula One racing team.  The team name, originally Honda Racing, was changed to Brawn GP after Ross Brawn purchased it earlier this year.  While they’ve been planning to race in the 2009 F1 series, they had to officially be approved by the F1 governing body.  Now that they have approved the name change, there’s nothing holding Brawn GP back from entering the race.  They are, however, being viewed as a new entry in the F1 world championship although, since the entry fee had already been paid when the team was under the Honda name, that fee is being waved for Brawn.

On Tuesday, the FIA announced that the Formula 1 championship will now go to the driver who wins the most races in the 2009 season.  This change in how the title is awarded has been very controversial, and many F1 teams have opposed it, although F1 supremo Bernie Eccleston remains unrepentant.

The previous points system has been in use for almost 60 years, but now it will only be used to break a tie between two drivers who have won the same number of races.  It will also be used to determine places from second down.  Simply put, whichever driver manages to win the most of the seventeen races set for 2009 will take the title.

Just like everyone else, the Formula One team bosses are looking for ways to save money while gaining more fans.  A few of their ideas to do this include holding shorter races and introducing a new scoring system.  They also want to ban in-season testing, put a limit on updates, and use only affordable engines.  Teams may find their budgets cut in half for 2010, leaving them with little choice but to implement money-saving measures. 

Races may also be cut down to a max of an hour and 40 minutes in 2010, allowing them to more easily fit into television schedules.  More publicity events may also be scheduled, especially those that allow fans to meet the drivers.  So far, of course, all of these proposals are simply ideas—the FIA governing body will meet on March 17 to consider and possibly approve them.