Sebastian Vettel underlined his reputation as Formula One’s brightest rising star, and an heir apparent as regenmeister to countryman Michael Schumacher, after skating to a second grand prix victory at the head of a Red Bull Racing 1-2 in China.

The German led comfortably from safety car lights to soaking chequered flag, only ceding the advantage to team-mate Mark Webber and world championship leader Jenson Button as the various pit-stop strategies worked out in atrocious conditions, and defying the fact that he had qualified lighter than most of those behind him.

Once Fernando Alonso’s super-light Renault had opted for an early stop and change of strategy, Webber and Button provided the closest thing to a challenge for Vettel, but the young German held firm on a day when almost everyone else had an indiscretion or two with unpredictable water levels and downpours that ebbed ad flowed throughout a race that ran the two-hour time limit close.

Surviving a late possibility of the safety car returning, after Adrian Sutil’s bid for points ended heavily embedded in the barriers, Vettel reined himself in and completed a maiden success for Christian Horner’s hard-working Red Bull team.

Webber ensured that the Milton Keynes operation emulated Jordan and Brawn GP by claiming a 1-2 to back up its maiden victory, while Button had to settle for a hard-fought podium after dicing with Webber through the middle part of the 56-lap affair.

Rubens Barrichello, Heikki Kovalainen, a spin-prone Lewis Hamilton, Timo Glock and the remarkable Sebastien Buemi completed the scorers.

The driver with the most race wins to his name will be crowned 2009 Formula 1 World Champion, it has been announced, after the FIA revealed its definitive list of cost-cutting and interest-enhancing measures to be implemented during the forthcoming campaign.

Whilst the Formula One Teams’ Association (FOTA) had proposed a new 12-9-7-5-4-3-2-1 points system and Formula One Management (FOM) chief executive Bernie Ecclestone favoured an Olympic Games-style provision of medals to the top three finishers in each grand prix, the sport’s governing body has ultimately elected to retain the current format – with a twist.

‘The WMSC accepted the proposal from Formula One Management to award the drivers’ championship to the driver who has won the most races during the season,’ read an official statement issued following today’s reunion of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris.

‘If two or more drivers finish the season with the same number of wins, the title will be awarded to the driver with the most points, the allocation of points being based on the current 10, 8, 6 etc. system.

‘The rest of the standings, from second to last place, will be decided by the current points system. There is no provision to award medals for first, second or third place. The constructors’ championship is unaffected.

‘The WMSC rejected the alternative proposal from the Formula One Teams’ Association to change the points awarded to drivers finishing in first, second and third place to 12, 9 and 7 points respectively.’

Had such a format been in place in 2008, it would have meant that Ferrari ace Felipe Massa rather than McLaren-Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton lifted the laurels at season’s end, by dint of six triumphs to five, even though the Brazilian scored one point less than his British rival in the final reckoning.

The new system could, however, remove much of the suspense of the title chase later on in proceedings, should one driver be uncatchable in terms of race victories as the campaign nears its conclusion.

In terms of testing, meanwhile, in news that will come as a boost to those bidding to graduate to the top flight it was decided that teams can henceforth conduct three one-day young driver training tests between the last race on the schedule and the end of the calendar year.

Drivers will be eligible only if they have not competed in more than two world championship events in the preceding 24 months or tested an F1 car on more than four days over the same 24-month period.

Teams can also now carry out eight one-day aerodynamic tests on FIA-approved straight-line or constant radius sites between 1 January, 2009 and the final grand prix of the campaign, mitigating to some extent the new in-season testing ban introduced this year.

Nick Heidfeld has expressed his confidence of being part of the Formula 1 World Championship fight with BMW-Sauber in 2009 – even if he admits that technical input, rather than the skill of the man behind the wheel, has taken on greater significance than ever in the sport’s brave new dawn.

The experienced German is heading into his tenth season in the top flight this year, and though he has eleven times stood up on the podium and registered no fewer than 200 career points from 150 starts, he has yet to break his grand prix duck.

With BMW having pulled off every one of its objectives so far, however – regular points in 2006, podiums in 2007 and its breakthrough triumph in 2008 – the pressure is on. Heidfeld knows that now, more than ever before, it is time to deliver.

“My goal is to get everything possible out of the car and the situation on each lap and each race weekend,” the 31-year-old underlined. “What is actually possible is determined to a large degree by our technical performance. In the past few years we have always met our intermediate targets, and I hope we manage to do that again in 2009.

“The aim of the team is to be involved in the title battle in 2009. In order to do that you have to have a car underneath you that is capable of winning. That’s what I’m hoping for, of course, and that’s what we are working to achieve.”

Having spent much of the winter working intensively on his fitness in the light of the new in-season ban on testing in F1, the man from Mönchengladbach is clearly champing at the bit to get going again in the curtain-raising Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in just under three weeks’ time.

What’s more, he is positive that the FIA and FOTA’s cost-cutting regulations are decidedly the right way to be going – and even, at a pinch, the reduced salaries he and his 19 fellow drivers are potentially facing.

“I think it’s very important,” he stressed of the sport’s new expenditure-slashing drive, “and some of the ideas are already bearing fruit. Each driver now only has eight engines for the whole season, for example, and we won’t be doing any more testing from the middle of March.

“This is the first time that the teams involved in the world championship have agreed on such major changes – that is something that should be warmly welcomed in the current economic climate.

“Nobody is happy about salary cuts. The driver is clearly an important factor in the team, but BMW draws up an objective cost-benefit analysis for every area of the team’s budget and has never paid ‘fantasy’ salaries. As in the past, it’s just about reaching an agreement.”

Nick Heidfeld has expressed his confidence of being part of the Formula 1 World Championship fight with BMW-Sauber in 2009 – even if he admits that technical input, rather than the skill of the man behind the wheel, has taken on greater significance than ever in the sport’s brave new dawn.

The experienced German is heading into his tenth season in the top flight this year, and though he has eleven times stood up on the podium and registered no fewer than 200 career points from 150 starts, he has yet to break his grand prix duck.

With BMW having pulled off every one of its objectives so far, however – regular points in 2006, podiums in 2007 and its breakthrough triumph in 2008 – the pressure is on. Heidfeld knows that now, more than ever before, it is time to deliver.

“My goal is to get everything possible out of the car and the situation on each lap and each race weekend,” the 31-year-old underlined. “What is actually possible is determined to a large degree by our technical performance. In the past few years we have always met our intermediate targets, and I hope we manage to do that again in 2009.

“The aim of the team is to be involved in the title battle in 2009. In order to do that you have to have a car underneath you that is capable of winning. That’s what I’m hoping for, of course, and that’s what we are working to achieve.”

Having spent much of the winter working intensively on his fitness in the light of the new in-season ban on testing in F1, the man from Mönchengladbach is clearly champing at the bit to get going again in the curtain-raising Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in just under three weeks’ time.

What’s more, he is positive that the FIA and FOTA’s cost-cutting regulations are decidedly the right way to be going – and even, at a pinch, the reduced salaries he and his 19 fellow drivers are potentially facing.

“I think it’s very important,” he stressed of the sport’s new expenditure-slashing drive, “and some of the ideas are already bearing fruit. Each driver now only has eight engines for the whole season, for example, and we won’t be doing any more testing from the middle of March.

“This is the first time that the teams involved in the world championship have agreed on such major changes – that is something that should be warmly welcomed in the current economic climate.

“Nobody is happy about salary cuts. The driver is clearly an important factor in the team, but BMW draws up an objective cost-benefit analysis for every area of the team’s budget and has never paid ‘fantasy’ salaries. As in the past, it’s just about reaching an agreement.”

Renault has taken the covers of its latest F1 machine – the R29.

The ING Renault F1 team has taken the covers off its 2009 Formula One challenger, the R29, at the Algarve Motor Park circuit.

The car was officially presented to the world’s media today [Monday] at around 08.30 hours local time, before Nelson Piquet Jr gave the machine its on track debut.

Renault finished fourth in the constructors’ championship in 2008 and having won two races in Singapore and China with Fernando Alonso towards the end of the season, will be hoping to be regularly challenging for victories, as well as the titles, this year.