F1: No KERS for BMW / Sauber

BMW / Sauber will not utilize the KERS system this week in the Turkish Grand Prix, according to Formula1.com. Team principal Mario Theissen said, "there are only two free practice sessions to check out the new aero package and we think that the risk of getting off track by trying out a new KERS configuration at the same time is higher than the potential gained."

Our View: Nick Heidfeld needs some help. He finished second on the Sepang Circuit and was seventh at the Circuit de Catalunya, but the remainder of his 2009 results has been outside the points.

Week 21 Unified Power Rankings

Jenson Button won the Spanish Grand Prix, which was his fourth Formula 1 victory in five starts, and by virtue of dominating that series, he remains firmly in control of the "highly-scientific" Unified Power Rankings.* What makes this more impressive still, is that he's doing so with a team that was not favored to run well at the start of the season because they are new to the series.

Teammate Rubens Barrichello finished second in last week's battle in Spain, which allowed him to pad his advantage over the remainder of the field. Barrichello was mildly upset that he was not allowed the opportunity to win after team strategy was altered mid-race that favored Button.

Meanwhile, the NASCAR boys continue to run strong and take up most of the remaining top-10 spots. Tony Stewart's third-place finish at Darlington was enough to keep him third on the Unified Power Rankings grid, while Jeff Gordon's fifth-place finish allowed him to leapfrog Kurt Busch into fourth.

The Indy Racing League has not yet run five races this season, which is the minimum required for inclusion to this list, so none of their drivers will be included until after the Indy 500.

Three drivers, Mark Webber, Mark Martin and Fernando Alonso jumped nine positions between last week and this week to become the biggest gainers.

Justin Allgaier's impressive fifth-place finish in the Nationwide Darlington race allowed him to leap onto the grid in 45th, which Nick Heidfeld scored a seventh in the Spanish Grand Prix to sneak into 50th.

Unified Power Rankings

Rank	Driver	Competition Points	Last week	+/-
1	Jenson Button	107.80	1	0
2	Rubens Barrichello	96.00	2	0
3	Tony Stewart	92.92	3	0
4	Jeff Gordon	90.82	5	1
5	Kurt Busch	89.55	4	-1
6	Denny Hamlin	82.50	7	1
7	Jason Leffler	82.20	10	3
8	Jimmie Johnson	81.73	12	4
9	Timo Glock	81.60	6	-3
10	Ryan Newman	81.38	13	3
11	Ron Hornaday Jr	80.80	9	-2
12	Jeff Burton	78.94	14	2
13	Kyle Busch	78.52	8	-5
14	Mark Webber	78.40	23	9
15	Carl Edwards	78.33	11	-4
16	Greg Biffle	77.40	16	0
17	Sebastian Vettel	77.20	24	7
18	Matt Kenseth	76.76	19	1
19	Juan Montoya	74.36	17	-2
20	Mark Martin	73.83	29	9
21	Fernando Alonso	73.80	30	9
22	Clint Bowyer	73.14	15	-7
23	Brad Keselowski	72.73	28	5
24	Brian Vickers	72.38	20	-4
25	Kevin Harvick	72.00	27	2
26	Dale Earnhardt Jr	71.80	21	-5
27	Matt Crafton	71.80	25	-2
28	David Reutimann	71.40	22	-6
29	Kasey Kahne	70.00	26	-3
30	Jason Keller	69.60	31	1
31	Joey Logano	69.50	34	3
32	Mike Skinner	67.33	36	4
33	David Ragan	67.00	32	-1
34	Johnny Benson Jr	67.00	37	3
35	Marcos Ambrose	66.18	33	-2
36	Lewis Hamilton	65.20	39	3
37	Nico Rosberg	65.20	40	3
38	Martin Truex Jr	64.73	45	7
39	Jarno Trulli	64.00	18	-21
40	Casey Mears	63.91	35	-5
41	Reed Sorenson	63.73	41	0
42	Scott Lagasse Jr	63.70	38	-4
43	Steve Wallace	63.60	43	0
44	Regan Smith	63.00	42	-2
45	Justin Allgaier	62.60	NR
46	Jamie McMurray	61.55	44	-2
47	Chad McCumbee	61.20	47	0
48	Brendan Gaughan	60.90	46	-2
49	A J Allmendinger	60.82	50	1
50	Nick Heidfeld	60.80	NR

The Unified Power Rankings are based on "percentage points." Starting with a 100 score for the winner of a Nationwide race, each subsequent position is decremented by a percentage that relates to the number of drivers in the field. In a 50-car field of potential qualifiers, the second-place driver receives 98 points, third-place gets 96 points, the 43rd-place driver gets 16 points (because he beat eight other driver to even get into the field) and so on until the last non-qualifier in 50th-place gets two points.

Only races run in the last three months count in this formula.

The Cup, IRL and Formula 1 series start at 110 points for a victory (since its so difficult to win one of these races) and then decrements 1/50th of 110 points for each subsequent position. It’s an unscientific way to determine who is the best in their series, while simultaneously trying to compare apples to oranges.

Previous Unified Power Rankings:

Week 20

F1: Sauber's making progress

BMW Sauber earned their first two points of the season in the Spanish Grand Prix when Nick Heidfeld finished seventh, but team principal Mario Theissen believes the team is making notable progress, according to Formula1.com.

Our View: The team hopes to have a "modified KERS" system in place for the Turkish Grand Prix in June. The added boost could help in the long straights between turns 10 and 12.