At the Australian Grand Prix and the Malaysian Grand Prix races, an official complaint was launched by other teams against the rear diffusers of the Williams FW31, Toyota TF109 and the Brawn BGP 001 saying that they were illegal,^[3] but after analysing the cars the FIA deemed that the cars were legal.^[4] Three teams appealed against the decision, and after much deliberating the cars were again deemed to "comply with the applicable regulations" by the FIA.^[5]

Following the qualifying sessions, stewards deemed the rear wing of the TF109 to be flexible beyond what is allowed by the 2009 regulations. Both cars were therefore excluded from the qualifying classifications and started the race from the pitlane, fitted with replacement wings.^[6] Both cars completed the race, Trulli and Glock crossing the line in third and fifth respectively, however Trulli was given a 25-second penalty for passing Lewis Hamilton during the final safety car period, dropping him to 12th.^[7] After further investigation it was discovered that Lewis Hamilton had purposely let Trulli through. The penalty given to Trulli was removed and Hamilton subsequently disqualified from the Australian GP. Hamilton's removal was based upon misinformation given by the McLaren team during an initial investigation.^{[citation needed]}

Jarno Trulli edit

Jarno Trulli started the season perfectly with third place before a strong finish in Malaysia. China saw difficulties for Jarno, though, after Robert Kubica clashed with him. Trulli was on pole position for the 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix but could only manage third. From Spain through to Singapore, Jarno and Toyota saw mixed results, some difficult like in Spain where he crashed out on lap 1. In Japan he returned to the podium after getting ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the stops.

Timo Glock edit

Timo Glock's second season saw a fourth place and a third place to kick off his season. However, after leading in the first corner at Bahrain, Timo struggled in Europe before coming second place in Singapore behind Hamilton. In Japan he endured a terrible leg injury after crashing out during qualifying meaning he was out of action before the end of the season.

Kamui Kobayashi edit

Kamui Kobayashi spent the majority of 2009 in the GP2 Series and being Toyota test driver before getting to drive the car in Brazil. He gave quite an impression after sending Kazuki Nakajima out of the Brazil Grand Prix, in Abu Dhabi he scored his first F1 points in his second F1 race, fighting hard with Jenson Button and beating team mate Jarno Trulli in the race as well.

The tyre manufacturer Pirelli used the TF109 chassis in 2010–2011 as a test car in tyre development. Nick Heidfeld, Pedro de la Rosa, Romain Grosjean and Lucas di Grassi tested the tires before it returned to the sport in 2011.^[8] The Renault R30 replaced the TF109 as Pirelli's test car in 2012.

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance completed.

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  Jarno Trulli testing the TF109 at Jerez in March 2009.
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  The controversial diffuser of the TF109.
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  Kamui Kobayashi driving the TF109 at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix