Australian Grand Prix 2010, Melbourne - Race 2/19

well it's an hour earlier than last year's GP so we might miss the heavy early evening downpour. We've seen them drive in crazily heavy rainfall before with great success (Japan 2007 iirc?) so I reckon we'll get plenty of excitment out of this GP.
 
The teams do indeed have a good idea of wet weather performance, based on the last GP and also the many days of wet weather running. Strangely, Alonso is the driver who didnt actually test in the rain as all his testing days seemed to be in the dry.

A wet race will make the race exciting.
 
It certainly was a detailed look at what Hamilton and Button did during the race. However:

In the end, fate (in the form of Webbers Red Bull) stepped in to stop Hamilton’s charge and leave us with “what if’s”, looking at the evidence I would have to say that McLaren’s strategy could have worked although the advantage may have been marginal. Whilst you can feel sorry for Lewis there is no doubt that his second stop did give us the fans a race to remember.
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...is not really a conclusion at all.

The truth of the matter is, we will never know if McLaren's 2 stop strategy was the right one or not. I think JRS summed it up nicely earlier in this thread.

Moving onto Malaysia though, rain should make it exciting.
 
are they allowed to change the tyre compound mid season? ie make the tyres softer to stop softs lasting 50 laps? or do we have to wait till next year for something to be done about that?
 
Yep, other than the fact that they are manufactured about two months in advance.

I don't really see what difference it will make to the racing mind you.
 
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82635

Interesting comments from Bridgestone, I wonder how much further Button could have gone before having serious issues, maybe after this kind of analysis from Bridgestone less people will take the risk of running so long and opt to stop again. Also maybe Buttons smooth driving style™ is being overplayed a bit, I mean no doubt he has a smoother style then some of his rivals but apparently Alonso kept his tyres in better condition despite having to attack to make up places. Or it could be possibly that the Ferrari is good at looking after the tyres in those circumstances.
 
Bridgestone also only recommend the tyres used for 20 laps (as mentioned in commentary today - by Brundle I think)

Impossible to compare two different drivers in two different cars imo, cant possibly say which is better at conserving in general

Also Alonso wasnt having to push that hard as he was following Massa - therefore going easy on his tyres for quite a way (not like actually battling to get ahead which might cost extra tyre wear)
 
Actually, I would've thought that if you are following another driver closely, you will be tougher on your tyres, as you have to make up for the loss of aero grip with mechnical (tyre) grip. Button on the other hand, was running in free air and wouldn't have been encumbered in quite the same way.
 
Yeah drivers following closely were complaining of understeer as they couldn't get as much downforce from the front wing in the turbulent air, which would have made it more difficult for Alonso to save his tyres then it was for Button in clear air.
 
Kenai said:
As for what the other drivers were doing, the other drivers weren't putting in the blistering laps Hamilton and Webber were before they pitted, which speaks volumes to me. I think they'd both hurt their tyres doing that as the pair of them were clearly on a mission to prove something and were driving those cars to the very edge. I don't think the tyres would have lasted that sort of driving another 25-30 laps I think it was, like it did for everyone else who were in effect plodding around in comparison.
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Autosport said:
That is the view of Bridgestone's director of motorsport tyre development Hirohide Hamashima, who has revealed that Hamilton's first set of dry tyres in the race were virtually worn out when McLaren called him in.

"Concerning Webber and Hamilton – their first dry tyres were almost worn out," he said following post-race analysis of their rubber. "They had to do a two-stop."
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:)
 
Bridgestone has it wrong. Hamilton's tyres were fine. He was on Kubica's gearbox FFS. That's not something you can do if your tyres are imminently about to start showing canvas.

To then say that Alonso's were in the best condition is laughable as everyone could see he was struggling big time. Had a major lock up as well just before Hamilton got punted off by Webber.
 
NathanE said:
Bridgestone has it wrong.
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I'm sorry, are you actually being serious?

Bridgestone, the company who design and produce the tyres for use in Formula 1, know what they are capable of and have looked at the actual set of tyres in question are wrong?

But NathanE, who watched the race on TV obviously knows better?

Very funny indeed :D
 
Umm no. Read some of the F1 forums and you'll see I'm not alone on that view.

Also you cut out the rest of my post... presumably because it actually made sense and didn't match up to what Bridgestone were saying?
 
Ah well that changes everything, if a load of other people on forums who watched the race on TV also disagree then Bridgestone must be wrong! How silly of them to think they could possibly have a better idea about the performance and condition of their own tyres than a bunch of guys on the internet!

XD

(edit - I cut out the rest of your post as it's nothing but idle armchair speculation. How can you state 'Hamilton's tyres were fine' with such authority when you've actually got no factual idea what state they were in at all? Does your arrogance know no bounds?)
 
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