Australian Grand Prix 2012, Albert Park Circuit - Race 1/20

LH was just a little slow all day - He was lucky Mark didnt get too good a shot at him to take 3rd

JB just did fantasticly (apart from the missed gear change at the start), a great getaway from the lights, out manouveing LH around 1st corner, and controlling the race from the front. Even SV at the SC period was no danger, JB (just like SV last season) speeding away from any danger before DRS became enabled and then controlled the race.

Looks like Merc's , RBR's and a few others might fight it out for best of the rest with Alonso facing a one man fight for Ferrari (different stints and different tracks will probably highlight different chassis through out the year) but I expect a lot of the top runners to change week in week out

SV made some small but possibly significant mistakes today while relativey unpressured, depending on the track I definitely think he can be pressured into more mistakes than he made last season just by being raced close enough

Mark was unlucky at the start, (and a bit like SV) was lucky there were so many retirements ahead of them , Grosgean, MS - so SV didnt really make up that many places (even Schumi 's gear box gave up before SV had overtaken) - so performance was a little flattered by other's mistakes, same with Ferrari , even if they were unlucky in quali
 
Still not a fan of Maldonado. IMO he's too aggressive and forced Grosjean off the track as well as a few other moments where he exhibited a lack of racecraft.

The Ferrari seems to handle much better on full tanks. As the fuel burns off it seems to get more difficult to drive. As much as I dislike the whinging Spaniard, he drove a blinder today.

Apparently without the safety car the Mclarens were marginal on fuel and were actively fuel saving for much of the race.
 
MissChief said:
Apparently without the safety car the Mclarens were marginal on fuel and were actively fuel saving for much of the race.
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Well Melbourne is always known to have SC periods - they build that into the tactics (with the highlights I didnt get any impression how long this was though)

JB did a full circuit after the lights, so it wasnt that marginal lol
 
Merlin5 said:
I was surprised how Lotus had done so well yesterday. But is the Renault team now renamed Lotus and the Lotus team now renamed Caterham?
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Oh god.. not again.

2010 - Bought by Genii when Renault pulled out - still race under the Renault name.
2011 - Renault team renamed to Lotus Renault GP due to sponsorship deal with Group Lotus
2012 - Renamed again to Lotus F1 Team - Group Lotus remain a sponsor only.

Vs.

2010 - Lotus Racing enter under a license with Group Lotus to use the Lotus name. Group Lotus cancel the deal when Bahar joins Group as he wants his own F1 team.
2011 - Renamed to Team Lotus after Tony Fernandes buys Team Lotus heritage from David Hunt - massive court case happens, that Team Lotus wins.
2012 - Renamed to Caterham F1 Team after Tony Fernandes buys the Caterham Group
 
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Flibster said:
Makes McLaren's race pace more impressive if they were saving fuel from lap 8.
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It certainly does, but it's quite disappointing that they weren't able to push more.

Hamilton could probably have passed Perez a lot sooner, or gone for a charge on Vettel if he had been able to turn it up to 11.
 
Duke said:
Mclaren had some in hand it seems :)



http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98176
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That could be a bluff though - either way, its impossible to know whether that means anything for any other race or not (given the amount of rain before and over the weekend, all the cars would have used more fuel wouldnt they?)

As stated previously, from the BBC commentary, there is nearly always a SC period

JB won (by quite a margin , given how much of a lead he lost prior to the SC) - even while economising on fuel

(ok while heavier fuel load means he would have been slower, it also means he could have gone faster today also) which one factors more .....who knows lol
 
That might also explain why Lewis started to make headway to JB and then it held steady?
I don't know the lap times around that time but it was when lewis started to bring the gap down from about 11 seconds?
 
BTW Drunkenmaster is a bit quiet, normally he's in here telling us how lucky Button was how some set of circumstances allowed Button to be quick and poor lewis was hampered.

He must have imploded. :p
 
FrankJH said:
(ok while heavier fuel load means he would have been slower, it also means he could have gone faster today also) which one factors more .....who knows lol
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There will be an optimum (phrase sponsored by Ron Dennis) fuel level though, so sounds like they were just under that... would be nice to know how much by.
 
That's quite the miscalculation to be in 'severe fuel saving mode' from lap 8!

It does go some way to explain as to perhaps why Hamilton didn't make an attempt at Vettel.
 
The fuel load thing might explain why McLaren scampered off at the beginning and then the gaps settled?

Have they said they were still low after the SC though? As if they turned it up then, they didn't have the same sort of pace they had at the start of the race.
 
Decent opening race.

Excellently controlled race by Jenson :cool:, unlucky Grosjean and Schumi, and Maldonado (even though I'm not particularly too keen on the latter).

But to drive as he did and then bin it on the final lap must be frustrating! I guess that's what he deserved after deliberately driving into Lewis at Spa though eh!

Lewis would have come second without the SC, so that was just unfortunate, and lucky for SV at the same time.

Roll on Malaysia!
 
Glaucus said:
:confused: how can they miss calculate fuel, it's not as if the engines or new, or they have lack of data.
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They don't miss calculate, they do it on purpose. I don't think anyone at the sharp end ever runs with enough fuel to do the whole race flat out. They always count on a SC or running some fuel saving modes through the race.

I think McLaren just pushed the limit a bit far. They will learn from the mistake.
 
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Skeeter said:
They don't miss calculate, they do it on purpose. I don't think anyone at the sharp end ever runs with enough fuel to do the whole race flat out. They always count on a SC or running some fuel saving modes through the race.

I think McLaren just pushed the limit a bit far. They will learn from the mistake.
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I'd be inclined to agree if that was in the last third of the race, but from lap 8?! MW's choice of words was quite striking too 'severe fuel saving mode'.
 
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