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

It sounds like BS to me. Just scare tactics to the other teams, reduce confidence and effect the psyche of the other drivers. Just like RB have already jumped on the 'they're breaking the rules with their car design' bandwagon.
 
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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No, they miss calculated as Martin Whitman says.

There's an optimum fuel load for fastest race, just like number of stops. They seem to off been well under on fuel.
 
lucarocks92 said:
wonder if kubica will replace massa for next year? there was rumours of it 2 years ago but then ferrari gave massa the 2 year contract, i'm a ferrari fan and it saddens me to see the massa we have now, the massa of 2008 was brilliant.

anyone think kubica would be a good replacement for massa? cos alonso has outshined massa every single week for the past 2 years and he's only costing ferrari by keeping him there.
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i cant see Kubica in any F1 car
 
dannyjo22 said:
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?
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dont think it got below 10s did it (just out of interest) - I dont think it was a massive change in the gap

Duke said:
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.
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Very true - but its also nice to see JB and LH complete the wind down lap also if they were that marginal on fuel :)

Skeeter said:
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.
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JB was ahead by more than the DRS zone by the time it was enabled again, so he was still pretty speedy compared to SV at that point - and LH and JB both posted a few fastest laps of the race at this point too didnt they?
 
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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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Very little dry running means they used less fuel than normal through most of the FP sessions. Evidently they didn't have the consumption increase quite right.

All the teams have done it in the past. Ferrari have significantly got it wrong on more than one occasion. Telling Massa to short shift in all gears, reduce rev limit and then stop on the cool down lap is one instance that stands out.
 
Flibster said:
Very little dry running means they used less fuel than normal through most of the FP sessions. Evidently they didn't have the consumption increase quite right.

All the teams have done it in the past. Ferrari have significantly got it wrong on more than one occasion. Telling Massa to short shift in all gears, reduce rev limit and then stop on the cool down lap is one instance that stands out.
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JB did this for one of his McLaren wins also I seem to recall, I think it was last season but I cant remember where

I think that statement works better for McLaren than against them, I mean JB was already dominating the race by lap 8 so saying they couldnt pull away further because of the fuel works positively for the team

No big deal really - roll on Malaysia
 
I was going to mention Alesi in the Bennetton in Australia, then I realised that was purely because he ignored his pit board, radio and all his team waving at him to come in. :D
 
Shimmy said:
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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It would be fairly easy to see early on if the current pace and fuel load would get them through the race, and ask them to turn it down.

McLaren were mighty quick at the start. That kind of pace all the time would be great :)
 
Flibster said:
I was going to mention Alesi in the Bennetton in Australia, then I realised that was purely because he ignored his pit board, radio and all his team waving at him to come in. :D
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That was beyond bizarre, crazy Jean. 12 years in f1 and one win. How can a man of that much talent only win one race :(

Everyone loved him even though he was French!

How different it all would have been had he not turned down Frank Williams for 91 :( At the very least he would have been a double world champion :)
 
sunama said:
A decent race. Nothing spectacular. In fact, at the front, it was pretty boring. And as CaptainRave pointed out, they brought out the SC to spice things up. Even now, I'm not 100% sure why the SC was brought out (apart from adding spice, to the race).

Button and Hamilton
Button did a fantastic job in making no mistakes and (together which his team), made no mistakes with strategy. McLaren did shaft Hamilton though, but that's normal.

The important thing for Button was that he beat Hamilton, on a dry track, while Hamilton had no obvious problems/crashes. He beat him fair and square. This bodes well for Button's title challenge.

I am worried for Hamilton though, as Button is basically taking him apart. Hamilton NEEDS the entire team to be based around him. Every time Button beats Hamilton, another nail goes in his coffin and his confidence takes a hammering. I can well understand why Hamilton is so glum - this year maybe the last year where he is looked at as a top-line driver. Still, its only been one race, so Hamilton nor his fans shouldn't get too worried. Hamilton may yet win the title this year.

Vettel
I think today went some way to proving that he is a worthy champ. Even from 6th-7th place, he was still able to make 2nd place and once again show Webber, who the boss is. The guy is super quick and makes few errors. And above all, he is 'lucky'.

Alonso
Like Vettel, this guy never fails to impress. He is driving a car which is clearly difficult to drive. He is beating his team-mate by the biggest margin that any team-mate is beating his team-mate by (very important). If only we could get him in a car to rival the pace of Vettel - I would love to see Alonso and Vettel slug it out. [For me, Alonso is the best driver in F1, with Vettel snapping at his heals. These 2 are extremely close, in terms of their points scoring abilities]

Drivers of the Day:
Button and Vettel (nothing to separate these 2).

Predictions
Now that we have had 1 full race weekend, lets get some predictions in.

WDC:
1. Hamilton/Button/Vettel*
2. Hamilton/Button/Vettel*
3. Hamilton/Button/Vettel*

I know this is a cop-out, but I really can't choose between these drivers. McLaren have the best car (with 2 good drivers), but RBR have the better driver (and currently a slightly slower car). After the Summer break, I believe RBR will have the best car, which should allow Vettel to close down the gap in the WDC. This one is too close.

WCC:
1. McLaren (definitely)
2. RBR
3. Mercedes
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In recent years McLaren have the best record in delivering in-season performance improvements. No reason to suggest that this will change in 2012.
 
dannyjo22 said:
That was beyond bizarre, crazy Jean. 12 years in f1 and one win. How can a man of that much talent only win one race :(

Everyone loved him even though he was French!

How different it all would have been had he not turned down Frank Williams for 91 :( At the very least he would have been a double world champion :)
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He drove for Ferrari in their typically italian phase. Similar to the one they seem to be heading into now.

AM - Build car
Lunch - Ooooh, go on then. I'll have another bottle of wine
PM - Whasss shis bit?

Such a shame though. Alesi was a talented guy.
 
Just watching the highlights from the beeb on the red button and one thing that annoyed me in the coverage was that who ever was in charge of replays was a bit too eager sometimes. There were a few instances when an incident was still going on (someone recovering with people trying to get by or someone going for a counter pass) and they cut to the replay of the start of the incident and then finished it before the incident was fully over.
 
Flibster said:
He drove for Ferrari in their typically italian phase. Similar to the one they seem to be heading into now.

AM - Build car
Lunch - Ooooh, go on then. I'll have another bottle of wine
PM - Whasss shis bit?

Such a shame though. Alesi was a talented guy.
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Yeah sadly you are right, Canada 95 will forever be one of the greatest races in my memory, not for epic moments but the race ending and who won. So many times and even with 1 meter left you were just waiting for something to go wrong.

My wife got into f1 in 94 in a big way and she was a huge Alesi fan. I remember well her excitement at that race :D

There's a few races I think back to where I wish I had tickets and Canada 95 would be on my top 3. :)
 
Kevin Clark said:
Just watching the highlights from the beeb on the red button and one thing that annoyed me in the coverage was that who ever was in charge of replays was a bit too eager sometimes. There were a few instances when an incident was still going on (someone recovering with people trying to get by or someone going for a counter pass) and they cut to the replay of the start of the incident and then finished it before the incident was fully over.
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been told that a few times by mates who don't have Sky - guess there wasn't enough time with them just doing highlights
 
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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The engine isn't new but since last year they're now not hot blowing diffusers (which would have been using fuel I believe?) so the consumption will be different to last year.

If they didn't get comparable conditions in practice to the race, I can see how they may have made a small misjudgement and at the tolerances these things are run to, I would imagine it only takes the smallest of miscalculations to cause rather large problems.
 
Kenai said:
The engine isn't new but since last year they're now not hot blowing diffusers (which would have been using fuel I believe?) so the consumption will be different to last year.

If they didn't get comparable conditions in practice to the race, I can see how they may have made a small misjudgement and at the tolerances these things are run to, I would imagine it only takes the smallest of miscalculations to cause rather large problems.
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They all done plenty of fuel tests in testing however.
 
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