Australian GP 2009 - Race 1/17 (NOT in HD BTW)

FrankJH · 27 Mar 2009 at 12:48

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/f1mole/2009/03/virgin-poised-for-brawn-linkup.html

Brawn to announce Virgin as title sponser in Aus? sounds promising even after all the eco stuff RB was sprouting last month

JUMPURS · 27 Mar 2009 at 12:49

From what i can gather i seems to be the middle bit of the diffuser causing issues?

GingerNinja1989 · 27 Mar 2009 at 12:55

Trevvie said:
We Glad to see F1 back and good to see some changes and different cars doing well
just happened to get woke up this morning due to next doors gate getting blown about in the wind so watch practice 2 via the red button

Great the live 5 are doing comentery I watched a few on ITV last year with no comentery on the practice sesions made it increadibly boring

Claimed!

Glaucus · 27 Mar 2009 at 12:57

JUMPURS said:
Has nobody done an indepth look at the differences in the rear diffuser debate?

I am wondering if BBC will show it on the qualy coverage, showing what the 'dubious' cars have compared to the rest.

It's teh height of taht middle section. But as you can see it's a double section, not one contentious height and as such falls under body work as far as I understand. Ingeniuse rule bending but not breaking. Sour grapes nothing more.

Torch [P4] · 27 Mar 2009 at 12:58

JUMPURS said:
From what i can gather i seems to be the middle bit of the diffuser causing issues?

something to do with the height methinks :confused:

doh, just seen the above post LOL

PinkFloyd · 27 Mar 2009 at 13:01

Not so many people stayed awake for practise two then!

Just looked at the times, worried that the big three teams from last year are struggling. Reall looking forward to seeing what happens in qualifying now.

Glaucus · 27 Mar 2009 at 13:05

PinkFloyd said:
Just looked at the times, worried that the big three teams from last year are struggling. Reall looking forward to seeing what happens in qualifying now.

Well Ferrari did well in P1. I don't think we can make to much from this race other than the top 3 teams. As the track is cold and bridgestone supplied the wrong tyres to everyone.

Torch [P4] · 27 Mar 2009 at 13:06

its going to be tight for the top 10

pingwing · 27 Mar 2009 at 13:24

rypt said:
Guess it's 5 live then, as Brundle will be going on about Hamilton and Davidson really doesn't care about Hamilton

I dunno, last year you could hear him getting annoyed at james allen for banging on about hamilton all race (there was one race over the summer where james asked "but wheres hamilton" like he was being payed to say his name every few mins and martin didnt sound all that impressed).

Anyway wheres the web re-run http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7967203.stm for p2 for anyone who hasnt found it yet. Im pretty impressed with barachello and rosberg!

sunama · 27 Mar 2009 at 13:49

AcidHell2 said:
Well Ferrari did well in P1. I don't think we can make to much from this race other than the top 3 teams. As the track is cold and bridgestone supplied the wrong tyres to everyone.

It didnt do that well. Kimi I think finished 2nd; the reason: super soft tyres. He was the only one to use these tyres. Massa gave a more truer reflection of Ferrari's race pace.

Notice that Williams and BrawnGP were consistently competitive and improved from session1 to session2. The likes of Ferrari didnt improve.

Incidentally, the BrawnGP looks almost effortless to drive and it doesnt surprise me that that car was putting up the fastest laps in testing, straight out of the box.

McLaren on the other hand is a slow car, where Hamilton has struggled. I believe he was the only car to have 2 offs. He was consistently slow throughout both sessions.

Tomorrow should still be an eye opener and its difficult to see where everybody is right now, given the different fuel loads that the practise session times were derived from.

sunama · 27 Mar 2009 at 13:51

Dup said:
So, nobodies piped up any conspiracy theory that the non-diffuser teams are deliberately sand bagging becasue they've clearly missed out on that oppertunity?

Whats the point of sandbagging? If they decide to deliberately go slow, it will effect their chances of developing a good setup for tomorrows qualifying and Sunday's race.

The best way to develop and setup a car is to forget about everybody else and just try to develop the best car and setup you can, irrespective of how quickly everybody else is going. If it turns out that your car is going 1s/lap faster than everybody elses, then great. If it turns out that your car is 1s/lap slower than everybody elses, then you might take a closer look at what the front runners are doing and copy them.

Sandbagging serves no purpose.

JRS · 27 Mar 2009 at 13:55

sunama said:
Incidentally, the BrawnGP looks almost effortless to drive and it doesnt surprise me that that car was putting up the fastest laps in testing, straight out of the box.

Two very smooth drivers, now in a car that doesn't fight them at every turn. Not surprising that they're making it look effortless.

sunama said:
McLaren on the other hand is a slow car, where Hamilton has struggled. I believe he was the only car to have 2 offs. He was consistently slow throughout both sessions.

I'd love to be able to say that I was very unhappy about how Hamilton has now found himself in a slow, ill-handling machine....but I'm just not. All the BS and nonsense from last year has eroded almost all of my sympathy for the guy. Well done to all of you who contributed to that erosion

That said....I do still hope McLaren get it together and allow Hamilton a decent stab at retaining his title.

Mr Kingston · 27 Mar 2009 at 14:03

real;ly good results for the not so good teams, i say bring on the qualifying

JUMPURS · 27 Mar 2009 at 14:31

AcidHell2 said:
It's teh height of taht middle section. But as you can see it's a double section, not one contentious height and as such falls under body work as far as I understand. Ingeniuse rule bending but not breaking. Sour grapes nothing more.

Ahhh nice one mate cheers.

philjohn · 27 Mar 2009 at 14:43

spp said:
With the in season test ban, how does a team improve it's car? Or is that the point of it? Or do they use practice sessions like last night to develop the car? Take mclaren for example, I'm guessing it'll be very difficult for them to move forward?

They are allowed 8 one day straight line (or continuous angle, i.e. a circle) tests during the season. Those, along with Friday practice, will probably be used by McLaren for testing parts straight from their design office that's only been checked in the wind-tunnel and CFD supercomputer. Saturday will be for getting their setup (which will be worrying as Hamilton seems to take a while to dial in a good setup) sorted before quali.

PinkFloyd · 27 Mar 2009 at 15:02

Just watching the rerun of Final Practise 2. Massa nearly manages to stack is car big time but catches a big slide!

Can't wait for qualy

Dorje · 27 Mar 2009 at 15:05

3rd Practise viewable the same way as 1 and 2?

If so, I'll probably take an early night and wake up at 3am

pingwing · 27 Mar 2009 at 15:10

Dorje said:
3rd Practise viewable the same way as 1 and 2?

If so, I'll probably take an early night and wake up at 3am

Yeah it should be, i think the bbc are aiming to top itv's coverage last year which included all the practise's online (i used it a lot...). Quali isnt till 5am eitherway

I think Lewis and both the ferraris have some real work to do with the set up as they are all going sideways through some of the corners, seems to be similar to Stils complaints when he went out on the super soft that the car was "undriveable" (despite being 9th impressivly).

Cant wait to see if Red Bull come up with a new defuser by the time they get back to Europe as they seem to be the closist to the 3 "contriversial" teams :cool:

Dorje · 27 Mar 2009 at 15:30

pingwing said:
Yeah it should be, i think the bbc are aiming to top itv's coverage last year which included all the practise's online (i used it a lot...). Quali isnt till 5am eitherway

I think Lewis and both the ferraris have some real work to do with the set up as they are all going sideways through some of the corners, seems to be similar to Stils complaints when he went out on the super soft that the car was "undriveable" (despite being 9th impressivly).

Cant wait to see if Red Bull come up with a new defuser by the time they get back to Europe as they seem to be the closist to the 3 "contriversial" teams

Yup I'll be watching both then.

I'd assume if the diffusers are deemed ok that Red Bull and the other teams will be changing before Malaysia, perhaps even some may have something for this weekend?

Glaucus · 27 Mar 2009 at 15:44

Dorje said:
Yup I'll be watching both then.

I'd assume if the diffusers are deemed ok that Red Bull and the other teams will be changing before Malaysia, perhaps even some may have something for this weekend?

Some teams maybe but not all, by the sounds of it Ferrari would have to totally redesign the entire rear end of the car. As things like suspension and gearbox would need altering.