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

[Lopéz]

Why the rolleyes? sunama makes a good point. Yes Button has set pole position. Until he's done a few Grand Prix' with a competitive car we don't have any proof that he's suddenly a title-winning hungry racer.

I hope he is, I honestly do! - but I'm not going to assume that he is on the basis of a single pole position.

 

[Bennah]

Im dissappointed that Button has changed his helmet design. New one doesn't look right.

Im really glad for Button though. Atlast he has a car that he deserves. Its been a long time coming but better late than never. He has a really great chance to get race wins under his belt.

I bet Rubens is thinking why didn't this car come along a couple of years ago when he was younger, so he would have longer with the Brawn GP Team. Surely he has to be thinking that this could be his last year before he hangs up his boots?

Im just thinking, with the Ferrari's being light on fuel along with Kubica, they surely have to fancy thier chances at the start getting to the front. The Brawn cars could struggle slightly due to thier weight getting off the line. Having said that, if they do get off the line as first and second coming to the third corner I can see the race being over there and then barring any technical problems for the Brawn cars. It will be won then by either one of them.

 

[Dup]

Im dissappointed that Button has changed his helmet design. New one doesn't look right.

Agreed. I did this vector back in 2004, might have to do an updated one.

 

[Type_R]

Lets be honest it's a Honda car designed under the Honda team with the budget Honda had.

Correction, all the previous cars Honda made were as you said:

A Honda car designed under the Honda team with the budget Honda had

This one is:

A Honda car designed by the Honda team under Ross Brawn with the budget Honda had

 

[CrazySpeaker]

Lets be honest it's a Honda car designed under the Honda team with the budget Honda had.

with the merc engine not the honda one though, which I think is key.

 

[FrostedNipple]

It will be interesting to see what failures if any crop up tomorrow. I'm bored of Hamilton now, he has had his champ win as a lot of driver would have had if they had gone straight into maclaren at that point. I would like to see button right at the top now seen as he has been in mediocre cars for more or less all his career.

Just to clarify, what time in BST does the race start tomorrow morning?

 

[NightSt@lk3r]

we don't have any proof that he's suddenly a title-winning hungry racer.

No your right, he doesn't want to win races or the title, how silly of me.

 

[SKILL]

In BST (eg after the clocks go forward) it's 6AM I believe.

Tomorrow will be interesting, I still think Rubens is gonna snatch the victory, although I was thinking he had a few more laps fuel than that.

Ferrari surprise me, I thought they would've gone heavy, knowing the front row was unlikely, but to go light and still have such a poor performance is unexpected.

Can't wait for the race though, should be especially good to see if the overtaking rules have worked, Glock and maybe Trulli might be able to give a good indication as they've got a quick car so should, if the rules have worked, be able to get back into the points without too much trouble...

 

[robbiemc]

Teams car weights

Pos. Driver                  Car weight
 1.  Jenson Button           664.5kg          + 6 laps
 2.  Rubens Barrichello      666.5kg          + 7 laps
 3.  Sebastien Vettel        657kg            + 2 laps
 4.  Robert Kubica           650kg              x laps
 5.  Nico Rosberg            657kg            + 3 laps
 6.  Felipe Massa            654kg            + 1 lap
 7.  Kimi Raikkonen          655.5kg          + 2 laps
 8.  Mark Webber             662kg            + 5 laps
 9.  Nick Heidfeld           691.5kg          + 17 laps
10.  Fernando Alonso         680.7kg          + 13 laps
11.  Kazuki Nakajima         685.3kg          + 15 laps
12.  Heikki Kovalainen       690.6kg          + 17 laps
13.  Sebastien Buemi         675.5kg          + 11 laps
14.  Nelson Piquet           694.1kg          + 18 laps
15.  Giancarlo Fisichella    689kg            + 16 laps
16.  Adrian Sutil            684.5kg          + 13 laps
17.  Sebastien Bourdais      662.5kg          + 5 laps
18.  Lewis Hamilton          655kg            + 2 laps
19.  Jarno Trulli            660kg            + 4 laps
20.  Timo Glock              670kg            + 8 laps

Doesn't this detract from the race spectacle of wondering who will be coming in for fuel first?
If we hadn't known this data (like in previous years) we'd all speculate how much fuel the Brawns had in them, how far they could go etc. Now we know exactly how far they'll go.
What does this add for us spectators?

 

[Mr_White]

What I don't like:

Jake Humphrey is still a falsified cretin and appears to be reading from notes half the time, at least Blundell had more personality than what Humprey has

Steve Rider as well.

Eddie Jordan is a pleb, and DC keeps staring at him scathingly, I think it'll be an awkward partnership for the rest of the season.

Jonathan Legard doesn't know what's going on, and seems to have a James Allen type boner over everyone British, no doubt he'd have been screaming about Hamilton in the same way if he made it to Q3, hopefully he'll get better, we would have been better off with Allen, at least he usually knew what he was on about, in between pleasuring himself to Hamilton.

They have an ITV type boner over British drivers in the press conference and cut away when they've finished talking, I hope that was just an exception today because Branson had turned up.

What I do like:

I actually like the look of the cars.

How the orders have been completely mixed up (so far), the qualifying today was the most excited I've got over qualifying for a long time, it's nice to see things mixed up.

I like the fact the cars seem to be a handful and are biting hard if a mistake is made, it's nice to see the cars coming alive, and it's making the drivers come alive.

I like the fact Brundle is still with us, I just hope Legard gets better.

And I like the anticipation and the unknown that awaits us in the race and the rest of the season, it should be good, and I like the fact that the big boys seemingly have to think of something to get back up there.

I also like slicks

 

[CrazySpeaker]

Just to clarify, what time in BST does the race start tomorrow morning?

Coverage starts at 6:00. The race will probably be at 7:00 but I'm not sure.

 

[Zogger]

I noticed they replaced half of the Branson interview with Barichello in the press conference in the replay

Are they allowed to have KERS charged for the starting grid?

 

[Lopéz]

No your right, he doesn't want to win races or the title, how silly of me.

That isn't what I said, is it? Of course all drivers want to win races and titles, they wouldn't be in F1 if they didn't. But they also know that unless they get certain drives this just isn't going to happen and often resign themselves to being midfielders and also-rans until their F1 careers are over.

Button has not done regular hardcore racing for top positions for nearly 3 years. That's a long time to be away from the top.
Same goes for Rubens, although he does have more top-level experience than Jenson.

We won't really know if either of them still have that edge, that fire, until a GP or two has passed.

 

[Glaucus]

Tomorrow will be interesting, I still think Rubens is gonna snatch the victory, although I was thinking he had a few more laps fuel than that.

It's going to be close but Button seems to have the edge when the car is full and Rubens when the car is light. I think that gives Button the slight edge. Can't wait to see the action though..

 

[Dup]

I noticed they replaced half of the Branson interview with Barichello in the press conference in the replay

Are they allowed to have KERS charged for the starting grid?

Good point, could be a feature of the warm up lap?

 

[Glaucus]

Are they allowed to have KERS charged for the starting grid?

Yes. Commentators reckon it could make up as much as two rows of teh grid. but we will see.

 

[sunama]

No your right, he [Button] doesn't want to win races or the title, how silly of me.

He would certainly like to win, but does he have the commitment required to get the job done. Only time will tell. He now has a golden opportunity to prove the doubters wrong and to get his name down in the history books.

 

[FrostedNipple]

has button ever won a race?

 

[robbiemc]

Yes. Commentators reckon it could make up as much as two rows of teh grid. but we will see.

Teams are allowed to pre-charge KERS, but the drivers are unable to use KERS until they exceed 100km/h.

 

[sunama]

Jenson had to fight Rubens, MS had a contract stopping it. Huge difference.

Not quite...unless you are suggesting that Barrichello wouldve been able to beat MS to the titles, while he was at Ferrari?

When MS arrived at Ferrari, it was a long term plan to allow Ferrari to dominate. They had the biggest budget in F1, but had had poor results for the last 15 years. They came up with a plan that meant that they would have a No.1 driver and a No.2 driver, to give the No.1 driver maximum chance to win the title and to avoid the fiasco we saw with McLaren in 2007.

Brawn and Byrne were brought in to bolster the design team and overall strategies that the team would use.

By using the No.1 and No.2 driver system, it allowed Ferrari to win titles and gain the maximum possible points from races. The idea is that they would use the best driver as their No.1, as he was most likely to score the highest points, even if both drivers had equal status. By having a No.2 driver, it prevented MS having to unnecessarily beat his own team mate, by force (not that he wasnt capable of doing it).

Barrichello might've won 3 or 4 races more than he did, had team orders not be in place, but it wouldnt have dented MS's 60 or so races that he won for Ferrari.

I'm sorry man, but MS is in a different league to J.Button. There is no comparison.