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LoL you are kidding right? The guy seems to be one of the nicest down to earth drivers in the pitlane
Australian Grand Prix 2010, Melbourne - Race 2/19
- Thread starter Duke
- Start date
LoL you are kidding right? The guy seems to be one of the nicest down to earth drivers in the pitlane
Great stuff from RedBull. They really are on a run. What impressive is that as a team, they have been in top form for a good 7 races or so.
Clearly, RedBull are the fastest (they've shown this in both tracks this year). It remains to be seen how reliable the 2 RedBulls will be, but we shall wait and see.
Ferrari/Alonso - best of the rest. Ferrari don't have the fastest car, but Alonso is the driver who will extract the best race result possible, from that car. What Alonso needs to do is hang on in there and lose as little ground as possible to Vettel, in anticipation that as the season continues, Ferrari's car will improve, which allow Alonso to mount a title challenge.
Button - great stuff from him. When the car works for him, he is actually pretty decent. And today, the car worked well for him. He outqualified his team-mate who has been involved in off-track activities this weekend. In 2008/9, McLaren were lacking a driver who could step up when Hamilton had a poor weekend - I do believe McLaren now have such a driver in Button, who can step up when Hamilton fails to deliver. Well done Button.
Hamilton - very poor. Nothing was wrong with his car - he just wasnt good enough. Plain and simple.
Schumacher - When he was out gunned by his team-mate in Bahrain, it wasnt a big deal as it was only his first race back after 3 years out. Today, however, its happened again. A pattern is now developing and MS should be concerned. I think Rosberg is a stronger qualifier than a racer, so MS must concentrate on beating Rosberg in the races and as MS gets faster, he can begin to attempt to beat Rosberg in qualifying as well.
Vettel - this man is turning out to be a top driver. He is now getting some consistency behind him and today's qualifying lap was brilliant. RedBull would do well to keep him under contract. I hope they don't lose him to a rival team (Mercedes/Ferrari).
Tomorrow's race - my gut feeling is that tomorrow is going to be a procession with perhaps some excitement coming from Hamilton...maybe. What would make the race more exciting is if it rains and in all fairness F1 needs an exciting race tomorrow, so I'm hoping for rain.
Clearly, RedBull are the fastest (they've shown this in both tracks this year). It remains to be seen how reliable the 2 RedBulls will be, but we shall wait and see.
Ferrari/Alonso - best of the rest. Ferrari don't have the fastest car, but Alonso is the driver who will extract the best race result possible, from that car. What Alonso needs to do is hang on in there and lose as little ground as possible to Vettel, in anticipation that as the season continues, Ferrari's car will improve, which allow Alonso to mount a title challenge.
Button - great stuff from him. When the car works for him, he is actually pretty decent. And today, the car worked well for him. He outqualified his team-mate who has been involved in off-track activities this weekend. In 2008/9, McLaren were lacking a driver who could step up when Hamilton had a poor weekend - I do believe McLaren now have such a driver in Button, who can step up when Hamilton fails to deliver. Well done Button.
Hamilton - very poor. Nothing was wrong with his car - he just wasnt good enough. Plain and simple.
Schumacher - When he was out gunned by his team-mate in Bahrain, it wasnt a big deal as it was only his first race back after 3 years out. Today, however, its happened again. A pattern is now developing and MS should be concerned. I think Rosberg is a stronger qualifier than a racer, so MS must concentrate on beating Rosberg in the races and as MS gets faster, he can begin to attempt to beat Rosberg in qualifying as well.
Vettel - this man is turning out to be a top driver. He is now getting some consistency behind him and today's qualifying lap was brilliant. RedBull would do well to keep him under contract. I hope they don't lose him to a rival team (Mercedes/Ferrari).
Tomorrow's race - my gut feeling is that tomorrow is going to be a procession with perhaps some excitement coming from Hamilton...maybe. What would make the race more exciting is if it rains and in all fairness F1 needs an exciting race tomorrow, so I'm hoping for rain.
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Hehehe. Thats what I was thinking.
Do you remember in the early to mid-ninties, when they invented the 3rd (mid) wing? That died a death very quickly after being shown to be useless.
Its quite possible that the ingenius device is actually making the car go faster. If this is the case, imagine how slow the McLarens wouldve been without the ingenious device?
They still have awesome straightline speed, but like many mclarens they seem to be forgetting about the rest of the circuit that makes up 90% of a laptime.
I don't get mclaren at all, they did some of the best recovery work I've ever seen during a season, last year. Then they start a new season seemingly looking like they learnt nothing.
They are a mile away on low fuel.
Vettel is down to Earth, however, don't ever think that he doesnt have a big ego. He does. All top F1 drivers do. They have to. Its just that he disguises it better than the rest.
The fact is that he is obviously a top line driver and at times, his words/actions will come over as arrogant.
Nope. Fastest in Bahrain. Fastest in Australia. 2 races, 2 poles. There is no doubt now that RedBull have the fastest car on the track.
Oh and to steal a line from sunama, Button did a good job getting the car where it shouldn't be. Hamilton showed the true pace of the mclaren and Button dragged it further up the grid
I think Button himself admitted that he got pretty much the best time from the car that he could. Button's lap time was pretty much bang on the money for what the McLaren was capable of. Hamilton on the other hand was poor. Plain and simple.
On the subject of Hamilton, the commentator did say that Hamilton arrived in Australia, from LA, late. Could it be that this "party lifestyle" is catching up with him? Perhaps he would do well to marry his partner and get her to settle down in Europe.
Associate
If thats down to Ferrari and Red Bull having a lower ride height through an adjustable system, McLaren could see a big chunk clawed back on that one development.
They should be able to challenge for wins once we're back in Europe unless theres another radical new change in Red Bull and Ferrari's updates (And I don't think the F-Vent is that much of a real world advantage for most tracks).
Soldato
Are you based in Hingham then? I work (well i finished this week) just the other side, and have to pass the factory everyday.
Soldato
On the Red Bull ride hight adjuster, if they can adjust it by 4mm its only worth 8 seconds if that over a whole GP distance. So on this track would only count for 1 tenth per lap. Assuming a 58 lap race.
Which would make sense since it is not far off since Alonso's time is over a tenth or so slower than Vettels time.
From what i see i wouldnt describe it as a ride hight adjuster at all, iv got a feeling what everyones so annoyed at is the the suspension effectively changes with the weight to the car so its more like having the suspension working the other way round (where by instead of ensuring all wheels are on the track or like in a road car, it maintains a fixed ride hight irrespective of the weight of the car as the weight is only decreasing). Giving red bull credit, its very clever as it should negate the effect of running heavy fuel on the aero as there will be less change in the ride hight and therefore less variables to their performance.
Oh yeah and credit to barrichello, kubica and sutil for generally just being better than their team mates (same for button but thats more hammilton failing)
Hamilton was poor, but I felt Button was actually very good. Had Hamilton done a 'Hamilton Special', I can't see him going more than 0.1s or 0.2s faster than what Button managed today.
Lets hope he can maintain his qualifying pace for the race tomorrow and score a top4 (or even podium) finish.
Hamiton's head just isnt straight this weekend and McLaren will do well to put all their weight behind Button tomorrow.
Lets hope he can maintain his qualifying pace for the race tomorrow and score a top4 (or even podium) finish.
Hamiton's head just isnt straight this weekend and McLaren will do well to put all their weight behind Button tomorrow.
Associate
It's not quite that simple though, as at the start of the race it would have no benefit at all, yet at the end of the race - and more importantly in qualifying - on low fuel it would have a rather more significant advantage than 1 tenth per lap, putting the car further up the grid at the start.
Soldato
It clearly works, just look at their speed trap times. Once the McLaren has passive adjustable suspension like the Red Bull it should be a winning car.
But I assume the Ferrari doesnt have this either? So doesnt that imply the status quo between Mclaren and Ferrari is maintained?
Soldato
Correct. 'Hoon' drivers over here are seen as possibly slightly worse than axe murderers. The annoying thing is, even the definition is pathetic. Doing 70kph in a 60? Oh, you're a hoon driver. $300 fine please. It's got to the point whereby driving around Adelaide suburbs nobody and I mean nobody goes above the speed limit. Even the ridiculously artificially low limits are strictly adhered to.
God, I can't wait to drive back in the UK again!
Indeed. Obviously the configuration of the track needs to be taken into consideration. But in a straight line, the Mclarens were supposed to be up to something like 10kph faster down a straight or something?
Can anyone dig up the numbers?