Australian Grand Prix 2011, Albert Park Circuit - Race 1/19

118 laps for McLaren with no reliability issues? that alone is a massive step forward :p

Be interesting to see the real pace of everyone tomorrow, but so far at least it looks like the decision to do a massive 'upgrade' for the first race was a good one...

Amusing to see that HRT only have enough parts for 1 car, although that's 1 more than I expected :p
 
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The Australian Grand Prix - Practice Two

Practice Two - McLaren's turn for a Melbourne one-two
McLaren ended the second session of practice first and second in Albert Park on Friday evening, with Jenson Button pipping team mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.132s as only 0.429s covered the top five.

Friday practice - selected team and driver quotes
It was a day of learning at Albert Park - learning about moveable rear wings, KERS, track conditions, tyres and, of course, relative form. At the front, McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari set the pace. At the back, HRT’s new F111 managed its very first lap. The leading teams and their rivals reflect on their early progress in Melbourne…
 
The sooner HRT are gone, or bought over by someone with money, the better.
And Virgin racing... Jesus... If they don't find an epic amount of time soon, then they might as well stop turning up.

Can see them giving up this year.
 
In case anyone was wondering, the times that the two Virgin F1 cars posted would have led them to DNQ by about a quarter of a second if that had been Q1 rather than P2.
 
107% howler, not 110%. They'd stand a much better chance at getting in under a 110% rule!
 
doh, meant 107%

HRT really are a joke, you think they might have learnt their lesson. Or maybe they are happy being the rear gunner
 
LOL. Rear gunner.

They may be hoping that in the future, they will get a more lucrative sponsors, which in turns will increase their budget, which in turn will allow them to move forward.

A lot of businesses work in this way...hope.
 
Have to agree with HRT. Okay so new team may not be expected to show up at all testing sessions and have as much gear as the established teams, but to only turn one lap in the second practice session and possibly race one car? is terrible. Virgin are very slow, Lotus doing quite well as expected.
 
the one thing that really bugs me about the implementation of the 107% rule as I understand it, is that it only applies to Q1, when it is expected that the 'fast' cars will run slow anyway, so it is highly likely that the slow teams will qualify.

A sensible thing would be to wait until the end of Q3 and then apply the 107%, but that may actually show that the HRT and Virgin truly are useless..
 
What happened with Renault / Lotus - did Renault have to back down in the end or is it still ongoing?

Ceryndrion said:
the one thing that really bugs me about the implementation of the 107% rule as I understand it, is that it only applies to Q1, when it is expected that the 'fast' cars will run slow anyway, so it is highly likely that the slow teams will qualify.

A sensible thing would be to wait until the end of Q3 and then apply the 107%, but that may actually show that the HRT and Virgin truly are useless..
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I agree - partially - but it would also be very unfair for HRT / Virgin or whoever to not be allowed to get into that 107% time at all (as by Q3 they would already not be running anyway)

It would be seen to be very unfair to not know what time you are actually aiming for until you (as a team) are already dis-qualified

This would also have ramifications for tyre usage . As you say, most front runners would normally be using the harder tyre at this point, but there could be incidences where there is no other choice than to run soft tyres (and limit runs) all the way through ....harming the "entertainment" value etc etc (all becomes a catch 22 with more and more rules being involved)
 
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Surely if HRT want to attract better sponsors then they should be doing everything possible to be on track and seen by potential sponsors, even if they are at the back
 
utajoker said:
Have mclaren successfully trolled everyone?
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No. They just were testing a new direction of development for their car, especially the exhausts. Much like the L shaped side pods they have.

Their particularly complicated exhausts they tried in winter testing didn't work out, neither in performance or reliability. They now have reverted to a more conventional system the rest of the paddock is using, notably similar to Ferrari's. This gave them more rear end grip to their diffuser, which allowed for more front wing too, result is overall more down force which heats up the tyres into optimum operating temperature. Thus more performance and now they are reliable too so can concentrate on set up.
 
utajoker said:
Have mclaren successfully trolled everyone?
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Not at all

1) McLaren didnt waste the testing they did on unreliability on purpose

2) They have enough updated / untested (on a track) parts to prove the above

3) Testing means nothing......but I seriously hope that is the race order come Sunday evening :D
 
Ceryndrion said:
the one thing that really bugs me about the implementation of the 107% rule as I understand it, is that it only applies to Q1, when it is expected that the 'fast' cars will run slow anyway, so it is highly likely that the slow teams will qualify.

A sensible thing would be to wait until the end of Q3 and then apply the 107%, but that may actually show that the HRT and Virgin truly are useless..
Click to expand...

Doing it between sessions though could be hugely unfair, such as if it rained before Q1, everyone would be on a wet track, setting times well off usual pace, by the time Q3 was coming to an end, the track could have a dry line and you might end up with everyone from Q1 and half of the Q2 knock outs being prevented from racing just because of an unfortunate rain pattern. Or the opposite could happen and slow cars end up getting a spot due to rain in Q3.

It makes sense to do it based on the session all the cars are in so they are at least setting times under the same conditions as each other.
 
OK so top teams usually run slow in q1 to save tyres but i wonder if one of the top teams will send out a number 2 driver, just to rape the time sheets and remove 4 "mobile chicanes" from the race, assuming they even need to :rolleyes:

Hope Lotus can get a bit closer to the back end of the mid-field in qually, still look a little out there rather than mixing it up
 
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