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

I_M_Weasel · 26 Mar 2011 at 14:51

Renault must be a little perplexed with their drivers, fantastic job from Petrov but Heidfeld who's been excellent in testing is suddenly useless, I know he's always been a steady, safe pair of hands but not so steady as to take a decent car to q1 and no further.

Ferrari can't be too pleased either, for 30 seconds or so Massa looked like going out in Q1 as well, Alonso looks better but I don't think he was expecting to be in the 3rd best team this weekend.

sunama · 26 Mar 2011 at 14:52

AcidHell2 said:
why are you calling it DBRs?

I was also going to ask this. What does DBR stand for?

dalin80 · 26 Mar 2011 at 14:54

Douche bag racing. The turkey 2010 antics were hilarious.

Shimmy · 26 Mar 2011 at 15:00

Westyfield2 said:
One comment though... on BBC1 they keep the graphic with the list of times in a bit from the left edge of the screen, so that those watching it on a traditional square screen TV can still see it (right on their left edge) but those on widescreen have a bit of picture and then the graphic (if they were to move the graphic to the left edge it would be cut-off for those on a square screen TV)... on HD why don't they move it over to the left? No-one's going to be watching the HD channel on a square screen TV!

Yeah I thought the same. I can understand using those graphics on BBC1 for those still on 4:3, but for those of us watching on BBC HD they should change it.

sunama said:
The only explanation I can think of is that the (low) track temperature has effected Ferrari more than any other leading team. Bear in mind that all previous testing was done on tracks with higher temperatures.

Don't know how you've come to that conclusion. All the testing so far has been in Spain during the winter, temperatures during testing have been very similar or lower than they have been for the Melbourne GP.

hominid · 26 Mar 2011 at 15:16

Surely if the RB KERS doesn't recover energy then it's not KERS! If I was a F1 team manager I would be looking at a protest on that one point alone.

I'm glad to See Mclaren back near the front, I was very worried for them from what was happening at the tests.

Ferrari, I don't know what to say really as I wasn't expecting them to need to use soft tires in Q1. I would like to know what the reason for that as they looked much better pre-season. They looked slow, understeered like a barge and nervous at the rear aswell so it looks like a possible tire temp issue but who knows.

Glaucus · 26 Mar 2011 at 15:18

hominid said:
Surely if the RB KERS doesn't recover energy then it's not KERS! If I was a F1 team manager I would be looking at a protest on that one point alone.

I doubt it is start only, for the simple fact is they could have used it in qauli.
Even if it is, I very much doubt there is a rule saying it has to charge up in race. Just that it has to comply with certain rules, which it almost certainly does.

SKILL · 26 Mar 2011 at 15:20

Shocking to see McLaren on the front row, considering the state of testing it's an amazing job, which is great as a McLaren/Hamilton fan

Also good to see Ferrari struggling

Looking forward to the race, if the rumours of a 'start-only kers' on the RB is true I can see Webber getting overtaken easily by Button, only way it will work surely if the Red Bulls are 1-2 after the start and can run away from others, once the KERS and DRS comes into affect it's not even gonna be a challenge surely?

Shimmy said:
Yeah I thought the same. I can understand using those graphics on BBC1 for those still on 4:3, but for those of us watching on BBC HD they should change it.

Aren't the graphics from the FOM feed, that goes to all countries/channels rather than something BBC can control?

Shimmy said:
Don't know how you've come to that conclusion. All the testing so far has been in Spain during the winter, temperatures during testing have been very similar or lower than they have been for the Melbourne GP.

Delusion, he's good at it

Lunatic Dreyfus · 26 Mar 2011 at 15:32

Just finished watching the qualifying. It was all good.

Great to see Petrov and Kobyashi in the top 10, the McLaren's not sucking but Schuey does

D) and having some lol's at Massa, which is always nice. Then of course there was Vettel, and as much as he and the team irritate me, the kid was awesome. :eek:

Finally, and most importantly, I thought the commentary team worked well. Brundle's intro was a touch staccato, but once the action began I didn't get annoyed or feel patronised either. The final surprise of the session came when I didn't get annoyed with Coulthard, which I was expecting to be the case.

Bring on the race, but do I get up for it, or record?

Glaucus · 26 Mar 2011 at 15:33

Have to disagree the commentary sucked, switch to r5l and you well see the difference.

Kenai · 26 Mar 2011 at 15:35

AcidHell2 said:
I doubt it is start only, for the simple fact is they could have used it in qauli.
Even if it is, I very much doubt there is a rule saying it has to charge up in race. Just that it has to comply with certain rules, which it almost certainly does.

I suppose it depends on how the rules are written but it would be a bit of a mickey take allowing a Kinetic Energy Recovery System that doesn't recover a single joule of energy

Glaucus · 26 Mar 2011 at 15:41

Am I going blind or have they removed the rule book from the http://www.formula1.com site I can only find sumerised and certain extracts from the full version, but not the hole lot.

SpeedFreak · 26 Mar 2011 at 15:43

dalin80 said:
Douche bag racing. The turkey 2010 antics were hilarious.

are you 9?

sunama · 26 Mar 2011 at 16:03

Shimmy said:
Don't know how you've come to that conclusion. All the testing so far has been in Spain during the winter, temperatures during testing have been very similar or lower than they have been for the Melbourne GP.

During qualifying, Brundle alerted to the fact that the tract temperature at Australia is lower than the sorts of temps that were seen in Spain.

dalin80 · 26 Mar 2011 at 16:06

SpeedFreak said:
are you 9?

Nope but its always satisfying seeing people reveal their true colours.

Merlin5 · 26 Mar 2011 at 16:06

So,
Redbull the fastest,
Vettel on pole,
McLaren close behind,
Schumacher not in the top ten.

I'm sure I've seen this scenario before, I just can't place when...

sunama · 26 Mar 2011 at 16:06

AcidHell2 said:
I doubt it is start only, for the simple fact is they could have used it in qauli.

So, why do you think it was not used in qualifying?

During any of the practise sessions, was KERS being used by any of the RBR drivers or was it just in Q3 that it wasn't used?

Mr_White · 26 Mar 2011 at 16:07

ffffffff, 'The Finger'

Glaucus · 26 Mar 2011 at 16:10

sunama said:
So, why do you think it was not used in qualifying?

I don;t know, could be any number of reasons including reliability or setup. Perhaps they think it unsettles the car to much due to the way it recovers energy and have disconnected it.

sunama said:
During any of the practise sessions, was KERS being used by any of the RBR drivers or was it just in Q3 that it wasn't used?

This is what we need to know. If it was used on a failed lap, then it could lend credence to the start only kers.

Shimmy · 26 Mar 2011 at 16:10

sunama said:
During qualifying, Brundle alerted to the fact that the tract temperature at Australia is lower than the sorts of temps that were seen in Spain.

You can check for yourself:

http://live.autosport.com/

Every single pre season test day has had lower temperatures than today during Quali.

Setroc · 26 Mar 2011 at 16:11

Mr_White said:
ffffffff, 'The Finger'

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo