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

Not a bad opening race, nice to see some action going on without too many big names retiring.

Kudos to RB again, Vettel had that easily in the bag, and did the business to bring in a deserved first place.

I was quite surprised LH made it home in 2nd, I'm glad he did, just to keep the pressure on Vettel for the next race.

I didn't mind DRS too much, I agree with the sentiment that the way aero is at the moment, it's killing any real racing, the most frustrating thing from last year was seeing slow cars able to keep the fast cars at bay, DRS wasn't a magical 'overtake' button as some suggest, I'm sure the Massa/Button battle would have been quite boring had DRS not been used.

I did think Button should have given the place back, and can't really complain too much about the decision.
But I was a little surprised by Vettel's clear excursion whilst overtaking Button, he could not have completed that overtake without going off track to maintain the momentum, and to me that's clearly gaining an advantage.

Nothing too controversial, maybe Rubens should have been penalised a bit more for the absolutely ludicrous taking out of Rosberg, that's bordering on reckless..

I am a bit surprised that Hamilton seems confident about the season, we all know that RB are a country mile out in front, it will take more then a small update to get MacLaren on real terms.

And I don't know what the problem is with Webber, something isn't right, It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next race, either he has lost a bit of talent, or there must be something not quite right with that car..
 
I didn't mind DRS too much, I agree with the sentiment that the way aero is at the moment,

DRS wasn't a magical 'overtake' button as some suggest,

It's still an unfair advantage and artificial, it;s not racing and as such has no place in a racing formula.

I also think you'll be surprised at other tracks.
 
New standings

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It's still an unfair advantage and artificial, it;s not racing and as such has no place in a racing formula.

I also think you'll be surprised at other tracks.

I am not totally for it as it is indeed artificial, but the aero issue is so severe that something needs to be done..

I keep saying it, but I would prefer absolute downforce and spoilt air profiles to be specified, this would allow aero to be kept in reasonable check, and obviously negate the need for any artificial solutions..

I was expecting the DRS to be a 'free' overtake solution that would ruin it, and if not carefully controlled, it might turn out to be, but today, it just did enough IMO to keep the 'racing' going..
 
It's still an unfair advantage and artificial, it;s not racing and as such has no place in a racing formula.

I also think you'll be surprised at other tracks.

I can imagine on some other tracks it will get to the stage where you let the guy behind in front so you can nail him on the last lap without having to worry about him nailing you (with DRS).
 
Anyone else starting to think that HRt's exclusion was a little harsh in hindsight of how slow the race pace was, the average lap was what about 1:32? compared to the much faster qual laps maybe the 107% rule is a relic of past rules.
 
I keep saying it, but I would prefer absolute downforce and spoilt air profiles to be specified, this would allow aero to be kept in reasonable check, and obviously negate the need for any artificial solutions..

.

You can;t do that as you can;t test it.

However as I said many times you need three things

BHP needs to be larger than > grip
Mechanical grip needs to be significantly more than aero.
On aero all they have to do is make it smaller, higher and the like. But you also need the other two elements.
 
I did it right, watched the race in the morning and then slept for the entire day... :D

No Alonso victory today. :( Awful start really didn't help things...

Was actually happy to see Petrov get his strong finish though, will boost the confidence. Given that Heidfeld seems to be trying as hard as possible to drive the other Renault slow, Petrov will have to take the lead.

I was surprised Hamilton's damage wasn't race ending, did he not have that for more than half the race?
Button getting a bit frustrated today... Certainly not Mr Smooth. :|

Was a bit sad to see that the Sauber's have been chucked out of the results. Thought they put in a solid performance, great stuff from Perez only stopping once.

An alright race I thought, wasn't sure where the tyres would go towards the end. Wasn't the complete mess that had initially been built up.
 
Anyone else starting to think that HRt's exclusion was a little harsh in hindsight of how slow the race pace was, the average lap was what about 1:32? compared to the much faster qual laps maybe the 107% rule is a relic of past rules.
Nope - its not like they came into the season not aware of the rules - whose fault is it other than theirs that they couldnt comply? Id be interested to see last years qualifying as I doubt they met the 107% that often then - thats more than enough incentive to be aware of the improvement needed

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Nope - its not like they came into the season not aware of the rules - whose fault is it other than theirs that they couldnt comply?

ps3ud0 :cool:

FIA. they came in under promises of 40million and other rules.
As crofty and r5l team said, it's a miracle they have a car at all, due to the terms they signed up for.

Also with no testing how they going to improve and do any running.
 
Nope - its not like they came into the season not aware of the rules - whose fault is it other than theirs that they couldnt comply?

ps3ud0 :cool:

But when the race pace is a world detached from the qualifying pace is the 107 rule fair? By not allowing a team to race in one race they will inevitably be slower in the next due to lost milage for car and driver. coupled with no real in season practice days and a team that misses the ladder once is done for.

i dont like HRT but I think the 107 rule needs to be updated.
 
Anyone else starting to think that HRt's exclusion was a little harsh in hindsight of how slow the race pace was, the average lap was what about 1:32? compared to the much faster qual laps maybe the 107% rule is a relic of past rules.

Nope. Tbh they shouldn't even be racing, they are an embarrassment of an outfit. Last year they maybe had an excuse, not this year though.
 
^^^Irellevant, the HRT would have ran even slower in race form.

I am sick of seeing ridiculously slow cars getting in the way of the "real teams" during the race.

If HRT can't find a way of matching Lotus & Virgin (who are still God awful), then I hope they aren't around for much longer.
It's a top tier motorsport and a business, not a family organised charity go-kart event.
 
You can;t do that as you can;t test it.

However as I said many times you need three things

BHP needs to be larger than > grip
Mechanical grip needs to be significantly more than aero.
On aero all they have to do is make it smaller, higher and the like. But you also need the other two elements.

Why can't you test it?

Whack the car in a windtunnel, measure the downforce on each wheel with a few different fuel weights, job done..
If a team then changes anything that might affect aero, then they have to re-test it..

Even spoilt air is easy to measure, just put a car shaped cross section collector behind, and measure the wind speed through it..

It's all straight forward in my eyes, but it would take some FIA 'effort', but the chassis rigidity testing has set that precedent.


But I do agree that BHP > Grip is also a good idea..
 
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Sebastian and Mark either have different cars, or something is very wrong with Marks. He's never that far off the pace, they seemed like different cars today...
 
Nope. Tbh they shouldn't even be racing, they are an embarrassment of an outfit. Last year they maybe had an excuse, not this year though.

And whos fault is that, mainly FIAs, for promising stuff tat wasn't likely to succeed. I actually feel very sorry for HRT, they have been totally screwed by FIA.

Why can't you test it?
Whack the car in a windtunnel, measure the downforce on each wheel with a few different fuel weights, job done..
If a team then changes anything that might affect aero, then they have to re-test it..

because it's totally un-workable, that's obvious if you thought about it for a few seconds.
So FIA are going to lug a wind tunnel to every race are they? Or are you going to ban updates, they can update the car several times in a race weekend.
 
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