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

Duke said:
Horner on KERS (from autosport)
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Yet again the rule makers didn't think far enough ahead to stop a team from not running it. I would hate for another year where a non Kers car wins the title. It will make the others consider whether it's worth the development and reliability woes to come up with a good system.

It's not like Red Bull can now spend time testing to get it reliable.

I don't think many people expected them not to run a system at all. I don't blame them for not running it, the obvious balance advantage seems to be worth more than the 0.3 Kers will give them.
 
Got absolutely hammered on Saturday night, the plan was for a few drinks followed by staying up to watch the GP. Didn't go quite to plan :D Fell asleep as soon as I got home, sort of saw the last few laps of the race. Fell asleep during the re-run and the highlights on BBC3 sort of went over my head too. Will have to try and watch it on the iPlayer.

On Saubers disqualification, would it be an error in the design that caused the rear wing to have failed to comply with regulations? Yet to read up on it properly, but if so why was it not picked up after qualifying?

I do remember seeing the Vettel/Button overtake which was an area for "discussion" on here. Personally I don't think Vettel should have received a drive through like Button did for his move on Massa. Vettel was already passed when he ran wide, plus Button didn't really lose a postion. His drive through had already been announced so he was going to be pitting anyway.
 
englishpremier said:
Fooled everyone. I was convinced they were running KERS as i saw them use it in the friday sessions. Guess they took it off before the Saturday.
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:eek:

This is going to be interesting. Clearly a little bit of work from them can implement this system that will give them 0.3-0.4 seconds per lap when they need it (they clearly don't at the moment). Even more worrying that they have reliability this year - if they had this last year they would have run away with the championship in no time at all.

We then also have McLaren who have brought in a very last minute package (some of which was so last minute it couldn't be constructed from carbon fibre, so they used heavier titanium instead), that with a little bit of work could yield a fair bit of time. Then we have unknowns like Ferrari and Renault.

:cool:
 
Running wide is different to cutting a corner, though, isn't it? Technically the route Vettel took was LONGER wheras button took a shorter route around the track during his overtake.
 
MooMoo444 said:
The amount of money in the sport, surely they can get a team of rulemakers who can actually see the loopholes before the ruin the season.
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From the wisdom of Smokey Yunick, the single greatest guy at getting around motorsport's rulebooks that ever lived:

There will always be some guy that'll think of something that's a little smarter than the average cat, but the reason there ain't any more of it on a big scale is that the only way it can be done successfully, only one person can know about it. And if there's only one person to know about it, like I was running supercharged Pontiacs and nobody knew about it. Nobody who worked for me knew it, had no idea that the engine was supercharged.
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They will find out there is no way to police creativity. No way in hell! There's always some guy who comes along, like Ray Evernham, that's smarter than the average cat, and he's going to figure out a way to get around it. The difference between Gary Nelson's ability to think and Ray Evernham's - well, probably there's not a lot of difference in their IQs, but Evernham concentrates on engines and certain areas with a lot of expensive, very educated help. For 60 hours a week, he's studying new stuff to beat the rules. Gary Nelson is spending 50 hours a week trying to enforce the rules that were made yesterday. They're not even in the same game.
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Hxc said:
Running wide is different to cutting a corner, though, isn't it? Technically the route Vettel took was LONGER wheras button took a shorter route around the track during his overtake.
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The rule of thumb is 'could he have done that if there was a wall there', the only reason vettel was able to carry so much speed for the overtake was because he had no intention of staying on track.
 
I agree with above sentiment that by the rules he should have got punished. He made an overtaking move that he could not of completed without driving off the track, therefore gained an advantage.

However I think that he wan't punished is correct for 2 reasons
1) Button was going to have to pit for his drive through so any advantage he gained was small and
2) If we start punishing people for running wide on corner exits when making a pass there will be a cut in the number of moves being made.
 
Hxc said:
Running wide is different to cutting a corner, though, isn't it? Technically the route Vettel took was LONGER wheras button took a shorter route around the track during his overtake.
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Not really as he came out of a left hand bend then left the track so he could up his speed.
He had all 4 wheels off the track but nothing was done about it. FIA consistency is crap.
 
Hxc said:
Running wide is different to cutting a corner, though, isn't it? Technically the route Vettel took was LONGER wheras button took a shorter route around the track during his overtake.
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Vettel gained an advantage by not braking to stay on the track and flooring it into and on the run-off area, he only gained time but so does corner cutting if you don't pass anyone.

It's Formula One's fault for sticking huge run offs everywhere instead of gravel traps, when it's made that easy for an F1 driver to leave the track they will do when it suits them.
 
What's annoying is it's one of the rules FIA said they would clamp down on and be watching this year.
Why say it if it's not going to happen.
 
As far as overtakes go it was good for vettel though, not a single car was harpooned.

Button must have been grateful that vettel didnt bother staying on the track following spa.
 
Part of the reason for Heidfelds complete lack of pace in the race:

scaled.php


That's his car in parc ferme.
 
iamtheoneneo said:
and the new boost drs **** whatever it is - is a complete waste of time and money, and in no way makes the races more exciting with its 0.00001% speed increase, infact judging from yesterday it was slowing the cars down not speeding them up...and whats with the flap opening? surely that is going to negatively effect aerodynamics?
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The flap opening reduces the drag by (I assume) reducing the induced drag from the creation of lift (or downforce in the cars case) from that part of the wing.

However after thinking about this a while the reduction in drag of an object behind another object is already a fair amount, changing the angle of a small flap in dirty air probably makes practically sod all difference, hence why over that small straight it basically did naff all. I noticed that a few times Button hit the limiter before even emerging from the slipstream, useful...

The KERS on Buttons overtake did more, he used it when he went out of the slipstream instead of at the start of the straight when he was in it, the reduction in drag out of the slipstream + DRS gave him the overtaking advantage.

Without standardising everything making it a level playing field is essentially impossible and stifles technological improvement at the same time.
 
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