Australian Grand Prix 2014, Melbourne - Race 1/19
- Thread starter Shimmy
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I like the lower decibel sound, you can now actually hear more of the "car"; tyres squealing/skidding and that lovely turbo.
True. We have discovered a load of new sounds. Thudding over curbs, the floor scraping on the ground, tyre squeel, and the crowd!
The grandstand here aren't that big. At some of the larger venues with the passionate crowds (Monza, Silvertone, etc) you will really get a feel for the track atmosphere through the TV coverage which is great.
Lewis got an extra lap on a rapidly improving track. Rosberg was 0.15s in front of Lewis before that lap. That's why I say 'barely scraping'.
But then Lewis went sideways on his lap no doubt losing him many tenths.
All "ifs" and "buts" mate. Fact is, Lewis beat Rosberg by nearly 3 tenths *shrugs*
Caporegime
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The fact that Rosberg's 0.15 second faster lap was after Hamilton's on a rapidly improving track points to Hamilton being faster. Each of their laps was effectively about half a lap "ahead" of the other one in terms of track position. Hamilton was further ahead than Rosberg was with each lap and by a bigger margin.
Factoring in that Rosberg came out on the tyres earlier and putting in a full maxed out lap, there is nothing to suggest that Rosberg hadn't built up to that lap and couldn't have beaten it.
The tracks don't usually improve THAT much, the big drop came when everyone went from full wets on fully wet track to 7-8 minutes later a fairly semi cleared track due to cars putting laps in, but they all put on new tyres. THat is where the biggest drop came from, but eventually times go backwards as tyres wear out. as the track was borderline ready for inters there wasn't necessarily any time left in full wet tyres.
Would be interesting to know in fact if Hamilton's drifting on the pole lap was more a result of the water or the lack of grip on the full wets, as they are all doing fairly similar in the full dry, would probably be more a mix of both, some corners being lack of grip/torque, others being mostly the wet.
Factoring in that Rosberg came out on the tyres earlier and putting in a full maxed out lap, there is nothing to suggest that Rosberg hadn't built up to that lap and couldn't have beaten it.
The tracks don't usually improve THAT much, the big drop came when everyone went from full wets on fully wet track to 7-8 minutes later a fairly semi cleared track due to cars putting laps in, but they all put on new tyres. THat is where the biggest drop came from, but eventually times go backwards as tyres wear out. as the track was borderline ready for inters there wasn't necessarily any time left in full wet tyres.
Would be interesting to know in fact if Hamilton's drifting on the pole lap was more a result of the water or the lack of grip on the full wets, as they are all doing fairly similar in the full dry, would probably be more a mix of both, some corners being lack of grip/torque, others being mostly the wet.
Soldato
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Did anyone else noticed the CGI'd advert? On the corner that's normally a car park (turn 4 IIRC), with speed bumps on the infield if you cut it. On some camera angles they were CGI'ing a yellow Pirelli advert, but not on other angles.
The end result is all that matters, but the track clearly was drying. We saw this last year a lot on qualifying where the track was improving lap by lap with each driver over the line in the last minute or so claimed provisional pole.
Lewis was in the right place and right time and made it stick, which is what it's all about
*edit* Drunkmeister said it all there
Lewis was in the right place and right time and made it stick, which is what it's all about
*edit* Drunkmeister said it all there
They had that last year too.
Soldato
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D.R. making Vettel look very average these last few days!
Vettel becoming complacent? Or did the RB garage get there cars mixed up
Though i don't doubt he will be at the front end sooner rather than later
Vettel becoming complacent? Or did the RB garage get there cars mixed up
Though i don't doubt he will be at the front end sooner rather than later
I don't think i've seen him once when he's not smiling!
Caporegime
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lol, he is too happy, but then that is a bit of an Aussie thing. The only thing that can destroy an Australian's inanely happy outlook is being Vettel's team mate for several years
He seems likeable and hasn't been bad, it's obviously hard to judge a driver. Not convinced there weren't more experienced drivers who had shown more, but then not convinced the team wanted to get someone they thought was truly competitive to Vettel.... they may have screwed that up.
Far far too early to suggest anything from the gap between Riccy and Vettel(while being serious, in jest, it's great ).
Quite a lot of teams would have one decent day in testing and then everything fell to pieces the day after. Effectively one good testing day for Red Bull doesn't mean their testing or reliability issues are kicked. Ultimately the more running they do now the more problems they'll find.
Going back in from free practice was it(or q1?) Vettel was a bit shirty when they asked him to use a new mapping, he said it was awful, then right as he came in the pits they were like "oh, btw that new mapping could damage the engine so don't use it again" and it sounded like he'd left it on and was shirty that they let him finish a lap potentially damaging the engine with it.
From testing I got the impression(from ted/renault) that a miss firing engine not timing everything almost perfectly could easily damage itself. The Renault software seems to be most behind and most problematic in that situation. Engines could finish the first couple races then fail midway through the third. It's not necessarily about the car finishing this race meaning their problems are over, though it would be an accomplishment.
Basically in terms of reliability I'm not sure this is the race where we'd even expect it to be a huge problem, not least because it's the hardest race on fuel so they'll be pushing the least in race to actually finish. It will be the 3rd/4th races these engines do that will be interesting.
He seems likeable and hasn't been bad, it's obviously hard to judge a driver. Not convinced there weren't more experienced drivers who had shown more, but then not convinced the team wanted to get someone they thought was truly competitive to Vettel.... they may have screwed that up.
Far far too early to suggest anything from the gap between Riccy and Vettel(while being serious, in jest, it's great
). Quite a lot of teams would have one decent day in testing and then everything fell to pieces the day after. Effectively one good testing day for Red Bull doesn't mean their testing or reliability issues are kicked. Ultimately the more running they do now the more problems they'll find.
Going back in from free practice was it(or q1?) Vettel was a bit shirty when they asked him to use a new mapping, he said it was awful, then right as he came in the pits they were like "oh, btw that new mapping could damage the engine so don't use it again" and it sounded like he'd left it on and was shirty that they let him finish a lap potentially damaging the engine with it.
From testing I got the impression(from ted/renault) that a miss firing engine not timing everything almost perfectly could easily damage itself. The Renault software seems to be most behind and most problematic in that situation. Engines could finish the first couple races then fail midway through the third. It's not necessarily about the car finishing this race meaning their problems are over, though it would be an accomplishment.
Basically in terms of reliability I'm not sure this is the race where we'd even expect it to be a huge problem, not least because it's the hardest race on fuel so they'll be pushing the least in race to actually finish. It will be the 3rd/4th races these engines do that will be interesting.
Soldato
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Ah right. Can't say I noticed it much last year, but at Turn 4 today the CGI was pretty obvious.