Australian Grand Prix 2014, Melbourne - Race 1/19
- Thread starter Shimmy
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Don't worry smr, Vettel will still outscore his team mate, heavily, by the time the season finishes.
Vettel is still the No.1 at RBR.
And lets not forget, no prizes are awarded for qualifying. Its the race that counts.
I hope it gets dry tonight, so I can see a "true" race. I want to know just how fast Merc are, compared with RBR.
Why isn't your forum name Mystic Meg ????
Like that matters, only results matter.
I get so bored with this old chestnut. People who like to talk down a dismal qualifying session always wheel out this old cliché.
I agree.
like a boss
Caporegime
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Also not least because this season there IS a prize for qualifying making it even more null and void. Even funnier is when people discount qualifying while talking up the important role in being fastest in..... free practice.
Of course Vettel was ahead of Riccy in one practice session, and apparently Button was always ahead, except for Q1, and he was SO far behind in Q2 it was a poor decision to pit when Button did precisely because he could easily have gotten caught out with a yellow as he and many others have so so often. If he wasn't so slow on the other tyres he wouldn't have felt the need to pit and on newer tyres slowing down for a 200m stretch of track apparently cost him 1.2 seconds. Fact is without the yellow there is precisely no reason to think there was 1.2seconds lost so he was massively slower than Mag in Q2 regardless.
In free practice you usually have both team mates on a different program. Looked to me like they had Hamilton doing a slightly slower stint in fp2 than Rosberg to see if the tyres lasted longer to a point where it was worth going slower, and they need to check things like fuel consumption at different paces. It's a waste to have both drivers on exactly the same program, including qualy sims. When there is a heavy chance of rain the chance of them pushing a higher downforce/rain oriented package on the car to get some data on both in practice is incredibly high.
Free practice has, and always will mean precisely nothing. Qualifying isn't even itself a certainty, but ultimately both drivers get to choose their own tactics and set themselves up for the race how they want. IE some drivers prefer a faster qualy setup which may be at the expense of race pace, or vice versa. Red bull started pushing slightly worse qualy speeds for less downforce to help overtaking in races. But only in qualifying do you get drivers going all out and essentially with the same goal. At that time, Mag beat Button quite easily.
It's often ignored but Perez tore Button to pieces in the second half of the season in qualifying, 7-2 iirc.
F1 can't while it insists on making it as much about strategy as it is about pure speed. For them to award points it would need to be an isolated competition in it's own right. Parc ferme would need to be changed and the tyre rules dropped.
Jeez. we've got two British drivers in F1, why all the hate? I took a couple of years out of these forums (and the F1 forum) due to pointless bickering, we haven't had the first race yet!
Drunkenmeister, you talk a lot of sense, but why the Button hatred? Fp means nothing, qually means everything (it would seem), yet Button scored twice the points of Perez last year, what exactly is your point?
I recall the same here when Button joined McLaren "He'll be humiliated, destroyed, emasculated" but he wasn't. Why all the hatred? It's tiresome and we've not had the first race yet.
Drunkenmeister, you talk a lot of sense, but why the Button hatred? Fp means nothing, qually means everything (it would seem), yet Button scored twice the points of Perez last year, what exactly is your point?
I recall the same here when Button joined McLaren "He'll be humiliated, destroyed, emasculated" but he wasn't. Why all the hatred? It's tiresome and we've not had the first race yet.
Not read the whole thread (intentionally avoided it as I didn't want spoilers) but does everyone agree that they really need to up the volume of the cars? 
During the BBC highlights you could hardly hear the cars over the commentary, now this is obvious as much down to mixing levels as the car volume being lower so it's an easy fix. Felt quite underwhelming considering the cars do actually sound pretty good overall.
Was quite surreal hearing a lockup of a brake at one point over the engine noise!
During the BBC highlights you could hardly hear the cars over the commentary, now this is obvious as much down to mixing levels as the car volume being lower so it's an easy fix. Felt quite underwhelming considering the cars do actually sound pretty good overall.
Was quite surreal hearing a lockup of a brake at one point over the engine noise!
Great selection of pictures there. I never before anticipated just how complex the brake systems are, and look.
During FP2 and 3 we had a brief view of the new on-screen-graphics of the engine revs/throttle/brake/G-force etc.
We had two laps with Button and Vettle (so both Renault and Mercedes engines) on fast laps and not once did the revs pass 11.5k.
I thought this was due to reliability/longevity/testing etc but according to the tech notes later it was mentioned that 'we are unlikely' to see more revs than that as the fuel-flow won't provide any more power for the revs.
This can't be right, can it? Melbourne is being classed as a 'fuel heavy' circuit, so is it just for this race?
What's the point of the 15k limit if they're not going past 12k?
We had two laps with Button and Vettle (so both Renault and Mercedes engines) on fast laps and not once did the revs pass 11.5k.
I thought this was due to reliability/longevity/testing etc but according to the tech notes later it was mentioned that 'we are unlikely' to see more revs than that as the fuel-flow won't provide any more power for the revs.
This can't be right, can it? Melbourne is being classed as a 'fuel heavy' circuit, so is it just for this race?
What's the point of the 15k limit if they're not going past 12k?
Three actually.
Perhaps as a deliberate power limit given the rather wet/slippery conditions.
Like plenty of others on here, I hope for a dry race tomorrow to get a feel for the real pace of the cars.
They have 8 gears setup for Monza. Maximizing the power for Melbourne within the 100kg limit might mean they are better off short shifting.
They can also tune the ERS to deliver power differently for different tracks, so it might be setup to deliver full whack within the middle of the rev range.
With gear ratios fixed they have to use other means to massage the power delivery to fit the requirements of the circuit.
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I'm not convinced by the Monza argument - they're allowed a single ratio change for 2014 only. The Williams were in 8th just before the first corner during qualifying. I've got a hunch that wise old dog Pat Symonds is saving it for Monza.
Haha yes good point, I knew I was missing something
Maybe settle at 2.5 Brit drivers?