2011 Aussie GP qualifying **SPOILERS**

Now SV is better than Alonso, too? What, did Vettel make it to the track earlier than FA today in the same machinery?

 

I doubt it:

I don't see how you could possibly win the "MS amongst the top five WDC finishers" bet.

You will however most likely win the MB>TR bet. Although I have a 4 point lead right now.

So the two bets will cancel each other out.

As for my other bets: Looking very promising so far.

 

Ha true, although I was confident in the MS bet after testing. Really disappointing to see MB come out and lay an egg. Did you pay off the Force India drive that took out MS and Boobens to take out NR?

 

German RTL did an live interview with Nico and MS before qualifying and they were both very sceptical: Nico said the car still had many problems and MS mentioned that a podium in the race would require a lot of things going their way.

 

Well you could see that the car wasn't up to snuff in practice and McLaren was, which would hurt their chances tremendously. I'm sure the whole team had a much better feeling before practice began...

 

When an F1 driver doesn't bother blowing smoke either they're sand-bagging or the car's in real trouble. In this case I vote for door #2.

 

Agreed.

I was puzzled by the miracle healing week of Barcelona where every change seemed to have been a silver bullet while the competition didn't seem to be advancing their cars.

That said, we in the States can only dream of the quality of pre and post race interviews the Europeans get to enjoy: Whether it was RTL or BBC, there were always something like an hour pre and post GP event (qualifying, race) analysis, interviews, specials. And none of the fluff stuff Wiener Pinzor used to do. Real interviews.

Oh and btw: The interview with Nico and MS was conducted by none other than (the on here much dis-respected) Lauda.

 

What hindsight did he offer after the race?

 

Dunno, I had to catch a plane back to the States.

 

I am a man of my word. I'll give Schu a good 5 races to turn it around or he needs to retire. He is taking up a seat for a good young driver at that point.

 

So 4 more to go then now?

 

Man, you just can't wait for him to retire for good, can you? Every single post tonight by you is about MS. Pretty funny how Ferrari has a bad race, yet you continue to talk about The Kaiser, instead of Alonso and Ferrari....

 

isn't it obvious that he has a secret man crush on him? nothing else explains it!

not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

Well, he actually got a good start but was blocked by Alonso before being punted out.

 

Wow. I've never heard of someone hating Schu so much lol. You may say you don't, but your actions speak completely otherwise. You can't wait to put your foot over the guy's head for some reason. No biggie.

But yes, if in 4 more races he is not showing what he and W02 are capable of in the form of beating his teammate, he should hang it up and give another young driver a shot. Yes, he's the best there ever was, but he might just not ever be that again.

This first race was sort of a joke. The car was not setup right for MB or Ferrari, but at least Ferrari had some good use out of their tires. MB just couldn't figure them out at all this weekend. Still cant get over it. Exactly 0.000 difference in qualy from hard to soft tires. So so so odd. No one had that problem. Look at the times. Hugely odd they didn't get at least a second from the softs. We'll see where this goes.

 

I wonder if the cooler temperatures affected MB on Saturday....if so Malaysia should be different.
As for Andrea; he's the ultimate hater. I've never seen one person dominate a forum with the same topic over & over....For years now

 

Ferrari and MB should show their form at the next race. Ugh, I would be crushed if I were Domenicali and Brawn. Both worked incredibly hard only to have terrible setup luck all weekend.

I don't think Mclaren will be so lucky two races in a row. I know I wasn't the only person watching the Mclaren lock up the front right several times during the race and 3 wheel it through corners. The car is fast, but it's sort of a messy affair. I could be incredibly wrong, but I still don't see them as the #1 competitor to RB at the moment. Ferrari has that honor and MB and Mclaren will be fighting it out either with them or just behind Ferrari.

 

This is a sport and shouldn't be taken too seriously. By ANY of us.

 

Apparently, according to an article (sourced from Brawn), they had KERS sensors going bonkers, which made the thing turn on and off all the time uncontrollably. This made the brake balance inconsistent, making the car difficult to drive.
They also had some issues with the rear wing giving inconsistent downforce in some corners, but they say at least the drag reduction was working. Also, the rear wing element was stalling as it's just too big at this track.

They say that Rosberg could match McLaren's times during the race on the rare laps when everything worked.

No one is writing off MB as bums there. Interesting info. Let's hope Ferrari and MB catch onto Red Bull's flexible nose deal they have doing

 

With all due respect (and I do respect you), I don't understand why anyone has the above mentality.

Massa isn't as good as Alonso... so Massa has no place in F1? Button isn't as good as Hamilton, should Button hang it up? Or is it about how long they were in F1? If that is the case, should Barrichello have hung it up years ago? Is it about fairness? Who decides who 'should' be in F1, if not the team owners who are paying their salaries?

I don't mean to sound argumentative with that, but it seems to me that Schumi is every bit as deserving of an F1 drive as anyone else. If Benz didn't think he provided value, they would can him. There is no nostalgia in F1, not when it comes to the business of winning races. Look at Jacques Villeneuve... son of one of the F1 greats, and an F1 WDC himself who lost his mojo and left the sport as a chump. If nostalgia counted, he'd be driving now. MS most definitely deserves his seat.

 

I love your statement saying he deserves the seat, I really do, and I agree with you. My heart is with Schu as he is still competitive but the idea behind competing in F1 is to get better. I don't think Schu is in a position to get better if he does not show some really stellar form in the next few races. If he were 28, I would not hesitate to say give him time or something but that's not the case. That being said, I think Schu will show some serious form in Malaysia. That is his kind of track.

 

In Rob Widdows March AutoSport column Adrian Newey mentions a restriction on weight distribution new this year. Newey claims that this seriously restricts the options in balancing the car particularly when you couple the added weight of KERS and a driver as large as Webber.