Predictions I was right/wrong about ***Melbourne SPOILER ***

After watching the fantastic Melbourne GP I reviewed some of my pre season predictions:

What I was right about:
- Kimi, the next champion
- Massa, glorified mid fielder
- Sutil, he'll outshine Albers in a heartbeat


What I was wrong about:
- Kovalainen, completely overhyped
- McLaren, they're back
- Quick Nick, he still controls Kubica


And one I simply didn't see coming:
Hamilton, he is the next MS.

 

I think it is unfair to classify Massa as a "mid-fielder." He was running substantially more fuel than everyone else because of his one-stop strategy.

 

i was right about...(my guesses, predictions, thoughts)

Kimi..fastest man, in a top car
FA...second fastest man in a car not quite as quick as the red one
BMW's speed

Wrong/expected differently...

Hekki Kovaleinen
Hamilton (didn't think he'd be fast so soon...nice surprise)
BMW's reliability (thought they'd be solid even this early)

Still remains to be seen...

McLaren reliability over entire season
Massa's ability to 'chase', excel under fire, or in wet conditions,

 

Oh, please

If these exact starting positions/results were reversed, you'd be pointing to Kimi's point finish and passing so many cars as evidence of his superiority, and downplaying Massa's finish as expected.

 

Massa is a very good driver. Kimi is a great driver IMHO.

 

The thought of Kimi on the podium for the next 6 years drives me to drink. An Italian race team needs someone with emotion and passion. If we wanted robots in racing, we could just put GPS units and solenoids in the cars.

 

It's not so much about the positions where they ended up at the end of the race, but rather their lap times: Kimi was outracing Massa by 2 seconds per lap.

However I didn't mean to turn this thread into another Kimi vs Massa thread (personally I consider that debate to be over). I'd rather like to see what other predictions people found confirmed or turned on their heads.

For me the biggest revelation was how wrong I was about Kovalainen. I guess a victory at the Race of Champions is indeed meaningless. Lesson learned.

 

I think K will come along -- but really, the Renaults as a whole just were lousy this race. K still finished in the top half of the field.

Surprises to me -- Both McLaren cars finishing the race. Hamilton not really a surprise, he was hyped so much that everyone expected a points finish if the car lasted. No surprise either that H last pit stop was mysteriously slow, no way is Alonso going to be allowed to finish below H if there's any other option.

 

I am big Kimi fan but he really needs to work on his speech and show some excitment on podium. It was always nice to see MS on podium with big jump, it never got old all these years.

 

Maybe Bernie will create a new rule requiring a personality transplant to be WDC.

 

I agree with you that Kimi is just mega! The way he pulled out those fast laps during his second stint (beat his own fastest lap by 1 sec!) and his first qualifying lap must have had the pit lane scratching their heads.

As for Massa's performance, I think he did an excellent job, considering he was never in a position to match Kimi's lap times. At the start, he had the soft tires and 29 laps of fuel. According to M. Brundle on ITV, these tires lose their performance after two laps. On his second stint, he again had 29 laps of fuel so as the fuel burned off, the tires were not at their best.

In any case, considering he was probably desperate to claw his way back to the front, he stayed calm and did not make any mistakes.

As for the rest, Hamilton impressed as a rookie and Alonso looked only as good as Hamilton.

 

u mean, it means nothing by beating MS? but on the serious side, i think GF seat is safe for now..

 

from F1racing.net:

"Heikki's performance? I think everyone could see on TV and I don't need to protect anyone, it was rubbish," Briatore told Reuters. "What else an I say? If I tell you it was good then I'm a complete idiot."

"It wasn't very good," he added. "When you start like that you don't have any trouble getting better - there's plenty of room for improvement. It wasn't the Heikki we know from testing - I don't know what happened. We know he is good, but this performance was so bad - and we have to try to get the real Heikki for the next race."

 

Hello? What about the sensation of the race? Lewis Hamilton!

 

Speaking of drinking, almost as if he was reading all the posts about his supposed drinking problem, Kimi took a big swig of champagne before spraying it!

I guess his message was: "Forget the darkened corner of a Karaoke bar, I plan to do all my drinking from the top step of the podium this year!"

Even though the podium lacked the excitement of seeing an excited MS, it was really nice to see Kimi smiling.

 

I don't think they're any worse off in this regard: They replaced one robot with another one. The only thing this new model doesn't have yet is the "jump on the podium" module. Maybe he'll get that upgrade next time around.

On an almost related note: Because of the timing of the race I was able to switch to my other fav show during commercial breaks: SNL and they had a hilarious robot spoof on.

 

What race were you watching Andreas? Massa in a fuel-laden Ferrari comes from LAST, and finishes 6th. Two seconds difference lap times? Let's see, fuel load and traffic just MIGHT have played a part in that. Being up front with less traffic usually has some effect on lap times. Geez, what is going on here? If that was Kimi you'd be praising his glory and that he can walk on a lake of vodka. I am not trying to downplay Kimi at all, I am glad he won in light of Massa's misfortune, but you and a few others show your bias against Massa rather strangely.

In my book, Massa did what we praised Schumacher many for doing in years past, and that is coming from last, and finishing in the points. Except his name is Felipe, not Michael. Maybe if we start to call him Phil Massa, he would be more acceptable? Give me a break.

And after one race we crown Hamilton, and strip Heikki of his potential? Do we have some insight as to wrong car set-up, poor choice of tires, etc? I would suggest that we wait and make a more educated judgement after the 4th race. Then we can throw the mid pack drivers to the FChat wolves.

Actually, I kind of like the sound of "Phil Massa". Donta messa with Massa will be the Italian team's battle cry.

 

I was expecting GF to get outpaced by his rookie team mate but I guess he's safe for the time being. I knew Hamilton was fast but wow, I'd love to see him be Kimi's main competition throughout the season. I was expecting a little more from Massa and I will reserve udgement until three or four races in on the Kimi vs. Massa debate, however at this point I do think Kimi is going to be the one with the most points at the end of the season.

 

The differences are, of course, that when Schumacher came from the back to catch up, he often finished on the podium, never a lap down, and certainly was not multiple seconds per lap slower than his teammate.

Face it, Kimi is the #1 driver, he is the faster (by far) of the two drivers. Massa is a nice guy, but he's outclassed by Kimi as much as he was by Michael.

 

Kimi had no traffic, he was most of the time lighter on fuel than Massa, and as result Kimi's tires were most of the time in better shape, did you really expected that Massa will be as fast today under those circunstances?

IMHO this race says nothing on the pace of Massa, the only thing it says is that he was unlucky this weekend.

I think FA could have been faster today if it were not because of the start and Hamilton and Heifeld being in front after the first corner. He could not pass and Hamilton was setting FA back in IMO, you could easily see it in the last part of the race, in 15 laps FA was over 10 seconds faster than Hamilton. If Heifield would not had tried that strange strategy starting with the soft compound, I think we would hd watched a way more interesting race with Kimi and FA hand to hand.

- Julio.

PS: ooops tifosiron already said it abourt Massa pace... sorry to repeat.

 

I couldn't agree more. Massa a "glorified midfielder" give me a break. He came last to finish 6th---pretty respectable in my book. Not at all trying to put down Kimi as i think he is a fantastic driver and did a fantastic job, but i really do think Massa deserves much much more credit than Tifosi 12 and sveral other people on these boards are giving him.
I also agree that we need to reserve such harsh judgement until the season has unfolded more.

 

Guys, don't write off Heiki yet. He was put in the race seat for a reason, he could very well put on a much better performance next time. Just because Hamilton had an excellent start to his career, doesn't mean that Heiki is a flop because he made some rookie mistakes. You know, rookies do make mistakes. Although Hamilton was excellent, he did have a couple of moments.

 

I can't say I was as impressed as some of you at Massa's move through the field. Kimi showed what the Ferrari was capable of doing, yet it took Massa nearly the entire race to move through to 6th. Also, watching him chase the Hondas (I think) made me begin to wonder if Massa has an understanding of drafting.

On an unrelated note, what's up with Rubens crying into the radio for Button to move over? If you're faster, then make a move and pass him. I know it's hard to do, but there's a reason 22 of you gents are on the track and the rest of us are watching it on TV.

 

I have been one of the ones supporting Massa from the beginning, and I give Massa credit for moving through the field, but I must say I am a little disappointed. He didn't attack like I hoped for. I almost feel like he was content to just wait for the pitstops where he should have been more agressive. I won't discount him as a very good driver just yet though. I want to see how he does through the season before I'd write him off.

Mark

 

+100.

All you Massa supporters, take a chill pill and get those feet back on the ground .

There were ONLY 4 cars racing at Melbourne, 2 were Ferraris and the other 2 were McLarens. All the other cars are completely fncken useless. Ofcourse Massa was going to end up fourth ... a current Australian Formula Ford driver (even Mark Webber ) put in that Ferrari without any other F1 experience starting from last would have ended up 4th just by staying on the track.

Where you finish is not how to read a race!!!!!!!. The lap times, car attitude, etc. is where it is at. This is how Alonso stood out in the Minardi when he started ... he was never going to win but he drove the wheels of that piece of rubbish, without doing a Massa and crashing it. Most impressive.

Massa did nothing exceptional, just lapped around ... I must admit that Melbourne is a hard track to pass on ... so I give Massa that.

Now ofcourse we need to see Kimi starting last to be fair, but come on we have all seen the Kimi brilliance ... we have never seen it from Massa, just massive crashes and many out of control moments when he started. He has got control of the car now, but in doing so he has lost any raw speed he might have had. Kimi was never out of control just friggin fast.

As Luca said: We have hired Kimi to be the 2007 WC for Ferrari.

Enough said.
Pete