2011 Aussie GP Race **Spoilers**

Ahhh I've missed your sort of analysis..well done..

 

Interesting post. Thanks for the data on Massa. He did his best if they gave him what you stated for tires.

 

+1

 

Tough to say anything; other than his good start. (made up 3 spots) Impossible to predict how his race would have unfolded.

I'm sure our resident hater will have something to say though....

 

+1 Petrov is a great story. One of the best things about F1 at the moment.

And why is everybody still griping and saying Massa should be fired? And what, get somebody good that will make poor baby Alonso feel inadequate again so he can destroy the team with his threats? Ferrari needs to decide if trying to get FA a WDC is worth having zilch chance at the Constructors. It appears they have already made that decision so get used to it.

 

Pit wisdom going into the season was that to be a front running team you need Alonso, Hamilton or Vettel. After Australia I think that's changed.

 

Jos Verstappen is the only man a team needs to excel.

 

I watched it about 4:30 this morning. I think Hobbs comment was "broke his leg badly and nearly had his arm torn off". Like you I was in an early-morning fog so that may be a bit off.

 

Incorrect. I used to think this too, until Bridgestone corrected this after some race (forgotten which).

IMO the Ferrari is a dud. Without huge testing time Ferrari will continue to make duds ...
Pete

 

Excellent analysis.

Frank

 

SV should take his dad to all the races. He is driving with so much confidence now that he will be untouchable this season...
CH

 

Meh, he was eating him up, just ran outta laps. He wasn't ever in a real "overtaking situation."

 

I wasn't paying much attention to Hobbs.

But I'd seen reports on Kubica's rallye crash. His wrist was severed nearly through. At first, they weren't sure they were going to be able to save his hand.

I'm glad he's making good progress, but I'll be amazed if he's back this season.

 

The Boob had a hell of a race! LOL

 

Alonso wasn't even that near to challenge him for an overtaking maneouvre...

 

Umm I'm almost positive they had Ferrari engines last year and just had to keep BMW in their name to get the sponsorship money. Last year the team was called BMW Sauber-Ferrari.

 

So after ONE race that is your conclusion?

 

I'm not sure how HRT is going to be able to get enough driving in to be able to test this year to improve.

 

That's why the wings get pushed up in the middle to open up, this way if they fail they fail into the closed position. Now if you are talking about the mounting points along the end plates I can't speak for those but I'm sure they made them strong enough.

 

from an observers viewpoint at the track, Massa and Vettel "looked" about the same for speed, but then Massa made that monumental error in qualifying right in front which was really out of character.

Button and Alonso "looked" about the same, smooth but not fast

LH "looked" like he was pushing the car hard and was slightly ragged

MW "was" slow , as if there was something wrong that he was fighting

Petrov "looked" like Kubica

some of the early racing between Massa and Button was classic Gilles and Jones, great to watch and we were all expecting some sort of disaster at the track but it was just good clean racing which I wish we could see more of

There was some brilliant driving , Sutil's save when he spun in qualifying ?? was half skill half luck but in the hands of any "normal" person was a crash in the making

 

There must be something I don't understand here. I thought that if the legality plank was worn more than 1/16th inch, the car was disqualified. Doesn't this apply to Hammy?

 

Yep.

Lets see they all have the same limited testing, the same races. The team that starts in front with this no testing BS, has a huge advantage. The Ferrari was miles off the pace all weekend, so unless they make a unusual and massive improvement they are trailing for the whole season. But remember while Ferrari are trying to catch up RB and McLaren are making their car faster ...

Most WDC are won at the start of the season. When McLaren and Ferrari dominated they started the season winning, got points on the board taking the pressure off and then just got better.

In the end Alonso was lucky to get the result that he got, they real level of the car is where Massa was and again they were miles off the pace all weekend.

But yes I am being negative.
Pete

 

Not wishing to argue, but did you look at the fastest race laps?..... [If you haven't, Phil turned the fastest lap during the race with Fred 2nd.]

The car isn't the complete dog many here are making it out to be.

Sure, Seb ran away with it, but MW was nowhere and Australia is noted for producing some weird results. I'm certainly not ready to write the season off yet.......

The following shamelessly lifted from the PF1 site, my emphasis added:

At more "normal" tracks, I reckon the Bulls lack of KERS may be a real problem.

We'll see - Long way to go yet but saying Ferrari were "miles off the pace all weekend" is just not correct.

Cheers,
Ian

 

+1 FA and Massa did the best they respectively could given the situation.
Chris Horner is openly putting out now they will have KERS for Malaysia. The track demands it for them. They are worried about reliability within their package due to KERS. Given the Mclaren pace and Ferrari pace Id say its almost even if KERS is a factor in Malaysia along with tire wear and RAIN

 

I believe the legality plank begins somewhat aft of the "floor" splitter. It was the splitter that was dragging on the ground -- clearly a race damage thing. Possibly the legality plank wasn't dragging. (Probably, as I suspect it's made of stiffer material than the CF splitter.)

And if it didn't create an aerodynamic advantage (as in ground effects), I expect the stewards could waive racing damage to the plank.

So this wasn't a case of "Britannia Waives the Rules".

The Ferrari isn't bad on the soft compound, and everyone is slow on the hard compounds in cool weather.
Although on hards, you can see why Ford was worried that the F-150 might be confused with a pickup truck.

With all the regulation changes and the new tires, you can't read too much into the first race. The teams have a lot of adapting to do, and with limited testing, some will adapt faster than others.

About the only thing that came through was that Ferrari's inflexible pit strategy is likely going to hurt them again this year, as it has since Ross left.


But the lack of testing is hurting the sport. With the 107% rule in place and limited testing, how is HRT going to get *into* the 107% range? How will any of the new teams get on pace?
Between the "engine freeze" and the limited testing, F1 isn't likely going to be very dynamic ... other than by tossing random weird rules at the teams.
The "pinnacle of motorsports", or a strange game of "mother may I"?