2013 FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX: RACE *** SPOILERS ***

Need a new moniker?

 

The supersofts don't last long in low temps nor switch on in low temps so maybe merc's ducting is more restrictive and coanda more aggressive in terms of getting their tires up to temp. The mediums have a lower operating temp so the merc is probably putting too much heat into them causing them to drop off so quickly.

 

Just got done watching it with a few friends and my brother and friend in Ohio...matched up the DVR Timing...it was a decent race.

Want to say that I am happy that the Ferrari's finished 2nd and 4th and it was a really good run for Massa I think. No need to change my moniker.

Hammy did ok but Webber had a rough day again in AUS.

Cars look good, but scared in the next few years I will long for the days of the V-12's and V-10's even more than we do now.

MB

 

Sounds plausible!

It would match nicely with Ross saying that it was the balance on the medium compound tyres that was wrong for them. That seems to suggest an issue of the the front and rear tyres not working together at the same rate for heat/degradation/grip/pressure et al.

 

Weird predictions.

1: Kimi drove brilliant last year, much like Alonso, making his teammate look **** on almost all occasions. I know it's early in the season, but seems his car is pretty damn decent and has great race pace, AND he took it easy most of his last stint (despite setting fastest lap, but that was more as a precaution in case rain came). Last year he was a dark horse and came close in the championship in a car that wasn't fast enough. This year, he's got a fast car.

2: I may not like Alonso, but I won't call him out for this year.

3: Whilst I have little doubt he won't end up at Ferrari at some stage, I'm sure it won't be next year and certainly not next to Alonso. Alonso will simply not allow it, and Vettel is silly to leave Red Bull at this stage.

 

Trying save money by changing from V12 to V10 to V8 to turbos costs more money for research, engineering and manufacture and parts is like trying save money of your Fcar by using regular gas and cheap tires. Plus these changes have to benefit the big teams that make the engines.

Glad to see Phil do so well. Looks like he is back to pre-accident form. And the way Fred and Phil were passing it looks like the F138 is much better sorted out than last year's car.

Sounded like Fred got more applause than the other two on the podium and it sounded like Vettel got some boos.


Forza Ferrari

 

great race! nice to see kimi win another one.

 

Re; McLaren's woes. Interesting analysis of their problems

How a factory mistake made McLaren unrealistically fast in Jerez test | Adam Cooper's F1 Blog

 

The whole idea of dictating the number of cylinders and the size of the engines to the teams is going to turn F1 into another Nascar and will eventually kill F1.

 

Err... The FIA have been dictating the number of cylinders and the size of the engines for around 17 years now and hasn't killed it yet!

 

Great race, I think kicking Varsha to the curb was a good move. Leigh Diffey certainly gets into the race more and does a good job of conveying that excitement.

 

Kimi ran a great race, and topped it off with fastest lap.

Given that Q3 was on Sunday as well ....

(brogue) Sure, and 'tis a shame he couldn't get pole for Saint Hat Trick's Day. (/brogue)

 

Varsha is back next week so it was a pretty small curb.

Hey, can we have JUST ONE AMERICAN giving us the F1 broadcast?

 

Lol maybe they should fit the suspension the other way around all the time.

 

Off topic but whats the proper pronunciation of Jerez: "Hereth" or "Herez"?

 

Cherez

 

No, but they are doing thier best. It would be better in F1 to make it LESS of a SPEC series and NOT force teams to choose a certain number of cyl. Why not give a max displacement instead of forcing the engines to be so SPEC? Everyone argues against Indycar doing it, but they are doing it in F1 now too.

Heck, US Sportscar racing is MUCH better in that regard.

MB

 

I have one solid reason, that being the ambitious goal to continue to push the development of more efficient technologies which can be ported over to road going cars. That's why the V6 turbos of 2014 has recaptured the attention and appeal of the likes of Honda, Porsche etc. back into F1. It becomes relevant.

 

The engine thing is more driven by the constructors than the FIA. They want to hold down costs and this is an easy way.

F1 is no "spec series". There are tons of innovations on the cars from one another. All you have to do is look at Brawn's WCC.

Every series in Motorsports has its regs. But a spec series where every car is identical is not F1.

 

Congrats Kimi. Nice to see a winner who looks like he's enjoying it.

Good day for the Scuderia and for Phil. Is it too early to start thinking WCC at least?

Looks like we've got another tire driven year. For better and for worse. That Sutil could turn missing Q1 into a strategic advantage may be an unfortunate omen.

 

This was a fun race to watch. Kimi was impressive in this first outing but trying to extrapolate the full season from one race is like trying to judge a marriage from the honeymoon - LOL

I look forward to a competitive season as nobody likes a parade in F1.

Cheers

 

You can't be serious. 13 laps on super softs and per the link I posted earlier showing all the lap times, they had excellent degradation. They swapped medium tires again for a third stop due to the 'behavior' of the tires meaning no one except Lotus were seeing such light wear. Nearly everyone had 3 stops.

The problem Merc had was with high fuel loads in their first stint as they started with a 1:35.4 and ended (AFTER 14 LAPS ON SUPER SOFTS) with a 1:33.208.

First pit stop to mediums and Lewis was started with a 1:32.891 (post the first lap out of the pits to get heat) and ended that stint after 16 laps with a 1:33.869.

Next set of mediums, 1:31.3 and after 9 laps ended with 1:31.6. Merc decided to pit as they knew they could not get a full 25 lap stint out of a set of mediums.

Last set of mediums starts with 1:30.019 then Lewis sets a 1:29.759 and ends that 15 lap stint running entirely in the upper 1:29 and 1:30s not to mention out-pacing Vettel, Massa, and matching Alonso's pace.

Let's not shoot first and asking questions later? Where is this tire degradation problem as I'm certainly not seeing it. Review the data. The call to make a third stop was one of strategy to not take a gamble on if they could get 26 laps out of a set of mediums. Nobody went that far on one set of tires, not even Lotus. Lewis/Brawn's call was an obvious one.

Boom, really?

Moving on.

I have taken nothing out of context. These are numbers.

Force India's super soft tires were destroyed hence why Sutil dropped so far back. Sutil put adequate heat into the mediums and yielded 22ish laps from them, big deal. The super softs went on and he munched them immediately. NO ONE saw Merc's level of low degradation on super softs, Merc saw 13 laps from them and had very low degradation levels. FI's pace was a product of false advertising as it was a two-stopper, look at his race pace/lap times, nothing special.

Mercedes was quicker than Massa and on-par with Vettel during the final stint.

Let's look at the numbers shall we?

Fernando munched his super softs after 8 laps, beginning his stint with a (once tires were hot) 1:33.197, then after just 5 laps he was lapping 1:34.2, then 1:34:7, 1:34.8, 1:34.7, then boxed. That was after just 8 laps. Lewis started with a 1:35.4 and ended after 13 laps on super softs with a 1:33.2!!!!!

Fernando put on mediums after than and started with 1:32,4 and ended after just 9 more laps with a 1:33.6. Boxes for more mediums and comes into his own with some good pace and for 17 laps has very little wear. Lewis' little degradation during this period is noted above to my reply to 4rePhil. Review the final stints and you see Lewis is quicker and has identical degradation.

Again, where is the degradation problem?



McLaren F-1 - site about team of Formula 1 Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

 

I love their road cars! Hence the 'Pilot' as I will never have the opportunity to pilot one of their racing machines.

 

Neither will I.

My avatar is probably as close as I will ever get: Prost - Ferrari

 

What?

The Pirelli tires all have the same temperature operating window, within a few degrees of one another anyway. It would be geometrically impossible for a team to design a suspension system which could place substantially more or less heat in one tire compound than another. The Pirelli tires also have a much wider temperature window of operation than last year as well, this was all stated by Paul Hembery a month or so ago during Sky's coverage of F1 pre-season testing.


From Pirelli's website in 'new for 2013' section:

"Wider working range
As a result of the modifications the 2013 tyres are generally easier to bring up to temperature and they have a more varied working range, making them more easily adaptable to a bigger variety of set-ups. Generally speaking, the hard and the soft tyre have a high working range, while the medium and the supersoft have a low working range. This should help the teams to understand the tyres - and how they interact with their cars – faster."


By 'high working range' vs 'low working range', the temp difference is minimal, 4-5c at most. The range of operation for the 2012 Pirelli's was 100C-115C, any higher and they could blister, lower and they were toast too. The range has been opened up this year, how much I don't know but I'm not seeing any team with huge deg issues so they are clearly more friendly.