2014 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix - Practice 1/2/3 ***SPOILERS***

lettuce boy in the wall. looks like brake failure to me

 

beached
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yip by 2 tenths. as long as fin wins im happy.

 

Tomorrow is another day!

I'm up past my bedtime.

 

final times
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G'night all.

Guess I'll be back for FP3..... Certainly not for the soundtrack though.

Cheers,
Ian

 

ferrari don't look too slow but fuel consumption if said to be not that good could be the trouble

the cars are really quiet

 

Nice practice. Very few meltdowns and most teams seem like they have what it takes to at least finish the race. Lotus being the large exception Id say.

Usual suspects looking good - Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull etc. So will we have the dramatic shake up the press were predicting? Possibly not.
LH's first session breakdown show how particular these cars can be. A simple sensor shut him down. It still appears somewhat unpredictable for now but maybe its not as dramatic as first thought?

 

I'm not so sure! They were calling *5* laps a 'long run', and not many of them even really managed that...... I don't think Charlie's going to need his red flag, but I'll be surprised if more than half the field finish.

'Dramatic shakeup' means no more domination from the Cans!.... The big budget guys are, generally, going to come out on top.

I think it's going to be chaos on Sunday..... As for LH, I guess you missed the smoke coming out!? Commented on it earlier, and it prompted the post of the thread from the Viz; "yeah, the sensor caught fire!'....

Smoke also from one of the Williams. Kimi broke down in the pitlane.

And the soundtrack? Oh dear. Our very own Aircon is there, and noted they sound almost as bad live as on the iPad. Brundle was trying his best to make the best of it, but seems most folk, me included, are not at all happy.

Maybe they'll get better as they increase the revs - Apparently they're still not going much beyond ~12k so there's room for improvement to say the least.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I'm not surprised. In fact I predicted that.

 

Ummmm.....Did anyone else notice that button was only 8 tenths off the pace on Mediums? I'm not a Button fanboy, but he seemed to have a real grasp of his machine. Nobody believes me, but I think McLaren is really going to shine this year. Everyone I talk to says its Ferrari and Mercedes this year, but we'll see.

I did get a nice smile in FP1 when I watched Alonso do fast lap...get beat...then come out again and do another fast lap.

 

It's back <3

 

I expected far worse and I think the SKY guys were also surprised. Sound is what it is. Its a turbo motor, sound muted energy recovered.
SKY said above 10,500rpm's the fuel flow increases dramatically. Expect alot of short shifting to save fuel.

Sauber reserve driver van der-garde is saying on SKY the Red Bull practice starts are not very good!

 

sounds like crap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tF9fNbnXmw

 

I'm expecting a pole time somewhere in the 1:27s. Last year's pole was on supersofts.

The Benz is quick on low and high fuel, everyone else on high fuel is about half a second off.

Red Bull looking infinitely better, they brought a raft of internal updates. However, I still believe at least one won't finish. They could be good for points.

Ferrari looking better, I believe they are solid podium contenders.

I noticed quite a few on board videos showing drivers short shifting quite a bit. There's more to come, from most everyone.

 

Fuel consumption considerations could turn this season into very boring strategy contests.

Cheers,

George

 

I unfortunately very much agree. It may be a battle of Toyota Prius' at many venue.

 

So they allow 15K with one rule and deny it with another?

Utter BS.

Limiting speed by way of tires didn't work so now they do it by way of fuel and reliability.
Seems like they took away the wrong message.

This may be the year I give up on F1.

 

Meanwhile Button has stated he believes MB are a second clear of.....everyone.

"We were two seconds off them [Mercedes] in the test and we're over a second off them [in practice] in the long runs," Button said after FP2.

"I think everyone's about a second off them, they're very quick.

"I don't think our outright pace is as good as it looks in practice but we're OK; our balance still isn't there.

"We're nowhere near the quickest, [but] it's a little bit surprising that [Mercedes is also] much quicker than everyone else, including the Williams - which looks a bit of a handful to drive in high-speed corners which is a surprise as well."

Button said that Mercedes' speed could also help it conserve fuel during the grand prix, which he feels will be a critical issue in Sunday's race.

"I don't know if other people [are having to] save fuel a lot but it seems we have to in the race," he explained.

"This is a very difficult circuit for fuel saving and using 100kg, so this whole race for us is going to be tricky with how much we have to back off.

"This is probably one of the worst circuits for fuel usage so it's going to be a tough one on Sunday.

"Outright pace is always [desirable], because if you have a quick car you can save fuel more easily - just back off more.

"At the moment we're reasonably reliable, engine's working really well, and our pace is alright.

"We're not as quick as the quickest cars but then we're a lot quicker than the slowest cars, so we're not in too bad a shape."

 

Mercedes are ahead of everyone, we all previously thought the Mclaren/Ferrari and Williams are more or less on par. Now Red Bull has sort of unexpectedly thrown itself into that mix, seems they've added a lot of cooling. When the RB was doing a drive in Pre Season Testing, a lot of people have said it looks very good...I'm sure some of that speed has been sacrificed now by adding cooling.

Merc ahead (anything less than a win for them would be plain bad, as long as the car stays together), Mac/Cans/RedHoover and the drinks company will be fighting (hard) for the other podiums slots.

 

Fuel flow is capped above 10,500rpm to a certain amount, so the turbo engine actually makes full power at no higher than 11k-12k rpm. Revving higher would be for shifting on power band reasons only. These engines have about zero turbo lag as the MGU-H spools the turbo during 'off' time for the turbo that would otherwise be lag.


It's said that the Ferrari unit is very thirsty and is actually having the engine itself spooled by the ERS unit when down shifting to save fuel, which is why they sound different. All hypotethsis at the moment though.

 

Watching the SKY show. Feeling from Ted is Red Bull have improved quite alot. Completed many trouble free laps and they are now clearly catching up. Again its only practice and he feels Williams are capable of a podium.

His is opinion is that Mercedes is good but they have their own issues with reliability. An oil sensor was to blame for the shutdown. The motor did not have an oil issue at all. It was a mis-calibrated sensor that took 5 minutes to fix(Gary Anderson on Autosport). LH is the bookie favorite for the win in Australia.

I noticed brake issues were common in alot of the cars. Brake by wire seems to be catching people out with bias issues etc.
I was thinking Mercedes would walk this but now Im not sure at all anything can happen. Avoiding driver error etc.

Reliability and good fuel management are the key. A bad start will be very much punished.

Vettel/DR did substantial distance today. Im not about to count them out at all- Red Bull.

 

It should be an interesting season. I'm excited to see some other players involved now. I guess we'll find out. Button just negated everything I just said by saying Mercedes is quickest.

 

How many cars will be stuck at the starting grid come Sunday?

 

Some good points made there, but they all need to collectively remember RB10 has never completed more than 20 laps in a row. RB have brought a raft of updates, but they are untested. I believe RB could do well, but a points finish is what they're shooting for.

MB has attempted 6 race simulations and only completed I believe 2 or 3, so it will be interesting to see what happens. They also brought numerous internal updates so we'll have to see what that yields.