2011 Australian Grand Prix discussion thread

Pedestrian · Post by **Pedestrian** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:26

Vettel might have taken pole but for me the real winners of the quali session are the McLarens. After such a troubled development cycle, to be so close to Red Bull on the first circuit, to be so close in qualifiyng, is a fantastic result. The prospects for the race, and the season, are cetainly looking good for McLaren.

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:27

Collieafc wrote:
Klon wrote:Sebastian Vettel scores dominant pole and this is the reaction of the Formula 1 fanbase.

Too right - I dont want every quali session to be Red Bull yawnfest like last year

While I'm at it, time for some more unfunny reactions:
Mark Webber
Other F1 teams
HRT

GwilymJJames, I can only agree with you.

GwilymJJames · Post by **GwilymJJames** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:29

@narainracing wrote:Timing didn't meet the 107% rule, but considering the number of laps we got, I suppose we were not bad.. Waiting for the stewards decision..

Always good to be positive I suppose....

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:30

GwilymJJames wrote:Always good to be positive I suppose....

Well, there's hope after all, since the Melbourne stewards are usually the most generous of them all in terms of 107 %. Furthermore, there are rumours floating around of a team agreement to let everybody in no matter what the time on the first weekend.

the Masked Lapwing · Post by **the Masked Lapwing** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:31

DonTirri wrote:Oh and VETTEL FTW!
(Yes, I am still driving home the fact that unlike everyone else, I didn't jump to the Vettelhate bandwagon last year. Youngest double champ ever looms in the future)

I did not jump on the bandwagon last year. I've been on it since Fuji '07.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:32

I find the main Portuguese commentator speech defect amusing and annoying at the same time... He can't help to add an s at the end of certain words (those finished by consonants). Like Vettels or Hamiltons. And Tiago Monteiro (who his the second commentator) likes to say "he was attacking a lot". "What did you though about qualifying?" "Well, everyone was attacking a lot..."

Paul Hayes · Post by **Paul Hayes** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:33

Well, what an interesting qualifying session that was!

Dismal performance from Heidfeld, which was a shame, as the car clearly has potential. What's most surprising is that it was down to Petrov to show it - Quick Nick will not, I suspect, be happy with that. Things probably aren't much happier across at the other team claiming the Lotus name, although the Norfolk runners are probably at least pleased to have one of the Enstone lot in their sights back there! Nonetheless, a disappointment for Mike Gascoyne's men, who seem to have spent all that time, effort and money just to stand still - which admittedly, is more than Virgin and HRT have done!

McLaren will probably have big smiles on their faces, although Button - like Webber - will be puzzled as to just how his team-mate was so quick while lugging around the extra weight of KERS which he didn't even use. Ferrari will be scratching their heads about where their speed has gone (and how Massa managed to spin coming out of the pits).

Di Resta, Maldanado and Perez will probably all be pretty happy with their debuts, and the old campaigners Schumacher and Barrichello disappointed not to make the top ten.

Vettel looks unbeatable, but let's see what happens with the tyres tomorrow. Even if he runs off into the distance, I think there should be enough chaos behind him to keep things interesting.

patrick · Post by **patrick** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:34

Good showings from sauber, di resta, amazing turnaround by Mclaren.
Petrov is the great point though, if he put it in p6 who knows where robert would have put it :cry:

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:35

DonTirri wrote:Nobody mentioned yet that Kobayashi scored 9th?
Kamui-san really is continuing where he left off.

Oh and VETTEL FTW!
(Yes, I am still driving home the fact that unlike everyone else, I didn't jump to the Vettelhate bandwagon last year. Youngest double champ ever looms in the future)

I secretly hoped for him to qualify in 6th...

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:36

patrick wrote:Petrov is the great point though, if he put it in p6 who knows where robert would have put it

One qualifying session in and I'm already getting sick of this line. We're off to a great start. :mrgreen:

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:38

Schumacher's explanation of the rules is certainly better than his driving... :mrgreen:

(Portuguese TV went on to do a season preview...)

They are now talking about and showing team orders (Ferrari '02 and '10 antics). I am now officially sick...

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:41

...we're going to be seeing a lot of The Finger, this year, aren't we...

I also propose that if Jérôme d'Ambrosio is known as Custard inside the Virgin team, then Timo Glock should be called Roobarb. And now I've got that theme tune in my head any time one of their cars appears on screen...

Post by **mario** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:48

Shizuka wrote:
GwilymJJames wrote:Karthikeyan and Liuzzi miss 107%. Big surprise.

But they're not 10+ seconds away from the field, only 7 and 9! And Virgin qualified!

Virgin Racing managed to qualify pretty comfortably within 107% in the end - and, given that the MVR-02 doesn't look like a big improvement over the VR-01, it's surprising that Glock was still fairly close to the Lotus cars (about 0.5s off). Then again, Kravitz reported that Lotus simply cannot get the tyres to heat up and into the suitable temperature range in these cool conditions - they're as much as 20ºC off their ideal working temperature, which is just killing their performance.

I have to say, though, that there were some big surprises there. Heidfeld was pretty woeful in Q1 - in 18th place when Petrov was in 6th - although I wonder if he had been baulked by another driver (there was some footage that suggested that Liuzzi might have held him up on at least one lap).
But, for me the biggest surprise was how poor Ferrari's qualifying performance was - yes, they might have made it into the top 10, but they blew all their soft tyres in the process. Perhaps, like Lotus, they were really struggling with the tyre temperatures, since Alonso was sliding around more than usual, and it might explain Massa's strange spin coming out of the pits.

As for Vettel's performance, it is stunning - Brundle is right that, out of those on the front two rows, it'll be Webber who is hurting the most from that (since at least Hamilton and Button can take some comfort in knowing that their cars are probably somewhat inferior to Vettel's). To a certain extent, Button and Hamilton can actually be fairly pleased with their performance, given that McLaren's new exhaust system and floor were a last minute change - they've beaten the pre-season expectations of McLaren.
Webber, however, will find that performance gap a bitter pill to swallow, and perhaps the only weakness that Vettel might have is the way that he is treating the tyres - it is possible that he might regret being so aggressive in qualifying tomorrow if his tyres give out early in his stint.

BabyG · Post by **BabyG** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:52

I'm dissapointed by the performance of Team Lotus and Virgin. Still 2 secs of the rest of the pack! I'd liked to have seen them close the gap a little bit over the winter - that was their target after all! I can't imagine that it'll be a fun season for all concerned with those teams if they spend another season that far off the pace.

ADx_Wales · Post by **ADx_Wales** » 26 Mar 2011, 07:56

Brundle on Hispania:

"A Waste of Talent and Petrol"

Carefully forgetting that Brundle drove for Zakspeed....

...remember your roots MB...

Paul Hayes · Post by **Paul Hayes** » 26 Mar 2011, 09:14

Another amusing note is that Alonso finds himself right alongside his nemesis from the last race, Petrov, on the grid. That could be fun off the start line!

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 26 Mar 2011, 09:52

ADx_Wales wrote:Brundle on Hispania:

"A Waste of Talent and Petrol"

Carefully forgetting that Brundle drove for Zakspeed....

...remember your roots MB...

To be fair, Brundle did score points in a Zakspeed.

Post by **mario** » 26 Mar 2011, 09:58

ADx_Wales wrote:GRRRR, the BBC have put giant Xs in front of the Hispania drivers, they havent failed to qualify just yet. How funting dare they.

Why are they also expecting Schumacher to be any good?

The on screen graphics are mostly provided by FOM, not the BBC; yes, perhaps it is a bit hasty for them to immediately put HRT down as DNQ's, but on the other hand, the stewards cannot claim without doubt that HRT can lap within 107% of the leader as they have set no representative times at any point during the race weekend. Besides, it isn't as if they've missed out by a few tenths, they're short by seconds, so they might need the other teams to support their request to the stewards to race. Although it seems that the teams might have agreed to allow those who DNQ'd to start from the pit lane, given that HRT are so far off the pace, some of the teams might think again about their support.
As for why the BBC team were expecting Schumacher to perform well, part of that is down to his practise form, where it looked like he would be in the top 10, and partially because of the upturn in performance from Mercedes in the final test, where Schumacher was much more confident and happier with the car. He was also within a tenth of Rosberg in Q1, so it wasn't unreasonable to expect, or at least hope, that he would make it into the top 10. Besides, like Heidfeld he seemed to have similar problems with his KERS malfunctioning, so perhaps he was slightly hindered by that in Q2.

Meanwhile, further news on Heidfeld - it seems that he was suffering from a malfunction of his KERS, which forced him to abandon an earlier attempt. When he was able to find a work around the malfunctions of his KERS, however, he was then blocked by traffic on his last attempt, which again cost him time. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90240

Meanwhile, Kobayashi is ruing the fact that he ended up using too many soft tyres earlier in the session, since he had no new sets available for the final part of qualifying. Were it not for that, he reckons that he might have been able to make it into the top six (not unrealistic given how well the C30 was going in the first part of qualifying). Perez, meanwhile, blames a combination of traffic and a few issues with the tyres that cost him a chance of getting into the top 10; still, 13th place is respectable enough for your first qualifying session.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90236

the Masked Lapwing · Post by **the Masked Lapwing** » 26 Mar 2011, 10:24

mario wrote:
ADx_Wales wrote:GRRRR, the BBC have put giant Xs in front of the Hispania drivers, they havent failed to qualify just yet. How funting dare they.

Why are they also expecting Schumacher to be any good?

The on screen graphics are mostly provided by FOM, not the BBC; yes, perhaps it is a bit hasty for them to immediately put HRT down as DNQ's, but on the other hand, the stewards cannot claim without doubt that HRT can lap within 107% of the leader as they have set no representative times at any point during the race weekend. Besides, it isn't as if they've missed out by a few tenths, they're short by seconds, so they might need the other teams to support their request to the stewards to race. Although it seems that the teams might have agreed to allow those who DNQ'd to start from the pit lane, given that HRT are so far off the pace, some of the teams might think again about their support.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90242

Gooooooooooooooone! Ah well, maybe it'll rain at Sepang.

Debaser · Post by **Debaser** » 26 Mar 2011, 10:26

Seeing Kobayashi basically powersliding the car round the track in Q1 was fantastic to watch, he's one of the few things that make me genuinely excited about watching Formula 1.

Paul Hayes · Post by **Paul Hayes** » 26 Mar 2011, 10:37

ADx_Wales wrote:Brundle on Hispania:

"A Waste of Talent and Petrol"

Carefully forgetting that Brundle drove for Zakspeed....

...remember your roots MB...

I doubt that Zakspeed, even on their worst weekends, were quite as woeful as the HRT lot.

I think Brundle's right about Liuzzi having made a mistake getting himself involved in this shambles.

DonTirri · Post by **DonTirri** » 26 Mar 2011, 10:48

While the HRT news isn't particularily unsurprising, one thing in that article made me go "Wait, WHAT?"

it's this piece

Following deliberation by the stewards on Saturday night, the FIA decided not to allow the cars in.

Am I totally living on the wrong day or what, since last I checked its saturday afternoon in here, or is Australia really so much ahead of us its already night in there? :E

Paul Hayes · Post by **Paul Hayes** » 26 Mar 2011, 10:50

DonTirri wrote:While the HRT news isn't particularily unsurprising, one thing in that article made me go "Wait, WHAT?"

it's this piece
Following deliberation by the stewards on Saturday night, the FIA decided not to allow the cars in.

Am I totally living on the wrong day or what, since last I checked its saturday afternoon in here, or is Australia really so much ahead of us its already night in there? :E

Yes, they're 11 hours ahead (of the UK anyway) in Melbourne, I believe.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 26 Mar 2011, 10:51

DonTirri wrote:While the HRT news isn't particularily unsurprising, one thing in that article made me go "Wait, WHAT?"

it's this piece
Following deliberation by the stewards on Saturday night, the FIA decided not to allow the cars in.

Am I totally living on the wrong day or what, since last I checked its saturday afternoon in here, or is Australia really so much ahead of us its already night in there? :E

We're just so far in the future it's not funny. It's 9:50pm right now.

Post by **mario** » 26 Mar 2011, 11:04

Paul Hayes wrote:
ADx_Wales wrote:Brundle on Hispania:

"A Waste of Talent and Petrol"

Carefully forgetting that Brundle drove for Zakspeed....

...remember your roots MB...

I doubt that Zakspeed, even on their worst weekends, were quite as woeful as the HRT lot.

I think Brundle's right about Liuzzi having made a mistake getting himself involved in this shambles.

In 1987, when Brundle drove for them, no - they were capable of making it into the midfield in qualifying, and the races (asides from that 5th place, they finished several times in 7th, which would, of course, be a points scoring position these days). As for Liuzzi, to be honest he had few options elsewhere within the sport, since there were only a few test driver positions available (which is effectively redundant these days), and most of those were already being earmarked for up and coming GP2 drivers.

Also, there is an interesting rumour now floating around about Red Bull's KERS system which might explain why Vettel didn't use his KERS, and why Webber was so reluctant to talk about it when asked why he didn't use it either. Asides from some very interesting pictures from Darren Heath of the Red Bull front wing still deflecting heavily (to the point of scraping the ground - which might explain why Kravitz saw signs of damage on both Webber and Vettel's wings in practise), he has also highlighted a tweet from James Allen about Red Bull's KERS. The rumour suggests that Red Bull have deliberately undersized their KERS battery system to save weight, effectively turning it into a "start only" device.

Now, that is an interesting suggestion, although you'd wonder why Red Bull would under size their batteries when the rules were modified to make packaging KERS more straightforward. That said, it would explain how Newey managed to package the RB7 so compactly when everybody else has had to increase their cooling intake sizes, and why Webber was so reluctant to discuss the charge status of his KERS after qualifying. At the very least, I'm not sure that I'd buy Vettel's excuse that "the system was not fully charged" - they are, I believe, running a derivative of the same Magnetti Marelli system Ferrari and Renault are using, and they didn't have any problems with a lack of charge in their systems.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 26 Mar 2011, 11:07

Good performance by Petrov there, looks like he's picking up where he left off in Abu Dhabi. Hopefully he gets a good start and mixes things up a bit - wouldn't it be funny if Alonso's 2011 started with him stuck behind Petrov, like he finished 2010?

On Liuzzi - yes, this was pretty much his only hope for F1, but at this point his reputation's shot to pieces, and anyone can tell you - unless you're Karun Chandhok, joining with HRT only makes things worse. He would've been better off trying his luck in IndyCars, I think.

Djmeak · Post by **Djmeak** » 26 Mar 2011, 11:16

Bernie will no doubt be all over the press with the Hispania news that he was right all along. Wonder how long Jean Todt and the FIA will tollerate another performance and revoke there superlicence.

I also heard that Hispania were using last years front wing as they didn't even pass the FIA crash test - Reject status now a given

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 26 Mar 2011, 11:40

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0NMi51B2Xw

Now that is an absolutely insane lap.

patrick · Post by **patrick** » 26 Mar 2011, 11:55

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:Good performance by Petrov there, looks like he's picking up where he left off in Abu Dhabi. Hopefully he gets a good start and mixes things up a bit - wouldn't it be funny if Alonso's 2011 started with him stuck behind Petrov, like he finished 2010?

Petrov's start in 2010 was FAN-TASTIC. We're in for a treat!

Valrys · Post by **Valrys** » 26 Mar 2011, 11:57

If we have a high attrition race, and less than 10 cars finish, I will be apocalypticaly angry that the stewards didn't let the HRTs in.

Still my favourite team - rejectful, but they did an amazing job getting those two cars built, and getting within 2 seconds of 107% for Liuzzi was a stonking lap considering the car had done one and a bit shakedown laps and then something like 11 in qualifying.

Also, did anyone else hear the story about Colin Kolles trying to bring 55kg of parts onto the flight to Melbourne as hand luggage, and having to pass some of them out to other passengers on the flight (including one Christian Danner ) in order to be allowed to fly?

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 26 Mar 2011, 12:19

Paul Hayes wrote:I doubt that Zakspeed, even on their worst weekends, were quite as woeful as the HRT lot.

Narain Karthikeyan - 2011 Australian Grand Prix - 110.5 % off pole time
Aguri Suzuki - 1989 Hungarian Grand Prix - 110.5 % off pole time

The numbers don't lie.

Henrique · Post by **Henrique** » 26 Mar 2011, 12:21

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/255659/hispania-drivers-not-permitted-to-race/

They asked the FIA to let them race. Denied. At least they seem to be very optimistic.

AussieV8 · Post by **AussieV8** » 26 Mar 2011, 12:28

It would be insane to allow them to race. The cars didn't even look remotely stable as the drivers were attempting to negotiate turns 9 and 10 today. They would get lapped countless times during the race and would just get in the way of everyone else.

Ferrim · Post by **Ferrim** » 26 Mar 2011, 12:51

ADx_Wales wrote:Brundle on Hispania:

"A Waste of Talent and Petrol"

Carefully forgetting that Brundle drove for Zakspeed....

...remember your roots MB...

Maybe he thinks his time at Zakspeed was a waste of talent and petrol as well?

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 26 Mar 2011, 13:04

Jesus, I'm really considering printing this whole thread for posterity :lol:

So:
-Red Bull is perhaps even more dominant than last year (and their front wing more illegal).
-McLaren have improved immensely, and Sauber and Toro Rosso have stepped up too.
-Ferrari and Team Lotus have disappointed.
-Massa is going to suck this year (seriously, he was 0.7 seconds off Alonso and that spin coming out of the pits was ludicrous, I wonder what'd happen if he repeats the trick going into the pitlane...)
-Force India is in some trouble.
-Williams is average. Yet again.
-HRT is stepping onto a level of rejectfulness reserved only to teams like Life and Andrea Moda.
-Schumacher doesn't have it on him anymore.
-Renault looks very promising.

This is going to be a very interesting race indeed.

Mister Fungus · Post by **Mister Fungus** » 26 Mar 2011, 13:16

What do you all reckon the race strategy will be? There's so many combinations and variations, for instance is it better to go with softer compounds later in the race? Logic would dictate so, but since the race is at an evening track temperature might drop then making tires go off faster.

patrick · Post by **patrick** » 26 Mar 2011, 13:45

By the way, Reject fans, in case nobody noticed, (and ignoring Arrows' deliberate double DNQ in 2002) this is the first double DNQ since Lola. Hallowed ground guys, hallowed ground.

Ferrim · Post by **Ferrim** » 26 Mar 2011, 14:10

patrick wrote:By the way, Reject fans, in case nobody noticed, (and ignoring Arrows' deliberate double DNQ in 2002) this is the first double DNQ since Lola. Hallowed ground guys, hallowed ground.

It was impossible to DNQ between 2003 and 2010, so...

I remember Minardi being awfully slow in 2004 and even more so in Australia 2005, when they had to adapt their car to the regulations the night before the race. They were like seven seconds off the pace.

Valrys · Post by **Valrys** » 26 Mar 2011, 14:12

Ferrim wrote:
patrick wrote:By the way, Reject fans, in case nobody noticed, (and ignoring Arrows' deliberate double DNQ in 2002) this is the first double DNQ since Lola. Hallowed ground guys, hallowed ground.

It was impossible to DNQ between 2003 and 2010, so...

I remember Minardi being awfully slow in 2004 and even more so in Australia 2005, when they had to adapt their car to the regulations the night before the race. They were like seven seconds off the pace.

I think there was at least one occasion where both the Sooper Aguris would have DNQ'd early in 2006, not 100% sure on that though.

patrick · Post by **patrick** » 26 Mar 2011, 14:15

Ferrim wrote:
patrick wrote:By the way, Reject fans, in case nobody noticed, (and ignoring Arrows' deliberate double DNQ in 2002) this is the first double DNQ since Lola. Hallowed ground guys, hallowed ground.

It was impossible to DNQ between 2003 and 2010, so...

I know that, but I was sure minardi or prost had double DNQ'd sometime inbetween 97-02 so it was a surprise to find Lola still had the honour.