[Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

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MaxX
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[Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by MaxX »

Finally, the waiting is over and we can expect some surprises at the season opener (as usual :wink: )

So what are your thougts pals?

Williams and Brawn GP where pretty fast at the first practise days, let`s see if they can continue the run for good starting positions. Ferrari should also be competitive, the drivers should try to avoid that many mistakes as in 2008. And McLaren...well, I doubt that they are as weak as in Testing session 2, maybe they won`t be winnings aspirant nr1, but the race is long and there also might be some understatement ;)

Let`s see what happens
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by jakesanson »

McLaren WILL struggle. This is not the kind of publicity stunt you'd expect from them, so I think their pace is questionable.

Brawn's pace is VERY strong, but I think it's between Williams and Toyota for race one honours. Unless Ferrari are of course hiding something, which seems likely.

Interesting how the three "illegal" teams are the ones that are surprisingly competitive. I say, tough! If you couldn't make your cars better than those three, deal with it, grow up and sort out your own problems!!!
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by Greyhead »

jakesanson wrote: Interesting how the three "illegal" teams are the ones that are surprisingly competitive. I say, tough! If you couldn't make your cars better than those three, deal with it, grow up and sort out your own problems!!!
Hear hear! I couldn't agree more. There seems to have been a disturbing trend in F1 lately, and in life in general, suggesting that if someone has things better then they must be cheating. The fact is that racing is all about being clever enough to find "the unfair advantage", as Mark Donohue called it. If you're not clever enough to do that, don't pull down everyone else who IS clever enough. Simply find an "unfair advantage" of your own and pull yourselves up to their level. If the thinking that surrounded F1 now was prevalent in the 1960's and 1970's, would we have seen wings, ground effect, slick tyres, turbos and so on? And I certainly don't remember anyone protesting Williams in 1992-93.
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by jakesanson »

Greyhead wrote:Simply find an "unfair advantage" of your own and pull yourselves up to their level. If the thinking that surrounded F1 now was prevalent in the 1960's and 1970's, would we have seen wings, ground effect, slick tyres, turbos and so on? And I certainly don't remember anyone protesting Williams in 1992-93.
Amen. What Bernie and Max need to be doing right now is keeping teh focus on the public. We've had some bloody shambles in the last couple of years: USA 2005, Spygate 2007, Belgium 2008, etc. Let's try to make F1 a sport, please!!

By the way, I'm loving F1 on the BBC. Anthony and David on Friday was fantastic!! Now for qualifying!! JENSON, JENSON, JENSON (in fanatical football chant).....
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by AD »

What was missing was an official clarification before the start of the season that these devices were legal. Instead of that, they left the door wide open for this kind of conflict now by essentially saying, "We'll wait for the first race, if anyone wants to protest then, we'll deal with it when the time comes." In this case, delaying solving the issue like that directly contributes to the kind of unnecessary distraction there is this weekend, and will probably continue until a date for the appeal has been set that I think we'll undoubtedly see.

With all that out of the way though, I think this could be a pretty interesting season opener. The Friday practice sessions didn't reveal too much very clearly, and the track was quite dirty apparently for the first run, but some tendencies from testing seem to be confirmed.

Let's see how qualifying turns out. Good that certain GPs still teach you it's good to get up early...
1996 .. 2017 .. 21 years and counting ..
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

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AD wrote:What was missing was an official clarification before the start of the season that these devices were legal. Instead of that, they left the door wide open for this kind of conflict now by essentially saying, "We'll wait for the first race, if anyone wants to protest then, we'll deal with it when the time comes."
How often is that the case with the FIA? They should really have been able to check the cars over and make a proper judgement once and for all by now. There are NO excuses.

I'm playing Fantasy F1, and I've decided my two drivers: Button & Vettel. I think that I won't need to change them at all.......
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by Greyhead »

Having watched the practice sessions on the excellent BBC interactive service (us British viewers are really being spoiled this year) I have to say that...

...brace yourselves...

...the cars don't look too bad in action.

In isolation they still don't look right but it only took about five minutes of seeing them at full speed to forget about the strange wings, and they look so much better without all the flick-ups and such.

And great to see Williams and Brawn doing so well.
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by Greyhead »

Wonder how much Honda are regretting their decision to pull out now...
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MaxX
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by MaxX »

2 Brawns in the first row, that`s truly a great new situation for a season opener :) Has there ever been a team winning the race in it`s first attempt? I hope they can make it and the cars will hold.

Hopefully there will be no other FIAsco after the races and well, if a Brawn wins and a Ferrari is in 2nd, we all known that they will be disqualified and the new difusers are totally illegal ;)

I wouldn`t have expected McLaren so weak, but I think they can improve themselves in the race, Vettel on 3rd is also great. Let`s see what happens :)
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by Greyhead »

Jody Scheckter won the first race for Wolf in 1977. However although both Wolf and Brawn were both strictly new entrants, they came from the ashes of old teams.
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by Klon »

MäxX wrote:Hopefully there will be no other FIAsco after the races and well, if a Brawn wins and a Ferrari is in 2nd, we all known that they will be disqualified and the new difusers are totally illegal ;)
Well, we already have a FIAsco:

http://formula-1.updatesport.com/news/a ... /view.html

---> Toyota to the back of the grid. Williams are intending to demand a similar punishment for Ferrari, but how likely is that...? :-)

Another thing worth of note are the revealed fuel loads:
Spoiler: BBCODE_SP_AN
1.Jenson Button 664kg
2.Rubens Barrichello 666
3.Sebastian Vettel 657
4.Robert Kubica 650
5.Nico Rosberg 657
6.Felipe Massa 654
7.Kimi Raikkonen 655
8.Mark Webber 662

9.Nick Heidfeld 691
10.Fernando Alonso 680
11.Kazuki Nakajima 685
12.Heikki Kovalainen 690
13.Sebastien Buemi 675
14.Nelson Piquet 694
15.Giancarlo Fisichella 689
16.Adrian Sutil 684
17.Sebastien Bourdais 662
18.Lewis Hamilton 655
19.Timo Glock 670
20.Jarno Trulli 655
Especially Button's fuel load surprises me. But despite this, I still think tomorrow will be very, and I mean VERY, close. Melbourne's always good for a Safety Car...
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by jakesanson »

Anybody in the top 8 has a chance of winning.
Greyhead wrote:Having watched the practice sessions on the excellent BBC interactive service (us British viewers are really being spoiled this year)
Only the BBC could make it THIS great!
Greyhead wrote:...the cars don't look too bad in action.

In isolation they still don't look right but it only took about five minutes of seeing them at full speed to forget about the strange wings, and they look so much better without all the flick-ups and such.
I have to admit I kind of agree with you. They look a bit odd from some angles, but it's worth it just for the standings!!!

OH MY WOW!!! JENSON FIRST AND RUBENS SECOND!!! CAN LIFE GET ANY BETTER?????

Well, Lewis's car could be working.....

This does mean that next year we may have some new teams come in thinking they can do a Brawn too. Which is a good thing in my view. More teams, means more competition (and full GP2 carsets!!!)
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by Greyhead »

jakesanson wrote: This does mean that next year we may have some new teams come in thinking they can do a Brawn too. Which is a good thing in my view. More teams, means more competition (and full GP2 carsets!!!)
Let's not forget that the Brawn is the result of 15 months of Honda-financed design work... Speaking of which, I see that the excellent Honda advert featuring cars, bikes etc from their past is back on, and still with a BAR-Honda in it...

BCE has already claimed that three new teams are ready to sign up for next season. Although no word as to who they might actually be. OK, so USF1 is likely to be one (and I seriously hope this project can get off the ground) but who are the others?

Going back to Brawn, how easy did they make it look? It wasn't just that they locked out the front row, but the way they did it. You could see that it was just so much easier for Button and Barrichello than it was for everyone else. If one of them can win tomorrow it would be one of the great sporting stories of all time.
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by jakesanson »

Greyhead wrote:Going back to Brawn, how easy did they make it look? It wasn't just that they locked out the front row, but the way they did it. You could see that it was just so much easier for Button and Barrichello than it was for everyone else. If one of them can win tomorrow it would be one of the great sporting stories of all time.
At the end of qualifying, the FIA released the weights of the cars and it showed that Brawn's cars were heavier than any of the others in the top 6!!!!! That means they were carrying more fuel!!!

HOW GOOD DOES THAT MAKE REALLY MAKE THEIR CAR?

McLaren 1988? Williams 1992?? Ferrari 2004????
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Re: [Round 1] - Melbourne 2009

Post by Greyhead »

Wow. That really is something! Surely they can't go on to win... can they?
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