Apparently the weather guys are predicting rain for Qualy with possible showers on Sunday "evening". So be prepared for some "slipin and a slidin" ..not real happy about cars being taken out due to slick/rain track but that's racing.

Recall last year the cars tended to oversteer due to better grip up front relative to rear. So this year Bridgestone and FIA decided to reduce the tire size significantly to compensate for this result. Well, this might have been effective for a single car on the track but apparently for overtaking it has become a real detriment. This from Barricello who blames the front tire size for increasing the difficulty in passing: "You cannot follow, the front of the car washes out. When you grab the throttle back on with lots of lock, you lose the back end so the car in front just goes away. Then you're into saving fuel and the race becomes a bit hard."

Not testing the effects of this tire change under all conditions of the race vis., cornering and following/passing another car appears at first to be rather astounding but...then again not so. Le Mans and Mercedes comes to mind...Merc tested their car at an oval track for 24 hrs prior to Le Mans that year (forget which year) and felt that they were ready for the race. Then, during the race, in the undulating parts of the Moussin straight while drafting another car, their car lost downforce in conjuction with the track undulation and the car became airborne and literally flew/flipped up into the air landing in the adjacent woods. How could a company like Mercedes make such a stupid mistake? Testing UR car under race conditions, all conditions is what is required. Bridgestone and the FIA..asleep at the wheel...again

Later, Ken

 

Wow, no comments yet...

I just got done watching it, I think in saying it was a lot better then Bore-rain is a major understatement. Thats what all the races should be like... I hope it rains (just a little, not like last year) in Malaysia...

I won't comments on results just in case some of you haven't seen it yet...

 

Yeah, I thought the race was great! Infinitely better than I expected after the 1st race too. My favorite part was when Hamilton threw the hissy fit after he pitted to change tires the 2nd time. Makes me wonder if he would have done that with Ron Dennis on the other end of the radio.

 

I think Melbourne was a better race than the last because of two things: rain and tire degredation. Specifically, the rain resulted in poor traction and brought a lot of the cars to equal footing which resulted in bunching, traffic with obvious outcomes...contact..lose of parts... damage..crashes. In addition, the Melbourne track is very hard on tires, so graining was a big factor resulting in conflicts between two or one stop strategies. This affected the finishing order significantly. One that stands out is Hamilton but not the way he saw it: "I was in P3 and everyone else didn't stop - but I stopped. I had already stopped once, and my tyres were fine and they would have lasted. Maybe I would have struggled a bit towards the end - but that is what all the other guys did. I was brought in for another stop, even though I would have preferred to stay out, but I didn't question the decision because I trusted that was the right one."
IMHO this statment attempts to overshadow the real problem Hamilton had, namely his hard driving style. He claims that his tires were ok when he came in on his second stop and that he could have made it to the end on the original set. However, this is inconsistent with what happened when he attempted to run through the field with new second set of tires..he radioed in that he had lost these new tires! How could he have made it to the end with the first set if he lost the new ones so early on in this stint? Bottom line: Button, because of his easier driving style relative to tire wear, was able to make it to the end on the single set whereas Hamilton would not have been able to do same despite his claims to the contrary and blaiming poor strategy...poor looser here.

Later, Ken

 

Previously, others, herein, have said Red Bull cannot win because they have "reliability issues". And this weekend, Vettel was unable to win this weekend, again, due to a failure to mount the left front tire correctly resulting in brake failure. While it is true, this, as well as last weekend were, in fact, "reliablity issues", they were not associated with the Renault engine which is where all the fingers have been pointing when this issue has been raised regarding Red Bulls challenge for dominance in 2010. So for the record, outsourced parts and pit crew errors, not the Renault engine, have been responsible for Red Bulls (specifically Vettel) inability to win these first two races despite their obvious dominance over the other team cars.

Later, Ken

Addendum: Suggestion that RB has been able to lower car to extreme levels in Qualy thereby getting more downforce and then readjust level under fulll fuel load via gas shocks (another loophole in regulations)...other teams will follow suit to bridge existing speed gap

 

Hami is a little cry baby, has been since he came into the sport. Yesterday just further proves that point.

I can't believe the way he was blasting the team over the radio, save it for after the race!

 

The Race Was amazing! I hope they are all like that! but with fewer dnfs.

Hami is a nanny.

Great race... I can't wait to see what Kevin comes back with for photos and stories!

 

+1000 to that. I can't believe he came on the radio to whine. Would love to be a fly one the wall when MW and some of the other folks on his team have a talk with him. First he gets his road car impounded by local police, then crashes out of the race. Not the best of weekends, I'd say. It was very amusing to see how his frustration kept building throughout the race, especially with Button in the lead. You could really tell it was getting to him. IMO LH's biggest problem continues to be his hyper competitiveness. It will continue to be very difficult for him to win another driver's championship if he can't keep his cool.

Overall a great race. Nice to see Button win, but I feel bad for Vettel. Red Bull really needs to get their $heot together... Things like a failing spark plug and failed front brake due to an incorrectly mounted wheel sounds to me like a lack of paying attention to details.

l8r)

 

I highly doubt the either of those failures were foreseeable, everything on a F1 car is rehashed 10-15 times before the first car makes it on the grid, I think it's the lack of on track testing that causes the reliability issues. I hear what your saying but in order to be that fast something has to give! To me the front wing failures of Kobayashi are much more troublesome.

Hat's off to RBR for being so fast out of the box, I still think every other team is a little behind the ball in terms of outright pace, in terms of the total package(car, drivers, crew, strategy) except for maybe Ferrari.

Scorke

 

Wow what a race!

I loved to see Hami cry and berate his own team on the intercom, really shows what a poor sport he is in all of this. They took a chance and it didn't pay off. Remember he was saying that the tires had went away before the second stop.

I feel so bad for SV, he should have had 2 wins but Racing is a cruel mistress.

Why is it that this race is always so hard on cars? More cars go out at this race then any other gp.

Alonso had to have been the star of the day. He moved through the entire field amazingly quick.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt_PJqM-sRc

If you had Mclaren support since you were this young you would be a whiny lil bish too!!!



Scorke

 

I blame Newey. He made super fast cars for Kimi at McLaren in the mid 2000's, but those weren't reliable either, and now look at what's happening to Vettel at RBR.....again.

 

I think it's because Australia is always one of the 1st couple of races in the season, so there's better opportunity for weaknesses in design and/or parts to show themselves.

 

He joined Mclaren in 98, which I think Mika won, his job in the early 2000's was to build cars that would make it possible for mortals to beat Schumacher, he left in 2005 so I am not sure what you mean by Mid 2000's.

You have to remember that probably half or more of the failures for Mclaren/Mercedes in those early 2000's were engine failures, something Newey had no control over. Kimi came second in points in 2003 and 2005 so the cars were good enough to almost win the drivers champ...

Scorke

 

The two races with the highest rates of attrition are Melbourne and Montreal according to Speed as of last race's broadcast.

Good thought, but I think if that was the case, Bahrain and or Malaysia would be up there two but they are nowhere close, indicating that it has to do with the track layout and the racing that happens on them!

Scorke