2008 Australian Grand Prix

  • Thread starter Thread starter Metar
  • 260 comments
  • 13,481 views
It's starting to seem like to me Bernie is stuck on a night thing. Being a global sport with worldwide audience I think race should be held to suit host country fanbase. While a Eurosport, he can't have exotic destinations and expect them to 'light up' too. We'll see, but the night thing is a novelty thus far and could affect attendance numbers. I like things fine currrently and don't mind staying up to see F1 in daylight running conditions.
 
must say i can see a lot more downfalls to the night time Australia race than a day one. First off Melbourne is in no way suitable for a night time F1 race. I live within 10 minutes of the city(Albert park is on the outskirts of the city) and every year that I haven't been to the F1 I can clearly hear the F1 cars from my house. Now if they go and have a race at 11pm I really don't see many Melbournians being happy about it. We had enough protests about noise when the GP first started in Melbourne, hate to see what would happen if it was moved to a night race. Even if the race is moved somewhere else this would cause problems. Move to another city you are still at square one. Move to a location further out from the city and attendance will significantly fall. It's catch 22 for Australian GP organisers really. Makes me think Ecclestone just want's to get rid of the Australian GP and this night race idea is a plot to accomplish it.

Also yes I can see that the F1 needs to be broadcast at a reasonable time for everyone in the world and that having a more reasonable timeslot increases viewers significantly. But I need to be up from 3am - 6am to watch all the F1 races around the world. I think Europeans can deal with having a late night/early start at least once in a year if I can do it for every other race apart from the Australian GP.

Anyhow i'll be going from tomorrow (thursday) to watch some of the support categories and can't wait to hear the F1's again. As an avid Ferrari fan i'm going to have to bet on Raikkonen.
 
J-PaP, how I envy you, but you have a point about the 'noise'. Once Bernie gets an idea he usually doesn't compromise. Seems sometimes there's no pleasing him.
 
To think i was about to blaze onto here and state that there would be a first corner smash up. already been discussed 👎

:D
 
Alex.
To think i was about to blaze onto here and state that there would be a first corner smash up. already been discussed 👎

:D
Click to expand...

Still open for debate, any food for thought?
 
I think Ferrari will have a one-two finish, hopefully with Massa ahead. I'm also excited to see how Piquet Jr. will do on his F1 debut.
 
Some pictures of the preparations:


If there's a pileup, we'll get to see those:

93408.jpg


Formula Swim?

93366.jpg


Or Beach Buggies?

93387.jpg


McLaren's secret data didn't reveal the new way to attach sponsor-stickers - ducktape.

93410.jpg


While McLaren, Ferrari and Honda keep their cars veiled:

93354.jpg

93352.jpg

93356.jpg
 
Few artsy shots . . .

Safety Car:





Medical Car:

 
Metar, keep doing what your doing!
 
Bee
"Bernie, I thought your bedtime was 10pm?" Lame but a start.
Click to expand...

OHH ROFL!!!.. Someone who is going Sunday please make that sign :) ..
 
Blake
I’m heading down on the Friday morning to see this. I’m considering making a banner for Saturday insulting Ecclestone for making us get up at midnight to watch our own GP. If anyone has any funny or clever suggestions I’d like to hear them, see if I can’t get a photo of it taken for GPUpdate. ;)
Click to expand...
I'd do something along the lines of likening Bernie Ecclestone to Ernst Stavro Blofeld. It's lame, but Eccle Stone Blofeld is all I've got right now. In my defence, I've used up my quota of wordplay for the day.
 
I have to pick my wife up at the airport during qualifying so some needs to post a good report on it here. I will be watching the race live on SpeedTV.
 
The woman can take a cab! :p
 
The thing I realized during practice is that, frankly, we have no idea at all. The field is so much more mixed than it was in testing. 👍


Some new parts appeared on the midfield and backmarkers, but I still can't find the changes in Ferrari's promised new aero...

Force India's wingmirrors:

bnmfyvbunczjcibuagq.jpg

93890.jpg

mytvounujtmslekawdj.jpg


Difference is obvious, but I'm not sure which one's newer. The first one on Giancarlo's look more modern :lol:

And Super Aguri's small addition in front of the mirrors:

shzohntmsyflhoungzs.jpg

jvxmfzvchbhntqwciby.jpg


And a rather bolted-on third plane on their wing:

d08aus1016.jpg


And a shock! Three mirrors at Renault!

93904.jpg


Look how similar the Force India and McLaren liveries look:

93867.jpg

93864.jpg
 
Friday Practice 1:
1st - K. Raikkonen (Fer) - 1'26.461
2nd - L. Hamilton (McL) - 1'26.948
3rd - F. Massa (Fer) - 1'26.958
4th - H. Kovalainen (McL) - 1'27.114
5th - M. Webber (Red) - 1'28.263
6th - F. Alonso (Ren) - 1'28.360
7th - R. Kubica (BMW) - 1'28.579
8th - T. Glock (Toy) - 1'28.913
9th - S. Vettel (Tor) - 1'28.957
10th - J. Trulli (Toy) - 1'29.014
11th - J. Button (Hon) - 1'29.124
12th - G. Fisichella (Ind) - 1'29.230
13th - D. Coulthard (Red) - 1'29.301
14th - S. Bourdais (Tor) - 1'29.363
15th - R. Barrichello (Hon) - 1'29.533
16th - N. Heidfeld (BMW) - 1'29.561
17th - A. Sutil (Ind) - 1'30.155
18th - N. Piquet (Ren) - 1'30.357
19th - T. Sato (Agu) - 1'31.048
20th - A. Davidson (Agu) - 1'31.771
21st - K. Nakajima (Wil) - 1'35.053
22nd - N. Rosberg (Wil) - No time
 
And Friday Practice 2:

Code: 
1.	Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:26.559	+ 0.000	33
2.	Webber		Red Bull-Renault	1:27.473	+ 0.914	27
3.	Massa		Ferrari			1:27.640	+ 1.081	29
4.	Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:27.683	+ 1.124	28
5.	Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:28.037	+ 1.478	26
6.	Raikkonen	Ferrari			1:28.208	+ 1.649	28
7.	Trulli		Toyota			1:28.292	+ 1.733	22
8.	Rosberg		Williams-Toyota		1:28.352	+ 1.793	31
9.	Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	1:28.469	+ 1.910	32
10.	Glock		Toyota			1:28.582	+ 2.023	28
11.	Button		Honda			1:28.632	+ 2.073	30
12.	Heidfeld	BMW Sauber		1:28.731	+ 2.172	32
13.	Alonso		Renault			1:28.779	+ 2.220	37
14.	Barrichello	Honda			1:28.849	+ 2.290	28
15.	Kubica		BMW Sauber		1:28.860	+ 2.301	35
16.	Nakajima	Williams-Toyota		1:29.077	+ 2.518	33
17.	Sutil		Force India-Ferrari	1:29.161	+ 2.602	32
18.	Vettel		Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:29.193	+ 2.634	40
19.	Piquet		Renault			1:29.518	+ 2.959	14
20.	Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:29.605	+ 3.046	11
21.	Sato		Super Aguri-Honda	1:30.663	+ 4.104	16
22.	Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	1:31.527	+ 4.968	8

Note Honda's sudden jump in pace in both sessions, compared to winter tests...

While Red Bull seem on fire lately. Quite literally:

93889.jpg
 
Red Bull is really doing great 👍

Williams and BMW seem to be nowhere at the moment though, while Honda did better then I expected 👍 Too bad the car with the best livery is driving in the back though, and good job by Toyota, keeping those cars quite higher up there then I expected they would be 👍
 
Williams had two gearbox problems, and BMW Sauber had some troubles as well, if I recall correctly.
 
93904.jpg


For those tricky parallel parking attempts in cities.
 
More precisely, we'll know how fast everyone is in a race or two - the amount of mixing in the grid is amazing, with excellent drivers fishtailing and sliding. We'll have to wait, at least until the race is over, before we can jump to conclusions about the cars. So far, we can only judge the drivers, and how well they're coping with the lack of traction-control - which seems to have cause an impact far greater than imagined, or far greater than seen in testing.
 
Looked as if Raikonnen had little problem with electronics ban. Let's keep in mind Albert park is never sticky and used once per year, where Jerez saw most of the testing. I was 'impressed' how much faster RedBull/RENAULT was over factory Renault, hmm. I suspect Qualifying will be an eye opener.
 
Nelsinho had some serious trouble in the first session, and he's also very new... While Webber is already trying to play down the pace.
 
Yes, but I'm referring to P2/P13 comparison. I don't expect much from Piquet.
 
mustang245
Looked as if Raikonnen had little problem with electronics ban. Let's keep in mind Albert park is never sticky and used once per year, where Jerez saw most of the testing. I was 'impressed' how much faster RedBull/RENAULT was over factory Renault, hmm. I suspect Qualifying will be an eye opener.
Click to expand...

He had problems with the electronics ban because he had the fastest time of the day?

Alonso I guess was right at home, having went off 2-3 times in the same corner (turn 7).

I suspect Alonso will barely make Q3, if even that.
 
Guesses anyone?
 
FatAssBR
Guesses anyone?
Click to expand...

Sebastian Bourdais will win.

It was awesosme to see F1 back on TV today, I sure did miss it. I can't wait for the next two days!
 
Back