2011 Australian Grand Prix

Grayfox
An Ausralian winning the F1, not many people will like that.
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I think the nice Australians watching the race this weekend would disagree with you.

Interesting results... seeing Mclaren up in the mix despite the massive redesign they've had to do over the week.

Qualifying will be F-U-N to watch.

Go Kobayashi!
 
14. Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 01:29.328 21 laps
15. Pastor Maldonado Williams 01:29.403 24 laps
16. Daniel Ricciardo Scuderia Toro Rosso 01:29.468 23 laps

Good result first time at Albert park in an F1 car in fact I think its his first time there in anything.
 
interludes
Well, they were just firing the engine up on Liuzzi's car. Looks like they may just have to put tyres and bodywork on and they can get him out there.
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Good call, they got him out. 2:27 left in P2 and HRT finally rolled out on track. Pretty close to a miracle.

Really looking forward to qualifying. Looks pretty open right now.
 
Grayfox
Turn 3 will be nasty at race start.
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Be a little more concerned for the first corner. Melbourne traditionally begins with with a first-corner accident. Someone is bound to get turned around, and it generally thins the field out before turn three.
 
Well HRT have completed an instalation lap for 2011 in 3 hours of practise.
I guess at least they made it here and got the car out on track but the biggest task they now have is getting both cars on track in P3 and then trying to qualify for the race.

Haha Webber just got asked about running off the road and his reply was "I just ran out of talent" haha.
 
Results
Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap
1 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.854
2 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.986 0.132
3 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:26.001 0.147
4 1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:26.014 0.160
5 2 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:26.283 0.429
6 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:26.590 0.736
7 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:26.789 0.935
8 17 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.101 1.247
9 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:27.280 1.426
10 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:27.448 1.594
 
XRFalcon
He finished 16th with a time of 1:29.468. I think it was a good first result being 2.6 seconds off Webber.
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Yeah! Good stuff when a test driver is competitive. Hopefully he rises to claim a permanent seat in F1.
 
Seismica
From what i've seen so far, Mercedes have made a beast of a car. Mclaren are also right up there, a lot of people underestimated them because of their poor runs in testing.

Red Bull are still far and away the fastest, I reckon over half a second, easily. But I think Ferrari have dropped down to 4th, I reckon Williams will be clipping at their heels. Renault seem to be a little slower than anticipated, partly no doubt due to the lack of Kubica at the wheel.

Also, Maldonado is a joke, he's only using half the circuit width. (Maybe a slight exaggeration)
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I don't see where we can accurately gauge ultimate performance just yet. So far they've had a smattering of off-season testing and a couple practice sessions, and those practice sessions are full of setup tweaking. Being fastest on Friday doesn't mean someone will be fastest or even fourth-fastest on Sunday, and being several positions down the ranks on Friday doesn't mean they won't be on pole Sunday.

I'm going to wait until at least Saturday before I start setting up speculation about true car performance.
 
Looks like Red Bull still might have the speed over McLaren in qualifying as they did their best times on a longer run and also they might not have been using the DRS on their fastest run in FP2. Still McLaren could have had more fuel and also more time to be found in setup due to fundamentally different new floor and exhaust package. Can't wait until qualifying where all the ifs and buts will be answered about true pace as long as there is no rain.

Practice 1 Times

Practice 2 Times

I was impressed that the tyres still gave performance a few laps in to give fastest times as from pre-season I was expecting the tyres to lose a second in the first few laps and constantly drop off but they don't seem to be that bad. The movement on the cars also make the cars look quicker than last year as on TV if the car looks completely planted then it makes F1 cars look slow even though it is faster.

It will be interesting to see how drivers perform as it will more easier to differentiate between the top drivers and the average ones as I can see people doing a lot of mistakes this year. If for say last year was 85% car 15% driver then this year it could be 70% car 30% driver in my opinion.
 
saidur_ali
Looks like Red Bull still might have the speed over McLaren in qualifying as they did their best times on a longer run and also they might not have been using the DRS on their fastest run in FP2. Still McLaren could have had more fuel and also more time to be found in setup due to fundamentally different new floor and exhaust package.
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Don't get too hung up on what could be. FP1 an FP2 mean comparatively little in the grand scheme of things at the best of times, but with the unfamiliar track conditions meaning that the teams had to learn new things about the Pirellis - particularly their performance band - and teams running their own DRS simualtions before race control introduced on and the variable weather patterns (headwinds on the main straight were reported as crosswinds ten minutes later), the times mean even less right now.
 
interludes
Don't get too hung up on what could be. FP1 an FP2 mean comparatively little in the grand scheme of things at the best of times, but with the unfamiliar track conditions meaning that the teams had to learn new things about the Pirellis - particularly their performance band - and teams running their own DRS simualtions before race control introduced on and the variable weather patterns (headwinds on the main straight were reported as crosswinds ten minutes later), the times mean even less right now.
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The "what could be" part is interesting though like before GT5 was released. I know the times are less important now so I can't wait until qualifying and hope it is dry so we can get a clearer idea on pace. The current lap times are quite fast so I doubt they are running high fuel loads on their fast runs. Usage of Kers is also another performance gain and we don't know if the teams were fully running it. Adrian Newey thinks / hopes they are ahead by 0.3 to 0.5 secs, it will be interesting if his prediction is true but that was predicted before the practice sessions today.

Ferrari look also very strong especially having ex McLaren and Red Bull employees to give them insider information on what was good about the RB6 and MP4-25.

The only reason I'm not heavily optimistic on McLaren is looking at previous cars such as the RB5 vs the MP4-25 in Silverstone, the 2009 Red Bull was more planted than the 2010 McLaren and the 2010 RB6 was ahead of both so it is clear to see that Red Bull have top people working on the aerodynamics. I'm just happy that McLaren are trying to innovate rather than sit back and go for more conventional designs this year and this could be the difference between winning the constructors championship which they haven't won for over a decade.

I think one thing that is impressive with McLaren is they develop all the way to the end of the season even with a bad car unlike a lot of teams who change the focus to next years car early on if their car is not performing well. However this could have been hindering them the last couple of years as they always seem a month or two short as they just seem to be getting on to the pace towards the last race.

Anyway it was interesting to see how bumpy the cars are on the track, and also the drivers looked like they were being moved about quite a lot. The Red Bull front wing seemed to be running quite close to the ground or is it just me? :sly:
 
saidur_ali
The only reason I'm not heavily optimistic on McLaren is looking at previous cars such as the RB5 vs the MP4-25 in Silverstone, the 2009 Red Bull was more planted than the 2010 McLaren and the 2010 RB6 was ahead of both
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I'm sorry, what? The 2011 McLaren car isn't very good because because a car built by another team in 2009 was better thn their 2009 car?

That makes no sense.
 
interludes, saidur just said he isn't optimistic, not that the car isn't good. And granted, RBR had the best car last year also (by a very comfortable margin) so it's only natural they get the favoritism for the first races this season. The others have a bigger hill to climb (if this makes sense in English)
 
interludes
I'm sorry, what? The 2011 McLaren car isn't very good because because a car built by another team in 2009 was better thn their 2009 car?

That makes no sense.
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I was saying Red Bull's 2009 car had better downforce than McLaren's 2010 car at Silverstone.

2009 Red Bull

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

2010 McLaren

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

2010 Red Bull

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Suonnr9oP4

What I'm trying to get at is that a 2009 Red Bull car with some race fuel onboard can take corners faster than a low fuel 2010 McLaren, the 2010 Red Bull was on another level. I know Mclaren had to go back to their old floor but still shows the difference in both teams engineers on how much downforce they can achieve. I just worry that McLaren will again be short of Red Bull's downforce again because what they think aiming high for them might be average for the Red Bull team of engineers.

Most of us know that downforce is king at the moment and past form over the two years show Red Bull are at the moment best in the business with Ferrari close behind or might be even ahead this year. The only hope with McLaren is they are trying new things so they might be able to leap Red Bull.

Here are drivers interviews for Red Bull and McLaren, I think it is for UK only users:

Red Bull Drivers

Good to see Vettel having a joke about Lewis's comments about them being just a drinks company.

McLaren Drivers
 
saidur_ali
I was saying Red Bull's 2009 car had better downforce than McLaren's 2010 car at Silverstone.
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And what does that have to do with 2011?

It's only relevant if you assume downforce has increased in equal quantities from year to year for both teams. Which it hasn't.
 
interludes
And what does that have to do with 2011?

It's only relevant if you assume downforce has increased in equal quantities from year to year for both teams. Which it hasn't.
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It shows the difference in the ingenuity of the aerodynamic engineers of both teams and their recent form. Most of the people in both Red Bull and McLaren who design the cars and the people around them are still there from 2009 and it is clear to see that Red Bull have been ahead in both of the last two seasons.

McLaren this year are trying their best to be radical in their own way but they have gone back to a Red Bull style exhaust. Red Bull still seem to the pioneers at the moment and as Vettel says they have the right people in the right places. Even McLaren said last year they are not clever enough to get the front wings to behave like Red Bull and Ferrari wings can. I'm hoping the McLaren is as fast as the Red Bull and Ferrari so we can see a british driver having a better chance to winning the title again.

In my opinion past form has everything to do with 2011 cars especially with similar car technical regulations, quite a lot of cars are evolutions of last years concepts. You won't see me saying that Red Bull might become a back marker anytime soon with the current regulations like you most likely won't see an HRT win a race as past form suggests one will be good and one will be bad in 2011 due to the difference in size, budget and ingenuinty in staff between the two teams.

I can understand your point if the regulations changed hugely like from 2008 to 2009 but they have not. The regulations are a bit of 2009 and 2010 with Kers from 2009 and beginning of 2009 most cars having single diffusers. Red Bull was the best single diffuser car at the beginning of 2009 and there is no reason why they can't be again. The RB6 also had so much more downforce than the rivals that it made the MP4-25 look as bad as MP4-24 was at the start of the season. Hungaroring showed this. The only reason why McLaren were up there is due to most of the other teams being even further behind. I don't see the Red Bull engineers becoming dumber from 2010 to 2011 personally. One thing I expect though is McLaren to be closer due to getting better understanding of the concepts of the blown floor from last year which Red Bull were a pioneer of as well as the special engine mode.
 
First impressions from practice thus far:
-Maldanado looks pretty amateur.
-Perez, by comparison, looks very impressive.
-Sauber and Williams look to be quite competitive.
-It seems the drivers are struggling in the braking zones which suggests to me that they are still not used to KERS and its effects on braking. I remember a Kovalainen interview saying that you have to remember to discharge un-used KERS power before you brake if its already at full charge as it can badly effect the braking. We saw Fisichella struggling with the F60 KERS so at least for this weekend it appears this will be a factor in the race. Opportunities created from braking mistakes?
-The rear-wing adjust looks great in action, its especially fun to see the drivers adjusting it from far away and then seeing it shut when they hit the brakes. Its quite a nice visual indication of what the driver is doing, you can actually see their braking points.
-Worrying times for Lotus, Virgin and HRT as they don't look great. HRT is nothing surprising but Lotus really need to sort out their pace for tomorrow.
-Its nice to hear different exhuast notes for a change (and some of the gear changes!).
-The Renault livery looks ok on the onboard camera but outside :yuck:
-Tyres are going to be the watchword for the weekend and the season as we thought from testing. The cars look very loose at this track, which they didn't so much with the Bridgestones. Watching Alonso and Kobayashi using some counter-steer is fantastic. More of this please!
-Some of the camera angles FOM are using are great. I especially liked the over-the-shoulder-cam on Alonso's car, you could see a lot more of the steering wheel and a more level eye-line with the track as well as seeing and feeling more of the bumps!
 
Ardius
-Its nice to hear different exhuast notes for a change (and some of the gear changes!).
!
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Yes! The sound quality has been greatly improved over previous seasons. I'm absolutely loving it, especially the sounds coming from the McLaren and Renault.
 
I wonder how to Super Soft Pirellis will be like, the Medium ann Hards blistered quite badly(but this could be due to the drivers not use to the new compounds.).
 
IceMan PJN
I don't see where we can accurately gauge ultimate performance just yet. So far they've had a smattering of off-season testing and a couple practice sessions, and those practice sessions are full of setup tweaking. Being fastest on Friday doesn't mean someone will be fastest or even fourth-fastest on Sunday, and being several positions down the ranks on Friday doesn't mean they won't be on pole Sunday.

I'm going to wait until at least Saturday before I start setting up speculation about true car performance.
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I know this :) I'm already doubting my predictions about Ferrari for example, though the rest I am sticking by.
 
Ardius
-Some of the camera angles FOM are using are great. I especially liked the over-the-shoulder-cam on Alonso's car, you could see a lot more of the steering wheel and a more level eye-line with the track as well as seeing and feeling more of the bumps!
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I noticed that last season Alonso was shown with that camera more often than any other driver. I like this view as it shows how low the cars are to the ground.

Jackington
Yes! The sound quality has been greatly improved over previous seasons. I'm absolutely loving it, especially the sounds coming from the McLaren and Renault.
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The McLaren sounded strange but I like it as well as the design mostly due to the sidepods. Thank goodness the exhaust works reliably.
 

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