Aussie GP

[Blake]

Well the first Practice session finished only a few hours ago, with McLaren looking very strong claiming positions 1 and 2 in the 2nd practice sessions. Position 3 going to Williams Nick Heidfeld. Schumacher claimed 4th with a 1'26 flat. Overall the 1st session was boring with little action, but the 2nd session is where teams really showed their cards.

The cars are pretty darn quick with a number of cars dipping into the 1'25's. Ferrari's competition seem to be pretty fierce too and it looks like being a ripper of a weekend

Anyway, post your thoughts predictions and results here.

Blake

 

[Brett]

The McLaren has horns!!!

On another note, I think we are going to see all kinds of winglets, little wings, horns, etc.

 

[Blake]

I may be slighly biased but that McLaren is the best looking F1 I have ever seen, I absolutely love the design, AND it's frieking quick 👍

I was suprised by Quick Nick's late push, and dissapointed by Webbers pace.

Blake

 

[Brett]

I don't really have anything against it. I just thought demon car when I first saw it, though for no real particular reason. Really though, I have nothing against the car; in fact, I think the design for the 'horn' wings is rather creative. Though nothing else on the car really stood out to me, as I only caught the last 15 minutes of the second practice and did not get to look at it all that closely.

And how 'bout them Minardi's?

 

[Blake]

The Minardi's, that's just tragic. I really feel for Stoddard. As usual though he is always to-the-point:

But he said 'half of Australia' now thinks Ferrari 'are a bunch of pricks,' and vowed not to run a 2005-legal aero kit 'because it hasn't been tested' and may be dangerous.

Anyway I hope something happens and they can run their 04 spec cars, it would really be dissapointing not to see any Minardi's on the rid.

Blake

 

[Brett]

I think it is pretty freakin' stupid of Ferrari to not allow Minardi to run in the race. All of the rest of the teams have signed to allow Minardi to run, so why won't Ferrari? They must be trembling in fear of what an '04 spec Minardi could run at Albert Park.

 

[Blake]

Top teams are hitting the 25s, I wouldn't be

But I think 2 other teams were considerring not letting them run also, but I think they signed.

It's really a pitty for the sport though

Blake

 

[Brett]

From what I read on another forum, Ferrari is the only team not to sign to allow Minardi. Though I cannot confirm this for sure, as I have not really looked into the matter. But I would think that this is probably the truth.

 

[Blake]

Albers and Friesacher have to wait for their official F1 debut at the moment. The Minardi team is not allowed to take part in Friday's practice and thus have to look how the other teams are doing their first laps. It all looks like a bad situation for the little Italian team.

First it looked like it was only Ferrari who didn't want to give the Minardi team permission to run their 2004 car, but according to FIA President Max Mosley there are now three teams keeping Minardi at the side of the track. In a press release Mosley said that Minardi had received the new regulations already in September so they should have time enough to work on the car with the new regulations.

50-year-old Stoddart has, at least, prevented the calamity from extending further up pitlane, having assured Red Bull and Jordan that - should Minardi race and be in a points-scoring position - the drivers would move over for either team.

But he said 'half of Australia' now thinks Ferrari 'are a bunch of pricks,' and vowed not to run a 2005-legal aero kit 'because it hasn't been tested' and may be dangerous. "And we haven't got enough parts, anyway. But I'm not giving up."

I'm not sure if this is entirely accurate because what I heard from Stoddart made it seem as though Ferrari were the only team holding them back. Whatever the situation it is an unfortunate matter.

I'd hate to see what might happen if no Minardis race

Blake

 

[kensei]

I completely forgot that McLaren can run a 3rd car in practice this year. That will be HUGE. If the merc engine doesn't blow this year McLaren will be very tough to beat. I'm glad all my fantasy F1 leagues I have McLaren heavy teams.

Renault didn't look very impressive. Nor did Ferrari. I bet they sent MS out on the fast lap with little fuel just to play mind games with the rest of the grid. Never ever ever ever count Ferrari out...ever...!!!!

Redbull? What...huh? What was that all about, where did they come from. Running light or not those were som impressive laps Liuzzi and DC put out for what is essentially a modified Jag. Get Klein out of the car already and put Liuzzi in!

The Jordans and their drivers and cars do not belong on the grid. It isn't even funny anymore. Those 3 drivers have NO place on the F1 grid. They are dangerous and way in over their heads, each one of them.

Only one day of practice doesn't tell much we will see more tomorrow in Qualifying and see the cars true pace finally...but it looks to be a good season.

I'm just happy to have F1 back! Looking forward to a Kimi/JPM/McLaren dominated year! Hopefully Trulli can pull some goo results out too. The toyota is off pace but not as far of as it used to be.

I think it is pretty freakin' stupid of Ferrari to not allow Minardi to run in the race. All of the rest of the teams have signed to allow Minardi to run, so why won't Ferrari? They must be trembling in fear of what an '04 spec Minardi could run at Albert Park.

Why should Ferrari cave, jsut because everyone else did. The Speed channel commentators here in the USA brought up two good points. One, that this is payback form Stoddard ignoring Ferrari last year with his test ban plea. Two, Ferrari are running their 04 car and it complies to the rules, why can't Minardi get their act together.

I personally think Ferrari are making a stand on the ground that if they cave this time what happens when a more competitive team wants something like this. Personally I'll be disappointed if Ferrari does cave in here.

The Speed commentators also said that Minardi has all the parts in their garage to make their car "legal" to the 05 spec. What is the big friggin deal about bolting them on. I mean it's Minardi, it won't make any difference. It isn't like the teams showed up to AU an were told "Oh, BTW you need to change all your body work, we have no specs in '05". They have known this since...ummm..September 04?

I'm curious to see the "brand new, never before seen concept" Minardi 05 car they keep talking about.

I also see this little game by Stoddard as a publicity ploy and not much else. It really is pathetic. Even below Eddie Jordon standards....and that is low.

 

[Blake]

Stoddart is claiming that he won't run the '05 spec aero on the car as they haven't been tested and it would be too dangerous. I think it was pretty silly of Stoddart to come to AUS with an 04 spec car WITHOUT all of the teams signatures, expecting Ferrari to cave at the last minute was a pretty stupid thing.

Either way Ferrari did end up caving in, but the Stuards didn't, so now Paul has to hope that the "water-tight" case his lawyers put together to show the tribunal is as water-tight as he says, presonally I hope they see the light and let him race, for the good of the sport if nothing else.

Blake

EDIT:

The Minardi team was not allowed to exit the pitlane on Friday. The pitboxes of the Italian team remained closed. Paul Stoddart left the track right after the practice sessions had ended to go to court and fight the decision of the Stewards. The team confirmed it will at least go out on Saturday

All nine teams agreed unanimously Minardi could run the 2004 specs but the stewards of the meeting ruled out their cars. Stewards said it was "inappropriate and unacceptable" for Minardi to race with cars which did not meet 2005 technical rules.

"It is our view that it is inappropriate and unacceptable to alter the technical regulations with which all competitors comply in order to suit the individual needs of one competitor," read the statement from the stewards.

"We are going to seek a legal remedy and we think we have prepared a water-tight case" commented Minardi team Principal Paul Stoddart.

If the judge won't agree with Stoddart the Minardi team will run the 2005 specs. The team brought parts for the car but never tested these parts and thus would prefer not to use these. Christijan Albers remains relaxed in the hectic situation: "There is nothing I can do about it. I will just wait and see what will happen," he told F1Racing.net.

 

[Dee Man]

Minardi have got a court injunction to run in practice and qaulifying tomorrow and they are back in court tomorrow to see if they can race on Sunday.

 

[DQuaN]

This is rediculous. How can a team not comply to the rules and then complain when they are not allowed to race. I think that they should not run in their 2004 car.


*edit*
Wow! I was just looking at the f1 site and turn 12 puts a lateral force of 3.4g on the driver!

 

[Ev0]

I hate it when politics get in the way of racing. It's all so pointless and petty. And besides, even if the '04 Minardi runs, it's just an '04 Minardi! It's not going to do anything impressive anyways!

 

[vipersan]

I agree - it seemed very stupid and childish to me, when I heard that Ferrari didn't wanna sign the petition to allow Minardi out. But after latest news, there is also BAR and Red Bull. And Minardi has signed if they get any points they will be given to Red Bull. I think that is much worse than Ferrari not wanting to sign petition.

And poor Minardi boss Stoddart finnaly got all signature, but then the stewards don't allow him to practice. That was really low punch by FIA. Did you see in the live coverage Paul Stoddart? With a cigarette and a bottle of wine he looked like a some livin'-on-the-street-drunk .

 

[DQuaN]

It's not childish, it's the rules. What if, in the 100m sprint final in the olympics, there was a Polish athlete who had taken performance enhancing drugs. I doubt the other runners would say "well he is still going to lose so it doesn't matter"!! If they don't comply to the rules they should not be allowed to race. That is what the rules are there for.

 

[sirlosealot]

It's not childish, it's the rules. What if, in the 100m sprint final in the olympics, there was a Polish athlete who had taken performance enhancing drugs. I doubt the other runners would say "well he is still going to lose so it doesn't matter"!! If they don't comply to the rules they should not be allowed to race. That is what the rules are there for.

Pauls argument is that the rules were changed too late and therefore don't apply. Whether that argument will stand up I don't know.

The FIA is in something of a bind right now. They want to reduce both the costs of participation and the overall speed of the cars for safety. But ANY change they make to the rules means more development and testing which increases costs.

I'd like to see Minardi run. But personally I think Stoddart completely mis-managed the whole deal.

 

[Wastegate]

I don't think Fridays times mean very much. Because of the one engine per two GPs rule and the 4 sets of tyre per car per meeting rules, drivers were only doing a limited mileage - and many of them were probably running restricted revs too.

The only things that I can read into the sessions are
1) Liuzzi is going to be a regular F1 driver, and probably won't have to sit on the sidelines all season.
2) McLaren will be a force to reckon with, and de la Rosa will probably get a few fastest times in Friday sessions during the year.

Rain is forecast for Saturday, so it could be that tomorrows times won't be particularly representative either. We might be going into Sunday without any clear indicator of who is going to be quickest in the race. Tasty.

As for Minardi, I think it would be nice to cut them some slack, though expecting to run a 2004-spec car when they've had 5 months to produce new wings for the old one is probably expecting too much. Stoddard's legal bills might soon be more than it would have cost to do the mods and a test session.

 

[kensei]

(shaking his head)

Stoddard is a bigger fool than Eddie Jordan...

(walks away in disgust)

 

[Nasadus]

My younger bother(who checks the F1 news every minute) just told me that Minardi will be driving this weekend on Saturday and Sunday.

On another note,
I hate these time differences.The Saturday qualifying session is Live at 3 o'clock in the morning over here.But i just have to watch it,there is no other way.

*Goes downstairs to get a big cup of coffee*

 

[Small_Fryz]

with the last practise session over, Reikinen (sp) is 1st 1:27.2xx. webber is 6th m schumacher 7th 3 or so seconds behind.

Note it was wet and the track was nearly dry at the end, which is when the laps were posted.

 

[Double_R]

Let minardi race. Ferrari are childish they make up all the rules. I would be interested to see how the minardi 04 car stacks up against the 05 cars.

 

[fangorn_forest]

Ferrari are not being childish, they have already signed for Minardi to race this weekend. It is the stewards who are holding Minardi back now, and I complately agree with them. All teams must comply to the rules, no matter how crappy they are. Period, end of story.

 

[millencolin]

QUALIFYING.... WHAT A MIX UP

With rain at the beginning to greet the Minardi's and Jordan's, the track started to dry when it was basically dry, it rained again, and BIG TIME!! talk about a field mix up, when M.schumacher is at the back, you nkow something is up.

here are the times courtesy of www.crash.net

1. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Renault-Renault 01:33.171
2. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota-Toyota 01:35.270
3. Mark Webber Australia Williams-BMW 01:36.717
4. Jacques Villeneuve Canada Sauber-Petronas 01:36.984
5. Christian Klien Austria Red Bull-Cosworth 01:37.486
6. David Coulthard Britain Red Bull-Cosworth 01:38.320
7. Nick Heidfeld Germany Williams-BMW 01:39.717
8. Jenson Button Britain BAR-Honda 01:41.512
9. Narain Karthikeyan India Jordan-Toyota 01:44.357
10. Kimi Raikkonen Finland McLaren-Mercedes 01:44.997
11. Juan Pablo Montoya Colombia McLaren-Mercedes 01:45.325
12. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari 01:45.481
13. Tiago Monteiro Portugal Jordan-Toyota 01:46.846
14. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault-Renault 01:47.708
15. Christijan Albers Holland Minardi-Cosworth 01:49.230
16. Patrick Friesacher Austria Minardi-Cosworth 01:50.864
17. Ralf Schumacher Germany Toyota-Toyota 01:51.495
18. Michael Schumacher Germany Ferrari-Ferrari 01:57.931
19. Felipe Massa Brazil Sauber-Petronas no time
20. Takuma Sato Japan BAR-Honda no time

all i got to say is GO MARK WEBBER!!!

 

[vipersan]

Yeah, it was great. I hope for more qualifying like that. Mixup is good. Hehe but it really started raining hard just after Massa went into first corner of his qualifying with "slicks", and was at peak when MS was doing his lap, because then - the man of the qualifying (LOL) - Takuma Sato started his warm up lap and hit the wall .

At least the race seems to be very interesting

 

[Schrodes]

I hate these time differences.The Saturday qualifying session is Live at 3 o'clock in the morning over here.But i just have to watch it,there is no other way.

So how do you think we feel for every other race with the exception of Suzuka?

I really don't like the qualifying system this year. It should make no difference to the grid under normal weather conditions. It mixes it up a bit during sessions like today but the teams don't have equal opportunity in qualifying sessions like these.

The FIA put out this press release today.

Motor Sport in Australia
05.03.2005

Yesterday, a Judge in Melbourne issued an injunction ordering that two cars be allowed to run in Saturday?s practice sessions notwithstanding that they did not comply with the regulations for the 2005 FIA Formula One World Championship. The team concerned subsequently announced that it had withdrawn the proceedings and presented cars which complied.

The Stewards of the Australian Grand Prix and the FIA were given no notice of these proceedings and were given no opportunity to be present when the Judge heard the case. A hearing which the FIA could attend was scheduled for 1415 hrs after the sessions had taken place.

Apparently the Judge thought it right to interfere with the running of a major sporting event, overrule the duly appointed international officials and compel the governing body to allow cars to participate in breach of the international regulations, all this without first hearing both sides of the case.

If Australian laws and procedures do indeed allow a Judge to act in this way, it will be for the World Motor Sport Council to decide if a World Championship motor sport event of any kind can ever again be held in Australia.

Just a threat hopefully otherwise events such as the F1, WRC and a future FIA GT round for Australia could be in jeopardy.

 

[vipersan]

Schrodes: I feel sad for your time difference, but still - apart from Races in Canada, America and Brazil (I think that's all of them) you can watch all the eruopean races in late afternoon. That would suit me much more than starts at 14:00. But I would agree, to watch most of races at 4:00 or 6:00 AM would be very uncomfortable.

And for the sake of motorsport I hope, that that statement was just a threat. I love to watch WRC from Australia.

 

[Wastegate]

Ferrari are childish they make up all the rules.

Enlighten me please. I can't for the life of me think of one rule made up by Ferrari. As far as I can remember the FIA or the Technical Working Group of which Ferrari has just 1 vote in 12 make up all the rules between them.

 

[Schrodes]

Schrodes: I feel sad for your time difference, but still - apart from Races in Canada, America and Brazil (I think that's all of them) you can watch all the eruopean races in late afternoon. That would suit me much more than starts at 14:00. But I would agree, to watch most of races at 4:00 or 6:00 AM would be very uncomfortable.

More like 11pm or midnight on sunday nights. The VCR gets a good workout but I usually hear the results on the news sometime on monday and just fast forward through the tape and watch the highlights on monday afternoon.

 

[vipersan]

11PM or midnight for start is late ... sorry to hear that. Thank god for VCR's