F1 Australian Grand Prix

First race of the season, who is going to win?

Final Qualifying...

1. Lewis Hamilton, Britain, McLaren-Mercedes, 1 minute, 26.714 seconds.
2. Robert Kubica, Poland, BMW-Sauber, 1:26.869.
3. Heikki Kovalainen, Finland, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:27.079.
4. Felipe Massa, Brazil, Ferrari, 1:27.178.
5. Nick Heidfeld, Germany, BMW-Sauber, 1:27. 236.
6. Jarno Trulli, Italy, Toyota, 1:28. 527.
7. Nico Rosberg, Germany, Williams, 1:28.687.
8. David Coulthard, Britain, Red Bull, 1:29.041.
9. Timo Glock, Germany, Toyota, 1:29.593.
10. Sebastian Vettel, Germany, Toro Rosso, did not start.

I hope Lewis Hamilton as he is Britains best chance. :rockon:

Go Ferrari....

You got to figure that Lewis is in with a shout. But Kubica was on fire too. But for that big moment towards the end of his lap, he could have been on pole.

Who's sitting up to watch it live? Yep, I'll be there :thumbup:

Did you folks see the 1:26.86 lap that Kubica posted? That was a rush as I was really puckered for that guy when he blew that last turn and did some agricultural racing. You almost have to go with Hamilton if he can hold it together. The lack of traction controls this year has made for some rather interesting moments.

We got the crash derby in Thunder Valley at Bristol this weekend too. Oh, did I mention the 12 hours of Sebring is on too. With 3 and a half hours left this thing is still up in the air.....

Was this a first class screw up or what? Seven of the 22 cars finished and none of the 5 or 6 Ferrari powered machines made it. To make matters even worse, two of the cars got together with under caution and beat each other up (WTF)? Glock went off the track and hit a rise which launched his car into the air subsequently destroying the car and I think this race will go down in history as a bad lesson learned.

I have often thought F1A could take a number of lessons from NASCAR and this proves it. There is no reason for 15 or 16 people to be in and around a car while being serviced in the pits as represented by the Honda screw up. Then, the driver of that Honda is apparently color blind as he failed to stop for the red light at the end of pit road; which the track officials missed completely but the tape feed didn't.. What? A red light on pit road? Yeah, these guys have a signal at the end of pit road. They still haven't figured out what lift jacks are either so they use the rather archaic roll stands to lift the cars. They might want to talk with the IRL folks about upgrading.

Hamilton led all but like 5 of the 58 laps and he ran a very clean race with consistent low lap times. Great way to start off the season and I am certain he will win many more this year. Now it's off to Malaysia next week.

It's interesting to see who can REALLY drive without all the traction control. This season is going to be very interesting.

Great race.

Result:

1. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes 58 laps one hour 34 minutes 50.616 seconds
2. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber +5.478 secs
3. Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota +8.163
4. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault +17.181
5. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes +18.014
DQ Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda +52.453
6. Kazuki Nakajima* (Jpn) Williams-Toyota 1 lap behind

Good to see the WilliamsF1 Team doing well.

I watched it this afternoon as I was not willing to get up/go to bed at silly O'Clock. Since the kids came a long I get little chance to watch F1, but luckily it was raining this afternoon
I really hope Hamilton does it this season, it was a shame that he just missed out last season.
One thing that always bugged me with F1 is that they have to change the rules every couple of years, just to throw you off (some things are for safety and others are for the sheer hell of it). I can understand why F1 doesn't take off in America.

Pseudo Cloggy said:

One thing that always bugged me with F1 is that they have to change the rules every couple of years, just to throw you off (some things are for safety and others are for the sheer hell of it). I can understand why F1 doesn't take off in America.

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I couldn't agree more PC. F1 is to me the ultimate form of racing but their rules and the way they operate are so messed up it takes all the fun out of it not only for the race teams but more importantly the viewing public and this unfortunately is the people paying the bill. An example of this would be the caution limitations where the driver can not pit to fuel under caution without getting a 10 second penalty. Safety is another issue that bugs me as there is no reason at all to have 15-16 people over that wall during the service sequence. That's just crazy and begging for incident. Another issue that gets me and this isn't limited to F1 is drivers cutting curbs. This also begs for incident as represented by the Glock case in Australia. Had that rise in terra firma not been there the car would never have launched itself and literally come apart.

As far as F1 in the United States goes you have to think about where racing comes from here. In the early days of racing in the United States the tracks were often converted horse tracks and dirt/clay to boot. So, folks got used to the oval track and all left turns. This same thing held true in the early days of motorcycle racing when they used to run on board tracks. To this day, I love watching the flat track folks and the outlaw sprint cars. That's racing. So now, the technology in NASCAR has brought us to a point the cars are very safe in terms relative to racing, competition is tight as represented by the number of times the last 200 feet can make you or break you after 500 miles and the fan base for this is unreal in terms of marketing and the sale of the various product lines. Please understand I am by no means suggesting all racing be like NASCAR. Only that other forms of racing could take a few lessons from the advances and achievements NASCAR has gained and learned from.

F1 is back, if the rest of the season is as exciting as this i will be a very happy chappy. removing the traction control was a master stroke all we need now is to go back to slick tyres and were back to the good old days.

finboz said:

F1 is back, if the rest of the season is as exciting as this i will be a very happy chappy. removing the traction control was a master stroke all we need now is to go back to slick tyres and were back to the good old days.

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I wouldn't say it was back as last year the Australian Grand Prix lost 34 million but I will say they are headed in a better direction. The F1 series to me needs some major changes to improve their marketing potential. They couldn't make it in Long beach where the IRL could. One thing is for certain, they'll need to get more than 30% of the starting field to finish before things can truly get interesting. They need to lose that red light at the end of pit road too.

finboz said:

F1 is back, if the rest of the season is as exciting as this i will be a very happy chappy. removing the traction control was a master stroke all we need now is to go back to slick tyres and were back to the good old days.

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Slick tyres next year. :Flash:

HavBlue said:

I wouldn't say it was back as last year the Australian Grand Prix lost 34 million but I will say they are headed in a better direction. The F1 series to me needs some major changes to improve their marketing potential. They couldn't make it in Long beach where the IRL could. One thing is for certain, they'll need to get more than 30% of the starting field to finish before things can truly get interesting. They need to lose that red light at the end of pit road too.

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as the season progreses the cars should get more reliable and as nine cars didnt finish due to accidents hopefully the drivers will get more skillfull. watching the cars do four wheel drifts out of corners was great, i always wanted it to rain during races to see who the best drivers were now i get the same effect in the dry. on that point though if nine cars can crash in perfect racing conditions what will happen on a rain soaked track?

grommit said:

Slick tyres next year. :Flash:

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Don't forget Turbo, Senna, Prost and Mansell still hold respectible times in proper gear changing cars with half the amount of technology.
I also liked the days of limited fuel. Remember Mansell pushing his car to the finish?

finboz said:

as the season progreses the cars should get more reliable and as nine cars didnt finish due to accidents hopefully the drivers will get more skillfull. watching the cars do four wheel drifts out of corners was great, i always wanted it to rain during races to see who the best drivers were now i get the same effect in the dry. on that point though if nine cars can crash in perfect racing conditions what will happen on a rain soaked track?

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In a sense the cars had become so technologically advanced they were taking
the race away from the driver and on that note I couldn't agree with you more. It's back to basics and a welcome sight for this race fan.

I totally agree, I went off the sport for a while as it had all got so boring and predictable. Hopefully this is a taste of things to come :thumbup:

perryn said:

Don't forget Turbo, Senna, Prost and Mansell still hold respectible times in proper gear changing cars with half the amount of technology.
I also liked the days of limited fuel. Remember Mansell pushing his car to the finish?

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Who can forget Red 5

perryn said:

Don't forget Turbo, Senna, Prost and Mansell still hold respectible times in proper gear changing cars with half the amount of technology.
I also liked the days of limited fuel. Remember Mansell pushing his car to the finish?

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They were the best days of F1 when all of the driving was done with pure skill with one hand steering while the other changed gear not like today where they have everything on the steering wheel.

Bring back slicks and NO team orders.:banghead:

I have not watched F1 for sometime now cos it just got BORING.Money and technology is just killing the sport. :rant:

Numpty said:

I have not watched F1 for sometime now cos it just got BORING.Money and technology is just killing the sport.

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Yes, money and the advancements in technology have ruined it. While many don't care for the NASCAR series you will note the lack of computer based technologies, use of carbs and what's this, the engineers actually have to make changes based on a stop watch and driver based opinion? What a novel thought, making a car go faster because the driver and a stop watch said we screwed up.