I quite enjoyed the race.
I quite enjoyed the race.
It was a race made for Keith, i fear Graham!
Good that the race season has begun but certainly not a gr8 ad for F1....
Vettel looks a good champ,Hamiltons still got the drive and ambition (who wudn't with that pussycat!!), Button frustrated, Webber seems head f$%&ed! and probably Massa as well! Alonso had a poor day too but will always be there or there abouts.
Midfield battles will get closer and closer and Bransons Virgin CFD policy looks doomed still 6-7sec per lap slower than RBR!
FinallySchumy out of luck again.........
Bring on the sunshine, humidity and afternoon thunder showers in KL in 2 weeks!!
(& the Tiger Beer!)
Well you've got to admit it wasn't without the odd drama or two.
All in all not too bad a start I'd say.
Spurred me on to several wins on the trot on the Xbox online racing game anyway.
If my opposition knew that I was practically in the grave they'd be sick as dogs.
It wasn't a great advertisment for F1 as you say Alan, but it seems the first race never is. Same happened in Bahrain last year and everyone was complaining, wanting to change the rules then the race after it was all forgotten about. Everyone is still developing the car and at different stages. A brilliant drive by Petrov and a great result for Lewis!
Malaysia will be different
...and it never improved after that
It's not a 'race' when you know before the start the grid leaders are statistically the likeliest winners, and that 80% of the fielf have less than a 5% chance of winning. The top teams will take turns in winning as usual, and when one of the 5% gets on the podium a big fuss is made of it, but it's usually because so many of the faster cars either broke, crashed or spun off in the rain.
If it was a horse race, and you used the same horses for 18 races through the year, people would just be bored sick by the end of it seeing the same Class animals winning .... and the handicapper would be shot.
Keith - Administrator
Who would have bet on Petrov being podium position ?
Round 2 in Sepang this weekend!
Redbull looking class of the field with Mclaren very close behind!
Will be a good race as the KL temperatures have not yet been experienced on the Pirelli Tyre!
KL is a great city and gets involved in the atmosphere....Wish i was there! hmmmmmm
So, Same winner as Melbourne but a more unusual race...
Button excelled, Webber also with a handicap...
Heidfeild spiced up the race with a great start..
The Kers & DRS (Rear Wing) made a difference too... not sure its in the true ethics of the sport. Making it a little false for me personally.
The races have produced more overtaking which is what people were asking for but i am not sure the average tv spectator can follow whats going on with so many pitstops for tyres??
Last year in Sepang 22 this year 59!
Roll on Shanghai this weekend
Great spectator sport.... you can use Kers ... but not on parts D, H, X of the track, and you can only use DRS during laps XX, while on part Y of the track
And having them use different compound tryes is just stupid, they should use the best and safest tyres for the track. They've put so much into safety over the last 2 decades and yet force them to use soft compound that go off quickly and can result in a car with little grip going off the track and killing someone
Mind you... the F1 was exciting... I think I remember about 5 overtakings
Keith - Administrator
Just watched the replay of qualifying. Another pole for Vettel, seems like this season is going the same way as when Button won the Championship. Button had a great start and nobody was able to catch him in time.
What happened to Webber?!?! 18th on the grid McLaren are second and third, hopefully they will able to do something from that position.
I always wondered why the cars are not ready for the new season? I know teams are always developing thoughout the season, but why are teams so far ahead from another? If I remember correctly Brawn were working on their car for Button's winning championship season midway through the season before.
Great season so far ... race 2 was a near carbon copy of race 1, and race 3 looks like being a copy of race 1 and race 2 ..... yipee ...... Lets hope it snows
Keith - Administrator
That was a great race! Brilliant result for Hamilton, Webber drove a great race to finish 3rd! lots of excitement, mishaps and overtaking.
Great race .... same lot at the finish as normal. Doesn't make for an exciting season when after race 3 you can see it's likely to be a 2-4 horse race same as every other previous year.
Anyone got the number for Specsavers? Button just texted me
Keith - Administrator
Steve,
to try and help..........
It is very unlikely that any Team has a Car that is 100% new from season to season.
They are more of an evolution! In terms of "readiness" the core components of the car begin the fundamental design process around late May early June of the following year.
A lot of simulation CfD & stress analysis go on in the backgroud.
There are factors that delay the whole process such as new regulations,change of engine manufacturer or tyre supplier etc. Any of these have a huge knock on effect on the full package.
Given now the fIA has vastly reduced testing you can see that a lot of the winter work becomes educated guess work!
A few years ago a Team could launch a car and it could be "of the pace" like i think you are saying but the general public would never know because there would be a dozen or more tests with development parts before the "show" came on TV. Today there are 3 tests before the season begins!
Given for example that Pirelli only got the contract last July and tested a single car early August it would be unlikely that the design teams had representative tyre dynamic data in order to design suspension geometry etc until the end of the summer.Thus some may get luckier than others...
There are 4 main items in the package...(in laymans terms) Chassis,Tyres,Aerodynamics & Driver. I any one of these is underperforming then the percentage deficit is high. Thus the large differences in lap time from f ront to back.
You are correct that they are always developing but it is very unusal to see the pecking order change that much during the course of a season as everyone is updating and updating every event!
The reason Brawn were working and developing so late and throughout 2009 was because up until Xmas they were not racing with the pull out of Honda!
I believe that those guys repackaged the systems installation from Honda to Mercedes in 26days!
Hope that confuses you more!
Maybe a case of looking outside the box!
its the same Keith in most professional sports......the Redbull/Mclaren domination is no different today to the ferrari/Schumacher era a few years back or as Steve says the football...Arsenal,Liverpool,Chelsea Man U they have all had their turn in recent years........
same in rugby,
cricket,
tennis,
etc etc
Put in the hard work and effort and eventually you will get rewarded!
Great post and understood it all! Said in a way that we're chatting over a pint
To re-model a car in 26 days is an impressive turn around! Especially when it was a main component like the engine, didn't realise it was such a short time!
Does that mean aerodynamic's is the last part of the car to be developed? as if there was big change in the design structure, then the whole car would have to be altered.
Is the reduced testing a good thing? I'm sure the FIA brought it in to reduce costs, but it might under value their flagship competition with teams not ready.
The Pirelli tyre's seemed to get a right hammering today. I'm sure at the end of the race all that debris on the track was from the tyres. 3 stop strategy won the day. If Red Bull sort out their KERS in 3 weeks, then their car would be unstoppable.
But the Premiership is made up of 44 events each year, all full of surprises.... you rarely get a surprise in F1 .... and it's not just that..... where is the overtaking? not much of it, more time than not you'd think it was a time trial!!!
What's with all this DRS/KERS to complicate it for the average onlooker? All they need do is include a boost button that can be used X number of times per race.
Keith - Administrator
F1 is just bland and its all about money all the great tracks have gone and been replaced with these no over taking tracks, the cars are to good and its impossible to overtake with them.
F1 needs to make the cars slower and drivers who dont sound like they're kissing bernies butt
i have learnt to do what my wife says!
You can safely take your family to F1 too, without having to put up with foul language and loutish behaviour, by both fans and participants.
Face it...it's a better class of sport.
The race yesterday was won by strategy, not because Hamilton was the best driver on the day, which he wasn't. Is it supposed to be a race for the best driver? Because with the rules as they are it stopped being that some time ago. Simple fix is all cars use the same tyre, and all come in to change at the same time, then that'll he towards finding the best driver, although as they have different engines, it'll never happen.
Button sat out the back for years, then he gets a decent engine and he's world champion? Not a surprise when you move from a Skoda to a Porche though is it?
Not if I'm there you can't
Keith - Administrator
Don't forget that F1 drivers have had to prove their abilities by coming up through the ranks.
They are at the mercy of whatever regulations are current.
I certainly wouldn't want to compete against any of them for money, regardless of what vehicles we were driving.
There is no right or wrong to it.
The regulators have to ensure that the cars can be run safely on all the different tracks, that the sponsors are kept happy, and that the sport continues to provide interest and entertainment for its hundreds of millions of fans around the world.
I agree Graham with what you say, there is no right or wrong to it. All driving competitions have their appeal as well as their non appeal. Everyone has to be pleased with the overall package like the regulators, sponsors, fans, the teams and drivers.
Also like Alan said you can not argue with the fan base of F1, only being beaten by the Olimpics and the World cup which why it is seen as the pinnacle motorsport event. So they must be doing something right as we are all still watching
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