Grand Prix 2010 Australian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Well here we go for round 2 and anyone connected to the sport will be hoping for a better show of it than Bahrain.

For the night owls crazy enough to stay up into the wee small hours to watch the first practice sessions, of interest is the recent announcement from Force India that Paul di Resta will be testing the car in P1 of most forthcoming races. Sutil and Liuzzi will take it in turns to pass their cars to di Resta at alternate races. The Scot is highly rated so could this be a sign that Force India may not have the same driver line up next year?

The newbies are still going to be very much in the "testing" phase and all eyes will be on HRT to see if they can improve on their Bahrain showing.

Meanwhile at the sharp end of the grid doubts remain over the reliability of those Renault engines but there's no denying that the Red Bull is quick. Mark Webber, who constantly seems to be drinking Fosters in the last chance Saloon, really needs to put in a good showing at his home track. Of course we have the Nico/Schuey show to snigger at and then there are the Ferraris and Mclarens.

So it's on with the show........

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Qualifying results here: F1 2010 Standings & Results - Australia

Interesting comments from Martin Whitmarsh after qualifying.

Martin Brundle commented that he was surprised the Red Bull was scraping the ground during Q2 considering it was fuelled only for 2 laps.
He didn't understand how they would then be able to fill it with race fuel without the plank scraping along the ground and the car then being disqualified for too much wear.

Martin Whitmarsh explained that Red Bull and possibly other teams have "some systems" which McLaren assumed weren't legal to do with adjustable ride height and this is why they're so much faster in qualifying.
McLaren hope to have similar systems in place by China.

 

[snowy]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I think there is some evidence of ride hieght control mechanisms.

Some teams...

Who else then?

The Ferrari doesn't appear to have such a system so if they too manage to develop such a system by China, Fernando will be unstoppable!

Amazing that no one spotted it in Bahrain, unless of course Red Bull only used it on Seb's car...

 

[genji]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Post-qualifying in Bahrain there was a bit of a discussion about what was going on between the lap times in Q2 and those in Q3, and that the drivers were very conservative with the tyres they would be starting the race on.

That doesn't seem to have been replicated in Australia, at the front at least. Both Red Bulls and both Ferraris were a couple of tenths quicker in Q3 than in Q2. Rosberg probably would have been too, but for his minor off. He and Schumacher were both a tenth slower, as was Button, and this might have been due to the change in track temperature in Q3, which might also explain why Barrichello and Kubica were two tenths slower.

Sutil was just about a full second slower, which indicates that he ran in Q3 on the primes. Does anyone know if everyone else in Q3 used the options for their fastest laps?

So, given how well the tyres performed in Bahrain, have they all gone the same way and used them more aggressively for grid position in Australia or have some of them been a tad more conservative, perhaps hoping for a slight advantage in the early laps of the race?

Unlike during the refuelling years, stopping early for fresh tyres is now preferable to running longer on a lighter fuel load, but you still don't want to stop too early, before the pack has spread out, or you will come out stuck behind slower cars.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

It's going to be interesting to see whether Hamilton's fresh tyres could really prove an advantage if the top ten cars have worn their tyres more than at Bahrain.

I'm still puzzling over what happened to his Q2 session though. He seemed to be late to go out - wondering if there really was some sort of problem?

 

[snowy]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Nico and Michael both went out for their second runs in quali 3 on prime tyres (the harder ones), attempting to beat their option tyre run which they both failed to do by a 10th. Do they start the race on the tyre they set their fastest quali 3 lap or the tyre they used last? I presume it is the former rather than the latter...

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I'm pretty sure it's their fastest lap in Q3 as the times from Q1 and Q2 are effectively wiped going into the final qualifying session.

 

[laFrau]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Hi everyone! My first post here.

Genji, I also thought Sutil was on the primes, but he has just told the media he had problems to warm the soft tyres in Q3. He sounded very, very annoyed.

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Welcome laFrau
Join us in Chat tomorrow for the race if you're around

It's a shame the FIA/F1 don't record the tyres used for Q3, would be interesting to know.

 

[snowy]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

It's going to be interesting to see whether Hamilton's fresh tyres could really prove an advantage if the top ten cars have worn their tyres more than at Bahrain.

I'm still puzzling over what happened to his Q2 session though. He seemed to be late to go out - wondering if there really was some sort of problem?

Lewis has had a very strange day today, in the morning he completed 14 laps to Jenson's 20. Perhaps he was conserving tyres and is going to run a very aggressive 3 stop strategy starting on the hard compound and deliberately failed to get into quali 3...

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

No way.
A 3 stop strategy with a pit lane speed limit of 60kph would be suicide.

Everyone will be 1 stopping tomorrow.

Plus, as we've seen, there's so little difference between the tyres that even if the speed limit was higher, there isn't enough of a differential in the lap time to justify stopping more than twice at the very most.
What they need to do is have 1 set of tyres which is about 1 second per lap quicker but only lasts half as long.
Then we'd see some different strategies.
Bridgestone have already ruled that out though.

I think Lewis got it right when he said he just wasn't fast enough.
I suspect they went the wrong way with setup during practice.

 

[snowy]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I'm pretty sure it's their fastest lap in Q3 as the times from Q1 and Q2 are effectively wiped going into the final qualifying session.

Rosberg set a 1:24.884 in quali 3 on the option then tried to beat it with the prime setting a 1:24.974. I presume he starts on the option tyre he set his quali time with, and not the tyre he was running on at the end of the session.

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Yep, it's the tyres they set their fastest time with in Q3.

The number of dry tyres available to each driver has been decreased from 14 to 11 sets per weekend and any driver who participates in Q3 must start the race on the same tyres he used to set his grid time.

http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules_and_regulations/sporting_regulations/8692/

What's interesting with the above is if anyone is demoted grid places from the top 10, anyone who moves up into the top 10 will still be able to choose their tyres as they didn't participate in Q3.

 

[snowy]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

No way.
A 3 stop strategy with a pit lane speed limit of 60kph would be suicide.

Everyone will be 1 stopping tomorrow.

It appears that the FIA are doing everything within their power to make strategy a thing of the past! The introduction of this 60kph limit is the limit! It's the pits! It's the icing on the cake of my despair!

 

[Muddytalker]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I have to hold my hand up and take the blame for Lewis's qualifying today. I put a few quid on him before practice to win the race, and it's well known amongst bookmakers that I am an absolute jinx.

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

BBC Weather is showing heavy rain for tomorrow.

 

[snowy]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I have to hold my hand up and take the blame for Lewis's qualifying today. I put a few quid on him before practice to win the race, and it's well known amongst bookmakers that I am an absolute jinx.

May you burn in Hell and your pants fill with frogs and toads and the spawn of Satan!

 

[cider_and_toast]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

BBC Weather is showing heavy rain for tomorrow.

So that'll be 80'F, Bright sunlight and not a cloud in the sky then

 

[genji]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Hi everyone! My first post here.

Genji, I also thought Sutil was on the primes, but he has just told the media he had problems to warm the soft tyres in Q3. He sounded very, very annoyed.

Hello, laFrau. Nice avatar.

Well, a second slower than his P2 time on the options sounds a bit grim - the other teams suffered far less in the same conditions - but I've just read Autosport and he doesn't seem unduly perturbed.

BBC Weather is showing heavy rain for tomorrow.

So that'll be 80'F, Bright sunlight and not a cloud in the sky then

I do hope so! Albert Park will be dangerous in the wet.

 

[genji]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Just watching the BBC re-run of qualifying. There's lots of extra footage - interviews with the Q1 drop-outs, shots of the spectators, etc.

Actually, there's no etc., that's pretty much it, but even so...

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 Australian GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

MS up to his old tricks?

Michael Schumacher sought clarification from FIA race director Charlie Whiting about driving standards after qualifying in Melbourne - having been left angry that he had been blocked by other drivers.

The Mercedes GP driver was unhappy that his efforts were hit by both Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton getting in his way during various stages of the qualifying.

And he was so upset with the way that Alonso had driven while on a slow down lap at the end of Q3, that he confronted the Spaniard in parc ferme after the session - before seeking out Whiting to discuss the matter further.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82459