Grand Prix 2012 Australian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Gentleman, start your engines

Despite it feeling only a few weeks since the season ending Brazilian Grand Prix last November the Australian Grand Prix is coming very quickly into view to start of a season which hopefully promises to be a lot closer than the 2011 season where Sebastian Vettel ran away with the Championship and had it virtually won by mid season.

Looking at testing and it is virtually impossible to see who is in the best shape going into the season opener apart from that Mclaren and Red Bull are the two teams in the best shape which really isn't surprising but the big surprise is the continual lack of pace from Ferrari despite a radical new car (the issues I commented on on a previous thread).

As for the midfield it is anyone's guess as all the midfield have all been up and down the testing rankings throughout the winter and it'll only be qualifying where we see a true reflection of where the grid is in terms of reliability. Without a doubt Lotus have had the most work to do after they had to make a major chassis change involving suspension mounts which meant abandoning one of the test sessions but that doesn't seem to have had a major effect on the team and with Kimi Raikkonen at the wheel it is hoped that they can challenge Mercedes after a fairly disappointing 2011 after a strong start.

Once again HRT are the joke of the entire grid as they once again go into the first race of the season without having so much as turned the wheel before after crash test problems earlier this year and it will be a miracle if they actually qualify as they failed to do so in Melbourne in 2011, but they could be joined by Marussia who have also had problems with their new car and have had to test with a modified 2011 car recently and they will also be struggling to even qualify for Melbourne which isn't good news for the team unless they can pull a rabbit out of the hat with the new car.

This seasons cars (apart from Mclaren) are characterised by the distinctive stepped nose due to new regulations about front wing height and this is how the vast majority of teams have interpreted this rule and it seems that only Mclaren are running a 'smooth' nose and it remains to be seen whether this was a correct decision and one that can mean they can challenge for the title after an average 2011 (unless you're Button of course)

For the British viewers 2012 is going to be a completely different viewing experience as Formula One is going to be broadcast on satellite television for the first time. When it was announced that Sky would be broadcasting F1 with BBC showing only half of the races (live) it was met with uproar from all quarters but as more details have been announced, many fans (me included) are rather looking forward to the full F1 package that is being provided this season with the F1 channel being launched in a matter of days!

For Galahads brilliant circuit write up, see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/melbourne-grand-prix-circuit-albert-park/
 
I don't know whether any rumours about this can be relied upon. Since two teams have gone from Cosworth to Renault, and we can probably assume the Renault is more expensive, I'm sure it plays a part in improving competitiveness. Equally though, I think any difference is probably a very small one. When Williams were with Cosworth, Patrick Head and others were effusive in their praise for the engines - and while some F1 folk would lie through their teeth to please a partner, I don't think PH was one of them.

I guess no matter how good the guys at Cosworth are they haven't had the head start the Renault, Merc and Ferrari guys have had on them. One thing I will say about Cosworth though - does anyone remember a single engine failure they've had since they came back in in 2010? I can't think of one. Thats some good going.
 
When Williams were with Cosworth, Patrick Head and others were effusive in their praise for the engines - and while some F1 folk would lie through their teeth to please a partner, I don't think PH was one of them.

Maybe he was just being nice so as not to hurt their feelings :)
 
I don't know how long it will be before this thread gets locked but I made an observation that nobody else seems to have noticed so it could be my imagination.

I think I heard this message at about lap 9 or 10 when Ted was down a McLaren Jenson's pace had dropped off slightly and and Ted said that the team had told him to save fuel and yet it seemed only moments later there was a message saying something like Okay Jenson you have saved enough fuel now it's okay to push.

Given the time delay it takes for us to hear the message Jenson could only have been saving fuel for two or three laps.

Is it possible to save enough fuel in a couple of laps if they were as marginal on fuel as Whitmarsh is saying or is he lying, trying to spook the other teams?

I for one think this is another case of you've got to short shift every corner Seb we need this.... By the way what exactly did they need they had already won everything?
 
Thought I ought to post this in the Australia thread. Anyone else see it as a great advert for DRS? With the tyres more even and strategies very close, we still got lots of overtaking, on a street-type circuit. The overtaking came all over the circuit. Very few passes would be considered easy. It makes it look like the tyres were responsible for the extremely easy passes and DRS is actually the more natural passing system, similar to the speed differential caused by a good slip-stream. My mind is yet to be made up with DRS, but if they set it up the way we had it in Australia at all circuits, I think they are closer to getting a good balance between challenging, but not impossible.
 
Is it possible to save enough fuel in a couple of laps if they were as marginal on fuel as Whitmarsh is saying or is he lying, trying to spook the other teams?

I for one think this is another case of you've got to short shift every corner Seb we need this.... By the way what exactly did they need they had already won everything?


Considering the fuel saving cost them 2nd place, I doubt they would have only kept a 2-3 second gap to Vettel between the stops. I find it highly unlikely that it was mind games and it was actually Whitmarsh being genuine. After all, we didn't see Hamilton attempt any sort of move up the inside of Seb, which suggests to me that they didn't want him to risk any sort of fuel sabotaging manoeuvre.
 
Just seen some tweets from an insider who was at Melbourne. Apparently Lewis had a different setup to Jenson in that he had a higher top speed in qualifying, which is backed up by the FIA top speeds. This helped him in qualifying as he could make maximum use of the DRS, whereas Jenson possibly hit the limiter, but Jenson's car was set up better for the race when DRS was not in use. We've seen this done a lot by Vettel in the past and this may explain some of the speed difference in the race. One may ask why Jenson got so close to Lewis in quali if Lewis' car was set up for qualifying, but, we never saw Lewis' second run as he made a mistake at the 1st corner and he could have most probably gone a couple of tenths quicker.
 
I've calculated the average lap time for the Australian GP to give us an idea of race pace. I have deleted lap times as the result of pit stops, inlaps, outlaps and accidents. Obviously there are limitations to this, as it doesn't take into account traffic, but can provide a general idea.

1 Button.......... 01:31.928
2 Vettel............ 01:32.111
3 Hamilton....... 01:32.129
4 Webber........ 01:32.435
5 Alonso......... 01:32.799
6 Maldonado.. 01:32.850
7 Rosberg...... 01:33.028
8 Raikkonen... 01:33.206
9 Ricciardo......01:33.307
10 Vergne....... 01:33.317
11 Perez......... 01:33.322
12 Kobayashi. 01:33.360
13 Di Resta.... 01:33.429
14 Glock......... 01:36.608

In this one, I have adjusted the times set by drivers who didn't finish, relative to the average at the time of their exit. This again has limitations, particularly for drivers who went out very early (Schumacher).

Button.......... 01:31.928
Vettel............ 01:32.111
Hamilton...... 01:32.129
Webber....... 01:32.435
Alonso......... 01:32.799
Schumacher 01:32.849*
Maldonado.. 01:32.850
Rosberg...... 01:33.028
Raikkonen... 01:33.206
Ricciardo..... 01:33.307
Vergne......... 01:33.317
Perez........... 01:33.322
Kobayashi... 01:33.360
Di Resta...... 01:33.429
Massa.......... 01:33.747*
Senna.......... 01:33.965*
Petrov.......... 01:34.338*
Kovalinen.... 01:34.514*
Glock........... 01:36.608
Pic............... 01:37.235*
*adjusted
 
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