Formula One is back......and how!

[Brogan]

What a fantastic race!

It had everything; racing, overtaking, incidents, controversy and it was a great advert for F1.

Absolutely superb result for Brawn GP and a well deserved 1-2, notwithstanding Rubens' dreadful start.
McLaren-Mercedes and Hamilton have to be over the moon with a podium from 18th on the grid.
Vettel and Kubica were obviously both fighting hard but was it worth it bearing in mind they both finished with nothing and Vettel has been handed a 10 place grid drop at the next race?
What happened to Williams after their amazing pace and speed during practice?
Ferrari will be scratching their heads and wondering what they have to do to get a point at the next race.

This season promises to be a classic.

 

[bogaTYR]

i would have agreed with you to a large extinct bro, had it not been for all this rubbish before and after the race with all these protests and appeals and whatever.

i have a truly mixed feeling about the race today. from an entertainent point of view there was lots to see, but for me, as an impartial observer not really supporting any team, it was pretty much unsatisfactory. i saw a KERS powered car overtake non KERS powered cars, i saw a procession for most of the second stints. then a safety car brought the whole field back together and again the KERS cars overtook the non KERS cars.

the only surprise were the mistakes made... again. i had hoped we would see a bit less of driver's errors but i was wrong. what vettel did was pretty much pointless and that for the driver i had most hope for.

to me, the changes did not bring what i had hoped for. maybe later.

and honestly, i am pretty much disgusted with macca. the idea that they reported trulli to the stewards and then even had LH to go to a stewards meeting and testify against Trulli was in my view totally unneccessary.

 

[Galahad]

I agree, it was an excellent race, lots of close wheel-to-wheel racing, among both the KERS and non-KERS cars, and passing at different points on the circuit (when previously everyone seemed to think Melbourne was very hard to overtake on).

I felt sorry for Williams, it seemed that Rosberg either changed onto the softs too early or wore them out too fast. It was just a shame that we were denied the chance to see Kubica chasing down Button to the chequered flag. As for the incident, I'd say it was 50:50 - Kubica was alongside, but left Vettel nowhere to go. So a penalty seems a little harsh.

Finally the two compounds rule worked as it was originally intended, too. It may be artificial and personally I'd still sooner see another supplier, but at least it meant different cars were fast at different times and that's what we need more of.

Over the moon for Ross and everyone at Brackley though, absolutely astounding achievement!

 

[Brogan]

Yes, I was going to mention the tyres.
I'm not convinced that deliberately designing a tyre to not work well is the right answer - as you say it's artificial but it does create opportunities where perhaps they wouldn't normally exist.

boga, do you think Trulli shouldn't have been penalised for overtaking under yellow flags then?

 

[bogaTYR]

Bro,

honestly, i have no idea cos i did not see what happened. trulli has come forward to say that LH suddenly slowed down and moved to the side of the road. trulli thought LH had a problem and therefor overtook him.

the rules are clear, don't get me wrong. but we have seen LH make interesting manouvres before and its strange for an experienced driver like trulli to make this mistake. somehow, i trust trulli more then LH.

and i agree with GM, what brawn did was astounding.

 

[Brogan]

Well I guess once the appeal has been heard the facts will hopefully come out.

As usual though, we'll have to wait to see what the "true" result is well after a GP has finished...

 

[Galahad]

What Trulli did seems fine, but once Hamilton gets moving again, surely someone at Toyota needs to tell Jarno to let him back past? Or he should check his mirrors himself.

What do you mean by not trusting LH? What could he possibly gain by pretending to have a problem - he was ahead of Trulli to begin with anyway?!

 

[bogaTYR]

i hope so too, but we were promised all the information in spa last year. and i am still waiting for that information, so i have my doubts.

so fed up with all these protests and appeals and other ladidaa.

GM, again, i don't know. i don't have al the information and i didn't see the incident. but the situation seems so bizarre to me. my gut feeling tells me to trust Trulli. it seems like a schumi trick to me, just in case trulli did end up in front. remember, the incident was not reported by charlie but by macca.

 

[bogaTYR]

oh, the tyre info for malaysia is in. talking about tyres. the soft and the hard compound. probably the wrong thread bro.

 

[Boyle]

I set my alarm for 5 to 7, got up, turned the TV on and was bemused to find that there were only 20 laps left. Forgot the bloody clocks went forward an hour last night . So I decided to go back to bed and watch it from the start at the re-run. Anyway...

Awesome stuff. Flawless drive from Jenson and Rubens' little odyssey was brilliant to watch. Also a flawless drives from Lewis, Jarno (unlucky but if you break the rules then expect a penalty) and Timo. What the hell happened to Ferrari! Vettel and Kubica's tussle was edge of the seat stuff but perhaps robbed us of a grandstand finish. And to top it all off - no adverts!!

 

[Brogan]

I set my alarm for 5 to 7, got up, turned the TV on and was bemused to find that there were only 20 laps left. Forgot the bloody clocks went forward an hour last night

I bet you weren't the only one.

 

[Brogan]

Here's some footage of the Hamilton-Trulli incident.

Looks to me as if Trulli went on a detour and as such Hamilton was well within his rights to pass.

 

[bogaTYR]

what is missing here, is the apparent slowing down of hamilton a few metres later. apparently the team told hamilton to do so and let trulli pass to avoid any problemss (memories of spa 2008).

 

[teabagyokel]

and honestly, i am pretty much disgusted with macca. the idea that they reported trulli to the stewards and then even had LH to go to a stewards meeting and testify against Trulli was in my view totally unneccessary.

What? Would anyone deliberatly bring legal action against McLaren, drag them through the courts for months and get them thrown out of the Constructors' Championship, just because they were ahead?

trulli has come forward to say that LH suddenly slowed down and moved to the side of the road. trulli thought LH had a problem and therefor overtook him.

Jarno, why would Lewis slow down? Couldn't be something to do with that Mercedes sports car at the front with the flashing lights could it? If Hamilton was 3rd, ahead of Trulli, why would he slow down to get passed? I might be more receptive to this argument if it were Alonso and not Trulli, but Hamilton hasn't got a grudge against Trulli, has he? I mean, was Hamilton on the list when the wine was getting passed around at the end of last season? I just don't get what Hamilton's motive for slowing down, feigning injury and dropping Trulli in it is! Of course, this would be solved if that crap from Spa had been properly clarified, and Charlie Whiting's opinion mattered for any useful purpose, or common sense prevailed and Trulli was placed in 4th rather than 12th!

Great race, nice to see Jenson Button keep the melodrama at bay, I'm sure there are some people at Mercedes celebrating their first 1-2-3 since Moss, Fangio and Kling in the 1955 British GP at Aintree!

By the way, McLaren's "damage limitation" exercise went well, didn't it? Who expected McLaren to podium? (even if they weren't physically on the podium). I think Trulli could have been a bit more savvy, but great points for Glock etc.

I think a 10-place drop for the Vet is a bit much, hasn't the loss of 6 points been enough punishment, and it was a bit too 50/50 for my liking. Brawn join only Mercedes in winning their first F1GP (excluding Alfa in 1950 and the Indy 500s, pedants) and Button leads every lap!

Seems like an interesting season coming up - lets decide it on the track rather than in court!

 

[bogaTYR]

the team told LH to slow down, like trulli said...

interview with LH

‘I was behind Trulli under the safety car, and clearly you’re not allowed to overtake under the safety car. But he went off in the second to last corner, he went wide on the grass, I guess his tyres were cold. And I was forced to go by. I slowed down as much as I could. I was told to let him back past, but I mean... I don’t know if that’s the regulations, and if it isn’t, then I should have really had third.’

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/ ... ulli-past/

 

[Galahad]

Wolf won their first race at Argentina in 1977. Triumph of the pedants!

Brawn are indeed however the first team to take a 1-2 in their debut race since Mercedes-Benz in 1954. So due credit to all concerned!

 

[Brogan]

It's also a Mercedes 1-2-3*.





* Correct at time of posting.

 

[gribbli]

I dont think theres much point arguing the penalty, Hamilton gets a podium from someone else being penalised = 'blame lewis', if the shoe were on the other foot and lewis got a got a podium by contravening the rules = 'blame lewis' and finally if lewis got a podium by contravening the rules, but then he gets a penalty = 'blame lewis, he got whats coming to him, another win for justice in our fine sport'.

Overtly it may appear to be a fairly simple formula, however its a tried and trusted technique that always seems to prevail

 

[bogaTYR]

i am just seriously cheesed off by all the protests, counter protests, appeals and whatever... this is not the start of the season i had hoped for.

 

[gribbli]

Is it really that suprising tho? I mean with this many changes to the cars protesting is always going to be easier than trying to get ones own car at parity. At any rate i dont really see any alternative to a protest unless we want to make it a free for all.

All i really care about is consistency in stewardship this season, with the potential of not seeing the reds in the running for either championship, we just might get it.