Only 2 constants this weekend.
Kimi is still with Ferrari and Hamilton is still with McLaren.

Alonso changed teams and has all but admitted Renault will take some time.
Massa being the spoiler, he usually comes out of nowhere to take a win and hates being referred to as Kimi’s lap dog
Math done, it will be either Kimi or Hamilton winning this weekend, preferably Kimi IMO :D

Unless they take each other out, then I go with Massa :(

Directv viewers, is your picture stretched and cutoff at the bottom?

no problems here.

Looks fine here!

Yea he was really a whinny SOB in Champ Car wasn't he! LOL
I think he will become the F1 version JPM in 2008 :D

2nd session
 

Track temp was around 48 deg celcius...it was great to watch these guys sliding around without traction control and engine brake etc etc!

The track is slow too - according to the V8 Supercar times from a couple of years ago (they didn't run here last year), who are lapping over a second slower with current configuration cars.

It will be interesting to see how the F1 guys compensate for the cars moving around more in race conditions.

Times from the second session for those of you who may not have seen them yet.

It should be a bit cooler tomorrow... a bit anyway ;).

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205472475.jpg

while it is always tricky to read too much into Friday, Red Bull looks impressive.

Isn't Adrian Newey, the aerodynamics genius, at Red Bull?

Most of the drivers look like native California commuters driving in the snow for the first time!
The lack of TC and Engine Breaking is showing, well except for Kimi :D

Todd,

I doubt that Red Bull will have the race speed and/or reliability but we'll have to wait until Sunday to see. Mark Webber has always been impressive around here in practice and even qualifying.

Tom,

Newey was there last year - I think he's still with Red Bull?

I think this is Newey's second year, but figure that last year was teething and transition. If they can keep the engine from grenading, it could be an interesting year for the 3rd through 6th place teams. I don't think anyone will have the pace of Ferrari and McLaren.

+1 amazing how many offs there were. Lots of bobbles too and this is just practice, whats going to happen when one of them puts pressure on the other in a race, it could force a bad move and an easy pass.

Being that he is in a back marker car what are you expecting? He himself admits he will not have the pace to be up front, but who knows, lets revisit this subject mid season and see how he is doing, you may be right, but honestly he is only hoping to get in the points and that will be more than last years drivers did. IIRC.

Hamilton did not look bad in this area either but Kimi, DC and Jarno are the old timers that should pick it up fast with their having loads of time in non-TC cars in the old days.

If you follow F1, you should know these machines aren't created equally (ala NASCAR, IRL/Champ Car). Following your stated line of logic, Button, Kubica, Sutil, Piquet, Barrichello, Sato, etc. are in the same "loser" league. Nope.

Any F1 driver is superior to any other series chauffeurs. Put it another way; only a few people in the world are qualified to race an F1 machine, and Bourdais happens to be one of them, or at least until his contract is up.

Sherwood

Check this video out. Looks like F1 is heading back to the old days of oversteering through a corner. Once these guys come to grips with it it will be fun.

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="222" data="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=784097&amp;server=www.vimeo. com&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byl ine=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color="> <param name="quality" value="best" /> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> <param name="scale" value="showAll" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=784097&amp;server=www.vimeo. com&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byl ine=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=" /></object><br /><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/784097/l:embed_784097">Much Oversteer in Melbourne</a> from <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/user319450/l:embed_784097">Axis of Oversteer *</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/l:embed_784097">Vimeo</a>.

Nice vid Jim!

In addition to the over steer issues; there were certainly a lot of pucker moments in the braking zones!
I never seen so much gravel fly at a track as yesterday.

Hopefully the drivers will find the limits and calm down by Sunday.

Seemed like Alonso liked off-roading :D

Yesterday's sessions were run in pretty awful weather conditions. Particularly the second session with a BIG wind. A lot of these guys were struggling at the end of the back straight particularly as there was a massive tail wind.

Thankfully I don't think the winds will be blowing as hard today or tomorrow. They will qualify today in hopefully similiar conditions to what are forecast for the race.

The track is already well rubbered and will get more laid down today as the Aussie Grand Prix is unique in that we have a lot of support races running for the four days of the event. It's a pretty full race card and the F1 guys have to cope with dramatic changes in the circuit from one session to the other.

I watched the second session yesterday on TV (joys of working from home ;)). Our local coverage is excellent - plenty of cameras in plenty of places - best seat is in the loungeroom!

For the first time in a long time F1 is going to be exciting - like Jim said once these guys come to grips with the lack of "controls" this is gonna be fun!

Certainly with all this power oversteer now they will have to give each other a little more racing room.

Can't wait for race start - wonder if they will all get away cleanly?

2 and a half hours to Sat practice....:D

Qualifying starts in 2:25,24,23,22,21...... Cya!

This year should be a lot more fun than the decade of follow the leader.

Now if they'd only make drivers shift for themselves again.

AT THE END OF Q1 CAR 1 NO LONGER ALLOWED TO FINISH QUALIFYING!!!

Kimi had problems, couldn't make it back to the pits and his team pushed him in - a definite no-no. So now we shall see him come from the BACK OF THE GRID.

Mind you I am sure Ferrari will dispute this - race control is about to get VERY busy.

Feul pressure reg was the problem....

So what's up with Kimi, they said DQ if they push b4 the no no. Is he done for the weekend?

I'm trying to get into F1, and I like what I see thus far. However, what I really want to see is the F1 cars at Bristol.

At the moment it looks as though Kimi will start from 16th as he posted a time in Q1 to place him there.

The bad news is that Webber came off in Q2, so no Top Ten for him :(.

Why is that bad news? He can get into the top ten with some good pit stops during the race, no?

Matt I hope so!

Q3 about to start...

Check this out for a grid. Kubica could have snatched pole - he was on a blinder lap but had a slight off in sector 3 (did really well to catch it and post his time for 2nd) - move on over; the next generation are coming through....




http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205556202.jpg

Team Willy, both Toyotas, a Red Bull and STR in the top 10? Things are strange in Oz. Pity about Webber.

Go Bob Koobitsa!, as Hobbs would say.





Tim

Vettel spanked Bourdais. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat6.gif

"no lift" Kubica

Exciting corner. Too bad it may have cost pole.

Yea-nice drifting Kubica!
Tuff break for Kimi, but the season is young and the Iceman takes no prisoners

Couple of observations:
Wonder who Fred is flaming bout now for no Q3 lap time?
The change in fuel load at starting grid makes sense, no more pace laps in Q3!
Piquet Jr. said in the off-season that Hamilton’s rookie year is no big deal? News Flash, Hamilton is Pole and your somewhere else.
Congrats to Kovalainen, no more mid pack finishes!

This bothers me. Starting behind the pole, he's guaranteed a top 7 if he can finish on the lead lap?

Glock loses 10 places after 2 penalties
 

Our stewards have always been tough, but WOW - this is really tough - from the offical F1 site:

"Glock loses ten places after two grid penaltiesToyota’s Timo Glock will drop ten places on the grid for the start of Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix after two five-place penalties - one for an unscheduled gearbox change and one for impeding another driver during qualifying.

Revisions to the regulations for the 2008 season require gearboxes to last for four consecutive events, but problems in Saturday morning’s final practice session forced Toyota to replace Glock’s ahead of qualifying.

Glock was then deemed to have impeded Red Bull’s Mark Webber during qualifying and handed a second penalty by the Melbourne stewards. The German had qualified in ninth place at Albert Park, but is now due to start 19th on his Toyota race debut.

Honda’s Jenson Button, Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella, Williams’ Nico Rosberg and Glock’s Toyota team mate Jarno Trulli were also reprimanded, but not penalised, by the stewards for setting their fastest laps under yellow flags."

It's going to be a great season, so it seems.
Hamilton still little cocky with his "I could have done better" comment.
I'm hoping for a Massa win, we'll see who stays on course the most.
There's going to be a lot of debris from all the offs.

Gino

Matt - Kimi was not DQ'd from the entire weekend just from continuing in qualifying. If his car had coasted past the pit entrance line his mechanics couls have pushed him in to the garage penalty free. If some course workers would have pushed him past the pit entrance line and the mechanics took over from there he would have been fine too.

But, he stopped just before the pit entrance line, and his mechanics pushed him in. That is a no no and it basically ends his qualifying at that point.

So he was on the time sheets at P16 at that moment and even though he had a good enough time to continue in the next qualifying session he was not allowed to he had to take the last spot of the next session (P16) and sit it out, even if his car was back to running.


The reason Lisa is bummed about Mark Webber is because he is the local boy, she is rooting for her fellow Aussie. Much in the same manner the Spaniards will root for Alonso or the Germans will root for the German drivers on the grid. Home town pride in a way.

Fernando Alonso - If you go back to last season I said he would struggle this year, he depended on TC way too much and his driving style is aggressive, abrupt and violent. (remember when he was crashing over the cubs so hard he fractured his knee) I knew when the pressure was on he was going to struggle. I was shocked to see him qualify at P12 but then I thought about it and said to myself, thats about right all things considered.

Kimi = I laughed at the speed commentators. One of them make the comment that once again anvils were falling out of the sky on Kimi. Aint that the truth. I hope Kimi can work his back up front.

Massa - this is why I do not see him as a WDC contender. Once Kimi was out and he was in Q3 it was his for the taking and he should have been digging deep for the pole or at the least P2 and now he has to fight back up from row 2.

Yeah, a little bummed...not only is Webber an Aussie, but he seems to be a much nicer one than our last world champ Alan Jones (prig of a man - ugh). Also, I was really enjoying the Red Bull run - I was hoping to be proven wrong about their reliability issues etc.

No matter which way you slice it though, tomorrow should be one heck of a race. I have even arranged for the eldest son to be working and the two younger ones to be off visiting for the day :D. Mike and I get the house, lounge and the big TV all to ourselves for the race :D:D:D!!!!

FWIW I can't pick a winner for tomorrow. I think that yet again we shall see pitstops and strategy win the race and dependent on those factors plus weather and driver endurance, we may see a winner from outside the top 10 :confused:...

Jim, re: Massa
Like most people have said, pole is not going to be as critical as it has been in the past.
Massa was (IMHO) trying to be as close to the front as possible without pushing too hard and possibly going off, and have no Ferraris near the front.

Gino

Jim such a onesided opinion.:rolleyes: Where was Renault last year - middle of the pack (maybe even last 1/3). Remember results for Williams and BMW were better than Renault? You think they've solved all the issues on that team already? If you look at the last practice FA was in top three (with KR and LH also practicing). Further, if the track had not gone red before he finished his last lap in qual, he would have been 1:26, good enough for top 10.

Oh BTW, the qual times are all pretty close, much more so than past years for the top 2/3. I think we might actually get to seem some fun with passing and offs etc....