Well alrighty then. Glad to see that's been decided. How did that completely untalented little Spaniard manage to steal two back to back world championships from Schumi?

Shocked to see the Renault mid pack after its performance last year? And that's all due to FA "struggling"? :rolleyes:






Tim

Kimi all the way to the back?

The speed commentators commented last night that the stewards ruled "his car stopped on the track because he didn't get past the white line entering the pits" and that would put him ahead of everyone who finished behind him at that point.

Or did they change their minds?

Anyone know where Kimi is starting?

It looks like Kimi will move up from 16 to 15 after Glock gets bumped 10 places down to 19.







Tim

Although I really look forward to this season, I fear it will be yet another one with only a couple of contenders for the title. McLaren and Ferrari are, as far as I gather, the only teams that have the money that it takes. I suppose it will be a duel between Finnish steel and beauty boy. Others will take a win here and there but the victory at the end will go to either of those giants.

Not bad in itself, but I would love a season with no particular favorites and anyones guess who will win.

Hold on a second, Alonso goes to Renault wins 2 drivers championships and he is the best thing since sliced bread, I always contended Renault was lucky and they adapted to the one tire rule faster than the other teams and their TC was superior.

Then he goes to McLaren and is a front runner, and again he is a great driver that is a victim to Ron Dennis and his agenda to make sure Hammy is on top.

So he goes back to Renault, how bad off can they be? Its only been 1 year since they were world champs. Granted Fisi and Kovalainen as drivers were not a power house either. But the killer is the TC is gone, one tire for all the teams killed them too because they had the advantage on the tires too.

So now he gets to earn his keep, lets see how well he does this season. Yeah, I do not like him and do not feel he actually earned his 2 WDC's He lucked into them. Last year against a rookie proved my point, McLaren has the fastest car out there and it seems anyone in one is fast. Kovalainen is proving that.

Boy o boy Jim ...

That's fighting talk there..

I think that you have underestimated the amount an individual driver influences the performance of the car, not on race day...but in the period of January to March, or for that matter during the design period the season before.

So when you say FA 'lucked' into 2 consecutive WDC you are making the assumption that FA was not part of the reason why the team was able to win twice. Is that right....

Perhaps the work that goes on in the factory with the driver isn't important? Perhaps the driver's own abilities and preferences are not taken into consideration by the designers....or maybe they ignore them?

Certainly a novel idea...next you'll be saying that both DH and JV 'lucked' into their WDC's.. perhaps MS's first two were also 'luck?'...

Interesting view...

Yeesh...100 F and 11%RH in Melbourne. :eek:

Ha! Ha!

Ferrari is screwed.

I get some schadenfreude from seeing Kimi screw up and Massa flame out.

I don't think I'd be making fun of Crashcar if I was a die hard F1 fan. That was like watching a bunch of 5 year olds drive go carts. It was fun though. Is every race like this?

Matt, this is the first season without a myriad of "aids", thus making the driver's job more as it should be (IMHO).

What will we see in future races this season and will they compare to Melbourne? Well firstly, the weather conditions today may only be duplicated in the Arab States. I doubt we shall see these sorts of temperatures with very low humidity elsewhere. Also, this being the first race of the season and with so many rule changes I pretty much expected to lose some of the field through retirements (although not this many). F1 cannot do endless testing as there are restrictions on such things and no team would have been able to test race distance anywhere in these conditions.

I think we may see similiar mayhem in the next couple of races as the teams and drivers need to come to terms with the new rules. Also, we are now going to see who are the "men" and who are the "boys" out there - i.e. who can drive these cars and who can't.

There was more than one stupid slip up today as well - like Rubens exiting the pit lane on a red light. This stupidity costs big time. It will be interesting to see what Ross Brawn has to say about this sort of stuff as he had declared that he would not take strategic control today, but rather he would sit back and watch how the team did things.

So, an interesting result...but it is one that will be indicative of future Grand Prix this season? Somehow I don't think so - but time will tell all ;).

Can't wait to see the race. McLaren is looking great! Love the new qualifying format (race fuel loads). Should make it a lot more interesting and competitive between the first 5 rows and the guys in 6-10.

Wow what a race, lots of action sadly not for the lead, Hamilton was a cool as ever, got all the lucky breaks, but then again he makes his own luck.

Kimi lost his cool mid race when he went off on a pass right after yellow flag with worn, cold tires. He needed to pit so the pass was not necessary.

Did Massa lose it on first turn? Not too sharp. (or was he tapped) got to look at the again.
I give big thums up for Alonso, great finish (4th)
Gino

More luck.


Alonso is also responsible, at least in part, for global warming, causing the high temps which unfairly and disproportionately affected Kimi's tires and Ferrari's results.


I imagine Rubinho just sealed his fate with Brawn.






Tim

Alonso had a good drive with a twitchy car, to 4th place. Better than I can say for both the Ferrari's both made some really dumb moves yesterday. Why Kimi was not in the pits during that last caution is beyond me why he was trying to race after the SC pulled in is also another mystery. I am sure we will never get an answer.

Massa - I wondered how many drivers were going to forget that have no TC in the 1st turn? Massa is one for sure, in the replays it sure looked like he just power oversteered right around on himself, it did not look like anyone made any contact.

Too bad for Sebastien Bourdais, I was really pulling for him and was excited for him to score a 4th place finish in his 1st GP. I cannot believe his engine let go.

6 cars finishing? Yup, its just like the good old days everyone talks about, now all we need is 3 cars on the lead lap with cars being lapped 4 times.

How long before Heikki gets sick of crappy pit strategies, and bad fuel loads. How long before he realizes he can be winning as well, the kid is a good driver and how McLaren managed to get him all the way to the back is beyond me, but it worked out good for Hammy.

Notice when Hammy came in to pit and Heikki took off? He ended up setting fastest lap, setting himself up for a win, I was sure once he pitted he would be out in front of Hammi.

I have to go back and watch, again I cannot remember what sequence of events unfolded to kill Heikki I am sure it was a SC period.


Great race, tons of action, enough to keep me wide awake all the way through to 2:30 in the morning after being up for Qualifying the night before. I hope the rest of the season is as exciting.

So Alonso coming in 4th makes him WC?

To bad for Alonso and Renault that it seems McLaren and BMW both have adapted to the new rules faster then they did. No run away season for him this year. He had his flash in the pan, if he wins another WC I will be very surprised, and will eat my words.

Quote from strupgolf

"Well I see that the "great" Sebastion Bourdais, winner of 4 CART titles, comes in over 3 seconds slower then Kimi. Yea, he's a winner all right, against nobody's and such. I cant wait to see him get his a** handed to him up front and then say he didn't know the competition was going to be this strong. DA"

How do you like your crow prepared?

Anyone see the quote from Coulthard this morning? :D

Coulthard, however, was in no mood for celebrating after his Red Bull was rammed out of the race by Massa's Ferrari.

And the livid Scot turned the Melbourne air blue when he said: "If I don't get an apology I will kick 10 colours of s**t out of the little b*****d."

The Brazilian sparked the incident as as he tried to grab 10th place on the first corner of lap 26.

I cant stop laughing!

The "incident" for your viewing pleasure. (God I LOVE Axis of Oversteer)

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="219" data="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=790669&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=790669&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/790669/l:embed_790669">Boneheads</a> from <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/user277964/l:embed_790669">Axis of Oversteer</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/l:embed_790669">Vimeo</a>.

Much like a running back in football, his offensive line deserves much of the credit. I haven't seen that kind of blocking since the superbowl.
It's easier to run up front when your teammate keeps 3rd place well back in 3rd place and off your tail. Yes, everyone does it and no, it isn't right, but lets give credit when credit is due. Hammy wouldn't have had such a good day if his mirrors were filled up with red.
Kimi used up his tires trying to get past junior.

I seem to remember more than one occasion over the past few years when david knocked other cars to the garage by pulling a stupid move. At one time I thought he was almost as bad as Sato, who BTW is getting better at playing well with others.

Harsh I agree but for him to criticize and threaten another driver for doing a fairly good cool-tard impression is a bit over the top.

I don’t think the Massa move was that bad, just aggressive racing.
Coulthard went on to whine about the lack of rear vision on the cars as if to say he didn’t see Massa coming up?

Massa is also known with verbal out lashes, remember him calling Alonso a “F**king Idiot” on World television last year as they argued in Italian?

That's a great expression - must remember that. LOL!

Fantastic race overall. And couldn't be happier with the result. McLaren wins again! Whoo!

What a messed up race. I surely hope the rest of them aren't like that. I have a feeling we are going to see a big difference in Malaysia.

Kimi needs to live up to his moniker, clearly he was letting his emotions drive the car. Which is totally the opposite of how he is.

Nico, well done lad.

Bourdais did very well. Course it was mostly attrition and a lucky pit stop early in the race that put him in that position. But he did do rather well with Alonso and Heikki on his tail until his Ferrari engine vomited.

My motto this year, "Anyone but Lewis".

Incredible how Coulthard's and Kubica's cars disintegrated after their airborne episodes. C'mon, you never saw the General Lee fall apart after its many jumps, and that was with sketchy American engineering and assembly line quality control.

Interesting race. Too bad about all the attrition. Particularly for SeaBass. Races are less fun when there are only a handful of guys running at the end. Particularly when the guys you're pulling for (Kimi & Bourdais) aren't one of them.

I was impressed with SeaBass this race like I never was when he was in ChampCar!
But given time and poor finishes he will take over Montoya’s whinny, sniveling spot :D

Too bad all Ferrari engines DNF’d, bummer.

Ferrari is already making excuses saying McLaren may be at fault for their engine issues.

Per Paddocktalk...

"The virtual publication GPweek.com is quoting a Ferrari spokesman as saying, "The issue was caused by the conflicting of two procedures. Now that we know there is a conflict we can make sure that it doesn't happen again."

The spokesman didn't directly blame the unit but compared it to trying to run Microsoft Windows on the Apple operating system, "It can get stuck and you don't know why".

Hmmm, lets see McLaren built the ECU’s with Microsoft’s help :rolleyes:
Maybe the Ferrari engines blue screened during apex.

Read somewhere that Trulli discovered pushing three buttons in sequence overrode protection and aided in launch control.
Kinda like CTRL-ALT-DEL! Way to go MS...

Yes,
The McLaren ECU is something I really don't understand.
How did they get all the other teams to agree to that?
Inquiring minds want to know.

Gino

The FIA put the project out for bid and Microsoft/McLaren Electronic Systems was chosen. MES already consults with just about every F1 team on the grid and is a separate company from the McLaren F1 team. Mercedes is not going to risk their reputation by trying to seek an illegal advantage from the standard ECU.

thanks Scott.

Gino

The best part was when what's his name finished the race after a pass but didn't realize he had one more lap to go. That's not the best part, the best part was the gas man getting dragged down pit lane. Sorry, there are just so many highlights.

Ok, the best was the announcer who gets to have a few fingers during the race. "It just blued up."

They are taking notes, more fans hopping aboard.

That was Heikki Kovalainen and according to him, he hit his pit entry speed limiter by accident basically shutting down the car for a couple of seconds.


I was scared seeing that fuel man getting dragged down and at first feared he had been run over. The lollipop man has a lot of explaining to do and I would not be surprised if he is not there next weekend.

Ross Brawn said he would not be calling the shots but watching this past weekend, I would imagine he has a lot to change with the in race procedures.

I am still not liking this 1 ECU rule and cannot help but wonder if its giving some teams an advantage.

Per Planet F1

Four Champ Car championships, 31 pole positions and 31 race wins in 73 starts in 5 years didn't impress? Tough crowd. Maybe Bourdais lucked into P1 at the end of each of those races.

Ferrari would be fortunate if it finds a common cause for 3 engine failures. Maybe it was just the heat of Australia.

Sherwood

That's the third time I've heard about heat being a factor.

The 2.4 just can't handle it, or can it? It's absolutely ridiculous to hear of these complaints in the "greatest" motor sports division. I'm lost, push rod and carbs, evaporation in Texas. How do you.....

I did like how kimi kicked the kid to the curb, that was intent, and talent.

Racing again this weekend, yes?

Oh yes, and as one of the drivers mentioned, Australia was just a practice in terms of severe weather conditions they usually have to face in Malaysia. :D

Coming out of 2007 season we should be expecting some exciting battle between HAM, the eyebrow man (if he can find his groove back soon enough) and Kimi (if his engine will hold together) but I think the real fun is going to be watching the guys in the "midpack" fight it all out. Both Red Bull teams have come a long way with some excellent driving. Williams and BMW-Sauber seem stronger than ever with their consistency, Toyota might just have something to show this time, heck Rubens showed that even Honda is plenty capable and that's with Ross Brawn just "watching over" for now. Then of course Force India and Super Aguri will duke it out in their own league.

The only driver this season that I can't cheer for is Nelson Jr. I just can't take his cockery and this is only the beginning of the season.

This thing may be bigger than "StepneyGate"

Sepang news quote:

"With Ferrari Drive-Like-a-Million-Bucks -McLaren relations at an all time low, paddock gossip is inevitably doing the rounds that Ferrari is now unhappier than ever about tackling this season and beyond with the new McLaren-developed control electronics. Following the investigation back at Maranello this week into Ferrari’s two failed race engines in Australia, speculation suggests that the Italian team has found that the design of the team’s V8 power plant itself was not responsible for the problems.

It is similarly being reported that Ferrari thinks the fuel pressure problem that stranded Kimi Raikkonen down the Melbourne grid last Saturday is also related to the McLaren ECU.

“This kind of thing can happen when you are working with one procedure that you do not know so well. Now we know that there is a conflict we can make sure it does not happen again,” a team spokesman told GP Week.

Team boss Stefano Domenicali, meanwhile, also suggested that Ferrari’s Albert Park dramas could be related to the new ECU, which is developed jointly by Woking based McLaren Electronic Systems and Microsoft, and awarded the tender to equip all F1 cars until 2010 by the FIA."

It'll be great watching Ferrari implode and seeing McLaren hand their asses to them week after week after week. Gotta' make back that $100M right?

Kimi's Ferrari died again last night during Friday practice. Not looking good for them at all, when they were running they had good pace though. Too bad they need the cars to last a whole race.