The Official Not606 Australian GP Chat + Predictions 2013!!!

It's just testing...

And I rate Sutil as a comfortably better driver than Spaghetti, Bottas, Hulk etc. In the midfield, I think the driver makes a bigger difference.

 

hmm intresting so you don't think with sutil he could be abit rusty in racing conditions.

 

Alonso followed very very closely by Vettel. Get the feeling that RB will put in one more stop than Ferrari and Vettel will just miss out on catching Alonso at the end.

 

Grid:
Alonso
Button
Vettle
Webber
Grosjean
Massa
Perez
Lewis
Kimi

Race:
Button
Vettle
Alonso
Kimi
Perez
Webber
Lewis
Massa
Rosberg
Grosjean

 

Perez

Button always goes well around Australia and because of this, he's the favourite for me to win right now and because i'm a gambling man, i'll go for the favourites team mate which in this case is Perez.

 

Grid:
- 1 - Hamilton
------------- 2 - Vettel
- 3 - Rosberg
------------- 4 - Alonso
- 5 - Massa
------------- 6 - Grosjean
- 7 - Webber
------------- 8 - Button
- 9 - Kimi
------------- 10 - Maldonado

The Merc's will go backwards in the race, Alonso to take the season opener.

 

Actually thinking about it. Mercedes should be really good here. If they lack downforce it doesnt matter too much on this track as it's mostly mechanical grip needed and they already have tons of that available. It wouldnt surprise me to see them on the podium. It just depends on tyre wear really.

 

From what I saw the Merc had the worst tyre wear of all.....except for massa who lost a whole wheel.......

 

Iceman will probably hate me, but at this rate of unreliability both Lotus' won't make it to the end at this rate if they keep breaking down like this. Remember 2011 when the car kept going up in flames?

 

As a new Kimi fan (no Kamui anymore, damn you Esteban, damn you Carlos), i'd like to say a Lotus will win, but as others have said, they've looked very brittle in preseason. But i have a funny feeling that McLaren aren't as bad as they say they are, and Sergio Perez will use his tyre management skills to good effect, and win the race, Vettel to be the pole-sitter but have tyre wear issues. Hamilton to hopefully crash and retire from F1 altogether, go have some quality time with his dog.

 

Mercedes will stun us all and win by 12 minutes after doing a 1 stop vs the rest doing 7 stops, which results in them having to use the inters to

 

As a Lotus Renault fan myself I agree. I have a feeling the team have experimented too much on the DDRS, Engine Maps etc which gain very little instead of building a solid all round car. Im also disappointed the honeywell deal hasnt gone through yet.

 

I get the feeling the Lotus' will spend free practice sorting out issues rather than finding a good setup :s
I've really got high hopes for Williams, I'd love to see them in the mix at all races this season. If we can get 3 constructors on the podium I'll be happy thay we're in for a interesting season.

 

I was about to vote for Button but then I read this tweet from Jose Luis: "Sam Michael says that McLaren are behind Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus". I'm still convinced Mercedes are lacking speed so for me it's between Red Bull, Lotus and Ferrari.


Here are the race simulations they did from Barcelona:

IMO the only stints that can be compared are the second stints of Grosjean and Alonso because they were on the same tyre. Grosjean started the stint with 9 extra laps of fuel, so if adjust for fuel (0.9), you get:

Alonso's average time (11 laps) was a 1:29.717
Grosjean's average time (12 laps) was a 1:30.109 (+0.392)

We know that Red Bull and Lotus were equally matched in the race simulation, so you'd have to assume Ferrari would have a 0.4 advantage over Webber as well. Having said that, Alonso did his simulation at the third test when he had the new exhaust, diffuser and brake ducts fitted to his car, whereas Grosjean and Webber did their sims at the second test before their Melbourne-spec updates arrived.

How much of a step forward did Red Bull and Lotus make? Red Bull had some problems with DRS and the new front wing. I'm not sure what else they brought and whether it worked. I don't what Lotus brought other than the illegal exhaust. Everything Ferrari brought worked according to Pat Fry, and the only thing Ferrari weren't using in the race sim was their new front wing. I think that put Ferrari in the best position.

Even if you don't believe that, one thing is absolutely clear from the race simulations - Ferrari have the best tyre degradation.

 

Majority of people for Alonso, interesting stuff.

 

Voted Button because if the first race and Melbourne of all tracks isn't the time for mindless optimism, when is? He'd go level with Michael for the all time Aussie win record if he did which would be pretty special.

Okay and back to reality...Vettel.

 

This season is surely Red Bull and Vettels to lose...

 

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You have some serious problems if u want an F1 driver to crash and maybe die or be permentally disfigured or injured it aint no laughing matter kyle so stfu and grow up, your probs one of those folks that wanted lewis to break his leg after that jerez crash (he was lucky to walk away from that btw)

 

Just ignore him, his views are very extreme at times.

 

LOL oh really so you think itz gonna be 2011 all over again, brotha please people keeps saying there sandbagging blah blah there gonna dominate well i aint seen no outspoken words coming from there mouth's , they don't seem as confident going into australia. People said they would dominate in 2012 and look at how that turned out. Also don't forget they were developing there last car up until the last round they could be on the back foot again . We don't know until qualifying and i think the drs ban will hurt them in that aswell