The official Not606 Qantas Australian Grand Prix chat and predictions

The Merc tyre wear was insane, there was no way he would finish any higher than 6th imo.

 

Thought it was a cracking race, and the BBC coverage was pretty good. When they said highlights, i was expecting just 40 minutes of action, not a near re-run of the race. I like Ben Edwards too, he's enthusiastic, and seems to have struck up a good partnership with DC already.


On the race, well done to JB, he did a Vettel today, got in front and managed the race, never looked in trouble. Hamilton's lack of pace was good too, and the fact he looked like his dog had died after the race. I wonder what excuses he'll come up with this season?

 

Trying to watch the BBC race highlights show on iPlayer. Is it way out of sync or is it just me?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01dplqb/Formula_1_2012_The_Australian_Grand_Prix_Highlights/
Could someone please confirm? I had related computer issues lately so it could be that.

 

Interesting little comment from Horner after the race...

"I think we underperformed rather than McLaren being overly strong and that is the story - we can prove it next time we race."

Them's fightin' words! Nothing like being gracious in defeat, eh Christian?

 

Looks fine to me.

 

Thanks. Got this new computer last week and installed too much different crap. Got to clean up this mess I guess..

 

Lead commenter on the BBC was good, also I didn’t even notice Martin Brudle absence, which I thought I would. DC did a great job as the technical guy. The only down side to the BBC team was the pit lane guy, but I’l hoping he’ll settle into his job as the season goes on.

The race itself was great, I really enjoyed it. Button was a class above everyone, which I didn’t expect. Hamilton should of got second, if it weren’t for the safety car, but he looked gutted after the race, really down.

The Ferrari showed good race pace, with Alonso anyway, which gives me a little hope for the season. The Red Bulls looked OK in the race too, so I hope we can have some mutli car fights for the lead.

The mid field is incredibly tight, and this battle is looking great for the season. Every race could go any way for the rest of the points.

Bring on the next race, and more of the same please.

 

If Alonso can help them sort out teething issues - the Prancing horse might be a dark horse.
Its early days.

 

Wow this is ranked as our 6th most posted on thread!

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850 posts? Pah.

Here's some goodness, courtesy of Sky:

Pit Radios

 

Cool stuff, thanks!

 

Ted's video blog.

 

Australia was a good race but it didn't get close to answering all the questions.

Firstly McLaren were under fueled for most of the race as we know, and in that position their race pace seemed equal with Red-Bull, so how much more race pace will they have with enough fuel?

Webber outqualified Vettel when Vettel had KERS and he did not. When he was in clean air his race pace looked really good. Can he repeat that and challenge Vettel?

Schumacher and Grosjean outqualified Red-Bull, if they hadn't made mistakes it seems fair to say Rosberg and Raikkonen would have as well. Now Mercedes do no have the race pace to mix it up with the Bulls but Lotus very much do seem to but due to the cicumstances we didn't get to see that. Grosjean out on lap 2 and Raikkonen starting 17th.

If all 4 lotus and Mercedes drivers qualify ahead of Red-Bull and McLaren put the right amount of fuel in, its going to be a very interesting race indeed.

 

You can compare driver laptimes here.

Ferrari need to take a look at this.



Something about Hamilton in the press conference...

These "I don't know" style answers make me think that he's in denial; not accepting the fact that both Vettel and Button were simply better than him.

Hamilton was the fastest man in the speed trap with 313.8kph, while Vettel's top speed was 303.5kph. He had a better car in the race, as Button showed. He was beaten on outright pace and if these sort of answers suggest another difficult season for him (maybe not as bad as 2011 though).

 

He was unlucky with the SC and he couldn't have used full engine mode to pass vettel cos he was busy saving fuel

But Vettel and particularly Button were simply better than him in that race

roll on Malaysia

 

There will have been intensive analysis of everything to apply tweaks and strategy for Malaysia.
Lets hope too much rain doesn't spoil the truth of current pecking order being a bit clearer.

 

Autosport Ratings... (out of 10)

Vettel : 8
Webebr : 7
Button : 10
Hamilton : 7
Alonso : 9
Massa : 4
Schumacher : 8
Rosberg : 5
Raikkonen : 7
Grosjean : 7
di Resta : 6
Hulk : 7
Kobayashi : 7
Perez : 7
Ricciardo : 8
Vergne : 8
Maldonado : 7
Senna : 4
Kovalainen : 6
Petrov : 5
de la Rosa : 6
Karthikeyan : 6
Glock : 7
Pic : 7

 

How did Massa earn a 4? I would have given him a 2 at best.

 

Well seeing how the HRT drivers got a 6 without even turning up on race day, a 4 is pretty damning.

 

If massa was given a 4 then its unjust that Senna got a 4. He had so much bad luck and everybody wanted to take him off. At least he made ground through the field. DLR and Karth a 6 is a joke too