F1 Australian GP **SPOILER**

[Tweaker]

***If you don't want to know the results of the GP, don't read this thread***

I was quite surprised that by pure luck I happened to catch the full GP on TV... I don't normally get coverage of F1 unless someone has satellite :shrug:

But anyways, I was wondering what you guys thought about this.

In my opinion it had to be the funniest and also most dissorderly F1 race I have ever seen :D :D

Montoya spins out on last corner of warmup lap while the grid was lining up :zombie: Must've felt so stupid!

Grid is told to come back around, but wait, Fizi cannot start his car. Arghh the polesitter's chances for the race are ruined.

Nico, Massa and others all get their cars damaged beyond repair... as well as numerous other wild accidents between other drivers occured... some accidents their own fault.

Schumacher... lol what was going on with him??? He was so slow, even our ol' Yankee Scott was catching up to him :Looking_a He crashed, Ferrari fully retired. Montoya out. Webber out, aghh the list goes on. If anything are the cars any safer??? lol. It seems the drivers are making it unsafe, not the cars.

Best moment was the LAST lap with Button. Bursts up in flames on last corner and decides to NOT roll across the line to finish the race because he'd have the option to use a new engine next race... Clever, but wow so many painful losses from drivers I wanted to see do really well (Button and Nico I have hopes for). All in all I thought this race was fun to watch. Alonso.... booooring, I think Renault has fabricated their own steroids or something. And the other thing, Kimi... he never gets any acclaim or coverage, and I think he is doing fairly well! But such an interesting race, and for those of you that have seen it, I wonder what you thought? :)

[shim]

yeah, and who says F1 is boring? was damn interesting..

[Blackout]

Montoya spins out on last corner of warmup lap while the grid was lining up :zombie: Must've felt so stupid!

Grid is told to come back around, but wait, Fizi cannot start his car. Arghh the polesitter's chances for the race are ruined.



Montoya allways finds ways to screw things up that spin was the most stypid thing I have ever seen. And Fisi wasnt on the pole btw ;)

And what it comes to Button. I really think he is cursed or something. Today he had his best changes to win from the pole. Had bad luck on the last lap, engine blowing just before the finnish. And I dont think he stop on purpose, the car just wouldnt go on further.

But was a very good race, lots of action and some overtaking too and crashes. Too bad Kimi dameged his front wing and couldnt fight for the victory.

[Tweaker]

No, Button's the car had plenty of speed to make it, you could see him brake and pull off to the side. It was said from an interview that they will want a new engine for the next race. That is at least what I heard. And if he had finished, what would he have done for the next race????

[Blackout]

If he said so thats it then. Couldnt see that pulling off the track clearly because I was laughing so much :D

[himself]

Anyone knows where can I download the whole race? If I had wanted to watch the relation I would have to get up at 5:30 :pillepall

[Madman_CZ]

dont they run a reapeat race in poland? here in the uk its on live at 6.30am ( too early when u go to bed at 3) but they re-run again in the afternoon....... still havent got time to watch it.....

mad

[Rappa Z]

I didn't get up at 1 am to watch but the internet told me. What a sinful race. Though, it seems Ferrari never did good at Australia

[zeeaq]

I really agree on this one.Kimi does need more appreciation.As for Schumi....lol really dono wht he has on his mind, first he was crawling, and speed took him easily, then he is all fired up and chases down button like mad !!! And the remaining part of the race...safety car, safety car and safety car ...though Ralf was impressive, podium after looooong time.

[Madman_CZ]

What a sinful race. Though, it seems Ferrari never did good at Australia

lol it appears the removal of ferraris flexy wings has seemed to have made them of pace slightly lol....:rolleyes::static:

though Ralf was impressive

lol words you dont see used together that often .... but for once... well done ralf ....

mad

[Blackout]

lol it appears the removal of ferraris flexy wings has seemed to have made them of pace slightly lol....:rolleyes::static:

Haha! Good point :D

[Becky Rose]

Button's decision was utter stupidity. He was in 4th position and he threw it away to have an improved chance at the next race, but...

The next race is Imola, which is a power track that's heavy on fuel and brakes. As it's a power track and as it's heavy on fuel ... more pitstops.

What can Button not do? He can't drive the laps after the pitstop because his pussy pussy approach stops the car from warming up. His decision to throw 4th away so that he doesn't loose 10 places on the grid is so daft when you consider he has the same problem at the start of races anyway, so a 10 place drop to be amongst slower cars is actually only around 6-8 places lost for him - which as they are slower cars is not that much of a problem to take them back again.

Button wont win Imola any more than he was capable of winning todays race.

Mind you I would probably have stopped the car there too, I wouldn't much fancy my pony tail catching light...

[ATHome]

lol it appears the removal of ferraris flexy wings has seemed to have made them of pace slightly lol....:rolleyes::static:



Not quite right. As many teams still use them, as well as Ferrari does.
Just the gap that showed up at high speed between nose and wing had to be covered.

[sinbad]

Honda's sole priority seems to be to win a race. They'll happily give up 4th today on the basis that if it all comes together at Imola and the car is genuinely capable of winning (which isn't happening often, if at all, lately) they would be kicking themselves because they have to start 10 places back. Plus they're as good as a one car team at the moment, Rubens is nowhere and they can't rely on him to be on the pace when the car is good enough.

[Ryanry64]

Definately a good GP to watch, feel sorry for Button though he deserved better than that.

Also, when there was an onboard cam from the Renault, the rear wing was flexing like mad. Surely I wasn't the only one that could see this :schwitz:

Strange GP in terms of lap times as well, I mean look at Fisichella and Michael Schumacher, both were lapping slowly then boom they're down into the 1:27's.

Montoya is funny :D

[Rob76]

Button's decision was utter stupidity. He was in 4th position and he threw it away to have an improved chance at the next race, but...

The next race is Imola, which is a power track that's heavy on fuel and brakes. As it's a power track and as it's heavy on fuel ... more pitstops.

What can Button not do? He can't drive the laps after the pitstop because his pussy pussy approach stops the car from warming up. His decision to throw 4th away so that he doesn't loose 10 places on the grid is so daft when you consider he has the same problem at the start of races anyway, so a 10 place drop to be amongst slower cars is actually only around 6-8 places lost for him - which as they are slower cars is not that much of a problem to take them back again.

Button wont win Imola any more than he was capable of winning todays race.

Mind you I would probably have stopped the car there too, I wouldn't much fancy my pony tail catching light...

As Fissichella got past, Button was only loosing 5th place (3 points) not 4th. Also, as Barrichello gained a spot, the team only lost 2 constructors points.

I think Honda's approach is to aim for the elusive victory rather than be serious WDC contenders, and so are willing to gamble giving up 3 points to start in Imola without a 10 place grid penalty. They have typically gone well at Imola, and probably feel their chances are good, especially if they can get to the bottom of the tyre temp issue.

The team admitted that Button's race engineer gave the call ' don't cross the line', but Button has said he wouldn't make it across the line anyway. I imagine the engine was causing a fair bit of friction, so unless he could get neutral he might have lost the momentum anyway. Maybe the transmission began to seize too.

Renault's Pat Symonds has apparently said he would have made the same call, and Renault are in a more serious position in terms of chasing the championship.

Like you, Button might not have wanted to sit around in a burning car for longer than he needed either :)

[Barroso]

lol fisi should be grinning after following button the last few laps.that looked so funny from the inboard cam

[Rappa Z]

the view of Button's explosion on the Speed Channel was amazing in the tape.

[ajp71]

A bizarre race but what concerned me was Fisi spinning under the safety car in an area with extra yellow flags and marshalls around, sure there was no grip but wtf was he doing to manage to spin it in T2 (when it didn't appear to be from overexcessive throttle)?

[Barroso]

hehe just like montoya he was trying to warm up the tyres, looks like they were not hot enough :D

[Hankstar]

It was quite a cool day here in Melz yesterday, no surprise the lads couldn't warm up the rubber. It was about 20-ish degrees C. Autumn is here finally.

Certainly was an event-filled race! You could almost hear several thousand people trackside going "Aaaaaaaw F---K!" when Webs broke down (you could almost hear Webs say it himself)..quite heartbreaking actually as he was looking at a good points finish and was leading when his gearbox sh@ itself :( And then poor Jense...what a way to finish (nor not finish as the case may be) - I think Fisi was lucky not to hit the oil and break his car too...although it would've been pretty funny :)
I'm a bit over this engine rule, I don't want to see teams playing about and giving up points so they can start with a new engine without penalty - I thought points were meant to be the focus, but I guess Team Honda know better than me. Seems the rule is encouraging people to DNF more than it's encouraging engine longevity...at least they brought back tyre changes though!

btw: LMAO JPM :D

[ajp71]

hehe just like montoya he was trying to warm up the tyres, looks like they were not hot enough :D

That's just not acceptable IMO in top level motorsport, fine you can cock it up, even crash out, on your parade lap but when your under the safety car and traveling past the scene of a crash with marshalls all over the place you have too slow down and stop dicking about. I've seen club racing accidents where stranded cars have been hit hard when there have been marshalls about under yellow and even red flags.

Under yellows is bad enough but Mallory Park recently I saw a race where 2 Locosts (Catherhamesque cars) came together after finishing the race then despite a flurry of chequered/yellow/red flags combined with tire smoke ahead a large number of drivers failed to slow down, including one noob who didn't even lift and at one point there were four cars locked up side by side, at the point all the cars were piling into the back of each other marshalls were already on the track and it's really only luck no marshall was hit. Not the only very close shave I can remember another one where a Formula Ford went into the chicane at Snetterton far too fast under yellow flags and was only stopped from hitting a car being moved by marshalls after hitting another car.

Point is either of those accidents could have had fatal outcomes and they're not the only ones I've seen, had Fisi's car spun a bit further along and hit Massa's car and the marshalls then it would almost certainly have been a fatal accident. IMO warming your tires up is not worth that risk to someone else, if the driver wants to risk their own neck that's fine but not other people :pillepall

[Becky Rose]

You are right, regrattably.

Motorsports are dangerous, and there's nothing more dangerous to a Human being than stupidity. We're all packed full of it and just looking for a way to vent it out ... :)

[MyBoss]

Button's decision was utter stupidity. He was in 4th position and he threw it away to have an improved chance at the next race, but...




It was't buttons decition, it was the teams. I'm pretty shure.

[Vain]

When I saw the race I actually thought: "Noobs, learn how to race cleanly!"
If I were in that race I would have disconnected to search for a race with more experienced drivers...
It's quite sad, but actually true.

Vain

[Madman_CZ]

it was good to see that even the professionals can have off days.... was quite fun to watch... exp the way michael destroyed that ferrari...... the energy and the debris....

mad

[jtr99]

At least Ide makes Sato look good.

[Madman_CZ]

ralf and filipe who? :p

[Becky Rose]

If there's a racial stereotype in racing it's that Japanese drivers use the walls as part of the racing line.

Formula Nippon has a lot to answer for, as this Ide bloke highlights, and as Sato did before him, as did Nakajima in his day. Interestingly Irvine never really suffered from the Formula Nippon syndrome, perhaps that's why he won in it so easily?

Are we ever likely to see a Japanese world champion unless F1 introduces the skid pan as a track concept?

[jtr99]

So if one was a female Japanese LFS player, stereotype overload would be complete, eh?

Kev: I like Sato also, and I think your analysis of his difficulties in previous years is pretty good. I was being sincere in saying that the big difference in lap times between Sato and Ide might remind people that the guy (Sato) has some talent.

[tristancliffe]

Everyone has a goal in life (or should). Ide's goal is to be worse than Taki Inoue, and I think he's well on the way to proving it. Gotta wonder if the Super Aguri has japanese translations for steering wheel functions printed on it, for reverse, anti-stall, spin-mode and all the other buttons he uses regularly.

I'm sure Japan will one day produce a decent F1 driver, but if Sato is the best they've got then it's not promising... Very exciting driver but he either has a brain OR wears a helmet it seems.

[himself]

If anyone is interested
http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3466844
here is torrent for a clip showing most interesting moments of Australian GP. It's quite cool actually. I can upload the clip somewhere if someone like to.