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Great qualifying. Cigarette paper between the Brawns and Toyotas. TOIT all at sea, new technical regulations and without the drivers to sort the car out.
Still feel Brawn were wrong to stick with el Gordo. Senna would have brought needed sponsorship and blind monkey would probably be quick in that car.
Comments
Will the other teams be able to build their new cars in time to catch Brawn.
The telecast was scheduled to start at 11:10PM local time, but with the end of daylight saving yesterday, the body would be experieincing 12:10PM. Add a nasty cold, and there was no way I was going to stay up till 2AM to watch the race and then front up to work with four hours sleep, and a cold.
If I'd stayed up to watch that farce, I would have had even less sleep, and be even more tired.
About the best thing to come out of that race was TOIT management saying TOIT's result was unacceptable. I think this is code for "Max, you need to retire early, so that the Toad can take your place and put the natural order of things right again."
Only somebody that has never lived in the tropics could think that starting amotor race at 1700h local would be a good idea.
Wayne, you're back in Never-never land aren't? You guys aren't going to get the new Hi-Def tv until Nov I hear. The telecast started in Melbourne at 7pm, so we got it live.
Seriously, if they let the toad run the sporting part of the FIA every other team needs to pull out.
Get into the 21st century and throw away your b&w TV.
The race was live on Channel 1HD @6.50pm, even the GLW was forced (persuaded) to watch it.
The pre race show started at 6.00. It was replayed on CH10 at 11.10.
Oh, wait a minute....................you moved back to Canberra.
I bought one of those telies without a back on it, and it currently irradiates my entire living room. As noted however, the capitalist pigs at network ten won't be giving us OneHd until November.
Not a smart move one would think, what with mowst of the Tax Office located in Canberra. Those guys have memories.
Webber V's Clewlis. Graphic illustration of a KERS benefit, albeit in a dog handling car.
LOVE the overtaking - see, those rear wings aren't so ugly anymore.
BTW 'Loic Bigois' ring any bells? He's the aero guy at Brawn.
I think the Brawn advantage stemmed from the fact that Ross Brawn headed up the OWG at the FIA, so if anyone would know where the loopholes in performance lay it would be him.
1) The decision to start al 5.00pm local time was simply unbelievable, and the symbol of how much Bernie&Max care about the racing and the drivers;
2) at this point, Button is a serious candidate for the title. McLaren and Renault seem to be out of the picture (Kovy ran 1km in two races, Clewlis was cunning but never close to the top, and even further from the top was Alonso. Non comments about Nelsinho.....).
3) Ferrari, instead, is there, IMHO. In the two races, they paid more for the incredible mistakes by the pits (with Massa in Melbourne and during the practice in Sepang (!!!!), and with Kimi's tyres during the race in Sepang, what reason was there to run that risk, run it with Massa,who was in P16, rather.....) than for the car's uncompetitiveness. I guess this is the difference between having Jean Todt and Ross Brawn and having Stefano Domenicali and M$......
4) Congrats to Heidfeld, when you need to race with the head he's always there, and to Trulli, who is the usual rocket on the single lap. And, in general, BMW and Toyota seem to be the most serious contenders to Brawn at the moment. Brawn and Toyota also seem to have the best brains at the pits, perfect strategies for Button and Glock during the race. Williams can improve as well (great performance by Nico in the first half of the race, he deserved better luck, like Trulli).
5) Barrichello shows once again he's not up for the top.
6) All teams will be already working to change the diffusors and switch to Toyota-Williams-Brawn solution. Will be fun to see what happens.
7) Concerning Kers, I like it as it allows more surpasses, but it should be compulsory for all teams!
8) Concerning Clewlis, I really do not understand McLaren, they lost their mind as well. If really they forced Clewlis to lie to FIA, probably (also as an example for the future) a penalty should be given, but a disqualification for a GP seems too much.
re: diffusers. On the face of it, it could be a relatively straightforward 'bolt on' improvement. It will be fascinating to watch.
Oh, and RJ. Screw the children, I'll be long gone before the bloody ice caps melt so what do I care.
There's a little video here: http://www.williamshybridpower.com/f1/
Note that the video shows the motor on the rear of the gearbox. The teams are actually using them on the front of the engine to keep from shifting too much weight to the rear and instead sacrifice fuel tank capacity.
Its heavy, limits available ballast and takes the energy from the engine in the braking zone making the car more difficult to drive.
I see most of the teams blowing their budgets shoehorning new rear ends onto a double diffusor.
That being said I don't think it was a great road to head down on the FIA's part while at the same time encouraging spending reductions.
No doubt KERS will help you defend your position but if the faster car gets past he pulls away. Look at Alonso versus Webber in Malaysia.