The Official 2011 F1 Thread....Now That 2010 is Over

sadlerau said:
I'm looking forward to a BIG race from Webber tomorrow, his car has the pace to get him near a podium
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Me too. It's how many cars a driver passes during the race that really counts. Button passed three in Australia. Meanwhile, Sebastian is still too inexperienced to do much passing.

Tomorrow, if Button gets to the first corner ahead of Vettel, there'll be drama: Vettel will nerf Button off the track and they'll both retire within the first two laps. That'll kick the McLaren head office into overdrive (can you just picture the sweat and pulsing veins on Ron Dennis's forehead) and they'll blow whatever budget they can get their hands on to beat Red Bull this season.
 
Conspiracy and sabotage??? Or just bad luck. All the crap happens on Webber's car. Vettel is making it look too easy. Hoping that Button can make him sweat a little today. Went to Long Beach GP, just finished watching the Quali on TV and now watching the Chinese GP pre-race.
 
Good show by Hamo and Macca. From barely getting to the starting grid to winning. Not one of Button's best effort, stopping at RB's pit was kind of funny. Great drive by Webber from 18th to 3rd without KERS. Entertaining race, DRS, tires worked for me as a spectator, at least for this track anyways. Bring on the sprinklers, eye patches....!
 
Interesting race untill the end.Good job for Lewis and specially Mark (who could expect podium).Dissapointing race for Renault and Ferrari,seems that Merc. has finde some good balance for cars.Look like Merc.and Renault changed places for this race.Sergio better from race to race.
 
Wonderful drive, Lewis. Absolutely fantastic drive. This one's for you:

y_hami_mcla_shan_2011_2-470x313.jpg


The McLaren mechanics are top notch too.
 
A great win by Hamilton, but you have to say Red Bull threw it away! In trying to play conservative with Vettel on a two stopper, they played into the hands of McLaren. But the McLaren crew came up trumps, especially with the last minute, pre-race shenanigans they had to endure. Well done to them and Hamilton. What can one say about Button's brain fade in his first pit stop?? Doh!

And Webber should have won that race! :biggrin:

In the first stint, when he was mired in with the back markers, loosing seconds a lap - I was screaming at the TV that the team should bring him in on Lap 5 or 6 and get him in clean air where he could show some speed.

Then in the second stint he came up behind Kobayashi and for 4 or 5 laps he struggled to find a way past, but it wasn't going to happen without KERS, which Webber didn't have from the start of the race! Had they dragged him in earlier, he would probably not have been stuck behind Kobayashi, or when he did catch him, they should have pitted him within a couple of laps, when it became clear Webber would struggle to get by.

Does one get the impression that Red Bull are not particularly interested in seeing Webber be competitive?? Conspiracy theories anyone :biggrin:

Finally what happened to Ferrari?? Especially Alonso, who obviously was not happy with his car? They seem to have gone in the wrong direction this race, so there will be lots of "midnight oil" being used back at the factory I bet.
 
Not JB's best drive... he had a great chance for a win and couldn't make it happen. He definitely showed the pressure when he pulled into Vettel's pit and couldn't keep Webber away. I wonder if he used the last year's "qualify as high as possible at all costs" tire strategy (as Hamo did last week) and that was the difference?

Great drive by Webber with no KERS even. I suspect Vettel lost his KERS somewhere along the race as well. All in all, an exciting race to watch, and I'm happy that this year it isn't just about where you qualify and then a Sunday procession.
 
Truly a wonderful race... happy for Lewis, sad for Mark, Jenson... this could have been anybody's race -- obviously Mark should have won.
 
Re: Artificial Parity?

This "game" (and all OW racing series) doesn't naturally have all the unpredictability of modern stick and ball games, so the new rules have been made up to close that gap. The Pirellis are as predictable as a bouncing football in an on-side kick.

How else can Webber come from 18th to 3rd without KERS and in a troubled car and Vettel goes from 1st to 2nd. :confused:
 
Re: Ferrari

Finally what happened to Ferrari?? Especially Alonso, who obviously was not happy with his car? They seem to have gone in the wrong direction this race, so there will be lots of "midnight oil" being used back at the factory I bet.
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Fred was quoted as saying it was "impossible" to race on these tires. So the Pirelli dice just came up snake-eyes for the Red Cars this time. Kinda makes me wonder how tight quality control is with Pirelli manufacturing. IIRC, I've heard/seen "tech talks" /demonstrations about how much racing tires are made by hand compared to what a guy might think. So, maybe the secret rules are that Pirelli purposefully makes some tires better than others and that the teams get the tires in a random lottery fashion; more good sets one weekend than another???

Back to Ferrari's troubles, I heard 2 things: 1) that their top management did a rare, if not unprecedented marathon working trip back to Maranello last week and 2) there was some question about the windtunnel calibration and that they had made changes. Are these 2 tidbits really the same story?
 
Amazing race!!! I just watched last night on the pvr.
Webber got them big balls, Lewis awesome drive, button...shit happens, Massa ahead of Alonso and that's great for him at this point, Mercedez..nico keeps out doing Schumacher , Kobayashi is a furious dog a kamikaze in all the extension of the word!! Perez was driving great but he has to concentrate and score points ASAP!!!

I really enjoy this race, you know you are enjoying a race when: you find your self standing on the couch yelling at the tv... ;)


-MSR
 
I don't think the drivers can you hear you no matter how loud you yell on the couch :biggrin:

I like Paul DiResta. I watched a couple DTM races at the tail end of last year and he has some skillz. He hasn't even been able to drive much in practice and can still place quite well which is impressive. Petrov was dissapointing in regards to passing and being passed which is a surprise as Alonso had so much trouble behind him at Yaz Marina last year. Looks like he was just caught off guard a few times and also unable to judge braking in the dirty line as well as some of the other guys

This was a race for all the guys you feel sorry for. Massa finishes ahead of Alonso (drives very well actually for the 2nd time this year, but the commentators cast him in Alonso's shadow regardless). Webber has an absolutely amazing drive that sadly nobody will remember in a few weeks time. Hamilton gets his win that required of all things patience and care with tires (read back in this thread and you will see that patience and tire care were not things predicted for Hamilton), Williams finishes the race, and Merc has a decent race. In fact it was an extremely clean race with no wrecks, yet we are all glued to our seats. I'd say somebody is doing something right here, Nascar fans look out! Also what happened to Nick Heidfeld?

For Ferrari, I was under the impression that the fruits of last weeks work wouldn't be ready for this weekend. We'll see what they come up with for the next race. Perhaps it just requires an announcement that if they don't improve significantly, they're going to stop developing 2011 and focus on 2012.

On a side note, I find it funny that Hamilton got a penality for weaving last week, but Massa didn't get tagged for crossing the line at pit exit. If it was Alonso that did it, I bet Hamilton would be up on a soap box whining about it
 
Re: Ferrari

92 white 0650 said:
Back to Ferrari's troubles, I heard 2 things: 1) that their top management did a rare, if not unprecedented marathon working trip back to Maranello last week and 2) there was some question about the windtunnel calibration and that they had made changes. Are these 2 tidbits really the same story?
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Ferrari in winter testing also used Toyota's windtunnel.How they can go wrong whit two?Real testing are bit different.Some things work some not.
 
Despite Ferrari being off pace again, the racing was exciting this weekend. I'm enjoying seeing the tires fall off the table after (somewhat) predicable intervals. Seeing Rossberg and Massa try a 2 stop race with most everybody else go for 3 does add challenge to series. It didn't pay off but made for an exciting race. It was also nice to see Red Bull struggle a bit, there won't be a season sweep.

I'm hoping Ferrari's improvements for Turkey make the difference. As I remember they had a solid pre-season testing, perhaps everybody else was sandbagging. The old saying "The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to make up" applies. Mac took advantage of if.

Miner
 
Great race and brillant tire strategy by McLaren. Too bad JB cracked under pressure. I was rooting for our old Honda driver.:smile:
 
Re: Hamo.......changing his stripes or just lucky?

....Hamilton gets his win that required of all things patience and care with tires (read back in this thread and you will see that patience and tire care were not things predicted for Hamilton),,,,,
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Well, maybe that's right, but I heard 3 separate comments from the Speed boys that Hamo is still hard on tires and that "should" bite him. So, apparently they are not aware that Hamo has completely changed his driving style like Tiger Woods changing his swing.

Or, just maybe, Hamo just got lucky those couple of stints with some tires that held up better than the others. I couldn't believe my eyes the way he so easily drove (not dove) under Vettel in the most unlikely of corners. I doubt vettel was snoozing that badly; I just think Hamo had the grip and Vettel did not at that point.

So the "tire lottery" unpredictability of tires still looms large with me. We're 3 races in and the teams are still only guessing when to come in for tires; not so much for traffic but because the tires go off so radically at unpredictable times. Miss the pit call by 1 lap and they lose a bunch of spots.

So questions still hang: has Hamo really learned patience and tire care? Will the engineers/strategists get a handle on tire life? We shall see.

JMHOWTFDIK? :rolleyes:
 
I'm really starting to wonder about the tire variability too the more I think about this. Either way, I do remember Button streaking off at the beginning of the race and then getting a message over the radio which said to essentially keep going faster. I thought it contrary to everything the announcers said about tire wear being dependant on how the tires were abused early on, but figured he was the tire master so it would wash out. Guess it didn't :cool:
 
Re: Hamo.......changing his stripes or just lucky?

92 white 0650 said:
So the "tire lottery" unpredictability of tires still looms large with me. We're 3 races in and the teams are still only guessing when to come in for tires; not so much for traffic but because the tires go off so radically at unpredictable times. Miss the pit call by 1 lap and they lose a bunch of spots.


I agree whit you.Last year driver who stayed longer lap or two get some advantage this year is opposite.
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One has to remember that Hamilton had one set of "green" softs, which were worth a couple of seconds a lap initially, and Webber had three sets of soft "greens" at his disposal. This "green tyre" condition was most likely the reason for such big variations in grip between the cars at various times during the race?

According to Pirelli's "Pit Summary" Webber came in on lap 10 for his first stint on softs, then did 2 stints of 15 laps which gave him a last stint of 16 laps to the end.

I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I'm left to wonder what would have happended if Webber had come in 3 laps earlier, then run two 16 lap stints instead of 15?? I'm sure that the simulation boffins at Red Bull are mulling over that right now.

What has become obvious is that Red Bull not only have to look at their KERS systems, but that their strategy may be set a bit too conservative at the moment? Still with Vettel so far in front already, it probably pays to run him conservatively, because looked at as a championship, 2nd place is quite ok.
 
Re: Hamo.......changing his stripes or just lucky?

92 white 0650 said:
Well, maybe that's right, but I heard 3 separate comments from the Speed boys that Hamo is still hard on tires and that "should" bite him. So, apparently they are not aware that Hamo has completely changed his driving style like Tiger Woods changing his swing.
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Not really like that.

Hamilton learned from Jenson's last race where Jens had good tires left at race's end, so Hamilton purposely did just enough during qualifying to save as many tires as possible. So he knew he had the same or more tires for the race than every one of the top 10 qualifiers.

All the same, Jenson really cranked up his qualifying this race, so they're learning from each other, and that's great for the team.

But Jens still got an earful from McLaren management, maybe because he was smiling broadly and didn't seem to care when BBC interviewed him and he just shrugged it off as "oh I wasn't fast enough".

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90873
McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh revealed that Jenson Button's mistake during his first stop - when the Briton stopped in Red Bull's pit slot - was most costly than initially thought.

Whitmarsh also said Button should have stopped a lap earlier, something that cost him and Hamilton valuable time.

"It cost Jenson position and it cost him time," said Whitmarsh. "Within the stop itself it cost over two seconds and it cost a position, the fact that he stopped a lap later than he should have done as well cost him time, and it cost Lewis time and it cost Lewis track position as well, in that last lap was when Massa got by and he should have stopped by then.

"It was pretty calamitous, simple way of looking at it, we were first and second and we were whatever fifth and sixth [actually seventh] after the first stops, so at that point we knew we had to do something different. That partly prompted the view that we had to change strategy. In the end, that would be the right way to go."
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After all, it was Whitmarsh who got Jens into the team, and when Jens fails him, he has to come down hard on him. There's no other way to run a business than like that.

I really want to get a McLaren sports car now, once they make one that costs half of what they're asking for the MP4-12C. Three-wide garage may one day have: NSX Zanardi, MP4-8C, RL.
 
Re: SoCal smack-down?

92 white 0650 said:
I'm going to be down LA/OC way end of April and I got to thinking. :eek: :redface: Since the new season is off to a wild unpredictable frothy start, how about we all get together for a F-1 rules/teams/drivers/etc./etc. round table no holds barred "discussion". Got Jack, Rebel, myhui, Miner, CKS (and who else?) all in the Republic of SoCal, so why not?

Might have to have a couple of rules: no shivs, no pistolas, no mouthy GF and a 2 drink maximum? :biggrin:

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, :rolleyes: but hey............Bernie would love it. :tongue:
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Did we get anything settled on a day? I'm not sure I can be there Friday, but definitely next Saturday. Who can make it and who wants to pick a spot? EM me at tidlof <at> sbcglobal <dot> net
 

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