Archive for March, 2009
March 31st, 2009 at 09:55am
Under Racing
It was a tough day at the office for Felipe Massa
Ferrari got their 2009 season off to a terrible start in Melbourne.
Felipe Massa retired late in the race and Kimi Raikkonen lost a points finish after spinning into the barriers.
The race began brightly for the team as Massa shot through from sixth on the grid to third. Raikkonen also started strongly, running fifth.
The Ferraris opted to run on the super-soft tyres from the start of the race, and when they hit their graining phase after a few laps they found their rivals coming back at them.
A mid-race safety car period allowed them to regain lost ground on the leaders but also compromised their strategy. Massa dropped out of the points after his second pit stop and struggled to make progress. He may already have been suffering with the mechanical problem that put him out of the race 13 laps before the finish.
Raikkonen’s race was ruined by a crash on lap 43. He managed to keep going after an extra pit stop but pulled up three laps short of the chequered flag.
Ferrari made a similarly poor start last year, and ended up winning the constructors’ championship, so you’d be a fool to write them off yet. But it seems the errors that blighted their 2008 campaign haven’t been banished.
By Mikel
March 31st, 2009 at 09:55am
Under Racing
1. Jenson Button
2. Rubens Barrichello
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Timo Glock
5. Fernando Alonso
6. Nico Rosberg
7. Sebastien Buemi
8. Sebastien Bourdais
9. Adrian Sutil
10. Nick Heidfeld
11. Giancarlo Fisichella
12. Jarno Trulli*
13. Mark Webber
14. Sebastian Vettel
15. Robert Kubica
16. Kimi Raikkonen
Did not finish
Felipe Massa
Nelson Piquet Jnr - spun
Kazuki Nakajima - crashed
Heikki Kovalainen - accident damage
*25 second penalty for passing Lewis Hamilton during a safety car period
By Mikel
March 31st, 2009 at 09:55am
Under Racing
Plenty to talk about after an historic start to the Australian Grand Prix. Rate the race out of ten and leave your comments below:
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
By Mikel
March 31st, 2009 at 09:55am
Under Racing
Join in our live blog of the Australian Grand Prix below. Here’s the grid and pit stop predictions.
Live F1 video FAQ | Live F1 timing | UK radio commentary | Track map
Australian Grand Prix 2009 live blog
Use this button on the Live Blog panel to turn off auto scrolling so you can read earlier messages.
Please remember this is a live blog not live chat - comments are moderated before going live and not every comment is published because we get so many! If you’re looking for information about the session such as where to find video or what the weather is at the track, you may find what you’re looking for by reading earlier parts of the live blog.
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By Mikel
March 31st, 2009 at 09:55am
Under Racing
The excellent Red Bullog, run by Dank who often posts comments here, is closing following a complaint by Red Bull.
Dank wrote yesterday:
It is with regret that this will be the last ever post on The Red Bullog. Having pondered over the contents of this letter for the past few hours, it has severely knocked any enthusiasm I had. What began just six months ago as a labour of love, quickly developed into a time consuming obsession to provide Red Bull Racing fans with something worth reading and I hope I that I have been successful in my quest to do so.
Red Bullog was an excellent site and it reflects very poorly on Red Bull that they treat their most passionate fans in such a shabby fashion. I’ve already sent Dank my commiserations via his site and I’m sure many F1 Fanatic readers will be equally dismayed by this news.
Read Dank’s post in full here: The End
By Mikel
March 31st, 2009 at 09:55am
Under Racing
Can Jenson Button convert pole position into victory?
With a new team on the front row and some fast cars at the back of the grid the 2009 F1 season looks set to get off to a thrilling start at Melbourne tomorrow.
Will we see a first-corner pile-up? Will the KERS drivers have an advantage at the start? How many drivers will lose their front wings? When wil lthey stop for fuel?
Here’s my take on how the Australian Grand Prix will unfold.
The start
There are a few things to keep an eye on at the start:
Collisions
The first corner at Melbourne tends to funnel the cars together and there is a high potential for incidents. On top of that, the tight turn three which follows is often a scene of more collisions. Last year Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Giancarlo Fisichella and Anthony Davidson were all eliminated on lap one.
This year we have the added complication of the extra-large front wings, which several drivers have noted are extremely vulnerable to being knocked off.
KERS
There has been a lot of discussion about whether drivers are allowed to use KERS at the start of the race. I’m not aware of any regulations preventing drivers from using it - as I understand they can to go to the grid with a fully-charged KERS and they can use it the instant the lights go out.
That could hand an advantage off the startline to the drivers who have it this weekend, which are both Ferraris, both McLarens, both Renaults, and Nick Heidfeld’s BMW.
Clean side
As ever the drivers who get to start from the clean side of the grid will have an advantage.
At Melbourne the racing line runs across the odd-numbered side of the grid, which is good news for Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg et. al.
Australian GP grid and race weights
Lewis Hamilton and the Toyotas
Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli have been sent to the back of the grid after qualifying in the top ten. Although they’ve had to modify their rear wings to comply with the regulations, expect them to still be very quick, and make rapid progress through the field.
This is especially tough on Glock, one of the stars of qualifying, beating one-lap master Trulli despite carrying four extra laps’ worth of fuel.
Keep an eye on Lewis Hamilton, too. The MP4-24 is well off the pace this weekend but it looks as though he’s on an aggressive fuel strategy (see below).
Toyota drivers lose qualifying positions
Pit stop predictions
The official starting weights of the cars has been published. Given that each car has to weigh a minimum of 605kg, and a lap of Mellbourne uses approximately 2.5kg of fuel, we can predict which lap each car will make its first pit stop on:
Robert Kubica 18
Felipe Massa 19
Sebastien Vettel 20
Kimi Raikkonen 20
Lewis Hamilton 20
Nico Rosberg 20
Mark Webber 22
Jarno Trulli 22
Jenson Button 23
Sebastien Bourdais 23
Rubens Barrichello 24
Timo Glock 26
Sebastien Buemi 28
Fernando Alonso 30
Adrian Sutil 31
Kazuki Nakajima 32
Giancarlo Fisichella 33
Nick Heidfeld 34
Heikki Kovalainen 34
Nelson Piquet 35
Having originally qualified 11th (before being promoted to ninth by the Toyotas) Nick Heidfeld is the highest driver on the grid to have free choice of fuel load. He looks set to be one of the last drivers to stop for fuel and is well-placed to take advantage of a safety car period, which are frequent occurences in Melbourne.
But make no mistake - this race looks set to be a Brawn GP rout, with shades of McLaren’s dominance in 1998 at the same track. They’ve locked out the front row of the grid and done it with a fat slug of fuel in the tanks. Their rivals’ best hopes is that they run into reliability problems, or that Vettel can pick off Barrichello on the run to the first corner.
Your thoughts
I asked on Twitter what people’s expectations of the race were and here are some of the responses I received:
#moitio Do you think the drivers are going to pour into turn 1 as fast as possible? I think they’re going to take it carefully
#JayBob80 Kimi to feature, Rubans and JB should dominate if cars are reliable. Both red bull teams look strong
#FrankSta Brawn to the top!! Hooray!!! But how long is going to last jenson’s and ruben’s excellent team mate relationship?
#keirdre tomorrow: Button to romp away with the race, only to suffer a heartbreaking failure near the end, and Barrichello to win.
#alliemims thoughts for the race: hamilton, kovalainen, and alonso don’t even show up. they’ll be playing golf instead.
#MatStace my expextations for tomorrow, rusty drivers, wide front wings = lots of missing noses at turns 1 & 3 on lap 1
How do you think the Australian Grand Prix will unfold? Leave a comment below and don’t forget to join us here on F1 Fanatic for the Australian Grand Prix live blog from one hour before the start of the race.
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Timo Glock, Toyota, Melbourne, 2009
By Mikel
March 31st, 2009 at 09:55am
Under Racing
Williams’ protest was a reaction to the diffuser appeal
Williams has withdrawn a protest against Ferrari and Red Bull Racing “in the interests of the sport”.
It had protested that the pod wings on the front of the F60 and RB5 contravened the rules. After cancelling the protest it issued a statement saying (emphasis added):
The AT&T Williams team confirmed that following today’s qualifying session, it submitted protests against two competitor teams under the 2009 Technical Regulations.
After further detailed consideration, Williams has withdrawn both protests in the interests of
the sport.
Williams recognises the possibility that in this area there could be more than one interpretation of the rules and therefore does not feel it appropriate to continue with the protests.
Williams, along with Toyota and Brawn GP, are subject to an appeal brought by Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault about the legality of its diffusers.
It looks as though Williams’ protest was the team’s way of making a point: that its diffusers are no less legal than Ferrari or Red Bull’s pod wings.
I have every sympathy with Williams’ argument. There are always going to be disputes about designs that stick to the letter of the rules but contravene the ’spirit’ of the regulations, whatever that is.
But perhaps not everyone agrees with how they made their point. Autosport’s Jonathan Noble noted in his news story (emphasis added):
Despite hours of deliberation by the Australian Grand Prix race stewards following Williams’ complaints, and media and other officials being forced to remain at work in the paddock until the matter was resolved, the Grove-based outfit chose to call a halt to its complaints shortly before midnight.
Still, I hope the diffuser appeal gets thrown out. Or, better yet, the three teams see sense and withdraw the diffuser protest. But seeing what Renault’s Flavio Briatore has to say about it, it seems unlikely:
The interpretation of the regulations was very clear in the past - the cars need less downforce for safety reasons. Correct? Every time we build a new car it was to be two to three seconds slower than the previous car. Correct? That was always the intention of the [FIA] What happened here is that the three teams are going pretty clearly in the direction of downforce. And as we all knew that we will run on slick tyres from ‘09 on, it was the intention of FIA president Max Mosley and the Federation to impose new rules to reduce downforce.
He says that now, but you can be sure if the FIA rules the diffusers legal at the appeal meeting on April 14th, Renault will have one on their R29 as soon as they possibly can.
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By Mikel
March 31st, 2009 at 07:14am
Under Racing
This team struggled for nine years to win a grand prix but finally did it at the Dutch GP. Which team, driver and year?
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By Mikel
March 31st, 2009 at 07:08am
Under Racing
With the recent rumor that the Canadian Grand Prix could be back on for 2009 due to delays on the Abu Dhabi track construction, the organizers have quickly answered. It appears that everything is fine over in the Middle East and that the track is on schedule and ticket went on sale Monday. [...]
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By Mikel
March 31st, 2009 at 06:59am
Under Racing
Michael Schumacher is not entirely sure Vettel deserved a penalty for his clash with BMW’s Robert Kubica. That make two of us Michael. I am perplexed as to how you desire more overtaking int he sport at any cost, even th 2009 regulations that have taken a toll on the sport but it’s…
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By Mikel
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