F1 2004 - Let the race begin :D
- Thread starter Unknown Soldier
- Start date
F*ck, F*ck, F*ck, F*ckedy, F*****************ck.
Lets hope for a better race.
(Well done Jense though)
Lets hope for a better race.
(Well done Jense though)
I don't think that was just fuel, but also tyres. Its was pretty much the case that the top couple of Bridgestone teams were unfeasibly quick over one lap, while the Michelin teams (with the exception of Monty) just weren't doing it on a single lap. I'm hoping this will be the case at least, and over race stints the different tyre characteristics will mix things up.
Yeah, full tanks was quite obvious looking at the performance of those two McLaren, if Coulthard didn't screw up at the end, they probably would be next to each other on the position. Though with increase pit lane speed limit, is having alot of fuel at the start a good idea ?
Both Ferrari was flawless in that final session.
Both Ferrari was flawless in that final session.
Unknown Soldier
Veteran
So Ferrari won and look to be unbeatable already this year. Another 2002 Season?
Renault really impressed me. Well done to both Alonso and Trulli(Trulli had car damage straight from the beginning of the race). Bar also really impressed me. Nice going Jenson. Mark Webber did really well .. pity for the gears.
Williams .. well what can we say. Juan did it to himself and he won't win the championship that way. Ralf.. hmm clean race, but not hard enough.
McLaren.. well they've lost the plot. Maybe they should start building next years car and then they might have 1 year to try fix the car.
Yes Bridgestone was very good and the weather helped, but my personal feeling is that Ferrari are 1 second faster than any other car on the grid. The rest are gonna have to work really hard to try catch them this year.
My Prediction for 2005. Jenson and Mark are gonna be in Williams whereas Ralf and David will be at Toyota.
US
Renault really impressed me. Well done to both Alonso and Trulli(Trulli had car damage straight from the beginning of the race). Bar also really impressed me. Nice going Jenson. Mark Webber did really well .. pity for the gears.
Williams .. well what can we say. Juan did it to himself and he won't win the championship that way. Ralf.. hmm clean race, but not hard enough.
McLaren.. well they've lost the plot. Maybe they should start building next years car and then they might have 1 year to try fix the car.
Yes Bridgestone was very good and the weather helped, but my personal feeling is that Ferrari are 1 second faster than any other car on the grid. The rest are gonna have to work really hard to try catch them this year.
My Prediction for 2005. Jenson and Mark are gonna be in Williams whereas Ralf and David will be at Toyota.
US
I don't think it's going to be 2002 again, at least I hope so... Renault I think has great potential for progress, they can be a real contender, I think. I heard their engine they're using now is basically a touch-up of the Mecachrome engine the Williams team used, in 1998(!). There's a lot of development potential left on that probably, I saw that the Renault didn't even rev 17000 rpm, if the on-screen graphics are to be believed... 
The onscreen graphics for Williams' BMW engine were at just below 19000 rpm, which seems about right, though. So it seems Renault is still down on power still. They say new stuff for the Renault engine is coming almost every race after this one...
The onscreen graphics for Williams' BMW engine were at just below 19000 rpm, which seems about right, though. So it seems Renault is still down on power still. They say new stuff for the Renault engine is coming almost every race after this one...THe_KELRaTH
Regular
Wow that was a dissappointing race and I hate commentators that squeak.. "Shumacher, he's slowing, yes he's definately slowing down, has he got a problem".
Of course the answer is NO, he's so far ahead he's just pitting for a coffee break!
Alonso and Button did very well though.
Of course the answer is NO, he's so far ahead he's just pitting for a coffee break!
Alonso and Button did very well though.
MPI said:I don't think it's going to be 2002 again, at least I hope so... Renault I think has great potential for progress, they can be a real contender, I think. I heard their engine they're using now is basically a touch-up of the Mecachrome engine the Williams team used, in 1998(!). There's a lot of development potential left on that probably, I saw that the Renault didn't even rev 17000 rpm, if the on-screen graphics are to be believed...
Renault uses some Ferrari derived engine (AFAIK) and not Williams.
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
There is no doubt that the Ferrari is very good straight out of the blocks this year (again) and Schumacher has lost none of his competative spirit. However it's worth bearing in mind that the Australian track particularly suits the Ferraris, and that the sudden drop in temperature was good for the Bridgestones (Ferrari) and bad for the Michelins (almost everyone else). In addition, everyone had balanced their cars the day before in the hotter weather, so everyone else's cars were not as hooked up for the track and condition's as the Ferraris were.
I guess Shumacher slowed down so it wouldn't look quite so bad if the Ferrari's won by a few seconds, rather than both being ahead of third place by a couple of minutes. I think we may so more of this kind of thing as people try to babysit their single engines thorugh a whole weekend ie, more boring racing, and I think they will have change the rules. They already allowed teams to fix any damage from the qualifying lap, so the "no work" rules is already being superceded. This of course makes sense, as you can't put a damaged and possibly dangerous car out on the start grid.
Biggest disappointment of the race was MacLaran's poor performance - looks like they have another sucky car. Most impressive performance was Alonso for a cool drive, and Button who did well, but would have done better on a hotter track. It doesn't help that the BAR seems to be much harsher on tyres than other cars like the Ranault.
I guess Shumacher slowed down so it wouldn't look quite so bad if the Ferrari's won by a few seconds, rather than both being ahead of third place by a couple of minutes. I think we may so more of this kind of thing as people try to babysit their single engines thorugh a whole weekend ie, more boring racing, and I think they will have change the rules. They already allowed teams to fix any damage from the qualifying lap, so the "no work" rules is already being superceded. This of course makes sense, as you can't put a damaged and possibly dangerous car out on the start grid.
Biggest disappointment of the race was MacLaran's poor performance - looks like they have another sucky car. Most impressive performance was Alonso for a cool drive, and Button who did well, but would have done better on a hotter track. It doesn't help that the BAR seems to be much harsher on tyres than other cars like the Ranault.
I think that rule, is for car setup for the race. Fixing damage is not really modifying the car setup, IMO.
The one engine rule was done, to lower cost. If not team will design their engine with lower mileage for extra perforamance.
That said, we don't see many engine failure in this first race, so its not so bad in that sense, but performance wise, the judge is still out there, we will have to see in the next race. I just hope Ferrari don't dominate like they did in 2002. If not I'll switch to watching WRC or something else
Other thing, I still prefer the old rule for qualifying, last year and this year, one lap qualifying is quite boring IMO.
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
V3 said:
I'm italian and i think Ferrari should win every race until everyone gets so tired of seeing Ferrari winning, that the system itself will collapse. So that way Ferrari will always be remembered as the best car manufacturer ever.
Call me biased...
Call me biased...
Unknown Soldier
Veteran
The new qualfying rules are good IMO.
First, the slower cars like Minardi would hardly get any air time(bad for sponsors) unless they came out straight away before anyone else did. And even then they wouldn't get much exposure. Now at least everyone gets the same exposure and the sponsors are happy.
Second, there can be no slipstream(not that there is much nowadays anyway).
Third, there is no drivers complaining of "I could've gone faster but the slower car slowed me down." So now the drivers have to preform or they go slower. If they try to overperform(like montoya did) then they lose out too and no one is to blame but the driver(unless the engine packs or wheel falls off).
Third, we've had some pretty good qualifying sessions IMO. Last year (in Germany i think)when Michael came to the sharp corner he slide and everyone thought "No he has lost time" only to see he went up 0.2 secs. Now that was awesome racing. Much like Jenson this weekend. I was thinking can he go faster than Mark Webber(who put in an awesome time of his own) and yes he hit 1:24:990. Man it was awesome to watch.
As for the one engine rule. The teams all agreed to the one engine rule to cut costs. If they want the old system back they all need to vote for it that's all. Just because Ferrari did an awesome job with their engine doesn't mean you can blame ferrari. Blame the other engine manufacters. Mercedes on teh other hand these last few years seem to be sleeping on their hands and not delivering a good engine. I think this is a mediocre rule.. but not necessarly a bad one.
US
First, the slower cars like Minardi would hardly get any air time(bad for sponsors) unless they came out straight away before anyone else did. And even then they wouldn't get much exposure. Now at least everyone gets the same exposure and the sponsors are happy.
Second, there can be no slipstream(not that there is much nowadays anyway).
Third, there is no drivers complaining of "I could've gone faster but the slower car slowed me down." So now the drivers have to preform or they go slower. If they try to overperform(like montoya did) then they lose out too and no one is to blame but the driver(unless the engine packs or wheel falls off).
Third, we've had some pretty good qualifying sessions IMO. Last year (in Germany i think)when Michael came to the sharp corner he slide and everyone thought "No he has lost time" only to see he went up 0.2 secs. Now that was awesome racing. Much like Jenson this weekend. I was thinking can he go faster than Mark Webber(who put in an awesome time of his own) and yes he hit 1:24:990. Man it was awesome to watch.
As for the one engine rule. The teams all agreed to the one engine rule to cut costs. If they want the old system back they all need to vote for it that's all. Just because Ferrari did an awesome job with their engine doesn't mean you can blame ferrari. Blame the other engine manufacters. Mercedes on teh other hand these last few years seem to be sleeping on their hands and not delivering a good engine. I think this is a mediocre rule.. but not necessarly a bad one.
US
congrats to alonso btw
I been following the new ferrari car which is why I said schumi would likely win... there are a few tweaks to the car from last year and it seems to have a 'stronger' engine (wrt duarbility) as evidenced by ruebens not blowing it even pushing as hard as he did..
schumi and ruebens could both ease off @ the end so they dont overstrain the engines and blow em or something... common strategy when you have a lead as big as they did...
lovely overall race... expect to see more of montoya/ralf/alonso and I am hoping jensen as well
DC.. its all over for you m8... adieu and farewell..
kudos to bridgestone as well for the improvements... ferrari could have been far more dominant last year if they had a decent set of tires... nice improvement by bridgestone to get out a nice product...
I been following the new ferrari car which is why I said schumi would likely win... there are a few tweaks to the car from last year and it seems to have a 'stronger' engine (wrt duarbility) as evidenced by ruebens not blowing it even pushing as hard as he did..
schumi and ruebens could both ease off @ the end so they dont overstrain the engines and blow em or something... common strategy when you have a lead as big as they did...
lovely overall race... expect to see more of montoya/ralf/alonso and I am hoping jensen as well
DC.. its all over for you m8... adieu and farewell..
kudos to bridgestone as well for the improvements... ferrari could have been far more dominant last year if they had a decent set of tires... nice improvement by bridgestone to get out a nice product...
london-boy said:I'm italian and i think Ferrari should win every race until everyone gets so tired of seeing Ferrari winning, that the system itself will collapse. So that way Ferrari will always be remembered as the best car manufacturer ever.
Call me biased...
There you said it.
And I'll be having my week-end backDeepak said:
As in: not in a million years, nope, not a chance, when hell freezes over?
Explanation: Renault has developed their own engines ever since they started racing in 1977(or '78, i forget) with their turbos. When the factory team ceased racing in early-mid-eighties, Renault has supplied engines off-and-on to F1 teams since, though. Williams of course is the most famous combination with the Renault power plant('89-'99), taking four WDC titles... Renault withdrew their factory label from the engine in '98, but the engine lived on as 'Mecachrome' and then 'Supertec' in '99 and '00.
Renault of course is back as a factory team again, making their own engine, and trust me, there is NO WAY they would be using some Ferrari engine derivative. Not a chance. I think you may have it mixed up with Sauber, which is using a Ferrari engine.
