Formula 1 - 2011 Season

[Bludd]

Lewis was incredible today. Even if you have the fastest car, going from 18th to 3rd is very impressive. Webber charged like crazy.

Very disappointed by Ferrari. They made the wrong choice in strategy and should have been more agile and changed to a 3 stopper early when they saw Alonso struggling. I was sitting there shouting "Pit now!" over and over again.

Button went into wrong garage was surreal.

Great race, Istanbul is going to be interesting because there will be a lot of development for all cars.

How hard is it to drive through the field on this track when you have clearly the fastest car on the grid?

I think struggling round for half the race kinda puts the dampener on him being driver of the day.

You conveniently forget that he started on the prime and his car turned into a rocket when he later used his new options.

 

[Kaotik]

Alonso didn't get penalized, the wing was activated too late due some bug, and it was open through the hairpin corner too, in which it just makes you slower, so it was decided that Alonso didn't get any benefit from it.

BUT - this also revealed a fatal flaw in DRS - it was supposed to close the wing ALWAYS if the driver breaks, however, Alonso drove through the hairpin with wing open.

 

[Bludd]

Wonder if it is a problem with Ferrari DRS implementation or a general DRS system flaw.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Button in Red Bull admiration shocker

He must have been thirsty, he was stopping for a fizzy drink!

I'm really liking the Martin / DC commentry (for those that get the feed). They are on the ball, understand the tech and are fun together; "...the only way that radio message could have been scarier is if it was delivered in the dark."

 

[RobertR1]

I'm not even a fan but one hell of a drive by Webber. That was impressive to watch.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I'm really liking the Martin / DC commentry (for those that get the feed). They are on the ball, understand the tech and are fun together

Yeah I'm jealous of you guys getting such a good coverage... The two clueless assholes that do the Finnish broadcast are killing me, they manage to miss everything that happens in the race and usually when they speculate about something, it's so retarded that It's better to just mute them. If only I could get the BBC coverage...

The race was great! Hamilton and Webber shined today.

 

[Kaotik]

Yeah I'm jealous of you guys getting such a good coverage... The two clueless assholes that do the Finnish broadcast are killing me, they manage to miss everything that happens in the race and usually when they speculate about something, it's so retarded that It's better to just mute them. If only I could get the BBC coverage...

The race was great! Hamilton and Webber shined today.

You can get the BBC coverage, PM me if you want it

 

[Davros]

the bbc forum is pretty good as well
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b010v54h/Formula_1_The_Chinese_Grand_Prix_Forum/
has anyone found a way to overcome the regional limits of such web sites
i tried a proxy once didnt work somehow i think its flash thats sending location data

 

[Phil]

As much as I'm not a fan of Redbull and Vettel, yes, they should have walked it with Vettel yesterday. If Webber can start 18th on the grid and finish 3 seconds behind his teammate starting from 2nd and leading most of the race, something did go wrong.

I'm especially amused by Horner insisting that the 2-stop strategy was the right one:

"Second and third is still a fantastic result so we made our commitment at the first to go two-stops, we thought we could make it work and we came up four laps shy on making that work for us today. It was a fascinating race that so nearly paid off by Sebastian. We made the decision based on him being P3 at the time behind the McLarens – we felt that was the best way to beat them and very, very nearly did it."

After Vettel was in the lead after his first pit-stop, they should have covered the McLarens with every pitstop. I don't see how they had to commit to that 2 stop strategy they first had in mind.

And yes, I'm very happy to see Hamilton winning and extremely impressed with Webbers charge to 3rd place. Shame he couldn't make it to 2nd.

 

[Phil]

I'm really liking the Martin / DC commentry (for those that get the feed). They are on the ball, understand the tech and are fun together; "...the only way that radio message could have been scarier is if it was delivered in the dark."

Yes, indeed. I was a bit unsure after hearing Coulthard would step in for Leggard, but I am very much liking both of them as a team. I missed Eddie yesterday though. Where was he? (missed the build-up)

 

[Davros]

did you see the comment from the redbull wheelgun man
"button was cheating trying to slow vettel down"
why did jake humphey's try to cover for him by saying he was only joking, like hell he was even d said he was serious

 

[Mendel]

Wonder if it is a problem with Ferrari DRS implementation or a general DRS system flaw.

Whatever it is, lucky that it was a hairpin he went through with wing open, there´s not so much requirement for downforce there, I think.
Now if this bug manifests itself during or before a fast corner... There´s a potential for nasty accident.

 

[Kaotik]

Apparently the news bit was wrong, and the wing wasn't open on the corner, just "enabled" and it re-opened (automaticly or by pressing button?) after the corner

 

[DarthShader]

As much as I'm not a fan of Redbull and Vettel, yes, they should have walked it with Vettel yesterday. If Webber can start 18th on the grid and finish 3 seconds behind his teammate starting from 2nd and leading most of the race, something did go wrong.

You are forgetting one thing - Webber had all of his three qualy/race soft sets brand new and untouched! And he showed how much this can be of advantage compared to others. Qualifications might become a bit boring now, since everybody is going to try and do it in just one lap, to save tyres the most.

 

[Dave Baumann]

I think the software is such that the wing closes as soon as there is any braking force applied. Presumably that means that irrespective of whether the driver is pressing the button / activing it the wing will be down during braking; if he's accelerating out of a corner with it still active then it would come open then.

 

[Davros]

Dont amd (partly) sponsor, an f1 team, wheres our inside info Dave

 

[Bludd]

Ferrari have an AMD logo on their rear wing.

 

[Phil]

Apparently the news bit was wrong, and the wing wasn't open on the corner, just "enabled" and it re-opened (automaticly or by pressing button?) after the corner

Correct. They showed this a few times during the BBC broadcast and AFAIR the wing opened briefly after the corner and wasn't open for prolonged time.

You are forgetting one thing - Webber had all of his three qualy/race soft sets brand new and untouched! And he showed how much this can be of advantage compared to others. Qualifications might become a bit boring now, since everybody is going to try and do it in just one lap, to save tyres the most.

That's a good point. However I don't think that applies much to the wrongness of the strategy Redbull put Vettel on. Given Vettel used the same amount and type of tyres like Button through Qualifying, I assume he could have been at least on the same 3 stop strategy which would have made his race an easy one. Don't forget how far Vettel was ahead before everyone started catching up due to the difference in strategy.

I also don't think Hamilton had much of an advantage in saving a fresh set of soft tyres. Button being ahead and able to chose strategy effectively ruined Hamiltons timing of the first stop. Button stayed out one lap longer than the team instructed which then resulted in Hamilton being in the 'drop off' zone within the lap Button went into the pits. Not only did this have him passed on the track, he also came out with traffic ahead. It would have worked a lot better if he had the chance to 'undercut' Button with his new softs.

 

[Davros]

I would assume the amd logo has to be a certain size and in a certain position
Dave, I think you need to visit the ferrari garage during the next race, just to be certain

 

[Davros]

Team Lotus buy Caterham, who are of course famous for making a car based on the lotus 7