Formula 1 - 2012 Season

[Lightman]

Good race, so good I even didn't mind red flag after 9th lap :smile:

Alonso leading WDC after two races while driving something similar to shopping cart with engine!

HRTs N.K. in spotlight thanks to J.B. and later on S.B. Very solid and tough car. Nothing broke even though two drivers rammed into it

Kimi driving very reasonable race without taking any unnecessary risks. I was hoping to see more from him but can understand why he drove cautiously.

Hamilton had quiet race and bad pitstops.

Perez seems to be the best thermodynamicist on the grid by far. Keeping his tyres where they wanted to be and managing quick laps all the time! Amazing!

 

[manux]

he wasn't talking about the gearbox change. He was talking about the qualifying in Australia. The post is quite old...

edit: quite an entertaining race today. Perez had a pretty good pace!

Wasn't that goof up by the team? They signalled kimi that he has time for 1 more lap and he should slow down and use the last lap instead of the current one?

 

[Colourless]

A very interesting race. Alonso was very lucky to have won. Not saying he didn't deserve it, he did deserve it, he drove a practically flawless race, but the Ferrari is an awful car.

 

[Bludd]

Fantastic race. Alonso came in at the right time while Sauber made some mistakes with Perez; not pitting on the same lap as Alonso and telling Perez not to risk 2nd place. With my beige trousers on I think Perez should have gone for gold and had a run at Alonso, but as a Fernando Alonso-fan I am happy Perez almost crashed out.

Button and Vettel were both at fault when they hit the HRT's front wing, and the Mercs were nowhere in the race - what rubbish tyre management was that? It just wouldn't work. How many Renault-engined cars did Rosberg see fly past him? Embarrassing. Also embarrassing was Felipe Massa's performance. What is wrong with him?

Senna did great today, though. Very impressive, indeed. This was a fantastic race.

 

[Tahir2]

Good race, glad Perez finished the race but almost didn't, unlike an unlucky Maldanado for Williams last race (and this one but in different circumstances.)

I think Alonso would have kept him at bay on the DRS straight in any case as the DRS-enabled Sauber was only a few KPH faster rather than the 10 to 20 KPH some other cars were getting when enabling it.

Great race by Senna and personally speaking I don't think the HRT driver Karthikeyan was completely blameless for either Button or Vettel's altercation.

 

[Bludd]

personally speaking I don't think the HRT driver Karthikeyan was completely blameless for either Button or Vettel's altercation.

Button admitted it was his own fault. Vettel cut in front of the HRT misjudging how far in-front he was. Should Karthikeyan just disappear?

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Button admitted it was his own fault. Vettel cut in front of the HRT misjudging how far in-front he was. Should Karthikeyan just disappear?

Karthikeyan made a move towards Vettel. I think Vettel was driving straigth forwards. Karthikeyan got a penalty for it and I think they analysed it properly. Some TV angle might make it seem like Vettel cut in, but he didn't. See how the HRT was at the edge of the left side of the track when Vettel was side by side with it, and look how much more room there was on the left side of the HRT at the time of impact. The other accident was all button, he lost the grip of the car a moment earlier and hit the HRT.

 

[Phil]

Exciting race and very pleased with the result for Sauber. Could have went better for Hamilton though, but those two awful pitstops nearly cost him 3rd place when I think it could have very well been 2nd place. A pitty for that small driver error of Perez at the end and what amazing pace he had to get close again, even when on the slick tyres!

 

[Gerry]

Karthikeyan made a move towards Vettel. I think Vettel was driving straigth forwards. Karthikeyan got a penalty for it and I think they analysed it properly. Some TV angle might make it seem like Vettel cut in, but he didn't. See how the HRT was at the edge of the left side of the track when Vettel was side by side with it, and look how much more room there was on the left side of the HRT at the time of impact. The other accident was all button, he lost the grip of the car a moment earlier and hit the HRT.

I have some sympathy with Karthikeyan. Whilst it's the responsibility of the person being lapped to get out of the way I think the faster car needs to take into consideration the fact your essentially forcing the slower car off the racing line and (esepcially late on in the race) onto the marbles. Just give em a bit more space and be sure.

Anyway, more importantly, Vettel is a dick.

 

[DJ12]

Hamiltom must've had a problem for Perez to pull away but those pitstops were shocking.

But maylasia haan't been a good place for the best car in recent years for some reason so i guess mclaren not winning this season was on the cards.

 

[Phil]

Hamiltom must've had a problem for Perez to pull away but those pitstops were shocking.

Indeed. The first pitstop was already quite bad (they had problems lifting the car) and then traffic in the pits made him fall behind. Then, the next one where something was stuck between the brake cooling duct and he lost another ~ 6 - 8 seconds, which put him further behind Perez and Alonso and closer to Vettel who was trying to close the gap from behind. While Perez was clearly quicker, he (Hamilton) held pace with Alonso and was actually quicker in the later stages of the race.

Perez though was quite in a race of his own though - with the exception of Kimi in the last few laps.

 

[Tahir2]

Did read that Button essentially locked up his rears and could not slow down in time. He admits it was his fault and he would know better than the rest of us. The Vettel incident - well Karthikeyan did turn back into Vettel after Vettel had passed him - and Karthikeyan did admit he thinks some drivers are bullies.

Meh... interesting race nonetheless..

As to the pace of Perez and Alonso and the lack of pace by Hamilton, Schumi, Button et al - I would pin that down to choice of setup. The guys that were more conservative in qualifying may have set their cars for more downforce. Maybe I am wrong but I would expect a fast car in the dry to be fast in the wet also when set up correctly. Lewis Hamilton and even Jensen Button are not slow drivers in the wet/changing conditions.

 

[cjo]

Maybe I am wrong but I would expect a fast car in the dry to be fast in the wet also when set up correctly.

This is probably a simplistic view but I think that depends. Wet conditions = less grip, so the car needs more downforce to go at the same speed to make up for the loss of grip. A car that is set up correctly with the 'dry' tires has just enough downforce to keep it on the track (as too much downforce = excess drag). If the loss of grip on a wet surface is greater than the gain by swapping to wet tires, then there will be a grip deficit, causing the car to be difficult to control / lower top speeds in corners. In this case, a car that had too much downforce (drag) in the dry may end up in the optimal grip/drag window in the wet.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Might be more of a tire issue as said by Joe Saward. Basically there is still a lot to learn about the Pirelli tires and what makes them work. The mclarens and merc have the pace, but just couldn't get the tires to work. Just like Massa couldn't but Alonso made the best of it. Same goes for Perez.

 

[Dave Baumann]

http://www.autosport.com/gallery/popup.php/id/13292665
http://www.autosport.com/gallery/popup.php/id/13292657

Dunno, but it seems to me that Ferrari may have been running less wing than McLaren, likewise Sauber. Maybe the additional downforce was actually heating the inters a little to much and the Ferrari and Sauber were keeping them in a better operating window. Prior to the stoppage the McLarens were actually pulling away from the rest of the field, then were going slower in the damp / drying conditions.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Then, the next one where something was stuck between the brake cooling duct and he lost another ~ 6 - 8 seconds

It was tape on the brake cooling ducts. During the stoppage they blocked off a portion of the brake cooling ducts to allow them to get more temp in the wet conditions; as the conditions dried and warmed they needed to pull off the tape to allow more cooling brakes.

 

[Dave Baumann]

How is gearbox change "goofup" by a driver

Apparently the gearbox change was needed because Kimi had an off in the Aus GP that causes the radiator to fill with grass clippings and overheat the gearbox.

 

[Phil]

It was tape on the brake cooling ducts. During the stoppage they blocked off a portion of the brake cooling ducts to allow them to get more temp in the wet conditions; as the conditions dried and warmed they needed to pull off the tape to allow more cooling brakes.

Ah, gotcha! Thanks.

Dave, which coverage of the F1 do you watch? I'm stuck to the swiss tv one or RTL. The Swiss one is great for some additional Sauber info and only one commercial per hour but otherwise pretty unsatisfactory on anything technical (in Australia, they failed to point out on numerous occasions on which tyres the drivers like Vettel or Button/Hamilton were while comparing laptimes to one another). RTL on the other hand... well, far too many annoying commercials (that last about 5 minutes too) and Niki... well...

 

[Kaotik]

http://adf.ly/842137/hdtvupdate and you got plenty to choose from, including Sky Sports F1 HD
(I'm not the creator or the distributor of this software, the link should have it's ads disabled and is used only for convenience on ease of update of the software without changing link)

 

[DJ12]

Could be setup however when they changed to dry tires at the end perez was still dropping hamilton like a bad smell.