1st. and 2nd Free Practice, Australia

[R]

The most noteworthy thing about Friday practice is the very promising performance from Toyota. That, and the relative slowness of the McLarens... Heidfeld ahead of Kimi... yes indeed!

[Valve Bounce]

Slowness, I must say must be regarded carefully, as McLaren may have had the wrong settings, or heavy fuel loadds, and so on. However the Ferrari being on top is no fluke as you can see from the times. We will see Ferrari improve, Salo improve, and it will be up to McLaren to improve by more.

[Airhead]

There are too many variables to tell for the McLarens. I mean I hope they went straight to testing race set up right?

Otherwise, another year of...

[R]

... TGF and Ferrari domination?

I sincerely hope not. I agree Ferrari on top is no fluke, but I truly hope the Macs and the Willies can be up there both in quals and more importantly in the race, right from the word go this season.

"Slowness" was perhaps a bad choice of word. Bear with me, as English is not my first language. What I meant to say is that it is a surprise to see them so far down, Friday practice or no Friday practice (which I agree at best can only be regarded as a very careful indicator). I hope this is down to heavy fuel load or testing race setup, and that they will be up there come quals, so that we will have three teams fighting at the very top...

[scatty]

Could it be tyres that are making the difference here! Bearing in mind that Michelin had to withhold the new design because of legalities and Bridgestone would most certainly have made some difference over the last few months

[Red]

Originally posted by AMoffat
...I hope they went straight to testing race set up right?

Perhaps.... but i fear that the test wasn't very succesful. Last year's fastest lap was 1'28".2








"Fear" sheese... just joking! Beers are on me guys.

[Airhead]

I don't know guys...

Another year of scarlet cars winning would do kme in.

Please let the Gods of Chance come to play.

If we think back, Australia is one of those races were almost half the field don't finish.

[Valve Bounce]

Originally posted by R
[B
"Slowness" was perhaps a bad choice of word. [/B]

No, you were spot on, and Amoffat and I both responded to this particular aspect of McLaren's Practice practice. It is not unknown for McLaren to go straight into race set up with heavy fuel loads rather than go for quals setup during practice. I have often accused McLaren of sandbagging for this reason. We really don't know what the slower cars were setting up for. The only clear indication that came out of all this is that Ferrari is definitely not suffering from using the F2001, and we also know that Salo's Toyota will have no trouble getting under the 107% rule. It is however, very interesting to see some big names from 9th down the order, and these are the ones I will be keeping an eye on tomorrow for any signs of life.

[Airhead]

OK A minute later and valve has hit the thought on the head.

This time tomorrow will shed the light.

Focus on the McLarens...

Why would Kimmi be quicker than David?

Talent, maybe

Luck, less likely

Better car, even less likely

So...

David is doing something else for the race.

Well my fingers are crossed!

[Red]

Originally posted by AMoffat
If we think back, Australia is one of those races were almost half the field don't finish.

Yes....yes..... and considering the usual rate of mechanical failures that Ferrari has..... the use of last years tried and true car..... this should not increase anyone's expectations I suppose. The only thing that could bring a ray of hope is that maybe Ferrari will opt for a 2 stopper while everybody will be on 1. Then again, 1.5 seconds...

[RWC]

Ferrari leading straight away? No surprise-They're car is very familiar to them ,they know how to set it up by now!
Williams & Mclaren slow so far?also not too much of a surprise,with new cars to be set up & NOT the tyres they probably thought they'd use.
I hope i don't sound too soft here but it's a great to see toyota doing 'ok'.In my opinion they deserve some of it for not being arrogant & having to put up with those british idiots that insisted that a formula one team will never do well outside of england

[enemy-ace]

Coulthard missed the majority of the second session with some minor mechanical difficulties. I also would be really surprised to see Ferrari that far ahead in qualifying, as somebody stated earlier, Ferrari's learning curve at the moment is not as steep as they are using a proven car. Remember how quick it was at Suzuka last year. There really is no use in trying to judge where everybody is in relation to each other, qualifying will tell the real story.
Having said that, two things I noticed from watching practice: 1) Massa really throws that car around, great fun to watch. I know the track is slippery at the moment being a Street Circuit and all, but by God he was really hanging it out. 2) That Arrows car is gorgeous, what a nice piece of work, lets hope it's fast.

[alesi95]

Mclaren were way off it, I don't have pay per view so i missed practice. But looking at the times this is what I thought

1) Mclaren were very much experimenting.
: The new car is very much different from last years and Michelins are a new element

2) Michelin have been hurt by the decision not to use the radical new tyre.

3) Toyota have a bonkers new engine.
:Even if Salo was on a qualifying set up theyve been impressive.

4) Jordan are not as bad as I first thought although third in the first session means nothing ending the day where they did was better than expectations. (They'll be eating their words on the Jean Alesi forum, Sato 13th)

5) Renault are not up to speed yet. (They'll proove me right in the end. 4th in constructors).

6) Williams are sandbagging.(I hope.)

7) Jaguar are still s**t. (Jaguar misfortune makes me laugth. Even though im currently wearing a Jag shirt.

8) Massa appears to kick ass

9) Alex Yoong is never gonna be any good ever

[Gt_R]

Hmm...you know Red..that is exactly the thing people are speculating.

Remember in the old days where the Ferrari is slower than the Williams? Or most recently, when they decide Rubens in Ferrari is not gonna win JPM on a straight fight? They run the cars more often than not on a more-pitstop strategy. And it works amazingly well.

It is said that last year's Ferrari din't have a very large fuel tank. Thus, Ferrari expect the other teams to be ahead performance wise and plans to outfox them with more pits but faster stints.

But none of the teams had shown their true potential yet...its really guesswork at this moment. Williams and Mclaren are all quietly confident too...wait till quals can we expect to get a better picture of who is where.

[RWC]

oops,sorry.I'm going by the 1st practice...
That's better,williams are doing ok,mclaren aren't showing what they're capable of yet.& toyota's still up there!!
+ jag....not so bad...so far.

[EERO]

The other factor to be considered in addition to all the correct reasons why McLaren were off the pace is that the conditions were wet/dry and Michelin, despite having made great strides with their wet tire, are still not competitive with Bridgestone when the conditions are damp and they are running dry tires.

[BBKing]

First of all nobody was able to do a consistent work. First because the track was wet and then because it started raining during the 2nd session. They were few laps where track conditions were ideal and is natural to expect Ferrari to be in top, mainly because they now their car better than the others.

Having said that. The times are far from what is going to be the pole time and the fastest time during the race.

The tire factor to consider is that Michelin is using an old development. Plus they were not good on this kind of track condition last year anyway. Brigestone should have the upper hand if they remain to have this kind of conditions.

DC did not run for most of the 2nd session so what McLaren can do is a big question mark.

The last element to consider is that Michelin boss said that they suggested their teams to run long stints. He said that the 10 first laps should be problematic but then they can run consistently fast for a good number of laps. To do that they have to use heavy fuel loads.

At the end of the day is only what happens in qualifying and the race what counts.

[facco]

So, BBK, the heavy fuel load helps the williams over the macs.
anyway, It was greatful to see Nick ahead of Kimi, and the toyotas ahead of minardis

[Neil C]

Originally posted by Minardi fan
Friday practice... means chuff all as we know. Apparently it was wet for some of the session or something (can anyone who saw it confirm this?)

Yes, most of one session (the first?) was run on rain tires; only Michael S didn't seem to notice.

[Mania]

The only thing we can learn from friday was that Williams were not as bad as we thought judging from their winter testing times. Mclaren on the other hand are certainly quicker than their times suggest but they`re not blindingly quick as Dennis was trying to make everyone believe - (breaking lap records with Wurz behind the wheel should've raised eyebrows on its own)

But yeah - the pace of the Ferraris was definately surprising. Todays qualifying is another story - but I figure Williams and Ferrari will be the teams to battle for pole.

Impressive debut by Massa by the way - he looked good! In fact, his driving was reminicent of Alesi or Villeneuve's do or die approach when they were both younger!

[Bononi]

Originally posted by EERO
The other factor to be considered in addition to all the correct reasons why McLaren were off the pace is that the conditions were wet/dry and Michelin, despite having made great strides with their wet tire, are still not competitive with Bridgestone when the conditions are damp and they are running dry tires.

Yep.

But I think that in qualifying they'll be closer to Ferrari's

[Lazarus]

tbh, i think both the McLarens and Williams's are sandbagging... i say pole will be fought between these two constructors (if it's not raining mind u..hehe). We all know (or should know) that both these two constructors "smashed lap records in testing". So there's no reason for the McLarens not to be at the front end... I watched the first practice and they didn't even look like they were trying very hard to post good times. Roll on tonight

[neilap]

I feel that we should save the speculation till after qualifying. Salo ran light and was fast! That was good. Ferrari had to be running light too. They were pretty close to the qualifying time of last year. I feel they will beat it. Honda seemed to be hovering around the middle. I assume race setup. However, breaking in practice in race setup is BAD!. White smoke looks like water in the engine! Looks like motor failure to me. Sad! If the 30 billion dollar teams does better than Honda in their first year...

[Jay]

There's teh conditions, what everyone is doing....

wait till quali...

[Number Juan]

oh my god!!! i nearly spat my tea out when i saw the stuff on the teletext!!! my thinking is that Ferrari are pulling a fast one, saying that they are using their old year's car but i think that they are using the 02' car. the chassis has seen not much in the way of change but the inside has undertaken radical change. im suprised about the pace of toyota who i marked to fail.