[Official] Round 1 - Australian Grand Prix

[Razzzor]

Originally Posted by sparkione

Er, explain?

He finished within 2 secs of Button and set a faster lap.
All from 4 grid spots back and on a track Button likes. And seemed to be a little in traffic throughout the race.

On the other hand, he was up to 11th after the start (I think) and still finished 11th despite Rosberg retiring. McLaren was lucky to get 2 points with Rosberg retiring and Grosjean taking a nap.

[formerf1champ]

Originally Posted by JamesH

All stuff that can be tuned to an optimum of course, and that depends on the car design and the tyres. Which is why the first race is not a good predictor of how the rest of the season will go.

Since I've been following F1 fully (1990). In 17 of the 23 complete seasons since have seen the world champ win the first race of the year. Of the other 6, Irvine (99) and Alonso (10) have a massive claim to be moral champs.

[chunterer]

I think Razzor's made a pretty decent post there about the Macca drivers days to be honest?

Both drivers are relatively smooth and patient and Checo has shown in the past he is probably the master of all in terms of making tryes last...

Problem is, you need to have a car under you that is kind on its tryes to begin with. So his biggest strength is basically reduced to nothing at the moment with that chassis.

[formerf1champ]

Originally Posted by chunterer

I think Razzor's made a pretty decent post there about the Macca drivers days to be honest?

Both drivers are relatively smooth and patient and Checo has shown in the past he is probably the master of all in terms of making tryes last...

Hasn't he often chosen that tactic

Originally Posted by chunterer

Problem is, you need to have a car under you that is kind on its tryes to begin with. So his biggest strength is basically reduced to nothing at the moment with that chassis.

Will it show his weakness as a driver in other areas?

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by formerf1champ

Hasn't he often chosen that tactic

Will it show his weakness as a driver in other areas?

Who Razzor? I don't know you'll have to ask him?

Checo clearly has fairly sensible car control and is perhaps more aggressive than Button which means he may be able to drive around some issue to a degree, but he is still very inexperienced, so I really do not know how he will fare without a stable car under him, something the Sauber clearly very much was last year...

Checo appeared to have his tyres warmed up fairly well in the opening laps yesterday but so did a lot of people.

[formerf1champ]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Who Razzor? I don't know you'll have to ask him?

lol. He's quite cunning. That's why I'm asking you.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Razzzor

They needed him out of Alonso's way, so that was the way to do it - screw Massa's race up to get Alonso ahead. I bet it was intentional. Poor Massa, he'd be wondering why the hell he'd been left out but they've done it to him many times before leaving him out too long.

Surprised more people have not picked up on Massa being screwed over!

Sickening!

[Adam43]

I know, sickeningly they did it at the second round of stops not the first which would have been better.

[andy666]

Originally Posted by wnut

Surprised more people have not picked up on Massa being screwed over!

Sickening!

I picked up on it and now I have calmed down I can mention it . I do feel quite sorry for Felipe ,towards the end of last season he really picked his game up and to see him carry that through to this year made me smile . I don't think he will be allowed to finish ahead of Fernando at any time this season .

[Razzzor]

Originally Posted by formerf1champ

Hasn't he often chosen that tactic

Will it show his weakness as a driver in other areas?

Oh I have plenty of weaknesses as a driver - road rage for one :P
I'm surprised the drivers don't do a Maldonado-at-Monaco and hit each other more often, like Nascar. I wouldn't be able to help myself.

Re Massa/Alonso... it's just a bit of a kick that he then clearly didn't have Alonso's speed anyway, making Ferrari's decision justified. If he'd at least stayed with Tef (until Ferrari told him to back off) at least he could have had an argument.

[chillibowl]

some fault has to go to his race engineer for having asked him stay out an extra lap even though Alonso and a few others were setting much faster times on a new set of tires.

during that first stint on pace and despite the back to back drs zones Alonso counld get around him. that should give Massa some confidence.

[Nicholosophy]

Re: Catterham, it probably makes a lot of sense for them to get settled into the new factory and start on the 2014 challenger. That's the way I take their comments. They know they have limited funding so they are hoping they can stay ahead of Marussia, keep their 10th place money for next year, and have a car that has been developed to the hilt for 2014. Maybe one or two evolutions of the 2013 car but that will be about it.

Massa was royally screwed over in order to get Alonso ahead. Considering it was the first race of the season, I found that disappointing, but not unexpected. Massa deserves a chance to show that he has retained the form he had last year and perhaps improved further.

[chunterer]

He will get the chance as there will obviously be the odd race where Alonso doesn't feature for whatever reason and Felipe will need to step into the breach.

Hopefully he's also get the chance to convert a good qualy into a proper result too!