Australian GP 2012 - Albert Park

[NathanOlder]

The Mercedes car in terms of race pace is behind of the Mcs, RBRs, Alonso, Lotus, Williams and Sauber. Probably this team will have problems to get points this year. A disaster to Merc fans, but this is the reality.

I think Mercedes are infront of Ferrari, Sauber & Williams, Rosberg didnt have the pace but Schumacher looked fine when he was running.

[myurr]

The Mercedes car in terms of race pace is behind of the Mcs, RBRs, Alonso, Lotus, Williams and Sauber. Probably this team will have problems to get points this year. A disaster to Merc fans, but this is the reality.

I don't think it's that bad, they just need to set the car up to protect the tyres a bit more even if it costs them a couple of places in quali.

[horse]

The BBC's Gary Anderson's predictions of the race being quickest with a 3 stop strategy and 90 seconds quicker than last year, proved to be as error prone as they sounded yesterday.

EDIT: To be fair to him there was no safety car last year so it is a bit hard to tell on the race time.

[Mestrades]

The Mercedes car in terms of race pace is behind of the Mcs, RBRs, Alonso, Lotus, Williams and Sauber. Probably this team will have problems to get points this year. A disaster to Merc fans, but this is the reality.

I don't think it's that bad, they just need to set the car up to protect the tyres a bit more even if it costs them a couple of places in quali.

Wake up yourself.

Schumacher/Rosberg

7 ) 1:34.246/1:34.218
8 ) 1:34.430/1:33.980
9 ) 1:34.215/1:34.014
10 ) 1:35.021/1:33.981

Nowhere better Schumacher.

[Tamburello]

My pecking order after the race

McLaren/
Red Bull

Lotus/Mercedes
Williams/Ferrari/Sauber
Torro Rosso
Force India


Caterham

Marussia

HRT

Agree?

[stefan_]

- good run by JB, good to see him so consistant during the whole race.
- Alonso made the most out of the doggy F2012
- the fact that they put pressure on Massa to give his best with this car, although the atmosphere at Ferrari I am pretty sure is rubbish, showed its toll today.
- I actualy thought that Maldonado had put his head together and was making a decent race, but he proved us the opposite. Totally stupid mistake. It was better to sit there and collect the points.
- I am sorry for GRO, he deserved a little bit more from this race, but what can you do when Maldonado wants to climb on you to pass and takes one of your wheel with him.
- the Iceman is back.

[Mestrades]

My pecking order after the race

McLaren/
Red Bull

Lotus/Mercedes
Williams/Ferrari/Sauber
Torro Rosso
Force India


Caterham

Marussia

HRT

Agree?

I'm not agree with the Mercedes situation. I think that in terms of race pace they are behind Sauber, Alonso and Williams.

[Websta]

I suspect that Merc will be strong again in qualifying in Malaysia and China with their top speed advantage and the long straights. They may have to compromise their gearing a bit for the race though which could hurt their qualifying performance. Sepang's typically high tyre degradation will also expose any tyre management difficulties the car has.

[Gonner]

Great job Jenson, Mclaren is the class of the field. The safety car seriously helped out the other teams. I feel the race was won into turn 1 today. whichever Mclaren driver made it there first had the choice of the pitstops so was always easily in control. And today the DRS (like last year) was not very effective. So once Jenso got into the leas it was game over. Pitting 1 lap earlier meant Lewis had no answer.

To be fair Lewis was having to protect his rear tyres constantly so couldn't push as he would have wanted to.

McLaren stayed out a lap or two too long on the first stint which brought Vettel back into it a bit and then were very unlucky with the safety car. Lewis lost about 4 - 6 seconds to Vettel in that first round of pit stops by being kept out two laps too long. Without those two things then Vettel would have been a solid third but not in touch with Hamilton.

I think the next race will be a bit different. The long straights will play towards McLaren's hands with their slippery car, but there are some faster corners where they'll have an advantage over the Mercedes and Lotus. The grippier surface should help Lewis with his rear tyres as well, plus they'll have a bit more setup knowledge to help manage that.

Red Bull will probably suffer again in qualifying but should have a good race. They'll have to battle through a few cars though to get close to the McLarens.

Mercedes are harder to read though. Very fast over one lap but then were nowhere at all in the race. Rosberg went backwards and whilst Schumacher seemed to be holding on a little better I have no doubt his tyres would still have gone off faster than the cars around him.

I agree with the fact that Lewis lost second place during the first pit stops. Exiting behind Perez and Raikko was quite costly. He should have stopped 2 laps earlier, just before Button.

But I'd also like to get an explanation of how things went during the second pit stop. French TV was, as usual, on commercials, and I didn't get how Vettel could go faster under the SC than the Macca. The gap was like what, 2s before the stops, and it looked like Vettel managed to find something like five seconds, as there were some cars between them...

[horse]

Do you think Williams regret shipping Barrichello now? Don't think he would have blown such a good position.

[FrukostScones]

Do you think Williams regret shipping Barrichello now? Don't think he would have blown such a good position.

but would he have been in such position?

would would would if if if

[zoro_f1]

money was crucial and even the birds know that. i regret for haven't see williams in the points even behind alonso. it is much better situation than double DNF on the first race.

sometimes you have to use mind when racing. simple is that if you want to be a competitive team.

Do you think Williams regret shipping Barrichello now? Don't think he would have blown such a good position.

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Ferrari's pit stop was the fastest, one second faster than anybody, it's huge

[Fizz.Schumi]

Wake up yourself.

Schumacher/Rosberg

7 ) 1:34.246/1:34.218
8 ) 1:34.430/1:33.980
9 ) 1:34.215/1:34.014
10 ) 1:35.021/1:33.981

Nowhere better Schumacher.

Guess why that happened? because those were the the last 4 laps before Schumi retired because of his gear box troubling him so there is no way Schumi's laptimes were going to improve; as a matter of fact they were only going to deteriorate like you can see yourself. Schumi would of been set for 4th at least.

[myurr]

The Mercedes car in terms of race pace is behind of the Mcs, RBRs, Alonso, Lotus, Williams and Sauber. Probably this team will have problems to get points this year. A disaster to Merc fans, but this is the reality.

I don't think it's that bad, they just need to set the car up to protect the tyres a bit more even if it costs them a couple of places in quali.

Wake up yourself.

Schumacher/Rosberg

7 ) 1:34.246/1:34.218
8 ) 1:34.430/1:33.980
9 ) 1:34.215/1:34.014
10 ) 1:35.021/1:33.981

Nowhere better Schumacher.

The point stands that they were having to protect the tyres. Schumacher at that point had free air around him, couldn't challenge those in front, so was backing off a bit to protect the life of the tyres. Rosberg was having to fight so was pushing as hard as he dared. Schumacher may also have been having the beginnings of his gearbox problem, we just don't know.

Either way that car is mighty in quali but is burning through the tyres in the race. That *can* be improved with setup where you put less heat into the tyres which gives longevity at the expense of tyre warmup and therefore quali pace.

We saw Red Bull do that a couple of times last year when they thought they had the legs on McLaren and didn't need that extra margin.