Australian GP 2009 ( finally! )

[meves]

Williams protest is withdrawn, but it was to do with the front edge of the sidepods, any ideas on what that could have been? Mirror mounting (I'm really clutching at straws here)......

[Agerasia]

Massa was second lightest!!

[xpensive]

You be surprised kilcoo, in 1990 the Arrows team changed their Porsche V12 for a Cosworth V8 between quali and race.

[gcdugas]

If Heidfeld qualifies 11th because he wants to choose his fuel load, then the Toyotas are DQ'd so he goes to 9th, does he lose the flexibility to choose his fuel load?

[hulmerist]

no

[fenix4life]

guys i dont understand 1 thing......button is way heavier than kimi......what that indicats ?? i mean so far i knew lighter car goes faster...but here it is reversed.....is the underweight causes a problem for ferrari ?? or is the heavier weight is advantage for bgp ???

When Renault was the best with Alonso they were using the same principle. They were faster so they added some extra fuel for some extra laps and still managed to be first on the grid.

This made:
A) Less problem @ start
B) Free way to go full throttle
C) Push even harder when competition goes in for pitstop

[ISLAMATRON]

It's must be quite worrying for Lewis, that his car was so much lighter than others around him (before being demoted 5 places) also that Heikki was so much heavier and faster.

Again for those who refuse to understand, EVERBODY IS ON FUMES IN Q1 & Q2, it is only in Q3 that qualify with race fuel loads on board... It has been this way for the last 3 YEARS.

That being said Heikki was .27 secs faster in Q1, but then again Lou only completed 1 flying due to hi gearbox failure.

[ISLAMATRON]

11. Kazuki Nakajima 612.5kg

How? Is he really in the car or driving it by remote control?

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_ ... t_id=37358

The FIAsco made a mistake with his weight.. official weights now released

Regardless the minimum weight DRIVER INCLUDED is 605 kg so he would have had 7.5 kg on board... but this would be a declared weight since he did not qualify into Q3

[alelanza]

11. Kazuki Nakajima 612.5kg

How? Is he really in the car or driving it by remote control?

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_ ... t_id=37358

The FIAsco made a mistake with his weight.. official weights now released

Pos. Driver Car weight
1. Jenson Button 664.5kg - 20 Laps
2. Rubens Barrichello 666.5kg - 21
3. Sebastien Vettel 657kg - 17
4. Robert Kubica 650kg - 15
5. Nico Rosberg 657kg - 17
6. Felipe Massa 654kg - 16
7. Kimi Raikkonen 655.5kg - 17
8. Mark Webber 662kg - 19
9. Nick Heidfeld 691.5kg - 29
10. Fernando Alonso 680.7kg - 25
11. Kazuki Nakajima 685.3kg- 27
12. Heikki Kovalainen 690.6kg - 29
13. Sebastien Buemi 675.5kg - 24
14. Nelson Piquet 694.1kg - 30
15. Giancarlo Fisichella 689kg - 28
16. Adrian Sutil 684.5kg - 26
17. Sebastien Bourdais 662.5kg - 19
18. Lewis Hamilton 655kg - 16
19. Jarno Trulli 660kg - 18
20. Timo Glock 670kg - 21

okay going with autosports rough maths that's my estimates for the laps

the people with light fuel i'm guessing will be starting on the option tyre as well?

Great data thanks for that.
Assuming the track will slow down throughout dusk i would imagine extra softs being used towards the end of the race, but who knows...

[DaveKillens]

guys i dont understand 1 thing......button is way heavier than kimi......what that indicats ?? i mean so far i knew lighter car goes faster...but here it is reversed.....is the underweight causes a problem for ferrari ?? or is the heavier weight is advantage for bgp ???

It's acceptable to assume that added weight penalizes performance. But the Brawn is just naturally quicker than the Ferrari by a comfortable margin. So much so in fact, that they can run final qualifying with more gas than Kimi, and yet be quicker. The Brawn and Ferrari cars aren't even close in performance. But that also includes everyone else, because right now Brawn have laid a major smackdown on the entire field.

I try to maintain a rational perspective and stay aware of the big picture. I know full well that rarely is the end of the season the same as how it begins. But holy cow, those Brawn cars are incredibly scary quick. Scary to everyone else. If Brawn can convince Richard Branson to open up his checkbook even further to allow a quicker and more aggressive development schedule to keep up with the big boys, then this car will see a lot of podiums. Whether this could lead Button into a title fight is only something we have to wait and see. The future is always uncertain, but so far it looks like we're going into a very interesting season.

[myurr]

Don't know if anyone else has mentioned this or even if anyone else agrees with me, but I think the engines this year sound terrible. It's like they're short shifting all the time, and I've noticed both KERS and non-KERS cars having weird sudden jumps in the revs which sounds really strange. I can understand that in the KERS cars as the power kicks in, but it was happening on the Brawns as well.

Does everyone else hate the engine noise this year?

[ESPImperium]

Don't know if anyone else has mentioned this or even if anyone else agrees with me, but I think the engines this year sound terrible. It's like they're short shifting all the time, and I've noticed both KERS and non-KERS cars having weird sudden jumps in the revs which sounds really strange. I can understand that in the KERS cars as the power kicks in, but it was happening on the Brawns as well.

Does everyone else hate the engine noise this year?

Im gonna say something totally left-field here, but look at Rubhinos on-board camera when he set his P2 time in the last 2 mins of Quali 3. Look at his right thum hit a button and at the same time the engine revs leap in the audio, and about a second or two later his engine revs die again... Im gonna say theres a KERS system on that car, or both Brawn cars!!!

[Dukeage]

How long would it take to change a diffuser on an F1 car? It's not a quick job like changing a front wing but it sounds remotely possible to do between FP1 and FP2, especially if you are McLaren.

[ESPImperium]

How much fuel does each car consume per lap at this track, 2.4KG per lap is the standard per track isnt it???

[alelanza]

Don't know if anyone else has mentioned this or even if anyone else agrees with me, but I think the engines this year sound terrible. It's like they're short shifting all the time, and I've noticed both KERS and non-KERS cars having weird sudden jumps in the revs which sounds really strange. I can understand that in the KERS cars as the power kicks in, but it was happening on the Brawns as well.

Does everyone else hate the engine noise this year?

Yes yes, i heard that in several cars, strangely enough the williams was one of them. However when Kimi used it along w/the on screen graph, it didn't seem very noticeable noise wise. That being said they only showed it for a very short period and it was barely touched during that time. It was also strange hearing LH's radio telling him his kers was fully charged, i would have expected he would have known w/o being told, so i guess big issues are still being worked out on that unit. Also, when the new graph came up i thought we'd finally be able to see braking intensity, i've often wondered why the graph is simply on and off...