Australian GP 2010 - Melbourne

[roost89]

I remember something similar. (It was at 6am so I'm not sure what was said) I don't think they were going to challenge in Q3. I think to save some tyres for tomorrows race. They made the choice and then went round so that the tyre they chose was selected.

[Mr Alcatraz]

My educated guess is they will all be starting on inters.

[ringo]

Hamilton could make this race very exciting. I am expecting a battle with Kubica then shumacher from him. He also will be the only fast car to have a different strategy for the race in terms of tyres. Can he get on podium like last year from the back?
Will the rain gods answer he call another time? I think they will.

The redbulls were monstrous, Vettel's pole lap had so much room for improvement. This season will be boring if they keep poling every race by those margins. Not even the ferrari's can challenge them. Mclaren also looking third rate at the moment as well. The car is good but it's not great.

[ringo]

Yes, another purpose of the V nose design, the pushrods can be mounted high up on the edges of the V.
Mclaren really need to take a step back and assess what's happening with their car, the other teams are running away from them at an alarming rate.

I don't even think it's the down-force, i think it's the compromise with suspension settings for the fuel that is affecting the down-force the car is able to produce.

[dren]

I don't even think it's the down-force, i think it's the compromise with suspension settings for the fuel that is affecting the down-force the car is able to produce.

I agree with that. I think that goes for more teams as well.

[ringo]

I saw it as well, i was wondering if i was just seeing things; if the front wheels were turning and creating some kind of illusion with the front wing.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

The smoothness through corners and ability to ride the corners well is not endemic to Red Bull. Ferrari appear equally adept at riding the curves and appear just smooth. I would say that Ferrari probably have the best front end, Its the rear of the car where Red Bull excels I feel, just at looking(sight).

Are ferrari and Red Bull the only teams to adjust ride heights?

Whitmarsh did say he expected Mclaren to have a similar setup for China, leading me to believe that this is easily implementable. How much would this ride height be worth?
Would it see Mclaren and Mercedes close the gap?

And has Brawn officially sought clarification???

[hollus]

Both sides of the wing were dropping, and it looked just like pure downforce bending them. Also, the whole wind was flexing, not just the cascades. But it is difficult to be sure, because... the whole ride height of the car seemed to be changing, so they kept moving back and forth through the suspension arms from the in-car camera.
This video shows it, we'll see for how long it stays online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aH2f3iHeBQ
Is it already visible in the first 15 seconds. In second 4 Vettel brakes and the wing (the whole ends of the front wing) go up, the wing becomes about horizontal and stays so for the corner, but the he enters the next straight and the wing starts bending again as the car gains speed. It is clearer to see in the right side.
Look also at second 41 and then at second 49...

[rubbergoat]

Hey guys,

I made a post analysing qualifying in Melbourne on my blog 'Making Up The Numbers'.

If you want to read the full post then please click here, but I have summarised the article for you below too

Here is a graph of the best laps for each driver from all three sessions:



Looking at the individual sessions separately:






From the graphs, we can see that the new teams are still off the pace, but are much closer this time. The midfield is still very tight, with Hamilton only about a tenth off from making the cut into Q3.

The top 3 times in Q3 seem far quicker than all the other times in Q3 – clearly Red Bull are a very quick team this year and I think their main rivals will turn out to be Ferrari. Schumacher seems to have blown the cobwebs off a bit more this week – he was only just outqualified by Vettel

Finally, it appears as though this time that the laps run in Q3 were as fast as the other sessions – which is no surprise when you consider that in Q3 rain was expected, so everyone pushed like mad in expectation of having only limited dry running. I think this is shown in the graphs…

Speaking of number of laps run, let’s take a look at how many laps each driver ran in each session:



Note: The drivers are listed in order of qualifying classification.

Generally speaking, the drivers who are quick off the mark do not run many laps in Q1, while in Q2 less laps are run because of the shorter session (but most drivers run the same amount of laps). In Q3, less laps are run to save the tyres, with some drivers near the back strategically saving their tyres.

Interesting to see that Alonso and Rosberg ran the most laps – maybe because Alonso was trying hard to get pole while Rosberg may have been just trying to beat Schumacher (who was faster than Rosberg until qualifying began)

Well, that’s all I have to say about qualifying. I will be providing my normal post-race analysis as usual as I will be up bright and early to watch the Grand Prix of course…

Enjoy the race tomorrow guys


//RubberGoat
http://f1numbers.wordpress.com/

[marcush.]

I wonder if the high position wants an added spring ....as this will decrease spring rate quite dramatically (springs in series ..)
so yes the load leveler as the sachs system would be a solution .but the question would be is this active ? I´d think so .

If you´d put a hydraulic piston in the system (this could be even integrated into the dampers itself...) you could achieve something of a lets call it weaknening or sag in the system ...which you could call ..err, manufacturing tolerance...nobody said you need to be able to run the car if yaou put in the fuel after the race ...you do not need to perform a ride height test ...nothing plank not worn ..you are fine.
So all you need is the car bleeeding down over lets say a 1 hour distance.

If you are clever ,you put in the bleed in such a way that it gets blocked as soon
as the car is lifted off the ground ...so you could avoid scraping the ground in case there is a delay durng the start...

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

That is very weird.

Why wasnt there such are marked difference on his second lap? The black arts going on there!!!!

[BreezyRacer]

Both sides of the wing were dropping, and it looked just like pure downforce bending them. Also, the whole wind was flexing, not just the cascades. But it is difficult to be sure, because... the whole ride height of the car seemed to be changing, so they kept moving back and forth through the suspension arms from the in-car camera.
This video shows it, we'll see for how long it stays online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aH2f3iHeBQ
Is it already visible in the first 15 seconds. In second 4 Vettel brakes and the wing (the whole ends of the front wing) go up, the wing becomes about horizontal and stays so for the corner, but the he enters the next straight and the wing starts bending again as the car gains speed. It is clearer to see in the right side.
Look also at second 41 and then at second 49...

I really think that what you are seeing is the car diving under braking which changes the relationship of the tire to the winglet. There seems like just the smallest amount of flex/shake at turn 11 but it's quite incidental and may also be from braking to setup for the corner, but it is the fastest corner on the circuit so you must expect some flexing at those speeds.

[marcush.]

first thought was ..an illusion .
But putting the cursor on the wingtip during the vid i could see the top plane moving down under high downforce and coming up under braking quite aome distance.
especially on the right hand part. As the camera is fixed to the car the wing should be were it is .. ..nice pics really also I´d almost say there is also sideways movement visible..

[autogyro]

first thought was ..an illusion .
But putting the cursor on the wingtip during the vid i could see the top plane moving down under high downforce and coming up under braking quite aome distance.
especially on the right hand part. As the camera is fixed to the car the wing should be were it is .. ..nice pics really also I´d almost say there is also sideways movement visible..

It could well suggest a self levelling (adjusting) primary suspension plus soft springing.
Both in pitch and roll.

[WhiteBlue]

Am I right in thinking out of the top 10 the two mercs are on hard tyres?

If so I wonder if that will be a disadvantage at the start.

All are on soft tyres except Sutil. If he can ake it throught turn one he will probably go the whole race until the last ten or fifteen laps when he will change for softs. On low fuel it will probably give him an advantage then.

Sutil is also on softs.

You are right, my bad. I saw the same pattern as in Bahrain where Sutil came P8 in Q2 and then went P10 in Q3 with a much slower lap. From this I assumed that the same tyre choice was used but by inspecting the cars in parc ferme at the end of qualifying one can see the Force India has the green stripe as well. I wonder what made Sutil go 1 s slower from Q2 to Q3 though. That is a massive time loss.


Blocking became an issue in Qualifying.



Schumacher talking to Alonso in parc ferme after being impeded during Alonso's in lap.

From The FIA Stewards of the Meeting To The Team Manager
BMW Sauber F1 Team
Document 27 Date 27 March 2010 Time 15:39
The Stewards, having received a report from the Race Director, have considered the following matter, determine a breach of the regulations has been commited by the competitor named below and impose the penalty referred to.
No / Driver Team Time Session Fact Offence Penalty
22 - Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber F1 Team 14:52:00 Third Free Practice Impeding another driver. Breach of Article 31.7 of the 2010 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations Reprimand.
The FIA Stewards of the Meeting
Paul Gutjahr Gerd Ennser Tom Kristensen Steve Chopping