2013 Australian GP - Albert Park

[Hail22]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqYEvlY16b4[/youtube]

2:39...Webber spinning on what I believe is one of the easier turns...nervous rear?

[Earnard Beccelstone]

At the circuit.

Rained this morning. Light but persistent for about 40 minutes. At the moment, half the sky is brilliant clear blue. Other half is dark grey, with visible storm cells.

I get the feeling the rain will stay away but Melbourne is Melbourne and the weather is ... unpredictable.

Will be interesting to see how much grip there is for P3. First practice yesterday I'd say most drivers were at about 80% and the cars were still nervous at the rear. Overnight adjustments should help though.

[Hail22]

Massive low pressure system and cloud band approaching from the South West, the rain is coming :/

Wind updated to be 55 km/h that's quite a gust!

[QLDriver]

I understand what you're saying - however it doesn't take a genius to read the whole range of sector times and deduce if a car is lifting deliberately - which is why I think it's pointless sandbagging.

If you're car is one second quicker - what does it matter to sandbag? A competitor team isn't going to spend 'extra' time trying to find an extra second that suddenly appears on a competitors car - they are pushing to be fastest in all areas all the time, regardless of the competition.

There was a quote (trying to find it) that mentioned that due to staff changes between teams - most know what the base fuel level is for each team. The teams use the same level each year to get consistent data. So if everyone knows anyway, why hide it?

That said, maybe they do.... I feel it's wasted on a race weekend.

I'll suggest a technical reason to sandbag. Given that tyres are limited on a weekend, why not concentrate on the critical parts of the circuit and cruise on the easy parts, so as to save the rubber as much as possible? I'd agree that sandbagging to 'psyche out the competition' isn't necessarily productive, but if you can save 20% of the life of the tyres (for example), then that's well worthwhile.

[Cam]

Did you watch the videos that Raymondo posted? If no I suggested you do. Now we don't know what time was set on those laps, but it is OBVIOUS that Alonso is not flat out in some of the easier corners and the straights.

For the record - yes I did watch those videos. It showed what it showed - a couple of guys driving cars. Does it prove they were sandbagging or perhaps simply performing other tests? The fact is, it's OBVIOUS we have no way of knowing either way. The discussion was on the relevance of sandbagging - not individual examples - of which the ones you've mentioned have no times or context, that can be factored with and any suggestion those individual videos are evidence of sandbagging - is ridiculous.

I watch both Practice sessions - and what I saw was many drivers pushing hard with times dropping before stabilising. I also saw times where drivers backed off, got held up, made mistakes etc - not once did I see an example of sandbagging - nor was a specific example ever mentioned in any broadcast coverage.

I'm happy to discuss the merits (pros and cons) of sandbagging at the Melbourne GP - if you'd like to stick to that? Should you have specific evidence backed with substantiated facts - I'm all ears.

[Cam]

I'll suggest a technical reason to sandbag. Given that tyres are limited on a weekend, why not concentrate on the critical parts of the circuit and cruise on the easy parts, so as to save the rubber as much as possible? I'd agree that sandbagging to 'psyche out the competition' isn't necessarily productive, but if you can save 20% of the life of the tyres (for example), then that's well worthwhile.

That would be an example of 'strategy' not sandbagging - I would suggest.

[Websta]

They have to return two sets of tyres at the end of Friday or something anyway though (unless the rules have changed), so they may as well thrash them

[Nathan]

Blue skies and sunshine here in Melbourne at the moment. It was wet and cloudy this morning.

[raymondu999]

There was a quote (trying to find it) that mentioned that due to staff changes between teams - most know what the base fuel level is for each team. The teams use the same level each year to get consistent data. So if everyone knows anyway, why hide it?

That said, maybe they do.... I feel it's wasted on a race weekend.

At your service

I find it hard to believe teams would be using the same numbers as the year before since so many people move around the paddock eventually everyone would know everyone´s baseline.

Priestley is familiar with how confusing testing can be, but reckons there are ways to find out where teams are at.

"It's probably been the most unrepresentative pre-season test period for years," he says. "And you really can't read anything into the times; the teams are not just looking for lap times.

"But within the team you'll have a baseline fuel load you use year in, year out. When you have people move between teams those numbers get around so everyone gets a rough idea of where they're at and what the pecking order is."

Source: http://plus.autosport.com/premium/featu ... ers-rated/

Taking a look at the long runs - Alonso's peak pace isn't the best, but his pace is damn well the most consistent IMO. Plotting it out produces a beautiful curve without bumps. Raikkonen's stint pace seems to be the quickest. On the surface of the data, it seems to me like Webber's reverted to 2011 form, and hurting his tyres more than Vettel. They both start their stints with equal pace, but Webber's dropoff is far greater than Vettel's. Remains to be seen whether the race will change any of this (as the leader will be in clean air, and the others will be sliding more in dirty air)

Pole... If dry, it'll take an incredibly stupid (or incredibly smart) person to bet against Vettel.

The RBR rear wing has incredibly low AoA - I wonder where that puts them in the power circuits such as Spa/Monza. Inversely, how would they get on in places such as Monaco/Hungary? Their front wing doesn't look like it can go much steeper

The McLaren rear wing is a barn-door, Monaco spec almost. I'd say that it's either a rain setup gamble, indicating no confidence of points in the dry, or in fact a bandaid solution - having the extra barn-door downforce help with traction and squelch out the bumps that the McLaren seems to be riding so hard.

[thisisatest]

i believe there are two good reasons to "sandbag" in practice.
1- simple, spend more time with greater fuel levels. you spend more time with more fuel because, well, youre going slower, taking longer per lap. so if the lap time decrease is linear (which it probably isnt), then there is more to gain from focusing on heavy fuel load setup.
2- and this is the more important one: theyre testing. they want to compare one setup to the next, with as consistent a driver as possible. so the drivers are instructed to drive at 95 or 98%, something like that. although that leaves room for interpretation and fluctuation, it cant be more of a difference than a driver that is pushing very hard. a little slip here, corner wide there... so it is better for test analysis. hell, they can compare lap times to the driver's average heart rate, brain activity, whatever. they have lots of sensors during testing.
3, and this isnt a technical reason, is it makes it harder for the other teams. i personally feel it is easier to aim for a goal when you know what the goal is.

[Nathan]

Blue skies and sunshine here in Melbourne at the moment. It was wet and cloudy this morning.

But, it's Melbourne. 4 seasons in a day!

[Hail22]

The clouds have started to drop its juices, ladies and gentlemen its raining!

[Shrieker]

Why didn't the mercs run in the dry ?!?

[KATO]

Caterham faster then McLaren right now.......

[Clew]

Who is considered the "Rain Meister" this year?