2013 Australian GP - Albert Park

[korzeniow]

First time here. One question : why the W04 was 12km/h slower (top speed) during the race than during quali ? I can't find the solution. Could a front wing clic (even a 3 points) alterate the top speed that much ?

Amount of fuel onboard is a factor. Also the state of the tyres, if they are in bad shape then you'll have bad exit from the corner leading to the maihn straight.

Also Hamilton overtook only once, that was Adrian Sutil and I'm not sure whether he did that on main straight. If not, then his DRS was disabled.

[korzeniow]

I don't think there will be a dominant victory. The tyre advantage of E21 translates to 3-4 seconds over a race distance. It depends on whether redbull/ ferrari can overcome this through their outright pace. it also depends on how the race pans out. If redbull/ ferrari can run in clear air, they will have advantage.

Vettel was leading the race, he had all the free air he needed

[Dragonfly]

Okay, then I think we're at the point of...

Fastest with a qualifying fuel load over a single lap: RB9
Fastest over a race distance: E21
Fastest instantaneously: STR8
Fastest over a lap at an arbitrary point in the race: unknown. Personally I'd say the E21 is likely to be faster than the RB9. I suspect the F138 is faster too.

Deal!
Although IMO the first two are which matter. As more races take place we can follow how those two performance indices change.

Vettel was leading the race, he had all the free air he needed

Yes but they couldn't use their tires as they would like and consequently couldn't maintain the lead.

[Sonic]

First time here. One question : why the W04 was 12km/h slower (top speed) during the race than during quali ? I can't find the solution. Could a front wing clic (even a 3 points) alterate the top speed that much ?

Amount of fuel onboard is a factor. Also the state of the tyres, if they are in bad shape then you'll have bad exit from the corner leading to the maihn straight.

Also Hamilton overtook only once, that was Adrian Sutil and I'm not sure whether he did that on main straight. If not, then his DRS was disabled.

Fuel load at the beginning of the race but not after 56 laps, idem with tyres state (the W04 was at least 10kms/h slower on the last stint with a brand new set of medium). DRS was open on the main straight (Sutil, backmarkers), so it could be a different use of the KERS ?

[StrikeForceF1]

Kimi won bcoz of the way race panned out. Had one of the Ferrari could overtake vettel in first stint, they could have won the race. For a 3 stop strategy to work, they have to put faster laps in every stint and use tyres to absolute maximum. here due to the circumstances, Alonso has to dispose his first medium tire even when there was more life in it.

at a moment in the race Alonso was just 4 sec behind raikkonen. Had he been able to overtake vettel in first stint, he could have closed this 4 sec. However he still have to overtake raikkonen in last stint which is a big unknown.

I feel another race at Albert park in same conditions, a 3 stopper may win. The result is how the race panned out due positions and all. We do not know whether the result shows absolute race pace.

I agree....I think it was the circumstances that played to a 2 stopper advantage......Alonso said himself that they had to bring the second pitstop early to jump the other guys and that perhaps took out the optimum from the 3 stopper but well played to everyone...fantastic job by the teams....I thought that the Ferraris were racier and they were attacking for the win rather than just playing with strategy for a good result and perhaps a win as they did most if not all of 2012. That imo is a very good and positive sign. What was great to see was that the Redbulls were reigned in, in the race. Of course this was just one race and things could turn very quickly so one has to bear in mind that no concrete conclusions can be drawn from this race. I have not been able to follow any of the sessions as I would have loved to but from the little I seen this is my summary and is in no way the be all and end all
the way I see the order after the first race and bear in mind I think the gaps is extremely close so here we go
in Qualifying
1. Redbull 2. Merc 3. Ferrari 4. Lotus
in Race
1. Ferrari 2. Lotus 3. Redbull 4. Merc
in Tyre conservation
1. Lotus 2. Ferrari 3. Redbull 4. Merc
in Strategy
1. Ferrari 2. Lotus 3. Redbull 4. Merc

This is based on this weekend and could very well change this coming weekend....so its not a definitive but make it interesting for the upcoming races.

[korzeniow]

Vettel was leading the race, he had all the free air he needed

Yes but they couldn't use their tires as they would like and consequently couldn't maintain the lead.

This is going in circles

Me: Vettel didn't have the pace
You: Right, that's because had had traffic and ruined his tyres
Me: But actually he didn't have any (much) traffic.
You: Right, that's becuse couldn't use the tyres.
Me: No, they didn't have the pace even with new tyres when Vettel couldn't overtake Sutil.
You: Right, that's because he ruined his tyres following Sutil
Me:

[Neno]

Idiots what i can say more, i am not too bright also, but here are much more stupider people to discuss with them. specialy when they "know" they are right, even they are not, they still trying to confirm they are. i must say it's fun

[lebesset]

About the race in general, it was quite intensive and interesting, Pirelli is playing a major role in this "new" F1, which is not good but at least races are interesting. Lotus confirmed its excellent use of the tyres and tremendous pace, I was expecting to see RB struggling a little bit but the problems were bigger than expected, which is good for the battle.

This is hardly 'new' for F1. Actually, it's brilliant and a throw back to the 80's (minus the unreliability of cars) when the great tyre preservers like Prost would just keep in touch with the fast chargers initially and then get ahead in the final part of the race.

+1
and the great drivers long before that ; the ability to save the car/fuel /tyres has always been the secret of greatness in the field

[Sonic]

First time here. One question : why the W04 was 12km/h slower (top speed) during the race than during quali ? I can't find the solution. Could a front wing clic (even a 3 points) alterate the top speed that much ?

Amount of fuel onboard is a factor. Also the state of the tyres, if they are in bad shape then you'll have bad exit from the corner leading to the maihn straight.

Also Hamilton overtook only once, that was Adrian Sutil and I'm not sure whether he did that on main straight. If not, then his DRS was disabled.

Fuel load at the beginning of the race but not after 56 laps, idem with tyres state (the W04 was at least 10kms/h slower on the last stint with a brand new set of medium). DRS was open on the main straight (Sutil, backmarkers), so it could be a different use of the KERS ?

Sorry : somebody told me in the ear-monitor that LH did a 312km/h on lap 51. End of the story. Thanks for your response.

[Dragonfly]

This is going in circles

Me: Vettel didn't have the pace
You: Right, that's because had had traffic and ruined his tyres
...................
Me:

You either confuse me with someone else or live in a parallel reality.
Because I have never written what you put on my keyboard. Vettel suffered from excessive graining and respectively tire wear, so could not maintain a lower delta and open a gap. The rest are just the consequences.

[Blackout]

Raikkonen played with the Ferraris like the cheetah plays with gazelle before eating it.

[mx_tifoso]

I just watched the 40 minutes Mercedes onboard feed that I recorded on my phone and I just realised that about four minutes into the video (although I'm sure a few laps were lost somewhere), the innermost part of Lewis' front right tyres is literally showing canvas.

http://i46.tinypic.com/989clk.png

Did anyone else notice this with any of the other cars?

What does it say about tyre deg?

I don't think that the white line is the canvas, as that part of the tyre isn't likely to be where it wears out the most. If think that if it were cording it might be in the outer edges or the center.

[beelsebob]

Red Bull had the quickest car, Lotus had the best car. Simple.

By what definition of Quickest? As I said above – I call bullshit, until you can give me a definition of quickest that actually makes this true, and is not just bullshit.

For reference – quickest if you ignore pitstops is bullshit too...
1) The ferrari was quicker by that metric
2) That equates to "the team with the car that's vaguely close to the front, and made the most pit stops is quickest", simply because that team would run the fastest on the tyres they had because they could extract life from them as fast as possible. This is a bullshit definition for obvious reasons.

Quickest over a lap. The Red Bull is the quickest car of the field.

Was it? Why did Kimi set the fastest lap of the race then? What evidence do you have that the RedBull could have beaten that lap? What evidence do you have that the RedBull was close to the pace of the Lotus? You've still not clarified what your definition is here... Quickest over "a" lap – which lap? When are we measuring? How are we measuring? How are we figuring out which car could do that lap the fastest?

The only possible comparison point here would be "quickest over any lap in qualifying" which would indeed make the RBR quickest over "a" lap, but again – it's irrelevant as a metric, because qualifying is not what gets you points – the race is.

Even if the Lotus won the race and completed the distance quickest doesn´t mean the car is the fastest on the grid.

Again – by what definition of quickest.

Pound for Pound the Red Bull is the fastest machine bar none.

And you measured this by what metric? The actual measurements seem to indicate that the Toro Rosso is the fastest car bar none.

With race you introduce things like Pit stops, tire management, time delta etc etc.

Yes you do – all of these are part of the problem the teams are trying to solve, and all part of being fastest.

In Quali you have one goal. Take your car and do the quickest lap the car can do.

But again – this is irrelevant, the teams are not trying to solve the "able to complete one low fuel run on perfect tyres" problem. They're trying to solve the "able to drive 305 kilometers as fast as possible changing tyres as many times as you like between 5 different sets, and never refuelling" problem. Being the fastest in qualifying does not make you the fastest car, winning the race does. As again, that is the problem the teams are meant to be solving, not qualifying on pole. Qualifying on pole is only a means to the end of winning the race.

[ForzaFer]

Talking about Kimis fastest lap with 23,24 laps old mediums, he was saving tyres all the time so it's not weird to post that time simply because IMHO his tyres even that old were in better shape than Fernando's who was pushing from the beggining of the 4th stint

[Nando]

Was it? Why did Kimi set the fastest lap of the race then?

Because fastest lap means zero in today´s F1. It´s irrelevant who set the fastest laptime of the race.

What evidence do you have that the RedBull could have beaten that lap? What evidence do you have that the RedBull was close to the pace of the Lotus?

Again it´s completely irrelevant. When the time came to show who had the quickest car, the Red Bull came out on top.

When the time came to show who can take care of their tires the best and have the best strategy, Lotus reigned supreme.

You've still not clarified what your definition is here... Quickest over "a" lap – which lap? When are we measuring? How are we measuring? How are we figuring out which car could do that lap the fastest?

Actually i have.. It´s called Qualifying. It´s there to see who has the quickest car and give them the spot at the front of everyone else before the race.

The only possible comparison point here would be "quickest over any lap in qualifying" which would indeed make the RBR quickest over "a" lap, but again – it's irrelevant as a metric, because qualifying is not what gets you points – the race is.

Nope.. Because your logic can easily be crumbled by a simple sentence.

Car 1 is lapping 1 second faster then anyone else but his pit crew screws on a nut wrong which means he looses all his advantage and then some and ultimately looses out the race to a slower car.

Is the slower car the fastest car? Of course not because the race is dependent on so many factors it´s irrelevant to talk about who had the quickest machine since it´s more about who had the best machine and team.

Again, Qualifying is where you see who has the quickest car, not the race.

the rest i think you are just playing around frankly. for the sake of playing around.
And complicating things to the point of no return when it´s quite simple.