The Official 2013 F1 Thread. Spoilers possible!

[wxwax]

Originally Posted by g®eg

fastest laps
interesting...

LINK

I'd been thinking about that since they said Kimi set fast lap. I've come to the conclusion that there are so many factors at work, that fast lap in a race often doesn't really show much.

For example, Kimi set fast lap two laps from the end of the race. Low fuel, light car. It was an excellent achievement because he had old tires. But, Alonso (whose fast lap was only 3/10s slower) had already used up his tires trying to reach Kimi by the time his fuel load had dropped to a comparable level. And most of the field had settled for their positions, and were no longer pushing hard, by the time the fuel load was amenable to fast lap times.

I wonder of Vergne was still in a battle when he set his lap time?

[wxwax]

Originally Posted by g®eg

I think Sutil was just the spoiler needed to stop Vettel from running away. I wonder if Massa had let Alonso by early w/ no fuss things might have been different for the red cars?

Good points. I, too, had wondered that about Alonso. Malaysia is going to be interesting. If McLaren can get their act together, it could be the tight season everyone predicted.

[g®eg]

Alonso should have sent the note before the race....

[g®eg]

pit stop times....
maybe more telling than fast laps

LINK

I remember thinking one stop by Massa... if I was a cop at a stop sign I'd have written him a ticket! damn it didn't look like he even stopped!

[wxwax]

Originally Posted by g®eg

pit stop times....
maybe more telling than fast laps

LINK

I remember thinking one stop by Massa... if I was a cop at a stop sign I'd have written him a ticket! damn it didn't look like he even stopped!

Great chart!

Here's the pit stop which seemed to knock Vettel back.

Name/team/time/lap

Felipe Massa/ Ferrari/ 21.511/ 23
Fernando Alonso/ Ferrari/ 21.606/ 20
Adrian Sutil/ Force India/ 22.693/ 21
Sebastian Vettel/ Red Bull/ 22.704/ 21

[RedRocket]

Originally Posted by Yossarian™

I'm glad I watched the Sky Sports feed instead. Nothing against NBC, but Sky does not break for commercials during the race.

Can we get it here on the US?

[Clem Kevin]

Originally Posted by RedRocket

Can we get it here on the US?

If you know the right people/websites

[A. T. T-W]

Originally Posted by wxwax

Yes, thanks, I've since read that rather than incrementally upgrade the car, McLaren gave it radical changes. As a consequence they're completely lost. They have no idea where the problems are.

They are considering dusting off last year's car. This is not a first for McLaren, the MP4-18 that was so problematic that they never used it, instead reverting to the MP4-17D that then became the basis for the MP4-19.

It's quite a strange course to have followed. They had a good car last year that got better as the season progressed and this being the last year of the current formula it would seem to make more sense to have continued development of the MP4-27. Lotus seems (admittedly on the strength of one race only) to have shown the way:

Lotus team boss Eric Boullier:
"Reduced tyre wear was one of the strengths of the car that we inherited from last season and it was useful because during Kimi's second stint the other cars were starting to challenge a bit more."

[g®eg]

crazy stats from the Australian GP

Crazy stats GP Australia: Nick Heidfeld waited 91 races for his first lap in the lead. Sutil tied that record.

Crazy stats GP Australia: Martin Brundle waited 91 races for his first podium. Sutil missed that in Melbourne. Can set new "record" now.

Crazy stats GP Australia: Lewis Hamilton lost record for most races with only one team. Record went back to Jim Clark (72 x Lotus) (because of course now Lewis is with Mercedes)

Crazy stats GP Australia: Kimi's lucky #7 After a quarter of the race 6 different drivers have been in the lead. Race winner Kimi Raikkonen (car 7) started from P7. With the Finn at the end there were a total of 7 pilots with leading laps - just past a 42 year old record.

[g®eg]

Button doing his rain dance...

Malaysia won't bring improvement - Button

ESPN Staff
March 19, 2013

Jenson Button finished scored two points in Melbourne © Sutton Images



Jenson Button is not expecting McLaren to come any closer to solving the issues with its new car at this weekend's race in Malaysia.



McLaren struggled for performance at the first race in Australia as it became abundantly clear the new car is still some way off the pace of the frontrunners. The MP4-28 is a major departure from its race-winning predecessor and Button admitted it is not the work of a minute to bring it up to speed.



"Australia was obviously a tough weekend and, despite getting the maximum out of the car, it's still clearly not where we want to be," he said. "There's a lot of work to be done but we all know that this team won't stop working until they get it right. For this weekend, I don't think we can expect an improvement in our fortunes.



However, Button is hoping the unpredictable weather in Malaysia will be an advantage for McLaren.


"The thing about Malaysia is that it can be so unpredictable - particularly with the later start time on Sunday afternoon, which tends to see late-afternoon showers fall. We saw that last year, when Fernando won, and we know that the unpredictable weather can make it a lottery for everyone.



"That's something that could play into our hands - I do enjoy driving in changeable conditions, and would love the challenge of being able to run competitively in a car that we all know is not quite capable of challenging for victories yet."

[g®eg]

never too soon to talk about 2014....

Ferrari admits windtunnel switch will affect 2014 car development





Ferrari chief designer Nikolas Tombazis has admitted that the changeover from using Toyota's Cologne windtunnel to its refitted one at Maranello will compromise work on its 2014 challenger.
After correlation problems last year, Ferrari decided to shut down its Maranello windtunnel to upgrade it, a process which is not set to be completed until around October this year.
Aerodynamic work on the 2014 car is currently ongoing in the Toyota tunnel, but will return to Italy once the Maranello upgrade is completed.
When asked by AUTOSPORT if the switch will compromise work on the 2014 car, Tombazis said: "Any change of windtunnel has got some associated risks, so yes you are right.
"Ideally, we would already have that completed and we would be working at home with an upgraded windtunnel in which we have complete confidence.
"It is not an ideal solution but, on balance, the decision we took to carry out that process was something that, if we had delayed, would just postpone the problem until later.
"So we thought it was paramount to do it as soon as possible.
"The sooner [it was done] the better and we decided to do it notwithstanding the fact that there is the 2013/2014 pressure."



Tombazis added that the upgrade to the windtunnel is essential given that Ferrari has fallen behind its leading rivals in that area in recent years.
"We have made no secret of the fact that we are doing a fairly important upgrade," said Tombazis.
"That's obviously putting a lot of stuff on our plate but we feel that it is something that we cannot delay.
"Therefore, we have this added pressure that we have to keep on top of that and we have to use an external windtunnel while we carry out this major upgrade
"It's important because our windtunnel technology has been below the high standard of some of our competitors and this work is going to bring us to that level."

[wxwax]

We've been hearing about Ferrari's wind tunnel for two years now. If the media are going to spend that much time talking about it, the very least they could is provide us with an explanation for what the problems are and why it takes so long to fix them.

[wxwax]

Originally Posted by A. T. T-W

They are considering dusting off last year's car. This is not a first for McLaren, the MP4-18 that was so problematic that they never used it, instead reverting to the MP4-17D that then became the basis for the MP4-19.

It's quite a strange course to have followed. They had a good car last year that got better as the season progressed and this being the last year of the current formula it would seem to make more sense to have continued development of the MP4-27.

I don't understand it either. I believe the McLaren was the fastest car at Sao Paolo last season.

I wonder whether, knowing that Vodaphone was going to depart, they felt they needed to dominate the field this season in order to secure a new title sponsor, and decided that the risk of a radical change was worth the potential reward?

I've read that the logistical challenges of using last season's car are enormous and aren't to be undertaken lightly.

[g®eg]

it seems pretty new .. 1997?

to need "major upgrades"

cool looking

LINK

[markjenn]

Originally Posted by g®eg

it seems pretty new .. 1997?

to need "major upgrades"

cool looking

LINK

I'm no expert, but I've always heard that the big problem with wind tunnels is removing the boundary effects of walls, fans, turbulence, etc. and that is the reason you often see very long straight-line undisturbed approaches and exits from the testing area of a tunnel which results in a long/linear tunnel. This Ferrari design isn't very linear so I wonder if perhaps that is one of their challenges.

- Mark