2015 Australian GP.

Ferrari vs Williams for 2nd best. Apart from shifting it down one rank, it's a great blast from the past to see this. :D

And shock horror, Williams look to be having their second good season in a row. When did that last happen? :lol:
 
vikiradTG2007 said:
Ferrari vs Williams for 2nd best. Apart from shifting it down one rank, it's a great blast from the past to see this. :D

And shock horror, Williams look to be having their second good season in a row. When did that last happen? :lol:
Click to expand...

When Max Verstappen was born, actually in 2002, 2003 they had two good years four even.
 
So I went to Albert Park today and saw practice 3 and qualifying.

It was amazing to see Ferrari doing great again. The car looked great under braking and was well planted in the corners compared to last year. And I would it say ditto for Williams. The Red Bull of Ricciardo looked hopeless in Practice 3 but they must have sprinkled some magic dust on it for quali cause it suddenly looked much improved. BOTH Torro Rossos looked as good if not better than Red Bull for all of practice 3 and and quali until Ricciardo beat them. Kyvat was hopeless - he looked really slow (and unsure under breaking). Everyone else was pretty average... except for McLaren... oh my God they looked horribly slow... it was especially noticeable in quali once everyone was in full attack mode and McLaren just looked like they were going for a Sunday drive. Oh and Mercedes? Do you even need to ask? Car looked amazing under braking and was fast. All the cars (except McLaren) sounded very slightly louder than last year. I'm talking small margins and the cars still sound quiet compared to V8 Supercars which is a shame...

I got to see Hamilton, Vettel, Massa, Nasr, Grosjean, Kyvat, Button, Johnny Herbert, Damon Hill, Christian Horner, the team principal of Lotus (dont know his name, I think it's Frederic something) and Moko! A few of them signed autographs as well which was cool.

oogMVIl.jpg


i0hUYe8.jpg


bq9opKF.jpg


vbOIe1L.jpg


And to top it all off I saw a Porsche 918 and a LaFerrari.

k2Q9ncT.jpg


GmDwqd1.jpg


Bonus: Webster's Porsche.

BNaPoXB.jpg

Super Special Bonus: TWO F40s!!!!!!

lLF4ETB.jpg
 
Last edited:
So it's the exact same order as last year? I'll save myself a lot of time and not bother watching then.
 
Business as usual at the front. But the back is a news story on its own. McLaren qualifying last of all? Not because of mechanical problems or technical infringements but that's their pace? I can't imagine them spending their season dicing with the likes of Sauber or Marussia (if they even race). Speaking of Marussia I don't expect them to race. On one hand if they do race they should be commended for dragging themselves back from the scrapheap after a tragic end to last year. On the other hand if they do race and somehow they are beating McLaren, the Woking team would be humiliated.
 
Allegedly the Honda engines are "detuned for reliability reasons". As for Manor, since neither driver took part in any official session this weekend, nobody is going to allow them on the grid for this race.
 
vikiradTG2007 said:
Allegedly the Honda engines are "detuned for reliability reasons".
Click to expand...

in other words: "oh cock"

I'm not optimistic about this season at all (cause fuck MBZ) but I think it is encouraging as a Ferrari fan to see Raikkonen not far off of Vettel's pace in quali. I think it's a good indicator of where their car stands. It's also worth noting that Vettel only did 12 quali laps compared to Massa's 21 and Kimi did 17 compared to Bottas' 16.
 
Last edited:
So it's Hamilton fastest with Massa the best of the rest and Toro Rosso giving the main Red Bull team a few shocks. Man, this 2008 season is looking good already!
 
Is it just me or do the engines sound better this year? Not as good as the old NA mills, but a definite improvement from last season. There's a much more distinct, low-pitched growl under acceleration now, whereas before I felt it was all just whoosh and whistle from the turbo.

Also, a little surprised (& disappointed) at Mercedes' continued dominance. Hamilton and Rosberg topped the times in Q1 on the mediums while everyone else was running the soft compound.
 
I suspect last year especially this time last year the engines were being run quite conservatively as everyone was expecting DNFs and breakdowns since then they've grown more confident about their ability to get more power out of the engines so they're probably louder and more interesting because they're running a lot harder.
I had a look and McLaren's Q1 times this year are similar to their Q1 lap times last year, well a little slower actually.
Jenson Button 2014 1:31.396
Jenson Button 2015 1:31.422
Kevin Magnussen 2014 1:30.949
Kevin Magnussen 2015 1:32.037
 
Four Five Eight said:
since then they've grown more confident about their ability to get more power out of the engines so they're probably louder and more interesting because they're running a lot harder.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, how would they produce more power? I assume the regulations regarding maximum rev limit/fuel flow per unit time haven't been changed since last season. I'll admit I have limited knowledge of these new hybrid/turbocharged engines, and I'm definitely glazing over the hundreds of things that could be tweaked to create more power, but my understanding is that rev limit + fuel flow are two of the most effective ways to limit power production and the regs still have them locked down.

Also, in an interview Toto Wolff said their cars did over 6k km in testing on a single engine ("power unit"). I don't how much of that is PR semantics, but I can see what you mean about increased confidence in their engines (at least in Mercedes' case--other teams didn't fair nearly as well in testing). The commentary team also mentioned that Hamilton's pole-setting time was only ~2s off Schumacher's all-time fastest lap at Albert Park (back in the V10 era).
 
nicemaneuvers said:
Out of curiosity, how would they produce more power? I assume the regulations regarding maximum rev limit/fuel flow per unit time haven't been changed since last season. I'll admit I have limited knowledge of these new hybrid/turbocharged engines, and I'm definitely glazing over the hundreds of things that could be tweaked to create more power, but my understanding is that rev limit + fuel flow are two of the most effective ways to limit power production and the regs still have them locked down.

Also, in an interview Toto Wolff said their cars did over 6k km in testing on a single engine ("power unit"). I don't how much of that is PR semantics, but I can see what you mean about increased confidence in their engines (at least in Mercedes' case--other teams didn't fair nearly as well in testing). The commentary team also mentioned that Hamilton's pole-setting time was only ~2s off Schumacher's all-time fastest lap at Albert Park (back in the V10 era).
Click to expand...

If you have a look at the youtube channel peterwindsor there are some pretty good videos looking at the tech behind the different cars.


Bottas, Magnussen and Kvyat are all out of the race and they haven't even gotten to the grid.
 
Last edited:
Did anyone else see the superimposed message on the starting grid prior to the warm-up lap "Ron, I will miss you. Bernie"? Who is Ron?
 
lol @ fucking maldonaldo
 
nicemaneuvers said:
Did anyone else see the superimposed message on the starting grid prior to the warm-up lap "Ron, I will miss you. Bernie"? Who is Ron?
Click to expand...
Ron Walker.
He's run the Oz gp for 20 years. He's retiring.
 
:zzz:
 
I hope this terrible start to the season has Bernie and the FIA reconsidering their faith in these stupid engines. I find it absolutely hilarious that Renault advocated for these engines and yet they've managed to make them worse than last year!
 
This is not such a bad race, It's certainly had it's surprises so far.
Kimi seems to have found "the talent" again, Vettel is proving he's faster then Massa Kimi also is.

The pitstops fucked Kimi big time this race first a slow stop then they couldn't get the rear wheel on.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top