** 2012 Australian GP Thread **

[Steven_M]

All you had to do was watch Vettel's onboard during the race when he was chasing Schumacher and you could tell that he did not have a good car. That car had wicked oversteer due to a lack of rear end grip. I would say their attempts to blow the diffuser have not quite yielded the returns that they would like. Obviously the McLaren's are superior in terms of pace at the moment. Should pose a good battle thus throughout the season, Vettel vs. Button/Hamilton.

[Masa M.]

watched SKY a little bit. HD quality was amazing. Overall content seemed to be a copy of BBC's.

The reporter in the paddock looked like Robert Patrick (T1000). I couldn't stop laughing. It's nice that they have extensive pre-show and post forum. Because in Japan we've never had that kind of stuff. Every coverage starts only 10 minutes before the start, and ends as soon as press conference finishes... not even show an interview of Kamui. doh...

Supposedly they got other 8 channels with onboard and other stuffs. Sounds cool.

If I could watch SKY from Japan, I would definitely pay!
But if I were Brit, absolutely no. Just bring back BBC.

[Harry]

KAISER LEWIS IS #1.....YIPPEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
Now no one can tell me to stop calling Lewis as Kaiser. And I laugh at all those people who think loser Button can beat the King of Kings...HAHAHAHA!!!

Well.... he just did, and in dominant fashion.

I am stunned mate. Having a miserable time. I have searched all the F1 news sites to find out if something was wrong with Lewis's car but couldn't find anything
Does anyone have an explanation ? Lewis totally owned Button in QF.

[Masa M.]

My guess is that Lewis hasn't fully returned to his form yet from his lackluster season last year. Qualy is okay, but in race he seems to be unable to race against other comfortably.

Maybe Schumi (and Button) destroyed his racing calibre beyond repair in Monza last year.

[Sentner]

Does anyone have an explanation ? Lewis totally owned Button in QF.

The explanation is that Button was faster. And Hamster didn't own Button in Qualifying, he was 0.03 ahead in Q1 and Q2, and 0.1 ahead in Q3 - that's hardly ownage.

[RyanJ]

All you had to do was watch Vettel's onboard during the race when he was chasing Schumacher and you could tell that he did not have a good car. That car had wicked oversteer due to a lack of rear end grip. I would say their attempts to blow the diffuser have not quite yielded the returns that they would like. Obviously the McLaren's are superior in terms of pace at the moment. Should pose a good battle thus throughout the season, Vettel vs. Button/Hamilton.

Watched the replay on speed before I went to work today. I watched Vettel's onboard closely and I really only think it was a problem with his oversteer while chasing another car and being in dirty air. McLaren looked superior on the street circuit, but this weekend in Sepang will be a good indicator of the teams on a proper circuit.

Anyone else notice Vettel's gear ratios were very low when in 7th? Dude was hitting the rev limiter every time in 7th. Must have been a big change in wind direction from qualifying.

KAISER LEWIS IS #1.....YIPPEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
Now no one can tell me to stop calling Lewis as Kaiser. And I laugh at all those people who think loser Button can beat the King of Kings...HAHAHAHA!!!

Well.... he just did, and in dominant fashion.

I am stunned mate. Having a miserable time. I have searched all the F1 news sites to find out if something was wrong with Lewis's car but couldn't find anything
Does anyone have an explanation ? Lewis totally owned Button in QF.

Lewis was having problems with rear tyre wear for sure. That's probably why Button was so much more dominant last weekend. But Jenson was close the whole qualy session to Lewis.

This season is looking to be mega! Last year at this time everyone was going "well... Here we go again..."

[dreggs]

I'm undecided on whether this years Pirelli's are an improvement on what we saw last year. It seemed like they are moving towards the bridgestone idea of advertising how durable their tyres can be and so providing a boring spectacle. The difference in pace between white and yellow striped tyres was not massive and not really talked about by the commentators in Melbourne.

[mib1973]

KAISER LEWIS IS #1.....YIPPEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
Now no one can tell me to stop calling Lewis as Kaiser. And I laugh at all those people who think loser Button can beat the King of Kings...HAHAHAHA!!!

Well.... he just did, and in dominant fashion.

I am stunned mate. Having a miserable time. I have searched all the F1 news sites to find out if something was wrong with Lewis's car but couldn't find anything
Does anyone have an explanation ? Lewis totally owned Button in QF.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17421227

Good article from Gary Anderson on just that topic. JB is starting to look like the 21st century Alain Prost, to Lewis's Nigel Mansell.

[jbzonda]

Harry, if your looking for excuses for Hamilton he did have some;

Qualifying i couldnt say he "owned" Button, Hamilton but button by .152, hardly owning him considering everyone else was minimum 3 tenths behind Button. plus Hamilton didnt own as much as you may think he never actually set the fastest sector time of any 3 sectors on his fastest lap, it was just a tidy lap!

For whatever reason Hamilton got wheel spin in the 2nd phase of his launch and with Jenson having a clean getaway he pull along side, and really Hamilton looked quite pedestrian and gave Jenson pleanty of room - i spoze no point in cleaning up both cars in the first corner of the first race!

and i believe Hamilton was unlucky with the safety car slowing him down of track allowing Vettel to get the jump during his pit stop.

the article mib1973 posted was interesting thanks for sharing!

Red Bull were more competitive in the race than in qualifying. The reason for that was probably that the track offered more grip as more rubber was laid down in the race.

interesting point, but the track offering more grip would offer all teams extra grip equally and not just Redbull, and i remember Hamilton saying he couldnt get close enough to Seb for an overtake because they had too much straight line speed???? really??? they had one of the lowest speed trap speeds,it would more likely be the extra grip from the track that gave seb the confidence to throw the car into the last corner more than hamilton, for Seb to then streak away. especially when the article suggests Hamilton was more conservative with the tyres.

[RyanJ]

I'm undecided on whether this years Pirelli's are an improvement on what we saw last year. It seemed like they are moving towards the bridgestone idea of advertising how durable their tyres can be and so providing a boring spectacle. The difference in pace between white and yellow striped tyres was not massive and not really talked about by the commentators in Melbourne.

The difference between those two compounds was .500 seconds per lap and the mediums lasted 5 laps longer. Seriously they just need to bring two exact opposite tyres.