A Brit is on pole but not Hamilton. Nice to see Mr Button getting a decent car and using it to good effect so far. Ferrari and Mclaren off the pace so far. Should be a more competitive and unpredictable season although we might see a few teams complaining about others by the looks of it with regard to various designs.
This thread confused me. wfc-4ever and wfc4ever both posting. I didn't realise you were two different people.
Was a good day for the 2 British drivers and without the usual names dominating made the race more interesting and unpredictable. Ofcourse the more established teams might catch on and come back to the top but good to have some freshness to the top 3.
Can you imagine Tony McCoy on a Suffolk Punch trying to win the derby ? Formula One is a handicap sport. It's not a true test of who is the best driver. I remember when Damon Hill was in the Brabham and finishing at the back of the grid, albeit managing to finish virtually evry race. Next season he was brought in by Frank Williams and surprise surprise took a World Championship with what was then the most competitive team with the best cars on the track. Says it all about Formula One. Until all the cars are identical one cannot be sure who really is the best driver. My pick would be Sebastian Vettel if this were the case. Button and Hamilton.Two of the fastest tax dodgers in Britain. :rant:
I disagree. At the moment they cant even afford to develop kers. With the new money coming in they will be able to develop the car now more now then with Branson. This is a massive deal for them as it gives them a chance to stay in the lead.
Brawn could still lose these points, appeal court hearing in a couple of weeks on their car. Then lucky Lewis gets 10 points.
McLaren are nothing to do with the current appeal. In fact they're the only team it currently works against not appealing. It's Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault leading the way on that (with BMW in support).
How about this then? Ferrari are doing what they do best, and crying when things don't go their way, much like a certain football club in Sheffield, and their ridiculous ex manager.
Maybe they should spend more time telling their well placed drivers not to crash into each other... :naughty:
Interesting to see Mclaren dont appel when one of the teams in question is Brawn GP. i bet ferrari are kicking themselves if they win the appeal they will be giving 10 points to hamilton and lose a chance to overtake Red Bull who they seem to be behind at the moment.
Would that perhaps be Mercedes involvement there seeing they supply both teams with engines? Either way, well done Button. I must admit that over the past couple of years, I thought he was there just for the money and living the Eddie Irvine life but he seems to be ready to knuckle down this season and himself and Barrichello will be going out with something to prove and perhaps and improved effort. If Virgin do put more money in and Kers is able to be devloped in 2 races time (when it is assumed the other teams would have caught up by then), Braun could still find themselves near the top of the championship, which will good all round. Certainly will be an intersting season and now, I wish perhaps the new 'race wins' system had been brought in to make it even more interesting.
Yeah the mercedes teams will stick together notice how force india also did not appeal. I cant see the appeal being sucessfu.l This will mean that all the other teams will alter there diffusers. Once this is done the gap will be closed to brawn gp. i would still expect them to be top of the pack. Its going to take more then a new diffuser to overtake brawn as the top team. It should get close if brawn can get kers in the car early then they could well stay ahead for the whole season, but its a doubt if they ever will have kers. i guess it all in the end comes down to who has more money once again.
It's a new system for this season which is to do with energy efficiency. When a car brakes it produces heat which is obviously a form of energy - kers captures that energy and converts it so it can be used to increase the bhp of the car for a short 7 second burst. Basically it's a booster button for the driver. One charge can only be used once per lap (but however the driver wants so 1 x 7 secs is just as permissible as 7 x 1 sec boost). The downside from a manufacturers point of view is (1) it costs money to develop, (2) it weighs about 30kg which is a significant burden, particularly if the driver is heavier and (3) the way it's fitted to the car means the fuel tank has to be smaller. And obviously it's new technology and although it seemed to work fine in Melbourne I'm sure it won't be long til the first driver retires because his kers system has a fault. That's how I understand it anyway...
Kinetic Energy Recovery System. Very simply (!) explained: http://www.formula1.com/news/features/2009/1/8887.html
Could be a wet race in Malaysia.. Sounds like it could be rather interesting (not a danger to driver safety ofcourse hopefully) and we know Hamilton does well in the wet. http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2009/03/30/malaysian-grand-prix-weather-forecast/
Hamilton and McLaren have been kicked out of the Aussie race for lying to the stewards re: the Trulli incident.
I'm p*ssed off at the amount and the strength of penalties Hamilton and McLaren always seem to receive. Why don't the FIA just feck off?!
If they hadn't have lied to the stewards post-race they'd be going home with a very decent 4th place. They took a game, for the sake of a point, and have lost the lot big time.
I think it's a natural consequence of pushing the rules to their limit. F1 is quite a conservative sport, particularly with the FIA as the governing body, and they just plain don't like it. It seems McLaren have been caught out this time by the cockpit radio recordings after Lewis told the stewards Trulli's account of him pulling over to let him through was in error. Of course, Lewis proved he wasn't the brightest spark by then going out and telling the media (after Toyota decided not to appeal the 25 sec penalty) that the team had told him to let Trulli through.
+1 I dont think any other team has had half the penalties Mclaren have recieved in the past 3 seasons!
