F1 2008!!!

[THA SHZ]

Can we care , nah watch it for the v8's mate , much more exciting

[Adamal]

What about no traction control this year? I think there could be a fatal crash....

[2jayzgte]

What about no traction control this year? I think there could be a fatal crash....

Nah I don't reckon the engineers are pretty close to the smartest guys on the planet and would already have a solution for this regulation change.

[Mr Revhead]

well that was an interesting session

seems ferrari are on the back foot.

will be interesting to see how the stratagies pan out.

cant wait

[ROBODISCO_20v]

In case you havent seen already
http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2008/787/6482/

Starting grid is...
1 Lewis Hamilton -Merc
2 Robert Kubica -BMW
3 Heikki Kovalainen -Merc
4 Felipe Massa -Ferrari
5 Nick Heidfeld -BMW
6 Jarno Trulli -Toyota
7 Nico Rosberg -Williams-Toyota
8 David Coulthard -Red Bull-Renault
9 Timo Glock -Toyota
10 Sebastian Vettel -STR-Ferrari

I never thought I'd hear myself say this but I hope Ferrari wins. I'm not a fan of Hamilton at all. Still he's an amazing driver. Oh well we'll see tomorrow afternoon aye.

[2jayzgte]

Ferrari actually have gone backwards since the 1st free practise.It is good to see both Toyota's in the top 10 that is showing progress now all they have to do is transfer there qualifying performance into a good result in the race.

As for V8s being better to watch well if you like the comparison of the Tourtise aka V8s VS the rabbits aka F1 nah the V8s are'nt a bad racing car to watch but against F1,now how can I be polite here well I'd call them laboured in speed and cornering and straight up performance vs F1....

[rolla_fxgt]

Glock has been moved back to 19th, 5 places for a gearbox change, and 5 more for holding up one of the Red Bull cars in qualifying. Not so flash for him, but i predict he might move through the field quickish

[fivebob]

Ferrari actually have gone backwards since the 1st free practise.

Not really, if you'd watched practice you would've seen it was all tactics and about setting up the car for the race, rather than getting an all out fast time on low fuel. Hence why the last practice session had BMW,Renault, STR, Force India, Williams & Honda in the top 10. The only real suprise there being BMW's pace, unless they've been sandbagging through testing and all the previous practice sessions they must've run pretty low fuel in qualifying, so we'll have to wait for the first pitstop to find out.

As to Ferraris qualifying, Kimi fuel pump problem (or was it running out of fuel) put pay to any chance of a good qualifying from him, and judging from the times Massa has a big fuel load and/or the Ferrari isn't a good qualifying car.

It is good to see both Toyota's in the top 10 that is showing progress now all they have to do is transfer there qualifying performance into a good result in the race.

Not likely to happen, Trulli is Mr Smooth when it comes to qualifying, but his race pace isn't that good, and Glock will have his work cut out for him starting from 19th, and then there is the possibility of gearbx reliability issues. Funny that no one had problems in winter testing apart from Ferrari, now it seems to be causing an issue for a few teams at the first race.

Glock has been moved back to 19th, 5 places for a gearbox change, and 5 more for holding up one of the Red Bull cars in qualifying. Not so flash for him, but i predict he might move through the field quickish

Probably not likely. Judging on practice performance there are no easy beat cars in the field apart from Super Aguri, even Toro Rosso and Honda have upped the pace quite significantly. Melbourne offers few oppurtunities to pass and without any prospect of rain it's probaby down to relability. Though I've noticed that without Traction Control there have been quite a few more mistakes in practice from drivers applying the power too soon, so there might be a few more oppurtunities to pass if the racing is close.

Yesterday's Practice and Qualifying probably isn't going to be a good indicator of race performance though, it was a relatively cool day at only 27°C in qualifying, compared to today's forecast of 38°C (it's already 33°) so tyre perfromance and reliability will suffer and driver fatigue will increase. Should be and interesting race

[Mr Revhead]

well
that was certainly an interesting race!!!

biggest lol moment was coulthard
"...and if he doesnt i will kick seven shades of sh1t out of the little bastard"

I will be watching the next couple of races with interest to see if some of the unexpected performances of today carry on....

[fangsport]

Alonso looked like he should've been a rally driver with some of his cornering.

the hit on Coultard was straight out of James Courtney handbook.

feel sorry for those using Ferrari powerplants, hope they find some reliability, but then they have had their turn at the top, and only stayed there due to FIA generosity

[Mr Revhead]

righto....

ferrari 1-2
anyone care to guess when massa will pit?

maybe the first 4 cars will get a 5 grid penalty for blocking? wouldnt THAT make for an interesting race! someone ph bernie...

both toyotas in the top 10, loking good for some points. then again so are the BMWs etc....

[Dragger_Dan]

Hamilton for the win, barring rain or a few too many crashes, Kimi I think will survive better if it gets wet.

[Mr Revhead]

well stewards deem both mclarens to be blocking and penalised them 5 spots each.

been trying to find some more footage of it.
but i can definitly see why heidfeld wasnt happy.
still not as if they did it on purpose. but even unintential things need to be punished at times.

will just make for a more interesing start!

mt predictions:
massa has low fuel, so will pit early, while kimi will stop a bit later. looks good for a kimi win.

2nd..... too hard! the mclarens are fast enough to get up there.... massa is fast enough to stay there.... and the BMWs are fast enough to be there....

[fivebob]

Depends where Massa comes out after his (probably) early pit. if he gets hung up mid field he could easily lose four or five places.

As for the McLarens, it's a hard ask from that far back to score a podium, unless relaibility issues plague the rest of the front runners. They should get past Alonso and Webber, and maybe Trulli if he's low on fuel, but the rest of them might be a problem. Only chance they have is if they're running 3-4 more laps fuel than the rest of the top ten.

If Trulli isn't too low on fuel he might have a good chance to score a podium. He's a good enough driver to keep the (potentially) faster BMW's behind him, but if he has to pit early then he's got no chance.

[2jayzgte]

Wow that just doesn't seem fair to me were'nt alot of the cars doing the same thing in Aus qaulifying????

If reliability is'nt a issue I can see Raikkonen opening his account in the win column this week.It just looked pretty clear to see that Ferrari have the superior package at this track.

Mclaren's well Hamilton's car just did'nt seem to have the set-up this week but like anything the race could tell a different story.

Good to see Toyota performing well in qualifying if they can transfer this to the race they could spoil someone's race.

[Mr Revhead]

yeah it will be interesting to see how everyones fuel is.
hamilton did seem fast enough in practice.
still, its odds on for mclaren to be ahead in points after this weekend, but its so early in the season as for that to hardly matter....

[fivebob]

Mclaren's well Hamilton's car just did'nt seem to have the set-up this week but like anything the race could tell a different story.

If you look at Q2, which is the best indicator of all out performance, and average the two drivers, then Ferrari have got about 0.5sec on McLaren, BMW are about 0.1 secs further behind, Toyota another 0.1-0.2secs and then there's the rest of the midfield another 0.5-1secs slower.

Compared to previous years the midfield is a lot tighter and closer to the front runners, so no one can afford even a small mistake, or a safety car at the wrong time, or else they'll lose a lot of places.

[Dragger_Dan]

Man, Hamilton's pitstop = fail

[fivebob]

He was looking good for a podium up until that point.

Good job from Trulli, the Toyota is showing some real race pace for a change. Maybe they have finally put those $$$ to good use

[Mr Revhead]

indeed.

now, was massa out by failure of car? or failure of driver?
will be interesting to see