2012 Australian Grand Prix Thread - Official

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Originally Posted by schmenke

True, the Trulli-train was frustrating to watch, but when an overtake did occur at least there was the satisfaction of knowing that it was accomplished “un-aided”, with driver skill alone.

I can’t help but feel that the solution to overtaking has not been fully thought through by the sport, with gimmicks like DRS hastily introduced as a “band-aid” solution to keep the fans watching :mark: .

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The band aid solution was not brought in to keep the fans watching, it was brought in to bring clueless fans to watch F1. Marketing crap, that is.

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Originally Posted by SGWilko

For HRT - 107% is the amount of parts still left to fit to the car come qually!!! :laugh:

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Lets just hope that 107% isn't what falls off the car during the qualy...

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Originally Posted by Rollo

Will Hagon was chatting to Tony Delroy on ABC Radio last night and said that he'd been at a function hosted by Renault who this year are supplying engines for four teams.

Someone at Renault told him that although the engines for Vettle and Webber are mechanically identical, the engine maps for them are entirely different. The different engine maps are designed to take into account of things like how the drivers stab the throttle and ride it, how they come off it etc; all tailored for each individual driver out there.
They also mentioned that the engine maps are designed to learn each circuit and write changes to it accordingly.
I wasn't really surprised by this because both the Ka I had and the 206 which I have now, has a very simple program which adjusts the engine maps based on the last 300km of driving.

I imagine that the Renault engine mapping program is probably smart enough to change the map during the course of a single lap; even on a corner by corner basis and remember it.

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As you say it is the norm today in mot road cars so if they use something similar in F1 they make it even better and faster and more accurate.

PS: 2 weeks ago they did reset the software in my Grand Espace and when I told them that the car drives strangely I learned that it was a proactive system that learns as you drive it. So much about us driving our cars.

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Originally Posted by The Black Knight

No surprise to see Massa off in tricky conditions. He's just reaffirming my belief more and more every session that he is simply not good enough to be a Ferrari driver.

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then he went immediately on the radio to question if the team had changed anything on his car, when it was clearly driver error LOL

OK! it's fine. The sun is shining, not too hot, and some young ladies in bikinis are sunning themselves next to the swimming pool downstairs. No sign of rain at all.

Good work Valve ;) ) I think "The Scuds" might work well on harder compounds in very warm conditions I dont think the track will be warm enough to make that difference. What do you think for Q2 track 31, and 27 ambient?

I have to say I'm quite enjoying listening to James Allen at the mo. Some will find that hard to believe, but I think it's just hearing a familiar voice again. Listening to his commentary, I really can't see what is quite SO terrible about him. He seems pretty good now these days when you think of how he was when he started a decade ago.

Qualifying Prediction (maybe too late now, but this is what I thought before practice 1)

1.Vettel
2.Hamilton
3.Button
4.Webber
5.Rosberg
6.Alonso
7.Schumacher
8.Massa
9.Grosjean
10.di Resta
11.Hulkenberg
12.Perez
13.Raikkonen
14.Kobayashi
15.Vergne
16.Maldonado
17.Ricciardo
18.Senna
19.Kovalainen
20.Petrov
21.Glock
22.Pic
23.de la Rosa
24.Karthikeyan

Qualifying Prediction after watching FP3

1.Hamilton
2.Vettel
3.Button
4.Schumacher
5.Webber
6.Rosberg
7.Grosjean
8.Raikonnen
9.Kobayashi
10.Ricciado
11.Alonso
12.Perez
13.Hulkenberg
14.Massa
15.Vergne
16.DiResta
17.Maldonado
18.Senna
19.Petrov
20.Kovaleinen
21.Glock
22.Pic
23.Karthikeyan
24.De La Rosa

Oh I wish! Schumacher 4th and hamilton pole hehe!
I've learned over years and years of disappointment (none more so than 10 years ago in 2002), so my prediction is conservative...