Briatore on Brawn drivers & credibility *merged*

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Originally Posted by Tumbo

But that explanation doesn't then explain why they won in malaysia?

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I thought they were pretty lucky that Webber pitted when he did in Malaysia.

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Originally Posted by chuck34

Has anyone thought that perhaps the thing that has made Brawn so dominant so far is exactly why they were not so good in the wet?

What I mean is, that their performance has everything to do with tire temperatures. In the dry, you try to get your tires up to temp fairly quickly (which in F1, most of that work is done by tire warmers) then you try to keep them "cool". That makes the tires "happy" and last for a long while.

The reverse is true in the rain. YOU NEED ALL THE HEAT IN THE TIRES YOU CAN GET. I don't know how to stress that more. Tires make grip with heat. Water strips heat from tires. If you can warm up the tires you are better off. Well it appears that the Brawn is a very nice car from the tire's point of view. That is a VERY good thing in the dry, but not so good in the wet.

The lack of testing in the wet that they had, means that they didn't know exactly how to change the car to work in the wet. They took a good stab at it and came up second best on the day. Not too shabby, if you ask me.

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:up: Good assessment I think.

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Originally Posted by Tumbo

But that explanation doesn't then explain why they won in malaysia?

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The majority of the race in Malaysia was in the dry, and when it rained it wasn't that hard at first... the major problem most people seemed to be having was preserving their wet tyres. Quite different from China where the track was covered in standing water from the start.

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Originally Posted by Tumbo

But that explanation doesn't then explain why they won in malaysia?

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They won in Malaysia because they were in front when it started raining, and as we all saw it was hard to even make up time on the guy ahead (providing he didn't spin), let alone pass the guy.

Plus Red Bull probably added a few "bits" that made their car better this week wet or dry.

Re-thinking my above post a bit, I think I need to expand/modify a bit. When it started to rain in Malaysia, it was really a fairly light rain, but everyone went straight on to full wets. In this case, low water levels, you need to keep heat out of the full wet tires because the water isn't doing it for you. So in that case the Brawn's excelled again. Then the "big rain" came and no one could really do anything.

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Originally Posted by chuck34

Has anyone thought that perhaps the thing that has made Brawn so dominant so far is exactly why they were not so good in the wet?

What I mean is, that their performance has everything to do with tire temperatures. In the dry, you try to get your tires up to temp fairly quickly (which in F1, most of that work is done by tire warmers) then you try to keep them "cool". That makes the tires "happy" and last for a long while.

The reverse is true in the rain. YOU NEED ALL THE HEAT IN THE TIRES YOU CAN GET. I don't know how to stress that more. Tires make grip with heat. Water strips heat from tires. If you can warm up the tires you are better off. Well it appears that the Brawn is a very nice car from the tire's point of view. That is a VERY good thing in the dry, but not so good in the wet.

The lack of testing in the wet that they had, means that they didn't know exactly how to change the car to work in the wet. They took a good stab at it and came up second best on the day. Not too shabby, if you ask me.

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I agree 100%, I thought that on Sunday.

Besides, the Red Bull is just a better car in the wet. To be honest, Jenson did well to keep them honest as long as he did.

About the topic, and Flavio again: he's bitter, simple as that. He needs to be sorting out the brick of a car they have, and the incompetence of his second driver, rather than trying (hopelessly I might add) to rile the championship leaders.

Alonso has done a brilliant job for them over the last two years, to little avail. This year he has been as good as ever, but unless Renault can give him a good car he is wasting the best years of his career due to no fault of his own.

Briatore needs to grow up, and act like an experienced team owner, and not some kind of childish Peter Stringfellow wannabe. Like someone said earlier on in the thread, he needs to take a leaf out of his drivers' book. To say something for Piquet at least he's not crying about his misfortunes and making excuses like his team manager.

I think that Flavio has a right to be angry.

2006 - Mass Damper ruled illegal. A clever and careful interpretation of the rules.
2009 - Double Diffuser ruled legal. A clever and careful interpretation of the rules.

Now, call me cynical, but when one decision favoured Ferrari and a German driver, there was outrage on this forum....but now the latest decision favours a British team and, oh look, what a surprise, a British driver, it's suddenly a fantastic decision!

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Originally Posted by tamburello

I think that Flavio has a right to be angry.

2006 - Mass Damper ruled illegal. A clever and careful interpretation of the rules.
2009 - Double Diffuser ruled legal. A clever and careful interpretation of the rules.

Now, call me cynical, but when one decision favoured Ferrari and a German driver, there was outrage on this forum....but now the latest decision favours a British team and, oh look, what a surprise, a British driver, it's suddenly a fantastic decision!

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In my opinion in 2006 FIA made a mistake and in 2009 it was right.

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Originally Posted by woody2goody

I agree 100%, I thought that on Sunday.

Besides, the Red Bull is just a better car in the wet. To be honest, Jenson did well to keep them honest as long as he did.

About the topic, and Flavio again: he's bitter, simple as that. He needs to be sorting out the brick of a car they have, and the incompetence of his second driver, rather than trying (hopelessly I might add) to rile the championship leaders.

Alonso has done a brilliant job for them over the last two years, to little avail. This year he has been as good as ever, but unless Renault can give him a good car he is wasting the best years of his career due to no fault of his own.

Briatore needs to grow up, and act like an experienced team owner, and not some kind of childish Peter Stringfellow wannabe. Like someone said earlier on in the thread, he needs to take a leaf out of his drivers' book. To say something for Piquet at least he's not crying about his misfortunes and making excuses like his team manager.

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Agreed. If they got a better 2nd driver it would probably help speed up development.

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Originally Posted by F1boat

In my opinion in 2006 FIA made a mistake and in 2009 it was right.

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Agreed on this one too. The mass damper should never have been deemed illegal. However, we now have J-dampers that do pretty much the same thing, and in my opinion, they do the job better. Another case of clever engineers figuring things out.

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Originally Posted by tamburello

I think that Flavio has a right to be angry.

2006 - Mass Damper ruled illegal. A clever and careful interpretation of the rules.
2009 - Double Diffuser ruled legal. A clever and careful interpretation of the rules.

Now, call me cynical, but when one decision favoured Ferrari and a German driver, there was outrage on this forum....but now the latest decision favours a British team and, oh look, what a surprise, a British driver, it's suddenly a fantastic decision!

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The mass damper thing was awful. The FIA tried their best to rob the championship from Renault that year. Just like in 03 when Williams and McLAren lost out because of the tyre protests.

I don't think it has anything to do with nationality. I'm British and I was outraged by the mass damper situation. Just like I was outraged with the protests from BMW et al this year.