2012 Australian Grand Prix Thread - Official

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Originally Posted by Malbec

What's the point of any GP team? I suspect they, like others, believe the big sponsorship deal that will propel them to the front of the grid is just around the corner. There was a time when SFW was known around the paddock as '****er Williams' only just getting his team from race to race and season to season before things all came together for him.

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But even in the '****er Williams' days his cars sometimes had a chance of scoring points here and there. I believe this, rather than the fact that they were the backmarkers, is what made Minardi attractive to many. They did a bit more than just make up the numbers. Nowadays, we more or less know that Caterham, Marussia and HRT are unlikely to get in the top 10, because attrition is generally so low. For me, there's no interest in that.

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Originally Posted by Malbec

If anything I'm more disappointed with Caterham. Its their third season and they have resources at least on a par with teams like FI and STR and yet they were still 1.5 seconds a lap slower than the worst midfielder.

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My view precisely.

I must admit I've lost patience with HRT. Their performance and the delays in production would be excusable for a brand new team, but this is their third season and they need to start acting like a professional outfit. The date of the first race has been known for months so asking for scrutineering to be delayed was shocking and should have been refused. Then once they did hit the track their performance was so lamentable, and one of their drivers so lacking in awareness, that it's completely the correct decision to exclude them. They knew the rules when they signed their entry form, so I fail to see why they should be cut any slack.

Of the three new teams they're by far the least likely to succeed in the long term, in my opinion. Caterham do at least give the impression of being a capable outfit, with solid engineering, good media relations, and proven drivers. It did look as if they might have raised their performance over the winter, so for both cars to be eliminated in Q1 is disappointing but I'm sure they'll improve.

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Originally Posted by BDunnell

But even in the '****er Williams' days his cars sometimes had a chance of scoring points here and there. I believe this, rather than the fact that they were the backmarkers, is what made Minardi attractive to many. They did a bit more than just make up the numbers. Nowadays, we more or less know that Caterham, Marussia and HRT are unlikely to get in the top 10, because attrition is generally so low. For me, there's no interest in that.

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I presume you're speaking as a fan, and I do agree that race to race these teams are of little interest. However as a fan of underdog teams I enjoy following their long term progression closely and one never knows when they can strike the deal that changes their fortunes completely.

Look at Minardi or Jordan/Spyker/Midland, both of whom were taken over and became regular pointscorers. While you could argue that both those cases were the product of a particular time and political climate (especially Minardi/STR) there is little preventing the same happening to the current tailenders especially once the economy picks up.

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Originally Posted by The Black Knight

I still don't know why they chose such a radical design.

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LdM and his big mouth

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Originally Posted by F1boat

Well, the qualifying were both sad and exciting for me. Sad, because it is always emotional to see the end of an era, like in 1998 when Williams were suddenly slow, and now it seems that the case with Red Bull is the same.

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It can only be a good thing.

About time the real Vettel stand up. He's taken a lot of criticism over the years for his race-craft and winning in the best car.

I still think RBR will come back strong especially with the Tilke tracks coming up.

I didn't see Q3 but great stuff especially from Hamilton, Grosjean, Schumacher and Webber.

Hopefully its a great race tomorrow!

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Originally Posted by Malbec

Ferrari's problems are reminiscent of Honda's but please remember that individuals like Willis or Costa do not make that much difference.

Honda's problem was that their best mid-level engineers were poached by rivals after their 2004 car performed so well, especially by BMW. This was the cause of their fall from grace. It took them years to recover and that was also the result of poaching from other teams.

Ferrari did lose a fair few number of engineers over the last years especially under the Italianisation process under LdM. This probably has been the biggest factor underlying their fall from grace too.

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This is a good point. :) Then perhaps examples of changing a technical director can be viewed as part of a wider process.

Well, the race still has to start, and the season is long... I still have faith thay can turn things around....

Now would Alonso not have spun out on used tyres (trying to make up from the mistake of using softs in Q1), he'd be in the top 10 for sure... I'll give them time for a couple races, then we'll have a better picture...

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Originally Posted by CavallinoRampante

Well, the race still has to start, and the season is long... I still have faith thay can turn things around....

Now would Alonso not have spun out on used tyres (trying to make up from the mistake of using softs in Q1), he'd be in the top 10 for sure... I'll give them time for a couple races, then we'll have a better picture...

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I'm sure they'll be able to turn things around, but I don't think that they'll be able to challenge for wins - at least, not on race pace alone, but you know that luck or your teammate crashing and bringing a SC in the right moment can give you the edge. Not that it would be the first time. ;)

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Originally Posted by studiose

HRT not allowed to race in Australia after failing to qualify - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

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And rightly so.

In the "Teammate Battles" thread I called Grosjean > Raikkonen. Last year in GP2 the Frenchman was extremely impressive in bringing DAMS back, and his contribution was made more impressive since that team got off to a mediocre start, and his teammate was so far behind.

With an extra set of tires Kimi may have something on race day, but the man to watch out for is Perez, who may have something up his sleeve in not setting a time in Q2. He was pretty impressive last year on 1-stop strategies.

Massa! Wow, I didn't think he would respond this way, pitching it into the kittle litter, tank slappers off the corners, and 8 tenths down on Fernando (I know I know, he also made a silly mistake).

Michael backed up his testing pace and seems to have caught up to Rosberg. I think MS will be a threat for the win tomorrow.

If McLaren and Mercedes are indeed ahead of RBR, it's gonna be fun to watch Vettel try to make hay back on the 3rd row!

STR has a good car and good drivers.

Hulkenberg may have been guilty of a bit of gamesmanship in saying it would take 2-3 races to get on terms with di Resta. Just goes to show you the virtue of "under-promise and over-deliver."

PdlR did a nice job to get that HRT chassis about a second from the 107% cut-off. The car looks undriveable.