Australian Grand Prix 2012 - Albert Park - Race 1

[Greig]

Thought we could try just one thread for the weekend Shall we make a little rule that race threads can be created no sooner than 48hrs before the event starts...

Australia.jpg

Albert Park.jpg

Session Times (UK Time)

Fri 16 March 2012
Practice 1 01:30 - 03:00
Practice 2 05:30 - 07:00

Sat 17 March 2012
Practice 3 03:00 - 04:00
Qualifying 06:00

Sun 18 March 2012
Race 06:00

Race is live in the UK on Sky Sports, highlights only on BBC, full radio coverage on 5 Live.

Onboard lap with Vettel Q3 2011 - http://www.formula1.com/video/?uid=2011032701O

[hakanabi]

I was not sure what time the qualy and race is. Now I know, thanks Greig.

[F1NAC]

DRS zones

429321_202700516502486_120761558029716_307513_200803316_n.jpg

[Kyss4k]

Thought we could try just one thread for the weekend Shall we make a little rule that race threads can be created no sooner than 48hrs before the event starts...

Are you sure that's good idea? There will be thousands of comments on one pile. It will be really difficult to find a place, where quali and race discussion start.

[Hornet]

DRS zones

429321_202700516502486_120761558029716_307513_200803316_n.jpg

I see only 1 detection zone for the first DRS zone?
How do they determine the 2nd zone?

Thanks

[Kyss4k]

I see only 1 detection zone for the first DRS zone?
How do they determine the 2nd zone?

Thanks

It was like that in Canada as well. If you are in the window before the first DRS zone, you can use DRS in both.

[Rob]

The DRS zones, well the second 1 is bit short. Hope we can have good race this weekend. Been aloong winter.

[Rob]

Australian Grand Prix
Domenicali: “A new challenge begins”3.14.2012

Melbourne, 14 March –Everything is almost ready now in the Albert Park paddock. Tomorrow is the first day of official action for the race weekend, starting with the usual FIA run media meetings. Today, all the Scuderia engineers have been at the track, with the exception of Pat Fry, currently on a flight to Melbourne. Fernando Alonso showed up at the circuit before spending time on one of his favourite sports, cycling. His race engineer, Andrea Stella made the most of it to have a quick technical meeting with the Spaniard in the build up to the first Grand Prix of the season: there will be more time for talk, at least until the first free practice session on Friday, and then the track will have its say in terms of giving an initial opinion.

“Everyone is eager to get going with a new challenge,” said Team Principal Stefano Domenicali, talking to www.ferrarif1.com, before getting on the flight to Australia. “It’s going to be a very long season and, at least as far as see it, a very unpredictable one: there are many teams who look like being in the hunt, especially in the early stages. We arrive in Australia knowing we have not reached our goals in terms of performance for a variety of reasons, which we have discussed at length over the past few days. However, I wish to repeat what I said before, we still need to wait a few days before knowing where we stand in relation to the others. I’m convinced that we will be in the fight and we will be there right to the end. I said the same thing at the end of last season: if we happen to do well in the first race, we will not be making a show of ourselves, just as we must not feel downhearted if we are not competitive at the highest level. All we must do is stay focussed on the job of developing the car. The championship does not end until the end of November, which is something we should never forget.”

The Australian Grand Prix has long been a happy hunting ground for the Scuderia: from 1999 to 2004, only once in 2003, did the Prancing Horse fail to take the win. Four times Michael Schumacher (2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004) took the win, while Eddie Irvine did it in 1999, bringing a Ferrari home ahead of the pack at Albert Park. Prior to that, Gerhard Berger won in Adelaide in 1987, while 20 years later, Kimi Raikkonen, who returns this year to Formula 1 after a two year gap, gave Ferrari its seventh win and, at least to date, its last one. After the Finn triumphed, the Scuderia’s journey in Australia has held more pain than pleasure. Of eight attempts, Ferrari has only finished on the podium once courtesy of Felipe Massa in 2010, his best result here in a race that has never been good to him. More noteworthy has been the performance of his team-mate, Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard has been on the podium four times (one win, a second place and two thirds) and he has always seen the flag, even on his Formula 1 debut, in 2001. He was driving a Minardi back then and finished twelfth having started nineteenth. In his first two years with the Reds, the two times world champion took out a subscription to fourth place in Melbourne: maybe this year is the right one for doing better and seeing the view from the podium again.

http://www.ferrari.com/English/Formu...ge-begins.aspx

[theforce]

I had a dream last night, Vettle DNF first lap

[Tifosi]

I had a dream last night, Vettle DNF first lap

Watching reruns of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is enough to send you to sleep so I can see how that happened

[epiclyaddicted]

Watching reruns of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is enough to send you to sleep so I can see how that happened

[raylinds]

I can't wait for the season to begin. For some reason I am more pumped this year than ever.

Forza Ferrari!

[SashAlex]

Forza ragazzi ! Siette i migliori !

[Greig]

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/03/1...sign-pictures/

[Nathan]

Raining with thunderstorms here in Melbourne at the moment. The rain is meant to ease tomorrow, with a shower or two on Saturday. Sunday is expected to be mostly sunny

[ruud king]

If it rains the real good raindrivers come out on top, even when their car isnt that good so we just have to wait and see, but YES im really looking forward to the new F1 season.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Fernando Alonso is not ruling out fighting in front of the field in Australia despite a difficult pre-season for Ferrari.

The Maranello squad has admitted it has not reached the targets set for winter testing with its F2012 car, but Alonso said on Thursday that does not mean Ferrari will be slower than its rivals when the racing kicks off.

"I'm confident. I'm very relaxed about the possibilities of our car," said Alonso during a Shell VPower promotional event on Thursday in Melbourne.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98026


Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug also downplayed the team's chances for this year, and suggested rival Ferrari is not struggling as much as people think.

"This is a building progress, it has taken two years and we know it will take longer, that is for sure and of course, should you make a bigger step you should like that, but it is not really realistic that you go from fourth to number one," said Haug.

"There is 6 cars ahead of us, very strong and have to say that I think Ferrari is not struggling like this is described right now like now, this is my judgement, this is my feeling."

"We have good testing, good mileage. We had good test days so we have prepared ourselves as well as possible and now we have to wait for the first four races to see where we are."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98028


“Engineers always look at the data, look at numbers. Maybe we did not reach the targets or the numbers we were expecting from this car, but that does not mean the actual numbers we see are not enough to fight for the podium. We will find that out only this weekend. There is definitely more to come from this car and hopefully it will come soon.”

http://www.ferrari.com/English/Formu...e-another.aspx



Fear not fellow TIFOSI. The F2012 is everything the media says it's not. This car has a very good shot at the 2012 WCC. We must stay clam & reserved and allow the team to do their job. Everything will get sorted. Lest us not forget about the lack of participation in FOTA this year as well. We will spend some serious cash.

[medeni73]

Scuderia Ferrari ‏ @InsideFerrari

It is raining at Albert Park: let's hope tomorrow the weather will be better...

[cvenkat]

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/...long-term-view

Looks like podium is out of reach

Getting all mixed news from different websites.

[burak karakutuk]

We are so unlucky as always because it's raining at Albert Park and formula1.com shows there will be waiting a wet Friday for us.We have a lot of parts to test but this is not the ideal condition to test.First the car launch was canceled and now the rain show itself.This is not acceptable and not fair.

[burak karakutuk]

Here is an article about exhaustsAttachment 4650

[meh123]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98035

now why didnt we think of this earlier???we were promised a radical aggressive car...

[burak karakutuk]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98035

now why didnt we think of this earlier???we were promised a radical aggressive car...

our car looking enough radical and dont forget mate the car is a whole thing.you can not win races with only a f duct concept.Maybe we have a better car even without it.Also team must solve all the problems and be ready for the first race.This fduct is not our priority i think.We must improve our solutions before adding other concept.I belive we can easily optimize what they have...

[Hornet]

12 hours more to Free Practice 1.

This is insane, I'm going to get up early to catch it if I can

[Suzie]

There is no point stressing about what various papers and websites say we are or are not capable of. Australia can throw up strange results at the best of times so no matter what happens, it may not be a true representation of what the F2012 can do.

[ferrari4life]

thinking about pit-stops.. i wonder if we have done any work to get better there.. if this seson cars will be so close then we will need every second we can manage and last year we got schooled by McLaren and Bull.

[rochas]

Good luck to all of us this weekend.... May the best red car wins.

[Kingdom Hearts]

Let's hope for no rain, we need to check to much stuff, we need a dry track.

[Forzi]

Oh the agony! Don't think that there will be any use of going to sleep, can't really see myself being able to close my eyes and not think about the practise sessions coming up

[T van R]

Oh the agony! Don't think that there will be any use of going to sleep, can't really see myself being able to close my eyes and not think about the practise sessions coming up

You can sleep until Australia qualifying, Because practice sessions are for testing at this stage of season.