Australian Grand Prix 2012 - Albert Park - Race 1

[medeni73]

Well we may be having a dog with a wiggling tail :) Hopefully its not a dog but the tail wiggles very much :) I hope they can fine tune this thing cos it will be hard in the race to maintain the pace and concentration...
Too bad that we couldnt test much I can imagine that many new parts couldnt be tested so we must wait for a next FPs...
My take is that we will fight for P6-P10... worst case scenario would be not to go to Q3...
dont jump of joy too early cos of RB, they did something similar last season too, in FP nowhere to see and then comes Qualifying and suddenly Vettel is 1 second faster than anyone...

[type056]

Do you know whether or not Red Bull were using DRS? Because I couldn't see them using it

They did not use it.

[medeni73]

"Marc Gene confirmed on the Spanish TV that they have new parts for this race and more coming for China too."

also, no new sidepods and exhaust position on our car, at least not big visible changes there....

[hogo]

yeah meaningless times, no one save maybe 2 or 3 cars went for a glory run. most cars didn't even use DRS... no surprise here, practice 3 is for that.

[medeni73]

[diesel08]

http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/story-185353.html

[medeni73]

Changes on rear wing...

[johncnet]

Well we may be having a dog with a wiggling tail :) Hopefully its not a dog but the tail wiggles very much :) I hope they can fine tune this thing cos it will be hard in the race to maintain the pace and concentration...
Too bad that we couldnt test much I can imagine that many new parts couldnt be tested so we must wait for a next FPs...
My take is that we will fight for P6-P10... worst case scenario would be not to go to Q3...
dont jump of joy too early cos of RB, they did something similar last season too, in FP nowhere to see and then comes Qualifying and suddenly Vettel is 1 second faster than anyone...

proof me wrong this time RB wont be 1 second faster, last year EBD make them untouchable. this year what i'm worry the most are mclaren. RB somewhere there mixed together with 4 team us Mec, Mclaren and Them RB. this time finger boys won't show his finger much.

[medeni73]

proof me wrong this time RB wont be 1 second faster, last year EBD make them untouchable. this year what i'm worry the most are mclaren. RB somewhere there mixed together with 4 team us Mec, Mclaren and Them RB. this time finger boys won't show his finger much.

Could be true but I'm not that worried about RB, I'm more worried that we wont be in that group of cars between P3-P6...

[medeni73]

http://www.ferrari.com/English/Formu...ractice-2.aspx

"...The Ferrari drivers had just one flying run with Medium tyres, having remained in the pits for a long time as they waited for the uncertain track conditions to allow them to complete the day’s programme. Both put in some practice starts before coming back into the pits after a very hectic end to the session.

The third and final session of free practice is scheduled for tomorrow at 1400 local time."

[johncnet]

Could be true but I'm not that worried about RB, I'm more worried that we wont be in that group of cars between P3-P6...

maybe for massa, but my 90% alonso will make it to range P3 to P1, gods help us all.

[Alfa159]

http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8436537

[Raz]

here's a little bit of good news.. for ALL of us.. http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/03/16/s...ll-in-the-car/

[Hermann]

I will believe that when i see it on sunday. Or maybe a bit earlier in qualifying.

[Raz]

I will believe that when i see it on sunday. Or maybe a bit earlier in qualifying.

yeah, but see what he said

“Tomorrow the target is to make it into Q3, and then we go from there.”

Just to MAKE it to Q3!!

[johncnet]

yeah, but see what he said
Just to MAKE it to Q3!!

hopefully he not bluffing us all

[Stormsearcher]

Hi All
Just back from a long business trip.
Seeing that nando took 4th in both practice sessions. Not so bad after all then.

Fingers crossed for
1. Either we find that much wanted perfect setup and win OR...
2. Vettel and Hamilton dont outscore us.

cheers

[Hermann]

yeah, but see what he said
Just to MAKE it to Q3!!

I don't trust anyone from RB further than i could throw the car.

[Gerhard Berger]

Well we may be having a dog with a wiggling tail :) Hopefully its not a dog but the tail wiggles very much :) I hope they can fine tune this thing cos it will be hard in the race to maintain the pace and concentration...
Too bad that we couldnt test much I can imagine that many new parts couldnt be tested so we must wait for a next FPs...
My take is that we will fight for P6-P10... worst case scenario would be not to go to Q3...
dont jump of joy too early cos of RB, they did something similar last season too, in FP nowhere to see and then comes Qualifying and suddenly Vettel is 1 second faster than anyone...

Red Bull were 1 and 2 in FP2 last year - not exactly "nowhere".

[Stormsearcher]

I don't trust anyone from RB further than i could throw the car.

i agree. RBR reports are just about as fair as Uncle Rons treatment of his drivers.

[medeni73]

All I'm saying is: as no one shouldnt underestimate speed of our car, the same shouldnt we do with RB...They will be there as we will be too, its a question of if there is some team that is miles (or seconds) ahead or not...considering that our car isnt perfect yet I hope for tight battle between 3-4 teams, that way you dont loose too much points at the beginning...

[johncnet]

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/3213/...h-messy-Friday

[johncnet]

l read most of f1 website saying that vettel not so happy with the car, anyway news is just a news let see tommorow quali. hope what he saying are right. there goes to P4 and P5 after quali tommorow, than our boys will go from there. LOL.. below is one of them.

Sebastian Vettel's title defense got off to a slow start in Australia on Friday with the Red Bull racer admitting he "wasn't happy" with his RB8.

The German struggled during first practice, finishing outside the top ten, while the afternoon did not see much improvement as heavy rain prior to the start left the track very wet.

And although Vettel was one of the busiest runners in Practice Two with 19 laps, he ended the first day of the season down in 10th place, three seconds off the pace.

"This morning it wasn't very good, I wasn't happy at all in the car," said the 24-year-old.

"This afternoon I think it was a bit better. Obviously with the conditions it was difficult to get a lot of running. It was more or less the same for all of us, but with the little time we had in the afternoon it was quite okay.

"It's up to us to find the balance and understand the car a little bit more and learn a little bit more about the car in these conditions on this circuit, and hopefully go a lot quicker tomorrow.

"Tomorrow the target is to make it into Q3, and then we go from there."

The German admitted he is concerned that his "messy" Friday will have an impact on the rest of his weekend as a limited number of tyres on Saturday means he cannot just run at will.

"You can't re-invent the wheel, even though you had a messy Friday due to conditions it doesn't mean that on Saturday you just run the whole hour, you don't have enough tyres for that, and obviously it's about preparing for qualifying mostly.

"You can't do everything in one hour, so as I said the most important thing now is to make a step overnight, learn a bit more about the car - the laps in the end were important to understand a bit more - and then we go from there."

[Rishu]

So Pat Fry thinks we are about 05-0.7 off from RB...
I think during the winter tests most of us were happy if we had this gap, so cheers, F2012 will evolve further, more than RB8 & MP4-27 as they are evolutions from their predecessors
Stay optimistic

[NanoTheQuickest]

Do we still have aero updates coming on before FP3? It's something I read somewhere or was it drivel again?

[medeni73]

Fernando on the press conference:

-The feelings (with the car) were pretty good (or good enough).
-We did all the tests (the important ones) and the results were positive or as expected.
-We arrive to the qualifying with all the best things we have. Still we need to do the tyre comparison.
-Everything works fine on the wet (Alonso didn't have much chance to drive the car on the wet on pre-season).
-Fighting for the first line is a possibility, the car is pretty good at one lap, it behaves well to all the changes we have done. I wish qualifying take place with dry and damp track, the car is good in this conditions (mixed track conditions).
-The car has grip and we didn't have any problem to get a good lap time with intermediate or dry tyres.

[Kyss4k]

Fernando on the press conference:

-The feelings (with the car) were pretty good (or good enough).
-We did all the tests (the important ones) and the results were positive or as expected.
-We arrive to the qualifying with all the best things we have. Still we need to do the tyre comparison.
-Everything works fine on the wet (Alonso didn't have much chance to drive the car on the wet on pre-season).
-Fighting for the first line is a possibility, the car is pretty good at one lap, it behaves well to all the changes we have done. I wish qualifying take place with dry and damp track, the car is good in this conditions (mixed track conditions).
-The car has grip and we didn't have any problem to get a good lap time with intermediate or dry tyres.

[NanoTheQuickest]

Fernando on the press conference:

-Fighting for the first line is a possibility,...

well well well look at that!!!! you would not say that if you were in trouble would you?

I'm so confused, can't wait for tomorrow!!!

[Corey]

Do we still have aero updates coming on before FP3? It's something I read somewhere or was it drivel again?

Probably not. FP3 should be used to finalize the setup. Any new updates would've been tested already on the 2 earlier sessions. Wait till the next race if there's still anything new.

[Corey]

well well well look at that!!!! you would not say that if you were in trouble would you?

I'm so confused, can't wait for tomorrow!!!

Hopefully. Alonso's optimisms are usually pretty trustworthy.