I'll go for the kill, and probably fail hilariously, with my three out by lap 4, or if I'm lucky, the first pit stops...


Here goes - none of this namby-pamby waiting for Friday practice!

1. Button. Yes, Jenson Button
2. Kubica
3. Raikonnen.

All carefully considered choices. Carefully considered for at least 20 seconds!

Craig. wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2009 at 5:43pm:


William Hill now have Button 3/1 favourite - covering their backs against the occasional punter if I've ever seen it!

Nakajima or Rosberg could be good outside bets at 100/1 and 50/1.

I think I will wait for some practice times first. There is way too much "new" this year to even come close to Charlie's madness bravery , though if Brawn is as good as they say it is..........

Matt

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2009/03/classic_australian_gp_the_winn.h...

Fantastic features I believe for the rest of the season. the 1994 and 1986 aussie gp's

its also on the bbc red button under sports section. currently running the 94 australian gp, most of the race is being shown.

Here goes....

1: Alonso
2: Trulli
3: Button

Edited 26/3/09 1844BST.

The Ruptured Duck wrote on Mar 24^th, 2009 at 6:00pm:


Followed by how many cars TASER their pit crews at the first round of stops

Matt

C wrote on Mar 24^th, 2009 at 6:33pm:

Well Massa, if his run of form in australia carries.

Well Here it goes.... A mix of checking last years results, the news on testing and a bit of gut feeling.... now let's hope Brawns car is legal

1. Barichello*
2. Massa*
3. Rosberg*



* edited on friday 27-03-09 after reading the test results 

eno wrote on Mar 25^th, 2009 at 12:22pm:


That is a point, if we make a choice and subsequently the car is illegal, do we get another go??

Matt

the diffuser thing wont come into play. Max has already said if it is banned then likely it wont be banned untill the european races start. Barring a complete U-turn, that wont effect the race results this weekend.

Ferrari wont need to complain BMW were at Whitings door with a letter of protest as soon as the FIA inspections were completed.
This is no different to the Mass damper froma  few years back and Ferrari's moving floor.
All perfectly with the wording of the rules, but deemed against the spirit of competition and banned anyway. I would imagine the exact same thing happens here. Or by China everyone will be running them.

Craig. wrote on Mar 26^th, 2009 at 6:17am:


Well the design is legal for the moment. Guess it is easier to let them race and take the points off anyone who scores than have a grid with only 14 cars. So will it end up as catch up for the rest or mark down before the next GP?

Matt

Well the diffusers are legal for this race and possibly Malaysia next weekend. On the basis of the practice sessions I'm going.

Barrichello
Rosberg
Massa

Mmm, I'm happy with mine. Kubica was a little disappointing, but that can't be helped.

For some reason I forgot about watching it live last night!

Barrichello
Trulli
Rosberg

Massa crashes into everything in sight, Kimi  gets bored, pulls over and hits the bar, and Hamilton finds the car is faster when he gets out and pushes

The Ruptured Duck wrote on Mar 27^th, 2009 at 12:24pm:


And Taki Inoue come out of retirement and takes the chequered flag

Matt

Gonna go for:

1) Button
2) Rosberg
3) Massa

TSC.

Is it too late to join this competition.

What a session!

Interesting interview with Richard Branson afterwards - I suspect over the next months or years we'll see just how much input he's had in the resurrection of the ex-Honda outfit. Reading a BBC article it seems that officially the car will now be known as the "Virgin BGP001" - although I was surprised they didn't mention it during qualifying - maybe they'll wait till the next GP due to the timing captions etc.

A new rule this year that I was not aware of, the FIA release the fuel loads after qualifying. It would seem that the rear wing controversy is pretty much thrown out by this. Starting fuel, shows that Felipe Massa has only 18 laps of fuel in his car and yet he was 0.8s off Button who has 22 laps of fuel (Barrichello has 23) giving him a 0.3s of a weight disadvantage and then a 0.3 second supposed advantage due to the rear wing. So his fuel canceled out the wing and the car was still way faster. Or as usual I am I seeing things in a too simplistic non lawyer type view?

Matt

Martin Brundell, "Those front wings are so ugly they need brown paper bags over them"

Matt

wow what a race!  Crazy crash between Kubica and Vettel, Piquet once again shows why he shouldn't be driving, Brawn looks almost bulletproof until RBR gets a new diffuser, and WTF Ferrari?

Mictheslik wrote on Mar 29^th, 2009 at 5:16am:


He still might... Trulli was showing as 4th during the safety car period, and therefore shouldn't have overtaken Hamilton. Although some are saying that Hamilton actually passed Trulli under SC conditions and let Trulli back through to avoid a penalty...

There's always something.. 

Mictheslik wrote on Mar 29^th, 2009 at 5:16am:

Wish granted  http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74053

excellent race and a good result. Its more my relief to come away with 10 points from that lol.
The only sad thing is the result has no official place for at least 3 weeks. Thats 1st through 4th all under appeal.

In all fairness to Nelsino his brakes went under the safety car and he knew it. He then decided to just go for it anyway, the arrival for turn 1 is 180mph roughly. That takes balls to go for it with no brakes lol.

There is nothing to say you can't drive back to the pits so the teams can attempt to repair the car, the rule is you are not allowed to complete the lap your car is damaged on. As long as the recovering car proceeds to the pit lane in a safe manner and remains off the racing line/ obvserves the blue flags, there is nothing to stop them carrying on back to pitlane.
Vettels crime was clearly to carry on when it was clear that under normal racing conditions the car wouldn't have been able to carry on at a safe speed, just because the SC is out the rules dont change to allow the guys on 3 wheels to carry on. (well technically Red Bulls)

It was a race of cock-ups on many teams parts, and it gave us a great race. From Ferrari not even knowing how many pitstops they were going to have each driver on. To Fisi's wonderful attempt at pitting the car through his mechanics rather than round them, to a safety car that was suspiciously delayed in its deployment till after Jenson had completed his stop despite the rules of formation no longer applying. Then to add to the fun you get a a pole and a german once again fighting over a small space of land and neither of them winning. and what could clearly be a farce in the sense of the tyre choices. (next week its the hard and the softs, and since malaysia eats up tyres, expect 3 laps out of the softs before pitting will be nessicary.) I think this season could be a very good if slightly comical one

Craig. wrote on Mar 29^th, 2009 at 11:27am:



Quite, but even in Kovi's case it was blatently obvious that he was beyond (sensible) repair, and wasn't really at a safe speed. I just think it was daft - how stupid would they have looked if it'd completely failed half way back to the pits (considering it happened on the first or second corner).

Fantastic race

Sadly I didn't get any predictions in on time, would've guessed Button for 1st but would've but Hamilton at the back of the field 

Looks like this could be a great season, but it'll still be hard to beat Brazil last year.

Craig. wrote on Mar 29^th, 2009 at 5:03pm:



Is he British? I thought after DC retired there was only Lewis left.

The Ruptured Duck wrote on Mar 29^th, 2009 at 5:36pm:


You didn't experience the Lewis Hamilton centric coverage over here in the UK I take it? ITV's coverage could easily have been the Lewis Hamilton/McLaren show, with a GP in between. No one seemed to tell them about the 6 (7 with Super Aguri) British based teams!

It's always been that way.. for as long as I can remember. James Hunt in the 70s, Mansell in the 80s and early 90s, Hill in the mid 90s.

I noticed it watching the BBC's online highlights of the Oz GPs from 1986 and 1994. The 94 was the most biased, the whole intro centred around the Rothmans Williams and Damon's "Rowing Club" helmet. Interspersed with footage of Hill Sr. wearing the very same colours.

The home media will always get behind the best hope of glory (and publicity) that they can cover.. viewing figures are the king and nobody tunes in to see back markers.

The Ruptured Duck wrote on Mar 29^th, 2009 at 6:21pm:


Until next year, we hope. Good people behind the proposal, and hopefully they'll be allowed to choose suitable drivers, unlike the previous foray of a US driver into F1, which was entirely based on his sponsor wanting to put a US driver on the grid, as opposed to the other talent available.

expat wrote on Mar 30^th, 2009 at 3:50am:


Did Schmacher have a brother who was a racing driver? News to me. I know there was Ralf, but...