Team-BHP - 2013 F1- Australian Grand Prix

hi guys,

First of all, looks like I have missed a great first race(its been a kind of tradition, never seen a season opener live since 2006). I managed to watch the qualifying though. Anyways this time I thought I will make it up for it, by going down to Sepang for the Malaysian GP. It's an impulsive decision, but looks like I have a lot to do before getting a stamp on my passport. Is anyone else planning on attending the race? I am planning to book my flight tickets at the last minute before entering the Chennai VFS center. Any pointers for Malaysian visa, and will I get it by Thursday?

Cheers,
D.

A virtually accident-free start, both Ferraris & the Lotus getting off to amazing starts, Mclaren nowhere in sight , Hamilton being bullied left,right & centre by the Iceman until hes finally overtaken and thats how it stays, race finishing with the Finn win , Fernando second and the champion in third - i dont think the race could have gotten any better for me. Its the perfect script for the start of the season (for ferrari/Kimi lovers)
Massa too drove well and error free for a change and probably deserved a podium finish. The first and second placed drivers thoroughly deserved those respective places but third place was either Vettel or Massa's for the taking and Vettel got there first. Hard luck Felipe, good race !
Last but not the least, respect to Sutil. Great driving and he deserved much better than just a 7th. Probably a case of strategy gone slightly wrong but great driving indeed.
Enjoyed it thoroughly.
Rooting for Kimi & Fernando for the rest of the season....as always.

Brilliant win for Kimi and Lotus. I didn't expect Lotus to win a normal (without incidents/SC) dry race on pure pace so early in the season. It remains to be seen if they can keep up with the big teams when it comes to developing the car during the season.

Ferrari have a good car on their hands. I suspect Alonso could've been much closer to Kimi if he had got into the lead a bit earlier in the first stint. It may still not have stopped a Kimi win as Kimi saved about 20s by making one less stop. Good to see Massa up there too.

The RB looked like a demon car in qualifying, but was clearly behind Lotus and Ferrari in the race. They seem to be using their tires too aggressively (could explain part of their qualifying pace). Last year, everyone could use DRS as much as needed for qualifying, which was a big advantage to RBR due to their downforce. Now that the rule has been changed, maybe they were little bit extreme with the car or setup to aid qualifying. I don't think it will take them too much time to fix it.

Mercedes seem to be a slower version of RBR, with better one-lap pace than race pace. Reliability also seems suspect. I think Hamilton will be reasonably pleased with his Mercedes debut and happy that he wasn't in a McLaren yesterday.

McLaren's pace was disappointing. I hope they are able to fix their issues soon. Else, they may be tempted to write off this season sooner rather than later due to the big rule changes next year.

Well done to Sutil and Force India. Bianchi was impressive as well.

Missed most of the race. Saw only from the 5th place fight when Sutil was defending and eventually lost the place. Happy to see both SFI cars in points, one race down and 10 points in Constructors is good start by any standard mid-field player. I hope to see better results in the coming races.
If what is said about blue flags for Sutil when he was defending, I think FIA should really do something about it.
Kimi's win, especially for someone who has missed most of the race seems a bit like the RBR wins earlier races where it was one man race and left the pack far behind (last 8 laps, I think I joined in)

I was there yesterday!

I had never thought that i would get the chance, but i was there! Man, it was a spectacle. I reached there at 10:30 AM AEST, with my Schumacher Grandstand ticket in hand and tears in my eyes, only to be greeted by Kimi's lotus screaming by, during qualifying! My friends, who came along, mostly to see me have a 'CARGASM', could not believ how happy I was.

As soon as qualifying was over, I made a beeline to the merchandise shops, to buy a Kimi Raikkonen T-Shirt, a Felipe Massa T-Shirt, a Thank-You-Schumacher T-Shirt and a Ferrari Team T-Shirt.

Albert park was packed! There were so many things going on, car shows, nitro circus shows, burnouts, monster energy drink show, speed challenge and what not!

A certain 'Sebastian Buemi' was walking around unnoticed by the public, when suddenly, I was like, "HEY! I know you!" and he was like "Shhh!! Dammit!"

I had always wanted to go to a grand prix to see Kimi win. When I had told everybody that Kimi would win, people had mocked me in the grandstand! 40 laps later, those people where screaming the loudest for him!

Could not believe how quickly the time flew by. Can barely hear anything now!

It seems it's not completely the marshall's fault. FIA's electronic signaling went for a toss. They had issues with DRS as well. They left it to the teams to inform the drivers when they can use DRS. Vettel had a few late calls and couldn't use the DRS earlier.

If the electronic system goes for a toss, it's upto the marshall's to keep track of the positions manually. And it's next extremely difficult. So they rely on back markers, etc. And Force India being Force India, no one expected Sutil to lead :P (no offense). No major effect though, because sutil was on pace.

Also, I think couple of times, they couldn't pull the flag in quickly.

Yes, all marshall's are all volunteers. Race Director would have had a few words with the Head and Flag Marshall head post race.

Source: I was a marshall at the Indian F1.

Great start to the 2013 season!

A Kimi win at OZ is fantastic, he will be one of the biggest threats to Redbull and Ferrari. His pace was more evident from the opening laps and what a clean racer he is. The way he passed Hamilton is a fine example. Giving the right amount of space while overtaking your opponents in F1 is very unique and only a very few drivers on the grid do that man thing. Alonso did the same when he passed Lewis, the way he stayed away when Lewis's Mercedes lost composure locking its wheels was brilliant.

I was more surprised to see all the hype around the Redbull's pace missing on Sunday, dont know if they went in for a Q'setup. But they looked a lot slower than the Lotus & Ferrari. May be its the unique layout of the Albert Park circuit. Massa has found his pace back in the Ferrari and looks like a threat to Alonso. Alonso's call for the 2nd pit stop did the favor for Alonso's 2nd place on the podium.

... what a disaster for the Mclaren team? They finished last season with the fastest car and look where they are. I am not sure if they are building a platform for the more important 2014 season, but the only thing that was quick was their lightning quick pitstops. Perez looked like he was not on the passing lane and all the drivers easily passed him around the outside in every corner where I have not seen overtaking in the OZ GP. The signing of Perez looked more like a knee jerk reaction to me in the OZ GP. Nothing eventful by Button in the whole race to be captured by the FOM cameras too.

Overall, OZ GP never reveals the pecking order of cars and their pace. Malaysian GP should be a clear indicator who is where and cant wait to see the action. I am happy as long as its not a Redbull car on top of the podium, really tired of those bad losers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by anachronix (Post 3069949)

Great start to the 2013 season!

I am not sure if they are building a platform for the more important 2014 season,

I keep hearing this quote, more important 2014, waiting for 2013 to end, crucial changes planned for 2014. I am sorry but I dont get it. What is changing in 2014? Why do some of the teams hold off bringing in changes this season in looking forward to 2014. Will someone please explain? I know it may be there somewhere, but getting it here from the experts would make more sense. Thanks in advance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gtonsing (Post 3070519)

Read the Rule Changes section. Those are the most important and big changes, but there are a tons of new small ones also. So because of these rule changes all the teams will be basically starting from scratch and this makes for a completely unknown and un-predictable season. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Formula_One_season

Good to see a significant change in the team strengths.

Kimi at the top - It's like he never took a break.
Sutil - Actually a good drive and good strategy from the team as well with the tyres. A pity he couldn't get the second set to last longer and hence he had to go for the super soft a bit too early, else was a sure shot for No. 5 though things could have played upto a No 3 position as well. He really needed Rain to come in so that he could avoid the Super Soft last set.
Alonso did well but then so did Masa, he seems to have a second wind in him now and hope he actually gets a chance to push Alonso.
Hamilton must be thinking he moved away from McLaren soon just in time.
RB did not entertain and though the Australia GP is not the typical race and things have historically changed after it, yet somehow RB seems to be missing a step.
I see the races on Tata Sky Plus so record them and then if I happen to miss a bit or am not at home I still see them from the start (forwarding the advts.) rather than skipping to the results. Saw it in this delayed transmission form 1.5 hrs behind the actual race - But caught up 45 mins during the race with the forwarded advts etc.

A great opening race after a long time.

Red Dulls: "Red Dulls" were off pace and kinda confirms, Vettel's trio is due to car (80%) and less due to driver.

Ferrari: Good to see Ferrari attack from Lap 1. Alonso drove superbly especially after his second pitstop. Massa ruined his race in order to "compromise" his strategy. That 1Lap ruined his chances of being on podium.

Lotus is back! Kimi drove a calculative race (also helped by Sutil as he fended off Vettel, Massa, Alonso) I feel the combination of Pirelli+Lotus is going to work well. As the combination of Renault+Michelin worked well to dethrone Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. Lotus is able to extract more life out of the Pirellis than other teams. This is a significant advantage.

Sutil drove really well and didnt deserve P7 at all. I hope they carry their form to Malaysia.

Commentary: Martin Brundle! are we all pleased to hear some great commentary? I admit I missed Steve Slater's excitement. But the attention to detail and sensible commentary of Brundle was a delight.
Example: On-board view of Vettel who was struggling for grip, he downshifted to maintain the grip levels. Steve Slater would not have ever noticed. He must be commentating on how the Force India in front was not handling like a super market trolley!

Kimi was a deserving winner. He always had a smooth driving style and the fact being that Lotus was able to nail the chasis design without eating the tires. the Redbulls were handicapped by the fact that their cars were eating their tires faster. I was pleasantly surprised with Sutil's drive in a Force India. Looks like Force India is going to do better this year and have come out with a good car for this year. Its early days in the season. I do hope Mclaren, RBR and Ferrari get their act together and make this season even more exciting than last year. Lets hope Sepang provides an exciting race. The unknown being the Rain given the tropical location. Mclaren were no where to be seen and as Button rightly pointed out that with the current setup they will not be able to win races.