They said? Please, that’s simply too rich. For the last 24H, you have been playing the role of the chief doomsday prophet on autosport forums. So… just leave it. It was the first race of the season on a cold and damp track and the results are what they are. Congratz to all 3 guys on the podium, the race was quite interesting.
I saw it as Massa making the wrong call. Alonso’s side of the garage saw a bit further ahead and got the jump on Massa’s side of the garage and Vettel’s RBR’s team.
Thats not how it works early in the year. They only select a #1 driver when one has a large points lead over the other.
Ferrari dont have a central strategy caller, who makes calls for both sides. They have two teams within a team who make calls for their own driver. It was simply a matter of Massa’s side of the garage being worse.
Sure, keep believing that. Ferrari is clearly not interested in giving both guys equal chances, they know their best bet is on Alonso for the championship and they are supporting him to reach that goal.
History has shown that they favor the driver with the most points. For example, they gave Massa priority in 2008 when he was performing better than Kimi.
Ferrari have in the past always given equal treatment at the start of the year because they have no idea which driver is on form. As we have seen, even quick drivers like Kimi can have off years. There’s no reason why Ferrari would place all their bets on Alonso this early, when they have no idea yet if he is the faster of the two in the new car.
Anyways, if telling yourself that Alonso is already given priority makes you feel better, then keep believing it!
Ferrari have in the past always given equal treatment at the start of the year because they have no idea which driver is on form
– that is what they claimed, yes. But just as McLaren claims treating their drivers equally has in reality been far from the truth on several occasions, what was true in 2008 does not have to be true of 2013 (or 2011 and 2012). Why is there no reason Ferrari would place their bets with Alonso, when he clearly works best when he knows his team is fully behind him to do that,and he has proven that he can achieve just that if they give them a halfway good car to do it with? After Massa’s form in the last 3 years, its hardly surprising the team does not expect him to be a consistent contender after all.
At the first pit stops, Massa was called in first. He got this advantage because of leading before Alonso. Later in the race Alonso (or one of his race-engineers) called for an early stop because his current strategy would not lead to anything good.
The most awkward moment was when Massa asked: ‘What do we do now’. He really doesn’t have a feeling for race-strategies. He’s just a racer.
Absolute Tosh. There is only 1 Team Boss – he saw to it Alonso was on the favourable strategy!! If Alonso wins the title this year I won’t be pleased for him. He’s still the same old WHINGER!!
great race….happy for Hamilton!…I’m in malaysia right now waiting for them to come over and can see a lot o the local Petronas Fans are happy for Hammy’s 5th Place…
So glad that ferarri finally has got the pace to compete with red bull and the other fast cars. And nicely done by hamilton with his new car. The competition is still very open since this is the first race. May the best racer win (y)
I hope there isn’t a penalty for all of Lotus because the floors of their cars must be so beaten up after that race. They seemed awfully low even after fuel loads were spent….. *sparks everywhere*
Otherwise, job well done, and I am excited what is to come for Lotus and Ferrari this season! Go Kimi! Go Alonso!
Quite pleased with the result. Was worried Red Bull were going to have it all their way, but thankfully the Lotus & Ferrari are pretty quick, even if they’re not so good on the one lap pace. Mercedes still seem to be having trouble getting the tires switched on: they’re not suffering too much on the degradation front, but they just don’t have the lap times to match early on in the stints. That said, I’m sure they’ll be happy with 5th. It’s better than I thought they would’ve had. Shame about Rosberg’s DNF though. Good performance from Force India as well. Kudos to Sutil for such a strong drive.
Quite pleased with how Massa, Sutil and Di Resta performed, to be honest. They are the only guys that I would have expected to finish lower in the top 10 (or out of it).
Sauber, Williams and Torro Rosso (and even McLaren, I dare to say) have some serious catching up to do, even compared to Force India.
Except for McLaren’s showing and Webber’s start, the biggest disappointment has to be Grosjean. Way too far behind his team mate. “Best rookie” should be handed to Bianchi this weekend, without a doubt.
Just take in account for Grosjean that he got a lot of new bits on the car only on saturday morning. That left him with 2 dry laps on track to try and find a good setup with parts he was unfamiliar with.
And I would say that its a positive to see that a) he did not crash and b) he did make some good moves to at least get a point in.
You clearly dont understand how decisions are made regarding strategy. Each side of the garage makes their own decisions and when one wants to pit, they ask if the other side is expecting to pit on the same lap. If they both want to pit on the same lap, then the lead car gets priority.
As you would have seen, Alonoso’s side of the garage was risky in how they came in extra early, catching both Vettel and Massa off guard.
If Massa’s side of the garage had been more on it, they could have done what Alonso had done, leaving Alonso out a lap longer. But they never.
Basically Ferrari did a Lotus like performance from last year.
They should just kept him out and told him to watch tyres as Kimi. But I would imagine Massa’s tyres were in trouble due to he was in dirty air for long. Notice how Kimi on purpose did not follow any one closely.
The radio message from Massa’s race engineer sort of gave the impression that they thought he would be a lot faster once in clean air, which obviously turned out not to be the case. I dont think they planned to pit so early, but did in reaction to the move pulled by Alonso’s engineering team.
Very happy for Kimi, I always like to see him win. Happy for the state of competitiveness in F1. Different strategies on different tracks will suit different teams, cars and drivers. No one car has a monopoly advantage on aero, straight line speed and tire management all together. This will be another interesting season. At least 5 teams have a legitimate chance to win races this season – Lotus, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes and Force India. McLaren, Williams and Sauber must step up their development to be able to win podiums, let alone a race. Most disappointing performance by a driver this weekend – Pastor Maldonado. Beaten by his rookie teammate in qualifying and the race. Overall, great race, would like to see more like this one.
What happened to Hulkenberg? I heard that he was starting from the pitlane, but I’ve never seen him during the race. When I checked he was already retired.
I’m pretty sure I saw him on the live timing as coming out of the pits for one lap after the start. Didn’t see actual images of his car or anything but…
I dont think so. When the drivers were on the grid, Hulk was walking around casually in the paddock wearing normal jeans and a tshirt. As far as I know, they announced before the race begun that he would not be taking part.
Sauber found an issue with the fuel system. Something leaking. So they had to disassemble the car and just were not able to get it back together soon enough without rising a haste job – making it unsafe, so they decided it just would not be possible to race the car.
Ted Kravitz showed the car about 15 minutes before the race, with no FW on and the complete engine, gearbox and rear end of the car taken apart.
I know fastest laps aren’t as significant as they used to be, but I’m impressed by Bianchi’s 1:30.454. Puts him 11th in the fastest lap ranking today – 1.756s quicker than Chilton and only 0.045s behind Vettel! Great debut for the French driver.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
17th March 2013, 7:38
Red Bull were going to dominate, they said…. 2013 was going to be another 2011…. they said.
BasCB (@bascb)
17th March 2013, 7:55
so they said :-)
So far it doesn’t look like it, does it?
Gusztav
17th March 2013, 7:59
They said? Please, that’s simply too rich. For the last 24H, you have been playing the role of the chief doomsday prophet on autosport forums. So… just leave it. It was the first race of the season on a cold and damp track and the results are what they are. Congratz to all 3 guys on the podium, the race was quite interesting.
Nomore (@nomore)
17th March 2013, 7:59
@kingshark
Mate this year is our year…Ferrari are going to dominate
Wind tunnel and correlation are ok this year.
robfff
17th March 2013, 8:06
They didn’t win the Australian race previously either, and still won the WDC. So its a bit early to declare who’s where.
Anonymouse
17th March 2013, 8:37
Oh really? I must have missed my subscription to their newsletter
Gusztav
17th March 2013, 12:38
kingshark commented on the post, 2013 Australian Grand Prix grid 11 hours, 47 minutes ago
Crap, the Red Bull even more dominant now than in 2011.
Calum (@calum)
17th March 2013, 7:38
Great result for Raikkonen and Lotus! Well done!
Mercedes and Hamilton will be happy with 5th.
Vettel shouldn’t be too disappointed with 3rd, and we fans should be glad it got a bit mixed up at the front!
K0V4LA1NEN
17th March 2013, 7:39
yewwww Raikonen :D o happy and good on sutil and massa
carbon_fibre (@carbon_fibre)
17th March 2013, 7:39
Absolutely gutted about how Ferrari DESTROYED Massa’s race.
robfff
17th March 2013, 8:08
I saw it as Massa making the wrong call. Alonso’s side of the garage saw a bit further ahead and got the jump on Massa’s side of the garage and Vettel’s RBR’s team.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
17th March 2013, 8:15
Alonso always gets the favorable strategy and first call. That’s how it seems to work at Ferrari.
robfff
17th March 2013, 8:45
Thats not how it works early in the year. They only select a #1 driver when one has a large points lead over the other.
Ferrari dont have a central strategy caller, who makes calls for both sides. They have two teams within a team who make calls for their own driver. It was simply a matter of Massa’s side of the garage being worse.
BasCB (@bascb)
17th March 2013, 9:23
Sure, keep believing that. Ferrari is clearly not interested in giving both guys equal chances, they know their best bet is on Alonso for the championship and they are supporting him to reach that goal.
robfff
17th March 2013, 10:40
@bascb
History has shown that they favor the driver with the most points. For example, they gave Massa priority in 2008 when he was performing better than Kimi.
Ferrari have in the past always given equal treatment at the start of the year because they have no idea which driver is on form. As we have seen, even quick drivers like Kimi can have off years. There’s no reason why Ferrari would place all their bets on Alonso this early, when they have no idea yet if he is the faster of the two in the new car.
Anyways, if telling yourself that Alonso is already given priority makes you feel better, then keep believing it!
BasCB (@bascb)
17th March 2013, 14:12
– that is what they claimed, yes.
But just as McLaren claims treating their drivers equally has in reality been far from the truth on several occasions, what was true in 2008 does not have to be true of 2013 (or 2011 and 2012).
Why is there no reason Ferrari would place their bets with Alonso, when he clearly works best when he knows his team is fully behind him to do that,and he has proven that he can achieve just that if they give them a halfway good car to do it with?
After Massa’s form in the last 3 years, its hardly surprising the team does not expect him to be a consistent contender after all.
favomodo (@favomodo)
17th March 2013, 13:48
At the first pit stops, Massa was called in first. He got this advantage because of leading before Alonso. Later in the race Alonso (or one of his race-engineers) called for an early stop because his current strategy would not lead to anything good.
The most awkward moment was when Massa asked: ‘What do we do now’. He really doesn’t have a feeling for race-strategies. He’s just a racer.
James R
18th March 2013, 10:39
Absolute Tosh. There is only 1 Team Boss – he saw to it Alonso was on the favourable strategy!! If Alonso wins the title this year I won’t be pleased for him. He’s still the same old WHINGER!!
Russell Gould (@russellgould)
17th March 2013, 7:41
Good points for Ferrari, Lotus, and Red Bull!
KLCC88 (@klcc88)
17th March 2013, 7:44
great race….happy for Hamilton!…I’m in malaysia right now waiting for them to come over and can see a lot o the local Petronas Fans are happy for Hammy’s 5th Place…
Kelixman
17th March 2013, 7:46
So glad that ferarri finally has got the pace to compete with red bull and the other fast cars. And nicely done by hamilton with his new car. The competition is still very open since this is the first race. May the best racer win (y)
David (@tweak)
17th March 2013, 7:46
I hope there isn’t a penalty for all of Lotus because the floors of their cars must be so beaten up after that race. They seemed awfully low even after fuel loads were spent….. *sparks everywhere*
Otherwise, job well done, and I am excited what is to come for Lotus and Ferrari this season! Go Kimi! Go Alonso!
robfff
17th March 2013, 8:09
They normally have a tiny bit of metal under the car which makes sparks but does not really degrade. The driver feels it though!
Aimal (@aimalkhan)
17th March 2013, 7:49
I like how Alonso said “we had traffic with Sebastian and Felipe in the beginning”. hehehe
Aldoid
17th March 2013, 7:49
Quite pleased with the result. Was worried Red Bull were going to have it all their way, but thankfully the Lotus & Ferrari are pretty quick, even if they’re not so good on the one lap pace. Mercedes still seem to be having trouble getting the tires switched on: they’re not suffering too much on the degradation front, but they just don’t have the lap times to match early on in the stints. That said, I’m sure they’ll be happy with 5th. It’s better than I thought they would’ve had. Shame about Rosberg’s DNF though. Good performance from Force India as well. Kudos to Sutil for such a strong drive.
Eggry (@eggry)
17th March 2013, 7:50
Great. I’m really happy this race wasn’t straightforward for Red Bull. Very interesting strategies and driving.
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
17th March 2013, 7:56
Quite pleased with how Massa, Sutil and Di Resta performed, to be honest. They are the only guys that I would have expected to finish lower in the top 10 (or out of it).
Sauber, Williams and Torro Rosso (and even McLaren, I dare to say) have some serious catching up to do, even compared to Force India.
Except for McLaren’s showing and Webber’s start, the biggest disappointment has to be Grosjean. Way too far behind his team mate. “Best rookie” should be handed to Bianchi this weekend, without a doubt.
Eggry (@eggry)
17th March 2013, 7:58
Yup. Grosjean was really disappointing.
The Dag
18th March 2013, 17:59
Hm?? He didn’t crash into ANYONE, so performed well above my expectations…. ;)
BasCB (@bascb)
17th March 2013, 9:25
Just take in account for Grosjean that he got a lot of new bits on the car only on saturday morning. That left him with 2 dry laps on track to try and find a good setup with parts he was unfamiliar with.
And I would say that its a positive to see that a) he did not crash and b) he did make some good moves to at least get a point in.
Nick (@nick101)
17th March 2013, 7:57
So it appears that normal service has resumed at Ferrari – firmly shafting Massa for the benefit of Alonso.
If I was Massa I would be FUMING!
robfff
17th March 2013, 8:14
You clearly dont understand how decisions are made regarding strategy. Each side of the garage makes their own decisions and when one wants to pit, they ask if the other side is expecting to pit on the same lap. If they both want to pit on the same lap, then the lead car gets priority.
As you would have seen, Alonoso’s side of the garage was risky in how they came in extra early, catching both Vettel and Massa off guard.
If Massa’s side of the garage had been more on it, they could have done what Alonso had done, leaving Alonso out a lap longer. But they never.
Kimi4WDC
17th March 2013, 9:00
Basically Ferrari did a Lotus like performance from last year.
They should just kept him out and told him to watch tyres as Kimi. But I would imagine Massa’s tyres were in trouble due to he was in dirty air for long. Notice how Kimi on purpose did not follow any one closely.
BasCB (@bascb)
17th March 2013, 9:26
They should have pitted Massa at the same time Vettel went in, instead of leaving him out for another lap.
robfff
17th March 2013, 10:43
The radio message from Massa’s race engineer sort of gave the impression that they thought he would be a lot faster once in clean air, which obviously turned out not to be the case. I dont think they planned to pit so early, but did in reaction to the move pulled by Alonso’s engineering team.
bull mello (@bullmello)
17th March 2013, 8:17
Very happy for Kimi, I always like to see him win. Happy for the state of competitiveness in F1. Different strategies on different tracks will suit different teams, cars and drivers. No one car has a monopoly advantage on aero, straight line speed and tire management all together. This will be another interesting season. At least 5 teams have a legitimate chance to win races this season – Lotus, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes and Force India. McLaren, Williams and Sauber must step up their development to be able to win podiums, let alone a race. Most disappointing performance by a driver this weekend – Pastor Maldonado. Beaten by his rookie teammate in qualifying and the race. Overall, great race, would like to see more like this one.
Yoshisune (@yobo01)
17th March 2013, 8:40
What happened to Hulkenberg? I heard that he was starting from the pitlane, but I’ve never seen him during the race. When I checked he was already retired.
robfff
17th March 2013, 8:47
Never started, Car was not ready.
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
17th March 2013, 9:00
I’m pretty sure I saw him on the live timing as coming out of the pits for one lap after the start. Didn’t see actual images of his car or anything but…
robfff
17th March 2013, 9:06
I dont think so. When the drivers were on the grid, Hulk was walking around casually in the paddock wearing normal jeans and a tshirt. As far as I know, they announced before the race begun that he would not be taking part.
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
17th March 2013, 9:10
Oh, ok. Must have been a glitch or my poor morning-vision then.
BasCB (@bascb)
17th March 2013, 9:28
Sauber found an issue with the fuel system. Something leaking. So they had to disassemble the car and just were not able to get it back together soon enough without rising a haste job – making it unsafe, so they decided it just would not be possible to race the car.
Ted Kravitz showed the car about 15 minutes before the race, with no FW on and the complete engine, gearbox and rear end of the car taken apart.
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
17th March 2013, 8:48
If your name is Nico, I wouldn’t be buying a lottery ticket anytime soon.
BasCB (@bascb)
17th March 2013, 9:29
maybe the bad luck is behind them now?
sbewers (@sbewers)
17th March 2013, 9:40
I know fastest laps aren’t as significant as they used to be, but I’m impressed by Bianchi’s 1:30.454. Puts him 11th in the fastest lap ranking today – 1.756s quicker than Chilton and only 0.045s behind Vettel! Great debut for the French driver.
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
17th March 2013, 9:47
An interesting race. Maldonado was put to shame and Bianchi is a superstar in the making!
23kennyboy23
17th March 2013, 12:01
Grosjean should be worried…