Australian Grand Prix

[Coventrysucks]

Originally Posted by Matra et Alpine

EVERY F1 driver I ahve ever watched has ALWAYS beckoned to the marshalls to push him back on.

Michael is the only driver I can recall have seen do it during a race.

Was Heidfeld beckoning the marshals? No, because he knew his car was damaged and his race over.

Schumacher must have known that there was damage to his car and a points position out of the question, and yet he still decided to put the marshals at risk.

And yet it is he who calls for increased safety measures.

I am not just going after him because I don't like him, I am going after him because it was a stupid thing to do, and I'd probably have said the same if it had been a different driver.

[RacingManiac]

Untested parts is nothing you can blame the governing body with as used as an excuse NOT to follow the rule. Like I said, 2 teams in 95 Brazilian GP brought untested CARS because that was the first time they put those together. Still ran. Imagine if they say because our car is untested we want to run last year's car in last year's spec(1994 3.5L, 1995 3.0L) so they can be more competitive.

Minardi has no ground AT ALL....

[Matra et Alpine]

Originally Posted by Coventrysucks

Schumacher must have known that there was damage to his car and a points position out of the question, and yet he still decided to put the marshals at risk.

Heidfeld was well into the trap so less "risk".
NO driver can be certain of damage unless it is clearly a front wheel folded in. Even the days when you could tell about the rear are gone because with the HANS and the new safer high sides a driver cannot look and see anymore.
F1 cars are stronger on the rears and it looked more like MS got punted in the sidepod. So could have been a drivable car.
It befalls to EVERY driver to attempt to get back into the race.

And yet it is he who calls for increased safety measures.

Marshals MUST be allowed under ANY safety measure to gain safe access to the track. I think you're pulling 2 issues together because of your hate for MS

I am not just going after him because I don't like him, I am going after him because it was a stupid thing to do, and I'd probably have said the same if it had been a different driver.

Prost ? Senna ? 2 I can 100% remember asking in similar positions. ( Though those pre-dated the rule that you only get a push if you are in a dangerous position ) I'm sure someone was beached on kerb at Imola, but don't' remember it.

Regardless the laws are there to protect the marshals AND the drivers. MS was within right of the law, IF his car had been drivable he could have carried on. It would NOT be possible to tell that until it was back on the road.

Hell it's nothing to the move BAR have pulled and the idiot seemed PROUD. Expect that loophole to be closed ReAL quick and I wouldn't' put it past F1 to put them to back of grid

[NAZCA C2]

Both Mclarens finished in the points which made me happy. I was glad not to see them damn Ferraris on the top podium spot. All in all it was a pretty good race. I think that no tire changing rule is pretty stupid.

[Quiggs]

Originally Posted by NAZCA C2

Both Mclarens finished in the points which made me happy. I was glad not to see them damn Ferraris on the top podium spot. All in all it was a pretty good race. I think that no tire changing rule is pretty stupid.

Given Barrichello's run, I'd say if Michael had started at the front, he probably would have won.

The tire rule is stupid, why did they change it? If it's for cost cutting, I can think of lots of areas to improve before tires.

[dydzi]

you probably won't believe me but i woke up at 3:40AM just to watch this race i thought fisichella can win, but i was sure button and webber would perform better
anyway, it was good race, i didn't fall asleep until the end of it, i'm looking forward to seeing malaysian gp
i have to praise myself, the only australian gp f1 report in polish web is written by me (im regullary writing for autogaleria.pl, writing f1 reports are part of my job)

[Cotterik]

Originally Posted by dydzi

you probably won't believe me but i woke up at 3:40AM just to watch this race

me too hehe hardcore f1 fans!

[Dino Scuderia]

Very boring race....the rules have turned F1 into some kind of endurance race....a race to save tires and engines. Passing is done in the pits with a stopwatch instead of on the track. I'm about to give up on it til they come up with something better.

[crisis]

Originally Posted by fpv_gtho

Theres just no satisfying you is there. Firstly, Webber didnt botch the start, Coulthard just made a high risk move and Webber wasnt about to end either of their races on the first corner.

Webber did well. That could have so ended in tears.

[SlickHolden]

Was happy with mark's drive. they were saying through the race his sectors were always fast but they had lack of speed down the straight.
And it was a bit of a shock to see Red(jag)Bull so far up. Guess money does help when you spend it on a team
And i also herd that Cossworth is owned by a Aussie Guy Now

[Homem de Gelo]

Flawless performance and ver well deserved win by Fisichella. He didn't write the rules and didn't make it rain, so there's nothing we can take away from him. Alonso had a great recovery. Would it have been a Renault 1-2 if it weren't for Villeneuve holding him so long? Everyone should agree, the Renaults were the best cars out there.

Barrichello drove great too. With the right strategy and no mistakes, he finished in a very strong 2nd place and is ahead of Schumcher, for the first time ever. I wonder how he'll deal with it now. The F2004M is a very good car, not as fast as the Renault, but fast enough to fight for the podium and keep Ferrari within striking distance when the F2005 arrives. A race to forget by Schumacher. Nothing came his way and perhaps he tried too hard to defend himself from Heidlfeld. I'd say 40/60 to blame in the crash, with Schumacher being a little bit more responsible for the incident.

What a great start for Red Bull and Coulthard. They looked good in testing and with some luck it turned out to be a very good performance. Coulthard held Webber and kept him under controle, showing people he's not dead yet and there is still some things that he can do. I'm very pleased. Klien had a good race too, scoring points and bringing it home in one piece.

Webber must be somewhat disappointed. He was very close to the podium but had to watch slip away lap after lap, Williams has homework to do. Heidfeld wasn't so bright and in the end was perhaps a victim of him trying to squeeze himself where there was no room and Schumacher defending himself as hard as possible. Not a good start for him, but it was clear others had faster cars.

Montoya made the best of it, I just don't understand why Barrichello left him so far behind. Hopefully it's something which can be dealt with easily and with no traumas. He beat Raikkonen in his first race, which is something he can enjoy, even though Raikkonen's race was completely lost at the start. I expected more form the Mclarens, I think all of us did. With no freak weather messing things up, we'll have a fair assesment of them at Sepang. There is still hope.

The BARs went backwards, what a horrible race. 2005 should be much less fruitfull and rewarding for them than 2004 was.

Massa beat Villeneuve by 24 seconds. How did that happen? They started at opposite ends of the grid and Massa had a small off track excursion. Is Villeneuve really not F1 caliber anymore? It would be shame. I expect them all, Sauber, Massa and Villeneuve to do better at Sepang I do expect Massa to score points there.

Trulli went backwards, as I expected. He always seems to struggle more and more as the races go on. Ralf had his problems in qualifying and the race and didn't have much to show. Will Toyota ever get it right?

Karthikeyan beat Monteiro, mission accomplished.

What to say about Minardi? Do they belong in F1 or F3000?

Renault, Fisichella, Coulthard we're the best out there.
Alonso, Barrichello were great too.

New qualifying sucks shit.

[RacingManiac]

Originally Posted by Dino Scuderia

Very boring race....the rules have turned F1 into some kind of endurance race....a race to save tires and engines. Passing is done in the pits with a stopwatch instead of on the track. I'm about to give up on it til they come up with something better.

Endurance race has way more passing than F1......and they pushed hard in endurance race versus in F1 where they just try to make the tires last longer...

[motorsportnerd]

Few observations from sitting on the hill at Albert Park watching live.
The Renaults have a lot of pace. That was clear from Alonso's charge. Even if qualifying had been dry they probably would have won. Alonso apparantly wasn't pleased that Fisi beat him.
Red Bull and Williams. Coulthard and Webber raced as twins for the entire race. Klein and Heidfield for about 2/3rd of the race. Yet Red Bull comprehensively beat Williams in the pits and deserved their 4th and 7th placing. And this is last years unreliable Jaguar? I see in the Melbourne papers Mark Webber claiming some of the credit for the Red Bull's performace was his hard work in developing it - probably true, but wonder how he feels looking at the back of his old car for the entire race? Just before his last pit stop, Webber - unnoticed by the commentators and TV cameras, actually passed Coulthard on track. He came round past our position and a few of us noticed he'd got Coulthard and started cheering - second on the track and he should now clear off from Coulthard. Or so we thought. Williams somehow put him back on the track behind Coulthard, and with a bigger gap to make up than before. I think Williams need to look at their pitstop strategy, and Webber needs to learn some lessons from Barrichello and Schumacher about how to maximise the time before or after a pit stop to leapfrog your opponent. They'll learn. But, a near certain second or third became fifth after that last stop. At least Webber can take heart from setting the quickest time in the second qualifying session. It was worth a go just to see if a second and a half to Trulli could be made up, but couldn't quite get there.
As for Red Bull - well done, and I hope they keep it up. They actually had genuine pace - and looked on for a podium first time up. Must have made Coulthard happy to beat both McLarens, but like Webber he'll be wondering how Barrichello and Alonso managed to get past him on the pit stop. Does anyone know if they will be building a new 2005 car, if they'll continue the entire season with the updated 2004 car? If the later, they'll start to slip down as the races go by.
Schumacher/Heidfield? I only saw the later stages of the incident on the big screen - my attention was elsewhere. From those later stages it looked like Heidfield had made a mistake and clobber Schuey. But I've since heard Schuey blocked Heidfield earlier. Homem de Gelo is probably right - 60% Schumachers fault/40% Heidfields. Either way the incident was unnecessary. Schumacher never really seemed to have his heart in this race. And for one of the few times in his career he had the bad luck in qualifying. Normally he would have been in Fisi's position of getting the best track conditions just before the clouds dumped their contents.
BAR played that tactical move everyone has talked about - mysteriously retiring both cars just before the finish so they could change engines for Malaysia. We'll see what the FIA's reaction is. Neither car nor the two drivers looked impressive in Australia. But it was the same last season, and they quickly got on with it last year.
McLaren looked very good in practice, but had bad luck in qualifying and then Raikkonen stalled on the grid. I think their 6th and 8th is about what they could expect after that. But Montoya started ahead of Alonso.
And Villeneuve - he did a good job holding up half the field for the first 20 laps or so - then disappeared from the rader. Good save in qualifying though.
And Trulli? Did his usual - quick in qualifying (weather assisted) then went backwards in the race at a great rate of knots.
It was an interesting race, but not an exiting one. Looks like Ferrari have a major new challenger though. Note that Fisi WAS NEVER challenged, nor had to push hard to win. I think that Renault was on target to win despite the dramas of qualifying.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by Dino Scuderia

Very boring race....the rules have turned F1 into some kind of endurance race....a race to save tires and engines. Passing is done in the pits with a stopwatch instead of on the track. I'm about to give up on it til they come up with something better.

Due to the adverse broadcasting time (06.00 AM) I did not see anything of this race, and not even a summary hours later. I still don't regret that.

[Dino Scuderia]

Originally Posted by henk4

Due to the adverse broadcasting time (06.00 AM) I did not see anything of this race, and not even a summary hours later. I still don't regret that.

When the hype, drama and other crap created by teams and the FIA before the season starts is more exciting than the races.....you know a series is in big trouble.

Bring back F1!