Formula 1 2013 Season Opener Melbourne 17th March

[m8h3r]

Woke up 6:03, panic! Put it on, rain. Great. Looks like ill need a lot of Pepsi as its gonna be an all nighter. No point sleeping for like 4 hours.

 

[Lizard]

What do you think guys about this delay? in Italy are saying that they delayed the qualification to help along the RedBull, because the Ferrari was much faster that the RedBull in rain conditon!

What? That is utter tripe.

 

[Shaun]

The bloke with the leafblower trying to blow the water off the circuit must have the most feckless job in the world.

Don't know if you meant the guy that was in front of my seat (final two corners) but it did garner a few amusing comments from the stand.

If I were there I could at least enjoy the rain,

No, no you wouldn't have.
Not just the rain but also the wind.

I went to the circuit today with Shaun 👍 .

Porsche Supercup cars were mega and sounded fantastic in full flight.

P3 was good, we were on the outside of turn 2 and having them blast past 20 yards away was incredible.

The weather went mamms up from there, I/we got soaked waiting for quali to begin.

There was a lot great machinery on display on the infield throughout, including a Maserati 250F. Pics to follow in due course .

Yep great day despite the dismal finish. 👍
I'm finally home and thawed out with dry clothes on. Feeling is back in my fingers that is allowing this to be typed.
Told you that you would experience four seasons in one day. I honestly didn't see that rain coming though.
Coffee went down a treat though.

Cheers Shaun.

 

[JacoJa]

Kinda disappointed about the postponing of qualifying. Track conditions were not as bad as Charles made it out to be.

We are in the stands looking over the final two corners of the track. Got sunburnt in the morning, and turned into an icicle in the afternoon. Four seasons in one day.

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Yeah, lets instead send the cars out, demolish half the grid and re-create the 2005 US GP in the process. 💡

I think the 8 or more spins/crashes we just saw in the space of a 20 minute Q1 session tells you why they didn't just let them go out in that.

We don't have spare cars these days, even back when we did they only had 1. I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather see a 22-car race tomorrow than a crash fest qualifying session.

Yeah but guess what, with the qualification pushed back to tomorrow we actually have less chance of seeing 22 car. Imagine if there's any sort of problem on a car, beeing from a wreck or a default part, they gonna have only 6 hours to fix the car instead of the 23 hours they would have if they held qualification at the correct time.

Also yeah they were some car off, but remember that they put intermediate tyre on the car so it wasnt that wet. Sure if you push too much when it's wet you're gonna end up in a wall and most of the drivers that got off had to make an impressions on the team. Overdriving is bad on the rain, everyone that drove a car on a wet surface should know that. Also I dont think there was a lot of team with unfixable car.

My point is that if they had let car go at the time the qualification should had start, we would have avoided the big rain at 18.30 and would probably had a slighty wet qualification. The moment you dont let the cars go, you put more and more water on the track and then it's becoming unfixable. Like canada in 2011.

Jacques Villeneuves was saying that sometimes ago, the F1 board asked Michelin to make a third type of rain tyres that could evacuate whatever water there was on a track, it wasnt lasting long but at least it was a solution, maybe the FIA should think about it. Because getting up early morning to watch delay and delay again sucks and I dont even speak for people that bought tickets and went to the actual track like some of our members here.

 

[DaxCobra]

It's not so much the tyres, it's the wooden plank under the car.

You go over some standing water and end up aquaplaning without making an error.

And to those who just say "Well they should drive slower"...

That does not work with a modern F1 car. Slower they go, lower their grip is. They generate downforce with more speed, so they will still crash and go off in such conditions. Actually going slower creates multiple problems. Brake temperature goes down, tyre temps too. That is bad, m'kay?

 

[Samus]

What do you think guys about this delay? in Italy are saying that this delay helps along the RedBull, because the Ferrari was much faster that than RedBull in rain conditon!

....and so the nonsense begins in 2013.

 

[Wardez]

It's not so much the tyres, it's the wooden plank under the car.

You go over some standing water and end up aquaplaning without making an error.

And to those who just say "Well they should drive slower"...

That does not work with a modern F1 car. Slower they go, lower their grip is. They generate downforce with more speed, so they will still crash and go off in such conditions. Actually going slower creates multiple problems. Brake temperature goes down, tyre temps too. That is bad, m'kay?

Agreed 👍

Btw, just an fyi: The plate under the car isn't made of wood anymore, it is made of a composite mixture of glassfiber and nylon. The plank is optimized to be as slippery as possible. So that when the car bottoms out, it will lose as little speed as possible.

 

[stiggygonzalez]

Just watched it on BBC.
Peri had a shaky start.
As far as qualifying goes there was quite a fair bit of action especially when hami was on the grass I thought,here we go again with his bad luck.

 

[Milouse]

The stupid FIA do not know what Australian or Melbourne weather is like. It may end up getting heavier.

Meteo France (who provides weather prediction for all teams) did announced excatly what happened, during TV interviews prior to and during Q event. But even if there is 10% chances that a drivable window is to be opened, the FIA have no other choice (from its point of view) than taking it. This is not just a competition, this is a broadcasted competition.

 

[BHRxRacer]

Gutted they postponed it. They were on inters at the end, should've just kept going it wasn't that bad.

I'm glad Hamilton is finally getting exposed and Rosberg showing people what he's made of. I hope he keeps it up.

 

[Samus]

Gutted they postponed it. They were on inters at the end, should've just kept going it wasn't that bad.

It started raining heavily again at the end of Q1.

 

[Grayfox]

Yes it did simon.

Q2 and Q3 will be held at 11am +11GMT or 1PM Saturday for you.

 

[BHRxRacer]

It started raining heavily again at the end of Q1.

I didn't catch that. That bad though? I don't it should be postponed unless it's literally impossible to drive in a straight line without aquaplaning. If it's just a little standing water then the drivers should man up and deal with it.

 

[Samus]

I didn't catch that. That bad though? I don't it should be postponed unless it's literally impossible to drive in a straight line without aquaplaning. If it's just a little standing water then the drivers should man up and deal with it.

It looked like monsoon conditions yes. I still don't follow your logic, it's not about "being a man", F1 is meant to be a competition of racing skill, not skill with some luck that you don't happen to hit some heavier standing water and aquaplane off. Because that really is down to luck. Plus personally I want to see them driving competitively, not hobbling round in torrential rain simply making sure they don't fall off.

The downside is the fans at the track don't get the action of course but other than that I don't see why TV fans would be disappointed they delay it.

 

[IforceV8]

F1® Racing on NBC ‏@F1onNBCSports

We will have coverage of resumed qualifying at 1230am ET tonight. We were postponed last night by rain and went off the air at 4am

 

[MUSC4EVER]

So i didnt get up to watch it this morning, i read a few tweets about what happened when i got up, watched the replay on BBC1 at 1pm..im definately staying up to watch the rest of quali and the race!

 

[BHRxRacer]

It looked like monsoon conditions yes. I still don't follow your logic, it's not about "being a man", F1 is meant to be a competition of racing skill, not skill with some luck that you don't happen to hit some heavier standing water and aquaplane off. Because that really is down to luck. Plus personally I want to see them driving competitively, not hobbling round in torrential rain simply making sure they don't fall off.

The downside is the fans at the track don't get the action of course but other than that I don't see why TV fans would be disappointed they delay it.

I wasn't trying to imply it's about being a man. I just don't think the race should stop every time a drop of water shows up. Of course it was a lot more than a drop of water but to be honest it was still drivable conditions if you're careful enough. I mentioned that if the cars start aquaplaning on straights, that's where the line is drawn. I don't really understand how you could call Q1 conditions "lucky". Luck factor is about as much as it was last year with temperatures going up and down, affecting cars differently throughout a grand prix. Conditions seemed ok to me. At least after the first 10 minute delay prior Q1. I didn't see how it was after Q1 though, so you could be right.

As for how it bothers TV fans, it's rather silly but it messes up my mood/schedule. I came home excited today to watch qualifying and it turns out I'll have to watch it along the race tomorrow night, which I may not have time to anyway. I don't get a lot of free time and I usually schedule things around the GPs.

 

[Samus]

I wasn't trying to imply it's about being a man. I just don't think the race should stop every time a drop of water shows up.

It doesn't.

Of course it was a lot more than a drop of water but to be honest it was still drivable conditions if you're careful enough.

The words of Jenson Button

"When it gets too wet for these tyres it doesn't matter what speed you drive around, you will aquaplane, that is it," said Button. "The tyre cannot take a certain amount of water.

"Especially when there is a river running across the circuit you don't know where it is when you arrive. When you hit a river you are completely out of control, you might as well close your eyes and take your hand off the steering wheel because it does what it wants.

"That's not what F1 is about. It is about a guy trying to tame a 750bhp F1 car. The fans will get a much better show than they would have [had] if we'd tried to run in these conditions because we'd all be piled up at Turn One."

I agree with him entirely.

I don't really understand how you could call Q1 conditions "lucky". Luck factor is about as much as it was last year with temperatures going up and down, affecting cars differently throughout a grand prix. Conditions seemed ok to me. At least after the first 10 minute delay prior Q1. I didn't see how it was after Q1 though, so you could be right.

Yes I wasn't talking about Q1 conditions, I was talking about the hypothetical much worse conditions.

As for how it bothers TV fans, it's rather silly but it messes up my mood/schedule. I came home excited today to watch qualifying and it turns out I'll have to watch it along the race tomorrow night, which I may not have time to anyway. I don't get a lot of free time and I usually schedule things around the GPs.

Well to be frank, first world problems and all that.

 

[RACECAR]

I wasn't trying to imply it's about being a man. I just don't think the race should stop every time a drop of water shows up. Of course it was a lot more than a drop of water but to be honest it was still drivable conditions if you're careful enough. I mentioned that if the cars start aquaplaning on straights, that's where the line is drawn. I don't really understand how you could call Q1 conditions "lucky". Luck factor is about as much as it was last year with temperatures going up and down, affecting cars differently throughout a grand prix. Conditions seemed ok to me. At least after the first 10 minute delay prior Q1. I didn't see how it was after Q1 though, so you could be right.

It was alot more water then the tires could disperse. Supposedly, there was also an issue with darkness (so I heard anyhow).

 

[DaxCobra]

I'm glad Hamilton is finally getting exposed and Rosberg showing people what he's made of. I hope he keeps it up.

Lol?

What is Hamilton getting exposed as?

 

[Pilitev]

According to some weather reports I've checked it's still rainy in Melbourne and the rain chance for the rest of the day is also quite high. We might see an eventful first Grand Prix

 

[Ardius]

They want the times to be as accusable as possible to Europeans without having to hold a night race.

Yeah I know that, but is it really worth the risk of this happening? Its also possibly going to happen again at Malaysia next week.

Yeah but guess what, with the qualification pushed back to tomorrow we actually have less chance of seeing 22 car. Imagine if there's any sort of problem on a car, beeing from a wreck or a default part, they gonna have only 6 hours to fix the car instead of the 23 hours they would have if they held qualification at the correct time.

It is more likely for a team to run out of spare parts through continued crashing across sessions (consider that Caterham seem to have gone through several front wings already, albeit they were out in Q1) than for them to suffer some catastrophic problem that they couldn't fix in 5 hours.

I see unsuitable weather conditions a bigger risk than having only 5 hours to repair cars.

Also yeah they were some car off, but remember that they put intermediate tyre on the car so it wasnt that wet. Sure if you push too much when it's wet you're gonna end up in a wall and most of the drivers that got off had to make an impressions on the team. Overdriving is bad on the rain, everyone that drove a car on a wet surface should know that. Also I dont think there was a lot of team with unfixable car.

Judging by the comments from people at the track, they seem to think it was too wet.

There is a point where its not about "pushing too hard" but simple physics. The cars cannot run in standing water.
Its not a case of making a different tyre - the aquaplaning is caused by the low ride heights of the cars, as well as the type of tyres.

This isn't aimed at you, but I've seen similar sentiments and comments like "what Senna would have done". Yeah, Senna was waving to the cameras to have a race stopped. There is a point where conditions are not safe for racing and its no longer about skill but dumb luck.

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

The thing is it's kinda stupid to have wet tyres but never use it because as soon as you need them, there's too much water on the track and the cars are aquaplanning. Either decide that F1 can't run when it's raining and cancel the session as soon as it's raining or slighty change the rules so that F1 arent that sensible to rain.

Maybe it was too wet I dont know I wasnt there, but some people that were in Australia said it wasnt that wet on the track. I dont know really, I guess I was just super annoyed to wake up early morning and watch nothing because they waited too long (that's my main point btw).

At the time they canceled the qualification, they were right, it was too dark and too wet but if they had start on the schedule time, everything would have been fine, I still believe that.

Some statistic found on eurosport french :

Vettel :
No win in germany, canada, hungary and united states

Webber :
He never got a podium at home (best was 4th in 2012(

Alonso :
Didnt lead a race since the 22nd of july 2012 in germany, that's 10 race

Massa :
Didnt got a pole or a win since 2008 in bresil

Button :
1 pole position in 3 seasons at Mclaren, never won his national gp, nor germany, italy or united states

Perez :
No point in the last 7 GP

Raikkonen :
Last pole was in 2008 in france. Never won in germany, united states or italy

Grosjean :
He did the belgium gp twice, he never went further than the 5th corner

Rosberg :
No point in the last 6 gp

Hamilton :
Never won in bresil

Hulkenberg :
He's the driver in activity with the highest number of lap ahead without winning (30)

Gutierrez :
Arrive in F1 without making any pole positions in 2 seasons on GP2

Vergne :
Never qualified himself to q3

Sutil :
In the top 5 of driver having race the most GP without a podium (90) Pierluigi Martini is in the lead with 118 races.

 

[GOTMAXPOWER]

Just a reminder that qualifying continues in around an hour, rain is still around the area and will probably affect Q2 and Q3 too but with the race expected to be dry, the current grid is:

17. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault        1m47.614s + 4.234s
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari          1m47.776s + 4.396s
19. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth       1m48.147s + 4.767s
20. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth       1m48.909s + 5.529s
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault        1m49.519s + 6.139s
22. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault        1m50.626s + 7.246s

 

[Mike Rotch]

Its still raining at the track, but not as hard as yesterday.

 

[Barra333]

They want the times to be as accusable as possible to Europeans without having to hold a night race.

This is the stupidest thing ever. Like Ardius pointed out, they have done it in Malaysia too, moving the race to monsoon o'clock.
The F1 people are constantly on about the massive audience in places like the Middle East and China, timezones which are still OK for a 2pm Australian time start. Why cater for an audience (European) that is not even half of the total viewership?

 

[MustangManiac]

Just a reminder that qualifying continues in around an hour, rain is still around the area and will probably affect Q2 and Q3 too but with the race expected to be dry, the current grid is:

17. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault        1m47.614s + 4.234s
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari          1m47.776s + 4.396s
19. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth       1m48.147s + 4.767s
20. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth       1m48.909s + 5.529s
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault        1m49.519s + 6.139s
22. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault        1m50.626s + 7.246s

Anyone know if they plan on showing it live still on NBCSP?

 

[Bram Turismo]

My guess is they postponed it mainly because it was getting so late in the evening, so they were probably worried about visibility with all the rain.

Why is the race held in the evening in the first place? For all of us Europeans? I miss the afternoon race weekends at Melbourne. TV stations would re-broadcast it anyway for those who thought the race was too early, and the die-hards would get up no matter what time it were to be. Unless I am missing out on an entirely different reason, but I'm just not a fan of evening races and we might as well put some effort into it if we really wanted to catch the race live.

 

[Grand Prix]

They should move all the European races to dusk to help support a growing fanbase in North America.