245 replies to this topic

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

so how long until sutil is penalized for blocking webbo in q1?

[Nacho]

so how long until sutil is penalized for blocking webbo in q1?

Honestly, i'm surprised it hasn't happened already.

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

Button says Brawn no longer ahead

By Edd Straw Saturday, April 25th 2009, 12:28 GMT

Jenson Button has admitted that Brawn no longer has the performance advantage that it enjoyed in the first two races of the season after qualifying fourth for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Although in previous races the Brawns have qualified on a heavier fuel load than the Red Bulls and Toyotas in Q3, Button believes that the front-runners will all start the race on similar weights.

"We've struggled compared to the whole field and we don't have the pace we had in the first few races," Button told the BBC's F1 coverage. "It's going to be a tough race tomorrow - it's not a walk in the park.

"At the moment, we don't have the pace of the Red Bulls and the Toyota. Our race pace was good yesterday when we were doing long runs,but the problem is when you are in fourth place it's difficult.

"We'll do the best job with what we have. If it's hot like this tomorrow, our pace will be good."

Button believes that on single-lap pace the Brawn has slipped behind some of its rivals. Despite the car's strength on long runs, he is not certain that he and team-mate Rubens Barrichello will be able to get to the front in tomorrow's grand prix.

"We're starting fourth and fuel-corrected we'll be fourth," he said. "We're not quick. Our pace is good over long runs, but our one lap pace is not competitive.

"In Q2, where we do struggle more with low fuel, we were sixth. We were a little bit quicker with high fuel, but we're not long and I think that the guys at the front are [pitting] around the same lap that we are."

'dominance' ended after only 1.5 races?

[psykosis]

I was testing the spoiler tags before i typed them all out.

gotcha.

thanks...

[Nacho]

'dominance' ended after only 1.5 races?

I'm not terribly surprised. Car's not good in the wet (too good with tires) and they've not really developed it at all in the first four races. Most everyone else that I've seen has gotten at least some aero tweaks.

[More&Faster]

'dominance' ended after only 1.5 races?

fucking thing sucks. i was hoping this would last at least 5 races. now button will be lucky to get a podium.

[TimzSI]

Why is Toyota even in F1? It's not like the even build sports cars anymore. Add to that the most boring driver lineup on the grid, other than Force India. Gay. Hope they both break down tommorow.

[_R_]

i know they've posted fuel results and i don't want to know them, but i'm going to guess that the toyotas are the lightests of the top 5 cars... good job regardless... now one of them needs to win

[MrHahn]

Why is Toyota even in F1? It's not like the even build sports cars anymore. Add to that the most boring driver lineup on the grid, other than Force India. Gay. Hope they both break down tommorow.

to everything except them breaking down - I just hope they go backwards.

Vettel for 2 in a row

[vietlol]

BrawnGP bandwagon running out of steam heh all aboard the vettel train

[yonson]

or, and i know this might seem a stretch, actually pay for net service

I do, but it sux ass because we don't have 3G here

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

anyone notice the virgin galactic decals on the bgp's?

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

Fuel weights:

Spoiler

Pos Driver Team Weight (kg)
1. Trulli Toyota 648.5
2. Glock Toyota 643.0
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 659.0
4. Button Brawn-Mercedes 652.5
5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 652.5
6. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 649.0
7. Alonso Renault 650.5
8. Massa Ferrari 664.5
9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 670.5
10. Raikkonen Ferrari 671.5
11. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 678.5
12. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 680.9
13. Kubica BMW-Sauber 698.6
14. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 696.3
15. Piquet Renault 677.6
16. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 679.0
17. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 678.5
18. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes 652.0
19. Webber Red Bull-Renault 656.0
20. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 667.5

at bmw running 700kgs.. dare they try a 1 stop in bahrain?

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

I do, but it sux ass because we don't have 3G here

no land-based intarwebs?

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

Leave it to Force India to release the gayest pics in all of F1:

[yonson]

no land-based intarwebs?

no, had comcast, but they tried jacking my bill up to 50/month so I told em to get bent...

[Skyliner]

At least we won't have to hear Toyota nutriding anymore.

Yeah, someone actually being a fan of a particular team instead of several is weird isn't it?

That's it Nacho. We duel at dawn.

[Skyliner]

Why is Toyota even in F1? It's not like the even build sports cars anymore. Add to that the most boring driver lineup on the grid, other than Force India. Gay. Hope they both break down tommorow.

Jesus christ. I guess being a genuinely good person is considered boring now days. Maybe Trulli should swig some vodka, be emo about everything, or act like he's seated beside god. Then he'll be "interesting"?

[Skyliner]

skyliner is gonna jizz in his pants when he sees the results..

well done to toyo. hold it together for another day, play the team cards right (glock block!) and you're finally due for a race win..

he probably had a heart attack and isnt coming back

just sayin

I pulled my calf yesterday, and can't really walk atm. So I went to bed. Maybe I should skip watching qualifying more often.

[Skyliner]

i would love to see toyota get a win... going to the beach to party all day. brb

[Skyliner]

If the start goes well, and the Toyotas lead into the first corner, *maybe* they stand a shot. I just have worrying visions of cars flying around them off the line.

[Skyliner]

The fight for the win is likely to be between Trulli, Vettel and Button, with Barrichello an outside bet. Rubens has not been as happy with the balance of his car this weekend as Jenson.

Looking solely at the fuel weights, it appears that

Spoiler

Sebastian Vettel

did the best job in qualifying because he is

Spoiler

third

with the highest fuel load of the front runners. He will stop on lap 18 tomorrow. This certainly gives him a great chance of winning the race, but actually the star performer in qualifying was

Spoiler

Jarno Trulli

, who set a lap two tenths faster than

Spoiler

Vettel

when you make the fuel correction and half a second faster than

Spoiler

Timo Glock in the same car

!

Spoiler

Trulli

has 14 laps of fuel in the car,

Spoiler

Glock

has 12.

Trulli’s step up in performance from Q2 to Q3 is the truly remarkable part; fuel corrected he found 7/10ths of a second in himself and in the track.

Afterwards he said that he was surprised to be so strong as he had been focussed mainly on long runs with high fuel in practice. He feels confident for the race, but it is likely to come down to consistency and knowing when to push and when not to, so as not to destroy the soft tyres.

Source: James Allen's blog

[Skyliner]

Good job Hamilton!

[Skyliner]

Every extra kg of fuel costs a Formula 1 car 0.035 seconds around the Sakhir circuit, and the cars use an average of about 2.6kg a lap.

Once that is taken into account, along with the fuel used by the cars on the laps before the start, the Bahrain fuel-corrected grid, with estimated first pit-stop laps, looks like this:

Spoiler

1 Trulli - lap 13
2 Vettel +0.216 - lap 17
3 Button +0.4725 - lap 15
4 Glock +0.473 - lap 11
5 Hamilton +0.6247 - lap 15
6 Barrichello +0.79 - lap 13
7 Massa +0.827 - lap 20
8 Rosberg +0.933 - lap 21
9 Alonso +1.076 - lap 14
10 Raikkonen +1.144 - lap 22

Source: BBC

I'm estatic Trulli got the pole. I'll even be happy if he doesn't get the win. In all honesty, I doubt he will. Trulli is more of a qualifying expert than a race-leader.

Edit: I'll also be happy if he doesn't get mounted.

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

p5, p7, p8 and p10 are all kers equipped.. this should be an interesting start tomorrow.