Driver of the race: Round 1 - Australian Grand Prix

frostie500

Lots of drivers to choose from today with a great performance out front by Raikkonen to claim the victory and he showed with his fastest lap at the end how good a job he had done with controlling his pace and tyre wear. Strong race speed from the Ferrari's and it was only Alonso pitting earlier and using the undercut that got him ahead of Massa and kept the Brazilian from the podium. Adrian Sutil was superb for much of the race and used his strategy very well but unfortunately his tyres fell off the cliff at the end and he fell down the order but it was a very encouraging return for the German and he outpaced his teammate, Paul di Resta, throughout the weekend

Who was your driver of the day?

Daniel S

Romain Grosjean

Kimi definitely!

Grim.

Pastor Maldonado

with a performance like that after a year out of the sport and the late force india drive announcement i'm going to say Sutil but just barely ahead of Kimi.

Kimi. Look where his team mate finished. It looked very simple for him but it's just a measure of the man.

Rascasse

Romain Grosjean

Got to be Kimi. Only driver on the grid to get the medium's to last.

frostie500 wrote: »

Adrian Sutil was superb for much of the race and used his strategy very well but unfortunately his tyres fell off the cliff at the end and he fell down the order but it was a very encouraging return for the German and he outpaced his teammate, Paul di Resta, throughout the weekend

In fairness to di Resta, the team split the strategies which helped Sutil and at the chequered flag they ended up together. Let us not forget Paul out qualified Sutil so wasn't outpaced throughout the weekend.

Rascasse

Rascasse wrote: »

Got to be Kimi. Only driver on the grid to get the medium's to last.



In fairness to di Resta, the team split the strategies which helped Sutil and at the chequered flag they ended up together. Let us not forget Paul out qualified Sutil so wasn't outpaced throughout the weekend.

I like Di Resta more than more on this board but even aside from that Sutil should've told the team to **** off.


As I've said over the winter, I hope Lotus are aggressive this season. There'll be races where they should stay back but today was an example of when there's a gap. Look who fills it.

Myrddin

Romain Grosjean

Definitely Kimi. Honourable mentions to:

Sutil
Hamilton
Massa

lolie

Romain Grosjean

Kimi for me, driving as good and precise as ever and not far of lapping his teammate.
Good from sutil but faded woefully near the end.

vectra

Romain Grosjean

It has to be Kimi.

Autosport

Nico Hulkenberg

Voted for Lewis and thats because I didnt think the Merc would be as good as it was today and Lewis drove the car to the limit Kimi deserves a mention aswell

Charlie-Bravo

Romain Grosjean

I have to say, before when Kimi was at McLaren (I wasn't a major fan of McLaren back then) I sorta like him. Same when he was at Ferrari. But last year, he was just so cool it was brilliant - A delight to watch, he's entertaining also in interviews, radio etc. He gets my vote for a great drive in Oz, and definitely has my support for the rest of the season.

Slutmonkey57b

Max Chilton

Bianchi for getting regularly decent lap times out of the marussia.

mickdw

Pastor Maldonado

Voted sutil. Actually listening to brundle early in the gp, he was saying that sutil would just take the super soft for a lap or 2 at the end. I was thinking to myself that surely towards the end, with low fuel and a well rubbered in track that they would get 10 good laps out of them. Amazing to see how sh1tty they went within a couple of laps.

Great drive from Massa too. Had the beating of alonso. He can win races this year.

mickdw

mickdw wrote: »

Voted sutil. Actually listening to brundle early in the gp, he was saying that sutil would just take the super soft for a lap or 2 at the end. I was thinking to myself that surely towards the end, with low fuel and a well rubbered in track that they would get 10 good laps out of them. Amazing to see how sh1tty they went within a couple of laps.

Was surprised at that myself.

the culture of deference

No vote. The drivers seemed to be working 60%. Look at them getting out of the cars, no sweat or fatigue.

Sh1t race from perez after all the bluster. Kimi had it so easy. WTF happened between FM and FA. How did he end up losing 20 seconds. Would FA have won if he had passed Massa? SV kept his hand in and Webber let the Oz nerves back in. LH and NR were anonymous. Sutil did well but his team brought him in way too soon.

Williams Caterham and Marussia and torro were nowhere.

the culture of deference

the culture of deference wrote: »

No vote. The drivers seemed to be working 60%. Look at them getting out of the cars, no sweat or fatigue.

Sh1t race from perez after all the bluster. Kimi had it so easy. WTF happened between FM and FA. How did he end up losing 20 seconds. Would FA have won if he had passed Massa? SV kept his hand in and Webber let the Oz nerves back in. LH and NR were anonymous. Sutil did well but his team brought him in way too soon.

Williams Caterham and Marussia and torro were nowhere.

It was probably the coldest race of the whole season and Australia isn't exactly known for high, sustained G-Forces.

Myrddin

Romain Grosjean

the culture of deference wrote: »

No vote. The drivers seemed to be working 60%. Look at them getting out of the cars, no sweat or fatigue.

Sh1t race from perez after all the bluster. Kimi had it so easy. WTF happened between FM and FA. How did he end up losing 20 seconds. Would FA have won if he had passed Massa? SV kept his hand in and Webber let the Oz nerves back in. LH and NR were anonymous. Sutil did well but his team brought him in way too soon.

Williams Caterham and Marussia and torro were nowhere.

Well both Perez & Button have an excuse in fairness, the car is far behind where it should be.
The Lotus seems excellent on its tyres, & Kimi took full advantage too.
Alonso & Massa both did well, I presumed they backed off at a certain point given how badly & quickly the tyres seemed to be going off.
Webbers' starts have been dreadful even going back into early last season, its an area of the race thats costing him very, very dearly imo.
Hamilton did way better than expected, & Rosberg retired with car failure so to say they were anonymous is a bit strange, what were you expecting from them?

Zcott

Webber really needs to sort out those starts...it's not that the car is incapable of getting off the line, it's just that Mark can't seem to start it and then is fighting all the race.

My vote goes to Kimi with a close runner up being Sutil. Considering he hadn't raced in over a year and ended up leading the race in a midfield car (ok, I know it was helped by stops as well but he managed his tyres) is hardly bad at all.

My vote for anti-driver of the race goes to Webber, I think...

the culture of deference

EnterNow wrote: »

Webbers' starts have been dreadful even going back into early last season, its an area of the race thats costing him very, very dearly imo.

Hamilton did way better than expected, & Rosberg retired with car failure so to say they were anonymous is a bit strange, what were you expecting from them?

Webber has been cleared ECU fault.

I was expecting more from Merc, maybe I was expecting more racing. I have a soft spot as I've been to the Melbourne race before and remember running down the straight after the race.

Myrddin

Romain Grosjean

the culture of deference wrote: »

Webber has been cleared ECU fault

Its always something for Webber though, even excluding the most recent start, his starts from last year have been poor & have left him fighting for position rather than eeking out some distance over the pack.

I was expecting more from Merc, maybe I was expecting more racing. I have a soft spot as I've been to the Melbourne race before and remember running down the straight after the race.

I dunno, after Rosbergs sole win, his third place & Schumachers fastest time around Monaco, & his third place....thats largely all they've done of note in three seasons of F1. Hitting the ground running like this to me seems like a good start. Lets just hope they're able to keep up development wise

christy c

EnterNow wrote: »

Well both Perez & Button have an excuse in fairness, the car is far behind where it should be.

I wonder if Hamilton could have managed anything with this car. IIRC, we saw a few occasions last year where Hamilton was near the top of the time sheets and Button wasn't within a country mile.

the culture of deference

EnterNow wrote: »

Its always something for Webber though, even excluding the most recent start, his starts from last year have been poor & have left him fighting for position rather than eeking out some distance over the pack.

It is always something.

Red Bull Racing suspect that Mark Webber's retirement from the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix may have been caused by static electricity produced by a nearby tram.

Webber was forced out of the Singapore night race with his first mechanical failure of the season, just as it seemed he was on course to take a podium finish thanks to a brilliant pit call by his team under the first safety car.


But then he dominates some races. Germany 09 comes to mind including a drive-through penalty. Brilliant back to back wins Uk and Monaco. Then he does go off the boil. He does have consistency issues and he does have a lot of terrible starts.


It must be hard with an ex driver like H marko around, always in the news and not afraid to highlight your flaws to anyone who asks. DM must love Webber, or he loves the way it annoys Marko (billionaires are a bit mad). I would have replaced Mark for this year and I like MW.

But 9 wins in 12 years when your teammate since 2009 has won 25 in the same car and 3 championships ...

as marko boots him again

Red Bull incumbent Mark Webber is “probably going retire in 2012″ from Formula One. That’s according to the team’s de facto leader, Helmut Marko

frostie500

Pastor Maldonado

Yeah Marko seems to forget that of all the drivers Red Bull has supported to get to F1 over the years it's only Vettel that has actually done anything. The rest were cast aside as not being good enough. In Webber they have a very good driver who can be great on some days. He doesnt have the consistency of Vettel but that means that he wont take too many points off him either. Webber has been crucial in allowing them to win the last three Constructors' titles and they'd be well served to remember that going forward

the culture of deference

frostie500 wrote: »

Yeah Marko seems to forget that of all the drivers Red Bull has supported to get to F1 over the years it's only Vettel that has actually done anything. The rest were cast aside as not being good enough. In Webber they have a very good driver who can be great on some days. He doesnt have the consistency of Vettel but that means that he wont take too many points off him either. Webber has been crucial in allowing them to win the last three Constructors' titles and they'd be well served to remember that going forward

Take last year, with Massa's appalling start to the season, 5 non point finished in the 10 races and 1 retirement, had Felipe taken any 3 points off Seb Fernando was a shoe in for the title, instead he was on his own.

Sky did a little piece on how Kimi won the champ for Seb.

Myrddin

Romain Grosjean

the culture of deference wrote: »

But 9 wins in 12 years when your teammate since 2009 has won 25 in the same car and 3 championships ...

Don't get me wrong, I like Webber myself. I like the fact he's a blue collar guy who tends not to be interested in playing the corporate games, the guy can drive with the best of them too. But a statistic like the above is somewhat damning, especially given the hardware he's had for the last three years

frostie500

Pastor Maldonado

the culture of deference wrote: »

Sky did a little piece on how Kimi won the champ for Seb.

Not at home these days and havent seen any of the UK coverage yet but how did they work that out? I've always viewed that their passive tactical approaches are what cost Alonso last year. They refused to be aggressive at various times last year and it cost Fernando a lot of points

the culture of deference

christy c wrote: »

I wonder if Hamilton could have managed anything with this car. IIRC, we saw a few occasions last year where Hamilton was near the top of the time sheets and Button wasn't within a country mile.

I think when Lewis is on form he is unbeatable. He can drive around almost anything. The tyres are not helping anyone. I still would like to see maximum pace all race. Bring back Unlimited tyres and refueling.

frostie500 wrote: »

I've always viewed that their passive tactical approaches are what cost Alonso last year. They refused to be aggressive at various times last year and it cost Fernando a lot of points

Ferrari were doing fantastic with 1 car, after Hungary (round 11) Alonso was leading the championship 40 points ahead of 2nd place Webber and 42 ahead of Seb.

After Italy (round 13) he had 179 points, 39 ahead of Vettel with 7 races to go.

Massa only had scored 39 points in total at this stage.

Interesting to look at the points from the last 7 races of 2012.

Vettel 141
Alonso 99
Button 87
Massa 75
Kimi 64
Hamilton 48
Webber 47
Rosberg 10
Schu 7

frostie500 wrote: »

Not at home these days and havent seen any of the UK coverage yet but how did they work that out?

Kimi driving off the track to avoid SV in Brazil.
11 seconds in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oczIYZ1c8QA


Kimi winning in Abu dhabi and putting alonso 2nd. Seb was 3rd.


Kimi not winning Bahrain when he had the chance for the lead. Seb won.

frostie500

Pastor Maldonado

the culture of deference wrote: »

Kimi driving off the track to avoid SV in Brazil.
11 seconds in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oczIYZ1c8QA


Kimi winning in Abu dhabi and putting alonso 2nd. Seb was 3rd.


Kimi not winning Bahrain when he had the chance for the lead. Seb won.

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever read, what were SKY thinking! I'd expect that sort of logic from some 15 year old blogger but SKY should be much better than that considering who they have in their team.

I could, maybe, understand if they said that Maldonado had cost Alonso the title because Barcelona was such an extremely strong weekend for him and Williams but even then Ferrari's strategy cost them the lead in that race and seven crucial points.

Raikkonen was quick all season and a genuine title contender so, using their logic, a point could be made that Alonso being so consistent for the first 16 races actually could have cost Kimi the title...

(clearly not having a dig at you by the way with this post, Im purely just shocked at SKY!)

the culture of deference

frostie500 wrote: »

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever read, what were SKY thinking! I'd expect that sort of logic from some 15 year old blogger but SKY should be much better than that considering who they have in their team.

I could, maybe, understand if they said that Maldonado had cost Alonso the title because Barcelona was such an extremely strong weekend for him and Williams but even then Ferrari's strategy cost them the lead in that race and seven crucial points.

Raikkonen was quick all season and a genuine title contender so, using their logic, a point could be made that Alonso being so consistent for the first 16 races actually could have cost Kimi the title...

(clearly not having a dig at you by the way with this post, Im purely just shocked at SKY!)

Yea I know what you mean. It is all if and buts.

If Perez hadn't been told by Mr sauber not to pass alonso
If Grosjean hadn't of taken so many cars out etc