Congrats Fisi ...great drive but a little artificial with his qualifying luck I think

Alonso drove a better race I think.

Barichello...finally an awesome drive out of Schumi's shadow

Schuey did not do much at all

Hope the engines last next race.

Damn RED BULL has been drinking a lot of RED BULL What a great job out finishing McLaren

 

The 2005 FIA rules state that ‘Any driver who failed to finish the race at the first of the two events may start the second with a different engine without incurring a penalty.’

FIA Race Director and Safety Delegate Charlie Whiting told F1 Racing Magazine that he believes teams will not take advantage of this loophole in the rules and that a ten position penalty for a car that failed to last the distance would be too harsh. It should also be noted that a ten position penalty still applies to those who have an engine change during practice or qualification.

...from Racing-Live.com

Great result...

 

It was for sure fun watching for me....I kept waiting to see if the big dogs were going to move up or not. Some did, some didn't as much as I'd hoped.
It was hard for me to get used to looking for JPM in his McLaren - I can't wait to see the next round of qualifying with good weather. Not that this race wasn't good fun. Congrats to DC - nice race.

It was also interesting to see the lap times pretty much the same as last season.

The tires seemed to do allright for the most part. It WAS weird watching the pit stops and seeing some guys just go through the motions....must be less exciting for them.

 

I see that Coulthard is calling the new qualifying system a farce, and I have to agree. It's silly to have qualifying position determined essentially by chance. They might as well draw straws.

The race itself, however, was pretty interesting. I'm surprised at how little speed the cars have lost with the new rules.

Mark

 

It looks like Whiting was wrong: BAR parked both of their cars on the last lap so they can have fresh engines for the next race. I wonder if there will now be a new rule forbidding that sort of thing? If so, that sort of cascading of rules complexities reinforces my opinion that the one engine for two weekends rule was not the brightest idea in the first place.

Mark

 

Yeah I miss knowing who the fastest car and driver are at any given weekend. We have not truely known who the fastest combo has been for the past few years because of these qualifying procedures.

Maybe have Saturday as a one hour best timed lap with one set of tires because the pole does not mean anything anymore.

Sunday can be with race fuel and race tyres with one flying lap. Then they can aggregate the time. Seems more fair although it could rain on Sunday too at any moment but at least the fans and teams will know which is the fastest combo.

Even before with no pit stops allow the pole went to the fastest flying lap with low fuel which we know Senna was the master and deserved the legendary status that he earned.

Fisi earns a pole and who cares...he was lucky although he was awfully good all weekend it must be said. Schuey has god how many poles and it does not matter because the last 10 or 20 poles he earned were tainted by these crazy qualifying rules.

 

Given Rubens and Alonso charging up from the middle of the grid to podium positions in Melbourne, I found Michael Schumacher's performace very disappointing.

Maybe he got caught in traffic, or had mechanical issues not mentioned on the telecast, but I think The Best Driver In The World needs to be able to move up through the field at least as well as his second-class teammate. Schumi showed little urgency in his driving, and getting punted out due to a careless, last-moment blocking move showed how little interest he had in the race.

Not to jump to conclusions, but if Schumi is going to phone it in unless he's leading wire-to-wire, perhaps it is time for him to hang it up.

 

Or maybe he figures there's more races this year and the qualifying for this race was a fluke....

But I do agree. We saw him swoop through the back of the pack last season to take perch up front. Very different story this weekend.

 

From Crash.net:

I'm fairly new to F1 - is this sort of thing typical, or more of a single case deal? Does anyone know more details about this? Does he get paid depending on how the TEAM scores? So if Klien does well, DC gets paid as well? Sounds like an interesting deal....different than I've heard...but interesting. Maybe a little more motivating for him!

 

Every driver has a different deal with their team...it's a business. As I stated before the back of the grid teams don't pay their drivers a salary, but the drivers bring dollars to the team via sponsorship deals and are paid then by the sponsors that they bring to the team. If they do well, I'm sure that bonuses are used.

Only the top teams pay their drivers a salary and bonuses are worked out in contractual agreements between driver and team. Red Bull, being a new team under new ownership is one of the 'tween' teams...a creative contractual agreement with the second most experienced driver on the grid, David Coulthard.

Here is something that you never hear spoken in F1...prize money at each Grand Prix...anyone know what the purse was from OZ?

 

Ahh - okay, cool. Thanks! I've heard of drivers being sponsored by their country or city or something and figured that's what was going on.

Ooooh - prize money! I'm listening....

 

Am I thrilled to see Fisi win! I think it is the first of manythis year.

Renault spanked the field. Even if the weather was normal for qualifying, I don't think they would have been caught in the race.

But oh Max what have you done? You have made a farce of each race with your stupid two race per engine rule. I think combined qualifying also takes away an element of excitement.

 

Given Rubens' drive up to 2nd, I think that's wishful thinking. If a Ferrari had started up front, it probably would have run away and hid, just like last year.

The Renault will probably contend in at least a few races this year, but we won't know who's really the class of the field until we get a weekend with all-dry qualifying days.

 

The reason I say this is that Fisi said he never pushed the car the entire race.

 

There are 6 (4 MINI owners) of us from New England (VT, MA, ME) going to Montreal. We got our tickets on the hairpin (inside--cheaper), before the race dates were even finalized . Love the graphics and pics on the ticket holder. There was a midnight MINI cruise down St. Catherine Street a few years back. Was that you?

Just found the 2005 thread today!

Agree that some of the new rules leave a lot to be desired.
It seems unfair for some to decide to stop when they see that points aren't possible and be rewarded with a new engine for the next race. No changes on tires seems just unsafe.

I'm not sure about the qualifying yet though....maybe DC is right...

 

Not Montreal but I'll be back in Indianapolis the next week for the USGP. I agree that the rules changes are a bit bizzare. Qualifying should be as it was; 12 laps, 4 flying. Tire changes should be OK but refueling should be banned again. As for being allowed to change engines for DNFs, that should only be for engine-related failures.

 

Well the powers that be, have amended the engine rules effective immediately to prevent the teams **cough** BARHONDA **cough** from retiring on the last lap to insure new engines for the next race...now they must have a good reason and report to the race stewards immediately...let's hope that works.


Race two this weekend in Malaysia...

 

Bad Michael, Bad!!!

World champion Michael Schumacher was forced to apologise on Friday for crashing into Nick Heidfeld at the first race of the season in Australia.

Schumacher was subjected to a 30-minute barrage of scrutiny as the 18 other drivers on the grid aired their views over who was to blame for the crash between the two Germans in the Australian Grand Prix. And insiders revealed the seven-time World Champion lost out 19:1 in an unprecedented driver vote with even his Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello siding against him in the poll.

The source, who asked not to be named, confirmed: "The drivers discussed the accident between Michael Schumacher and Nick Heidfeld for about 30 minutes and it was decided Schumacher was in the wrong. They voted 19:1 that Schumacher should apologise to Heidfeld. He accepted the decision, stood up and verbally apologised in front of everyone in the room."

 

Now he only has to find Damon Hill and do the same.

 

Oh to have been a fly on the wall of that drivers' meeting...unbelievable.

...I imagine there were a lot of winks and snickering as they exited that room.

 

Yeah that was a bad incident back then

But you know Damon had no right to even be that close in the championship with Schumacher excluded from 3 races I think for not stopping for the black flag that season. How about the Villeneuve incident during the second year with Ferrari I think. That was far more obvious and worse.

The guy is an amazing driver on a clear track but give him some adversity and he may and usually does crack

He looked like a rookie during the last races of last season didn't he?

 

I'm sure there is at least one other person I can talk about the GP with on here!! Anyone else watch qualifying last night?

 

Fell asleep last night myself, but look at Fernando go!

There are a few of us here...we have a room in the back for discussion...join us!

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=35852

 

Can my dreams be coming true? Will there be no red on the podium consistantly this year!

TWO Renaults, and a Toyota qualified 1,2,3 in the first quali!! I'm going to watch the second quali tonight before the race...cant wait!!!

 

BTW...is anyone planning to goto the US GP? It will be my wife's and my first anniversary and were making the trip I missed it last year because of the wedding