2009 F1 Season

[Roy]

Nice display of class driving from Vettel, I must say I'm more than a little disappointed with Mark's demeanor both on the podium and for the press conference.

I liked how when he crossed the line he gave the brakes a little lock up and slid the car up against the pit wall.

Re Marks demeanor....in a sense it was good to see him disappointed to be 2nd, but at the same time he as seemed to have lost that "team are a bunch of ABSOLUTE champions" with a wry smile attitude. Its no different to Vettel last GP where he understandably had a sook about 3rd.

I think yesterdays race we saw Mark pull back abour 4 seconds on Vettel over the 2nd and 3rd stint. I think h was about 23sec down into the first pit stop and up to the third last lap he was bout 18seconds behind.

Vettel is supreme, it seems that Mark simply cant put himself in the same position where he can race for the lead, always having to race a car for 1/3 of the race to before he can think about challengine the leader. Still, his 3rd 2nd for the year and still only 3.5 points behind Vettel. But unless Mark can lead into the first corner and beat Vettel on the track any time soon, i think Vettel will continue to have weekends with better results whilst Webber will perhaps be a little more consistant in finishing in strong points positions.

LOL, a few weeks to go until German GP. My pocket is still bleeding from the purchase of my GBP415 stand tickets, but will be a cracker giving it to the Germans when the Aussie beats their boy

[hrd-hr30]

When Seb gets it together, Mark can't quite run with him. Close but not quite. But Mark has shown the older and wiser head a few times this year and gets the results when Vettel isn't fully tuned in or has issues with his setup. Its an interesting battle going on in that team. But Vettel is only 21 and this is just his 2nd F1 season - plenty of time for him to get that top setup/pace happening consistently.

If Mark had any of his previous team mates, he'd have had his first race win now...

Good race too apart from the runaway leader. Heaps of little battles going on all the way through the field.

Edited June 22, 2009 by hrd-hr30

[Roy]

Was great watching Alonso, Heidfeld and Hamo etc up the back. Bourdais needs to be taken out to the paddock and put to rest. I lke the guy, and really wanted to see him do well, But as of next GP they will have just about the latest aero updates and i doubt either driver is going to be able to make use of the 4th or 5th best car on the grid

[TALBO]

Roy - I'm pretty sure the engineers from Renault asked Vettel to start short shifting after the first round of pit stops to preserve the engine.

GBP415.... Whoa... those tickets would better come with a..... LOL!

[Roy]

Yeh, in the first stint just about every lap was in the 21s, in the 2nd and 3rd stints he was in the 22s with Webber in the 21s catching him up 0.3-0.5 seconds per lap with a tad more fuel. But at that phase of the race you cant judge the pace of the two as they are in different worlds with different strategy

[TALBO]

They did televise the radio communication from RBR/Renault to Vettel but I can't remember the exact terminology used but it was to the effect of short shifting or using less revs.

[Roy]

Yeh, all season the two have been on different pieces of track with different strategies or cars in front of them.

In China Webber held Vettel at 3-4 seconds the entire first stint until the first pit stop, which right before Webber got baulked by a lapped car. So that is the only race where they have been on the same piece of track, and i think its fair to say that the gap in those conditions was always going to be more dependent on visibility.

Keen to see an RBR front row in the dry. Should have been yesterday, but Webber couldnt get it done in Quali so had to surrender the race following Rubens for 20 laps

[zebra]

TBH in the first stint it did look like mark was held up by rubens, not saying that he could have kept with vettel but i feel it would have been closer if mark got the jump on rubens off the line.

And LOL at Button having a cry on the radio every 5 mins about no grip.

[TALBO]

I didn't think he was anywhere near close enough to Rubens to be held up.... just my opinion.

[Roy]

He spent the whole 1st stint between 0.7 and 0,9 seconds behind him. As soon as he cleared him fter the first range of pit stops, Webber was a fraction quicker with a belly full of fuel and fresh tyres then when he was following Rubens at the end of the first stint with no fuel.

I have to watch Live Timing whilst watching the GP as the ESPN coverage is woeful, althought youwould give it to the host But for the entire 2nd stint Webber was the quickest car on the track, he never stood a chance, but he was seeing what he could do

Fisi had a good race and Button found some pace in free air in the last few laps doing similar times to the RBR cars up front

[zebra]

yeah and that .7 secs is the dirty air so no grip.

It was an awesome pit stop to get mark out in front of rubens.

How was Kivoloneen (sp?) cutting in front of the Rosso car

[TALBO]

Maybe he was closer than I thought then

[Beer Baron]

I didn't think he was anywhere near close enough to Rubens to be held up.... just my opinion.

you sure you were watching the right race? for the first stint vettel was about 1 sec a lap quicker than rubens, webber was at all times less than a second off rubens, ie stuck at his pace. once he cleared rubens he was a second a lap quicker, ie similar to vettels early pace... I would think it's pretty obvious he was held up by rubens.

[Beer Baron]

a couple of points I want to make.

all the fans who told me that hamilton was the greatest driver ever, and that he could win in any car. and all the people who shouted me down last year when I said that any of the 22 drivers in F1 would have been getting good results in hamiltons maclaren and that he was at best one of the top 10 drivers should now be eating some humble pie. he is average at best. sure he was able to win races in a car that was eons ahead of everyone else. now in a less than perfect car he struggles to get through Q1. finally some justice.

and so it is with webber. he is proving that like at least half of the drivers in F1 he can race up the front when he has the car to do it.

vettel drove a great race. for webber to have had a chance he needed to clear rubens early and try and hang with vettel in the first stint but he could not get a pass on so he was massively compromised sitting behind rubens for the best part of 20 laps. by then the race was over. but he had an awesome in-lap and a perfect fuel fill that got him passed and rubens didn't see him for dust after that.

also I would place a hefty wager on the fact that there will be no break away championship next year. the teams and max/burnie will reach a compromise for sure and F1 will continue pretty much as it is now.

[zebra]

I agree with you there Beer man...there is no way they could get a full championship ready in 6 months anyhow...and what would they do if they did...have 4 teams in each championship....im sure that would be real good for the fans...

[Angus Smart]

I was a bit annoyed with them constantly filming lewis at the back of the race. his scrap with alonso was ok but there was a race in the middle worth watching that didnt get much coverage.

i agree with you baron and did lastyear i never liked the smug lewis haha.

i hope they come to some sort of compromise tho, Flavio made some good comments on the grid before the race. bit of a funny man

[Beer Baron]

I should also add that vettel drove a pretty much flawless race. he was never under threat. in the first stint with webber stuck behind rubens he was free to just toodle off at a nice steady pace building up to nearly a pit stop in the bank at the first round of stops. sure mark was able to stop that gap and even bring it down a little over the next 2 stints but vets had done the hard work in the first third of the race and was never going to be challenged. it was a consummate win, if helped in small part by rubens! still even without rubens to hold him up I'm not sure webber would have been able to catch let alone pass vettel. but it would have been nice to at least see him under a bit of pressure...

[Angus Smart]

I should also add that vettel drove a pretty much flawless race. he was never under threat. in the first stint with webber stuck behind rubens he was free to just toodle off at a nice steady pace building up to nearly a pit stop in the bank at the first round of stops. sure mark was able to stop that gap and even bring it down a little over the next 2 stints but vets had done the hard work in the first third of the race and was never going to be challenged. it was a consummate win, if helped in small part by rubens! still even without rubens to hold him up I'm not sure webber would have been able to catch let alone pass vettel. but it would have been nice to at least see him under a bit of pressure...

And also add vettel was told to slow down

[nismoman]

Fastest lap times for the race. It seems Williams are finally getting good race pace. Not much seperating them all really.

01 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:20.735

02 M. Webber Red Bull 1:20.915

03 N. Rosberg Williams 1:21.054

04 J. Button Brawn 1:21.189

05 R. Barrichello Brawn 1:21.429

06 F. Massa Ferrari 1:21.509

07 K. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:21.656

08 T. Glock Toyota 1:21.671

09 J. Trulli Toyota 1:21.806

10 G. Fisichella Force India 1:21.810

11 K. Nakajima Williams 1:21.845

12 F. Alonso Renault 1:21.852

13 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:21.956

14 R. Kubica BMW 1:22.182

15 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:22.418

16 S. Bourdais Toro Rosso 1:22.466

17 N. Piquet Renault 1:22.505

18 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:22.576

19 S. Buemi Toro Rosso 1:22.711

20 A. Sutil Force India 1:23.475

[TALBO]

You make some good points Baron.

Lewis after all was pretty much handed the title in Brazil depending on how one looks at it..... (ducks for cover...)

FOTA have 8 teams united at the moment not 4, but having said that I will be surprised if a compromise isn't found and everyone goes racing again next year