They need to introduce a rule where the in-lap is within a certain % of their fastest Q time, to deter the slow fuel saving in-lap nonsense. As the poster above says, it'll cause havoc at Monaco.

Nah, i'd say the teams have to state their intended race fuel level before the start of Qualy, then let the drivers go out in the final session on low fuel so we can see who really is the quickest.

Why not let them drive the last session of the quali with as light cars as possible, as many laps as possible (with tire limits) and then refuel the wanted amount after the final quali session? What's the bad with that? No problems with fuel saving and no more fuel burning driving either. Just get that fastest time.

before the Melb i kept suggesting bring the slicks back.
but after seeing all the drivers making mistakes and sliding all over the place.
i am like. KEEP THE SLICKS AWAY FROM F1 MAX.
LOL. seriously Formula One is MUCH MORE interesting than last year.
overall consistency become more important than single lap pace. because a tiny mistake can easily cost the drivers a few tenth or even a few seconds.
now we can really tell who got the proper skill of driving a F1 car.

I think car stability will become a major issue this year.

I don't know why, but I have this god awful feeling someone is going to get in a bad accident [possibly fatal] by way of sliding out of control with the lack of TC... and yet again there would be rules in place to change the sport.

I just love watching these cars slide and go off track, I really wonder just how long it will last .

Well done all newbies... Bourdais 17, Glock 19, Piquet 21.

Shame for Timo, coz it wasn't his fault. But I'm seriously impressed how Honda has improved. Especially after Sutil said "Yeah, I reckon we'll beat Honda... easy" That must hurt.

BTW, why the hell didn't Kimi just leave his car sideways in the middle of the track? the marshalls would have pushed the car back to the pits

hammy or kova ftw

No TC makes it so much more exciting - lots of twitchy cornering on the limit. Great stuff. Hammy seemed to be enjoying himself.

Can't wait to see how they cope in the race tomorrow while jockeying for position as well!

Also looking forward to the starts now without launch control.

Love the changes.

F1 just got real again.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

Mark Webber does his best impression of a can of Red Bull.

There's my morning-laughter out of the way, thanks ;D

Quote from Hyperactive :

You can't drift an F1 car

Not even if you paint it with annoying colours and double the rear wing size? :sadbanana

Quote from deggis :

Not even if you paint it with annoying colours and double the rear wing size? :sadbanana

...isn't that what Honda did?

Here's the pole lap. Sorry for the poor quality, apparently Premiere thinks that if youtube can get away with it then so can they...



http://rapidshare.com/files/99 ... ia_hamilton_pole.avi.html

Nothing spectacular but reasonably clean. Which isn't an easy task with the new regulations. He uses more inside curb than most but the car doesn't seem to mind.

Anyway, great season start. Hamilton FTW! Ferrari FTL!

LOL @ Alonso.

YAY @ Kubica.

Quote from J.B. :

Here's the pole lap. Sorry for the poor quality, apparently Premiere thinks that if youtube can get away with it then so can they...

Thanks!

Quote from J.B. :

Here's the pole lap. Sorry for the poor quality, apparently Premiere thinks that if youtube can get away with it then so can they...



http://rapidshare.com/files/99 ... ia_hamilton_pole.avi.html

Nothing spectacular but reasonably clean. Which isn't an easy task with the new regulations. He uses more inside curb than most but the car doesn't seem to mind.

Anyway, great season start. Hamilton FTW! Ferrari FTL!

It's interesting to compare driving styles and setups by looking at the way drivers steer in corners. Hamilton's technique & setup seem to be the most effortless by far.

Quote from Mustafur :

I think car stability will become a major issue this year.

i reckon driver consistency will become a major issue this year

Quote from NotAnIllusion :

It's interesting to compare driving styles and setups by looking at the way drivers steer in corners. Hamilton's technique & setup seem to be the most effortless by far.

Looking at the pole lap, it's actually a surprize that he's not trying so hard. And it doesn't even look so fast. For example in t6 it looks like Heidfeld is cutting the corner far more and aggressively than Hamilton.

I wonder if he's actually so ashtonishing as people think. Why isn't he pushing as hard as he can? What if he can't? Didn't Alonso claim he had solely made the car half a second faster. What if Hamilton was just riding along, and used all Alonso's expertise to go faster? Especially when Piquet is a whole lot slower than Alonso now. What if ... (ooh this is terrifying)... Alonso really IS THE MAN here?

Quote from hyntty :

Looking at the pole lap, it's actually a surprize that he's not trying so hard. And it doesn't even look so fast. For example in t6 it looks like Heidfeld is cutting the corner far more and aggressively than Hamilton.

I wonder if he's actually so ashtonishing as people think. Why isn't he pushing as hard as he can? What if he can't? Didn't Alonso claim he had solely made the car half a second faster. What if Hamilton was just riding along, and used all Alonso's expertise to go faster? Especially when Piquet is a whole lot slower than Alonso now. What if ... (ooh this is terrifying)... Alonso really IS THE MAN here?

That's a bit of a paradox though... if Alonso is a much better driver than Hamilton, he would have been much faster last year as well. I don't think it's possible for one person to make the car (half a second) faster, only to have his team-mate take the most benefit from that. The reason Piquet is quite a bit slower is that he's rubbish compared to Alonso, which is exactly what he wanted.

Quote from hyntty :

Looking at the pole lap, it's actually a surprize that he's not trying so hard. And it doesn't even look so fast. For example in t6 it looks like Heidfeld is cutting the corner far more and aggressively than Hamilton.

I wonder if he's actually so ashtonishing as people think. Why isn't he pushing as hard as he can? What if he can't? Didn't Alonso claim he had solely made the car half a second faster. What if Hamilton was just riding along, and used all Alonso's expertise to go faster? Especially when Piquet is a whole lot slower than Alonso now. What if ... (ooh this is terrifying)... Alonso really IS THE MAN here?

please wake up and forget the good old times when reno dominated, if they cant even make it to pole shoot out i think theres is no point hoping to see Alonso on the podium any time soon. Just forget it, i know its hard but lets just let it go.... Hes getting fat.... Even vettel did better

But anyway as a full time Mclaren fan i was happy to see alonso out, and Kimi, and was really happy to see BMW eating up on the leaders. This season is gonna rock.

hyntty, it's interesting how you see that lap. You see Hamilton driving as if he were out on a sunday drive all the way to a pole position, while everyone else is struggling and risking everything and failing to beat him.. and you conclude that because of this, maybe he isn't so good a driver after all?

What happened to the old tradition of applying logic and reason before drawing a conclusion?

Quote from hyntty :

Looking at the pole lap, it's actually a surprize that he's not trying so hard. And it doesn't even look so fast.

It was not a fast lap... Hamilton did 1:25.187 in Q2, while the "pole lap" was 1:26.714. I think this is stupid with this quali system, that the pole lap is not actually the fastest lap.

IMO it doesn't really matter, as long as everyone is competing on (roughly) the same footing in each Q session.

I much prefer this format to previous F1 qual formats.

Would like a single lap format better, though.

I agree that this is entertaining, especially now when the "let's burn fuel" session is eliminated. But I'd still like a real quali, where you just gotta do one fast lap and that's it.

Quote from DevilDare :

.... Hes getting fat....

Well that explains it.. Lucky I'm not a big fan of Alonso's

Quote from SamH :

hyntty, it's interesting how you see that lap. You see Hamilton driving as if he were out on a sunday drive all the way to a pole position, while everyone else is struggling and risking everything and failing to beat him.. and you conclude that because of this, maybe he isn't so good a driver after all?

Did you happen to see his q2 (and practice) runs? Compared to them, the actual pole lap was unbelievably stable and balanced, though ofcource I can't know if McLaren just is so well balanced with a heavy fuel load. That's why I would have expected to see him busy in the cockpit.

Besides, it isn't so hard to detect a tone of sarcasm in one's post... After all, all we've seen is the first quali of the season, and a few practises where everyone's holding their pace back ar hard as they can...