- Formula 1 - Season 2009 -

[raptor21]

i hope its not a bunch of BS. i see no reason either to wait till Saturday to do this.

[genius83]

@UK and Raptor21

Here is the latest report about the new DD diffuser and according to this it arrives friday night and only one piece arrives so it is for Alonso only.

A new diffuser this weekend for Alonso only

http://www.autohebdo.fr/f1/f1/article-25-25-341/160409-le-nouveau-diffuseur-d-alonso

The article is from a very serious source, in French, explaining that the diffuser will be mounted on Alonso' car only, as only one example arrives on Friday night from Europe on a special plane. If the new piece will prove to be useful for qualifications, they will use it for the race as well.
This new diffuser baby is a pure CFD product, never been tasted on track, so they're not really sure how it will behave on a real car and certainly there are no gurantees of better performance.
Anyways, they say there will be no sleep for Renault mechanics on Friday night.

Here is the google translation

http://translate.google.fr/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.autohebdo.fr%2Ff1%2Ff1%2Farticle-25-25-341%2F160409-le-nouveau-diffuseur-d-alonso&sl=fr&tl=en&history_state0=

And all thanks to Planet F1 forum.

[raptor21]

i was just watching re-run of F1 malaysia, did you guys see Alonso catapaulting right to the front at the start of the race thanks to KERS. he sure was good at this to begin with but doing this with a sloppy heavily feuled car was amazing. i think if they can improve this car Alonso would definitely make the most of this KERS system especially at the race starts.

[raptor21]

Its all Renault engines infront of the grid.

Wow, Adrian Newey has designed a bomb shell, you put a trick diffuser on that car and its gonna be uncatchable. Though it seems it might have some problems tomorrow. especially with Vettel's car. it looked like it had some issues even today.

How Alonso got second is just mind boggling. All i can say is Alonso is back!

[beglar_begi]

@raptor21

you wake up at ungodly hours to watch the live F1 coverage too man? You on eastern time or western?

[UncleKracker]

The Red Bull cars are running on fumes or what? Vettel is clearly very very light. I am interested in what fuel Alonso and Webber have onboard. It can't be much as they will probably do a short first stint and get the super softs out of the way. We will find out soon when FIA release the weights. Brawn GP is still the car to beat this weekend i feel. Further down the grid, Hamilton seems to have done a decent job and so has Raikkonen, given their poor cars although Mclaren, might have expected more given that they have an interim diffuser on Hamilton's car. A weekend to forget for BMW so far, and Rosberg might have qualified with decent fuel, but by the time that comes into play he might be so far behind the front runners that it might not help him much. With all the focuss on the two Red bull cars and Alonso`s Renault, people have over looked what an amazing job the other Sebastien has done in the STR Ferrari.

KERS seems to be the one thing that most teams dislike. After Ferrari, Renault are the latest team to get rid of it.

[genius83]

Horner hints at 'aggressive' strategy[/url]

Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner has hinted that his squad used an 'aggressive' strategy to put Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber first and third on the grid, but is confident that its car's pace is genuine.

[url=http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3213_5203572,00.html"s campaign against Brawn reaches new depths]Flav's campaign against Brawn reaches new depths

Not content with insulting Brawn GP's drivers, Flavio Briatore now wants the team's cash.

and now the post qualifying weights of cars.

Post-qualifying car weights - China

From the 2009 season, the FIA is making public the weights of the cars, with their fuel load included, following Saturday's qualifying session.

Below is the weight of each car following qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, sorted by grid position.

[highlight]Pos. Driver         Car weight[/highlight]
 1.  Vettel          644.0kg           
 2.  Alonso          637.0kg           
 3.  Webber          646.5kg           
 4.  Barichello      661.0kg           
 5.  Button          659.0kg           
 6.  Trulli          664.5kg           
 7.  Rosberg         650.5kg           
 8.  Raikkonen       673.5kg           
 9.  Hamilton        679.0kg           
10.  Buemi           673.0kg           
11.  Heidfeld        679.0kg           
12.  Kovalainen      697.0kg           
13.  Massa           690.0kg           
14.  Glock           652.0kg           
15.  Nakajima        682.7kg           
16.  Bourdais        690.0kg           
17.  Piquet          697.9kg           
18.  Kubica          659.0kg           
19.  Sutil           648.0kg           
20.  Fisichella      679.5kg

And if some one wants to see the no of laps been done before their first pitstop. Here is the top 10 runners assumed pit stop taking time.

1. Vettel - 644 - 39kg - Lap 15
2. Alonso - 637 - 32kg - Lap 12
3. Webber - 646.5 - 41.5kg - Lap 16
4. Barrichello - 661 - 56kg - Lap 21
5. Button - 659 - 54kg - Lap 20
6. Trulli - 664.5 - 59.5kg - Lap 22
7. Rosberg - 650.5 45.5kg - Lap 17
8. Raikkonen - 673.5 - 68.5kg - Lap 26
9. Hamilton - 679 - 74kg - Lap 28
10. Buemi - 673 - 68kg - Lap 26

[beglar_begi]

Briatore is seriously beginning to pi$$ me off... can't beat them on the track then lets go off it and have a go... he is going to get a reputation like RD and in record time too... it took dennis 40 years to build that rep...

I had a feeling Alonso was light but damn! If Hamilton's car can hang in there then he has a shot... but he was locking pretty severely towards the end of Q3 there... his front wing was wound so frigging tight the inside tire was lifting everytime he turned... should be an interesting first few laps... I wanna see if Vettel is able to pull away from alonso... also the ability of the brawns to chase down lighter cars... go rubenioooooooooooo!

[genius83]

@beglar

As Vettel mention in the post qualifying press conference that it is good that Alonso is not using KERS I think Flavio is get owned by RBR. Just trying to beat the Brawn's on track they remove KERS from Alonso's car and then when they saw that it is still not possible to beat Brawn's in the first 2 sessions they fuel Alonso so light that now he is the one on the grid who needs to pit early. Hatred have limits if it is not controlled it will wash everything away from a person.

[UncleKracker]

That is crazy stuff......12, 15 and 16 laps!! It's partly to do with the fact that these cars don't go well on the stupid super softs that Bridgestone have brought. Brawn GP on the other hand doesn't have the same problem as was seen in Austalia when these tires were used. Alonso needs to make it first into turn one to make his startegy work. How he would love to have KERS for tomorrow's start. Rubens needs to keep his position and not lose big time as he did in OZ, and he will be well on his way to winning the race. He is a lap heavy than Button, so he clearly has the edge on him here and needs to finish ahead of Button to get his championship bid back on track. The vultures are catching up fast. The likes of Alonso and Vettel only need to score points for now and wait for the aero updates to their cars before launching their title bids. As for tomorrow, given reliability another Brawn 1-2 is on the cards.

I kinda agree with what Flav is saying. It is after all a new team, and as per FIA regulations they are not entitled to any money because of that. The reasons for Flav flying off the handle run deeper than just petty stuff. Every team, especially the car giants need to justify the amount of money they spend in F1 when they are laying people off back at their factories. He needs Renault to win, so it can be justified, and for Renault to win he needs Alonso, not only for this year but for the team's long term future. The only way he can keep Alonso, for how ever long is by giving him a car that is capable of winning races and championships. So whilst he feels Brawn was not entirely honest with the teams, his anger and outbursts have reasons other than that.

[UncleKracker]

Title over for Ferrari, Raikkonen admits

K
imi Raikkonen has stated that neither he nor team-mate Felipe Massa will be able to challenge for the 2009 world championship.

Ferrari this year kicked off its worst start to a season since 1992, but after just two races in 2009, Finn Raikkonen says it is not realistic to hope to recover and mount a title bid.

[raptor21]

@ beglar_begi

hahahaha, i am eastern time zone man. i watch it on speedtv and those assholes wont rerun the qualifying so i had no choice but to stay up. but i wasn't alone though since it was a Friday night i could hear drunken dudes shouting and fighting all night in the streets outside keeping me amused. Man they can go all night!

[raptor21]

Buemi has done an amazing job, there is no denying that and i do expect him to finish with some points in this race. he is an amazing find.

Start of the race Alonso is gonna get away with the lead even without KERS ubtil he takes the pit stop, then its gonna be Brawn's all the way with Vettel, Rosberg, Alonso and Hamilton fighting all the way for the podium.

Raikonen lacks ambition and its a big problem for Ferrari. they need to get rid of him quick, he is begining to sound like a liability on Ferari.

[UncleKracker]

@raptor21

Ssshhhhh!! Don't bad mouth Ferrari or Raikkonen. You're pretty close to where beglar is compared to say where I am. Last year he went to Singapore, looking for the guy who was involved in Massa's pitstop blunder. This year he had already threatened to kill the guy who put Raikkonen on full wets in Malaysia, that was before he found out the call was made by one Michael Schumacher!

On a serious note, I agree with your analysis of Raikkonen. Haven't heard anyone give up so early in a season unless they are driving a MInardi or Force India, in which case they hardly ever come into a season expecting anything. Ferrari should stop the rot setting in and help Raikkonen with his defeatist mentality. It's a long season and too early to write off their chances given their history and financial muscle.

[raptor21]

@ UK

My bad i didn't know that. thanks for sharing this cruical piece of information with me. i am not a Ferrari fan but i dont have anything aginst them either, i think Beglar should take some comfort in that.

I do have a problem with Raikonen though. it seems he is going down and taking Ferrari down with him. Ice man seems to have given up on racing altogether. it seem Ferarri might need to hire a counseler for him just to get him past this season.

Waisay, thinking abt Raikonen driving on full wets on a dry track was hillarious. i still cant seem to stop laughing.

[beglar_begi]

you know what man?! Ferrari are gonna be back big time... and its gonna be kimi at the helm of the revival and they'll be kicking the a$$e$ of all and sundry and when that happens all you guys hating are gonna be stumped and i'm gonna be dancing on the carcass of the guy who was responsible for massa's pitstop blunder..................... a man can dream eh...

but yeah i was pretty surprised there... not sure whats going on at team ferrari. I know they are in crisis mode but it almost seems like kimi is willing ferrari to boot him at the end of this season and massa is content at lying low and wait for his new team mate... and yeah as @UK said it almost looks like kimi will need professional help to make it through the season. Maybe they should let him boose up the way he used to before... maybe he needs a little sin-juice in him to keep the ice man alive... disappointing.

@raptor

I'm on pacific time man... majority of the races are past three at my end... I do a combo of speed tv and ESPN... its weird but the two never take a commercial break at the same time so when one goes on a commercial break i switch to the other and that way I get seamless F1 coverage... also ESPN is usually 10 seconds behind speed which i find odd...

[genius83]

@beglar

You should hold your horses before dancing on the pit light man because Ferrari is using this system again.

@raptor21

Kimi and Ferrari is a combo that never works like Michal and Ferrari did. Because Kimi is a hard working driver and Ferrari needs a gentleman's touch to be driven. On the other hand Felipe is a calm but tech based driver he will be good when he has a good car under his command and perform average when the car is average. He is the first one to say openly that he needs KERS back in Bahrain.

[raptor21]

@ beglar_begi

Wow! man you really are passionate about team Ferrari. UK was right in warning me early on. i hope they do well atleast for the guy responsible for Masa's pitstop blunder's sake, whoever he was.

@ genius83

"Kimi and Ferrari is a combo that never works like Michal and Ferrari did"

well not as michael and Ferrari did but the combo did work for a while atleast till the time Kimmi won his title since then Ice man has gone cold. What more can i say abt. Kimi i think enough has been said already. Apart from the boose and the sin-juice they need to show him the contender for his next years spot to put some sort of fire under his ass.

Massa is car dependant i agree with that but he is too damn unpredictable. i dont think even team Ferrari knows what sort of a day massa will have on the track. But if he needs KERS for Bahrain they better give him KERS. there are certain tracks on earth that he owns and Bahrain is one of them.

[raptor21]

@ beglar_begi

man which ESPN you get Formula 1 on. i dont think ESPN airs it in US, but i could be wrong.

[beglar_begi]

@genius

you have got to be kidding me!

@raptor

I watch it on ESPN1... well its the canadian version of ESPN1 called TSN1 but when its showing F1 the logo does read ESPN... you watching tonight?