Melbourne Madness!
Written by George Katinger · March 15, 2008
Melbourne qualifying results, who’s on top and more importantly who’s not. Whoda thunk it! Top three qualifiers and not a Ferrari in sight; Hamilton, Kubica, and Kovaleinen lead the way.
The big story has to be the lack of performance from Ferrari. Kimi never gets out of Q1 due to reliability gremlins, sound familiar? And Massa is almost a half second off Hamilton’s Q pace. All of the Ferrari dominance fears of preseason seem to have gone up in smoke. At the least we’ll get to see Kimi carve his way up the field. Kind of like the inverted order some team principals have suggested.
The drive of the Q sessions has to go to Robert Kubica, with his spectacular flying lap save in turn 9. All the way onto the grasscrete, sideways, and never lifted. That boy can drive! If Ferrari are looking for a replacement for Massa or Kimi in 2009 they should forget about Alonso and target Kubica.
My only question about Kubica’s time is fuel load. After every Q session the same speculation about fuel loads comes up. I can only say that Ferrari and McLaren generally don’t go ultra light, and we’ll have to see what strategy BMW Sauber is using. With Heidfeld in 5th and almost 4 tenths off Kubica’s pace there must be fuel load difference. Or Kubica is just that much quicker. We’ll have to wait and see.
You just have to be thrilled for Heikki Kovaleinen. Cast off by that genius Flavio-Flava-Flav for Nelson Piquet Jr. McLaren snap him up and he delivers. And how did Piquet perform? An embarrassing 21st.
So how will the race turn out? That is highly questionable due to the loss of traction control. I suspect there will be a few anxious drivers, who under pressure will commit costly mistakes. Expecting that, I will call a podium of Hamilton, Kovaleinen and Massa.
grandprix.com: Qualifying results
autosport.com: Glock loses another five places
planet-f1.com: Hamilton: I could have gone even faster
planet-f1.com: Ferrari’s disappointment evident
crash.net: Vettel draws first blood in “Battle of the Sebs”
autosport.com: BMW ready to go for victory in Australia
Nothing I’d like more than Ferrari NOT on the podium! I see it ending as it started: Hamilton, Kubica and Kovalainen (McLaren, BMW and McLaren - an interesting sandwich very much to my liking).
Watching free practice & qualifying was incredible (unfortunately I’m in Sydney) the removal of TC & more importatantly engine braking & trick differentials has the cars really moving sideways. The amount of lateral movement is astounding with the drivers really having to work the wheel. By far the most difficult part is not the expected tail snap under acceleration (minus TC) at the corner apex to exit. Rather, setting the car up for the entry to apex seems to be what is catching most drivers out. You are more likely to see a driver lose the car on enrty & then run wide than see whEelspin under acceleration on the exit.
A couple of observations, Massa is very messy & has returned to his early days where no two laps follow the same line. Young Piquet still has some rough edges & seems to be fighting the car & the laws of physics, he seems to throw it in without thought & then catch whatever the chassis throws at him, great reflexs but no method. Seebass does not look comfortable at all, his car seems quite jerky amplified by his “rookie” team mate chucking the developeded version of last year’s car around as if he stole it, that kid has amazing car control.
Don’t laugh, after watching the silky smooth throttle & steering inputs of Fisi in the Force India car & what he delivered, I’m wondering if Flav should have kept him on for another season with Alonso.
Final observation, last year Flav savagely kicked rookie Heikki K publicly for a poor debut……..this year ghe is all cuddles & “it takes time for new drivers” with young Piquet, a total backflip from attitude he displayed in 07. LOL
I think right about now would be a good time to invert the feild, say about 15 cars would be a good number to invert.
I’ll ring up Maxine and suggest the inversion to be adjustable per race.
Your Ferrari red blush is showing mo. What an embarrassment, the champ in a car that won’t go and teammate Massa can’t make the car go fast.
If the “show” was on the other foot I can’t even imagine the comments you’d be dropping on me. I’ve gotta make hay while the sun shines!
Here’s hoping for a good race regardless of who wins.
Well we all got what we wanted George, a great race!
I agree with your comments, again. It appears the Ferrari way is creeping back into the red team. You have to keep in mind I was also making hay whilst the sun was still shining. It appears to be cloudy on the horizon for the red team again. Back to the unreliability of the 90s.
But on the bright side, we did have a great race to watch.
The luck certainly fell on LH’s side today, if he hadn’t pitted early on the last stop he would have been in the same position as HK.
I think the revelation of the weekend was the performance of not only the Sauber/BMWs, but of many others as well.
Of course the Williams was brilliant, but how about Toro Rosso’s and Honda performance gains(even though Barrichello cost Kimi the race by holding him up for over 20 laps costing him over 1 second per lap). Toyota was in good form and even Renault stepped up quite a bit from last season’s disaster.
It’s great to watch a GP with the possibility of several different teams winning under dry conditions.
Good job LH and Mclaren for bringing home a brilliant win.
Now I have to go wash my mouth out with soap.
Strange indeed. Not seeing a Ferrari up there it is strange, but also, we know that Mclaren has the best car in the field this year and we also know that driving the best car helps a lot, but does not take away the fact that he still F’d up under pressure. That is what drove Flav mad, the mistakes and the (take no risks playboy), Fisi. Remember he is used to “hungry” drivers like MS and FA.
I was actually disappointed by Kimi’s off track excursions not to mention his car breaking down. If any team wins I want them doing it with the opposition on track, not sitting in the paddock.
But regardless I’ll take it. In lieu of soap mo, try gargling with a good aged bourbon or scotch, it’s much tastier not to mention relieving anxiety.
On to Malaysia!
Excuse me, I have to sneeze.
EEEcu.
Thank you Mclaren.