Motors The Official bit-tech F1 2012 Thread - Post season

Got my hand on the sky coverage... *cough*...

The commentary pairing is good, i'll give them that... watching the quali atm...

 

They did say "extended highlights" and with a 2 hour programme and a 90 minute race, there's a lot of space for highlights. It looked to me like they only cut out 3 laps under the safety car.

If this is how the BBC's coverage is going to be over the rest of the season, I can't really complain. Before watching it, I was tempted to ditch Virgin and subscribe to Sky but now I'm not so sure. My current spec is top-level Virgin TV, 30Mb internet and the phone. If I drop Virgin TV but keep their phone and internet, switch to Sky HD, I'd be paying only £4 per month more.

Decisions, decisions...

 

I'll catch the BBC coverage later on iPlayer, compare it to the sky stuff...

So far the commentary team are good but Damon Hill and Generic Sky Sports Presenter #315 are so mind numbingly dull.

 

Great result from Jenson, disappointing to see the Red Bull's doing so well (and Lewis struggling with pace).

BBC highlights are ok, though nothing compared to the quality of last years coverage.

 

Now that I'm a little calmer - I saw only the ESPN HD coverage (f**king south asia). Was a great race. Glad to see a lot of shaking up across the field.

Too bad about Caterham; great race by Maldonado right up to the bit where his car decided to snog the wall; CRAZY drive from Alonso to wrestle that car to 5th - looked like he might have had fourth at one point!

I wish Grosjean hadn't been taken out so early - from his performance in quali, I would have loved to see a full race from him. Any word on an investigation into that incident? ESPN has the WORST coverage after Speed TV. Raikkonen made up ten places (granted, carving through generally poorer cars) so I would not be surprised to see a strong Lotus once they get the rest of their racecraft sorted. Provided, of course, that there's no development slump like last year.

MGP was a bit of a disappointment, tbh with MSC's retirement and Rosberg failing to finish inside the points. This after a strong winter and a decent show in qualifying. Even before MSC's car kicked it, he didn't seem to be in the hunt for a strong finish. I wonder what went wrong and if it will be fixed soon or at all.

I want to give drive of the day to Alonso, mainly from relief that he was able to take that pig of a car to 5th, but I think Perez deserves it for making up almost twice as many places AND looking after his tires so well. Put him in a McLaren and he might give JB a run for tire management!

 

Ahh, so I'm not the only one that thinks Maldonado took a swipe at him then?

 

GREAT Race.
I was betting on Webber for the race, failing that, Button. At least my second choice came through.
Melbourne is a very atypical circuit, and as such, I was expecting Button to outrace Lewis there. And he did so quite convincingly, thus scoring his 13th career win. Drawing level with DC.

Speaking of Coulthard - We had DC commentating this side of th earth (minus Martin Brundle... with some other guy) And the commentary was spot on - not sure who's commentating what nowadays. Except for the bit where DC mentioned something abou Button "being a bit ginger", rather than "driving a bit gingerly".
The camera work was atrocious though. rong place at the wrong time so often.

As for the race:
Lewis had a bad start. "Baffled by lack of pace" is perhaps a bit stupid. He got unlucky with the SC (where Seb, unlike his bold, downright arrogant comments in the press conference, got very very lucky), and was stuck behind Seb for a while, while shredding his tyres...
He did well to drive home in front of Webbo, though.

Button drove a stirling race. Evena fter the restart, he opened up a gap and kept it there. A well deserved race win.

Kimi's rage about the Blue flags had me in stitches.... Maybe you do need a few races to get back into it, Kimi. He did well, though.

The STR pair had allt he attention in the closing stages, and for good reason. Well-bloody-done, Ricciardo. The tussle to the flag between 4 cars was something I am hoping to see more of this year.

Maldonado did well until he put it into the wall. He should just have kept his head about him, and finished.

The Ferraris seem piss-poor in qualifying. Alonso managed to hold it together at race pace, and did as well as I assume the Ferrari can, given that it's a bit of a hog.

Pity about the Caterhams. I had high hopes for them.

 

Nope. I failed to hit the record button during the race (I'm new to watching F1 on the telly, used to stream it when I lived in LA) so I only got one look at the incident but it definitely looked like Maldonado cruised half a car length up and then just clipped Grosjean while moving across the track to the left. Neither of them were obligated to yield but it was a lousy move.

The gold standard for ballsy-yet-courteous overtaking will forever remain Webber on Alonso through Eau Rouge last year.

 

^^ this... a hundred times over.

That being said - the Massa crash also seemed a bit... well... Massa.
Though I haven't seen the accident replayed, it did seem a bit like he was trying to close the door there...

 

I LOL'd very loudly when Manalodildo stuck his car into the wall. Idiot. If his car continues to have pace I will predict lots of incidents involving him. If accurate it will be interesting to see if he is called dangerous and reckless like Lewis did last year

 

He is definitely reckless - remember when he swiped at Lewis during Spa quali last year? On the run to Eau Rouge as well. Absolutely bananas.

I was hoping Williams would be able to ditch him, but no-one else stepped up with the moneys.

 

To be honest though, Maldonado did do a pretty good race. Although he robbed Grosjean a chance at a podium. Also Raikkonen has impressed me with his pace given that he just got back into the game. The guy is impressive. But then again so is the car, which lost barely any pace compared to the Red Bulls or Ferrari.

Grats to Button. Massa needs to get fired, Perez did quite well in the beginning and in the end so did Kobayashi. Those Saubers have speed and to be honest, I am very very pleased at Alonso's result given that he had a **** qualifying position and managed to make the most out of it.

Maldonaldo just threw away a good race, but it signifies some damned good progress for Williams. Had they not had two frankly mediocre drivers.

Also, more and more Rosberg seems to be incredibly mediocre in his racecraft. And sadly to me Good old Schumie was robbed of a potentially good race with a gearbox issue.

 

Rosberg is a confusing one. I'm not sure if he's simply an inconsistent driver or whether he's only able to perform when the track suits the car. Sometimes he has strong stints in a race that ends poorly, sometimes he has evenly average races and sometimes he genuinely seems to be on fire.

I just don't know whether to attribute this to him or to the car.

I think I shall give him a little more time.

 

I don't know, from what I've heard, Rosberg seems to just not like this car. Whereas Schumi loves it. So it seems that Rosberg is not good with a car that's more...pointy/oversteery?

As far as the race go. I have to give it to the Saubers, Raikkonen and Alonso for making quite good strides. It's a shame that Schumacher's gearbox decided to fail or we'd see Mercedes in the points.

And I'm still pretty mad at Walldonaldo for both crashing and throwing Grosjean into the grass. Patrick Head might just take some heads.

 

Just looked at the constuctors' standings - pretty funny to see Sauber ahead of Ferrari.

 

Added current standings to the OP.

 

Also as for Schumacher's not strong hunt, I think by lap 5 or 6 he had already started losing the gearbox and was just nursing the problem.

 

Me liking a car at the beginning of the season is turning into a kiss of death, Williams last year and Ferrari this .

Maldonardo went up in my estimations, many a driver has thrown it off late in the day, memorably Hamilton at Monza one year. Grosjean saw him have a run, and didn't defend well enough and then failed to follow standard practice of yielding - Maldonardo had clearly won the corner at the apex - without contact, and was fully entitled to move to the racing line.

As for Massa - . When he drove for Sauber I liked him, but he's always been hot and cold.

I think the most beastly of overtakes has to be Hamilton on Raikkonen at Monza. The other one is just a game of chicken, but these guys aren't bothered by a crash.


I preferred the BBC coverage, Ben Edwards was great - even if initially I was made to expect to see touring cars appear from the pit lane at the beginning of qual'. Gary Anderson was good too - a million miles more impressive than Ted Kravitz.

Looking ahead, I think McLaren won't have it so easy in Malaya. And it's forecast to be wet, wet, wet! Great stuff (providing of course, that it is deemed to be safe to run)! Given that the wet can make predictable cars nervous, Ferrari won't be liking that.

 

the wet might or might not throw the McLarens off.
IN pure characteristics (to echo Whitmarsh here), the Sepang circuit should suit McLaren.
High speed corners is where the McLaren is supposedly strong, and Sepang has those.

The McLarens looked well controlled all through the race, especially when opposed to the Ferrari and the RBR (which Vettel at one point seemed to be driving on the ragged edge) and the Mercedes.

Also - Sepang has more typical tyre wear than Melbourne, what with it bing an actual race track and all...

We'll know by Sunday...

 

Heresy!