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2009 Formula One Thread

JFreak said:
Ask Schumi, he once won because his pit happened to be after finish line :p He got a penalty, which he served on his final lap but after crossing the finish line.
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Well, you are right! I didn't think about that! :cool: There used to be a time when at Ferrari they were smart and quick at decision making (I miss Brawn so much, even more than Shumi)
 
Having a pit at the start / finish is a big advantage. If you are first in the lane then you can take a straighter approach into your box as you don't have to swerve around the team in front of you in the pit lane.

If you are at the end then you may not have to go back onto the limiter as you exit the pit lane. You always loose a bit of time coming off the limiter as you get a loss of traction and the driver may press the button a bit late / early.

It's not a huge advantage, but probably worth 0.5 seconds per race if you are at the start / end.
 
R.Youden said:
Having a pit at the start / finish is a big advantage. If you are first in the lane then you can take a straighter approach into your box as you don't have to swerve around the team in front of you in the pit lane.

If you are at the end then you may not have to go back onto the limiter as you exit the pit lane. You always loose a bit of time coming off the limiter as you get a loss of traction and the driver may press the button a bit late / early.

It's not a huge advantage, but probably worth 0.5 seconds per race if you are at the start / end.
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You also get a larger garage towards the end of the pit lane. This was highlighted when Mclaren got placed last in the championship for the Spygate debacle, but were then granted a garage higher up because of the amount of equipment they carried around in 2008.
 
bmacir said:
I don't think there are any advantages on having the pit near the exit or at the entrance, because drivers are subject to a speed limit (because of this) when traveling within the pit lane, and usually it's large enough so it will not affect the driving time necessary to pass it even if there is traffic. Add to that that the chance of having traffic in front of you is exactly the same either if you have the pit space at the entrance, exit or in the middle.
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I didn't think there would be much of an advantage. I did know about the speed limit restriction in pit lane. Just with the Constructor Champion of the year previous getting first pick of paddock and pit space, I thought there might be an advantage. DAMN look at their motorhomes!! IMPRESSIVE!!

The more I watch F1, the more I understand why costs skyrocketed to 400M plus!!

JFreak said:
Ask Schumi, he once won because his pit happened to be after finish line :p He got a penalty, which he served on his final lap but after crossing the finish line.
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What happened?
 
robbieduncan said:
This.
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I remember that - weird ending - great drive by the Reinmeister tho'.

BTW does anyone have any thoughts re the budget cap? I think it's a bit low to be accepted by the larger teams. Here are some of my ideas.
  1. £75 million budget cap. Allows more leway for teams, but still very much smaller than current budgets
  2. Maybe allow teams to run a third cars on Friday if they adhere to the budget cap. While this might seem counter-productive, the Force India business manager said on Friday qualifying in Australia that this makes little cost difference to teams due to the teams still needing to bring the same number of auxillary staff now than before, so apparently no more expensive.
  3. No added incentives for cars running incentives on actual car parts, but maybe more testing. Fixed rules for eg 3yrs to allow consistent design that can be applied for following years.
  4. Maybe allowing of return of mechanical (ie non-aerodynamic) ways to improve the speed of cars - maybe including turbos. Limited by banning of certain materials (unobtanium :p), and to increase life of parts eg 2 race KERS.
 
robbieduncan said:
Bwa ha ha ha ha

Kimi out in Q1 :D:D
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Oh dear... Heikki is also in trouble. I would be surprised if the BMW got penalised for holding him up. As Martin Brundle said, they should have brought have brought him in. Heikki and Nelsinho are in trouble regarding their drives IMHO.
 
robbieduncan said:
I hope he's not fuelled it ultra light to get that, but awesome all the same :D
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They were fuelled heavier in previous races than RBR. Whether the developments have changed their fuel tank or whether they've short-fuelled them to guarantee pole I dunno. We'll find out later, but I suspect that they're not fuelled less than the RBRs. Massa is in an interesting position - watching him off the start line with his KERS will be something ...
 
remmy said:
Agreed, I really want to know how the cars are fuelled, liked the idea they said of announcing the fuel before they start qualifying.
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Brawn said that Button and Barachello are on similar fuel loads. AMAZING AMAZING job from Button, one of the best qualifying performances I've seen.
 
remmy said:
Agreed, I really want to know how the cars are fuelled, liked the idea they said of announcing the fuel before they start qualifying.
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Well the weights have been released ...

f1.com said:
1. Jenson Button, Brawn GP, 646kg
2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 651.5
3. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn GP, 649.5
4. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 655
5. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 651.5
6. Timo Glock, Toyota, 646.5
7. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 655.5
8. Fernando Alonso, Renault, 645
9. Nico Rosberg, Williams, 668
10. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber, 660
11. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams, 676.6
12. Nelson Piquet, Renault, 677.4
13. Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber, 676.3
14. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 683
15. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 678
16. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 673
17. Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso, 669
18. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, 657
19. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 675
20. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India, 656
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Link

It seems Button will pit 2 laps before Vettel, 1 before Rubens and 4 before Massa. Massa could be in a good position, depending on how his race pace is. Traditionally this season the RBRs have been better at warming their tyres up (with better qualifying pace) but the Brawns have been better at preserving their tyres. So with that in mind ... it's gonna be very close tomorrow! :p

EDIT: I was about right - here's the BBC's grid.

BBC Sport said:
BBC SPORT'S FUEL-ADJUSTED GRID (with projected race first pit stops*)
1 Vettel (lap 16)
2 Button (lap 14)
3 Massa (lap 17)
4 Barrichello (lap 15)
5 Webber (lap 16)
6 Trulli (lap 18)
7 Glock (lap 14)
8 Alonso (lap 13)
9 Rosberg (lap 23)
10 Kubica (lap 19)
* Calculated on the weight of fuel left in cars after qualifying had finished
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In truth it's difficult to tell whats gonna happen in the race. Rubens posted the fastest time of qualifying overall (a 1.19 in Q2) so we'll see how it goes.
 
i'm rooting for Rubens tomorrow (this time he will win legit - no team orders ;)) - or Jenson...a Brawn 1-2!! :D
 
Wow, that was quite an exciting quali session. I wonder if Vettel would have had it, as he had a little too much slip and not quite hitting a couple apexes at the end of his last lap. I really am excited to watch it tomorrow now!

BTW, thanks for the links and thoughts on pit position and Schumachers win.

BTW, no more "winner takes all": http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/090509160523.shtml
 
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