Australia race result.

[Blue]

Originally posted by Inigo Montoya
Alliance?

Anyways... Great drives from the top three. Button also looked good out there. Too bad about Massa and his problems...

Forza Ferrari!

Yes. Alliance. I meant BS favors Ferrari, giving special treatment to them. In the BS f1 project, they have a devision where 10 -20 engineers work espcially for Ferrai, pretty much ignoring other BS teams. It's simply not fair.

[senna12]

Perhaps the cooler weather favoured the Bridgestones. Whatever, the Ferrari's were clearly dominant. Perhaps if Juan had not blown the start, he could have kept the Ferrari's closer. But then again, maybe not. Fernando is the real deal, obviously.
The McLarens definitely have a problem or 2. For one, I'll bet the drivers are not very comfortable at all. If you looked from the overhead, behind the driver cameras on Kimi and David, particularly David, their legs are really squeezed together, there is absolutely no gap between them. I'll bet is is one damn rough ride in that car.

Massa was better than Fisi, though a bit on the wild side. Mark did well until his problems. The Toyotas have a long way to go. The BAR looks like it could be 5th, and pressure the Macs, which as I mentioned, have some problems. Jordans and Minardis will trail the pack all season for sure.

[DavidStHubbins]

Trulli had a damaged car after being hit from behind at the start of the race. Explains a bit.

[GP Racer]

Originally posted by Blue
Yes. Alliance. I meant BS favors Ferrari, giving special treatment to them. In the BS f1 project, they have a devision where 10 -20 engineers work espcially for Ferrai, pretty much ignoring other BS teams. It's simply not fair.

You get what you pay for...

[senna12]

Another thing about the start. I heard on the TV broadcast that Renault are able to set up their engine management for the start in such a way that it will give the absolute perfect amount of engine revs for the perfect clutch bite and optimum traction (or some such thing), and it is perfectly within the rules. Explains Fernando's start, to some degree.

[Adam43]

I think a lot of the Renaults good starts might be explained by the good traction that car has. It was much better than the Williams (judging from when JPM was behind Trulli, JPM quicker out of fast corners, but the slow ones the Renault had it)

[neilap]

I complained about the tire situation at Ferrari for two years. Ferrari fans feel its perfectly normal and others think is rediculous. Its just a little strange that no other BS team could even compete. Oh well thats life...

[Gt_R]

A happy man i am. All the worries and doubts are for the time being removed by this perfect weekend for Ferrari which is rounded up by a wonderful victory. The team worked absolutely beatifully and organised, MS proved critics wrong with an absolute stormer, RB proved he had upped his performance, BS shown their ability to keep up to Michelin so far.. It's great!

One of my biggest worries is the tyres, honestly. And so far, it looks good as Ferrari managed to put in consistently fast laptimes. However, i am not yet 100% convinced as such conditions favour BS all along. We will only know at hot or twisty circuits at Malaysia/China/Hungary to know if BS had really caught up.

And i do find it amusing why people actually fault "co-operation" and "team work". Remember, Ferrari is a partner, the team that BS wants to use to up their tyre image. It's perfectly logical that team and partners work hard to improve.

Furthermore, i do hold myself from being overly optimistic. This race looked better for Ferrari than it could be, afterall Williams team/drivers made a few mistakes. A real force to reckon with when at their peakMontoya and Ralf had shown the ability to match Ferrari for race-pace and reliability is good. The new aero seemed particularly impressive in fast speed change of directions (the chicane is where JPM makes most gain to get ready for an overtaking at the next right-hander).

Renault..Pretty good handler it seems, just short on straight line speed. The start Alonso made was superbly brilliant, even on the grass, he could keep the speed up. Almost as if he had 4X4.

As for Mclaren... hmmm we were wondering if they were sandbagging, but now it seems like they are indeed having problems. 1st quals showed that outright pace isn't much problem. However, race pace + reliability seem to have them shaken. No doubts though Mclaren would cure their weakness asap.

Good things from BAR and Button too, though those cars seem a little bit behind the top teams in race pace, their performance is credible. Sato did well to fill JV's shoes. Reliability seems pretty ok, at least an improvement. Michelin tyres are it's greatest gain.

Sauber...sauber.. Massa seems like him old self, over driving, spinning, grassy moments..sigh.. hopefully, Fisi would have an impact in smoothing out the edges. They had a F2003-GA-inspired car + an equal Ferrari engine and tyres, but still, falls way behind. Fisi isn't exactly brilliant, though the move is good.

Toyota is a huge disappointment. Promises so much but struggled badly... made worse by their huge budget. So too is Jaguar, though they seem to have a pretty decent drivers pairing, but the car isn't setting field on fire.Minardi is equally aweful and if anything is to go by, these 3 teams will be occupying the last 8 positions together with Jordan.

[f1truestory]

tbh, this is going to be a repeat of 2002.
simply the gap is too big to catch up for other teams.

[Gt_R]

You forgot 1998?The title went to the line dispite Mclaren starting with a victory by lapping everyone up to 3rd place.

It's never too big, nor could Ferrari afford to back down at all in effort. Williams/Michelin seem like the biggest threat, and they were held up this time around. We can only have a good idea after the 1st European race

[XJR14/WSC95]

As a massive TGF fan(since Monaco 93) I am Pleased with the outcome of the race, in light of the off season talk and the pace of the Michelin teams in 03. But blaming BS for concentrating on Ferrari over the other BS teams is quite frankly BS. The blame should rest on the shoulders of the F1 decision makers who allowed a tyre war to begin with.
Didn't they learn anything from Good Year v Bridgestone. With all the talk about F1 cost cutting and slowing down the cars getting rid of the tyre war would be the best place to start.

[Gt_R]

Quote:"But blaming BS for concentrating on Ferrari over the other BS teams is quite frankly BS."

You mean "But blaming BullSheet for concentrating on Ferrari over the other BullSheet teams is quite frankly BridgeStone."?

Basically i agree with you to a certain extent. Tyre wars drive cost up multi-times. Strangely, though Ferrari doesn't want a complete test ban, it is interesting to note that the teams that run the most track testing in recent years are actually Michelin shod teams like Williams/Mclaren.

The only reason why Williams/Mclaren are keen on a test ban is because they know that they could still have vital tyre datas from all the teams, while heavily crippling Ferrari's tyre data because Ferrari had to do the testing alone.

Blaming the BS-favouritism is stupid. Does any sane people put much hope in Minardi or Jordan becoming WDC challengers if BS put focus on them instead. Those teams have trouble to even test their own car's aero/engines/chassis properly, and the amount of testings they can afford is so little, there's little point in adding to their burden.

And yes, Michelin let's every team have a say and open the options to everyone, but you honestly think they give Jaguar as much attention as they give Williams/Mclaren?

[Gt_R]

An additional point to note, Michelin isn't that generous as many people make them out to be, simply because they only treat great works teams with much respect and interest.. Tiny teams like Minardis are simply booted out of Michelin's group because of their inability to contribute to the image of Michelin.

[Peter Mallett]

Thoughts.

Fisi didn't look comfortable all day and his battle with Heidfeld made that Jordan look good.

Massa looked like he did two years ago. Wild!

Sato likewise had a couple of offs but was that a return to his kamikaze ways or a tyre problem? I hope the latter.

Button looked good for the first stint but he didn't seem to be pushing. If the imbalance thing was the cause of his dropping back could that have been as a result of the first corner nudge from Alonso?

Team Willy had a poor race. Neither driver showing well but then Monty caused his own probs at the start but was unfortunate with two slow stops - one of which a rear wheel problem. (Conspiracy theorists sign up here).

Macaroon? Yuck!

Webber was somewhat lacklustre and his gearbox failure looked to be a happy relief for him. Klien was er............. there anyway. He did overtake a few people.

Agree about the pay drivers. How can you make a Minardi look slower than it really is?

[devil racer nz]

Well Sepang will be hotter than Albert Park in two weeks time ... I hope

[mmciau]

I'm not sure anyone will be interested in F1 anymore - so emphatic and so complete was Ferrari's demolition of ALL opposition at AP. They are just playing with the opposition

Mike

[Hugh Jarce]

In retrospect, I think the McLaren thing is actually not that surprising.

There was no 'proven' car out last year - shelved consistently through not being ready. They could well be in downward cycle that takes a few years to emerge from.

Pehaps Ron should have raced one of his stainless steel motorhomes that they have been spending all his money on!

Alonso was amazing! And, will certainly be poached at some point.

Watching Montoya, I just wonder whether if he will ever be WC. He just seems far to twitchy and unlucky. Plus next year he could be driving a 'dog'.

It may be more of the same - but I enjoyed getting up at 2.00am to watch.

[3state]

Webber lacklustre? How so? He held 8th position until the gearbox lunched itself, even began closing on Montoya at one point. The only other teams sitting before him were Ferrari, Renault, Williams, and Button in the BAR. So 3 of the top 4 teams (excluding the abysmal MacLaren) plus the BAR, which everyone knows is a far superior car to last year's and to the the R5 Jag.

[Super Tourer]

Seem's that Rond Dennis' comments from Friday practice that those sesion times were 'insignificant', came back to haunt him in the race. Humilliating for McLaren and Mercedes in reality, the race pace was so far off Ferrari, they have a lot of work to but - but I'm sure no effort will be spared!

Toyota - what were they doing? Looks like Mike G's input will be badly needed - no doubt his influenece will show later in the year.

Alonso great, mature drive from lights to flag - further enhanced his reputation IMI.

Williams - a bit patchy and saved being lapped only by M easing off to a relative crawl in the final stages.

As has been said above, very early days and we have seen dominant performances before, that haven't led to a whitewash - however that Ferrari pace was incredible and leave plenty of work for the rest to do.

[steve nielsen]

OK, I really thought Massa had cleaned up his act, but then he spun once and drove the car throught the gras once, that was very disapointing after a good start.

Klien and Pantano are just not up to F1 level and simply where to slow.

It's not going to be Mclaren's year either, Jordan sinks to a deeper level than last year and the Minardi's are very fast(for F3000 cars)

Toyota should be ashamed of themselves!

Ferrari, Renault and BAR did a good job though.

[Bridget Stone]

Still, one positive aspect to look at: 6 different teams in the points so there's a bit of competition left. For the rest, not a race which will write history

love, bridget

[steve nielsen]

fastes race laps(formula1.com)

1 1 M. SCHUMACHER Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 29 226.933 1:24.125

2 2 R. BARRICHELLO Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 8 226.788 1:24.179

3 8 F. ALONSO Mild Seven Renault F1 Team 10 224.365 1:25.088

4 3 J. MONTOYA BMW WilliamsF1 Team 42 223.844 1:25.286

5 4 R. SCHUMACHER BMW WilliamsF1 Team 11 222.441 1:25.824

6 14 M. WEBBER Jaguar Racing 15 222.110 1:25.952

7 9 J. BUTTON Lucky Strike BAR Honda 24 222.032 1:25.982

8 10 T. SATO Lucky Strike BAR Honda 43 221.787 1:26.077

9 7 J. TRULLI Mild Seven Renault F1 Team 9 221.278 1:26.275

10 11 G. FISICHELLA Sauber Petronas 39 221.260 1:26.282

11 5 D. COULTHARD West McLaren Mercedes 13 221.142 1:26.328

12 12 F. MASSA Sauber Petronas 11 219.823 1:26.846

13 18 N. HEIDFELD Jordan Ford 27 218.173 1:27.503

14 17 O. PANIS Panasonic Toyota Racing 35 217.417 1:27.807

15 16 C. DA MATTA Panasonic Toyota Racing 41 217.385 1:27.820

16 15 C. KLIEN Jaguar Racing 6 217.336 1:27.840

17 6 K. RAIKKONEN West McLaren Mercedes 7 217.098 1:27.936

18 19 G. PANTANO Jordan Ford 15 215.659 1:28.523

19 20 G. BRUNI Minardi Cosworth 10 211.741 1:30.161

20 21 Z. BAUMGARTNER Minardi Cosworth 8 210.666 1:30.621

[Peter Mallett]

Originally posted by 3state
Webber lacklustre? How so? He held 8th position until the gearbox lunched itself, even began closing on Montoya at one point.

Well that was my point. He wasn't doing that much and seemed unlike his normal self.

Monty shouldn't really have been there and he pulled away fairly quickly.

[Kicking-back]

Webber/Jaguar had their usual qualify well but then go backwards.

[BootsOntheSide]

It's a shame Montoya got a poor start and 2 poor pitstops, because he showed himself to ahve some real pace and raciness. The pitstops might've cost hima shot at 4th, whcih I think is what he deserved.

Superb display from Ferrari, but don't expect them to ahve it like this for teh rest of the season.

Precisely true Kicking-back, hoepfully peopela re starting to notice that Mark is still mediocre when it counts.

Both Sauber drivers were pretty hopeless. Massa went off at least 3 or 4 times, and Fisichella's sole highlight was the move on Heidfeld - who he should've been well clear of considering the quality of their cars. Neither of them looked like Ferrari material.

It's a shame BAR couldn't quite live up to their qualifying form in the race, but it's still a strong display. They look 4th best right now, while it's panic stations at McLaren. It'll be a real shame if they can't put this right.