Adelaide Street Circuit Starting Grid

racer69 · 2 Feb 2005, 05:50 (Ref:1215191)

Over the course of the last week or so i found myself watching the 1985, 1989, 1991 and 1994 Australian Grand Prix's at one time or another.

In the 1991 and 1994 races at least (i watched them in order, and can't remember off the top of my head about '85 and '89) the pole sitter, Ayrton Senna in '91, Nigel Mansell in '94, started from the inside of row 1 on the staggered grid.

Why in the Clipsal Adelaide 500 nowadays then, in a 2 by 2 grid formation, does the pole sitter start from the outside of row 1, giving the driver on gridslot 2 the inside line to turn 1?

The outside line isn't even the racing line at that part of the circuit, as the cars are crossing the track from the final corner to get into position for the first chicane.

Any idea's?

Hazza · 2 Feb 2005, 10:40 (Ref:1215348)

Sorry, the only thing I can think of is

Quote:

Murray Walker
'Nigel Mansell wins in Australia - FAN-TASTIC!'

00 XR8 · 3 Feb 2005, 03:09 (Ref:1216102)

The pole sitter starts from the left hand side of the grid, giving him the inside for the first left hander into the chicane.

I was actually in the parklands yesterday evening having a look at the work going on. The garages are all up already and the pitwall is in place. The basic structure of the pit-straight grandstand is up, but I nearly got killed by many big pieces of metal that got blown down by the wind from the top row of the stand! Not very smart putting it up there and leaving it without fastening it down. It is still a public park afterall, and if some jogger or dog-walker was to be struck by one of those things they would be dead, and so would the race

Mattracer · 3 Feb 2005, 10:49 (Ref:1216316)

Not to mention the dog.

rdmdog · 3 Feb 2005, 12:12 (Ref:1216411)

Didnt the F1 pole sitter get to choose what side they wanted to start from at one stage?

racer69 · 3 Feb 2005, 12:22 (Ref:1216415)

Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't.

That was what was partly to blame for the Senna/Prost crash at the first corner of the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix...............

racer69 · 31 Mar 2005, 00:03 (Ref:1265826)

Quote:

Originally Posted by 00 XR8

The pole sitter starts from the left hand side of the grid, giving him the inside for the first left hander into the chicane.

Just for the record, the second placed driver was on the inside of the tracks at the start of the races the other week. Does anyone know why this is so?

mac · 31 Mar 2005, 02:40 (Ref:1265870)

Don't know why but it certainly helped Marcos in Race 1.

It seemed odd to me, and I remember questioning it at the time.

peckstar · 1 Apr 2005, 11:20 (Ref:1267003)

yes we were questioning it too, it seemed just about every race we awatched, except for the last one the (and then the guy in P4 got the jum on P2 and P3) the driver who started P2 was ahead afet the chicane because they has the inside running. dosnt make sence at all,.

**GTRMagic** · 2 Apr 2005, 03:08 (Ref:1267616)

Quote:

Originally Posted by racer69

Just for the record, the second placed driver was on the inside of the tracks at the start of the races the other week. Does anyone know why this is so?

F1 uses the FIA standard for allocating pole position - this is the same as bikes use (even in Australia) - basically pole position is located on the racing line to the first corner. This if you have a left hand corner/bend immediately after the start, pole position will be on drivers right (i.e. if you stand in front of the grid looking back down the grid it will be on your left).

Australia - (well Winton anyway) - adopted this methodology for one race meeting some years ago and then promptly moved back to the 'Australian' way - i.e. Pole Position is on the inside running to the first corner. Taking the above example Pole Position would be on drivers left - your right if standing in front of the grid looking back down the grid.

Why? Who knows - it was tried but seemingly discarded very quickly.

This does raise a very interesting point however - the V8 Supercars are a recognised International FIA series therefore they SHOULD be following the FIA rules (they have used this excuse a couple of times before to over-ride a local CAMS rule and have been bitten by it themselves (such as the scale of the Team Dynamik fine last year) - so therefore - why AREN'T the V8's following the FIA requirements in relation to pole position????

peckstar · 3 Apr 2005, 03:41 (Ref:1268334)

is the difference that we do not have the front cars staggered, but rather line them up side by side, which is different F1 and bike and i assume other forms of interbnational mptor sport

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