Ducati Monster Forum

2d 22h until first practice!  ;D

Practice 1   (Thu) 18:30
Practice 2   (Thu) 22:30
Practice    (Fri) 20:00   
Qualifying    (Fri) 23:00   
Race            (Sat) 23:00   

all left coast times.

recap of the rule changes for 2009:

http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules_and_regulations/sporting_regulations/8692/ (http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules_and_regulations/sporting_regulations/8692/)

Are they on the tube at those times, and which channel?  :P

speedtv, live at those times.

i haven't checked the schedule yet, but last year they quit showing practice 1 and just broadcast practice 2, qualy, and the race.

Thanks!  [thumbsup]

Shall we start a pool on how many of those ginormous front wings get pranged on the first lap?  ;D

I would hope that the 16 top drivers competing for the world championship could manage to avoid each other. They've had enough practice and certainly know the cars by now.

That said, I say 3.  ;D

I say 2 wings.

In with 4 wings.  [laugh]

wwwwoooooooooooooooooooooooottttttttttt!!!!


aaaand the cars are still fugly.


 :P

..... but less fugly than before.

I kind of like them the more I see them.

mmmm negatory

 :-*

how ya been buddy?

Been better, been worse.

Good to see ya back in the house.  :)

only coming up for air for a little bit.... had to for F1  ;)

i'm making the lady watch it with me.  it's ok.  she likes hammy   8)

race day how exciting [roll]
 [popcorn]


F1 is quite boring to be honest, bring on the aussie V8's, the aerodynamics are butt ugly and such a small feild don't make for great veiwing. About time F1 was made alterations to reduce cost to encourage more manufactuers and teams
 might go ride past albert park during the race just to hear them scream past :)

still 14 days til MOTOGP [beer]  bikes far better to watch then the cars





first post [clap]

I like all racing for different reasons. The V8 touring cars are fun, but F1 still holds a special place in my heart.

 [thumbsup] HAMILTON WAS COMPLETELY BRILLIANT......LAST TO 4TH [thumbsup]

interesting race over all.
Just the front wing looks hideous in my opinion

Not a bad race - it was nice to see the status quo upset. The change with aerodynamics might just make for a more exciting season.

Promoted to THIRD on a stewards ruling...... which is bittersweet since I am a Mercedes and Hamilton Fan...the stewards are WAY WAY to active in F1...there need to be rule changes to limit the effect they can have on race outcome!

I like seeing the shake-up. Vettal is going to be a force this year and the Brawn GP team have really done their homework. Throw in the reliability (or lack thereof) questions and it could be anybody's championship.

And how about Buemi mixing it up and scoring points in his first GP?

Now, if only we can get 6 more cars on the grid in the next couple of years to truly make it interesting.

"Toyota’s Jarno Trulli has lost his third place in Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix after stewards penalized him for passing under the safety car in the closing laps."

if he did indeed made a pass during the safety car period, shouldn't he have been penalized?

what rule would you propose to "limit the effect they can have on race outcome?"

well, you have the aero changes + the tire compound changes...

regarding the aero, if the decision stands regarding the diffuser on the brawn, et al., i expect the non-downforce-diffuser teams to adapt to that interpretation and get stronger moving forward.

with last year's tire compound rules (using two neighboring/similar compounds) the performance differences were often subtle. this year, with a  wider spread in the compounds used for the race, you can actually get it very wrong.

i believe it was said that the intent of the new tire rules was to actually challenge the teams and make it "more difficult" to work with the tires.

further stewards' decisions:

http://www.crash.net/Formula+One/News/144577/1/vettel_punished_for_melbourne_clash_with_kubica.html (http://www.crash.net/Formula+One/News/144577/1/vettel_punished_for_melbourne_clash_with_kubica.html)

Although race footage led most 'experts' to claim that the collision three laps from home was little more than a 'racing incident', with both drivers guilty of trying to retain an advantage, the FIA-appointed stewards decided that Red Bull Racing's Vettel - making his debut with the Milton Keynes-based team - was more to blame. As a result, the German was not only hit with a ten-place grid penalty for next weekend's race in Malaysia, but also fined heavily.

 [roll]

that's lame.

kubica had as much to do with the incident as vettel.

let the boys race!  hit happens.   ;D

yup... this is what happens when your race stewards are "some random local shmoe" that changes every round instead of people that actually know what's going on (like ex-racers, etc).

i do have to say the secondary (and debilitating) crashes that they both had after the incident were entirely their faults!  i mean, you lose your barge board of a wing, don't bother slowing down... nay, you speed up and then *turn*... yeah, they both crashed into the wallm what did you expect?   [roll]  imo that's where the real stupidity occurred.

must say i'm impressed with barrichello's racing and the brawn's resilience in light of the frontal impact, as well as the rear impact.  he was right in the interview- it demonstrated that it's not just about the diffuser- the car is overall pretty good.

also, what's up with some cars making some strange sounds this year that *would* be explained away by KERS kicking in, if it were only occurring in KERS cars?  I'm talking about the sound where it seems as though the car is skipping through a gear and the engine is overrevving before catching.  it's a strange sound and the commentators noticed it once but blamed it on KERS- problem is, the KERS icon wasn't showing the driver actually using the boost.

and I also heard it on kubica's car which doesn't have it.

well, he may not have been able to see that he no longer had a front wing. they're kinda invisible from the cockpit.

i heard/saw the same thing and had to rewind to double-check.


you sure that wasn't his teammate's car? i'll have to go back and re-watch the race.

awwww cmon.. there was debris flying everywhere!  i don't buy that... the car twisted n carbon went flying- anybody with a brain would realize it's the fragile front wing that just grenaded  ;)


mayhaps it's the sound of KERS charging?  but it should only operate under braking, so that can't be it.

you know, the KERS "empty" icon is bs.  it's not that the system is fully discharged, but that it's been used for the allotted amount of time.  if the KERS completely discharged, then charging wouldn't be immediate the way it seems to occur.  so i'm wary of the icon in general... it should be a timer and not a battery indicator- it's misleading.


could have been.  let me know what you find.  i already deleted my recording.   [thumbsup]

Was it just me or did the cars look like they are going really sllllloooooooowwwwwwww?

As compared to years past?

C'mon Derby, any info on lap times from previous years? I couldn't be bothered looking.  [roll]

the lap times were faster than last year (at least in qualy... not sure about the race)    :)

that's bs.  lets change the car to make passing easier... but then fine the drivers if the make a mistake (although i can not understand how it was vettel's fault, he had the position and kubica tried to close the door on him). 

It's available at ninjavideo.net for anyone without an RU account.

But yeah, nice to see the brawn guys doing so well. Anything that Sir Richard Brunson touches appears to be golden.

I've always been a Ferrari guy (Family thing) and was kinda sad to see the Reds both having DNF.

Oh and the Vettel punishment was BS

good point, aaron

on another note, why does nelson piquet jr even have a ride?

or kazoo, for that matter?

son of a former three-time world champion?  ;D


also the son of a former f1 racer.  ;D i'm sure being japanese doesn't hurt when racing for toyota, either...

faster in the race, too,  iirc. i'll watch the race again tomorrow to confirm this and the kers question.

What a weekend [thumbsup]

I managed to make it to my 2nd GP ever. The last one was 2 yrs ago in Montreal. Kubica crashed at that one too.  [bang] 
I was absolutely gutted - although probably not as much as Robert and Vettel. He was on pace to catch Button too.

The twilight race idea is stupid. Really hard on the drivers I would think - spending half the race with the sun in your eyes and varying shadows. They should go night race next year or I wouldn't be suprised they lose the even all together.

Melbourne is a really cool city. I stopped by the Ducati dealership downtown and checked out the M1100S. I think I found my next bike.  ;)

What are the odds - Kubica crashes at the only two races I go to. Oh well I still say he's going to take the season - as long as the FIA sorts out the diffuser situation. It was a noticable advantage imo.

 ;)

well, that's kinda the point... bernie wanted a night race (better viewing time for euros) and the promotors/organizers didn't want to deal with the expense of installing lights for a race that's lost money every year they've run it. so they "compromised' on a twilight race and the only people that had to "deal with it" were the guys doing ~200mph.

weak.

+1 it seems to me that he didnt even finish half the races last season.

yes, exactly. you want close racing and overtaking then you are going to get accidents.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74146 (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74146)

Hamilton disqualified.

ghey

...and possibly "facing exclusion for the season?"

http://www.crash.net/Formula+One/News/144739/1/hamilton_facing_f1_world_championship_exclusion.html (http://www.crash.net/Formula+One/News/144739/1/hamilton_facing_f1_world_championship_exclusion.html)

jeebus... One race is enough. Let the championship be.

Hmm. Guess I should hold off on any "vendetta" comments until we find out what the radio transmissions said - if we do.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74159 (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74159)

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74158 (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74158)

Not the way the championship should be decided.