Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

[peter]

They have only just got out on track and it has started already we now have knee gate lol. They say it's worth an extra 6 miles an hour down the straight

[Ian]

Re: Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

Knee?

Just seen the Hispania car emerge from the pits to actual move under its own power for the first time ever - remarkable. It looks uncannily similar the Virgin car.

It would be nice to see the Virgin car on-track

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

Timo Glock in the Virgin is on the track at last - looks very twitchy!

Ian

[peter]

Re: Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

Yes Knee gate lol

http://www.formula1blog.com/2010/03/12/fia-avoids-wing-gate-or-knee-gate-or-drag-gate/

[peter]

Re: Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

Knee?

It would be nice to see the Virgin car on-track

Ian

yes but will it make it to the end of the race. Not sure it will go the full distance. There is a joke in there somewhere lol

[Ian]

Re: Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

There are some reports thet Herr Schumacher requested that his car be on the other side of the garage to where it was originally planned to be, which has not gone down particularly well with the engineers and mechanics. And team mate Nico Rosberg has been told he can't have personal sponsorship while Schumacher does. This is all after Schumacher was designated car No.4 and he requested Rosberg's number (3) instead. Mind games? Or am I imagining things? Anyway, Nico did his talking on the track and was comfortably faster than Schumacher in practice 1 this morning.

Ian

[peter]

Re: Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

There are some reports thet Herr Schumacher requested that his car be on the other side of the garage to where it was originally planned to be, which has not gone down particularly well with the engineers and mechanics. And team mate Nico Rosberg has been told he can't have personal sponsorship while Schumacher does. This is all after Schumacher was designated car No.4 and he requested Rosberg's number (3) instead. Mind games? Or am I imagining things? Anyway, Nico did his talking on the track and was comfortably faster than Schumacher in practice 1 this morning.

Ian

Yes just picked up on all that. Schumacher mind games ?? not sure what you mean

now it looks like bits are falling of the Lotus lewis has now wrecked a set of tyers after only 4 laps

[peter]

Re: Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

Well I am happy with that Ferrari 1 and 2 oh and Schumacher in the points.

[JSR]

Re: Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

Nice win for Alonso, but are Vettel's chances going to be thwarted again by unreliable cars?

I found the race quite tedious and dull, though. If it wasn't for the newbies having issues I think I may have fallen asleep.

I hope the shorter tracks liven things up a bit or else I'm going to start thinking that this "no refuelling" idea wasn't so clever after all. As much as I don't like a race decided by pit stops, if it means everyone is nursemaiding their tyres so much that they're afraid to put their foot down for an overtake, then we're going to have the dullest season for many a year.

[peter]

Re: Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

Nice win for Alonso, but are Vettel's chances going to be thwarted again by unreliable cars?

I found the race quite tedious and dull, though. If it wasn't for the newbies having issues I think I may have fallen asleep.

I hope the shorter tracks liven things up a bit or else I'm going to start thinking that this "no refuelling" idea wasn't so clever after all. As much as I don't like a race decided by pit stops, if it means everyone is nursemaiding their tyres so much that they're afraid to put their foot down for an overtake, then we're going to have the dullest season for many a year.

I agree with that 100% it was a bit dull. I did read that they may make the teams do two pit stops in every race but they want to see how it goes for now.

[Ian]

Re: Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

I agree with that 100% it was a bit dull. I did read that they may make the teams do two pit stops in every race but they want to see how it goes for now.

There is still too much reliance on aerodynamics, which is why Jenson could get to within 0.7 seconds of Schumacher and that was as close as it would get. The same story for Webber, in a quicker car, behind Jenson. And the same for Rosberg who had been catching Vettel by up to 3 seconds a lap.

They also need to make braking distances longer, so I think carbon brakes should be banned (have been of this opinion for longer than I care to remember) - this should also save money.

As for the race itself, it contradicted all my preconceptions. I thought that there would be a much larger range of performances throughout the race as the fuel weight dropped and tyres wore out at different rates, but the engineering is so good among the top teams that the differences were quite small and they tended to follow the same strategies.

McLaren's Martin Whitmarsh seemed very frank in suggesting they had got the setup wrong. They had plenty of straight line speed but not enough downforce for thw twisty middle sector.

I just hope things improve at Melbourne - and the quicker they make two stops compulsoy the better!

Ian

[devilgas]

Re: Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

anyone else think that q3 has now died? instead of getting a number of banzai laps in to get pole, it's set one lap, then pretty much leave it there so that the tyres are still usable in the race. certainly can't see us getting the quali battles we've witnessed before.

as for the race....was looking forward to a sprint race in the last 10 laps which just didn't happen. felt sorry for seb. it wasn't so much that ferrari won the race, more like red bull lost it due to (again) reliability problems.

i sincerely hope the rest of the season isn't as tedious as this race was. the only thing that was memorable was the insanely fast pit stops and the start, where it looked like webber's engine had self destructed.
think it might be sky+ for future and watch on fast forward.

on the plus, brundle is by far the best commentator in F1. he diagnosed vettel's problem immediately, confirmed by RB a few laps later. was strange seeing him queueing for an interview though.

[Ian]

Re: Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

anyone else think that q3 has now died? instead of getting a number of banzai laps in to get pole, it's set one lap, then pretty much leave it there so that the tyres are still usable in the race. certainly can't see us getting the quali battles we've witnessed before.

as for the race....was looking forward to a sprint race in the last 10 laps which just didn't happen. felt sorry for seb. it wasn't so much that ferrari won the race, more like red bull lost it due to (again) reliability problems.

i sincerely hope the rest of the season isn't as tedious as this race was. the only thing that was memorable was the insanely fast pit stops and the start, where it looked like webber's engine had self destructed.
think it might be sky+ for future and watch on fast forward.

on the plus, brundle is by far the best commentator in F1. he diagnosed vettel's problem immediately, confirmed by RB a few laps later. was strange seeing him queueing for an interview though.

I'm not so sure that Q3 will be like that if the consensus post race yesterday was anything to go by in that qualifying is now more important than ever because there is less uncertainty with fewer stops. If you don't do a good enough first run, you will have to go out again.

My preconception was that qualifying wouldn't be so important has once again been completely wrong . I assumed that there would be a much more mixed up race, but it wasn't like that at all.

Ian

[coupekid]

Re: Oh god here we go again now it's "Knee Gate"

what a waste of a weekend!

I thought it was such a shame that Vetel went out. Perhaps if he didnt, we would have seen the Ferraris have a few more problems with heat adding a little more excitement.

I have to say that it was such a boring race, not really that much excitement, I sincerely hope that things pick up for the other races.

It seems to me that the only solution really is to kill off a lot of the aero packages. Maybe completely remove the rear wing to prevent the 'dirty air' issues they are having! ;o)

So how long do you reckon before diesel comes to F1 as it has done with Le Mans?