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[LewEngBridewell]

Well, well, it's the McLaren boys sharing the front row at Melbourne!!!

These two, providing they stay clean at Turn 1, should have an interesting race!! Who do we think will come out on top?

[What's Burning?]

Well, well, it's the McLaren boys sharing the front row at Melbourne!!!

These two, providing they stay clean at Turn 1, should have an interesting race!! Who do we think will come out on top?

We shall soon find out. I don't know if I'll stay up, I don't know if I'll be able to stay up. maybe just watch it recorded as soon as I get up tomorrow morning. Regardless of who wins, it's unlikely that it will be a Red Bull driver, so it's a refreshing change of pace.

[f1ea]

Oh I didnt remember I had already voted.....

Anyways, not much has changed. Impossible to predict. Lewis is faster, but not better. Being better is better than faster.

[LewEngBridewell]

It seems like it's going to be an immensely close season between these two guys again. Lewis was dominant in qualifying, but Jenson Button laid down a statement of intent today in Melbourne.

Jenson 1 - Lewis 0

I can't wait to see how this partnership develops throughout 2012.

[darwin dali]

It seems like it's going to be an immensely close season between these two guys again. Lewis was dominant in qualifying, but Jenson Button laid down a statement of intent today in Melbourne.

Jenson 1 - Lewis 0

I can't wait to see how this partnership develops throughout 2012.

Eeevilll!

[McLaren]

Well i went for Lewis ,but I must say I'm starting to go off him.He just seems like another sulky Wayne Rooney type person.Spits his dummy out and sulks when things don't go his way.

Yes ok he had a bad start ,then unlucky with the safety car but the TEAM got 1st and 3rd and after all thats what matters most.He knows hes got a good car behind him,something a lot of the field can't say.The way the McLaren looks so far if he is good enough it looks like he could win the title this year.Yes I know its early days to be saying that but they're in the mix.

Gratz to Jenson today,perfect drive deserved the win fully

[synsei]

I'd like to have seen a thoroughly entertaining duel between the two McLaren drivers but I didn't. The rest of the field didn't disappoint though. Lewis's head seemed to be somewhere else today however Jenson drove a blinder, so very well done to him...

[LewEngBridewell]

I'd like to have seen a thoroughly entertaining duel between the two McLaren drivers but I didn't. The rest of the field didn't disappoint though. Lewis's head seemed to be somewhere else today however Jenson drove a blinder, so very well done to him...

Yeah, full credit to Jenson, he gave a stunning performance. Lewis just didn't seem to have all cylinders on the go. I'm not sure what was wrong, and it seems like he doesn't either.

[synsei]

I know this is a bit off topic but I thought Webber had a good race too. It was certainly great to see him finish his home GP, and in the points too...

[LewEngBridewell]

BBC Technical Analyst Gary Anderson on Lewis V Jenson:

In my opinion, Button plans a race better than Hamilton, while Hamilton is better at driving by the seat of his pants. So a one-off special qualifying lap is Hamilton's speciality.

I think Button concentrated more on the car with race levels of fuel in it and made sure he knew what the car was going to do in that state. Button's race pace was faster than Hamilton's but they wore their tyres out at the same pace. If you're going to drive slowly to look after the tyres, you're going to get beaten. So what you need is the set-up to allow you to drive quickly at the same time, which is what Button had.

Hamilton didn't look a happy bunny after the race, but he didn't do much wrong. He just didn't get quite enough right, and then the safety car caught him out.
He would probably have held on to second place if it had not been for that. It would have been hard for Sebastian Vettel to pass him in conventional fashion using the DRS overtaking aid because the McLaren was faster on the straights.

McLaren called the first pit stops too late. They dropped a second, then another second and then they brought Button in. Hamilton had to wait another lap and that lost him four seconds. That would be my biggest disappointment in the team if I was him. McLaren got away with that because they were so strong in the first stint, while Vettel was still battling past other cars. It was no-one's fault that Vettel passed Hamilton when the safety car was deployed.

McLaren stopped their cars on the same lap, which they could do because Button had a big enough margin to Hamilton, who could in straight afterwards without losing time. But when the safety car came out almost immediately afterwards, Vettel was inside the last circuit sector so could keep the hammer down.
Hamilton, meanwhile, had to slow down to the required caution speed. So he got caught. It happens.

[racechick]

Thats fair comment.
I cant understand why mclaren left them, particularly Lewis, out quite so long in that first stint when he'd radiod in his tyres were gone They did similar things last year. Do they have a computer work out the best tyre strategy and stick to it come what may? That seems a little inflexible if its the case. Ive heard Lewis criticized for not making bold tyre calls but he was clearly calling for new tyres well before they brought him in.
If one lap alone cost him 4seconds, then the whole 2 or 3 laps would account for much of the deficit to Button and then getting jumped with the safety car.
Maybe the reason for the glum face.

[LRW]

Yes ok he had a bad start ,then unlucky with the safety car but the TEAM got 1st and 3rd and after all thats what matters most........

I would imagine a lit if drivers are more concerned about where they finished, and the WDC, rather than the overall team result and WCC. At this stage of the championship anyway.

[What's Burning?]

Yes ok he had a bad start ,then unlucky with the safety car but the TEAM got 1st and 3rd and after all thats what matters most........

That's only for the driver that comes in first. Perhaps there would have been more smiles were it 1-2.

[bud]

Do they have a computer work out the best tyre strategy and stick to it come what may?

I think they work out how many laps they do on each compound and try to stick to that. at the end of each stint you have tyre degradation i guess bringing a driver in early only passes that problem on to the next stint as your say 18 lap stint turns into 24 then the drop off might be bigger so being 1 or 2 seconds a lap slower on the first stint is better than being 3 or 4 seconds slower on the next stint because you're doing more laps than you should.

in hindsight if you knew the SC was coming out you would have brought him in earlier as SC laps save the tyre life.


It also must be said who ever is the lead car gets first call on pits. If Lewis didn't lose his P1 at the first corner his race might have been different, but by the way Jenson was pulling away from Lewis at the start Jenson probably would have passed him anyway.

[calvins48]

I was very annoyed with McLaren last year after all of the bad judgement calls they made. They cost their drivers a couple of wins and a few podiums because of their terrible technical team.

I don't recall where this race was, but basically what happened was before the race Lewis said to his engineer that he wanted a longer seventh gear so that he could overtake people on the straights better. His engineer recommended that he take a shorter one but Hamilton wanted a longer one. Lewis decided that his engineer knew best (clue's in the title) and took a shorter seventh gear. And what happened in the race? Lewis caught Vettel but couldn't pass him on the straights because his seventh gear was too short. He was stuck behind Seb for something like 6 laps and finished just behind him. If Lewis' race engineer had listened to his driver's demands, Lewis would've won that race for sure.

There were many other instances of this happening throughout last season, and not just screwing Lewis, Jenson as well.

British GP last year? Button's wheel fell off after his pit? The right-front wheel man was just picking up his other wheel gun after his first one failed but the blind lollipop man released the car before he could pick up the back-up wheel gun. This is Formula 1, gimme a break, that's a rookie error.

Japanese GP last year? They didn't get Hamilton over the line to start his Q lap when he was a sure-fire pole. I watched the race at 6am in the morning (my time) with about 2 hours of sleep, and even I could work out that he wasn't going to get over the line in time. And what did it do? Cost him a 100 per cent certain pole position. Button had been quick all weekend and was JUST behind Vettel, but Hamilton's first lap on scrubbed tyres still put him third. Do the math and one would be mindless not to bet on Hamlton taking pole. Of course, we don't know what difference it would've made since Seb won the the title anyway.

McLaren have brought Sam Michael in from Williams as their new technical director, so this should help the situation. Last season, I was shouting at the TV screen telling McLaren that their strategy was gonna fail and it did. I recall Monaco was another screw up.

For a team of McLaren's pedigree, their pit work and strategy at times is mind numbing, (China 07 the lowest of low points). It was Virgin/HRT-level incompetence. Hopefully this season they will improve.

Button has done the team proud and put the work at Oz so they should reward him by being a smart team.