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[Hammer278]

While Ferrari send their drivers to the Racing academy for training...

McLaren considering Mercedes-style F-duct

McLaren is likely to introduce its own version of Mercedes' new DRS-operated F-duct, which has caught the attention of several teams in the paddock this weekend.

The controversial new device is activated when the moveable rear wing is open, further reducing drag and increasing top speed. Lotus and Red Bull believe the device is illegal and asked the FIA to clarify the rules regarding F-ducts on Saturday. Lotus has threatened to protest this weekend's results, but Martin Whitmarsh, whose McLaren cars are not running the system, says he believes the system is legal.

"There is an exception for DRS mechanisms and I think it's part of that," he said on Saturday night. "I think they've used that exception be able to operate an F-duct type device. Looking at the regs that is what I think, but I'm sure others will take a deeper look than I have."

He said his team is looking into introducing its own version if it can get it to work with the existing package on the MP4-27.

"With regards to the DRS activated F-duct controversy, we are looking at some of those ideas," he said. "I think there are some interesting things and one would imagine they would feature on cars as the year progresses."

He added: "I think we've got a reasonable understanding of the system. The packaging of an F1 car is pretty tight when squeezing ducts and things through, but I think our engineers are usually pretty good at doing those sorts of things. What we've got to make sure though, is when trying to achieve the F-duct, we don't compromise the fundamental underlying performance of those aerodynamic parts. But I think it is not too challenging a job to introduce all the various ducting if indeed you can find a solution that's going to give you - both deployed and undeployed - a better solution."

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Hopefully the best package on the grid in Melbourne will get better quickly.

[scotty]

Very well done Lewis. The fastest racer on the grid by miles imo. Watch Button, Vettel etc look as if they are going backwards this season as Lewis takes them all apart.

Yeah, one tenth sure is 'miles'

[What's Burning?]

Lewis said McLaren worked long and hard on upgrading their rear view mirrors this year.

[Hammer278]

Very well done Lewis. The fastest racer on the grid by miles imo. Watch Button, Vettel etc look as if they are going backwards this season as Lewis takes them all apart.

Yeah, one tenth sure is 'miles'

He said fastest 'racer', not 'qualifier'.

[Blackavar]

Wonderful to have the season back

Nice work by the McLarens and Mercedes, both look very quick. I expect the Red Bulls to show off their real speed in the race though. Just unlucky in qualifying. Delighted for Grosjean to get up to third! Maybe that Lotus is a real contender for the season. Well done to the Torro Rosso of Ricciardo for getting into tenth, was quite surprised by that. Feel let down by my Kimi though, but he'll get points anyway. I have no doubt about it. Starting in 17th now thanks to Perez dropping to 22nd. Can't wait for tomorrow!

[scotty]

Very well done Lewis. The fastest racer on the grid by miles imo. Watch Button, Vettel etc look as if they are going backwards this season as Lewis takes them all apart.

Yeah, one tenth sure is 'miles'

He said fastest 'racer', not 'qualifier'.

It's obvious what was implied.

[Hammer278]

I believe he's implying about what he expects to see tomorrow. Fastest racer = leaving the rest behind in his wake.

Of course I could be completely wrong. Happened before.

[LRW]

.........I expect the Red Bulls to show off their real speed in the race though. Just unlucky in qualifying........

Are you confusing the words slow and unlucky up??

[vaptin]

Button's pace is normally good in races, his usual problem is poor qualifying meaning he gets held up, not an issue when your second. He's generally a decent starter too. Oh, that's one to watch, how Webber starts this race, presumably Redbull will be allowed to fix his kers (well, they've already had plenty of time to fix the issue properly)?

Schumacher has had some great starts, Mercedes have the strongest DRS, Australia's a street circuit and no badly worded ambiguous rules about driver defending is going to bother Shooey.

If Grosjean takes the lead I might wet myself.

Still Hamilton does make good starts when he is leading, and most of his problems are borne out of frustration - not normally an issue when your leading (I guess we'll hear the old conserve the tyres argument on the radio). But when qualifying was as close as we've seen, race pace can change the order dramatically between the cars.

[Gibbo]

hopefully hamilton will do a vettel - be the first into turn 1 and then say goodbye!

hamilton just needs to stay out of trouble and it's in the bag!

[What's Burning?]

My wife said that Romain Grosjean looks like Jenson Button's ugly duckling little brother.

[scotty]

Does anyone actually have any idea on how long these tyres are expected to last?

[Bubbie]

Excellent Quali to start the year. Glad to see that that it won't be a walkover by any team. Lots of good performance from the big teams.

What happened to red Bull? I definitely think they are having an "oh crap" moment tonight.

Nice to see Lotus off to a good start, but as has been mentioned I won't read too much into that since they had a great start last year as well.

Mercedes and McLaren to duke it out.

Ferrari needs to get it together, but I think they can. If Alonso had not spun out it would have been interesting to see what he could have pulled out of the bag.

With regards to the passive F-Duct, I thought the issue everyone had with the old one is that it was manually activated and the driver's would have to block a hole with their hand thus compromising driver safety. If it is part of the DRS system and can only be used in the DRS zones, then everyone needs to quit their bitching and get on with their own version of it.

Gonna be an awesome season if this first quali is any indication of the equality of where everyone is.

[What's Burning?]

Does anyone actually have any idea on how long these tyres are expected to last?

Pirelli has said that they won't last much longer but they won't drop off as quickly as last year, with less marbles. They also said that all of the compounds were brought closer together, especially the medium and hard.

[calvins48]

I think it's awesome we're all so excited but don't get your hopes up!! One race never tells the story for the whole season!

Who came 3rd here last year? Petrov in the Renault. And did he finish 3rd in the WDC? Nope. Not even close.

I'm as excited as the next fan, but remember, this race tells us little in terms of what we're going to see by November.