Formula 1 General Chat & Discussion

The Times of the 2nd free practice session are :

1. Michael Schumacher – Mercedes – 1:29.183 – 16 laps
2. Nico Hulkenberg – Force India – 1:29.292 – 19 laps
3. Sergio Perez – Sauber – 1:30.199 – 23 laps
4. Fernando Alonso – Ferrari – 1:30.341 – 13 laps
5. Kamui Kobayashi – Sauber – 1:30.709 – 14 laps
6. Paul di Resta – Force India – 1:31.466 – 13 laps
7. Felipe Massa – Ferrari – 1:31.505 – 14 laps
8. Heikki Kovalainen – Caterham – 1:31.932 – 16 laps
9. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes – 1:32.184 – 17 laps
10. Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull Racing – 1:32.194 – 19 laps
11. Mark Webber – Red Bull Racing – 1:32.296 – 20 laps
12. Timo Glock – Marussia – 1:32.632 – 17 laps
13. Vitaly Petrov – Caterham – 1:32.767 – 15 laps
14. Romain Grosjean – Lotus – 1:32.822 – 11 laps
15. Jenson Button – McLaren – 1:33.039 – 18 laps
16. Lewis Hamilton – McLaren – 1:33.252 – 11 laps
17. Pastor Maldonado – Williams – 1:34.108 – 21 laps
18. Kimi Raikkonen – Lotus – 1:34.275 – 7 laps
19. Bruno Senna – Williams – 1:34.312 – 17 laps
20. Jean-Eric Vergne – Scuderia Toro Rosso – 1:34.485 – 29laps
21. Daniel Ricciardo – Scuderia Toro Rosso – 1:34.604 – 31 laps
22. Charles Pic – Marussia – 1:34.770 – 13 laps
23. Narain Karthikeyan – HRT – 1:42.627 – 16 laps
24. Pedro de la Rosa – HRT – no time – 1 lap

Short comment of 2nd session :
Michael Schumacher set the pace in a rain-affected second free practice session for the Australian Grand Prix.
The seven-time champion set his 1m29.183s lap on the last of the session, on a track that was improving in terms of grip with every second of running, but in spite of being at the right end of the roulette wheel the Mercedes driver had look good for it throughout the last frantic 20 minutes of running.
In the end Schumacher denied Nico Hulkenberg another giant-killing headline, and the young German had to settle for second best this time. Sergio Perez was third fastest for Sauber.
Torrential rain during the break between the two sessions rendered much of FP2 largely pointless, and it was Perez and Schumacher that were nominally fastest on the intermediates by the time the teams reached a natural pause around two thirds of the way through the practice.
As Albert Park fell silent, it was clear many of the teams were protecting their new cars from the walls that enclosed the slippery surface - aware perhaps that spares are at premium at this point in the season.
Only in the last 20 minutes did they deem it safe enough to venture back out and the session finally came alive when it was dry enough to run on slicks.
And during this period it was Hulkenberg who starred as he embarked on a battle with Schumacher for top honours - the Force India driver on the soft tyres and the Mercedes using mediums. Hulkenberg's team-mate Paul di Resta also had a brief spell at the top of the times before fading to sixth.
Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest in the Ferrari ahead of Kamui Kobayashi - who had a wild ride at the final turn on his last lap.
Felipe Massa, Heikki Kovalainen, Nico Rosberg and world champion Sebastian Vettel completed the top ten.
Neither McLaren driver featured much in the session as they preferred to stay out of the danger zone, and both ended up behind Timo Glock's 12th placed Marussia.
There were several visits to the grass and run-off for much of the field, including Perez, Jean-Eric Vergne, Webber and Kovalainen, but no contact with the barriers.

Tomorrow saturday at 04.00u CET will be the 3rd free practice session ,followed at 07.00u CET with the qulification !!!

Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi

Here are the times of the 1st free practice session :

1. Jenson Button – McLaren – 1:27.560 – 11 laps
2. Lewis Hamilton – McLaren – 1:27.805 – 14 laps
3. Michael Schumacher – Mercedes – 1:28.235 – 17 laps
4. Fernando Alonso – Ferrari 1:28.360 – 21 laps
5. Mark Webber – Red Bull Racing – 1:28.467 – 21 laps
6. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes – 1:28.683 – 22 laps
7. Daniel Ricciardo – Scuderia Toro Rosso – 1:28.908 – 23 laps
8. Pastor Maldonado – Williams – 1:29.415 – 16 laps
9. Kimi Raikkonen – Lotus – 1:29.565 – 8 laps
10.Kamui Kobayashi – Sauber – 1:29.722 – 26 laps
11. Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull Racing – 1:29.790 – 21 laps
12. Nico Hulkenberg – Force India – 1:29.865 – 17 laps
13. Paul di Resta – Force India – 1:29.881 – 18 laps
14. Bruno Senna – Williams – 1:29.953 – 21 laps
15. Sergio Perez – Sauber – 1:30.124 – 22 laps
16. Romain Grosjean – Lotus – 1:30.515 – 16 laps
17. Heikki Kovalainen – Caterham – 1:30.586 – 16 laps
18. Felipe Massa – Ferrari – 1:30.743 – 11 laps
19. Jean-Eric Vergne – Scuderia Toro Rosso – 1:31.178 – 17 laps
20. Vitaly Petrov – Caterham – 1:31.983 – 8 laps
21. Timo Glock – Marussia – 1:34.730 – 8 laps
22. Charles Pic – Marussia – 1:40.256 – 11 laps
23. Narain Karthikeyan – HRT – no time– 3 laps
24. Pedro de la Rosa – HRT – no time – 0 laps

Short comment of the 1st session :
Jenson Button led a McLaren one-two in the first free practice session of the 2012 Formula 1 season in Melbourne.
Damp conditions early on meant relatively little serious running until the final half an hour, with Button going quickest by 0.245 seconds over team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Michael Schumacher was third for Mercedes, followed by Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and home hero Mark Webber (Red Bull).
World champion Sebastian Vettel was a quiet 11th in the second Red Bull.
Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne had the honour of leading the field out for the first time in an official session in 2012, and the Frenchman and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had the track largely to themselves at first - choosing to rack up laps while the circuit was still drying, whereas most waited in the pits until conditions improved.
It was Ricciardo who duly logged the season's first flying lap with a 1m47.448s after 20 minutes.
Nearly an hour passed before the Albert Park circuit was in good enough shape for slick tyres. Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi - who by that time was the fastest man on intermediates - led the move to dry tyres and blew his previous benchmark away by just over five seconds.
Webber then deposed Kobayashi, who grabbed the top spot back again, but only momentarily before Schumacher began a long stint in first place, which lasted until Button put in his session-topping 1m27.560s with nine minutes to go.
Hamilton then joined his team-mate at the front with a lap 0.245s slower in the closing moments, pushing Schumacher back to third.
Alonso escaped a massive slide at the final corner on his last lap to take fourth, but his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa ended the morning in the gravel after putting a wheel on the grass under braking for Turn 9 with 13 minutes to go, sending the Brazilian spinning.
Nico Rosberg completed the top six for Mercedes, followed by Ricciardo, Pastor Maldonado's Williams, Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus and Kobayashi. Raikkonen only got out in the final few minutes after a long pause in the Lotus garage having his steering rack changed.
HRT endured what has become its traditional very tough start to an F1 season with neither car setting a flying lap. Pedro de la Rosa's machine was not ready in time to leave the pits during the session, while rising engine temperatures led to Narain Karthikeyan's car cutting out on the backstretch after 32 minutes.

Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi

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The Times of the season opener are :

Friday :
1st free practice : 02.30u - 04.00u
2nd free practice : 06.30u - 08.00u

Saturday :
3rd free practice : 04.00u - 05.00u
Qualifying : 07.00u - 08.00u

Sunday :
Race : 07.00u

Very Interesting Link !!!!!!
Fo all F1 Fans/Motorsport fans ...if you are interested in " Live Timing " than this is the best link for it !!!
If you are going there for the 1st time you have to log in with your email and give it a password ..and than it's up to you witch window you want to look at....the Standard window or the Large window . You can watch the times of the practice sessions,the qualification and the race like the Teams have it on there screens/monitors !!!

Kind Regards
Shaky - Schumi

News :

Melbourne will give first clues whether 2012 will be as close as it looks
What to expect in Melbourne
Albert Park in Melbourne may give our first clues about how the season will unfold, but it won’t give us the full picture.
The circuit is not quite typical of modern F1 tracks. Being a temporary facility, it takes a while for the grip to develop over a race weekend. The corners are for the most part quite slow, which doesn’t place the same premium on aerodynamic efficiency that most circuits do. However the combination of a tricky surface and limited run-off in places can often make for exciting races and more than a few safety car appearances. Last year’s race was unusual in that the safety car was never deployed – something which happened in the previous three Australian Grands Prix .

Melbourne circuit information
Lap length 5.303km (3.295 miles)
Distance 58 laps (307.6km/191.1 miles)
Lap record* 1’24.125 (Michael Schumacher, 2004)
Fastest lap 1’23.529 (Sebastian Vettel, 2011)
Tyres Hard and Soft
*Fastest lap set during a Grand Prix

Double DRS zones get single detection point in Melbourne :
The FIA has confirmed details of the two DRS zones for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.
Drivers will be able to use DRS on two consecutive straights during the race, leading into turns one and three.
There will be a single detection point for the two zones on the entry to turn 14.
Jenson Button said: “I think the potential of a second DRS zone will be a real benefit – last year, along the startline wasn’t quite enough for overtaking – I think we’ll get more benefit from a second zone.”
Last year twin DRS zones with a single activation point were used in the Canadian and European Grand Prix.
Two DRS zones were also used last year in Abu Dhabi, but each zone had its own detection point.

Wet start expected for first practice session of 2012

The tires that Pirelli will bring to the first three races:
Australia: [b]Soft (yellow marker) and medium (white)[/b]
Malaysia: Medium and hard (silver)
China: Soft and medium

Lotus presents Microsoft as a sponsor:
Lotus has managed to win Microsoft as a sponsor. Thus, the team announced in Melbourne Australia, where this weekend the new Formula 1 season starts. It is a three year deal with the logo of the software giant will be seen in big on there cars and overalls .
"We are extremely proud to have Microsoft as a sponsor and business partner , said director Patrick Lotus Louis. " The snares of Microsoft is an important step in achieving our new goals."
Microsoft, measured by sales the largest software company in the world, has not previously been active as a sponsor in the highest class racing .

Vettel calls new Formula 1 car Abbey :
Sebastian Vettel has this year given his car a girl's name again. The double world champion has christened his new car Abbey, possibly a reference to Abbey Road, as Vettel is a big Beatles fan.
In 2010 Vettel won his first world title with Luscious Liz. Last year he rolled onto the field with Kinky Kylie. In 2009, Vettel drove in his first season for Red Bull Racing with Kate before the switch to Kate's Dirty Sister.

Herbert steward during season opener :
Johnny Herbert is one of stewards during the first race weekend of the season. Thus said the FIA . Herbert, who was active from 1989 to 2000 as a driver in Formula 1 , was last year also one of the stewards during the Australian Grand Prix. Later that year the 47-year-old Briton also steward to the first edition of the Grand Prix of India.

HRT let second car approve on Friday:
The team of HRT asked the FIA to approve the second car on Friday morning ,this the one of Pedro de la Rosa. The Madrid racing stable has the car of 41-year-old Spaniard not yet ready to race.The car of Narain Karthikeyan could be tested as usual on Thursday .

Caterham F1 Team teams up with Visa
The team of Caterham has partnered with credit card company Visa. It is a multi-year agreement, which Visa acts as Experiental Hospitality and Marketing Partner. Caterham and Visa establish a program to Visa cardholders to experience Formula 1.

Mercedes F1 team's rear wing concept deemed legal by FIA
Mercedes' hopes of delivering on its strong winter testing form have received a boost, with the FIA confirming ahead of he Australian Grand Prix that a radical wing concept the team has pioneered is fully legal. The Brackley-based outfit stirred up interest from its rivals throughout pre-season testing with its W03 featuring its own version of a rear-wing F-duct concept - that some suspected was activated by vents being opened when the upper wing elements moves during DRS activation. It is understood that rival teams queried the legality of such a system – which vents the air through the endplates and in to the main plane, to help stall the wing and boost straight-line speed – with the FIA.
However, despite the way the system effectively makes use of driver movement when he activates the DRS, the FIA has no doubts that it complies with the regulations. When asked by AUTOSPORT to clarify the situation, the head of the FIA's F1 technical department Charlie Whiting said: "Some teams are questioning it on the basis that they thought F-ducts were banned. Well, F-ducts are not banned. "At the end of 2010 everyone was using driver operated F-ducts and the regulations that were changed specifically banned the use of driver movement to influence the aerodynamic performance of the car – that got rid of that generation of so-called F-ducts.
"At the beginning of last year, with engineers being unable to unlearn things, they wanted to try and get the effect via different means, and they talked about opening and closing a duct by having interaction with the suspension. We said no, you cannot do that because that is not the primary purpose of the suspension system – which is to insulate the car from undulations in the road. "There was then a lengthy discussion in the TWG at the beginning of last year about that, to make sure everyone was clear about it. It seems a couple of teams went away from that meeting with the impression that F-ducts were banned in general. Whatever an F-duct is. But they are not." Whiting would not reveal further details of how the Mercedes system works, but said that he viewed it as completely passive. "What it appears some teams are doing is that when the DRS is operated, it will allow air to pass into a duct and do other things," he explained.
"That is all I can say – you will probably have a pretty good idea of what it might be doing, and other teams will as well. But it is completely passive. There are no moving parts in it; it doesn't interact with any suspension. No steering, nothing. Therefore I cannot see a rule that prohibits it."

Paffett for a weekend reserve driver at Force India
Force India appointed McLaren test driver Gary Paffett as reserve driver for the opening race of 2012. Jules Bianchi, the permanent test pilot of Force India could not be there this weekend because he is conducting tests for the Renault World Series FR 3.5.

Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi

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28° GP Australian Melbourne Circuit (Albert Park)
Since 1996, the Australian GP it runs on this track; in the past this race has been held at Adelaide(first edition 1985) The future of the Grand Prix of Australia is any case uncertain, after the last interviews of Ecclestone
The Albert Park track combines short straights linked by slow and medium speed corners. It is a street circuit, but unusual. Overtaking is quite difficult, with the best overtaking chances at the end of the main straight. This is a medium speed track and there are some heavy braking zones so the brake cooling is important. Reliability is also an issue here. Grip level improves during the weekend and the circuit conditions will change day after day, because the track will be more rubberized, in normal condition without rain; but Friday, the forecast weather is not good. The downforce package is medium – high, to give a good traction out of the slow corners. On this track tyre wear is medium – low (last year the winner Vettel: 2 pit stops, but Sergio Perez only one, Alonso and Massa: 3)
For Melbourne the tyre choice is soft (yellow) and medium(white)
Drs: Double DRS zones(the main straight and after turn 2) but only a single detection point, before turn 14.
sixteen Corners (10 right-hand and 6 left-hand corners)

Podium 2011: Vettel – Hamilton – Petrov.
Best lap on race: Massa – pole position : Vettel time 1'23''529

Podium 2010: Button – Kubica – Massa.
Best lap on race: Webber – pole position: Vettel time 1'23''919

Australian GP: victories for current pilots: Schumacher(4); Button(2) Alonso Raikkonen, Vettel, Hamilton (1) Webber never on the podium here. His best finish 5 th place(three times)

good championship to all.

I, logically, hope and wish Ferrari be what has always been again: the best.
I hope that Alonso should demonstrate the good thing pilot that it is and enjoy of a year full of successes.
Also, of course, I wish luck to all the teams and a good struggle for the second and third place.
I feel it for all the rest, but this year is going to be the year Ferrari.
Amen.

PS. The illusions are free: not?

i dream to see a Lotus just like the very Glorious days of its past !

i find my self a truly fan of Kimi -- a real cool, iceman driver who can make the real difference.

this year will be very special as never before: 6 World Drivers' Champions in the same competition !!!

so GO KIMI GOO !!

and GO SCHUMI GOOOO !

cut the wings of the redbull pleaseeee hehe

So only a few Days and finaly the New Saison starts. I wish all F1-Fans here and all over the World a nice and exciting Saison. My Wish is a WM-Fight Schumi VS. Vettel maybey its not realistic butt damm I want that please Racegod make it happen! KEEP RACING!

Champion Sebastian Vettel has named his new Red Bull challenger 'Abbey.'
Vettel's previous Red Bulls have been Kate, Kate's Dirty Sister, Luscious Liz and Kinky Kylie.
He revealed that at one point the new car was to have been dubbed "Everybody's Wife."
But that idea was dropped because it would have been too complicated to explain.
Vettel: "Initially we thought of Everybody's Wife but we binned it because these questions come and you have to explain."
"One of the guys gave the explanation that it might not be too sexy because it has a bit of a beak and needs a nose job, but it runs like a train!"

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Brothers, I wish a nice first race !
Seb go for triple !

Robert Kubica, photos were taken on 11 march:

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12/03/1963 happy birthday to john andretti american driver
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Pastor Maldonado 9th March 1985
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Happy Birthday to your 27th anniversary

Important info !

The 2012 rules changes at a glance:
The 2012 F1 season sees another raft of rules changes, tweaks and clarifications.
The extent of the revisions is not as great as it has been in recent years. Several of the alterations appear to be in response to specific situations which occurred last year.
Here’s a quick guide to how the F1 rules have changed in 2012.

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Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi