Thread: F1 2009 - Round 1 Melbourne

Well where shall I start?

I'm watching the race as I type this and its hard to know whether or not the passing we have seen is due to the KERS or shocking Super soft tyres. A few more laps will tell.

The real surprise here is the qualifying with the old Hondas now Brawn GP taking the front row. Great effort but how can a middle of the pack team get to the front so quickly? or more to the point how can McClaren and Ferrari get it so wrong?

I find it very strange that the diffuser issue was also not sorted out before this round. How can three teams be challenged the day before a race and not earlier? We now wont know the final race classification for the first two rounds until the appeal is heard in over 10 days time!

Anyway back to the race....

I think we did see some more passing attempts than usual, and in places that might have otherwise have been ignored. However I'm sure a lot of them are still racing the cars like it was last season, and we'll see things improve over the season as drivers come to fully understand what they can and can't do with them.

I loved seeing KERS in action - especially with people unloading their full lap's charge to scoot up behind someone ready for a passing opportunity. It really does give them a hefty kick up the arse.

I think the diffuser on the Braun cars will be given the green light despite the appeal. The fact of the matter is that Honda's car (now Braun's) was being developed for this season a long time before anyone else. While Ferrari and McLaren were concentrating on taking Massa and Hamilton to championship victory, other teams were making strides with their '09 development. And let's not forget that McLaren have a lousy car history anyway, they've been hit-and-miss for a long while. Their 2004 car terrible until revised, and their 2006 car was win-less that season.

It was a good race, however I'm once again feeling sorry for Webber - knocked into a spin on the first corner and could never recover. Vettel has amazing potential in this RedBull car which finally has some pace (see: Webber Qual Q2), and they don't even have the better diffuser on there yet. Unfortunately that amateur tangle up just laps away from the chequered flag saw him miss out on 3rd or 4th.

All-in-all I think there's a lot to look forward to this season. Bring it on!

Trulli got penalised, leaving Hamilton in 3rd. And it turns out Vettel was penalised for that clumsy collision, meaning he'll start 10 positions back from where he qualifies for Malaysia.

Damn Hamilton did well out of all that. Said to have a bad car (well mclaren in general not really being up at the top) and managed to get a 3rd with consistency and maybe a little luck, probably couldnt ask for a much better start to the season starting from last on grid.

Webber.. what to say :\

Just got back from Melb.
Good race especially towards the end
Was cut about Webber but at least the car has pace.

Will post some pics up shortly.

Webber is f**king cursed

Lost so many chances through no fault of his own

Wow.. drama continues, Hamilton DQ'ed from race :eek:

autosport.com - F1 News: Hamilton disqualified from Australian GP

Wow. :/

He's been caught out lying to the stewards as have the team.. they got what they deserved.

Full radio communication recording of the Hamilton situation:

BBC SPORT | Motorsport | Formula 1 | Hamilton's team radio during Australian GP



And Hamilton's apology at press conference:

BBC SPORT | Motorsport | Formula 1 | Hamilton sorry for 'huge mistake'