Winners and losers of the Aussie GP

[aryan]

Winners:

Lewis Hamilton: Solid start to the season, smooth and fast all weekend

Heikki: Got unlucky with the last SC but he should be satisfied with 4 points on his first race for McLaren. He also had the fastes lap of the race. I don't know what happened to him at the final lap after overtaking Alonso.

Alonso: He did rise above the car and showed that real drivers have their head sorted out for the entire race. He should be very pleased with that 4th.

Williams and Rosberg That kid is a future champ. He has already lifted Williams, and we can all see that. A well deserved podium.

BMW and Hiedfeld BMW is still slower than Merc and Ferrari, but they are up there. Heidfeld also showed that while he is no "one lap maverick", he isn't called Quick Nick for nothing.

Rubens First points since 2006. Congradulations to him. Yes, it was due to attrition, but he did well to keep the car on the track (many didn't)

Honda They have improved the car, no question. They can play a solid midfield game this season.

Bourdais He did well to keep Alonso and Heikki behind him for many laps. You don't become a 4-time Champcar champion easily, and I sense that this guy is an opportunitist in racing, and knows how to position his car where it doesn't belong.

Losers

Ferrari Top of the list. I still think they have the fastest car, but last year they had problems in hottest of the races and I think it's the same thing here this season. Why didn't they call in Kimi for his pit stop during the second SC is beyond me.

Massa He's fast. He's won races from pole. But can he adapt to no-TC? This is a make or break year for him. If he loses it, he's lost it.

Kimi Was it the heat? Or did Kimi just lost concentration twice? Outbraking himself after he had overtaken Heikki, such a amateurish mistake from the world champion. He's still my favourite to win the WDC though.

Renault Yes, they have Alonso back and might even score the odd podium with him, but this car is exactly where last year's car was on the grid. They have ruined their chances of winning major points from one of their cars due to driver selection.

DC The Massa accident was his fault and he knows it. I like a bit of passion as much as the next guy, but the way he spoke on live TV was certainly way out of line.

Stuil & Fisico Both made rookie mistakes. One is an actual rookie while the other...

Piquet Jr. Dismal quali. Dismal race. 'Nuff said.

Kubica We know he really is quick. But he has never really been quick during a whole race has he? He will be though, very soon...

The others were either neutral (Nakajima, Glock, etc.) or didn't stay long enough on the track for me to form an opinion.

[ShiftingGears]

I'd add the Honda lollipop man and Nakajima to the losers list. Nakajima because he lost his front wing in a safety car period. D'oh.

[Ranger]

Kimi Was it the heat?
Heat melted the Iceman.

[F1boat]

Winners:
McLaren Mercedes - after all the trouble last year, they win easily the opening race.
Lewis Hamilton - flawless victory
Nico Rosberg - he was so happy, that I was smiling with him during their touching hug with Lewis.
Alonso - stunning!
Bourdais - he is good, not just in CCWS, he is a good racer.

Losers:
Ferrari - awful strategy, dismal reliability
Kimi - not the champion I know.
Massa - drove like an imbecile
Piquet jr. - great start, after that was humiliated and finally retired.
Red bull - :(

[markabilly]

List of losers is long and with so many it is easy to overlook some, but DC and Ferrari were big time losers

Winners above all the rest: Ham and Freddie.

Mac should be thrilled that Freddie weren't driving a Beemer.....Beemer should be happy being a solid nunber three, where they will remain for the rest of the year until they find someone like Freddie.....

[SGWilko]

List of losers is long and with so many it is easy to overlook some, but DC and Ferrari were big time losers

Winners above all the rest: Ham and Freddie.

Mac should be thrilled that Freddie weren't driving a Beemer.....Beemer should be happy being a solid nunber three, where they will remain for the rest of the year until they find someone like Freddie.....

Whilst I agree that Fred is back to his best, you don't think that the high attrition rate had a hand to play in his excellent finish do you.

Anyway, I think BMW did just fine with their own drivers. Nick came second after all. Kubica was nerfed out.....

[markabilly]

Whilst I agree that Fred is back to his best, you don't think that the high attrition rate had a hand to play in his excellent finish do you.

Anyway, I think BMW did just fine with their own drivers. Nick came second after all. Kubica was nerfed out.....
That is my point, they will do fine, but doing fine is fine, but being the WDC is great,and that ain't happenning.

when the safety car went off for the last time, NH would have been right up the tailpipe of LH and pushed him real hard....but he did not.......so he did fine, but not great.

[Ranger]

Big losers were Ferrari, Toyota and Red Bull, who somehow dwindled themselves out of points they should have got.

[Albert D. Kallal]

Winners:
Removal of traction control really did help. Great to see the cars get loose when drivers try to push harder.

And, in a sense, the engine braking was a form of ABS (anyone feel free to correct me on this).

Losers:
Some drivers did worse without driver aids.

Winners:
Some drivers did better without driver aids.

This looking to be a fun season…Especially if Ferrari recovers after a very difficult weekend.

Albert D. Kallal
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
kallal@msn.com

[Hawkmoon]

Massa and Raikkonen were a joke! What the hell is the world champion doing going off at the same corner twice!

The other fail is the stupid safety car rule that doesn't allow refuelling until a certain point. This ridiculous rule cost Kovalainen and Barrichello because they couldn't pit when they needed to. Why are drivers being punished for another driver bringing out the safety car?

Hamilton was lucky he stopped when he did, other wise he may not have won the race as he would have either had to stop under race conditions and dropped to the back or been stuck in the pitlane waiting for it to be opened. This rule, along with the farcical Q3 fueling rules, has got to go.

[jens]

Winners

Biggest winner was of course Nakajima - he had several collisions, but managed to keep going and scored points despite being clearly the last one. :D

I'd add Bourdais among the winners too - although the car broke down, he at least scored something (2 pts) unlike most others, who had an opportunity, but got nothing.

Losers

All those, who didn't score a point (including Rubens). With so many retirements it could have been a great chance to score some good points for anyone, but...
Among point scorers probably the losers were also Kovalainen and Räikkönen. Kovalainen deserved that second position - damn SC rules. :down:

[SGWilko]

Massa and Raikkonen were a joke! What the hell is the world champion doing going off at the same corner twice! Could this be a trait of the car, twitchy under braking? Didn't BWM drivers seggest they have not suffered with the loss of engine braking, suggesting that they had missed a trick the last couple of years in this area.


The other fail is the stupid safety car rule that doesn't allow refuelling until a certain point. This ridiculous rule cost Kovalainen and Barrichello because they couldn't pit when they needed to. Why are drivers being punished for another driver bringing out the safety car?

Hamilton was lucky he stopped when he did, other wise he may not have won the race as he would have either had to stop under race conditions and dropped to the back or been stuck in the pitlane waiting for it to be opened. This rule, along with the farcical Q3 fueling rules, has got to go.

Yep, agree with that, but running a red is a no no.......

[Ranger]

Winners

Biggest winner was of course Nakajima -


So much so that he's been given a 10-grid penalty at Malaysia for his troubles! ;)

[truefan72]

Winners:

Lewis Hamilton: Solid start to the season, smooth and fast all weekend

Heikki: Got unlucky with the last SC but he should be satisfied with 4 points on his first race for McLaren. He also had the fastes lap of the race. I don't know what happened to him at the final lap after overtaking Alonso.

Alonso: He did rise above the car and showed that real drivers have their head sorted out for the entire race. He should be very pleased with that 4th.

Williams and Rosberg That kid is a future champ. He has already lifted Williams, and we can all see that. A well deserved podium.

BMW and Hiedfeld BMW is still slower than Merc and Ferrari, but they are up there. Heidfeld also showed that while he is no "one lap maverick", he isn't called Quick Nick for nothing.

Rubens First points since 2006. Congradulations to him. Yes, it was due to attrition, but he did well to keep the car on the track (many didn't)

Honda They have improved the car, no question. They can play a solid midfield game this season.

Bourdais He did well to keep Alonso and Heikki behind him for many laps. You don't become a 4-time Champcar champion easily, and I sense that this guy is an opportunitist in racing, and knows how to position his car where it doesn't belong.

Losers

Ferrari Top of the list. I still think they have the fastest car, but last year they had problems in hottest of the races and I think it's the same thing here this season. Why didn't they call in Kimi for his pit stop during the second SC is beyond me.

Massa He's fast. He's won races from pole. But can he adapt to no-TC? This is a make or break year for him. If he loses it, he's lost it.

Kimi Was it the heat? Or did Kimi just lost concentration twice? Outbraking himself after he had overtaken Heikki, such a amateurish mistake from the world champion. He's still my favourite to win the WDC though.

Renault Yes, they have Alonso back and might even score the odd podium with him, but this car is exactly where last year's car was on the grid. They have ruined their chances of winning major points from one of their cars due to driver selection.

DC The Massa accident was his fault and he knows it. I like a bit of passion as much as the next guy, but the way he spoke on live TV was certainly way out of line.

Stuil & Fisico Both made rookie mistakes. One is an actual rookie while the other...

Piquet Jr. Dismal quali. Dismal race. 'Nuff said.

Kubica We know he really is quick. But he has never really been quick during a whole race has he? He will be though, very soon...

The others were either neutral (Nakajima, Glock, etc.) or didn't stay long enough on the track for me to form an opinion.

that's a pretty good assesment, except that Sutilisn't a rookie
Kubica cost himself a podium by slamming into Nakajima

Bourdais was outstanding, he kept the renault and McClaren behind him and even started to pull a gap before his retirement

STR seem to have the pace

Do we have an adequeate explanation whty Kovaleinen let Alonso pass him on the last lap? Winner if it was a legit reason, loser if he just gaffed

[mirek01]

Kubica cost himself a podium by slamming into Nakajima

Nakajima slammed into Kubica and put him out of a race and take a reward for this 10 place grid penalty in next race.

[Valve Bounce]

Seeing that anyone who finished would have scored points, I find this very frustrating for my favorite driver.

[Ian McC]

Up until that rash move on HK, Kimi was the driver of the day, Kimi has always been an agressive driver but it is unlike him to try a move he just wasn't going to make!

[PSfan]

Winners:

Hamilton: obviously, don't really think he had to work for it. But 10 points at the end of the day says your a winner

Bourdais: After a little critism after qualifying to at one point a spin away (from a driver in front) of being on the podium to have it taken away from a bad engine (didn't think we would have to many blown engines today... must be the McLeran ECU :p : ) Lucky pit strategy and consistant running earned him his 2 pts

Kimi: No one who makes the kind of blunders kimi and his pit crew (of course I'm still waiting on the explanation why he didn't go in during the safety car) during a race and still get a point... But today Kimi did, and I consider that a small victory...

Heidfeld: One of the least deserving 2nd places I've seen to date, but 8 pts is 8 pts.

Rosberg: for the same reasons as Heidfeld... drove like someone who should be lucky getting points, and finished on the podium.... like winning the lottery (just not the grand prize)

Piquet: Anyone who qualifies the renault on the last row maybe shouldn't be in the sport, BUT making up 9 positions on the first lap might have a few people forgetting starting 21st...

Losers:

Davidson: Don't much care for any explanation as to why he started last, but finishing on the first lap doesn't help matters at all.

Heikki: Drove good enough for 2nd. I Believe he probably was on a supportive role strategy to make sure there was a buffer between Hamilton and any "non-McLeran" competition. Had he been allowed to run his race, would have finished higher then 5th, and would not been compromised by the Saftey Car.

Rubens: Probably had a good strategy to get into the points... Lost it because of the lollypop man... And of course that stupid red light rule. But I want to avoid getting worked up about that like I did last year. Stupid, Stupid rule...

[Pille]

Do we have an adequeate explanation whty Kovaleinen let Alonso pass him on the last lap? Winner if it was a legit reason, loser if he just gaffed

A quote from Kovalainen: "I managed to get past Fernando but then as I tore off a visor strip on the main straight I accidentally hit the pit lane speed limiter button and Fernando managed to get past me again."

[ArrowsFA1]

Without doubt, the winners of the weekend for me were Rosberg & Williams. Strong in qualifying and competitive in the race it was a well deserved first podium for Nico :up:

Losers have to be Ferrari. A truly awful weekend.

[TMorel]

Winners:
Those that got up at some ungodly hour and enjoyed a pretty good race :)

Losers:
Hey, let's not be all negative, how about we try and concentrate on the positives.

[ioan]

Massa - drove like an imbecile

Sleep over it, watch the race again and we should talk then. He made only one mistake the whole race.

[veeten]

... and wouldn't you know, it's the one that put him out of the race.

[Azumanga Davo]

... and wouldn't you know, it's the one that put him out of the race.

But it was just the one mistake... :D

[HenryM]

massa's mistake was the first corner of the race, the crash with couthard was not his mistake and his car broke, raikkonen made a good race until the second safety car, than he made 2 mistakes and the car broke to... another ferrari (engine) victim was bourdais...

I felt sorry for barrichello, he made a good race and qualifying, but the pit stop ruined everything.

but the looser of this weekend is FERRARI... the winner hamilton.

[keysersoze]

Hey Aryan,

Please enlighten me as to what "rookie" mistake Fisichella made. From where I was sitting Boy Blunder Piquet came in with way too much speed and single-handedly raked three cars off the racing line. It was the silliest, most irresponsible move of the weekend.

[VkmSpouge]

Winners:
The Viewers - no traction control and bad reliability made for an exceedingly interesting race.
Lewis Hamilton - flawless race but never really came under pressure.
Heikki Kovalainen - drove very well but got unlucky with the safety car.
Nick Heidfeld - kept out of trouble and secured second place.
Nico Rosberg and Williams - good race and a well deserved podium finish.
Sebastien Bourdais - staying out of trouble, he should have got fourth place.
Fernando Alonso - his experience told today as he lifted the car into a good fourth.

Losers:
Raikkonen, Massa and Ferrari - no reliability and both Massa and Raikkonen bad poor errors.
Force India - might as well forget about Melbourne quickly.
Robert Kubica - after first pitstop he just kept going backwards.
David Coulthard - crash with Massa was his fault in my opinion.

[Robinho]

Ferrari dream team, No JT, No RB, no MS, no other RB, there are a few cracks showing - undoubtedly still a very quick car, and 2 very quick drivers, but these problems would not have happened in the last few years IMO

[stevie_gerrard]

Winners:
Lewis Hamilton drove perfectly from start to finish, no problem.
Sebastien Bourdais just kept on going without impressing massively and got a couple of points for it, despite retiring late on.
Nico Rosberg did a super job and i get the feeling this might just be the start of bigger things for the german.

Losers:
Ferrari were absolutely unbelieveable, a team that normally dominates at Ozland and were completely outfought and outthought
Piquet really disappointed me, i know hes a rookie but surely a rookie in a decent enough car like that shouldnt be so slow and underperform like that. Really hope he improves his game soon.
Kimi and Massa both deserved nothing for todays performance, Kimi was far too erratic and Massa just wasnt good enough.
Red Bull will be massively disappointed that they didnt get the points they possibly deserved for building a car thats good enough to be competitive this season.

Brief mentions for Heikki missing out on 8 points he deserved, and rubens who drove impeccably but broke the rules and was rightly disqualified even though he was rather unlucky.

[BDunnell]

I think it's FAR too early to write off Ferrari and both its drivers. Everyone will make mistakes and have bad days at some point this season. Hopefully the supporters of both sides will have the good grace not to gloat at the misfortune of the other.

Other than that, I hope that third is a prelude to a great season for Rosberg, as he deserves it. I also hope that Bourdais gets another chance to score good points, because that fourth place would have been hard-earned, not least for his excellent performance in staying ahead of, and pulling away from, Raikkonen, Kovalainen and Alonso.

[AndyRAC]

An interesting race; must say that the Safety car rules are a little unfair - cost Heikki 2nd place, Rubens had to come in -and then got a 10 sec penalty.
Was impressed with Bourdais, showed plenty of experience and racecraft and was unlucky to get points. As for Piquet, duh!! was not impressed at all,....but give him the benefit of the doubt- as for Alonso - good race, after all he is a 2xWDC.

[aryan]

Hey Aryan,

Please enlighten me as to what "rookie" mistake Fisichella made. From where I was sitting Boy Blunder Piquet came in with way too much speed and single-handedly raked three cars off the racing line. It was the silliest, most irresponsible move of the weekend.

I've reviewed the start and you are right. From what I can see in that chaos, Fisico is not at fault.

Good on him, as he has always been one of my favourite drivers.

[truefan72]

Winners:

Hamilton: obviously, don't really think he had to work for it. But 10 points at the end of the day says your a winner



I'm glad you think that Hamilton's racing ability makes it look like he doesn't have to work for it. I'm glad that you think setting fast laps at the beginning of the race, lap after lap and pulling out a 9 second lead in under 13 laps is easy for him. That driving in 100degree conditions while managing the race and keeping up a high level of concentration is a walk in the park for him.

I suppose by your own admission, that's why this guy is a phenom, and why he makes winning a race where everyone else seem to struggle seem like an afterthought.

hmmm. now who else in F1 seemed to have made winning races like a gentle stroll. MS perhaps?

Bottom line...LH earned his victory and had to work for it.