The Official Spanish Grand Prix 2009 Thread (*spoilers*)

Great win from Jenson, his performance on the hard tyres in particular was awesome.
Good drive from Rubens, great start, shame he seemingly couldn't push harder in the middle of the race.
Great drive from Webber too, deserved the podium, and an amusing quote involving Massa afterwards as they were about to go out on said podium!

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Team screwed Rubens, he should have won it but hey...

Great drive from both Brawn!! Buttons stint on the harder tyres was pretty brilliant!

How fast could Vettel have gone??
Whats also interesting is that I dont think Ferrari short fuelled Massa as such, but Massa probably had to be on a very high fuel mix all through the race... or if they did just short fuel, again a Ferrari whoopsy! is this really the team that won so many WDC and WCC?

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Where did Brundle's ice cream go?

Ferrari: The Joke TM

Amazing. Kimi goes out with problems, and they short fuel Massa. You gotta hand it to them to screw things up so brilliantly. Kudos to them

Disappointed with Rubens. When it matters, he can't deliver. Pretty clear now that Jenson is their man for the championship. Still, Rubens did a fantastic start. I'll never understand a 3-stop at Barcelona when you are first, but whatever.

And Webber was fantastic. Quiet race all the way, but kept his nose clean and made sure that his pace counted.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2009 04:26PM by Joe_Satriani.

looks like felipe's WAS on the high fuel mix as rob came on the radio and telling him to use P3. short fuel or not, it's another ferrari ''whoopsy'' and felipe is on the end of it. Pure frustration for him

Webber and Alonso ! Loved that move. Rubens got screwed .

''Massa f**ke- oh sorry!'' lmao!
Now Barca finally had a race which was little entertaining :D

Edit: ferrari fuel rig not working



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2009 04:31PM by Monza972.

Joe_Satriani Wrote:
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> Ferrari: The Joke TM
>
> Amazing. Kimi goes out with problems, and they
> short fuel Massa. You gotta hand it to them to
> screw things up so brilliantly. Kudos to them

+1!
Even down to Massa's brake duct cover falling off.
Ferrari are just one big comedy of errors at the moment. They need to sort out the whole infrastructure in that team fast, otherwise they really will be back in the 80s.

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The three B's have done it again....lets hope they can keep it up.

Joe_Satriani Wrote:
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> Disappointed with Rubens. When it matters, he
> can't deliver.

Doubt Rubens had much to do with it. The car clearly wasn't right in stints 3 and 4... Webber was miles back but just cruised up behind him like he was stopped. Brawn made a bit of a strategy clanger not filling Rubens up a touch longer in for the 2nd and 3rd stints though, only pitting a lap or 2 after Button for his final stop. He probably would have won if they'd done that, given the pace of the hards.

Bit of a calamity race for Ferrari, but the real mistake on Massa was not pitting him again as soon as they realised and sticking another set of softs on him. OK, so he might only have still finished behind Alonso, as he did, but he would have had a chance of a run at him... it would only have been a 3 or 4 second stop, so probably would have come out 2 or 3 seconds behind him with a faster car, far better tyres and no KERS disadvantage.

Feel disappointed for Massa. He had had a great race until then.

First corner accident was just a few factors coming together. Alonso pushing out Rosberg, who tried to stay on it, Rosberg then pushing out Trulli, who also tried to stay on it, and from then on the inevitable. Lucky as it was to only have a few wheels go missing... spearing across the track like that had me wincing.

Feel quite sorry for Rubens. He was heavier and was infront of Button in the first stint. He should of won this and should have been put on the 2 stopper aswell.

Ferrari complete screw ups again. Kimi was doing well at the start jumping 6 people.
Anyone know his issue with KERS (in the interview he said something about not seeing some lights or something?)

Also does anyone know the Song that was played at the end of the BBC forum. May have also been used at the end of the standard bbc1 coverage.

DJSKYLINE Wrote:
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> Ferrari complete screw ups again. Kimi was doing
> well at the start jumping 6 people.
> Anyone know his issue with KERS (in the interview
> he said something about not seeing some lights or
> something?)

His KERS was fine. There were a couple of issues with the KERS TV graphics on various cars at random points during the race. The lights he was referring to were the start lights - he couldn't see them over the top of Hamilton's rear wing.

fast car - tracy chapman

"Anyone know his issue with KERS (in the interview he said something about not seeing some lights or something?) "

He said for a finnish tv interviewer afterwards, that the kers started working after the formation lap. In same interview he also said that he couldn't see the starting lights on the grid because the rearwings on other cars blocked his view, he had to look when other cars started moving to know when to start.

edit: Gav beat me.


My photo gallery: [viltzu86.deviantart.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2009 05:27PM by villej.

I wouldn't blame Rubens for being suspicious of Brawn, even if he says he's not. He's been in this situation with Ross before, and Ross obviously doesn't want to repeat the situation they had in Austria 2002, so scuttling Rubens strategy subtley would be the only option. If Brawn feel they are going to overhauled soon, the last thing they want is the two drivers taking points off eachother for the WDC. Not saying that's what happened, but if I was in Barrichello's place it would be niggling in my mind.

Still though, great race for Brawn. We thought the'd be struggling by now, yet another 1-2. It looks like Red Bull are the only team that can catch them, cause Toyota have fallen away badly (no points today)

Whats also interesting is that I dont think Ferrari short fuelled Massa as such, but Massa probably had to be on a very high fuel mix all through the race... or if they did just short fuel, again a Ferrari whoopsy! is this really the team that won so many WDC and WCC?

The thing is, it isn't. The personnel have changed massively since the dominant mid-00s team. But, while they still haven't fully sorted out KERS, and their car is unreliable, and they're making gross errors of judgement every now and then, at least the car is a bit quicker

Ah thanks Gav and villej. Yes i also saw the tv graphics of KERS was broken.

cheers eDmunDo9





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2009 05:32PM by DJSKYLINE.

how many engineers in the ferrai garage to get the strategy wrong, lol
and to think it always happens to me in rfactor... these people, i swear of God

but at least they scare some people off, i don't think it wont be long before Massa starts winning again

Jenson was superb, i don't know whether they changed his strategy or not, but Rubens is not No.1 and Brawn is not the kind of team that can afford giving away points just to please Rubens with a win

i really tought Massa was 3rd with Vettel 4th, i was surprised with Webber, so i guess he made a nice race, and Alonso as well

If RB starts thinking about whether he is the second driver or not, he will fall into that posistion himself.

Like Gav said, and Rubens, he was not confortable in the 2nd or final stints with the car for some reason...

And like Button said, his times in the 2nd stint were pretty good, then on the final stint he was alot quicker than anyone!

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

disappointing for Rubens, and imo, the team made it fairly clear that they have already decided who their #1 is.


anyway, a good strategy move by Red Bull to get Webber up into 3rd, good to see him on the podium once more.


also, it seems that it was not a strategy mistake by ferrari, but a machinery error [www.autosport.com]

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X (@ed24f1)

Slash Wrote:
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> how many engineers in the ferrai garage to get the
> strategy wrong, lol

I don't think it was strategy, or a poor call or anything... just a fuel-rig issue.

It's easy to flog a dead horse, but I think this one still has plenty of prance to come yet. They've only made a few small changes so far, but there's a hell of a lot to come from them yet. They were only 4 or 5 seconds behind the winner before they had to change on to the inferior tyre.

Doubtless they'll struggle more at Monaco, but I wouldn't be surprised at Istanbul if they have a car capable of winning. They're miles and miles behind in the standings though - I can't see any way for them to recover either title, unless Brawn fall to pieces.

The bigger worry is the reliability problems.

maybe Felipe can maintain his Istanbul winning streak after all

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X (@ed24f1)