GrizzleBoy wrote:shelly wrote:Whitmarsh has said Button was marginal on fuel and had to go fuel save mode form lap 8 on.
Being lighter in fuel explains his strong initial pace, when he was able to open a wide gap to hamilton. Afetr that, tha advantage of being lighter and ha disadvantage of a "eco" map have somehow compansated.
I think they could have fuelled him lighter by strategy, not by mistake, considering the high probability of a saefty car in melbourne.
The would have run leaner and leaner maps until the sc to exit and make the strategy work. If the sc did not come out, probably button would have had to gi slower by the end; but it has, and he has won.
What I do not understand, either if underfuelling was delibarte or not, is why whitmarsh made an official statement on that: if he did not say anything, no one would have noticed, so why drive attention to button fuel levels? There was no slowing down/ team order/ retirement to find an excuse for.
People are making a fuss about Red Bull catching up to the McLarens later on in the race.
They obviously want to sell the idea that they weren't even pushing, as if to say "we were leading easily, if the gap became too small, we could have pushed some more", which is actually precisely what happened.
Vettel got down to a 1 second gap from Hamilton on the second stint on softs, Hamilton began to pull away to create and maintain a 2 second gap while on them mediums once he got past the slower car traffic he was released behind after his first stop.
Vettel set a fast lap on the last stint after the safety car and was trying to catch Button, so Button went even faster and returned the favour.
And as I've said before, fuel saving mode isn't just for saving fuel.
Not running the engine right to the edge of its performance in one race, means you have a fresher, more reliable and efficient engine in the next race.
This is spot on. The gap was managed as JB went as fast as he needed to go and no more. Just like the restart when he cleared of immediately for a few laps and then backed off to hold the gap. It's exactly what SV did all last year.
The McL are fast and they knew it from the start. The contentment in the garage was clear to see from Friday. What is a surprise is how LH performed in an obviously quick car. He should have been shadowing JB all the way.
Red Bull looked much better in the race but I get the feeling they are in McL's position from last year. Let's see what the do on a proper track next weekend.
Ferrari have got some work to do but I'm sure they'll pull something out the bag by mid-season. FA was epic. I reckon he's gone if they don't show something this year.
Merc were a big let down. Was really hoping they'd do it in the race but the pace seemed to drain away just like last year. Again, let's see Sepang before we write them off.
Very encouraged by Williams. I could see in testing how that car has come on. Feel sorry for RB. He's just missed a good car.
Don't blame Mal too much and the season is long. Just wish he'd backed it off a bit in the last couple of laps as FA is way too difficult to pass on that track, even in a dog of a car.
Sauber looked OK but I wish they'd put a normal tyre strategy on the damn car.
Lotus looked great. Looking forward to KR getting it together.
STR about where expected. Bit of experience for their new drivers and they will be interesting to watch.
FI was another let down.
Caterham didn't look too good. Was hoping they'd properly hit mid-field but they were way off in qualy and race.
Marussian were quite close to Caterham and big respect for not being as bad as I expected.
HRT were woefull in every respect. Is it really worth bothering when things are that bad. An embarrassment is not even close!
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