If he can get close to Jenson

Not looking good so far. Only first practice though; he’s used to going a lot faster in a GP2 car.

Inbred456 – Member

Will Gollop twin turbo 6R4 The good old days!!!

Best car ever!

Nope – Porsche 917. Cool, looked mean, went fast, sounded great, won. 🙂

That merchandise thing is quite weird! All the Alonso stuff is 60% off- like cheekymonkey888 said, it looks like 2015 stuff.

Button just gone 3rd fastest!

Give it another 45 mins and see if he’s still there…

Button has probably done a qualifying lap and everyone else is on race runs.

Button is not going to worry the podium this year and I dont expect those who record the points to have to look him up very often.

Nah Chris the top 5 or 6 have all been out for quick runs on the supersofts – the Ferraris might have a bit of spare but that pace from button is looking genuine. I really hope it is.

On the BBC site….

Button finds the button
Posted at
16:55
When Jenson Button does leave F1 – and hopefully that’s not going to be any time soon – I’ll miss his sense of humour.

After he was told he was P3 over the radio, he responded with: “I found the go faster button! I found it!”

😀

So P3 for Button. I noticed they’ve got Sensodyne sponsorship on the rear wing so expect they’re glad to have something worth smiling about.

Please help a casual viewer
(and apologies if it’s bindun (I did have a quick look back over the last page or two))

Watching the practice session repeat on sky – WTF is mclaren(? I think) doing with the sheets of mesh fencing behind their front wheels. Is it to catch bits of tyre when they explode ? 😀

Looks utterly non-aero so must be for a “good” reason

It’s a piece of testing equipment to measure airflow from the front wing and wheel area.

As PJM says, to measure air flow.
There’ll be a sensor at each mesh intersection (I think) so you get a good picture of the air flow. You then use this to check the results from your CFD tests.

The senaors are pito tubes. Like on a plane to measure wind speed. On that it show different air speeds at different levels.

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24184/10225138/fernando-alonso-should-retire-says-sky-sports-f1s-johnny-herbert

Oooh! Thrilling qualifying – on the edge of my seat here!

People said Johnny Herbert shouldn’t come back after his Brands shunt.

I never thought I’d say this – I’m out of love with F1, the lights are out for me, it bears no resemblance to the time me and my dad used to tour the European circuits in the 90s.

dull as a dull event

blinding last lap from lewis, being 0.5s back was a bit of a surprise for ferrari.

thanks for the answers to my daft Q – I see they ditched it for qualifying 😀 😳

In car footage of LH’s lap was impressive. He seemed to be switching screens on his display every corner to adjust something (brake balance?), while doing the fastest lap ever.

Yeah rich, mostly brake balance adjustments and perhaps changing diff settings for the slower corners. It’s a heck of a lot of work. Of course in the old days they had a brake balance bar to adjust on the left of the cockpit, a gear lever on the right and a clutch pedal…

Anyhow, faster than the vaunted v10 era is no mean feat. Hope he can get it off the line this time!

Sexy lap!

Anyhow, faster than the vaunted v10 era is no mean feat.

and using about half as much fuel and 4000 rpm less 😯

Oh dear Jensen. Out qualified by the rookie replacement driver who had to fly in from Japan at short notice and then missed lots of the practice due to a mechanical.

Jbs never been much of a qualifier though, and stoffel is absolutely the real deal who should have a full time f1 seat already. He’s just demonstrated that quite well. I hope he gets a good race result too.

And 2016 cars are a good 100kg heavier than in 2005 too, or about 16%.

The new qualifying means the mid field runners get one lap. Any errors and you are out.

It doesn’t work. When will they realise?

When they realise won’t be until their cut of the cash dries up but by then it’ll be too late, if it’s not already!

I haven’t watched any F1 this year.

Is it exciting driver vs. driver racing? Or scalelectrix boring?

Oh good grief!

Qualifying deadlock!

If ever you needed a demonstration that F1 is a bit rudderless at the moment…

There’s a lot of talk of the ‘greatness’ of various drivers, with this one compared to that one etc. For me, Senna was great in a way that others never were; for me he was simply a better driver than Prost, who is a ‘great’. Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and Jenson Button won WCs simply by being in the best car. A lot is said of Vettel having the best car, but I’m pretty sure Red Bull wouldn’t have won 4 WCs with someone like MArk Webber leading the team. Hamilton’s first WC was very, very lucky, and his last two have been achieved mainly through mechanical superiority (a bit like Hill, Villeneuve and Button). So what does make a driver ‘great’? Would we be talking about the ‘great’ Fillipe Massa, had Timo Glock not slid off the track? Some commentators refer to Raikkonen as ‘great’, yet he was clearly outclassed by Alonso, and now by Vettel. There’s a gulf between those pairings that’s a lot bigger than between Hamilton and Rosberg, in my opinion. Rosberg, who outclassed an ‘aging’ Schumacher.

And then, Stirling Moss never won a WC.

So who are the true ‘greats’ of F1?

Rule of thumb for me is, they’ve won a lot but have they won races in cars that shouldn’t have won, when it’s not been handed to them on a plate (the Olivier Panis stipulation)? Senna, Prost, Villeneuve (senior), Moss, them’s greats – that’s not a criticism of those who won in the best car because that’s just part of the game, someone like your Fangio (another great) was almost always in the best car because that’s the easiest way to win, but it’s when the chips are down (Fangio, N’ring in ’57) or your car’s gash (Villeneuve, Spain ’81 I think? Senna, Portugal ’84 – Moss, Monaco ’61 – Prost, pretty much any win where he finessed a fragile Renault to the flag), that’s where greatness shines.

Schumacher. It’s easy to forget how rubbish Ferrari were before he started driving for them. His skill wasn’t just in driving it was being a major force in their resurgence.

I’ve somewhat warmed to Hamilton but won’t be fully convinced if he doesn’t jump ship to a less competitive team and make things happen.

I agree Pondo. Of the current crop, Alonso is the one who has proved he can really drive a car beyond it’s expected capabilities. I’ve yet to see Hamilton really perform in an underperforming car, in the same way. I think Vettel is capable of such as well. I think that the current top 3 in terms of ability are Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel. There will always be the comparison with the Sennas, the Fangios etc, but we’ll never know.

And each season, we’ll see the Verstappens, the Perez’s, the Johny Herberts. Drivers who are tipped for the top, show loads of promise, even get some good results, but then fade away. Would like to see a more level playing field, to let natural talent emerge more organically.

but won’t be fully convinced if he doesn’t jump ship to a less competitive team and make things happen.

He did. Mercedes. And a great deal of ‘experts’ said he was bonkers.

Even the Great Schum couldn’t win with them.

A sport so poor we cannot even say who is the best driver- surely that is the point?

We can definitely say who are the best engineers though.

Junkyard – lazarus
A sport so poor we cannot even say who is the best driver- surely that is the point?

Who is the best cyclist?

Me.