News On F1 Forums - Talk Formula 1

This weekend the V8Supercar circus arrives in Winton.
It is a short, twisty bumpy track, and a place to stay off the kerbs.
Good for go-karts
Two thirds of the V8Supercar teams test at this track, yet it is rare the the teams arrive at anything near a perfect set-up.
Winton is all about being smooth, smooth, smooth, and then smoother still.
The car needs to be soft enough to keep the inner, unweighted, wheel in contact with the black stuff, to provide maximum turn in, and carry brake. However the car needs to be rigid enough to prevent nose down (Braking), tail down (Accelerating)......if the car starts rocking and rolling, you lose drive.
Engineers usually go away muttering darkly, after a day at Winton.

BRAD JONES.
Brad has announced his immediate retirement from the sprint rounds of V8Supercars, including Winton, and this years Sandown, and Bathurst enduros will probably be his last.

Confrmation is in, New Zealand Driver Simon Wills will replace Brad as of today.

It was a wild wet and windy Winton that greeted the drivers for practice today.
Any driver with a car that wasn't well balanced struggled.
Quickest of the mud runners was Paul Dumbrell with a time of 1:24: 1056.
Behind him were
Jason Richards
Tander
Skaife
R Kelly
FrostyWinterbottom
Holdsworth, who continues to impress,
Canto
Bright
and Whincup, with a time of 1:24:9 plus

Typical of the drivers trying to find a balanced set-up was Craig Lowndes who finished around twentieth, everything they threw at his car made it more of an evil handling thing.
Well, at least the drought broke in Benalla.

Race 1.
Geez....when the drought breaks in downtown Benalla, it doesn't muck around.
Race one was expensive for a lot of teams. Most cars had panel damage, or bent rims, or both. A very wet start saw the start of of the damage, with cars slithering into, across, and out of the infield.
Skaife featured on camera as much as the leaders, as he checked out the mineral resources of the off track areas a number of times.. The young guns who had littered the top ten soon succumbed to impulse, impetuosity, or lack of stopping ability by those immediately behind.
When the spray finally settled the finishing order was
Whincup
S Richards
R Kelly
Tander
Holdsworth
Johnson
Bright
Morris.

Similar conditions are forecast for today.

As much as I would like to comment on this race I only saw what was on the news and they seem to focus driving errors.

I have just been too busy with many things, of late.....for which I apologise.
Basically the weather played a huge part in the first two races which required a very driveable car. Tander had one. Rick Kelly had one Whincup had one which required a lot more work from him, but obviously gave him excellent feedback.
The rest struggled.
eg. Mark Skaife had so many spins and loses, he would have been unsteady on his feet for 24 hours. Others used the cars in front in vain attempts to slow for corners, with resultant damage and/or penalties. The third race outcome was then a result of the first two.
It was a wet, windy and wild Winton.