2009 Australian Grand Prix Sunday

It was a mixed afternoon for the ING Renault F1 Team as Fernando Alonso finished in 6th position, while teammate Nelson Piquet retired from the race in the early stages.

In a race punctuated by a safety car period, Fernando steadily made up for ground that he had lost on the first lap. He enjoyed a combative race to emerge in the points during his final stint and benefited from the late race incidents. Having secured three points, the team now turns its attention to next week’s Malaysian Grand Prix determined to deliver a more competitive performance.

Fernando Alonso P6
First stint: 19 laps, prime tyres (hard)
Second stint: 33 laps, prime tyres (hard)
Third stint: 6 laps, option tyres

Fernando: “6th place is not the best result, but in a way we have to be happy because we started the race in a difficult position and I was pushed wide at turn 1 onto the grass and so I dropped to the back of the pack. After that, it was difficult and so it’s great to score points. With what happened during the race, the incidents and the safety car, we managed to finish 6th. In terms of the overall results and looking at our competitors, we have to be happy with the result. With the KERS I didn’t feel a big difference and I was a little bit disappointed at how it worked. We also need to work on the tyres a bit more at the next race.”

Nelson Piquet DNF
First stint: 19 laps, prime tyres (hard)

Nelson: “I was really happy because we were lucky at the beginning of the race to gain some positions. The car was good and I was having a consistent drive.  But when the safety car came out I started to have some problems with the brakes. I had a good restart and overtook Nico Rosberg, but when I touched the brakes again they were gone. I spun out and I was lucky I ended up in the gravel, so there was no damage to myself or the car. The car was not as competitive as we wanted it to be in the race but we were still running in the top 8. The Malaysian circuit should suit us better and I’m sure that we can get a good result there next week.”

Flavio Briatore, Managing Director ING Renault F1 Team
“The three points scored by Fernando are not a great consolation for what has been a disappointing weekend for us. We were just not competitive enough and our qualifying performance penalised us for the race. Fernando lost several positions at the start because of the first corner incident which he could not avoid. That said, our two drivers were consistent and tried to make the most of the situation. Nelson made a good start and his race was very promising, but a technical problem unfortunately brought his race to an end. It’s only the first Grand Prix and our intention is to work hard to fight back quickly, starting at the next Grand Prix in Malaysia.

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
“Nelson’s accident appears to have been caused by a problem with the brake system, although as yet we don’t know what that might be. It’s a shame because he was in a reasonable position. We are clearly not as competitive as we need to be and there is a lot of work to be done to get to the front.”

Remi Taffin, Head of Engine Operations
“A mixed result this afternoon with the retirement of Nelson and we will need to look into why he couldn’t finish. We would have been able to do something good with Nelson who had a great start to the race. I think he could have been on the podium, so it’s a shame. We finished 6th with Fernando and when you consider the level of competitiveness that we have shown this weekend, it’s not a bad result. We know that we have to do better and so we will take these points and work hard to try and get a strong result at the next race.”

www.ing-renaultf1.com

Melbourne (AUS). Das BMW Sauber F1 Team erlebte einen enttäuschenden Start in die Saison 2009 – beide F1.09 waren in Unfälle verwickelt. Für Nick Heidfeld war das Rennen schon in der ersten Kurve gelaufen, nachdem ein Konkurrent in ihn reingeschoben worden war. Heidfeld brachte sein beschädigtes Auto als Elfter ins Ziel. Für seinen Teamkollegen Robert Kubica verlief der Große Preis von Australien noch weit dramatischer. Drei Runden vor Schluss griff er im Kampf um Platz zwei Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) an. Beide Autos berührten sich und fielen nach dem Unfall aus.
Nick Heidfeld: 11.
BMW Sauber F1.09-04 / BMW P86/9 (KERS)
Schnellste Runde: 1.28,283 min in Rd. 48 (fünftschnellste insgesamt)
„Das Ergebnis heute ist extrem enttäuschend für mich. Ich hatte so einen guten Start, konnte gleich ein paar Positionen gutmachen, und auch meine Rennstrategie war viel versprechend. In der Anbremszone vor der ersten Kurve habe ich mich eigentlich recht sicher gefühlt. Ich sah weder rechts noch links ein Auto direkt neben mir und habe mich mittig auf der Fahrbahn gehalten. Aber dann hat es plötzlich ‘Bumm’ gemacht. Ich habe an der Box neue Reifen und einen neuen Frontflügel geholt, aber der Schaden war erheblich größer und das Auto nachher kaum noch zu fahren. Ich denke, das KERS hat mir wenigstens etwas geholfen, mit dem langsamen Auto meine Position zu verteidigen. Aber am Ende ist das nicht viel wert, wen interessiert es schon, ob man Elfter oder 13. wird.“
Robert Kubica: Unfall
BMW Sauber F1.09-03 / BMW P86/9
Schnellste Runde: 1.27,988 min in Rd. 36 (zweitschnellste insgesamt)
„Was für eine Enttäuschung! Ich hätte eine gute Chance gehabt, dieses Rennen zu gewinnen, denn Jenson Button und Sebastian Vettel fuhren auf der weicheren Gummimischung und hatten Probleme, während ich mit den harten Reifen viel schneller war. Sebastian fuhr in Kurve eins eine weite Linie und bremste anschließend früh. Ich war schon vorne, doch er wollte mich nicht vorbei lassen. Dann hatte er Untersteuern und berührte mich. Mein Frontflügel rutschte unters Auto, weshalb ich in Kurve fünf abflog. Ich denke, dass Sebastian ein wenig zu optimistisch war. Wäre das in der letzten Kurve geschehen, okay, aber es waren noch drei Runden zu fahren, und er hatte keine realistische Chance, seine Position zu verteidigen, weil ich viel schneller war. Wir beide hatten ein gutes Wochenende bis zu diesem Moment, und nun stehen wir mit leeren Händen da. Das ist wirklich schade! Mein Auto war sehr gut, vor allem im zweiten Stint, als ich die schnellsten Runden fuhr. So ist Racing!“
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Direktor):
„Es war wie schon so oft in Melbourne ein sehr ereignisreiches Rennen. Nick wurde bereits in der ersten Kurve um alle Chancen gebracht. Nach einer unverschuldeten Kollision hatte er nicht nur großen Rückstand, sondern auch eine beschädigte Aerodynamik, die ein Aufholen unmöglich machte. Robert hat ein exzellentes Rennen gezeigt und sich kurz vor Schluss in Schlagdistanz zur Spitze gebracht. Er war am Ende des Rennens auf harten Reifen unterwegs und hatte beste Chancen, die beiden vor ihm fahrenden Autos noch abzufangen und das Rennen zu gewinnen. Die Kollision kurz vor Schluss hat sowohl ihn als auch Sebastian Vettel um einen Podiumsplatz und beide Teams um wertvolle Punkte gebracht. Sehr positiv ist anzumerken, dass wir mit harten Reifen heute sehr schnell unterwegs waren.“
Willy Rampf (Head of Engineering):
„Das war ein turbulenter Saisonauftakt, insbesondere für uns. Nick fiel bereits unmittelbar nach dem Start nach einer unverschuldeten Kollision chancenlos zurück. Noch mehr Pech hatte Robert. Zunächst arbeitete er sich stetig nach vorn, bis er wenige Runden vor Schluss die beiden Führenden attackieren konnte. Aufgrund unserer Reifenwahl war Robert im letzten Stint mit harten Reifen unterwegs, die Konkurrenz vor uns hingegen mit weichen. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt hatten wir dadurch ein weitaus schnelleres Auto als die beiden Führenden. Bei dem Überholmanöver mit Sebastian Vettel lag Robert bereits vorn, als Sebastian in ihn reinrutschte. Das hat uns Platz zwei und womöglich sogar einen Sieg gekostet.“

www.bmw-sauber-f1.com

Bridgestone Potenza slick tyres made their grand prix return in the Australian Grand Prix where Jenson Button made the perfect debut for the Brawn GP team by using a medium-medium-super soft tyre strategy to win the first race of the season run to Formula One’s exciting new regulations.
Button took his race win leading team-mate Rubens Barrichello and Panasonic Toyota Racing driver Jarno Trulli across the line, however Trulli was later penalised for passing whilst behind the safety car, and fourth across the line Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) was awarded third. Barrichello used the same strategy as Button, whilst Hamilton started on the super soft tyre and twice changed to the medium. The latest specification cars and Bridgestone’s slick tyres meant an exciting and challenging 58 laps in Albert Park with the different performance of Bridgestone’s two compounds one of the talking points of the event.
Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima – Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development
How was the first race of 2009 from Bridgestone’s perspective?
“Firstly, congratulations to Jenson Button and the Brawn GP team for winning and Rubens Barrichello for coming second in an exceptionally exciting race. Congratulations too, to the FIA for the new regulations and the teams for developing such exciting and quick new cars. This was a significant race as it shows that the changes for 2009 have made a big difference for Formula One.
Bridgestone’s slick tyres and our new allocation philosophy gave competitors a lot to think about and some managed better than others. Tyre strategy was crucial to making up places, and the key to getting a good result here was having a good setup with the super soft tyre as the performance of this tyre dropped off very quickly. The medium tyre was very robust and allowed good strategy and setup options for teams.”
What did you think of the different tyre strategies used?
“This was the first race for teams with our new tyres so there were many different approaches over the weekend. From Saturday’s data we knew that the super soft tyre was around 1.2 seconds faster than the medium over its first flying lap so those who started on the super soft had a good advantage at the beginning. However, those who used the super soft for their last stint benefitted from the improved track surface due to rubber laid during the race. We predicted that the super soft tyre would be around 5-6 seconds slower if it was used from the start of the race until half distance, which is why we did not see many long stints on this tyre.”
Stats of the Day

Bridgestone Potenza Driver Tyre Strategies
Rd.1 – Australian Grand Prix
In 2009, the tyre regulations stipulate that the two dry tyre specifications must be visibly
distinguishable from each other. At the Australian Grand Prix, the super soft compound Bridgestone Potenza tyres were marked with green bands on the sidewalls. The wet weather tyre was also marked with a green line in a groove.

www.bridgestonemotorsport.com