Got it, thanks. I've got 34 pts right now without a single lap being raced. If they finished in this order, I'd have 342 pts total. Not so good...

 

12:30 CST cannot come soon enough!

 

FIA released each car's qualifying weight. Below are the weights, and my pit order predictions in parenthasis (assuming they don't wreck or drop due to mechanical failure). F1 engines get about 2.5 laps at Melbourne per kilo. F1 cars + driver (on average) weigh about 605 kg. So you take their disclosed fuel load below, subtract 605 and you get the fuel weight. Then divide the fuel weight by 2.5 or 2.6 to get the number of laps before these guys pit. I included this in my prediction below.

If you look at these numbers, there are some interesting trends. Here are few I see. Ferrari, Williams, Hamilton, and Kubica were running light. Brawn, Red Bull, and Toro Rosso were average. Renault, Heidfeld, Kov, Force India, and Toyota were heavy. Next is the difference in fuel strategy within the same team; check out the difference between Kubica/Heidfeld, Lewis/Kov, and Kaz/Nico. One way to make sense of this is that the pit wants to stagger their drivers. Another way to look at it is leverage for overal finish results--especially early in the season: If you don't know what the other drivers' fuel loads are yet, they you could just make one of your driver's heavy, one light. Law of averages. Anyhow, I'm glad the FIA is providing this to the viewers now. The race is more engaging this way. Enjoy.


1. Jenson Button, Brawn GP, 664.5kg (11th to pit, around lap 22)
2. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn GP, 666.5 (12th to pit, around lap 23)
3. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 657 (7th to pit, around lap 20/21)
4. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber, 650 (2nd to pit, around lap 18)
5. Nico Rosberg, Williams, 657 (6th to pit, around lap 20/21)
6. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 654 (3rd to pit, around lap 19)
7. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 655.5 (5th to pit, around lap 20)
8. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 662 (9th, around lap 22)
9. Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber, 691.5 (19th to pit, around lap 34)
10. Fernando Alonso, Renault, 680.7 (15th to pit, around lap 29/30)
11. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, 690.6 (18th to pit, around lap 33/34)
12. Nelson Piquet, Renault, 694.1 (19th to pit, around lap 35)
13. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India 689 (17th to pit, around lap
14. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams, 612.5 (1st to pit, lap 6 or 7--3 stop strategy????)
15. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 675.5 (14th to pit, around lap 27)
16. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 684.5 (16th to pit, around lap 31)
17. Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso, 662.5 (10th to pit, around lap 22/23)
18. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 655 (4rd to pit, around lap 20)
19. Timo Glock, Toyota, 670 (13th to pit, around lap 26)
20. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 660 (8th to pit, around lap 21)

 

You must spread some reputation around before giving it to Over_Under again.

 

The cars outside the top ten are able to change the starting fuel level so that can all change

Also will be interesting to see which cars use the KERS off the start line apparently KERS is worth roughly 8m advantage when starting from 10th..... almost 2 car lengths.. Alot of the guys in the back half are running KERS too, so the first corner could be pretty crowded

 

4rd lol. f1fanatic.co.uk does these pretty early each sat. you should check it out.

 

I'll be out stretching my legs on the freeway.

But I'll be home with my food and drinks to watch the race at 1:30!

 

+1. Excellent analysis, Erich!

 

I was really looking forward to the race and I even called my friend (who has the tv-channel) to make sure I could go to his place tomorrow morning to watch the race.......epic failure thought, I'm shitfaced hoff and the race starts in ~3-something-hours. Time is 04.15am here and I have an exam on monday that I have to pass so atm I'll just pass out with my pizza hoff style.....

 

Don't be a wimp! I'm just starting to get Hoff'ed! This banter thread is about to get interesting...