How much quicker is the Brawn car really?

[skwdenyer]

As we saw on Sunday, when needed, Jenson could take 1-2 seconds a lap off his time without having to resort to Hamilton-style "over-driving". His fastest lap was 1% faster than anybody else's (so just over 1%). So how quickly do you think it can really go?

[mat205125]

Just over 1% at a guess. I hardly think that they are deliberately "sand bagging"

[ajprice]

I do think they have had a bit in hand for most of the races so far, only needing to give it 100% when they have to. Button pulled out 4 seconds at the start of Australia, and not counting the safety cars, they kept it at that kind of time for most of the race. In Sepang, as you said, Button gave it some when the Toyota pitted, only when he needed to.

Hamilton has a much looser driving style though, he does like to hang it out. Button is more precise and smoother, so I'm not sure if he'd ever treat the car the way Hamilton does. Don't know about percentages, but I think they've got something close to a second per lap in hand.

[stephen300o]

Oh I'm not the only one who can't resist the comedy answer.

[Get Karter]

Whatever the advantage is, Rubens isn't benefitting much.

And there was a hint of dissatisfaction with his team when interviewed after the race.

Are we going to have a Hamilton/Alonso situation at Brawn???

[DrTre]

Get Karter said:

Whatever the advantage is, Rubens isn't benefitting much.

And there was a hint of dissatisfaction with his team when interviewed after the race.

Are we going to have a Hamilton/Alonso situation at Brawn???

Thought he seemed relatively chipper when walking along being interviewed?

He and JB seemed to have an extremely cursory "well done/thanks" exchange with one another on the grid after they'd all got out of the cars though...

[Adrian Gumball]

stephen300o said:

Oh I'm not the only one who can't resist the comedy answer.

[ajprice]

Get Karter said:

Whatever the advantage is, Rubens isn't benefitting much.

And there was a hint of dissatisfaction with his team when interviewed after the race.

Are we going to have a Hamilton/Alonso situation at Brawn???

Weren't Barry and a few others stuck behind Alonso for a big chunk of the race though? Toyota also made a great call to go with intermediate tyres first, so that probably jumped them ahead. Wet races are always a bit random, so I think he did pretty well under the circumstances.

Edited by ajprice on Monday 6th April 13:30

[DSM2]

Get Karter said:

Whatever the advantage is, Rubens isn't benefitting much.

And there was a hint of dissatisfaction with his team when interviewed after the race.

Are we going to have a Hamilton/Alonso situation at Brawn???

Why would that be? It wasn't Button's fault that he had a new box and, as said, he followed Alonso for far longer than Button did, even though Barri was lighter on fuel than Button.

Real point is, though, that another result or two like these and Barri will have to follow Button.

[Get Karter]

DSM2 said:

Get Karter said:

Whatever the advantage is, Rubens isn't benefitting much.

And there was a hint of dissatisfaction with his team when interviewed after the race.

Are we going to have a Hamilton/Alonso situation at Brawn???

Why would that be?

He suggested that the teams tyre choice was wrong for him and that their timing of the stops was sub-optimal.

I was only half serious when suggesting the Hamilton/Alonso spat, but Rubens must be starting to worry that JB is going to receive number 1 status as WC leader.

[stephen300o]

01 Jenson Button 15
02 Rubens Barrichello 10
03 Jarno Trulli 8.5
04 Timo Glock 8
05 Nick Heidfeld 4

Not what I would call running away with it yet. It's a looooooong season.

[gwood]

i was surprised that when it was the first round of pitstops jenson was 5 secs behind the leader, then he stayed out 3 or 4 laps longer ( really flying! ) then was 11 secs infront when he came out from his pitstop. that brawn car is really sorted out . it could be jensons year ??

[Ramthorne]

The Brawn's looked very impressive on the two wet tyres, although they may have been in better condition than the ones on the cars they were passing.

[mondeoman]

Ramthorne said:

The Brawn's looked very impressive on the two wet tyres, although they may have been in better condition than the ones on the cars they were passing.

must've been real quick on 4 tyres....

[DSM2]

gwood said:

i was surprised that when it was the first round of pitstops jenson was 5 secs behind the leader, then he stayed out 3 or 4 laps longer ( really flying! ) then was 11 secs infront when he came out from his pitstop. that brawn car is really sorted out . it could be jensons year ??

I don't think that's correct. when Button came out Rosberg was only a second or two behind. Still impressive but not 11 seconds I don't think.

[Marcia]

It's quick enough not need this man
http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3213_5153472...
So now jense thinks he's better than schumi,after winning a couple of races

[anonymous-user]

That's not what he is saying and you know it.

Jenson is right, Shuey is no strategist. Wasn't he the brains who decided Kimi should change to wets on a dry track this weekend?

[skwdenyer]

DSM2 said:

gwood said:

i was surprised that when it was the first round of pitstops jenson was 5 secs behind the leader, then he stayed out 3 or 4 laps longer ( really flying! ) then was 11 secs infront when he came out from his pitstop. that brawn car is really sorted out . it could be jensons year ??

I don't think that's correct. when Button came out Rosberg was only a second or two behind. Still impressive but not 11 seconds I don't think.

It "felt" like 4-5 seconds whilst watching.

The one fact we do have is that Jenson's fastest lap was over a second faster than anybody else's fastest lap. Whether car, driver, or overall package, that's still impressive. Could it have been 2 or even 3 seconds faster? Who knows? I'm sure Ross Brawn would like everybody to think so and just give up on trying to develope their way to victor

[mattikake]

Marcia said:

It's quick enough not need this man
http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3213_5153472...
So now jense thinks he's better than schumi,after winning a couple of races

Alternatively... you could be eating those words if you think Schumi is *really* so great.

Consider,

JB wasn't so massively fast in Oz on the first lap, it's that everyone else was massively slow, judging by the sector times on LiveTiming (IIRC).

RB clearly isn't benefitting as much and struggled throughout Oz or Malayasia to make a lap anything like JB, judging by the sector times on LiveTiming.

JB does two completely Schumi-esq laps (one full lap, plus the in-lap) in Malayasia to leap-frog his rivals in the pits.

Observe:

The commonality? Ross Brawn. Could this be (yet more) proof that Schumi was not as great as many claim, and it's just a result of Ross Brawn running a number 1 and number 2 driver team?

Edited by mattikake on Monday 6th April 22:36

Edited by mattikake on Monday 6th April 23:21

[ajprice]

In Australia, Barrys diffuser was broken by getting shunted up the back by Kovi, pushing him into another car and losing bits of his front wing, that would have slowed him down a bit, although the nosecone got replaced in the first pit stop. Once we get a dry race with no safety cars and a clean run through, that will show how good all the cars are. I still dont think Brawn have completely shown their hand in a race yet though, in terms of speed. We've seen bits of it but they're going as fast as they need to when they need to, and no more.