Hamilton Starts 15 18th in Melbourne
March 28th, 2009
Lewis Hamilton’s 2009 Formula 1 season hasn’t gotten off to a fantastic start with the car being slower than most of the competition as well as he having problems with the gearbox.
Lewis said:
There was no more drive in the gearbox, there is an issue there.
I don’t know what it is, but we are working on fixing it – we will have to fix it or we won’t be racing tomorrow. We will have some fun starting back there in 15th.
Hamilton still seems to be in good spirits which is one of his best qualities. The season is going to be long and the first race hasn’t even started yet.
Australian Qualifying Results:
1. BUTTON Brawn 2. BARRICHELLO Brawn 3. VETTEL Red Bull 4. KUBICA BMW 5. ROSBERG Williams 6. GLOCK Toyota 7. MASSA Ferrari 8. TRULLI Toyota 9. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 10. WEBBER Red Bull 11. HEIDFELD BMW 12. ALONSO Renault 13. NAKAJIMA Williams 14. KOVALAINEN McLaren 15. HAMILTON McLaren 16. BUEMI Toro Rosso 17. PIQUET Renault 18. FISICHELLA Force India 19. SUTIL Force India 20. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso
Update: McLaren had to change Lewis Hamilton’s gearbox and therefore Lewis has to start from the back of the grid. Toyota have also been found to have too flexible rear wings and they have to start from the pit lane.
Get your Lewis Hamilton Cap.
I am a huge Lewis Hamilton fan and well in honest truth I am not about to give that up just because his luck is down this season, unlike some who believe that the only reason that Lewis has been this good is that he was in an awesome Ferrari (spygate scandal) car the last two years hence his winning ways I believe he still has that something special and well this is his year to prove to all those ‘haters’.
All winter testing I really thought that McLaren were ‘sandbagging’ and would come with a blistering performance in Australia but that has not been the case. 15th or 18th ????? I am still in shock – with all their resources how can they say they are not ready or do they have the wrong car designers and engineers in place. I am still failing to understand WHY? Maybe midfield I would agree but right at the back ???
Brawn ??? ok I will not say anything yet.
Come on Lewis – you can do this. My heart almost never made it after the Brazilian GP and well this year I am still on your side.
Good Luck From a Zambian F1 fan
Thank you for your comment Charity.
I think if McLaren improve their aerodynamics and get more downforce with the help of a decent diffuser things can change quite quickly.
Also, it was a problem with the gearbox which was the reason he couldn’t start in the second qualifying – so he’s definitely got a better car than the results have shown today – but unfortunately not THAT much better.
We’ll have to see how things go, as you probably know things change very quickly in F1.
I understand the issue of their aerodynamics and downforce but where have they been ???? McLaren should have sorted out all those issues a long time ago – not now.
Even on the issue of the gear box – we have not seen McLaren fail in that front for a long time (can’t remember any incident in the last couple of years).
Having a much better car for qualifying ??? mmmmmmm I don’t know
ok maybe the gearbox issue didn’t let us see that but like you said F1 is unpredicatble. It would be nice to see Lewis on the podium tomorrow – atleast third because I do not think the Brawns will be beat.
It will be an awesome season – I can see it already. Do you think the FIA will rule aganist the ‘diffuser’ three ? And have the teams using KERS used it in qualifying? I thought the viewers would be able to ‘see’ when KERS was used but right now – we can see no advantage if Renaults, Ferraris, McLaren and Heidfeld qualifying results are anything to go by.