McLaren drivers back qualifying postponement

2013 Australian Grand Prix

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McLaren duo Jenson Button and Sergio Perez say postponing Q2 and Q3 until tomorrow was the correct decision.

“I think the FIA stewards made the right call to postpone Q2 and Q3,” said Perez. “The conditions were becoming too dangerous – in terms of low visibility as well as low grip.”

“That was a really dramatic qualifying session, full of suspense and excitement,” he added.

“But, even though that uncertainty made things tricky for all the teams, I think our guys did a fantastic job. They kept calm and focused throughout the whole session, even in the gaps and delays, and as a result Jenson and I were always confident that everything was totally under control.

“We’ll have to follow a really tight schedule tomorrow – including a very short turn-around between qualifying and race – and that’ll be tough for everyone, especially the guys in the garage.”

Button believes the stewards “had no choice” but to delay the remainder of qualifying. “It was the right call to postpone Q2 and Q3 until tomorrow, for safety reasons.”

He added his sympathies for the spectators at the track: “That level of disruption creates quite a lot of mental and psychological stress for any athlete – but it was even worse for the fans, who’d been waiting excitedly for qualifying all day long and who then had to sit in the pouring rain with no on-track action to entertain them.”

“So I’m very sorry for them, because the fans are what all sport is ultimately all about, but I hope we can make it up to them tomorrow by putting on a really exciting race.”

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    40 comments on “McLaren drivers back qualifying postponement”

    1. It’s ok Button, most of the fans near me left after the postponement and ended up in a warm pub, drinking cold beer with a hot meal, watching you lot sit in your cold garages.

      1. watching you lot sit in your cold garages

        yeah, poor Button, at least he can cover himself (literally) with all the money he makes and not feel the cold.

        Considering the pace they have shown lately, I think McLaren would be happy if the race was postponed too.

        1. yeah, poor Button, at least he can cover himself (literally) with all the money he makes and not feel the cold.

          Lol. Don’t know why that guy was hating on Button so much.

          1. I would have thought MacLaren preferred the lottery of wet weather considering their lack of pace in the dry.

          2. In fairness, I’m a massive Button fan, and if he hadn’t made that joke I would.

    2. “The conditions were becoming too dangerous – in terms of low visibility as well as low grip.”
      Low grip. So thats why Jenson was the first, who took the intermediates.

      1. Low grip was AFTER he took the intermediates. With full wets he had understeer :)

        1. Well do you think understeer means good grip+

          1. Yes, on the rear tyres at least :P

          2. It depends, a bit of understeer might offer better traction which suffers the most in wet conditions.

    3. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
      16th March 2013, 12:36

      Jenson said…
      “That level of disruption creates quite a lot of mental and psychological stress for any athlete – but it was even worse for the fans, who’d been waiting excitedly for qualifying all day long and who then had to sit in the pouring rain with no on-track action to entertain them. So I’m very sorry for them, because the fans are what all sport is ultimately all about, but I hope we can make it up to them tomorrow by putting on a really exciting race.”

      What I heard was…
      “I’m getting a lot of mental and psychological stress because my car is so terrible. I’m glad that Q2 has been postponed because I need to mentally prepare myself for not getting into the top ten. However whilst its gonna be bad for me its worse for the fans, who all hate Vettel, because he’s obviously going to dominate the weekend, especially now that qualy should be dry. So I’m very sorry for them that we have built such an awful car, because the fans are what all sport is ultimately all about, and now they’re going to get hacked off because Vettel’s going to make the race really boring tomorrow.”

      Wow, the power of the inferred statement…

      1. David not Coulthard (@)
        16th March 2013, 15:57

        Though not all fans “hate” Vettel, at least not me.

    4. Just remove Australia from the god damn calender and put in Austria A1 ring, if you F1A/FOM lot like the name so much. Plenty of DRS opportunities too.

      1. oh yeah, that would be right. Australia and Melbourne obviously do not deserve to hold the race if it rains there!

    5. Why has Perez changed his helmet to look very similar to Lewis’s ?! It’s a bit annoying.

      1. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
        16th March 2013, 14:13

        It’s called wishful thinking.

          1. yeah probably, maybe someone should let him know that just cos he has a helmet like Lewis doesn’t mean he will drive like him.

            1. Give the guy some rest. After all Lewis has yet to score 3 podiums in team that isn’t McLaren.

            2. @klaas What kind of logic is that!? Lewis has had NO CHANCE to even do that yet…!! So how can you criticise him for it?

              Give him a break, Perez hasn’t even scored 3 podiums in a team that isn’t Sauber!… GOD!…

            3. David not Coulthard (@)
              16th March 2013, 15:59

              Lewis has had NO CHANCE to even do that

              Which is , I think, why he said that, so that he isn’t perceived as being that serious.

    6. a question about bbc’s coverage, so the live quailfying is midnight U.K time…yet the highlights are being shown at 5:15am? if theyre highlights surely the bbc have the freedom to air them when they like…so why have they chose a stupid time like 5:15am? just air the qualifying right before the race highlights

      1. ..now ive realised bbc are showing the qualifying highlights at the same time Sky are showing the race live, since i dont have sky ill be getting up early to watch the qualifying highlights at the same time sky viewers are getting up to watch the race :/ why are bbc airing the qualifying highlights at that time!?!

        1. you don’t need sky to watch sky’s coverage

        2. @scuderia29 Why complain when you can simply watch free RTL or in worse-case scenario free live streaming?

          1. If you type Sky Sports F1 into google, the top results is obviously the broadcasters website, the next two results – before their official twitter account and Wiki result even – are streams! I think that the order of results on a search engine are affected by the amount of hits a link gets… says something about Sky stream web traffic…

            1. @nick-uk There are other streaming web sites besides Sky’s.

            2. @Nick.UK i was unaware you could so easily stream sky’s coverage! although im not sure i want to watch the first grand prix on a small kinda blurry screen on my laptop :/ but thanks anyway! i really never knew

            3. @klaas Yeah these aren’t Sky’s own stream service, there.. not ‘official’. My point was that since they appear so high in the search results they must get an aweful lot of hits from people streaming rather than paying for Sky.

        3. @scuderia29 Well they had to fit another program into their schedule. I suppose this was the best time they could a) edit the highlights for, and b) replace another tv show.

          1. @george one of the shows on sunday morning/early afternoon is a repeat of countryfile…surely that could move over for Formula1? afterall BBC still spend huge amounts of money to air f1 per year, and a repeat of countryfile means they have to air it at 5:15am? seems crazy to me

            1. They are most likely airing it at 5:15 am to fit it in before the live race so that those that wish to watch listen on a Sky stream Radio 5 can do so.

            2. They are most likely airing it at 5:15 am to fit it in before the live race so that those that wish to watch listen on a Sky stream Radio 5 can do so.

              Messed up strikethroughs duh

    7. How long before McLaren pulls the dust cover off the MP4-27 and put it back into service? I think they’ll give the 28 two races and we’ll see the 27 in China.

      1. Personally I think McLaren were right to build a new car if they were sure their 2012 car had little room for improvement. They just messed up by building a rubbish car. Doesn’t mean the decision to build a new one was wrong.

        1. Yeah, it’s pretty much like Ferrari last year. I expect they’ll be back near the pace after the Barcelona update.

    8. Slight Headline correction for you Keith:

      “Team struggling with setup are happy with EXTRA TWELVE HOURS to work on it.”

      1. @bendana
        There is no silver lining I’m sorry to tell you. They are in Parc Ferme conditions so they can’t make any set up changes.

        1. It’s called a joke. You may want to look them up.

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