[QUOTE=moogleii,May 12 2009, 03:28 AM] Brawn didn't know yet. Ruben didn't slow down significantly until he switched to the hard tires, and at that point 2/3rd of the race was over already.

 

If you look at the laps between 1-50, Barrichello was clearly faster, even though he was slightly heavier on fuel in the beginning. Then they pit, and Button is put on the two stop, I'd say because he was slower than his heavier teammate and you don't want to waste time in the pits when you are slower. The three stop was working just fine for Rubens and he was pulling away over a second a lap and had a shorter pit time to allow more time ahead, but after his second stop, he obviously was doing something wrong (or there was something wrong with the car like he said, who knows?) and even though he was running a light fuel load and the same tires, he was still .25-.5 seconds SLOWER than his teammate. Think what you will though.

As for the team orders being a good thing, I disagree. They are trying to get the team a win and generate as many points as possible so the team can win. Slowing down one driver so the other can win is counter productive. Even RB believes Brawn is being completely fair, although you conspiracy theorists probably will think he is just being naive.

[QUOTE]

 

He wasn't on hards much longer than RB, so it does actually, especially when RB was .5 seconds slower.

 

Like I said, Ross B knew RB had to be 1.3 sec/lap quicker in order for him to make the 3 stop strategy work...RB was not. In fact, he wasn't ever fast enough to make a 2 stop strategy work.

See for yourself....

As you can clearly see, Rubens only had the pace he needed for 2 laps. Do you really think the strategy genius called Ross Brawn would not have seen this? He purposefully switched JB to a 2 stopper because he know Rubens did not have the pace to make a 3 stopper work...

 

Sorry but no it doesn't.

 

Found a mistake in my lap times for RB - corrected...

 

The comparison I'm looking at shows he was slower on the harder compound tires. He was using harder compound at the end of the race.

 

Yes, I fixed my error, but it doesn't really change anything. RB did not have the pace at the beginning of the race and Brawn knew it, changed JB to a 2 stopped to get him the win.

 

It does because obviously pitting more means you lose quite a bit of time, but since Button was slower when he had the lighter car, it made sense to have him switch so he could keep up with Barrichello since it appeared the three stop would be faster. That and the fact they believed Rosberg might hinder Button after he came out of the pits if he was lighter on fuel so they kept him longer and gave him more fuel to make up for it. Barrichello's pace obviously dropped off later in the race, due to tires, the car itself, or the driver. It doesn't really matter.

I think the FIA had a hand in it and they were trying to slow the BGP cars down so Massa could catch up

 

^ I would agree with you if Ruben's had the pace at the start, but he didn't.

I knew it! It had to be the FIA...