So, Walking Quiet, continuing with your stolen TV­ analogy, what happens to the party that gave me the­ stolen TV? I (Mr. McLaren) go to jail for, say, 5 years­ and am fined $5,000. And the guy that gave me the TV­ (Mr. Ferrari)? He just gets a slap on the wrist. I am­ not saying that the McLaren team is guiltless in this­ case. I'm just saying that it takes two parties to­ share information. Anyway, I guess what it really boils­ down to is that this was two years ago, and we should­ all just let it drop now. I'm talking to you,­ Marnio, and your many personalities. (Except: there­ were two other teams that did the same thing -- I­ can't remember who now -- and nobody got fined the­ huge amount that McLaren did. Only when Ferrari was the­ 'victim' did that happen.)

As for the other­ matter, I just wanted to point out that every time the­ FIA changes the rules to slow the cars down, the teams­ find some way to make the cars even faster than the­ previous iteration. And this new rules package has­ actually done what it advertised. So far. We'll see­ about the overtaking promise in Melbourne.

Jim E. you certainly like to over simplify pal. As for­ last years F1 car any of the 08 cars could perform as­ Buemi is, probably a lot quicker, this years lap times­ will be down substantially.
Regarding McLaren; Stepney­ and Coughlan are guilty of stealing the tech dwgs­ McLaren were fined for actually using the information.­ Lets just suppose you bought a new TV knowing it to be­ stolen, do you imagine the courts would look kindly on­ you? Of course not. The same goes for McLaren.

It's interesting to note that Buemi, in last­ year's STR (arguably not one of the fastest in the­ field), was three seconds faster then Heikki in this­ year's McLaren. I only say this because for the­ most part, each new car has usually been faster than­ the previous year's, despite any rule changes the­ FIA imposed. This time there seems to be definite­ changes, hopefully for the better.

And as much as I­ hate to feed trolls, I'm getting a little tired of­ the "McLaren stole stuff" argument that is­ frankly sounding like a broken record. It takes, as the­ cliché goes, two to tango. Stepney (Ferrari) supplied­ Coughlan (McLaren) with the information. There was no­ stealing. There was passing of information from one­ disgruntled employee to a willing recipient. End of­ story. Ferrari should never have allowed such a breach­ of security and should have been punished for it as­ well. But as we all know, they weren't.

so piquet was slowest on thw time sheets today..so..so­ what
let me see was today the opening round of the 2009­ champioship??...was it?
the testing times are­ irrelevant people c'mon and git yer heads out of­ yer arses
cheers to Mok Webbah..I'm raising a VB to­ ya now mate!

Well done, Mark, good on yer, mate, 83 laps with a­ recovering leg. All the best for Melbourne on the 29th­ March!

So, much like last year, eh? Heikki is ahead of most,­ Toro Rosso is the surprise, and Nelson is not.

Alex Zanardi maintains a racing career with 2 fake­ legs, these drivers are built to last, oh and Mr­ safe-pair-of-hands coming second to the Red Bull­ B-team? Ferrari might as well keep the constructers­ title for another year...

Good to see Piquet keeping up his great form and coming­ in last

Using last years wing to be more safe than sorry.