Hi F1 fans......

Yes.... "Our" year finally started.......

The first Grand Prix of the year is upon us. Defending champions Lewis Hamilton and his teammate Nico Rosberg should be once again the favorites, as their car is still looking faster than the rest of the field.
Renault is back with an exciting looking car and since the 80's we can welcome an American team: Haas!

New qualifying system this year.....which did NOT bring the excitement some predicted...at least, yesterday.
The results were also not very surprising.

The Mercedes boys in front...with VET in 3rd.
The biggest surprise, perhaps: Verstappen in 5th.

Sorry folks, I am travelling so since I am on a smart phone I can't make this a long story....I am trying to make it through customs & immigration at the same time.
I just thought it was important to kick off our year!

I hereby copy the words of our French friend from last year.....thanks, Graham!

Lap data:

Lap length: 5.303 km
Race laps: 58
Race distance: 307.574 km
Pole position: Left-hand side of the track
Lap record*: 1’24.125 (226.934 kph) by Michael Schumacher, 2004
Fastest lap: 1’23.529 (228.553 kph) by Sebastian Vettel, 2011
Maximum speed: 312kph (193.868 mph)
DRS zone/s (race): First and second straight
Distance from grid to turn one: 380 m


Car performance

Full throttle: 61%
Longest flat-out section: 843 m
Downforce level: High
Fuel use per lap: 1.66 kg
Time penalty per lap of fuel: 0.051 s

I wish us all an exciting year....with perhaps some heated discussions now and then.

I will start with a debatable statement: Bringing back refueling......would make races more exciting!

No Tax On Rotax

Are all the dark cars indicative of the poor state of affairs in F1

Hell, Red Bull didn't even buff the "paint"

Quoting notaxonrotax (Thread starter): I wish us all an exciting year.

Sadly it appears already, that the excitement is going to revolve around the secondary places in the races. Mercedes are once again looking very ominous.

[Edited 2016-03-19 03:05:29]

Quoting CPH-R (Reply 2): Sadly it appears already, that the excitement is going to revolve around the secondary places in the races. Mercedes are once again looking very ominous

No argument from me, mate!
We shall see....maybe VET can make them more miserable than we think.

No Tax On Rotax

Quoting notaxonrotax (Reply 3): We shall see....maybe VET can make them more miserable than we think.

One can only hope.

Likewise, one can only hope they do away with the silly tyre rules. Give each team a set of each type of tyre for qualifying, and it'll stop this nonsense about parking up the car once a good time has been set. To say that the final few minutes of qualifying was a farce would be quite the understatement.

Well, that qualifying was as I thought - rubbish. When in F1 history has there been no cars racing on track during the last 3 minutes of Q3?! With the old format we had times falling one after another after the checkered flag had fallen, with this format we had the pole set with 3 minutes to go, and Ferrari deciding that they were safe with 3rd and 4th with 5 minutes to go.

Utter crap.

Meanwhile, Mercedes looks safe to take the championships this year, so Im happy - Rosberg looks like he hasnt brought that edge he had over Hamilton the last couple of races last year, so tomorrows race will be interesting from a Mercedes aspect.

No real change to the cars, no F-Duct or double diffuser, which is becoming the norm - the rules have been tightened so much that teams are struggling to come up with the trick that gives them the edge, which is a shame.

Quoting CPH-R (Reply 4): To say that the final few minutes of qualifying was a farce would be quite the understatement.

Quoting moo (Reply 5): Well, that qualifying was as I thought - rubbish.

Quoting scbriml (Reply 6): I'd go as far as saying the new qualifying format was a complete disaster.

Well add my name to the list of millions worldwide who found the new Qualifying format a complete travesty of what motor RACING is supposed to be!!!

I've got news for the flacks that run F1 (that's you Bernie E). You can tell all your advertisers and money people that I'm not going to waste my time getting up in the middle of the night (North America) to watch the excitement of Alonso et al, parking their cars and taking the steering wheel off.

As to the action on-track (what little of it there was), Lewis looked like he was on rails and set some awesome laps. But geez, Nico was all over the place like he was trying too hard and over-driving the car. Really not smooth at all. Looks like Nico better get ready for another year of runner-up if he doesn't up his game.

Quoting scbriml (Reply 8): On the qualifying debacle, it sounds like the teams are having a meeting about it on Sunday. I really, really hope they don't adopt Ecclestone's barmy 'reverse grid' bollocks. Why should the winner of the previous race be penalised at the next? Everyone should start each race weekend with a clean slate.

Once again F1 is about gimping the successful rather than encouraging the unsuccessful - how many times this weekend have we head people say that a Mercedes domination this season would be bad for the sport (and Im not even counting the hypocrite Christian Horner, who didnt seem to be willing to give up a RB domination easily enough...)? Mercedes got it right, and they are winning as a result - if you arent winning, you didnt get it right, and thats your fault, why should Mercedes be punished?

Let's not pretend teams didn't participate in the debacle that qualifying was, either purposely to kill it or out of sheer idiocy, I know not which. Teams can figure out to the second when to release their drivers to the track. They knew exactly when the deadlines would come and they knew that in-progress flying laps would not count, it is a matter of basic math to withdraw flying lap time plus setup time and figure out when to release the cars.

Every team caught in the garage or in the middle of a flying lap has no one but themselves to blame, from Haas on up to Ferrari (who probably decided they couldn't beat Mercedes and chose not to bother while using the new format as scapegoat).

I like the new qualifying format for Q1 and Q2 because it does create more action on track from more teams. It should, however, be scrapped for Q3 so Ferrarri can't hide their inferiority behind it and is forced to race until the end or be shown to have admitted defeat.

[Edited 2016-03-19 10:17:47]

Quoting moo (Reply 9): Mercedes got it right, and they are winning as a result - if you arent winning, you didnt get it right, and thats your fault, why should Mercedes be punished?

That's all well and good, but when F1 specifically bans in-season testing, development, engine tokens, etc, etc, than what you have is a constructor making a guess on what he's going to develop, and like the lottery if you win fine, but if you lose, you're stuck for many years ahead. That is what's happening now.

Do you really think that if teams could develop their engines mid-season (unlimited) that those behind the power curve would more quickly catch up?

Could you imagine the same thing happening in the world of business? Imagine Apple develops a particular feature for this year's model then you tell every other manufacturer (Samsung, LG, etc) that they cannot change or develop their product until next year's model. That's insanity, which is right where F1 is today.

Well qualifying sucked, but we all knew that it would.

McLaren actually bothered to show up this year. Looking forward to seeing Alo and Jenson fighting in the midfield!!

Speaking of midfield, it looks like it should be pretty competitive from Ferrari on back. Should be some very interesting battles there this year.

No surprise from the Mercs. Credit where it's due, they've brought a ringer again.

On an aside -Lewis really needs to ditch the John Lennon-esque glasses that are "for fashion."

Oh, and Motogp starts this weekend in Bahrain. Spring is here folks!

It seems that there has been a realisation that the new format was indeed not that good : http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1...s-urgent-qualifying-change-680694/

They're going back to the old qualifying format as soon as Bahrain.

So much ado about nothing...

http://www.autosport.com/news/report...qualifying-to-revert-to-old-format

[Edited 2016-03-19 19:41:52]

What a great start of the first 2016 GP. Vettel is on fire!

Chilling crash there with Alonso. Glad he is okay.

That crash happened right in front of me. Amazing they both walked away.
https://flic.kr/p/F3u4id

Quoting photopilot (Reply 7): Well add my name to the list of millions worldwide who found the new Qualifying format a complete travesty of what motor RACING is supposed to be!!!

Elimination qualifying has been dropped as F1’s new qualifying format after just one attempt at it.
The team principals got together for a crisis meeting ahead of the Australian Grand Prix to make sure no one has to witness a qualifying session like it, ever again.
A unanimous decision was made to revert back to the former knock-out system for the next round in Bahrain.

        

Quoting grozzy (Reply 17): That crash happened right in front of me. Amazing they both walked away.

I believe if the car had a halo Alonso could not have gotten out of the car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AUTkEmL8wE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dlTAy85e5w

Somehow he walked away from this.

       

Quoting B747forever (Reply 16): What a great start of the first 2016 GP. Vettel is on fire!

Very much a case of 'what could have been', had Ferrari not bungled that pitstop.

Oh, and I'm petty enough to cheer that Kevin Magnussen finished ahead of the surviving McLaren, despite having to deal with an early puncture.

[Edited 2016-03-20 04:07:10]

Quoting scbriml (Reply 20): Quote: Jenson Button says McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso's Australian Grand Prix crash should not be used as evidence against the cockpit halo set to be introduced in Formula 1 in 2017. Looking at the design fitted to the Ferrari, it doesn't look to impede egress from the car at all.

We all have the right to different opinions.
I have been watching racing for many years. I write from what I remember.

Could have been like Greg Moore in the Fontana in 1999 if the halo had been on board.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mqcIK5BSO0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usvUUE34m_g

RIP


    

Quoting MadameConcorde (Reply 22): I have been watching racing for many years. I write from what I remember.

And Button has actually been in F1, driving F1 cars, for 15 years so your opinion carry little to no weight.

Quoting CPH-R (Reply 21): Very much a case of 'what could have been', had Ferrari not bungled that pitstop.

True. That red flag and pit stop did not do any good for Vettel.

Quoting sudden (Reply 24): And Button has actually been in F1, driving F1 cars, for 15 years so your opinion carry little to no weight.

        

It's similar to the age-old issue here on p.ie - posters who have simply developed their 'expert opinion' on watching aircraft at airports/airshows and in youtube videos... thinking they know much more than ACTUAL pilots with real skills and experience.

    

A good start to the season, glad to see thrills and spills during the race   

Quoting scbriml (Reply 23): Quoting MadameConcorde (Reply 22): We all have the right to different opinions. Indeed. But forgive me if I value the opinion of a current F1 driver and WDC winner more.

Moot point.

This wasn't even Alonso's worst crash.

Interlagos Brasil GP 2003

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJaZ9I-556w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4BwvnP5JyE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iikUvXPKjE

Quoting MadameConcorde (Reply 27): Moot point. This wasn't even Alonso's worst crash. Interlagos Brasil GP 2003

Yeah, because he barrel rolls, flips and ends up upside down in that crash at Interlagos 2003...

As a chartered surveyor/town planner, I was part of the team that set up the 'Australian Grand Prix.' We all owed a great deal to the local residents, most of whom realised from the first that such an event would very much help the local economy, and cooperated.

We all worked hard, too, to design a circuit that, although challenging, was as free as we could make it of ''deathtraps,' while still presenting challenges.

So another enjoyable afternoon for me, with a genuine 'happy ending' - in that the only accident was 'self-inflicted,' and no=one got hurt.......

I hope everyone else enjoyed it.

[Edited 2016-03-21 05:39:31]

That was quite an enjoyable race. Of course, the result is the same as the last couple of years, but at least Ferrari showed some good dispositions.

I'm glad Alonso is ok, that was quite a frightening accident. He posted a picture on Instagram today:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDNnh3LBml5/

Happy to see Grosjean in the points. It didn't take long for Haas to score, even if they profited from the red flag. At least that's some money guaranteed for them next year.

I was at the race and, for the most part, enjoyed it. It was very special to see the two Ferraris ending the penultimate corner in the lead!    Sadly, this was undermined somewhat by seeing Kimi on fire and Seb sliding off the track right infront of me.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/FrbNVU]

Some other thoughts about the race weekend:
- The Renaults look awesome in that Yellow! Nice to have a bit of variety in terms of livery. The Renaults are also noticeably louder than all the others.
- As a spectator, I was grateful to get the extra formation lap.
- Hamilton said that Rosberg hit him on the first corner....Rosberg was ahead of him at the time. I wonder how many if Sky will now add that to their intro.
- Interesting that with Toro Rosso's new Ferrari engine, they seem to have moved well ahead of their sister team in terms of performance. They even managed to keep Hamilton's Mercedes at bay for quite a few laps.
- It would be nice if there was a larger gap between the end of the race and the podium ceremony.
- On the Renaults, it's really hard to see the car's number and thus distinguish KMAG from Palmer.

Quoting notaxonrotax (Reply 3): maybe VET can make them more miserable than we think.

Lets hope so.

Quoting scbriml (Reply 6): I love their matt look!

I like that the Red Bulls and Toro Rossos now look much more distinct from one and other.

Quoting scbriml (Reply 8): Hamilton had won the WDC and eased off a few percentage points while Rosberg had nothing to lose and no pressure, so he improved a few percentage points. The result was Rosberg able to beat Hamilton on track.

Hamilton doesn't appear to me to be the kind of person who would just let his team mate win. Lets hope that the competition between him and Rosberg is tighter than it was last year.

Quoting photopilot (Reply 11): That's all well and good, but when F1 specifically bans in-season testing, development, engine tokens, etc, etc, than what you have is a constructor making a guess on what he's going to develop, and like the lottery if you win fine, but if you lose, you're stuck for many years ahead. That is what's happening now.

  

Quoting scbriml (Reply 20): It would look like Ferrari threw away a possible race win by putting Vettel on the super-softs after the red flag.

Yup, they sure screwed up. By the sounds of it, they didn't have enough data on the medium tire to put them on and be confident that Vettel could make it to the end without another stop.

Quoting scbriml (Reply 20): Max Verstappen needs to calm down a bit. After he refused team orders to give a place to Sainz last season, did he really expect Sainz to jump out of his way?

He needs to calm down a lot! That race showed that he seems to be becoming a real diva. As such, I hope that Sainz can beat him solidly this year. Last year there was a huge amount of hype about Verstappen, mainly due to his age, but probably also due to his dad having the right connections within F1. Hype around Sainz was minimal. Anyway, if you consider all the races last year that both of them finished, they both roughly had the same finishing position (10th), though Sainz is marginally better.

An interesting article on the topic of Verstappen:
http://www.grandprix247.com/2016/03/...-mercedes-interested-in-ricciardo/

Quoting NAV30 (Reply 29): As a chartered surveyor/town planner, I was part of the team that set up the 'Australian Grand Prix.' We all owed a great deal to the local residents, most of whom realised from the first that such an event would very much help the local economy, and cooperated.

The city runs it all very well. I liked that the walk from my hotel was three minutes and the tram ride to the track was eight minutes. Beautifully efficient!! The previous F1 race I've been to (Monaco, 2006) was chaotic by comparison, though that's not to say I didn't enjoy it.

Unrelated: do you know why Gate 10 is so far away from all the others?

Quoting NAV30 (Reply 29): I hope everyone else enjoyed it.

Sure did, though it would have been better with a flypast from a QF747 (or A380).

Quoting ZKOJQ (Reply 31): - Hamilton said that Rosberg hit him on the first corner....Rosberg was ahead of him at the time. I wonder how many if Sky will now add that to their intro.

Rosberg has apologised to Hamilton for his actions at the first corner, so there has to be something in it...

Quoting ZKOJQ (Reply 31): - Interesting that with Toro Rosso's new Ferrari engine, they seem to have moved well ahead of their sister team in terms of performance. They even managed to keep Hamilton's Mercedes at bay for quite a few laps.

This was always expected, but Torro Rosso will fall off through the season because they will remain on the 2015 spec engine, which they cannot upgrade.

Quoting ZKOJQ (Reply 31): - On the Renaults, it's really hard to see the car's number and thus distinguish KMAG from Palmer.

Look at the horizontal bar on top of the air intake above the driver - for one of the teams two drivers the bar is florescent yellow and for the other driver it is not. This is consistent through the season and teams.

Much easier to tell rather than looking at the number.

Quoting moo (Reply 32): Look at the horizontal bar on top of the air intake above the driver - for one of the teams two drivers the bar is florescent yellow and for the other driver it is not. This is consistent through the season and teams. Much easier to tell rather than looking at the number.

Haha, not this discussion again!
A lot of people use the numbers though.......I have been keeping an eye on it, it really depends on the angle and the light.
Sometimes the fluorescent bar is easier, but sometimes it's not! A nice large number will do the trick most of the times.
To avoid a backwards and forth.....I don't see any reason not to have both: AND have the fluorescent bar AND have a good recognizable number. What otherwise, is the point of the the numbers!?

Quoting ZKOJQ (Reply 31): An interesting article on the topic of Verstappen:

Not really about Verstappen though......

Quoting ZKOJQ (Reply 31): He needs to calm down a lot! That race showed that he seems to be becoming a real diva.

Agreed!
He needs to wind his neck in......
Yes, he was treated a tad unfair perhaps by his team; but no reason to kick off like that.
Also, he touched Sainz in his desperation which I thought was very unnecessary!
He risked:

-Ruining his own front wing and therefore the race.
-Causing his teammate to suffer a puncture.
-Disciplinary action from the stewards.
-Or perhaps all of these things at the same time!

He got away with it!


No Tax On Rotax

Quoting notaxonrotax (Reply 34): Haha, not this discussion again!

Nah, we had the one where changing helmet designs were banned for "identification purposes", which is a load of bollocks  

Quoting moo (Reply 35): Nah, we had the one where changing helmet designs were banned for "identification purposes", which is a load of bollocks

No hard feelings then I see.......

I imagine you do agree that the starting numbers should be easy to read, right?


No Tax On Rotax

Quoting notaxonrotax (Reply 36): I imagine you do agree that the starting numbers should be easy to read, right?

If there is a required identifier on the car, then it should be easily legible, otherwise its pointless. Are driver numbers a required identifier?

Vettel, Button and the other drivers have released this statement about the current state of F1...

Drivers call for overhaul of F1's 'ill-structured' governance

Formula One drivers have called on their sport to restructure its governance, arguing that the current rule making process has proved itself to be "obsolete and ill-structured".

An open letter issued by the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA) on Wednesday took aim at recent rule changes that the drivers believe lack coherent direction. Instead they have called on F1 to restructure its decision-making process and come up with a clear "master plan" for the future.

"We feel that some recent rule changes - on both the sporting and technical side, and including some business directions - are disruptive, do not address the bigger issues our sport is facing and in some cases could jeopardise its future success," read a section of the letter. "We know that among the leaders of the sport - be it the owners, their representatives, the governing body, the teams or other stakeholders - every individual acts with the very best intentions.

-50%
read more here:
http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...rhaul-f1-ill-structured-governance

     

Quoting moo (Reply 37): Are driver numbers a required identifier?

I believe so.
In case of investigations during the race, they normally refer to car numbers first.
Most motorsport events I have been to that is the case, in fact.

No Tax On Rotax

Quoting photopilot (Reply 7): I've got news for the flacks that run F1 (that's you Bernie E).

Bernie isn't the problem. When he and Max were in sole control, things were far more stable, and generally worked a lot better. Now he's devolved too much of his power to the F1 strategy group, which then has to get things past the F1 commission and then subsequently past the World Motorsport Council. Jean Todt is basically a waste of space, the teams have no interest in a solution which is good for the long term future of the sport, and everybody's basically at war with everybody else.

People have this idea that F1 is failing because it has become a dictatorship, but actually it's the exact reverse. There are too many fingers in the pie nowadays. It needs a strong leader to wrestle power back from the teams, abolish the failed experiment that is the strategy group, and bash some heads together to get the right decisions made.

Melbourne’s farcical elimination qualifying is back on for Bahrain

Bernie Ecclestone confirmed to Autosport that the new qualifying format will go ahead in Bahrain as it did in Melbourne, with Q1, Q2 and Q3 all getting the 90 second elimination treatment.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report...ion-qualifying-to-stay-for-bahrain

       

Quoting MadameConcorde (Reply 41): Melbourne’s farcical elimination qualifying is back on for Bahrain

WTF are they thinking? I can tell you right now that I won't even bother watching the Qualifying sessions and will just read the results online before the race. Isn't worth wasting my time to see a non-event and the excitement of watching a driver take his steering wheel off.

I'd love to see the teams/drivers protest this nonsense by nobody coming out for Q1 at all. Then what does F! and Bernie do? Eliminate nobody.... or forced elimination by points, etc. Show what a farce this whole mess really is.

Quoting moo (Reply 37): Are driver numbers a required identifier?

Yes, as is their name and the manufacturers name

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-...side-f1/rules-regs/Car_livery.html

Quoting photopilot (Reply 42): I'd love to see the teams/drivers protest this nonsense by nobody coming out for Q1 at all. Then what does F! and Bernie do? Eliminate nobody.... or forced elimination by points, etc. Show what a farce this whole mess really is.

They will eliminate by the final FP3 standings

Quoting NAV30 (Reply 29): As a chartered surveyor/town planner, I was part of the team that set up the 'Australian Grand Prix.'

I am sure you did a good job, but I still find it a great shame that the great track of Adelaide was taken off the calendar and that this highly artificial track without any real exciting corners (or overtaking possibilities) was used instead.

The park looks beautiful.....but it has little racing character for me.


No Tax On Rotax

Quoting notaxonrotax (Reply 46): this highly artificial track without any real exciting corners

Don't know what you mean by 'highly artificial,' notaxonrotax? It's actually a 'street circuit,' every weekday the roads are choked with commuters heading for the CBD?

Quoting NAV30 (Reply 47): Don't know what you mean by 'highly artificial,'

Perhaps not my best choice of words.
What I'm getting at is, well: it is a nice park!
It looks great, clean and well laid out!

BUT....as a race track and a racing scene in general, I don't like it....and I say that a TV spectator.
I guess it's somewhat similar to Montreal, and yet; Gilles Villeneuve is full of exciting corners and breaths F1 history.
Hard to explain I guess!

Once again; you and your makkers probably did a great job and all, but give me Adelaide anyway of the week!

No Tax On Rotax

Quoting moo (Reply 32): This was always expected, but Torro Rosso will fall off through the season because they will remain on the 2015 spec engine, which they cannot upgrade.

True, though I'm skeptical as to how effective the Renault/TagHeuer updates will be.

Quoting moo (Reply 32): Look at the horizontal bar on top of the air intake above the driver - for one of the teams two drivers the bar is florescent yellow and for the other driver it is not. This is consistent through the season and teams.

Cheers, wish I had known about this on Saturday!

Quoting moo (Reply 32): Much easier to tell rather than looking at the number.

  

Quoting scbriml (Reply 33): Absolutely - I wasn't suggesting he 'let' Rosberg win, just that his performance level understandably dipped slightly after he'd won the WDC.

Oh, right.

Quoting scbriml (Reply 33): Aside from his awful start, Hamilton easily looked the fastest driver all weekend, so I think he's back to his best for the new season.

I found it impressive how long Verstappen kept him behind.

Quoting notaxonrotax (Reply 34): Yes, he was treated a tad unfair perhaps by his team; but no reason to kick off like that.

What did the team do to treat him unfairly? (honest question)

Quoting notaxonrotax (Reply 34): Not really about Verstappen though......

It sortof is. Certain people would have had us believe that Ferrari, Mercedes et al were all queuing up to snatch Verstappen away from Toro Rosso at the soonest possible opportunity. Unsurprisingly that isn't the case.