Grand Prix thread Official Not606 2016 Australian GP Chat and Predictions

Yep. If this continues they will pull the plug no doubt.

 

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I'll let McLaren off if they need a PU change after one race.

Also...

The Australian Grand Prix proved a surprise uphill battle for Mercedes after its qualifying front row lock-out, with Rosberg and Hamilton dropping to third and sixth respectively on the opening lap after poor starts.

"Yesterday, our practice starts weren't very good," Wolff recalled. "We were not quite sure whether this would cause a problem in the race or not".


In what sort of case would a poor start not be an issue? If you're last?

 

Without the Red Flag Ferrari could have won and as usual when the top drivers are out of position everything seems to fall into place. Not reading too much into the pace deficit as of yet, but it's fair to say the Merc is a monster.

Glad Alonso is ok, but have a feeling Button would have traded places - driving round at the back behind 2 new teams must be pretty painful! We have to be honest the car and PU are ****.

 

OMG, 30 seconds of seeing and listening to Jones and i just want to shoot him. He looks a cock and sounds like a pretentious ****er

 

I haven't watched any of the C4 footage tbh.

 

Well I enjoyed that, a good race most of the way down the order, I think the option to do something different tyre wise helped quite a bit.

Hope Jos puts Max over his knee tonight and smacks his arse, he already had the face to go with it.

McHRT, what went on there? they seemed to have the pace at the start, not front runners but in with a chance for points, but after the pit stop Button just fell away.
The Force Indias were disappointing and really flattered to deceive, and Alonso was right about the Manor

 

Yeah, agreed.

It was like he couldn't believe he was there himself. Having watched his stuttering, low-brow style, I can't believe he's there either. Okay it's his first go, so will give him a few more races to settle in, but if that is his 'style' then I will not be watching any of the pre-race stuff.

 

I thought was OK, agree though about Jones, give him a chance though, biggest laugh was when Has said to Roman about having Fish Tacos

 

Mmmm. Fish Tacos!!!

 

Fish tacos? Is that a euphemism?

 

I missed the pre-race, somehow tuned in perfectly for them lining up on the grid.

The race coverage was almost identical, although I think FOM have upped their game with camera angles and graphics. I thought Chandhok was OK in the pits.

Post race, it felt more focussed on analysis, and there was thankfully less "banter" between the presenters. Whether that will come back with Eddie or the live shows, I don't know. I'm hoping not!

 

When you see his eyes. Terrifying few seconds.

 

Early days to make sweeping conclusions but I think we know Merc have another unbelievable car whilst Ferraris aggressive design has bought them some real genuine race pace to fight with this year.

The good thing is that the Mercs looked in trouble when not in clean air so if we can have teams getting closer to them, at least they will be punished for any mistakes and also have to fight harder when back in traffic from pit stops.

Ferraris race pace suggests a title fight might be possible but we probably need to see a bit more of their medium tyre performance before we get a real understanding.


McHonda leave me a bit disappointed in some ways, though comparatively they have actually made progress and Alonsos surprise at their staring point gives some hope that they can edge up the grid in time.

Williams were awful I thought today and Red Bull and Torro Rosso are owning them in the chassis and Aero stakes.

 

And a massive thumbs up to F1 chassis safety after Alonso walked away from that horror show today. Good grief that was scary.

That's why we should never stop striving in making it safer.

 

Vague comparison to 2015...

2015 -> 2016

Best Mercedes Quali = 1.26.327 - 1.23.837 = 2.49s
Best Ferrari Quali = 1.27.757 - 1.24.675 = 3.08s
Best McLaren Quali = 1.31.422 - 1.26.125 = 5.30s

So a huge gain in Quali, but then the first race last season was a farce for McLaren

On Saturday they were about 2.7% off the pace of Mercedes. In the closing races of 2015 they were

Mexico = 2.9%
Brazil = 3.0%
Abu Dhabi = 2.4%

So not much of a jump there, albeit based on one race.

As for race pace?

Well I'm to lazy for that, Button lost about 3s a lap to Rosberg post red flag in Aus. He lost about 2.5s a lap to Rosberg in Abu Dhabi 2015, and Abu Dhabi is a significantly longer lap....




Not much jumps out as progress to be honest.

 

It was strange, they seemed to be running fairly well in 10th and 12th on different tyre strategies, then it was good night and he went backwards

 

Interesting insights into what goes through a driver's mind during an accident like that...
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alonso-says-melbourne-crash-the-biggest-of-his-career-681135/?s=1

And photos from the accident (captions on top). The final one (with caption) had me laughing for a while.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/g...78/?s=1#image-fernando-alonso-mclaren-8054088

 

Has there been much discussion about who was at fault for that crash, or whether it was worth some kind of penalty?

 

They put on the Supersofts after the red flag and it was a disaster, even worse than it was for Ferrari. After only three laps he was slower than the Renault on mediums and but the end they were losing three seconds a lap to the Toro Rosso's.

Once they pitted Jenson for mediums the pace wasn't as bad. Obviously he had 10 laps fresher tyres but he was faster than the Grosjean train until he got stuck behind Nasr for the rest of the race. I guess overtaking was hard enough here without being a fair bit down on the straights.

They're not good for certain, but i think we don't know how bad yet. The red flag and subsequent strategy blunder really wrecked the race for McLaren.

 

it looked to me like Gutierez moved left just before, but it could be the force of the collision, if not then you have to say it was Alonso, maybe they'll let him off because it looks so good, an almost De'Cesaris like destruction of his car. (I didn't know he'd died, til I looked him up a moment ago, in a road accident)