Grand Prix thread Official Not606 2016 Australian GP Chat and Predictions

I'm not really sure either. Definitely looks like Gutierrez wandered slightly, whether it was enough to cause a collision I'm not sure. Some angles I see it and think Alonso looks indecisive, then other times it looks like a clear feint to the right before a confident move to the left, but was he really going anywhere with that move? For what it's worth I don't think Gutierrez driving was deliberately reckless or dirty, I got the impression he was watching Alonso in his mirrors and that his slight twitch to the left would have been subconscious rather than an intentional block. Racing incident for me, just surprised there wasn't more of a discussion, did the FIA even investigate?

 

Alonso optimism and lack of concentration plus Gutierrez uncertainty = incident. I like that no penalty has beem dished out. Far too early in the season and that the incident itself wasnt deliberate

 

Did anyone notice how Seb fell off the Hamilton chase? Very unlike him. Running in the dirty air perhaps?

 

My take on the GP Weekend...
Hamilton looks on it, quickest guy all weekend..
Rosberg needs to up his game, lucked into the win due to Hamilton's poor start and poor strategy by Ferrari, but if you can't be good, be lucky and a Wins a Win!
Ferrari have a quick race car!!
RedBull with a bit more power will be close enough to pinch the odd podium/win should the Mercs/Ferrari's trip over each other!
Williams haven't made as much of a step as they thought? Still not great in the slower speed corners, distinctly second
I like Max (for now) but the boy needs to whine less, stupid attempt to pass nearly took both Toro Rosso's out of the race!
McLaren, pace is there, but they made too many pit stops, think they could have bagged a point or two!
Hass, that car had no trouble keeping the FI at bay.. tidy little car with this years Ferrari donkey will make it a good package this year!
Renault were respectable given their late development of the car, was reasonably impressed with Palmer, raced hard but fair!
Race was interesting with battles all across the field (long may that continue).
Still an issue with not being able to pass, faster cars not being able to get close enough to pass...
Vettel on quicker and newer tires couldn't get past Hamilton at the end, issues like that need sorting, not changing of the qualifying format, which was an utter shambles, thankfully they've gone back to the older system, bloody wired not having cars going for pole long after the chequered flag has dropped!

Finally, thank god for the push for making cars safer over the years, had that not been the case I don't think Alonso would have made it out of that crash yesterday!

More of the same (minus the crashes and dodgy qualifying format) for Bahrain please, which should be the case, since the Turbo era, we've seen some great races there!

 

Remember, Rosberg didn't stop after the Red Flag..
Wasn't held up in Traffic
Where McLaren pitted one more time (25-30) second loss there..
And was also, most likely held up by cars in front..
Had McLaren gone to the Mediums during the Red Flag, think they could have been towards the tail end of the points.
They at least had car reliability!

 

Alonso can count himself very lucky he also has no back or neck injury from when the car cartwheeled and landed after the first roll. Must have been some impact on the way down, fortunately cushioned by the run off areas to an extent. Had he landed on tarmac then outcome may have been different.

Wonder whether this will just make him consider his future a bit more at the end of the year. 2 bad accidents for him now with McLaren. Trouble comes in threes......

 

Just watching Brundle's crash from 1996, what a pretty grid of cars.

 

One thing that I hadn't really considered this weekend was what Vettel pointed out in the post-race interviews. Ferrari were not quick here at all last year and it was a circuit that didn't suit them. This year only a poor tyre choice mah have cost them a win here. I wonder if a few more high speed corners and flowing race tracks will see them even closer to Mercedes.

Bahrain is an interesting test second up on the calendar.

 

I believe Gutierez was investigated but found not to be at fault. Racing incident I guess.

Of all the pictures of the accident, scary as they are, the one that hits home is the one of Alonso crawling out of the car in that tiny gap between smashed car and concrete wall. Makes you realise how vulnerable a human being is in a high speed crash like that.

Also, the gravel trap there is very deep, almost like an escape road. If it wasn't he'd have hit the wall before the car touched the ground. Would have been similar to Kubica in Canada, but hitting the wall sideways and maybe upside down.

 

He was dancing with death on Sunday. Much like Webber and his incident with Kovalainen.

Or Villeneuve and R. Schumacher.

 

Just watching the race replay on Sky- that Red Bull looks a brilliant car again this year. If Renault do deliver the next level of PU, they will start to ask some big questions of the front two teams in the second half of the season. Looks very smooth.

 

I don't know whether it's Danny, but it looks so good on the brakes.

 

More relevant for the next race thread, but given the strategy calls at this weekends GP the next race tyre choices are ironic.

Bahrain GP tyre selections
Driver Medium tyres Soft tyres Supersoft tyres
Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton 1 6 6
Mercedes: Nico Rosberg 1 6 6
Ferrari: Sebastian Vettel 3 4 6
Ferrari: Kimi Raikkonen 3 4 6
Williams: Felipe Massa 3 3 7
Williams: Valtteri Bottas 3 3 7
Red Bull: Daniel Ricciardo 2 5 6
Red Bull: Daniil Kvyat 2 5 6
Force India: Sergio Perez 2 5 6
Force India: Nico Hulkenberg 2 5 6
Renault: Kevin Magnussen 1 5 7
Renault: Jolyon Palmer 1 5 7
Toro Rosso: Max Verstappen 1 7 5
Toro Rosso: Carlos Sainz 2 6 5
McLaren: Fernando Alonso 3 4 6
McLaren: Jenson Button 3 4 6
Sauber: Marcus Ericsson 3 5 5
Sauber: Felipe Nasr 4 4 5
Manor: Pascal Wehrlein 4 5 4
Manor: Rio Haryanto 4 5 4
Haas: Romain Grosjean 2 4 7
Haas: Esteban Gutierrez 1 5 7

 

Bit of a strange one. Surprised so many supersofts are being taken, last year was a two stop race with softs and mediums, they're not going to be able to use those supersofts in the race for very long. If I was one of the top teams I'd be trying to get through Q2 with the soft compound so I didn't have to run the supers at all. And Mercedes only taking one set of mediums, they're not going to able to practice on and race those.

 

But then again they know the mediums inside out from testing.

 

Interesting tyre choices- I'd definitely want some mediums available to me in Bahrain.

 

I assume Mercedes are planning SS-soft-soft.

Hamilton only took one medium to Australia so they seem pretty confident in not testing them first.

 

Mercedes don't see it as a tyre they're going to use unless as a last throw of the dice

 

I haven't a clue what it means, i'll just wait to see how it pans out live.

All I understand is in Australia, Ferrari should have utilized the mediums till the end of the race, as they hadn't the pace to run softer tyres and pull away from Rosberg.

 

ah, the hindsight pit-stop, everyones favourite winning strategy