At the end of last season the sun set on one magnificent battle between the two silver arrows which itself spanned the new hybrid era. The victor retired with dignity having achieved his childhood dream. We know F1 never stops, and with that we are back again... but with a new look. Wider, longer, faster, more downforce... F1 has returned to the good old days. or has it? Bottas graduated into the most coveted seat available, could the cool Finn take the challenge to the fiery Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari blazed a trail in pre-season testing, could it present the Kimi Raikkonen renaissance or Seb's first world title for the Scuderia? Will the Mclaren Honda venture end prematurely? Other notable changes include Hulk's move to a works Renault team, Massas short-lived retirement, Manor waved a final goodbye after failing to secure investment. Bernie also bowed out paving way for Liberty Media and Ross Brawn... and Force India turns pink! What do we expect to see? I for one cannot wait for this season to start!!! please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image TYRE ALLOCATIONS; Australia - ultrasoft, supersoft, soft
Every year I doubt myself when I get up for the F1, don't forget In the UK the clocks go forward 1 hour at 1am on the last Sunday in March, thats this Sunday!
No messing with the tyres then, straight into the softest. This could reveal a lot about the season and the strategies. Kimi Raikonnen to join the list of 3x Australian GP winners.
Just you wait, the FIA will reintroduce that 90 second elimination qualifying again Had totally forgotted about that farce, all the drama of cars sitting in garages!
Was going to take a punt on Vettel but have played safe and gone for Hamilton. Could be an interesting race, I guess we will find out quite quickly how much Ferrari and Red Bull have closed that gap.
Heart says Vettel, Head says Hamilton..... I've gone for Hamilton but I really hope there is a race and Ferrari wins it, if nothing more for the sake of the championship more than anything.
It allows for an educated decision based on team/car performance! You should be thanking me hah. For example, it saves people voting Hulkenberg expecting Renault to be at the sharp end of the grid doesn't it? Doomed if I do and doomed if I don't
But dreaming is the fun part! Hoping we see some battle at the front this week, would be nice to kick off the new era like that.
I have a feeling it will be a special Sunday, some extremely fast lap times, drivers will drop the cars around some corners so expect some spectacular accidents if they aren't on it (not that we want that to happen). Lets see what these boys are made of.
You know what gives it away? Hamilton is too happy to say ferrari are fastest and put expectations on them. If hamilton really felt that imo the toys would be out of the pram. I reckon mercedes are very confident.
There is no doubt Merc has more up its sleeve but this time Ferrari looks to have a bit too, so I'm hoping they are close. I'm weighing up strategy this weekend. Looking at testing- could we perhaps actually end up with the faster team getting through Q2 on the Supersoft tyre and running a one stop (SS > S) race, whereas the others may require two stop (US > SS > S or US >SS>SS)? I expect someone to try and make a one stop work but I hope not everyone can make that work as it would be boring.
Red Bull and Mercedes have had their suspension cleared by the FIA. Hopefully that means there will be no protests, it's bad enough when results are decided after the race, it's even worse when it's the season opener.