Aussie GP chat and predictions

Sorry, but I watched that "race" from start to finish and there was no racing.
What there was, was a farcical situation where someone was able to win a race by getting through the pit lane quickly. Hoping for a safety car to win a race in the supposedly best racing series in the world seems hollow to me.
I'm not even a huge fan of Lewis, but he must be extremely frustrated.

 

what do I know........?

I'm off to follow the Peruvian national basketball championship, may have a better chance of getting predictions correct.

 

What happen d to raikonnens pace after the virtual safety car. It was obvious that Mercedes was faster in the race than Ferrari but Raikkonnen had faster race pace than Vettel. Yes Vettel was in the lead but Raikkonen was in clear air also due to big gap behind Lewis so would have expected him to close up as well. Regardless of who you support no track in F1 these days should be a circuit where you can't overtake. Yes aero when behind a car needs to be looked at but When Bottas can't overtake anyone and Alonso in his donkey of a car can keep Verstappen at bay for half the race there's a problem with the circuit

 

There was definitely racing, not so much overtaking as we'd like, but there was racing.

Three ingredients are needed to win titles. Good driver, good car, good luck. Today Vettel had the luck, next race he may not...That's racing. The other problems are totally separate to that.

 

So Ricciardo got one overtake. Is he today's leading and only candidate for overtake of the day?

 

Sorry It seems like I'm having a dig at you, which is not the case, so apologies for that.

I've found F1 more and more frustrating over the years. I'm not a "petrol head" but grew up loving it as a sport. I cannot see how the sport will continue, long term, based on what I witnessed again today. Far too many times, racing isn't the winner, what happens on the racing circuit seems second to other things that go on in the race.

The question I have is, if I was a billionaire looking to invest in a sport (any sport), how do you sell F1 to me.

 

Race pace seems pretty close between Ferrari and red bull. The key is getting ahead of Merc and applying pressure through the whole season. It seems slight mistakes will be the difference between 1st and 6th this year. Not expecting much overtaking but it'sgoing to be tight. Feel bad for HAAS they could of got some massive points. Certainly the new force India of 2018 until they get out developed by mclaren and Renault.

 

There were 2!!!!

 

The resident village idiot Benson in his report for the BBC has written that Hamilton dramatically lost pace and had to focus to keep second place from Raikkonen.

 

It's not reallly billionaires the sport needs to be sold to, it's fans it needs to be sold to, so there are multiple problems that need to be looked at there before viewing figures fall off a cliff. Hopefully this season will be the one to start some change. Some proper in season development and testing needs to be re-introduced, drastic aero changes, relaxing of some of the regs are needed and some good wealth distribution would go a long way to fixing it. It can't always stay this way, something will change eventually.

 

So.

1. Daylight robbery.
2. Whenever someone makes a smart comment and fail to deliver they get ground to paste. Who is still smiling.
3. Raikkonen is past it. He fades back after getting a good start. Basically vettel extremely lucky having followed him.
4. Bottas.... joke.
5. Haas... will be crying.
6. Alonso picks up pieces of others misfortune.
7. Verstapoen ruined his own race and not for first time.

Its was a dull enough opener. Hamilton's start off the line was excellent, Raikkonen caught up in record or third phase. No drama really though and that was Hamilton's race. Vettel staying out was wrong call and frankly he got incredibly lucky with virtual safety car

 

Vettel followed Raikkonen. How is that evidence of race pacd really.

Tyres went cold I expect btw. I also expect he was more looking behind than in front... but he should be pulling away from Riccardo if he's got a faster car.

I agree on overtakes. Might as well have been Monaco today

 

There are a lot of cars without a title sponsor, and if Ferrari are having trouble getting one then what hope do the smaller teams have.

I honestly think that F1 might be in trouble. Lets be honest, the product has been poor for the last 5 years (at least), TV is now behind a pay wall and they are not going to get the casual viewers. I can't see how teams are going to attract sponsors, and if they do, it certainly won't be at the rates they are use too.

That leaves car companies to fund it, and with more and more, moving to Formula E, even at the expense of their more tradition series like Le Man, then surely it's only a matter of time before some F1 teams move too.

In my opinion, the very first step is to get F1 back on TV screens. Yes that will mean taking a hit in cash, but it'll be worth it in the long term.

Lastly, Who's smiling now Lewis?

 

The last bit is the problem, as the team owners didn't need to be super rich, rich yes, but not on the level they need to be today, the cost has far out-stripped inflation, the smaller teams have 10x the staff Brabham did for both of their Piquet WDC's in the 80's combined

 

A rare moment of common sense in F1

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/fia-explains-why-verstappen-had-to-let-alonso-through-1018902/

 

There's been a lot of complacency on that side of things. The cars have been made quiet and ugly. Of course they're not as exciting for sponsors.

 

Any thoughts on the use or effectiveness of the VSC? For me it doesn’t work, often over used and tends to lengthen a lot of incidents time wise.

 

OK so that was a very processional race but it does look like Merc are not 0.7sec ahead of everyone else. If the FIA had tweeked aero regs a bit maybe there could be some over taking. The PU's seem to be getting much closer, Merc seemed mighty round corners but Ferrari faster on straights, OK so some of this will be aero and setup but having differing areas of strength might make it a bit more of a fight.
Hass must be so gutted. Goes to show that if they had pre season testing in a hot climate they may have found their wheel nut issue before the actual race!

I am much more hopeful of a bit of a challenge to Merc this year.

 

So do you think Lewis would have won if Bottas had not put a wheel on the grass in quali? Ferrari had both cars in the mix and they were able to split their strat and Merc couldn't over both options!
Can't see Bottas being a Merc driver in 2019 unless he seriously upps his game. Would be good to see Riccy in Merc.

 

Although race pace was close enough, Lewis ‘ speed when he closed on Vettel was pretty frightening. I can see Mercedes winning by a distance in China and reasonably comfortably in Bahrain unless the high speed corners suit Red Bull.

Hopefully it’s really close but I felt Lewis had some time up his sleeve.