Grand Prix 2018 Australian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

As a less than convincing set of test sessions drew to a close in sunny snowy rainy sunny Spain, most of the motoring press had Mercedes out in front as the team to beat again this season.The packing cases, cars, freight, PR Stands and all the other guff that makes up the travelling kit of a modern F1 team will by now be well on its way to Australia and in a few short weeks we will find out if the motoring press are correct.

One man who won't be taking his place in the stands at Albert Park this year will be Ron Walker, the former Mayor of Melbourne and the Chairman of Grand Prix Australia who was the key figure in establishing the Albert Park and Melbourne as the countries addition to the GP Calender. Ron passed away on the 30 Jan this year.

Attendance figures at Albert Park have been on the decline since reaching a peak in 2012. The race day attendance last year dipped below 100'000 for the first time in the tracks history. Does this reflect a growing global apathy with F1 or the lack of Australian interest on the grid since Mark Webber retired?

Four drivers will be taking to the grid in Australia for the first time. Two debutants and two who joined mid way through the season last year. Leclerc joins as reigning FIA Formula 2 champion and the 2016 F3 champion but will find himself saddled with possibley the worst car on the grid. Hartley did little to impress in last years Toro Rosso and will be looking to make a stronger impression this season alongside his team mate Pierre Gasly. Gasly, the 2016 GP2 champion settled quickly in to life at Toro Rosso last season and with the works backing of Honda, both drivers will be seeking to maximise their potential. Sergey Sirotkin won the race off to join Williams, replacing the finally departing Massa. A shame for many who wanted to see Kubica take the seat at Grove, Sirotkin will need to do well to shake off the feeling that he's just another rent a drive. His previous single seat results show that on his day he can perform with the best of the younger drivers and the first thing he'll need to do is show a clean pair of heels to Lance Stroll. I remain convinced that despite the money on offer from both drivers backing, Kubica is just one or two driver error DNF's away from stepping up to the race seat while one of the two are 'rested'.

I'm not going to waste finger strokes speculating about the performance of the teams on the grid because I think we all know who are going to be the key players in this area and see little to convince me that anything will change too much from last year but we live in hope.
 
It's an unsustainable engine mode that Merc have. Hamilton was told to use it to catch Ferrari up. It appears to be a top engine mode they can use for a short period of time, say over 1 lap, to make then significantly faster. I bet it's a fun mode to use. I bet some might even say it's party time when you use it. Like a party mode or something.

It’s the Mercedes engine quali mode then. Yes the one Lewis named ‘Party mode’ I’m sure it’s fun to use, which is why Lewis named it ‘Party mode’ .
Not sure what you’re point is though? If you knew strat14 was the party mode why did you ask me what it was?
 
I know there’s a ‘party mode’. It’s available to
Lewis Hamilton
Valtteri Bottas
Sergio Perez
Esteban Ocon
Lance Stroll
Sergey Sirotkin.

The thing in question was whether it was turned up or on for Lewis’ Final quali lap. That’s what Lewis was disputing when accused by Vettel of getting pole by turning on the Party mode.

Perhaps in the heat of the moment he didn’t phrase his answer as clearly as he might have done.

Anyway here’s Vettel’s take on it now he’s had time to think about it.

Ferrari's Vettel: Mercedes' F1 engine modes less 'special' in 2018
 
Perhaps in the heat of the moment he didn’t phrase his answer as clearly as he might have done.

Too busy giving it the big one to Seb which sort of back fired in the end.

To quote Obi Wan Kenobi, all involved were telling the truth 'from a certain point of view'.

At least its given us something to talk about because with out the party and a VSC with a chaser there would been naff all to talk about apart from how far Merc are still ahead of everyone else.
 
The Sky Sports driver ratings are in and as always there are some spot on and some proper head scratches:

Australian GP Driver Ratings

Hamilton has a 9.5 out of ten (agree although I'd prob have said 9) and Vettel an 8 which seems very low considering it was the same rating as Hulkenberg.

Meanwhile Alonso got a 9 but then to be honest he could not bother starting the race and spend the whole two hours farting in a bucket and it would be described as 'a genius use of airflow in an attempt to catch the bigger names and get that number 1 chassis up the front. Surely a contender for driver of the day'.

With that here is my review of Alonso's drive - A genius use of airflow in an attempt to catch the bigger names and get the number 1 chassis up the front. Surely a contender for driver of the day. ;)
 
The Sky Sports driver ratings are in and as always there are some spot on and some proper head scratches:

Australian GP Driver Ratings

Hamilton has a 9.5 out of ten (agree although I'd prob have said 9) and Vettel an 8 which seems very low considering it was the same rating as Hulkenberg.

Meanwhile Alonso got a 9 but then to be honest he could not bother starting the race and spend the whole two hours farting in a bucket and it would be described as 'a genius use of airflow in an attempt to catch the bigger names and get that number 1 chassis up the front. Surely a contender for driver of the day'.

With that here is my review of Alonso's drive - A genius use of airflow in an attempt to catch the bigger names and get the number 1 chassis up the front. Surely a contender for driver of the day. ;)


I don't get it. Vettel won and got 8. Hamilton did not and got 9.5 ... ??? Perhaps they rated the whole weekend and not just the race?
 
I didnt watch until 9am when i woke up. But to be honest there was such little overtaking everything bar 2 happened in pits. i couldn't think of anyone to give it too. If magnussen had finished, probally wouldve given it him
 
It occurred to me this afternoon that the teams could do something about this now if they chose to simply by changing their design philosophy and not the rules.

At the moment they spend all year trying to have the fastest car on the grid within the current regulations. All it needs is for one team to ditch that philosophy, accept they are not going to be the fastest and design a car that can overtake, run in dirty air and pass.

Take Red Bull for example. It is unlikely given the restrictions on development that the Renault engine will be better than the Merc until the next pointless update to the regs in 2021. So, why not for 2019 deliberately design a car that can run six inches off the rear end of the car ahead? The only time you need to pass for the lead is once on the last lap anyway.

Yes, ok, I know its not as simple as all that and if it was that easy surely someone would have done it by now anyway but I think the point stands that until the design philosophy changes then everything will tend towards minor variations on the same solution.
 
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At the moment they spend all year trying to have the fastest car on the grid within the current regulations. All it needs is for one team to ditch that philosophy, accept they are not going to be the fastest and design a car that can overtake, run in dirty air and pass.

I had thought about this, but came to the conclusion that if a team did focus on making an overtaking car, then it would need to also be fast enough so that it could keep up with the leaders, so it could overtake in the first instance!

The cost of building a car that can follow close enough to be able to overtake is that it just can’t go fast enough round the corners to keep up to be in a position to overtake...

I have long argued that 1992/3 was where F1 started going down a wrong path... too many winglets, bargeboards and elements to front wings...

F1 needs to return to the following spec:
Complicated, ground-force, developing undersides of cars
Simple overbodies. Low noses (with no hangers for front wings). Flat wing endplates, with one aero element. Wide, low rear wings, with only one element. No bargeboards, no winglets, and no garbage, minimum width for side pods (across entire height) to ensure a big enough hole in the air is created.
 
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