Grand Prix 2019 Australian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

There's still another test session before the F1 season kicks off in Melbourne on 17th March but lets get the hype going as we enter the 69th season of the Formula One World Championship. It will be the usual early start for UK viewers if you able to watch live with Sky starting their broadcast (or narrow cast if the declining number of viewers is true) at ten past five in the morning. Yes, there is a five o'clock in the morning now.

The 2019 season is long. We are starting earlier in March than normal and the last race is on 1st December at Yas Marina. In amongst all this the 1,000 GP will be held in China on April 14th. There had been suggestions of trying to run the race in the UK to bookend race 1 and race 1,000 at Silverstone but anyone who can recall the Easter GP of 2000 will realise what a very silly idea this would be. I went to a WEC race at Silverstone in April a few years ago and it snowed. Enough said.

So can we hope for a close, exciting and entertaining season with a close battle for race wins and the championship? I have no idea. Testing has suggested Ferrari are the team to beat but then it has suggested this for a few years and the Scuderia has failed to deliver. I suspect the Mercedes will be up to speed come Australia when then take the bag of cement out of the cockpit. Valterri Bottas is talking tough in the season build up, I have a feeling he will roll over and the team will take it in terms to tickle his tummy as each race goes by before they part ways at the end of 2019.

Charles le Clerc should give Sebastian Vettel a run for his money at the red team, it will be fascinating to see how the team dynamic develops and if the young pretender can rattle the four times world champion in the way Daniel Ricciardo did at Red Bull. Talking of Red Bull, it is a new era as they move to Honda power. Testing has shown the engine to be finally getting some reliability and Helmut Marko claims they are behind Ferrari but ahead of Mercedes. This may well be wishful thinking on Helmut's part but I do hope the Red Bull can mix it up the front.

Behind the top three teams Renault and the newly branded Alfa Romeo team look like being at the head of division two with Toro Rosso not too far behind. McLaren, Racing Point and Haas will be hoping to get closer to these two as the season develops whist poor old Williams will simply be grateful to met the 107% rule if current form continues.

So what of Melbourne itself? It took over as the home of the Australian GP from Adelaide in 1996 and has produced, in equal measure, some of the most exciting and boring F1 races I have seen. I hope 2019 proves to be the latter, if not I will have to look to Formula E to continue to compensate for the dirth of excitement in F1.

So stats fans, which drivers (according to Wikipedia) have the most wins at the Australian GP? Well there are two with four wins, Michael Schumacher (well durr) and Lex Davidson. Who he you ask? Well, as much as Formula One would like to think it holds the intellectual property on the term Grand Prix lots of other races have been given this title and Lex won races back in the 50's and 60's.

These races were run to different rules, Davdison's win in the the '54 race being to F2 spec, the '61 race was Formula Libre and looking at the list of entrants it's quite an eye opener. You had Cooper F1 and F2 cars racing against road cars like the Austin 8 and Zephyr. Can you imagine the bleating from today' s drivers if they came up behind a Fiesta or a Mondeo half way through a lap at Melbourne. It's bad enough for the poor little loves when they have to lap a back marker who's only marginally slower than they are.

Back to the Grand Prix pre-85. There is a stunning list of winners including Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Alan Jones and, inevitably, Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren. These were the days when F1 drivers had to race in various series to make ends meet and were often contracted by the teams to run in F2 and F3 races as well as F1.

Here's another for you stats fans, the Australian GP has been won by two father and son combos (I wasn't sure how else to put this so please forgive my rather clumsy description). Graham and Damon Hill should be easy to work out but Alan Jones' father Stan won the race in 1959 in a Maserati.

Before I leave you to get excited about the upcoming season, one last pointless fact for you to take a guess at. Only one driver won the Australian Grand Prix at the full World Championship event and in the Formula Pacific era, who he?

Welcome to F1 2019.
 
Yes this whole extra point thing has so many ifs buts and maybes, it's going to be interesting to see what happens with each scenario throughout the season.

Izumi, I am not thrilled with the way Jacques is now. Let's just say I'm not exactly a fan anymore, in fact more often than not I wish he'd stop giving his opinions so freely!
 
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yeah ok guys. We all made our point on this fastest lap thingy.
Let's all watch and see what really happens and how it will actually affect the outcome of the championship.
 
Villeneuve used to be an underdog while driving in Atlantic series.

He was a backmarker when he was doing F3 in Italy, very often he didn't even make it to the proper race

I think that he improved a lot.

Having said that I respect his views, if he says something he really means it and I personally believe that he is right more often than not. His problem seem to be how he says things. I think that he's a truly nice guy
 
Doing a bit of reading and Masi looks like he may well have already been picked as the replacement when the time came.
Deputy race director last year, race director for F2 & F3 this year.
Tim Schenken is race director for the supercars that are running along side F1 this weekeknd. If they were after a temporary fill in he would be more than capable, makes me think Masi might be in the position long term not just this weekend.
 
He was a backmarker when he was doing F3 in Italy, very often he didn't even make it to the proper race

I think that he improved a lot.

Having said that I respect his views, if he says something he really means it and I personally believe that he is right more often than not. His problem seem to be how he says things. I think that he's a truly nice guy
Agree. He lately says something controversial, and people can take it any way they want. My peeve goes back about a year before he was hired by Williams. In those days (and I've lived there) there used to be a lot of comparison of NA series vs. F1, and some of the comments were really childish. It did turn me off. JV didn't run bad in Atlantic series. I did actually followed Atlantic series, Champ series and F1, all very religiously. My "hero" later on was Alex Zanardi, not JV. That guy could be in last row, and came ahead after a few laps. Fact is, he was little bit like a small bulldozer, and if you didn't move, he helped you. It was fun.
 
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his replacement has got to be bricking it. because that huge shoes to fill & id bricking it to think he's got fill shoes of guy with over 30yrs experience
 
his replacement has got to be bricking it. because that huge shoes to fill & id bricking it to think he's got fill shoes of guy with over 30yrs experience

It's not that hard.

Press a button to start.

Look at each incident in the race and take as little action as possible to preserve the championship.

Count the required number of laps off.

Tell someone to wave a flag.

The end.

(ok, it's not quite as simple as that. RIP Charlie.)
 
Regarding the topic of conversation I think Villeneuve is ... wait, that’s not it at all, we’re all waiting for the season officially begins! It’s so exciting, even if I’m 2-3 months i will have stopped watching races again ...
 
To all our new members, and as a reminder for those who have been around a while, we have a chat room that usually gathers a good number of us folk over the course of the weekend.

Click on the three lines button next to forums at the top of the page and then select chat from the drop down.
 
Dont know what we can take from the first practice session other than the Ferrari's a Mercs are quick, the RB not far behind a fair gap back to the mid field and the Williams might be luck to make the 107% cut off.
 
P2 times

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