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.
 
I think we are still in the balance Ferrari never have shown the true pace on a Friday last few years in any practise session & I find it extremely unlikely that Mercedes have found 1.3 secs in 2 weeks. most teams are delighted if they find they find 1.3secs over a season. so when everything dialled I still expect to see a Ferrari on the front row. I would say 2 in the top 3 but you can never discount lewis or max because they can & have pulled out stonking qualifying laps from nowhere. Red Bll I think are 3rd but I think they can spring a surprise & have closed that gap are in contention for a victory

haas arent where I expect them, seemed 4th in testing but now look 6th Renault look 4th but I would say have closed the gap but not enough id still say about 35/45 secs over a race distance. dont be too hard on albon or Norris I just seen that Leclerc was beaten by 9 tenths on Friday, look where them 2 are now & Williams well we cant say that we didnt expect that. I said you might as well stick them on the back row the fact they couldnt even break 1:18 but the gap is pretty bad worse than I thought, it reminded me of the old manors your not wrong about 107% who wouldve ever thought that Williams would be in a position where that is a concern. its a good job that rule applys for Q1 & not Q3 as instead of being 8 tenths in black they would have to find 1 second from somewhere. funny thing is from Q2 today Mercedes have found a second & Williams have lost a 2nd & as ive said for a while this is with the engine that since 2014 has been the class of the field & arguably joint now with Ferrari. if they had renualt or honda I dread to think
 
A few observations from P2 (which is no where near as informative as P3):

Teammates:
1. Hamilton was faster than Bottas in both practices (+0.048 best time)
2. Vettel was faster than Leclerc in both practices.
3. Verstappen was faster than Gasly in both practices (+0.042)
4. Kimi shows some speed. Giovanazzi did not look that good.
5. Hulkenberg was faster than Ricciado in both practices (+0.07)
6. Kvyat looked good. Albon less so.
7. Stroll was faster than Perez in both practices.
8. Sainz ahead of Lando Norris.

Big Questions:
1. Who has the 0.5 second advantage again....was it supposed to be Ferrari or Mercedes?
2. Was Mercedes sandbagging in Barcelona or is Ferrari sandbagging now in practice?
 
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I took the test....and I got Robert Kubica....which is good as I am a Robert Kubica fan....and Williams is my favorite team (even though they are going to spend this entire season looking at the back end of the other 9 teams).
Took the quiz a second time, changing two answers....and got Daniel Ricciardo. Another driver I like a lot.
 
I am finger boy

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Watching practice 3....not great television at the moment.

One car is now on the track.

Williams are the two fastest cars on the track! It does help that they are the only cars on the track.

Gasly just blew them away by three seconds.

Verstappen just blew Gasly away by a second.

This is sad.

Ricardo ran a really smooth lap. Still slowr than Versrappen, and he had softer tires. Clearly there is going to be a gap from the top three teams to the rest.
 
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Kvyat now has the fastest time. Are Toro Rosso allowed to be ahead of Red Bull?

Ferrari looks smooth. Vettel on top.

Hamilton looks racey. Bumps Vettel by 0.04.
 
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Vertel just ran a 1:22.556. Looks like he got serious. Smooth lap.

Hamilton just beat him. 1:22.292
 
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Well, that was interesting. The 0.5 second advantage that Ferrari has never showed up. A few observations:

1. Beginning to look like the Mercedes are equal too or faster than the Ferrari's, at least the one driven by Hamilton.

2. The Red Bull does not look competitive with the Mercedes and Ferraris. This may be a two-team season (again)...which is better than the one-team seasons we have had a lot of....but.....

3. The pecking orders of the team appear to be established:
....a. Hamilton over Bottas (and Ocon is beginning to look like he will be employed soon).
....b. Vettel over the well behaved Leclerc.
....c. Verstappen over Gasly (even though Verstappen blew his lap in P3).
....d. Raikonnen over Giovanazzi
....e. Grosjean over Magnussen (nothing new here on the good day)
....f. Perez over Stroll (sorry Daddy Stroll)
....g. Kvyat over Albon
....h. Sainz over Norris

4. Still up in the air:
....a. Ricciardo vs Hulkenberg
....b. Kubica vs Russell

5. Haas looks good. Could they actually take 5th and 6th (like they almost did last year)?

6. The Williams don't suck as bad as they did at Barcelona.

We shall see what qualifying brings, but usually FP 3 is pretty telling.
 
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