Grand Prix 2017 Australian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

The phony war is over, F1 returns on March 26th with the traditional season opener in Melbourne, Australia. Lots of changes over the winter. Following the retirement of Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas has left Williams and joined the all conquering Mercedes team. Felipe Massa has come out of what is probably the shortest retirement by any F1 driver to partner rookie Lance Stroll in the Grove team.

Ferrari keep the faith with Vettel and Raikkonen, as have Red Bull with Ricciardo and Verstappen, but there have been a few moves elsewhere. Manor won't be on the grid for 2017, which is a shame. The two drivers who ended their 2016 campaign have moved to Force India (Ocon) and Sauber (Wherlein) where they will team up with Perez and Magnusson respectively. Nico Hulkenberg has moved to Renault where Jolyon Palmer has held on to his seat for a second season. The Hulks arrival at Renault has meant Kevin Magnusson has moved on to Haas to partner Romain Grosjean. Toro Rosso continue with the two who finished the 2016 season, Sainz and Kyvat, and with Jenson Button hanging up his helmet Stoffel Vandoorne will partner Fernando Alonso at McLaren.

We have some new rules for 2017, just in case we had got used to how things were. Bigger tyres, offering more grip, greater down force from the aero with lower rear wings and delta shaped front wings. The under side of the car should also help stick the cars to the ground and we have been promised lap times between 4 and 6 seconds faster than 2016.

What did we learn from the pre-season tests? My take is that there could be some battles between Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull at the front but you never know what the teams are keeping in reserve during these tests. Williams and Force India look to be behind the front three but better than the rest. The mid-mid-field will be made up of Renault, Haas and Toro Rosso whilst at the back Sauber and McLaren will be fighting to try and not be in last place.

The cars have been quicker in pre-season, it remains to be seen if we will see the promised reduction in lap times but the drivers seem to be enjoying the cars more and can push them through the corners. The only possible down side is that overtaking could be more difficult with a greater dependency on aerodynamic grip not allowing the cars to get close to one another.

I have great hopes that we should see some closer times between the top teams but I am worried that the races could end up being decided in the final qualifying session on Saturday afternoon. Let's hope I'm wrong.

Roll on the 26th - the clocks go forward so we have a 6 a.m. start.
 
gethinceri get well soon matey

On the race, were Mercedes sand bagging in testing or are Ferrari sand bagging in practice? My money is on the former rather than the latter.
 
Or are Mercedes sand-bagging in practice and Ferrari giving it full beans? On paper, last year's order looks set to be repeated, for the top teams. I stayed up to watch FP1 then fell asleep on the sofa after the installation laps. Fool. I'll try to catch the recordings later but am guessing there's not an awful lot to see. Verstappen's 'almost-off' sounds fun though. Bless his mental little head.
 
Rather amused by McLaren's Facebook post about how pleased they were to have completed both practice sessions...:facepalm:

Optimist: the glass is half-full
Pessimist: the glass is half-empty
Engineer: the glass is twice as big as it needs to be
Honda Engineer: the glass is faulty
:snigger:
 
Agreed gethinceri. McLaren's performance has been far, far behind their technical and financial resources for nearly a decade. This malaise cannot be undone in a season, or wholly blamed at Honda. If they ever do become a top team again, for which there are no guarantees, regardless of heritage; it won't be anytime soon.
 
I hate to be a miserable old moaning bastarino but where is the much vaunted "5 or 6 seconds faster"? Lewis clocked 1:23.6 in FP2 today, the fastest time in FP3 last year was 1:25.6 (I have ignored FP1 and 2 from 2016 as I think it was wet). I don't have a degree in advanced mathematics but I do have a calculator and that ain't 5 seconds.
 
Rather amused by McLaren's Facebook post about how pleased they were to have completed both practice sessions...:facepalm:

Optimist: the glass is half-full
Pessimist: the glass is half-empty
Engineer: the glass is twice as big as it needs to be
Honda Engineer: the glass is faulty
:snigger:
Realist: a glass is very fragile and can easly break.
 
FB By quali we'll probably be seeing a 3 second improvement. It certainly looks like we'll be seeing lap records, that's not so bad is it?
 
Pfff, just looked at the FP 2 results from 2014-16 and by the looks of it '17 seems like a replica of the past years. Although Ferrari is one tenth up this year. Yeah :rolleyes:
 
I hate to be a miserable old moaning bastarino but where is the much vaunted "5 or 6 seconds faster"? Lewis clocked 1:23.6 in FP2 today, the fastest time in FP3 last year was 1:25.6 (I have ignored FP1 and 2 from 2016 as I think it was wet). I don't have a degree in advanced mathematics but I do have a calculator and that ain't 5 seconds.

The teams are about 5 seconds a lap faster than they were in 2015 in FP1 and FP2. In general, the teams are about 2 seconds a lap faster in FP3 than in FP2 (depending on how much fuel they've been running in FP1/2)

Given that the teams were about 1 second faster in 2016 than 2015, this would suggest that the teams will be about 4 seconds a lap faster.

I would predict a pole position time of about 1:19.5.
 
After P2 Alonso returned to his room in the McLaren hospitality area for a rest......

Or "conducted a full race simulation" as the team now call it.

LOL
 
Lewis Hamilton said "Mercedes have made gains like night and day" since testing.

I wonder, how much more sand are they going to spill?
 
I hate to be a miserable old moaning bastarino but where is the much vaunted "5 or 6 seconds faster"? Lewis clocked 1:23.6 in FP2 today, the fastest time in FP3 last year was 1:25.6 (I have ignored FP1 and 2 from 2016 as I think it was wet). I don't have a degree in advanced mathematics but I do have a calculator and that ain't 5 seconds.

True but for hamilton halfway thru Fp2 to 2 tenths faster than his pole last yr (which was 8tenths faster than 1st non merc) is impressive. I am expecting the 1st ever pole lap to be under 1:20's which could mean they are 10secs quicker than 20yrs ago
 
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