Grand Prix 2024 Australian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Just realised we dont have the thread up to discuss max verstappen 10th win in a row & red bull's 34th win from the last 36 races

how people view Australia is a great indication of how long they watched F1, because those in early 30's know this as the season opener the beginning of that seasons journey, but there will be many people who like me with Japan this year, it feels weird to have it so early in the season as they know this as the season finale, the scene of some great title deciders obviously Mansell 1986 comes to mind & 1 of the most famous title deciders of all time Hill v Schumacher. as Damon has shown below he finally revisited the scene of the "crime" 30 years later

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4nUuPnv2py/?igsh=a2dyejc3YjhrZDJr

Austraila has a rich motor racing history as the grand prix is 1 of the oldest surviving motorsport competitions held in Australia, which if ive done my maths right is 96 years old, & sunday will be 84th running, but has only been apart of F1 since 1985 but that did stop well known F1 drivers taking part with the likes of Moss won in 1956, Bruce Mclaren 1962 & 1965, Jack Brabham 1955 1963 & 1964 & Alain Prost in 1982.

Australia does hold quite a few F1 records because 5 countries have held consecutive races, but the other 4 had different names. only 1 had the same name consecutively that was Australian GP with the season finale in 1995 & season opener in 1996, 1995 is a another record for the largest margin of victory when Damon Hill won by 2 laps. 1991 is the shortest race in F1 history (with racing laps) with only 14 classified laps

on to this weekend, because of clocks & time of the year Australian GP at 4am is the earliest start time in UK since 2007 Australian gp when Lewis hamilton burst onto the world stage at 3am, anyone who is watching this live in uk, i take my hat off to you, your a far better fan than me, but hopefully we will have some excitement. as in hindsight it was 1 of the most dramatic / entertaining races of last season. so hopefully we get more of the same. & i posted in Sky F1 thread, it will be different this weekend because of alot of this weekend action will be broadcasted from their base in London. This will be the case for the race weekends in Australia, Japan, and China with potenially only ted kravitz, David croft & martin Brundle over in Australia

https://twitter.com/x/status/1770767520011534764

if you want to know the UK times for this weekends action

 

[Johnny Carwash]

The excitement of not knowing what’s going to happen,will have me leaping out of bed ready for the race at 4am.

 

[Dartman]

If I decide to watch it, for me it's 5 am, but I will see how qualifying works out

 

[cider_and_toast]

Best thing about this GP is that it's on in the middle of the night. I'll be in the land of nod.

 

[Speshal]

I used to salivate for the Oz GP - first of the season, all new cars off the grid. First one watched because my Dad woke me up was 1986

I know nostalgia ain't what it used to be but still, what would you have?

 

[F1Brits_90]

2 things. that ive only just remembered 1 this is the 1st race of the season on Sunday & also depressing thing that nobody had ever won 10 races in a row in F1 & Verstappen is about to do it twice inside 12 months

 

[The Artist.....]

I used to salivate for the Oz GP - first of the season, all new cars off the grid. First one watched because my Dad woke me up was 1986

I know nostalgia ain't what it used to be but still, what would you have?

youtube]WZFtIclOdYg[/MEDIA]

Um, I'm sure you didn't quite mean this, but all of the Adelaide GPs were the final race of the season... It was when Melbourne took over in 1996 that it moved to the start of the season...

I have Nelson Mandela effect memories of the 1986 GP, but the first time I really remember the GP was 1990; 1991 was an epic though!

 

[cider_and_toast]

I think Spesh was talking about two different things. Loving the Oz GP when it was the first GP of the season and recalling his first Oz GP was 1986 when it was indeed the final race of the season.

 

[Speshal]

I think Spesh was talking about two different things. Loving the Oz GP when it was the first GP of the season and recalling his first Oz GP was 1986 when it was indeed the final race of the season.

It was indeed ^^^^^ this point I was trying to make clumsily

 

[F1Brits_90]

never rains but literally pours at alpine

https://twitter.com/x/status/1770956486392287339

 

[F1Brits_90]

I used to salivate for the Oz GP - first of the season, all new cars off the grid. First one watched because my Dad woke me up was 1986

I know nostalgia ain't what it used to be but still, what would you have?

i feel i have i vague memories of watching Irvine win in 1999 & button in 2000. but i cant distinguish between is that classic F1 or Live F1. but the 1st im certain i saw live was 2001? Australian gp was seeing the young highly rated driver make his qualifying debut in the sauber called kimi raikkonen

 

[cider_and_toast]

Blah, blah, blah

Best season EVER!!!

 

[F1Brits_90]

is this death knell of Logan Sargeant career already

https://twitter.com/x/status/1771108628906303687

 

[cider_and_toast]

The first Australian GP that clearly sticks in my mind was 1991 when it absolutely pissed down and the race was stopped after half the cars all slid off or crashed on the main straight.

The first one I definitely stayed up to watch was 1994 when that collision occurred.

The ones I would have seen in the late 80s would have all been highlights programs on the Beeb on Sunday afternoon. I couldn't tell you of they were broadcast live overnight back then. In truth I suspect they weren't because these were the days when the Beeb would close down at midnight after a quick burst of the National Anthem. Twenty four hour TV didn't come in until the early 90's.

 

[cider_and_toast]

is this death knell of Logan Sargeant career already

No, it's just them following the ancient and often used practice of the teams number 1 driver taking priority over the number 2. There's been many examples of this in F1 history. Fangio did it in the middle of a race in the mid 50's when that was still legal. Both he and his teammate shared the points.

 

[F1Brits_90]

In truth I suspect they weren't because these were the days when the Been would close down at midnight after a quick burst of the National Anthem. Twenty four hour TV didn't come in until the early 90's.

i wasn't alive but i feel like the bbc took 1986 live

on the other i completely understand the reasons albon is leagues above him. but is this a sign already they dont trust him because if he was anywhere near his level you wouldnt rock the boat

 

[cider_and_toast]

I was in my early teens in the late 80's and can always recall watching races on a Sunday afternoon but I'd have to Google whether the fly aways were live in the middle of the night. I've no recollection either way.

As for the Williams dilemma, I genuinely think it's a simple case he f pragmatism. Swap out Albon and Sargent for Verstappen and Perez and you get the same answer.

It would be different if there was much less of a performance gap between the two. I would imagine for example that Mercedes would have a lot more of a headache trying to reach a similar decision.

Sargent made steady improvements throughout last season but the number 2 seat at Williams will always be filled by someone who id likely to bring more investment than pace.

 

[F1Brits_90]

i had a look. seemingly its was only shown live at 3.20am it was just highlights at 11am which i find mad. because could you record it like we take for granted now.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I suspect that was due to Mansell being in the hunt for the title. It seems that some races weren't broadcast live all the way up until the early 90's due to timings and the requirements of the BBC. I've seen one source that suggests it wasn't until 1995 that the BBC broadcast every race live for the first time.

We got our first VHS video recorder in 1986. It was massive. About 13 feet wide and 4 feet tall, requiring 12 miles of cassette tape to record one hour of TV. Programming it required a degree in astrophysics and would usually record anything apart from what it was set to record.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I've seen so many hours of old F1 footage that it's usually impossible to separate a memory of the event and when I actually first watched it.

For example, I've seen our Nige's exploding tyre hundreds of times and ai know I didn't see the race live. My memory suggests that I may have first seen it on the news or on the highlights but I couldn't tell you.