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.
 
Bernie if you were watching thats how you start an F1 season with a brilliant qualifying session. Not a ridiculous boring qualifying session thats over with 4 mins to go

I thought Lewis Hamilton seemed back on form because it was a fantastic pole lap always seemed to be able to respond to strong competition from Bottas who i thought was very impressive for a 1st go & Vettel who could be back to 2009 - 2013 form, its nice to see vettel back competitive (who knew id say that in sept 2013) for what looks like we have our 1st intra team battle for 7yrs. At the moment as i know they will develop well as they have Adrian Newey but Red Bull for me are the biggest disappointment of season opener. Because i expected so much for them to be faster than mercedes. But to be over a second slower than mercedes & ferrari is a big shock

Anyone who watched GP2 last season, wont have been surprised at how good Giovinazzi was for sauber in qualifying today just look at Baku. If it wasnt for mistake at penultimate corner he wouldve on his debut made Q2 & outqualified a guy with 56 GPs under his belt

Interesting to note that Lewis Hamilton 2016 pole time wouldve had him 6th on the grid only 3 tenths off Verstappen
 
Last edited:
At this rate, Palmer will do well to see out the season.

Apparently he liked the car but after his Fp2 crash. Since Its gone pear-shaped as he basically said on skyf1 The brakes are useless, the balance is horrible & the traction is terrible So tomorrow going to be fun

I was hoping racheal brookes wouldve replied so apart from brakes, balance & traction the cars great :D
 
Last edited:
I think Hamilton has the edge but we all know how Vettel's form suddenly spikes when he can smell a win. Might be an interesting race tomorrow.

Oh and the wonderful news that Giovanazzi is in a race seat (if only for one race) really made my morning. He's a great talent and, but for a tiny error, would have pegged Ericsson despite having virtually no prep time.
 
A promising session, although the gap between the top three teams and the rest seems to have grown quite a bit. Much depends on who can run their engine hardest for longest in the race, I suppose - wouldn't be too surprised if we end up with a Merc 1-2 after all, but considerable progress from Ferrari nonetheless.
 
I think Ferrari may be feeling quietly confident considering (my impression anyway without looking at the stats) their qualifying performance has generally let them down in recent years but they've been quite strong in the actual races.
Is this race likely to be a one-stopper considering the more durable tyres this year?
 
What? Massa 7th? Perez still faster than Hulkerberg? and Giovaniazzi faster than a bunch of cars? Vettel 2nd? It must have been a hell of a qualifying
 
Looks like the season could get interesting so as long as Ferrari hold it together as a team

Hamilton - there seems to be a Senna like focus about him this weekend

Vettel - the groove is back and the gap re -established to Kimi

Bottas realises he is in for a tough season but its a good start

Verstappen - A bit erratic and off the pace to his teammate in terms of pure pace and probably will not achieve higher in the race if everything remains the same as today

Ricciardo - uncharacteristic mistake but at least proves the cars are on the limit and drivers are being tested
------------------------------------------
Kyvat - no one is noticing he is right behind Sainz which can only be a good thing for Dani

Palmer - the crash cost him badly in FP2

Alonso - still an achievement to be up in 13th from where Mclaren are at the moment

Giovinazzi - unlucky but also impressive performance given the prep time he had

-------------------------------------

Wehrlein - what :s:s:sfor not racing ? Was he medically cleared to race ? Given he is playing catch up and is desperate to prove to Mercedes he decides to opt out competing and give Giovinazzi a lifeline
 
Some cars I noticed were running mid wings / T bars at the top of their sharkfin to get even more downforce and the vibration coming off it was clear to see.
 
I was reading the Metro the other day and the edit rated each team based on driver pairing , engine and chassis out of 5 stars and compared them which Hollywood actor they would be

To cut it short Mercedes was the best engine , Ferrari 2nd best , and Honda were the worst and in terms of driver combinations the best combinations were Hamilton/Bottas, Verstappen/ Ricciardo and Alonso/ Vandoorne. One of the worst rated combinations was apparently Massa/ Stroll

Now which Hollywood actor each team would be

Mercedes - Mickey Rourke - Been away for a long time and now back with a bang and on top of his game
Ferrari - Tom Cruise - Box office draw but also high maintenance
Red Bull - Ben Affleck - Brilliant at times but known to have several high profile divorces (ouch!)
Mclaren - Christian Bale - a legacy of genius but will suffer from the sudden tendency to lash out
Toro Rosso - Casey Affleck - the younger brother who sometimes outshines the older one without getting the credit he deserves
Williams - Tom Hiddleston - the gentleman who is too nice to be not taken seriously
Renault - Jean Claude Van Damme - French Speaking and available at a cheaper price
Sauber - Dolph Lundgren - Been around a while and not going anywhere upwards
Haas - Jason Statham - dangerous to underestimate him
Force India - Chris Evans ( Captain America not that rubbish ginger Top Gear presenter) - Someone who punches above weight against the big boys
 
Looks like Ferrari have caught up with Mercedes. Shame for them it is the one Bottas is driving. Hamilton is having one of his weekends at the moment, when he just looks in the groove all the time.
 
Of course it won't matter very much if he doesn't lead at the first corner tomorrow. If he finds himself behind Seb at the start he'll need to kill him to get past him. He's quite ready to do it, that'll be two of them out of the picture! And with Ric starting from behnd there could well be bits of carbon fibre flying about...:)
 
Last edited:
I wonder if the wider cars will be in effect on the run down to turn one tomorrow. None of the drivers will be entirely sure of where the end of their sidepod is (in the context of combat).
 
Back
Top Bottom