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.

 

[F1Brits_90]

I think ferrari are almost the favourites. Because mercedes are well known to turn it up in qualifying that they aren't able to do in the race. Whereas the other engine manufacturers dont have that "overdrive" function

 

[TR]

5 seconds a lap quicker...

FAIL

To be fair, the goal was to be around 5 seconds quicker than in 2015. Hamilton's pole time is 4.2 seconds quicker than his 2015 pole time. That is still not 5 seconds but close. Lets see about the lap times during the race tomorrow. The new Pirelli rubber should allow the drivers to push more during the race. Hopefully this will mean that the fastest lap is much closer to the pole time than in recent years. If so we could be seeing much more than a 5 second increase in the fastest lap time.

 

[Il_leone]

The negative response during testing was that some drivers found it difficult to follow other cars which is expected when you consider when they've asked for more downforce to make cars go faster

So following another car is only going to take away the downforce unless the mechanical grip has so much improved to negate this impact but I think if you were racing purists

People would love to see Hamilton make another pass to win the race

 

[RasputinLives]

If Vettel gets into the first corner first I'd wager £100 he'll be out of DRS range before its activated. 2012 seems like a long time ago but I doubt he's lost that particular skill.

 

[cider_and_toast]

One thing I think is for certain, just because the drivers have been granted their wish of a more durable tyre, I think we'll find that the drivers now being able to 'push all the time' will be pure hokum.

 

[Il_leone]

Where are the main DRS activation points for overtaking? Aint there two? I thought Alonso was being cheeky praying for rain

 

[ramilas1]

Aborted Start
- Dear Bernie, please refrain from such raucous laughter or you'll undo all that plastic surgery work

Take Two
- front five in grid order round first corners, time to go back to bed unless you want to wait a bit for Fernando to retire

 

[LifeW12]

There was an overtake!! With DRS though.

 

[LifeW12]

Was that a non-DRS overtake with Perez?

 

[FB]

Hmmm, not sure what to make of that. Happy to see The Finger back on the top step and that, it would appear, Mercedes aren't going to run away with things but there wasn't so much on track action. We now have the "overcut" added to the "undercut", more durable tyres but have we moved backwards in terms of action on the track? In 2008 the cars were so complicated aerodynamically the only way to overtake was at the pit stops. Are we back to the same situation this year?

 

[snowy]

I was rather hoping that Paddy Lowe leaving Mercedes would mark the end of their woeful lack of strategic nous. Pitting first is not stupid unless you are dumping your driver into traffic behind Max Verstappen. That is profoundly stupid.

 

[Bill Boddy]

But it does seem that Hamilton's tyres may have been going off and then for some unknown reason they though they would be ahead of Vettel if they did it. For the past few seasons they had the superiority which let them make poor judgements so they got used to it and thought it was normal.

I cannot see Mr Hamilton jumping for joy and rightly so.

 

[olegg]

It was strange race for Hamilton after pit

 

[Greenlantern101]

Big build up then a lack lustre race. Nice that Ferrari have a similar pace to the Mercs. A season long fight might just be possible.
The lack of overtaking was terrible. Lewis was 1.7 seconds a lap faster than Max when he caught him and couldn't get past even with DRS. That doesn't bode well.

 

[The Artist.....]

Greenlantern101

It has always been difficult to overtake in Melbourne- so hopefully this will just be a settling in problem...

 

[Bill Boddy]

Blame the fans, they asked for faster cars so obviously are not interested in close battles.

If they wanted fast cars why didn't they go to Santa Pod to see what they do.

 

[olegg]

I must admit.
Ferrari's win was necessary not only Ferrari
but it needs for the season intrigue

 

[Bill Boddy]

As far as I remember when the fans were asked they put faster cars as their top priority. At least the races will be over more quickly so the agony won't last as long.

 

[racecub]

Mercedes have been making stupid strategy calls for some time, but they've got away with it because of their performance advantage. Doesn't look like they have that luxury any more. I really cannot understand some of their strategy decisions over the past few years. They are a world away from when Brawn ran the show( in the strategy dept.) no wonder he left when they wouldn't give him overall control.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Maybe they felt that had they waited they would lose first place on the track with worn out tyres?