Grand Prix 2018 Australian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

As a less than convincing set of test sessions drew to a close in sunny snowy rainy sunny Spain, most of the motoring press had Mercedes out in front as the team to beat again this season.The packing cases, cars, freight, PR Stands and all the other guff that makes up the travelling kit of a modern F1 team will by now be well on its way to Australia and in a few short weeks we will find out if the motoring press are correct.

One man who won't be taking his place in the stands at Albert Park this year will be Ron Walker, the former Mayor of Melbourne and the Chairman of Grand Prix Australia who was the key figure in establishing the Albert Park and Melbourne as the countries addition to the GP Calender. Ron passed away on the 30 Jan this year.

Attendance figures at Albert Park have been on the decline since reaching a peak in 2012. The race day attendance last year dipped below 100'000 for the first time in the tracks history. Does this reflect a growing global apathy with F1 or the lack of Australian interest on the grid since Mark Webber retired?

Four drivers will be taking to the grid in Australia for the first time. Two debutants and two who joined mid way through the season last year. Leclerc joins as reigning FIA Formula 2 champion and the 2016 F3 champion but will find himself saddled with possibley the worst car on the grid. Hartley did little to impress in last years Toro Rosso and will be looking to make a stronger impression this season alongside his team mate Pierre Gasly. Gasly, the 2016 GP2 champion settled quickly in to life at Toro Rosso last season and with the works backing of Honda, both drivers will be seeking to maximise their potential. Sergey Sirotkin won the race off to join Williams, replacing the finally departing Massa. A shame for many who wanted to see Kubica take the seat at Grove, Sirotkin will need to do well to shake off the feeling that he's just another rent a drive. His previous single seat results show that on his day he can perform with the best of the younger drivers and the first thing he'll need to do is show a clean pair of heels to Lance Stroll. I remain convinced that despite the money on offer from both drivers backing, Kubica is just one or two driver error DNF's away from stepping up to the race seat while one of the two are 'rested'.

I'm not going to waste finger strokes speculating about the performance of the teams on the grid because I think we all know who are going to be the key players in this area and see little to convince me that anything will change too much from last year but we live in hope.

 

[Gamal Liranzo]

As a Ferrari fan I love to see Ferrari winning races but I must admit that something must be done with this overtaking issue.

Lewis Hamilton was faster and yet have not chance to put a proper attack in place due the fact that follow another car is harder then ever. Today Ferrari benefit from that but maybe tomorrow we are going to suffer because of that. Something must be done.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

What happened with Hartley? Wasn't it him who came into the pits with a smoking engine? I thought it was all over for him but next minute he's tootling around at the back somewhere. Unless it was Gasly with the blown engine.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Gasly's went pop. I think Hartley flat spotted his tyres on lap one and when he came in his engine may have been a little smokey from having a lot of oil in at the start. You normally see the cars run a bit smokey in the first few laps due to them being maxed out with fluids.

 

[Rutherford]

How many DRS zones are we going to end up with next year, 4, 5, 6?
FFS, DRS zones are not the solution to the issue even a f**kin' koala with its tiny thinky thinky would now how to increase overtaking opportunities.
Am I suggesting the FIA and Liberty Media are a bunch of morons? Yes, yes I am.

The racing was a complete $hit show nothing happened, except for the two former Toro Rosso teammates, Verstappen and Sainz, making costly errors and both Haas drivers retiring, because their American team had a gun problem.

Well Done Melbourne.

I do apologise for the language, but this is f**king irritating. I won't be getting F1 TV, it's not worth the dosh.

 

[cider_and_toast]

because their American team had a gun problem.

American team in gun issue shocker.

(Apparently the NRA are already on the case)

 

[Gamal Liranzo]

A few years ago F1 found himself in a hard situation with Mercedes Benz dominance due the lack of ability of other teams to put a proper challenge. They decided to change the whole aerodynamic concept in order to disrupt Mercedes dominance. They made the cars a lot faster through an unprecedented increase of the aerodynamic knowing that this could negativly affect the overtaking oportunities but that was a price they were willing to pay if that would open a window to dethrone Mercedes Benz.

The only thing they miscalculated was Mercedes Benz ability to adapt to those changes. Now we are in this situation were with have almost zero overtaking oportunities and Mercedes is still dominant force of the field.

Today we were lucky with the VSC, but Hamilton was awful faster than us. In normal conditions Hamilton would disappear into the distance.

 

[vintly]

Get in front and you can stay in front - that favours Mercedes of course we knew that already. So why haven’t Red Bull adopted a similar aero strategy I wonder? Without a very high grid position you’re gonna struggle to win races. Apart from Singapore and Monaco they’ll play second fiddle all season if this is anything to go by.

In another note, was Brundle’s grid walk really that pathetic or did I miss something? Apart from a couple of words from Max he only interviewed Rosberg, and had no time to do a proper wander. Maybe it was before I got up but I hope that’s not a sign of things to come either.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Has anyone explained what happened with Hamilton after his excursion cost him 2 seconds or so? He came tearing up behind Vettel, almost as though he were in "party mode", had one lap at about the same speed as Vettel and then dropped back agaon, so musc so that he lost nearly 10 seconds and looking as though had thhe race been a lap longer he might not even have been on the podium.

Toto Wolff did seem to hint that they might have been tight on tyre wear had the safety car not ocurred, he also blamed the software for getting the sums wrong with the virtual safety car and giving Vettel the chance to take the lead. But they have been using this for years, did no-one ever thing if checking figures after previous VSCs? Don't blame the software, blame the testers.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I seem to remember a radio message at some point that things may have been getting a little warm under the bonnet towards the end.

I think with about 5 laps to go they turned the engine down and threw the towel in. You know, just like those hard core racers used to do in the old days.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Damon Hill doesn't like manufacturers in F1. Mercedes seem not to know who he was.

Sooner Mercedes and Ferrari quit F1 the better – Hill

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

When you've only got 3 fairly fragile engines per season then it's going to lead to greater levels of caution.

 

[cider_and_toast]

To an extent Hill is spot on. Many of the same sorts have thing have been posted on here recently.

You only have to look at some of the guff Toto has been spouting in the press lately. He has been quoted as saying Ferrari should keep their technical veto. Really?

Avarice will take F1 down the toilet before we get to 2021.

 

[racecub]

I suspect Hamilton’s excursion was a combination of tyres getting old, engine getting hot, a track you can’t overtake on, a little frustration, and time running out.

 

[F1Brits_90]

Yeah & 3 engine rule is ridiculous as complaining about the lack of cars on a friday then they give them less units. Also pointless as someone in commentary said, its the dyno development thats costs the money & not the actual units

To be honest cider_and_toast another 3 years of racing like today & F1 wont need ferrari to kill itself

 

[siffert_fan]

IMO, with the Mercedes advantage being so enormous, you can never even be sure that results such as today's haven't been stage-managed to add interest to the season.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Yeah & 3 engine rule is pointless as someone in commentary said, because its the dyno development thats costs the money & not the actual units

To be honest cider_and_toast another 3 years of racing like today & F1 wont need ferrari to kill itself

Well exactly, and the other thing that annoyed me (a bit) was Bottas getting a gearbox penalty for trashing it in that qualifying crash. OK, I'm not in tears that a Mercedes got a further penalty but it just seems a bit harsh to get a penalty when a driver wrecks something in a crash which has already destroyed their chance of a decent finish. It's pure chance as to whether a particular component could be damaged or not in a situation like that.

 

[sobriety]

Plagerised from somewhere else:

"Brilliant tactics from Ferrari. Get a 12 second gap before their tyre change then order their B-team to create a VSC incident. It took them 2 goes, but it worked."

 

[Greenlantern101]

The only sport I loved is dieing. I feel sick with how things are going. This may well be my last season. Aren't season openers meant to draw you in not repel you?

 

[Greenlantern101]

I've just realised I'm turning into Mephistopheles and Jen. Sorry. I will try and reign in the negativity.

 

[cider_and_toast]

You are not alone.

I've just sat through Ted's smug git notebook in the hope of finding a crumb of info that meant this wasn't as dull a day as it was.

Nope, even Ted couldn't add anything new.