Grand Prix 2019 Australian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

There's still another test session before the F1 season kicks off in Melbourne on 17th March but lets get the hype going as we enter the 69th season of the Formula One World Championship. It will be the usual early start for UK viewers if you able to watch live with Sky starting their broadcast (or narrow cast if the declining number of viewers is true) at ten past five in the morning. Yes, there is a five o'clock in the morning now.

The 2019 season is long. We are starting earlier in March than normal and the last race is on 1st December at Yas Marina. In amongst all this the 1,000 GP will be held in China on April 14th. There had been suggestions of trying to run the race in the UK to bookend race 1 and race 1,000 at Silverstone but anyone who can recall the Easter GP of 2000 will realise what a very silly idea this would be. I went to a WEC race at Silverstone in April a few years ago and it snowed. Enough said.

So can we hope for a close, exciting and entertaining season with a close battle for race wins and the championship? I have no idea. Testing has suggested Ferrari are the team to beat but then it has suggested this for a few years and the Scuderia has failed to deliver. I suspect the Mercedes will be up to speed come Australia when then take the bag of cement out of the cockpit. Valterri Bottas is talking tough in the season build up, I have a feeling he will roll over and the team will take it in terms to tickle his tummy as each race goes by before they part ways at the end of 2019.

Charles le Clerc should give Sebastian Vettel a run for his money at the red team, it will be fascinating to see how the team dynamic develops and if the young pretender can rattle the four times world champion in the way Daniel Ricciardo did at Red Bull. Talking of Red Bull, it is a new era as they move to Honda power. Testing has shown the engine to be finally getting some reliability and Helmut Marko claims they are behind Ferrari but ahead of Mercedes. This may well be wishful thinking on Helmut's part but I do hope the Red Bull can mix it up the front.

Behind the top three teams Renault and the newly branded Alfa Romeo team look like being at the head of division two with Toro Rosso not too far behind. McLaren, Racing Point and Haas will be hoping to get closer to these two as the season develops whist poor old Williams will simply be grateful to met the 107% rule if current form continues.

So what of Melbourne itself? It took over as the home of the Australian GP from Adelaide in 1996 and has produced, in equal measure, some of the most exciting and boring F1 races I have seen. I hope 2019 proves to be the latter, if not I will have to look to Formula E to continue to compensate for the dirth of excitement in F1.

So stats fans, which drivers (according to Wikipedia) have the most wins at the Australian GP? Well there are two with four wins, Michael Schumacher (well durr) and Lex Davidson. Who he you ask? Well, as much as Formula One would like to think it holds the intellectual property on the term Grand Prix lots of other races have been given this title and Lex won races back in the 50's and 60's.

These races were run to different rules, Davdison's win in the the '54 race being to F2 spec, the '61 race was Formula Libre and looking at the list of entrants it's quite an eye opener. You had Cooper F1 and F2 cars racing against road cars like the Austin 8 and Zephyr. Can you imagine the bleating from today' s drivers if they came up behind a Fiesta or a Mondeo half way through a lap at Melbourne. It's bad enough for the poor little loves when they have to lap a back marker who's only marginally slower than they are.

Back to the Grand Prix pre-85. There is a stunning list of winners including Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Alan Jones and, inevitably, Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren. These were the days when F1 drivers had to race in various series to make ends meet and were often contracted by the teams to run in F2 and F3 races as well as F1.

Here's another for you stats fans, the Australian GP has been won by two father and son combos (I wasn't sure how else to put this so please forgive my rather clumsy description). Graham and Damon Hill should be easy to work out but Alan Jones' father Stan won the race in 1959 in a Maserati.

Before I leave you to get excited about the upcoming season, one last pointless fact for you to take a guess at. Only one driver won the Australian Grand Prix at the full World Championship event and in the Formula Pacific era, who he?

Welcome to F1 2019.
 
I got up at 4:30. I saw one lap which was interesting in the GP. I fell asleep somewhere between lap 35 and 40. I woke up again with 3 laps remaining. I listened to a load of faux excitement about setting fastest lap. I fell back to sleep as Bottas made a mess of parking his car in a garage.

I wish I has stayed in bed but I am an F1 zombie :(
 
Watched the last 16 laps live, had to reboot the telly-box when I turned on this morning and it seems to have failed to record the race, or deleted it in reboot. Watching Gasly fail to make a move on Kvyat for 15 laps got a bit dull. Some onboard from the front runners would have been more entertaining. They didn't show Hammy or Verstappen at all for almost 15 laps, apart from Max taking to the grass once. Slightly disappointing coverage.

Well done to Bottas, no one saw that coming. I'm enthused, it'll rattle Hammy which is a Good Thing. The extra point for fastest lap definitely added some spice to the mix. The annual Ferrari implosion may start early this year, so be it, or maybe they'll find some pace in the coming races. Either way, it seems the Red Bull (singular) is quick, so there's always hope for a battle at the front, regardless of the orangey-red team.
 
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Some of the coverage today was appalling.

When Max overtook Seb for example, we were treated to the rear view from Seb's car and just caught Max's right rear. Then we switched to Max's car and saw absolutely nothing. Finally we went to the wide shot, by which time Max had passed Seb and that was that.

Awful coverage throughout
 
I just read that Mercedes told Bottas not to go for the fastest lap point, he took a lot of notice of that then. I wonder how many more times that will happen this season and how many engines will be ruined as a result, especially later on.
 
Angel Interesting point given his margin of comfort to get 1 extra point against potential reliability issues. This could be contentious were the championship decided by 1 pt
 
finally after race work & football finally do this. I kind of enjoyed that grand prix it wasnt amazing but it was alright . I still have enthuseum for 2019. which I couldnt say after the last 3 Australian gps which have been awful & 1 of worst races of the season. im still enthused for Bahrain where the new rules will show better whats capable

I was highly critical of bottas, but I think it justified I wouldve said it about anyone, because coming 5th in world championship & with only 2 poles 0 wins & finishing 5th in final 4 races. when the teammate was winning 11 races & world championship with 3 races to go. but i always say if you criticise you must praise as well. bottas that was brilliant drive & he class of the field today. great lap in qualifying then really comfortable in the race you could feel he always had the pace like he did on final lap when he found that extra second. if he can sustain this maybe we have a title challenge but for me the biggest story was were ferrari from title favs & race favs. to a distant 3rd best team & unthinkably neither even on the podium. vettel with an off day never looked good all weekend. Leclerc once he got rid of his nerves & had settled in his 2nd stint on the hards. he was brilliant I still fancy him to beat vettel this season. even though we had team orders which was disappointing I think that 2nd half was impressive, as he shown enough being 7 tenths quicker a lap at times

Max another outstanding performance, 2nd best driver today. he is highly impressive im getting Alonso & hamilton vibes from him. that if you give a sniff of a world championship chance. he will be in contention. because he drags out the max of the car is opportunistic Gasly what happened stinker of a debut or should I say a ghastly , 1st time in long time that a top 3 driver didnt make through the field. 11th from 17th, couldnt even get past the sister toro rosso. not good. good job its his favourite bahrain next

Riccardio you feel for him it couldnt possibly have gone any worse his home race but we always knew this would be a year of pain compared to the red bull, he found a piece of a track that i never noticed in all the years but I guess that what track inspection is there for. B championship is still there but the gap has at least close but 35sec gap between magnussen & Leclerc If he hadnt been told to back off but shows there still is a 2 tier championship is still there. but at least gaps halved from 2018
 
I think that this was one of the most boring races of the last few years, I watched only because I was at my inlaws' and couldn't be bothered to listen to what my mother in law was saying.

Bottas did well, he kept out of trouble but considering that Hamilton's car had some damage I guess that it wasn't that difficult given the massive advantage that the Mercs enjoy at the moment

Hamilton... I don't know what to say, he didn't have anyone to race, any time that Verstappen got any close Hamilton would improve his pace

Verstappen he did manage to pass another car on track :cheer: I guess that they'll give him a medal given that there were so few overtakes

Vettel what went wrong with him after his pit stop? :dizzy: Sky pundit Marc Gene was saying that Vettel's speed across the line was about 15 kmph slower than the top guys, I haven't seen any mention to engine problems with his car but obviously that Ferrari (i) isn't as fast as we were led to believe and (ii) they had some reliability issue

Leclerc is a smart guy not only a talented driver

IMHO what was really sad was the group from Kimi 8th to Gasly 11th racing very close to each other for so many laps and not a single overtake, it was heartbreaking to watch

I look forward to the next race, it's going to be another race like today's it might well be the last one that I watch this season
 
I'd like to know how much Hamilton's bodywork/chassis damage affected his speed and from what point of the race.
Bottas put in a great performance and I think he'd only have been threatened by Hamilton if something wonky went on from the team.
 
I see Lewis didn't park his car very well at the end of the race. Is his day-to-day motor a BMW?:snigger:

There was a very narrow passage for the top three in front of the podium.
Bottas and Verstappen came in first, and they had room to maneuver in two moves and reverse.
And when Hamilton came in, the protective barrier was pushed close and he had no room to maneuver.
 
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