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.
 
Mercedes have fooled everyone or was it the track conditions in Melbourne being different to Barcelona being a factor

Precisely - I wonder if we’ll ever find out ihow much they were sandbagging. Wolff had an opportunity to deny sandbagging in from a Chandhok comment but declined, so I reckon they were.

Still, it’s a long race tomorrow, it’s highly unlikely they’ll all come home on grid order.
 
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Mercedes have fooled everyone or was it the track conditions in Melbourne being different to Barcelona being a factor

We know from previous years that the Merc had a small operating window where it was blindingly fast but Ferrari was better race wise and looked after its tyres better

The only chance the Ferrari's and Verstappen have got is to get ahead of the Mercs and slow them long enough to cook their tyres

I actually think it was a combination of factors. I don't really think Mercedes was sandbagging at Barcelona. Instead they showed up for the first week of testing with a car that really did not work, changed all the aerodynamics and tried again next week. It seemed to work better. It is also a track that favors Mercedes, so I suspect the track, track conditions, temperatures, aerodynamic updates, etc. all favored Mercedes. Everything may have very well inside Mercedes "small operating window" as you say. Also, I think Ferrari was not getting the speed out of the car they expected, and really did not know why. It did look almost too easy to drive.

Still, it is 0.704 second advantage, so I do think that Mercedes does start this season with much more of an advantage than they did last season. This could be a very dull season.
 
vintly FB F1Brits_90 as both myself and cider_and_toast both said during testing the key spot that Merc are sandbagging is Toto Wolff telling the press they are not the quickest car and it's going to be tight at the front. It's translates as "we know we're out front but we really need people to watch".

So millions of pounds spent and the cars are in exactly the same order as they were this time last year. Even the interviews were the same.

Things to note:

- The driver of Red 5 once again has a moustache.

- The Toro Rosso Honda was fastest in the speed trap

- The aero has been reduced and Red Bull have suddenly lost a bit of pace

- Gasly was screwed by his team who made a massive error in not sending him out for a second run.
 
I know im british & I love british success, & im glad lewis wins. its the hope that kills that we might actually have our 1st title battle since 2010 when we had 2 cars that matched on pace. as since 2011 its been 1 dominant car or team. bar the middle of 2018 season.

So millions of pounds spent and the cars are in exactly the same order as they were this time last year. Even the interviews were the same

but if the drivers & brawn is right, we get better racing & the cars can follow then it should be worth it. because like crofty said the problem wouldve only got worse in 2019 as they added more & more bits. until its like Monaco every weekend
 
I'm probably going to regret this....

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I am recording it. Going to watch at 9:00 PM Sunday night. Means I have to avoid checking news all day. That is tough, as I am somewhat of a news junkie.
 
I've set the recorder and I'll be watching "as live" when I can muster enough energy to drag myself out of bed in the morning.
 
No...
I was posting same tables before. And Hamilton had "flaw".
Today Hamilton was only one from ten driver who accumulated his best sectors in Q3.
And it is mean only it.

This does not really tell you a lot. I mean, on your best lap scoring your three best sectors is not all that earthshaking.

Added to that, in each session you are making adjustments to the car. So, it may be faster in one sector earlier because of the set up and then the modified set up (which may be faster overall) does not have the same speed in that sector.

Is there something more I should be reading into this table?
 
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Well well, Some surprises for Australian GP. More questions and some answered.

- Ferrari is not fast. What happened? Binotto may be booted ?
- Bottas bagged it today. Kudos. Will Lewis still be his friend? Lewis had a long face today.
- Max, how did you like the new Honda PU ? not bad?
- Gasly, you gassed out the whole weekend yeah?
- Kimi, keep it up
- TR team - keep trying
- Kubica, are you sure you still wanna race? Embarrassing not to even beat your rookie team mate huh mate?
- Sainz, why did you blow up your engine in the first race? Honda's fault you think ?

Just messing.. :snigger:Enjoy the rest of your weekend :thankyou:
 
This does not really tell you a lot. I mean, on your best lap scoring your three best sectors is not all that earthshaking.

Added to that, in each session you are making adjustments to the car. So, it may be faster in one sector earlier because of the set up and then the modified set up (which may be faster overall) does not have the same speed in that sector.

Is there something more I should be reading into this table?

No. It's just an interesting little table that olegg has always posted. Read into what you will or won't
 
Im prepared to write ferrari off now for the constructors championship
Not only did they have no pace today, team orders are already in play with Leclerc told not to pass.
They totally missed taking the bonus point. Leclerc had more than a pit stop gap behind him for the last third of the race. In that situation when he has been told not to move forward why wouldnt you bolt on fresh tyres.
With Mercedes claiming the fastest lap instead of them it is a 2 point turn around.
I heard Lewis say in reply to it only being one point that it might be but that is 21points for the season, almost the equal of a race win.

I think the mid field should be exciting to watch, the finishing order was closer to what I expected than quali.
 
Probably 90% of the people involved in F1 and a similar percentage of fans.
I certainly didnt think he had such a dominate win in him.
 
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