Poll Out of Ten: 2015 Australian Grand Prix

[sushifiesta]

F1 is back! The season started in Melbourne again, which normally serves up a good race but what did you think about this year's?

After the reliability at the start of last year being much better than expected you might have thought the cars would be rock solid this year. Instead, the teams seem to be having more issues! Manor, who performed miracles to even get to Melbourne with something resembling a car, couldn't get everything together in time and weren't able to compete in any session. Magnussen and Kvyat both had car failures on their way to the grid. Many more retired during the race which almost let Button's crippled McLaren Honda score a point, only to just miss out by finishing 11th (and last) despite sticking his elbows out as far as possible to try to keep Perez behind.

As for the few that actually finished, Mercedes again are clearly the dominant package and unlike last year Hamilton was able to get off to the perfect start, keeping Rosberg at arm's length for the whole race. The Ferrari engine's apparent gains in testing were real, with Vettel managing to edge Massa for best of the rest and an incredible 5th and 8th for Sauber despite all the court cases destabilising their weekend. There weren't many battles or overtakes to get excited about, though...

For me it's a 5 as after all the pre-race shenanigans with people dropping like flies, there wasn't much to get excited about in the race itself. But don't let me influence you - how did you rate the race out of 10?

I will be collecting the results from all these polls to create the prestigious "Clip the Apex Race of the Year" award once more. You have a week to get your votes in and I'll post the results in a new thread after that!

 

[KekeTheKing]

Not the best GP ever, but it's the Season Opener so that's always worth a bonus point. Shades of yesteryear with cars not even making it round to the grid. Plenty of drama all week. Glad that F1 is back!

Gave it a 7. Good one to whet the appetite. On to Sepang

 

[Mephistopheles]

I gave it a 10 for its comedic value...

 

[Dash Racing]

I gave it a six. It was alright, there were some good scraps, and the rookies did well, but I'm thinking the teams might want to start drilling their pit crews earlier next year.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

One for the result, one each for the performances of Nasr, Sainz & Verstappen.

 

[snowy]

I would have enjoyed it a lot more if Virgin Media had the decency to provide the red button service. I would have spent the entire race in a state of bliss riding on board with Lewis or watching his sector times click off on the Live timing.

If you're listening Virgin, I'm off to Sky!

I gave it 6, Lewis was mighty all weekend.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Stuck between a six and a seven. So opted for a six. I'm still laughing now at Arnie's post race interview. Despite their troubles, I enjoyed Saubers performance. Some very red faces among the team managers though. All in all, an interesting enough start.

 

[Road of Bones]

1- a dismal spectacle all round. I can't get excited watching half a grid full of rookies vs half a grid full of wounded cars tugging about behind a pair of Mercedes so ludicrously efficient that the result was never in doubt from Quali onwards.

This is looking like it's going to be a long dull season, unless you worship at the altar of Lewis, frankly.

 

[Jen]

I haven't actually seen the race yet, waiting for BBC highlights, but have heard what happened.

So will vote then.

 

[Boyle]

Was pretty disappointing throughout with one of the podium contenders (Bottas) out before the race began and one of the Bulls out too. Only Kimi was really out of position and the cameras seemed to be focused on his battle to cut through the field. But even then we were robbed of him chasing down the 1 stoppers after his second pitstop. I did enjoy the Vettel-Massa strategy battle, and it was actually nice to see Ferrari competitive again. Mercedes and Hamilton looked ominously dominant though, and Rosberg seemed disappointingly subdued from Qualy onward. The STRs looked liked they were going to have a great weekend but pitstop and reliability issues denied them of even better debuts. Sauber were also impressive, especially Nasr. The Force Indias - well Hulk had a quiet if solid race whilst Perez was pants all weekend (I can't believe this is the same driver who lit up 2012). Sadly didn't get to see the Lotuses in race trim either. Less said about Mclaren the better.

All in all it was not one that will live long in the memory but the Ferraris and Saubers gave us a little entertainment. Most of the points were for the rookie performances. 4

 

[teabagyokel]

5. Anything better would be a good race, anything worse would be dull. So I'm going down the middle.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

3 can't get much worse really. F1 really is a shambles right now. Only the Sauber resurgence added anything to the race.

 

[Incubus]

3 from me. Too few cars on the track, not much of any battles going on anywhere and even though the gap between Lewis and Nico was never more than 3 seconds the former looked so much in control it might as well have been 3 minutes.

 

[Titch]

5 Middle of the road. It might have been more exciting if more cars had started ! But Maldonado didn't fail us. He was first to exit the race, due to an encounter. Although it wasn't his fault, so maybe it doesn't count.

 

[Jen]

1
A travesty of a 'race' - and my heart goes out to all the drivers. Anyone else involved should be ashamed with the exception of the Merc team and, possibly, Ferarri - but who can tell if they did well in all that shambles?

 

[Incubus]

I have to say I never got why Melbourne is so popular as a GP venue. From a televisual point of view, which is the only way most of us on here will ever get to watch this race, it hardly ever seems to produce classic races with cars battling for the lead. The 2010 edition was OK but otherwise most of the excitement there always seems to come from safety-car periods bunching up the field after a crash...

 

[Tacitus]

4. Bonus marks for F1 political shenanigans and the first race.

 

[siffert_fan]

2

All of the supporting events were FAR more entertaining than the F1 non-race.

We will be attending the next Formula e race , and I will be greatly surprised if it isn't much more competitive than the farce that F1 has become. Volvo is said to be entering Formula e in preference to F1 and I suspect more will follow.

That may bode ill for Formula 1's future.

 

[aaron8831]

Gave it a 5. Nothing to write home about. Really disappointed in Ferrari's pit crew, although to be fair, Kimi may have had some damage to that wheel that caused the problems. I think it's very clear that we're watching to see who finishes third and which constructor is second.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Just knowing how much Meph, Jen, and Siff despise seeing Hamilton and Mercedes dominate will make nearly every moment of these season massively enjoyable.

What a position Merc is in. Everybody up and down the paddock falling all over themselves to marvel at the magnificent job they've done. You can't pay for that kind of publicity.