Formula 1 2017: Round 1 - Melbourne

HighLine

The first race of the 2017 season is nearly here. A Ferrari 1-2 will do nicely come Sunday

skipper_G

First race thread. Okay now I'm really excited!

Looking forward to seeing the cars lined up on the grid. Hoping for some solid points for Force India.

AMKC

Hoping Renault do well and that both there cars finish the race in the top six. That would be a good start.

Mammapinkbear

Can't wait for the season to start but have to admit as a lifelong McLaren fan this season may not bring the improvements that I'd hoped for.

Phoenix Wright

Mammapinkbear wrote: »

Can't wait for the season to start but have to admit as a lifelong McLaren fan this season may not bring the improvements that I'd hoped for.

I'm sad to say that McLaren are in complete disarray.. How many statements has Boullier came out with pointing the finger at Honda in the last few weeks? I know that Honda are obviously way behind where they should be, but I don't see how constantly highlighting their failures is going to do anything for the team's morale.

pyramuid man

I really can't wait for this. Can't wait to see what Bottas can do in the Mercedes and to see what the Red Bull can do seen as their testing seemed to be fairly tame.

Will be good to see what the Hulk will do in the Renault.

Really getting excited now!

Probably the least excited I've been in years. Will miss practice (this thing of having a job sucks ) and I'll be drinking for the match tomorrow so I doubt I'll be up for qualifying. Then who knows if I'm arsed getting up on Sunday to try and watch in my phone? Ho hum.

JPF82

Hope Force India do well again. Always have a soft spot for them with the Jordan history. Their car is over the minimum weight though apparently, so they might not be too competitive until that is resolved. It's meant to be sorted by Bahrain.

risteard7

I would love if Kimi won it! If he does I'm going on the beer

Ghost Train

Wonder will practice 1 reveal much, looks like nice day there

skipper_G

Not the best start for Esteban Ocon, he has a brake issue which they reckon will take about 20 mins to fix.

Have to say, the Force India livery looked great up close. Just hope the car is decent now

Ghost Train

They don't seem to have a list of times on the left side of feed, to show who has fastest times

Don't like the little wings on top of sharkfin or in front of rear wing, looks silly

skipper_G

Palmer out of the rest of P1 with a split cv boot. It's the kind of thing I'd expect from an old banger not a high tech F1 car

flazio

Hamilton over a second faster than Raikonnen. Ah lads. We're screwed.

Mike Litoris

So much for a competitive season up front. :P

HighLine

So pissed off waking up to read it's business as usual with that muppet up front.

Phoenix Wright

I've gotta say, that's so disheartening..

El_Duderino 09

JPF82 wrote:

Hope Force India do well again. Always have a soft spot for them with the Jordan history. Their car is over the minimum weight though apparently, so they might not be too competitive until that is resolved. It's meant to be sorted by Bahrain.

Last time FI brought a major mid season upgrade it worked a treat (2016 or 15?). Might be the same this year

Ghost Train

Half a second between Vettel and Hamilton isn't huge difference, considering how new car are

Harika

And it was on qualifiers, no feedback yet on the long fuel runs. Hope dies last lol

Harika

F1 produces now short Highlight Videos for Free Practices

Andrew76

Harika wrote: »

And it was on qualifiers, no feedback yet on the long fuel runs. Hope dies last lol

This doesn't sound promising:

the red cars were if anything even further off the pace of Mercedes in the race-simulation runs on heavy fuel loads later in the session - Raikkonen was a second off Hamilton's pace

From here: http://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/39376752

Not long to wait before we know for sure anyway.

Joeface

Oh BBC coverage is pretty much one sided , They pretty much wet themselves every-time Hamilton touches the wheel. I am just telling myself Q1 will be different and Vettle will get on pole.

I had to stop reading they're coverage on races last year . cannot remember the 2 races but one was Hamilton Starting at the back and getting to third (engine swaps penalty I think ) and it was the drive of the decade.

Next race or maybe two races later Rosberg Got bumped in Turn 2 and spun , drove from last to 3 himself maybe second .and that was a formality according to the same journalist

Jordan 199

Joeface wrote: »

Oh BBC coverage is pretty much one sided , They pretty much wet themselves every-time Hamilton touches the wheel. I am just telling myself Q1 will be different and Vettle will get on pole.

I had to stop reading they're coverage on races last year . cannot remember the 2 races but one was Hamilton Starting at the back and getting to third (engine swaps penalty I think ) and it was the drive of the decade.

Next race or maybe two races later Rosberg Got bumped in Turn 2 and spun , drove from last to 3 himself maybe second .and that was a formality according to the same journalist

Andrew Benson?

Joeface

Jordan 199 wrote: »

Andrew Benson?

Could be that name, I can check later when I am not replying from my phone.

SkepticQuark

Must be the only person who supports Lewis Hamilton here by the looks of some of the charming posts in the thread about him. Regardless, kind of hoping qualifying will have Ferrari and Bottas magically up to speed again. I've been kind of wishing for a season of Mercedes vs Ferrari to be honest...

El_Duderino 09

roddy15 wrote: »

Must be the only person who supports Lewis Hamilton here by the looks of some of the charming posts in the thread about him. Regardless, kind of hoping qualifying will have Ferrari and Bottas magically up to speed again. I've been kind of wishing for a season of Mercedes vs Ferrari to be honest...

If it was just about speed then we'd all be fans. His "personality" is degrees of awful.

The autosport podcast touched on it Shen they said he's unbearable when things are going well and he's spouting the guff from a self help book. The "real" Hamilton is the guy who intimidated that his team was sabotaging his title chances after Malaysia - so his real personality is a knob?

SkepticQuark

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

If it was just about speed then we'd all be fans. His "personality" is degrees of awful.

The autosport podcast touched on it Shen they said he's unbearable when things are going well and he's spouting the guff from a self help book. The "real" Hamilton is the guy who intimidated that his team was sabotaging his title chances after Malaysia - so his real personality is a knob?

See what I mean by charming.

Spudman_20000

roddy15 wrote: »

See what I mean by charming.

The truth hurts sometimes.

This is basically Hamilton when things aren't going his way:

HighLine

roddy15 wrote: »

Must be the only person who supports Lewis Hamilton here by the looks of some of the charming posts in the thread about him. Regardless, kind of hoping qualifying will have Ferrari and Bottas magically up to speed again. I've been kind of wishing for a season of Mercedes vs Ferrari to be honest...

It's sport. The majority of people don't like him for good reasons and usually nothing to do with his driving skills.

Build a bridge.

El_Duderino 09

roddy15 wrote: »

See what I mean by charming.

I do.

Driving = excellent
Personality = twat

Fair analysis I'd say. Do you support him for his personality?

Harika

LIGHTNING

LIGHTNING wrote: »

As I said in the testing thread why people were falling for Merc's sandbagging was beyond me.

Aero is probably tight enough, edge to them, engine stuff was obvious, their top speeds were mid-pack. Can't find comparative top speeds from last year but I'll bet they had a smaller increase than most teams, simply from taking it handy.

kopite386

Can anyone tell me does the race start at 5am or 6am on Sunday I thought it was 6am but now I'm seeing on twitter it's 5am

ricimaki

kopite386 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me does the race start at 5am or 6am on Sunday I thought it was 6am but now I'm seeing on twitter it's 5am

It's both! The clocks go forward an hour, so the 6 am start is at what would have been 5 am the day before.

SkepticQuark

Spudman_20000 wrote: »

The truth hurts sometimes.

This is basically Hamilton when things aren't going his way:

Implying this isn't an issue with sports people in general. Verstappen can be a twat when he wants to be, Vettel likes to have a whine too when things don't go his way, Alonso also the same... We could list a lot of moaners with bad personalities when they are losing. Even good old Jenson could have a whine about things.

El_Duderino 09

kopite386 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me does the race start at 5am or 6am on Sunday I thought it was 6am but now I'm seeing on twitter it's 5am

It's 6 but the clock goes forward on Sunday morning so it will appear as 5 on analogue clocks. Be careful setting an alarm but most phones update automatically

El_Duderino 09

roddy15 wrote: »

Implying this isn't an issue with sports people in general. Verstappen can be a twat when he wants to be, Vettel likes to have a whine too when things don't go his way, Alonso also the same... We could list a lot of moaners with bad personalities when they are losing. Even good old Jenson could have a whine about things.

Yeah they moan but they have a middle ground where they have actual human personalities.

Hamilton goes from "I'm so blessed" to "I'm so oppressed" without any interesting middle ground. He never gives interesting analysis and when they ask him how the race went he tells a story that usually goes "I felt great this morning, I felt x after the start, then y happened and I thought "I really have to do z". The end".

He's a snooze fest when he's not being an idiot. What go you pike about him?

kopite386

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

It's 6 but the clock goes forward on Sunday morning so it will appear as 5 on analogue clocks. Be careful setting an alarm but most phones update automatically

ricimaki wrote: »

It's both! The clocks go forward an hour, so the 6 am start is at what would have been 5 am the day before.

Thanks I forgot about the clocks going forward makes sense

SkepticQuark

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Yeah they moan but they have a middle ground where they have actual human personalities.

Hamilton goes from "I'm so blessed" to "I'm so oppressed" without any interesting middle ground. He never gives interesting analysis and when they ask him how the race went he tells a story that usually goes "I felt great this morning, I felt x after the start, then y happened and I thought "I really have to do z". The end".

He's a snooze fest when he's not being an idiot. What go you pike about him?

Vettel didn't give very interesting analysis when he was at red bull though to be fair. It is boring when you are in the top teams.

Obviously I like him for his driving. I don't think any driver could really be seen as having a personality to admire, maybe Riccardo but no idea what he's like in private. I just think most of them are bitchy so picking on one for apparently being the worst is kind of pointless and not really worth discussing their racing should be the thing we talk about.

H3llR4iser

Edit: moderation intervention while I was writing. Not relevant anymore.

skipper_G

Just caught up on P2. While it looks like Mercedes are still the front runner I'm really not sure where Ferrari stand. Were they running with the engines turned down a little?

The midfield battle looks insanely tight. It will probably be a procession at the front but I expect some good battles further down the field.

Frank Bullitt

There were reports of a truck full of sand leaving the Merc garage early on Friday morning.

Jordan 199

thierry14

What ye think so far?

Qualifying lap record to be broken?

In race lap record by Schui in 2004 under threat?

Don't think they look as quick as 2004, different strategies with fuel too

Bit meh so far with practice, doesn't look like anyone really pushing cars, besides McLaren 😀

skipper_G

thierry14 wrote: »

What ye think so far?

Qualifying lap record to be broken?

In race lap record by Schui in 2004 under threat?

Don't think they look as quick as 2004, different strategies with fuel too

Bit meh so far with practice, doesn't look like anyone really pushing cars, besides McLaren 😀

The in race lap record is around a 1:24.1 I think ? Probably wrong but if it is I don't think that will go.

Overall it feels like everyone is holding back, like they're really worried about reliability.

Mike Litoris

thierry14 wrote: »

What ye think so far?

Worried about it being a dull one horse race this year. Rosberg kept Hamilton honest and I fear Bottas isn't that good. I hope I'm wrong.

If there is a good battle between Ferrari and Redbull throughout the year I'll be happy enough. There were some epic battles behind the leaders during the years Vettel rode off into the sunset in the RB.

I wouldn't use Albert Park as a barometer for overtaking for the season. It's usually sparse in that respect. Any rain forcast? Records will no doubt be broken this year though.

Barring shenanigans at the first corner the race for the win is moot. There's a few teams who could stick sticky tyres on at the end to do it for the craic, just depends if they're well out of the points with 3 to go.

LollipopJimmy

Anybody recording on Sky be warned they've now split the coverage into 4 from 3

thierry14

skipper_G wrote: »

thierry14 wrote: »

What ye think so far?

Qualifying lap record to be broken?

In race lap record by Schui in 2004 under threat?

Don't think they look as quick as 2004, different strategies with fuel too

Bit meh so far with practice, doesn't look like anyone really pushing cars, besides McLaren 😀

The in race lap record is around a 1:24.1 I think ?  Probably wrong but if it is I don't think that will go.

Overall it feels like everyone is holding back, like they're really worried about reliability.

Yeah it's 1:24
Fastest in race lap last year was 1:28, if the cars are really 3 - 4 second a lap quicker and weather is good, it should be very close, will be disappointed if it's not.

Ghost Train

Wonder over a race distance will some drivers struggle with the physical aspects of driving a faster heavier car... Maybe with power steering and stuff it's not much different to before