Formula 1 2019 - Round 1 – Australia

skipper_G

As Australian GP's go that wasn't bad. The cars are able to follow each other seemingly without cooking their tyres which bodes well for circuits that have a few overtaking opportunities.

The midfield battle looks insanely tight. 6 teams separated by very fine margins.

Fastest lap point was interesting, they all wanted it.

Ferrari, even with all that extra money that's the best they can do. And they wouldn't let Leclerc and Vettel fight over 4th. Pathetic.

Ghost Train

Thrashssacre wrote: »

Don’t know about that verstappen had 10 laps fresher tyres and didn’t get near the merc

Well they were able to stay out and lead the race in the first stint and the tyre advantage got him past Vettel, he had one fast lap near the end of the race and kept Hamilton under pressure

flazio

lolie wrote: »

Jesus croft is annoying with his Joe Vinatsi.
Poor race so far for Leclerc

This does hurt me to defend him, but apparently the Italians do pronounce it sounding more like "Joe" and less like "Geo"

skipper_G

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Does anyone here think Bottas could challenge for the WDC?

Based on the last 2 seasons no, I don't rate him. But I'll gladly be proven wrong if he can put up a genuine challenge. Hamilton needs a fight from his teammate in case Ferrari can't sort themselves out. The thing about Hamilton is he's consistently fast. Bottas can't afford any weekends where he's just off the pace for some unexplained reason.

Burkie1203

Think Stroll might make a few people look silly this season.

Joeface

Good race for Bottas . Little bit boring but I can see potential for the season. Really close from 6 to 11th that looks good for future races . Redbull do look good. Ferrari need to sort what ever they lost.

Nice for Dani K , good drive and a point on his return .

recyclebin

Burkie1203 wrote: »

Think Stroll might make a few people look silly this season.

Stroll is the midfield version of Hamilton. He gets a lot of illogical hate on here. Although I wonder will Perez be getting the leftover scraps in the team with Strolls owning the team.

skipper_G

Burkie1203 wrote: »

Think Stroll might make a few people look silly this season.

I'm sure people who don't like him will find a way to crap all over him, Daddy's money something something.

He recovered well today after a bad qualy result. Good start, he always seems to make up places at the start, even in last year's dog of a Williams. Defended well at the end from Kvyat.

The Red Bull looked good. Think Max catches Lewis if he hadn’t made that small error and went on the grass.

Ghost Train

Stroll does have a bit more personality than some of the other drivers, will see how his season goes. Good if the team finally has some financial stability and can move forward after last years struggles

flazio

Lance Stroll didn’t buy that Formula 3 championship that he won. There's no doubt there's a massive silver spoon in his gob but he is using it to put in the training and effort and the results do reflect that.

skipper_G

How stupid do Mclaren feel now they see the GP2 engine on the podium

skipper_G

Leclerc was ordered to hold station behind Vettel, I don't believe they played the team radio on the TV feed

JPF82

So Merc found floor damage on Lewis car. Wonder did it happen at the stop because he was only about 3 or 4 seconds off before it and then his pace disappeared.

https://twitter.com/autosport/status/1107196646931218433?s=19

Happy to see Stroll do well. I have s soft spot for Racing Point because of their history so am a bit relieved to see the might still have 2 drivers that can score points.

Ferrari a mystery altogether.

Gaoth Laidir

skipper_G wrote: »

Leclerc was ordered to hold station behind Vettel, I don't believe they played the team radio on the TV feed

The transcript is on Sky Sports.

Leclerc: Should I stay behind Sebastian, yes or no?

Ferrari: Yes and back off to have some margin

Leclerc: OK

Looks like Leclerc is going to be cleaning Vettel's boots this year, poor lad. Can't stand these team orders, but if it's to be like that then Lewis should be supporting Bottas' season seeing as Bottas is leading now.

Yeah, like that's going to happen...

Inviere

Truly pathetic by Ferrari what they done to Le Clerc. I'd understand if Seb has a points lead, but at 0-0 to tell him to hold station, dreadful carry on.

ayux4rj6zql2ph

skipper_G wrote: »

How stupid do Mclaren feel now they see the GP2 engine on the podium

McLaren were impatient, and Alonso was the main culprit in all of that.

Once Gasly got his hands on the engine we all seen what he did with it in Bahrain. Now Verstappen today getting the engine partner a podium finish. I don't see Sainz or Norris scoring a podium this year with the Renault unit and Ricciardo will regret the move in the long term i think.

I wonder how Alonso is feeling having seen a 3rd placed finish for a GP2 engine though? Even if they had terrible reliability for the rest of the season it still outdoes anything he ever did with the engine in his 3 seasons with it.

Inviere

Lucille Sour Elbow wrote: »

I wonder how Alonso is feeling having seen a 3rd placed finish for a GP2 engine though?

A comment he made four seasons ago, when the engine truly was terrible? Yes McLaren should share the blame, but lets not delude ourselves into thinking that it was all McLaren's fault. It was a combination of a **** car, with a **** chassis. Now Honda have got their act together, and are paired with a solid chassis. You really think a Red Bull Honda would have got 3rd place in 2015??

ayux4rj6zql2ph

Inviere wrote: »

A comment he made four seasons ago, when the engine truly was terrible? Yes McLaren should share the blame, but lets not delude ourselves into thinking that it was all McLaren's fault. It was a combination of a **** car, with a **** chassis. Now Honda have got their act together, and are paired with a solid chassis. You really think a Red Bull Honda would have got 3rd place in 2015??

Red Bull would have done far better than McLaren even in 2015, the McLaren chassis has been shown to be rubbish and they were pointing the finger solely at the engine then.

Lets not forget, Honda wanted to delay until 2016 as they said they were not ready but McLaren pushed them into coming back sooner than they wanted, that alone fcuked things up.

Red Bull - Renault took 3 seasons to take a race victory
Mercedes themselves were midfield runners from 2010-2013

These teams were in it for the long haul, McLaren wanted everything yesterday and when they couldn't they fcuked their toys out of the pram.

Inviere

Lucille Sour Elbow wrote: »

Red Bull would have done far better than McLaren even in 2015

Perhaps, perhaps not. Honda were plagued by reliability issues, and had the engine so wound back to stop it throwing its guts out, we got that infamous GP2 engine quote. Yes obviously RB and McLaren aren't in the same league, but the engine back in 2015 was next to garbage (as was the McLaren chassis).

It's all well and good making fun of Alonso now about it, but put a former champion in a rubbish car, with a rubbish engine, and that's how it's going to go down.

skipper_G

Inviere wrote: »

A comment he made four seasons ago, when the engine truly was terrible? Yes McLaren should share the blame, but lets not delude ourselves into thinking that it was all McLaren's fault. It was a combination of a **** car, with a **** chassis. Now Honda have got their act together, and are paired with a solid chassis. You really think a Red Bull Honda would have got 3rd place in 2015??

What you're saying is all true, I was the first one to mention the GP2 engine comment on thread. I should clarify my intent was solely in reference to Mclaren's impatience. The Mclaren chassis has been a problem since 2013 when they still had Mercedes power. It was impatience that brought Honda to the sport a year ahead of plan and impatience that drove Mclaren's decision to switch to Renault. I think they made a mistake in both cases.

Inviere

skipper_G wrote: »

What you're saying is all true, I was the first one to mention the GP2 engine comment on thread. I should clarify my intent was solely in reference to Mclaren's impatience. The Mclaren chassis has been a problem since 2013 when they still had Mercedes power. It was impatience that brought Honda to the sport a year ahead of plan and impatience that drove Mclaren's decision to switch to Renault. I think they made a mistake in both cases.

Absolutely, agreed. It's more so the comments about "a gp2 engine making it onto the podium" today...that comment related to an engine from four seasons ago. Honda have obviously made progress since then. I'm delighted for them, I'm glad they've been rewarded, and I'm glad Red Bull have kept in the fight. We need as many teams/constructors/suppliers in the sport as possible.

Dont be at yourself

Enjoyed that race. Great to see Botas get the points and the fastest lap (had a small bet on him for fastest lap at 8/1!).

Disappointed that Ferrari won't let their drivers race, but not a surprise.

Hopefully Red Bull can remain competitive and be in the mix.

Reliability also surprisingly good for the first race of the season!

H3llR4iser

flazio wrote: »

This does hurt me to defend him, but apparently the Italians do pronounce it sounding more like "Joe" and less like "Geo"

Yep, that's it - his pronunciation is quite close to the correct one; It's actually more "Jo" than "Joe"; There's also no "pause" between the "Gio" and "vinazzi" part of the name (that's where he goes a bit wrong).

Here's an example (very beginning of the video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W0wUSndwdM

antodeco

Ferrari need to get rid of all their strategists. Every season they screw it up, and this year, not letting them race each other, will come back and bite them.

recyclebin

8 out of the 10 teams scored points today. Outside the top 3 teams it looks very close.

Giovinazzi staying out so long screwed up his own race and a good few other guys too.

Inviere

antodeco wrote: »

not letting them race each other, will come back and bite them.

100%

ayux4rj6zql2ph

I didn't get up for the race and only seen the results on the website. In relation to Kubica, what went wrong? from what i can see Russell lapped him is that correct?

Inviere

Lucille Sour Elbow wrote: »

I didn't get up for the race and only seen the results on the website. In relation to Kubica, what went wrong? from what i can see Russell lapped him is that correct?

Clipped another car on the first lap & lost his front wing. Couldn't do much after that.

ayux4rj6zql2ph

Inviere wrote: »

Clipped another car on the first lap & lost his front wing. Couldn't do much after that.

Was he at fault for it? Autosport has an update hidden behind a bloody paywall as i've now read my one free article this month. It was 10!!!!