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I don't completely disagree but it does show that Nico Rosberg wasn't as slow as some people make out. Nobody disputes Bottas' speed but they do dispute that of Rosberg. If, by midseason, the gap remains the same as now then it does indeed shine some interesting light on 2016.
Not really been into the f1 for the last couple of years but I have to admit the new cars look mint. Back to the early 90s before the stupid narrow track and grooved tyres
0600 start for live qualifying and the race, the latter being after the BST time gain.
Hmmmm. Well, after my original comment on this thread regarding the spectacle of F1 vs the yachting equivalent and taking note of the responses, I decided to keep an open mind and dare to hope.
Pre-season testing did dampen my kindling, however the flame of hope still burned.
In view of the results from free practice today and I'm really really hoping either Ferrari or Red Bull are majorly sandbagging. Great for the LH fans, bit tedious for neutrals and everyone else who will be looking to the relatively closer [s]procession[/s] racing in the midfield, with cars that are now going at the speed of last years' CC.
The AC finals in May/June this year will knock this current season of F1 into a cocked hat! 😉
Morning!
Interesting FP3 order. And Pascal pulls out of the race.
And a good job Stroll's dad has deep pockets, could be an expensive season for Williams.
Surprised by the Pascal decision, must be more to it, the ROC crash looked quite innocuous. Anyway, bring it on, winter has been too long.
very suprised Wherlein pulls out. Unless sponsors demand he drives at a gp I reckon he may have realised that he may be found wanting. Good news for the test driver.
It looks like we have a new 'Maldonado' to spice things up
Here we go
Ace comment from Alonso, "all we need now is rain"..
So lets make some wild speculation based off very little information!... 😀
• Palmer is going to get really shown up by the Hulk.
• Pascal has either been hiding his true condition, or Merc/Sauber were foolhardy putting him in a car before he's fully recovered.
• Stroll is a lot slower than all the other young-guns that Villeneuve has criticised over the last few years (but he said Stroll was the real deal). Fast and crashing is good, slow and crashing is bad!
I like those new graphics where the sectors are broken down into sections.
Graphics are good, I still want to get a jigsaw and cut the daft fin and coathanger off the engine cover.
More questions?
Who is going to stuff up the start?
How will the cars behave in dirty air?
Will we see the the finger or maybe two?
Will Stroll crash?
Will Hamilton really get a good nights sleep without Rosberg by his side?
Which engine will blow up ( Mchonda, FI, Renault or Haas) ?
Who will do the fastest pit stop and does that mean the pit crew have also been working out over the winter?
How long can Ericcson stay at Sauber?
Can we have a new graphic where they hide Bernie in the stands and we have a game of Where's Bernie during the race if it gets too tedious!
Cars are longer and wider, tracks have not changed size, I predict lots of broken carbon fibre and the safety car doing plenty of laps!
Should be interesting start tomorrow! I think I heard something about the clutches being changed to make starting harder?
And it'll be raining carbon fibre in the first few corners!
Should be interesting start tomorrow! I think I heard something about the clutches being changed to make starting harder?
That's right. All about it here:
[url= http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/128541 ]New clutch regs explained[/url]
Stroll looks spectactularly out of his depth.
Werhlein is already being shown up by his stand in (I'm not going to try to spell that!)
Vandoorn has not impressed so far...
But at the front; business as usual.
How long can Ericcson stay at Sauber?
A good while - his backers bailed out the team last year and now own a good chunk of it.
Brundle was keen to point out how bad (and bang out of order) Palmer's rant was considering the team had spent the best part of Friday night rebuilding his car after he shunted it.
Should be interesting start tomorrow! I think I heard something about the clutches being changed to make starting harder?
Yep - I can see a Vettel win. Hamilton's starts seem to be a weak point for him throughout last season. New clutch may help, we'll see tomorrow.
And top of the leaderboard after qually! 😀
http://fantasy.udt.co.za/f1/restricted/LeagueDetails.j?leagueId=757&pageNo=1&batchSize=50
[quote=atlaz ]I don't completely disagree but it does show that Nico Rosberg wasn't as slow as some people make out. Nobody disputes Bottas' speed but they do dispute that of Rosberg. If, by midseason, the gap remains the same as now then it does indeed shine some interesting light on 2016.
Bottas closer to LH in quali than NR was last year...
I'm going to be cheering on Bottas all year in the hope he shows NR for what he really was 😉
And top of the leaderboard after qually!
Well at least I'm not last 🙂
Just seen the fantasy league avi 😆
I'm towards the bottom....didn't realise that teams don't score points in quali ffs!
higthepig - Member
Cars are longer and wider, tracks have not changed size, I predict lots of broken carbon fibre and the safety car doing plenty of laps!
Come on, give me some credit
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axle_track
If anyone is watching on C4 soon look out for Grosjean's lap - there's a head on shot of him coming into an sharp left hand corner and the change of direction speed is immense.
My gamble on Stoll not paying off so far 😆
Talking of impressive footage of the new cars, one of the turns (3?) of LH's on board final qualifying lap is just incredible 😯 I'm surprised they don't need G suits.
I'm hoping that despite the cars inherently being harder to overtake, that the toughness of driving them for a couple of hours leads to some unexpected errors or just difficultly maintaining their potential pace later in the race.
@ prawny
You lost me a bit there, I meant the racetrack in my post, not the cars track, I think tomorrow will be a good day for carbon fibre salesmen!
And top of the leaderboard after qually
I'm also 1st......as in 31st! 😆
didn't realise that teams don't score points in quali ffs!
Likewise! However, chosing a top team instead of a top driver might pay off when the racing starts..
Yeah hopefully that'll be the case....I went for Merc and Ferrari as my two teams.....which left me rather short on budget for drivers....I too had to gamble on Stroll 😕
I take my previous comment back...
The cars don't look overly fast either, but then it is a low grip track so that should change at the next race.
...after seeing this:
If anyone is watching on C4 soon look out for Grosjean's lap - there's a head on shot of him coming into an sharp left hand corner and the change of direction speed is immense.
Surely that amount of sharp turning is going to snap the chassis in half 😯 😀
Really well set up for tomorrow, now I just have to decide whether to use my parent's SkyGo login and watch it on the laptop at 6am or wait until C4 does the highlights at lunchtime ❓
I'm also 1st......as in 31st!
Eat my dust suckaaaaa! 🙂
Anyone got any insight on the merc mirrors? They seem to have some sensor in them, but I thought tyre temp monitors weren't allowed during the race (might be wrong but thought they were only OK for fp sessions)
2nd 8)
Anyone got any insight on the merc mirrors? They seem to have some sensor in them, but I thought tyre temp monitors weren't allowed during the race (might be wrong but thought they were only OK for fp sessions)
New Facebook/instagram/WhatsApp message alert for Lewis.
5th place
Is there any difference in the amount of fuel they can use/max flow rate? Will cornering faster mean more time on the throttle and potentially more fuel saving laps during the race?
They have an extra 5kg of fuel, but the new cars will spend more time at full throttle so some races might need lifting and coasting.
[url= http://www.f1technical.net/news/21196?sid=3f605f20d20818f86da63df73fb3c793 ]Fuel consumption concerns[/url]
Morning!
Morning. Early one innit? Clocks changing. Doesn't help. Danny Ric out by the sounds of it
nope danny ric back in his car! but could be watching the lights for fun
How many Renault engined cars are going to go today?
Can't wait for this!
Hope it's a good one - I'm really not awake! Had friends round and only had 3 hours sleep.
all still running despite a tap by kmag / ericcson
oofff over or undercut? we'll see
wow well done pitwall
Some work to do now for Lewis
MB bosses obviously going to favor a German driver over a British one, right?
They might even favour a finnish driver too 🙂 Does Pat Symonds add any commentary value at the moment. early days but its just seems every time he says something he just rearranges the the words of the previous comment into an other order
Symonds, first name Pat, just repeats the the other commentators comments and adds nothing of value to the commentary. Give him time I guess, it's only the first race.
Good to see Massa well up the order!
Lewis must be furious
Even Alonso can't keep the Macca going - shame as it seemed he was going to get unexpected points.
Bottas must be furious.. I reckon if the places were switched ham wouldve ignored orders and headed past him.
Come on lets see the finger
Not a Vettel or Ferrari fan but that's a good result for the start of the season! Shame RedBull seem to be quite a bit off the pace compared to where they were expected to be but I have faith they'll sort it out over the next few races.
Very interesting all of that! Shapes it all up for the rest of the season well 😀
Looking good for a proper fight this season then. Let's hope they can overtake on the track at the other tracks, otherwise it will just turn into a snooze fest irrespective of having a different winner every weekend - can anybody say they're excited by a race where the only overtaking is in the pits? The only other downside is the finger.
I enjoyed that, surprised that they did not fall over each other very much at all, tyres not going to be such a factor this year must be good news.
Yes, enjoyed out but not much overtaking on track 😕
Tyres not a factor on the Ferrari.
On the Merc? Jury out.
Zzzzz, has has it finished? Glad I didn't get up for that. Highlight of the race was when I got a technical fault with recording message from Sky after a bird probably sat on the arm between the LNB and dish.
Good to see the pesky Red Baron win.
Cannot believe there was no carbon rain on the corners after the start, maybe everybody has to pay for their own wings this season?
Zzzzz, has has it finished?
The fight for tenth place was pretty thrilling.
And in STW fantasy F1...
[b]1st Racing Legend [/b] 523pts
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[b]2nd SvladCjelli[/b] 506pts
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[b]3rd Merchant Banker[/b] 502pts
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and bringing up the rear (no pun intended) for the coveted picolax prize
55th MattA 0pts
55th stevehine 0pts
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14th for me - a pleasing start, but Williams as a team pick let me down!
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I see the pointy German is back.
4th, just outside the podium lol
It's a lot more exciting with the fantasy team! Great idea 🙂
Well i wont be wasting many more sunday afternoons on F1. Seemed a bore fest to me. Not many overtakes and racing for the undercut is not exciting.
Shame really have been following the pre season a lot over the past month or so.
Agreed it's a bit worrying how difficult it is to overtake now. I guess it's the last of Bernie's shitty ideas that will start to be fixed now Brawn and co and in charge...
F1 has rarely been about overtaking. I wish they'd get rid of the DRS. Too artificial.
I'm not a big F1 watcher but maybe could be if there was more racing - I don't buy into the "best machine" aspect anywhere near as much as some doI wish they'd get rid of the DRS. Too artificial
I wish they'd do something different that'd affect the car in front somehow instead (speed, grip, whatever they fancy) rather than speed up the rear car. Overtaking on long straights - yawn
Well let's hope Albert Park has a particular set of attributes that make it the exception rather than the rule - the cars didn't particularly look "OMG wowz that's fast and difficult" and the lack of on track action will turn off the casual watcher.
I've always enjoyed a long tactical battle without needing tons of passing, but if races are generally one stop then that's pretty much over after the first stint.
Just hope we get a proper fight between merc and Ferrari, maybe with the rbs catching up when they sort out the motor.
As for fantasy f1... I'm even further down that list than I am on stravaaaaa
Not many overtakes and racing for the undercut
Overcut! It's about "overcut" in 2017. Apparently. 🙄
I don't understand why if more overtaking is wanted why they don't remove a lot of the aero / downforce stuff as that would make braking zones much longer thus passing more easy and also it would decrease the "can't follow in dirty air" stuff.
I don't understand why Hamilton could not get past using DRS tho
They did, and it worked, then some people had the bright idea of a faster car making a better 'show' and they allowed the aero back again
The really maddening thing is that LMP1 cars manage similar levels of downforce to F1, yet can follow each other closely through corners, so it's clearly far from impossible. They've also always had tyres the drivers can push all the time (but then they don't use Pirellis). My understanding is that the only reason they're slower is the higher minimum weight - well that and that the FIA would tweak the regs if they got too close. But it proves it is possible to have aero which allows driving closely behind another car and hence overtaking - it's just that F1 has gone down a route of generating the downforce from big wings and they're badly hurt by dirty air.
Most of the downforce in LMP cars is developed under the car; most of the underside of the car is a tunnel to generate a huge low pressure to suck it to the ground.
F1 cars still have the plank underneath that was bolted on in a knee jerk style after Senna's death to slow them down; big wings sprouting on the outside and a piece of wood on the underside is contradictory.
It's a throwback to last century that should be dumped.
Well let's hope Albert Park has a particular set of attributes that make it the exception rather than the rule
The teams themselves admit that Albert park is a complete anomaly within the rest of the circuits. So I doubt they are reading too much into the result. Weren't Ferrari pretty much nailed on for the win last year until they had a moment on the pit wall???. I expect normal service to resume at the next race with a Merc 1-2*
*And 2 Mclaren retirements 😉
To jump on the DRS bandwagon...... how about making it available all the time? If you've got the kahunas to try and open it early then you'll gain an advantage. If you have the kahunas but not the skillz the crashes should be great!
1 obviously spanner in the works is that it goes against "moveable aero devices" rules, but whatevs
Is anybody else having problems when transferring team members?
Didn't even notice this, I'm awesome 8)
retro83 - Member
And in STW fantasy F1...1st Racing Legend 523pts
2nd SvladCjelli 506pts
3rd Merchant Banker 502pts
and bringing up the rear (no pun intended) for the coveted picolax prize
55th MattA 0pts
55th stevehine 0pts
In my defence (and thanks for the mention) - I didn't register until after qualifying; so I couldn't actually pick a team/driver lineup