Is It Business As Usual?

[Robem64]

I have to admit to feeling a little disappointed when I woke to the news this morning of Hamilton dominance of FP1 and FP2 in Aus. I know it's early days but I was really hoping that the status quo would have been shaken up a little  but I guess Quali will perhaps tell us a little more. I personally want to see a competition not continual single team one-twos in races - for me, that's boring and I'm a fan of the sport!

[Scott]

Doesn't look promising, does it...more than half a second over 2nd place and 1.5sec over 6th.  Crap.

[Robem64]

Crap sums it up - hopefully the race itself can throw a few curved balls in there (he says with everything crossed!)

[John S]

I'm more optimistic about there being no 1-2 from Merc, - well on the grid at least. 

I base it on this quote from 'the Honey Badger' after P2.

“Mercedes sure is quick but it’s more Lewis at the moment than Valtteri. Valtteri at the moment looks like he’s in our group, or in a group with Ferrari. I think we can be there.

“Pole would be a stretch, but I think we could be in that next little group.”

[cosworth151]

Look on the bright side. Some of last year's best racing was watching Lewis trying to fight his way back from a horrible start. Maybe we'll still have that at least.

I'll be watching to see what Haas can do. 

[lkjohnson1950]

Well Romain is 8TH and struggling with the brakes, though this year it's the fronts. Ferrari was a bit disappointing. All in all, not much different than last year.

[Irisado]

I was pleasantly surprised by the practice results.  It seems evident that it's Hamilton who is putting Mercedes so far in front, rather than the Mercedes car itself.  Bottas is struggling to lap within 0.5s of Hamilton, which suggests to me that he is going to be fighting with the Ferraris.

Whenever there is a change in the rules, the gaps between the cars increase.  Rules stability makes for a decrease in field spread.  They needed to do something with the rules for this year though.  They have gone nowhere near far enough to solving the problems with modern Formula 1, but I hope, at least, that the cars will be more challenging to drive and that drivers will be able to go flat out more often.

The midfield also seems a bit mixed up this time.  Alonso has dragged the McLaren much higher up the order than I expected.  Grosjean has a massive advantage over his team mate Magnussen thus far, and I remain to be convinced that Lance Stroll is all that promising.  Even if Hamilton does dominate, therefore, I think that there will be plenty of racing to watch behind him.

Finally, I am not overly concerned about Hamilton being 0.5s faster than Vettel.  I do not want Vettel to ever become world champion again (he didn't deserve two of the four he currently has), so his failure to be at the top of the times is always pleasing to me.

[Scott]

But it is also Bottas' first weekend in the car driving it with anger.  He will improve vs Hamilton as time goes on.  Since I am not of the belief that Hamilton is the best in the field, I think the car is still making him look better than he is rather than the other way around.

[Irisado]

Alonso is still the best in the field for me.  Such a shame that the McLaren-Honda is so poor.  That's the biggest disappointment for me, not that Hamilton is so fast.

[Robem64]

But it is also Bottas' first weekend in the car driving it with anger.  He will improve vs Hamilton as time goes on.  Since I am not of the belief that Hamilton is the best in the field, I think the car is still making him look better than he is rather than the other way around.

Totally agree.

[John S]

  Since I am not of the belief that Hamilton is the best in the field, I think the car is still making him look better than he is rather than the other way around.

We're all entitled to our opinion but I can't really go with that assertion. 

Many times when Red Bull were rampant Lewis managed to put his McLaren which was not really a match into a winning position. I think most of us also agree that it wasn't really Rosberg beating Hammy to last season's title but rather Lewis losing it with mistakes - particularly at starts.

Lewis has also won WDC's in different makes, something that most of the great champs of F1 have achieved. It's not just luck that the greats get top cars to drive, teams know a thing or two about merit. You can luck into some championships but multi year & multi team wins can't just be chance. 

 

[Robem64]

Well, after FP3 its looking much better. Ferrari at the top, Renault 5th....looking forward to this quali very much/

[cosworth151]

A few surprises in Q1. Alonso goes through with P12. Kimi P2, Max V P3.

[Robem64]

At least it's not a front row lock out 

[Ian]

Looking good for tomorrow, Merc 1 & 3, Ferr 2.
Not too keen on NBC though.