2018 Rolex Australian Grand Prix

[Scott]

No preview post I guess, but now that I've seen Q, some comments...

The Halo's.  Big and ugly, especially when looking head on at the car.  I do find that the teams that have integrated it into their colour scheme (in particular Ferrari) make it much easier on the eyes.  That said, it could go 3 ways.  Either it saves someone as a tire bounces off it, it fails in a crash and parts of it become weaponised and well...let's hope not.  Or it has no impact or effect on anything and just remains annoying to look at.

Funny how Ferrari did the back of their mirrors in see-through carbon.  What is the point?  At first I thought it was a hole, but close up looked just see-through.

Renault had an interesting front wing.  Might be because I didn't really get a good look at others.

Bottas accident - wow.  Glad he is ok.  Looked like quite a hit.  5 place grid drop for gearbox change...stupid, stupid, stupid FIA.  10th would have been enough of a penalty.

Ferrari's 2-3.  Good to see.  I enjoy it when Kimi does most of his talking with the car after all the moaning about why is he even still in F1 after his ho-hum practice sessions.  He's here because he can still put a car on the front row.  Sorry DR isn't showing stronger, but he might bring it to the race.

Haas in top 10 - impressive.  I thought Grosjean might get a penalty for his right lane pass in the pits on the Renault, but I guess it was technically legal if not a bit dangerous (unlike a gear change which is not the least bit dangerous, but gets a 5 place grid penalty!).

Who is the guy with the F1 mic at the end?  Should I know him?  Is there a reason he has a fistful of esoteric bracelets rammed on his mic hand?  Maybe he should be doing the Yoga Championship or leave the jewellery behind for the F1 race.  Seb reached out to shake his hand when his turn came and the guy blew it off - something frowned on in Switzerland...if you greet someone you even have a passing acquaintance with, you shake hands, just normal.  Again, who IS this guy?

[guest3164]

I was not surprised to see Lewis on Pole, but I was surprised to see how huge his margin was back to the Ferraris.  Interesting that Red Bull were not quite able to be as quick as they showed in winter testing, although I don't doubt their car will be there or thereabouts in the race.  Haas were fast, but the car has some 'heritage' from Ferrari so it is not too unexpected.  Still both drivers had to deliver and did. 

Bottas showed uncharacteristic clumsiness with his crash, at least he is okay though and given the speed advantage of that Mercedes, you would still say he has a great shot at a podium finish. 

McLaren will be pleased not to have blown up but not getting into Q3 I am sure will have been a kicker for them.  Williams and Force India seem set to struggle this weekend which is a pity.  Pleased for Stroll to get into Q2 and I thought Sirotkin did okay on a track he had never raced and in a car that is still a bit rough around the edges. 

Hoping for a good race, expecting total Hamilton domination.

[cosworth151]

The high point of quali for me Haas being "Best of the Rest." I hope Romain & K-Mag can keep it up in the race.

The low point was the lack of pace from the Saubers. I'd hoped for better.

McLaren gave a good account of themselves in Quali, too.

[Ian]

If I wake up early enough to try to find a stream I'll see the faithful in chat, but I ain't setting an alarm on the offchance as over here they've killed 5 of the streams, fingers crossed.

[guest3164]

I'll probably wake up early enough, but no way on earth am I getting up to watch it live.  I record these early morning races and watch them at a more palatable 7am.  However a delayed start means missing the chat or else I'll get the race spoilt. 

[Alianora La Canta]

The low part for me was the gym not showing the qualifying rerun due to "important news about Brexit" (What? For a whole hour?!?) and my internet picking today to be extremely slow, preventing seeing it on catch-up. So I've yet to see qualifying, and have resigned myself to not doing so.

[Calman]

So I've yet to see qualifying, and have resigned myself to not doing so.

Whatever the reasons, I would get to a Doctor quickly with comments like that!! 

Granted, I opted to miss Practice 2,3 ... as I simply want a look at Practice 1 to see the cars out on track as a warm-up to Qualy for the first weekend of the season.

All the best,
Cal

[Alianora La Canta]

I don't need a doctor to diagnose broadbanditis, I need my broadband provider to fix that. I think I'm #28719 in the queue; every provider's been having problems in this area all week.

[Ian]

Just watched highlights on Channel 4, flaming ad breaks and the length of them drove me round the bend, completely lost interest, not that there was much to get excited about anyway. 

[cosworth151]

Sorry I missed the Chat Room. Ongoing internet issues. Hopefully they'll be sorted no later than Baku. At least I could watch the race on TV.

Haas threw it all away. Running 4th & 5th with the Red Bulls unable to pass. Then to botch a lugnut on two consecutive pit stops! Unbelievable!

I'm still trying to figure out how it was legal for Seb to pass Lewis during a VSC by ducking through the pits. Red Car Rules, I guess.

ESPN's coverage was terrible. Sky's feed doesn't have commercial breaks so ESPN just sticks them in whenever, with no regard to what's happening in the race. For example, they were in breaks during both of Haas's pit disasters. A bit later, DC said, "Here's another look at what happened with the two Haas cars." I didn't get to see it. Instead, I was treated to:

1. An advert for a bankruptcy lawyer,
2. An advert for a porno adult book shop,
3. A repeat of the bankruptcy lawyer's ad,
4. A string of ESPN in-house ads.

[Scott]

I enjoyed the race, even if only a few of us were in chat (we called it a wet race by the way, just because of the lack of attendance, and we can do what we want when there are only three of us  )

There wasn’t a flurry of overtaking, but it was interesting to see how the teams shook out during the first race.  So sad to see both Haas cars DNF after dominating the mid pack (including Bottas and Verstappen) for the first half of the race.  Pit error was really awful for them.

For a change it was nice to see a god-like strategic move from Ferrari, and to hear (and see) the utter confusion at Merc.  Really glad Vettel was able to hold onto it to the end even though it probably should have been Kimi’s.

Verstappen made his own bed by spinning across a kerb, so having to listen to “it was the car’s fault I couldn’t go faster” was annoying.

Fantastic job of McLaren to give Alonso a car capable of 5th.  Nice to see him look confident and happy for a change. 

[guest3164]

I thought it was a pretty awful race if I am honest.  For the last 16-20 laps I believe there was no overtake and not one change of position.  There were some peaks, the 'Haas' incidents, Max being Max etc, but I just couldn't get into it.  I think maybe being the first race of the season I was perhaps 'over hyped' but to me it was a snooze fest.  But then Melbourne doesn't lend itself to overtaking with current F1 cars, not that many places to overtake and the dirty air problem was really highlighted, especially by Bottas being unable to charge through the field. 

The less said about Williams, the better as well. 

[Robem64]

Max not impressed either!

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/135037/verstappen-would-have-switched-off-worthless-gp

[cosworth151]

He could not make a move and eventually suffered what he and the team reckoned was a damage-induced spin at Turn 1.

That's true, in a way. The car was fine. Max's ego was severely damaged when K-Mag blew his doors off on the start & then was able to hold him off. 

[Scott]

I thought his car was damaged IN the spin, not that it spun due to damage...seems there is more spin in this story than meets the eye.