2017 Australian Grand Prix

They are cutting away from the battle at the front way too often. Vettel closing in again and they've missed most of it.
 
If it's a one stop race, I don't see how staying out is helping Vettel's chances.
 
This could pay off for Ferrari if Hamilton is mired in traffic for a while here.

Already complaining of understeer.
 
FLRacingFan said:
This could pay off for Ferrari if Hamilton is mired in traffic for a while here.

Already complaining of understeer.
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I guess that's the thinking, but it looked like Hamilton was still gaining overall. Maybe that changes.
 
It's great that Ferrari is close enough to Mercedes that pit strategy will be a factor all season. It is not necessarily encouraging that Hamilton was completely unable to pass Verstappen despite being faster, or that Vettel wasn't able to overtake Hamilton early despite likely being faster. The new package is a lot faster, but there is nothing to suggest that it is racier, and it might be less so.

Bottas is now catching Hamilton.
 
Y'all motherlovers oughta go to sleep and DVR that **** in the morning
 
Reck said:
Looks to me Mercedes actually got slower and Ferrari got their game back.
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One of the Ferrarris did at least. The other one is about to be caught by a Red Bull. It would be weird to finish first and fifth.
 
Get That 88 Up There !! said:
How many cars are a lapped down? I think only 5 or 6 are on the same lap as Vettel
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Six on the lead lap, with Massa barely there. Ricciardo and possibly Grosjean could have finished on the lead lap without their problems, but none of the other teams are close to competitive right now.
 
donthaveanickname said:
IMO, that was one of the most boring F1 races I've ever seen.
I didn't notice more than two passes after the first lap.
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It's only interesting because Ferrari and Vettel have for the moment displaced the mighty Mercedes and there is a contest at the front. I don't like what I saw in terms of the profound lack of ability to pass.
 
donthaveanickname said:
IMO, that was one of the most boring F1 races I've ever seen.
I didn't notice more than two passes after the first lap.
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Melbourne is never good for overtaking, but yeah, I'm not particularly optimistic for this season right now. These cars are fun to watch lap but they don't seem to be able to race. What a surprise.
 
FLRacingFan said:
He packs it up after this year. He hasn't had it in a while.
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He was basically driving around a second slower than his teammate. I liked his 2012 and 2013 seasons with Lotus, he seemed hungry then. Since then, not impressive.
 
donthaveanickname said:
IMO, that was one of the most boring F1 races I've ever seen.
I didn't notice more than two passes after the first lap.
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For sure it's up there in terms of boring if Vettel didn't win I would be pissed I stayed up, but the battle between Vettel and Hamilton will be good this year,
Not sure about everyone else
 
Somehow Raikkonen had the fastest lap of the race. WTF was he so slow overall?

Mercedes will still win the Constructors' Championship this way.

It's funny to see Webber interviewing an exuberant Vettel.
 
I really wanted to enjoy the race, but a combination of it being 3am and boring put me to sleep. It just wasn't entertaining once Vettel got ahead. Even before that, only on the start was there ever any doubt the issue would be settled on the track with wheel to wheel racing.

Formula One wants to know why it's losing viewers? Here's your answer: It's not fun to watch.

Hamilton getting bottled up behind Verstappen confirmed my worst fears about the new cars: they don't race well together. The new cars create so much turbulence that they don't run well following each other. Vettel knew he was destroying his tires following Hamilton, so he dropped out of the turbulence and waited to do an over/under cut on the pitstop. When Hamilton got stuck behind Verstappen, he killed his tires and it was race over.

We are going to be in for an entire season of no wheel to wheel combat and all the overtaking is going to be in the pits. Like Matchette said, you need to be 1.5 seconds back to get out of the tire destroying turbulence. From that far back, there's no way to even think about a pass.

It's clear to me formula one needs to simplify the rules regarding aerodynamics. For example, the Red Bull has 45 elements in it's front wing. 45! You have to wonder how much of all these complex arrangements on the wings and around the sidepods, the turning vanes, and the "tire squish" deflectors are causing, and if maybe a lot it is designed to screw up the air behind it so no one can follow.

In Indycar they learned that downforce generated by the underbody creates far less turbulence than downforce produced by the upper body. When formula One went to bigger wings, that's all upper body downforce, so they simply made the turbulence situation worse. They really need to clip the wings down, get rid of all the turbulence producing appendages, and give them some long, shallow tunnels to replace the lost downforce. Keep the big tires. that's mechanical grip, and those will produce good racing. Maybe then
they might race as well as Indycars.

So, as much as I like to be positive about things, the new cars simply aren't going to give us good racing, at least not until they can figure out how to deal with the turbulence better.
 
I thought the whole weekend had enough problem solving
and incidents to be somewhat interesting. Rough start for Ricciardo
and Haas. Look forward to see how they bounce back.
Looks like we may have a Mercedes Ferrari fight on our hands.
Love the new cars. A well placed bang on the desk for the
cameras from Toto always warms the heart.
Its early , but Bottas could be Hamiltons Barrichello this year
which will take pressure off the 44. We shall see though.
 
Maybe, but Botas has settled in really quickly. He was less than 3/10 off in quali and I suspect he will only get quicker. I've heard the manual for the steering wheel is 30 pages long, for example so there's still a lot to be learned and a lot of speed to be found. I'm willing to bet that Botas outruns Hamilton at least a couple of times this year. After all, Nico won 10 races last year and I think most people rate Botas a little higher.
 
That race was awesome. Heartbreaking for Haas, Zo, and especially Ricciardo though.

These new cars are inspired as ****.
 
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