2018 Australian GP Thread

[henners88]

Melborne track is historically a race where overtaking is difficult. Track position is so important like in Monaco. Hence, it is not a fair track to judge F1 by. But l understand the frustration. But l would say judge by mid season. I think this season is going to be a real cracker with lots twist and turns. So l would say hang in there for abit longer.

In all honesty I just don’t get time to dedicate it any more. With two kids I find weekends are busy enough as it is and watching TV during the day is just not possible for me. I have recorded races but then never get round to watching them and end up reading an article on the BBC instead. I think in the last three seasons I’ve watched three races overall so I’ve pretty much dropped off the edge of even being classed as a fan anymore.

Enjoy it though guys, it’s 10 years since I joined this forum and we had some great debates over the years. I’m less qualified to argue these days lol


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[steveaki13]

Melborne track is historically a race where overtaking is difficult. Track position is so important like in Monaco. Hence, it is not a fair track to judge F1 by. But l understand the frustration. But l would say judge by mid season. I think this season is going to be a real cracker with lots twists and turns. So l would say hang in there for abit longer.

I am not judging F1 by this race but by the last 10 years on the whole. Look at the 2002 & 2003 races at Melbourne as examples. Chaos in 2002 and a bizarre but exciting 7 cars finish seeing Minardi get points. 2003 was crackers too. I never see a race I enjoy as much as those two. Even though they were not the best races ever.

[steveaki13]

In all honesty I just don’t get time to dedicate it any more. With two kids I find weekends are busy enough as it is and watching TV during the day is just not possible for me. I have recorded races but then never get round to watching them and end up reading an article on the BBC instead. I think in the last three seasons I’ve watched three races overall so I’ve pretty much dropped off the edge of even being classed as a fan anymore.

Enjoy it though guys, it’s 10 years since I joined this forum and we had some great debates over the years. I’m less qualified to argue these days lol


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Yep.

By the way Hi Henners.

[Nitrodaze]

I am not judging F1 by this race but by the last 10 years on the whole. Look at the 2002 & 2003 races at Melbourne as examples. Chaos in 2002 and a bizarre but exciting 7 cars finish seeing Minardi get points. 2003 was crackers too. I never see a race I enjoy as much as those two. Even though they were not the best races ever.

Well most fans have gone through a reset to give the new owners a chance to redefine the formula. Hence it is not fair under the circumstances to judge F1 by the last 10 years when it [F1] is looking forward to the next 10 years. Liberty has shown signs of having some good ideas to rejuvenate F1. If you want to judge F1 in general, you would need to wait till 2022 to be in good position to say whether the formula has lost the plot or not.

I think this season is going to be one of the best for some time. Is this going to be a grreat season, potentially yes l think. Is F1 worst than ever, l would say NO also. Cars are faster, as fast as the big three liters of the Schumacher era. Is overtaking as good as that era, yes and even better. Is the show worst than for the Schumacher era, definitely much better than any race ever. So l don't understand the complaints really.

[N4D13]

Well most fans have gone through a reset to give the new owners a chance to redefine the formula. Hence it is not fair under the circumstances to judge F1 by the last 10 years when it [F1] is looking forward to the next 10 years. Liberty has shown signs of having some good ideas to rejuvenate F1. If you want to judge F1 in general, you would need to wait till 2022 to be in good position to say whether the formula has lost the plot or not.

I think this season is going to be one of the best for some time. Is this going to be a grreat season, potentially yes l think. Is F1 worst than ever, l would say NO also. Cars are faster, as fast as the big three liters of the Schumacher era. Is overtaking as good as that era, yes and even better. Is the show worst than for the Schumacher era, definitely much better than any race ever. So l don't understand the complaints really.

Keep in mind that it's extremely common to look at the past with only your rose-tinted glasses. For instance, many would criticize the fact that drivers have to nurse their tyres and their cars rather than going flat-out for the whole race... as if this wasn't a thing in the good old days without tyre changes and with their steel brake discs.

Of course there is something that has changed drastically, and that is reliability, but that is something that is never coming back and it's pointless to keep looking at some idealized picture of the past and compare it to what we have right now.

That doesn't mean we don't get to criticize what is wrong about current F1 (i.e., too much reliance on aero and too many marbles off-line mean that overtaking is difficult), but let's not automatically assume that every past time was better.

[truefan72]

For VSC it’s meant to neutralise the race, it’s not meant that some driver should be gaining an advantage from it. Neutralise. That’s the whole point of VSC. I agree with pitting during SC not during VSC.

My point exactly. the situation of pitting under the VSC needs to be adjusted. Of all places, why are you allowed to gain an advantage pitting under those conditions?

[Nitrodaze]

My point exactly. the situation of pitting under the VSC needs to be adjusted. Of all places, why are you allowed to gain an advantage pitting under those conditions?

Not only that, why should cars in the pit be allowed to reach racing speed going into the lower speed of VSC on track. VSC should include the pitlane as well. That would properly neutralize the race. You cannot say the race is neutralized if people can drive above VSC speed in the pitlane.

[Duncan]

Kind of a dull race overall, but a few interesting things going on...

Shame that the race was essentially gifted to Vettel through a combination of VSC and SC. If they'd just called out the SC right away, I don't think that would have worked; by keeping all the gaps the same but still getting the boost to relative delta in the pitstop itself, it made it an easy leapfrog. Still, if Bottas had been up front with Hamilton, Ferrari wouldn't have been able to force Mercedes to try to cover two different strategies.

Probably the big takeaway for me is that the particular setup of that track makes overtaking especially hard for cars with this particular set of aero regs. All the way up and down the order, slower cars were able to hold up faster cars and it really looked like any time a chasing car got close they just lost all of the grip. Hamilton seemed to have a lot more pace than Vettel in that last stint, but every time he got within a second or two he was struggling to keep the car on the road. Same with Bottas, and also Alonso keeping the faster Ricciardo at bay for a good number of laps. This was exactly what happened at Melbourne last year IIRC.

Looking forward to seeing some racing on other tracks that don't seem to induce this quite so much. Early days, but I think Hamilton has to be favorite for WDC again this year.

[airshifter]

Really nothing new to see here this year. The track is so easy to defend on that any slower car that gets in front through qually or traffic/accident situations usually stays in front for quite some time. The track itself I can enjoy, but with a lack of real passing opportunities it will never be a favorite of mine.

The VSC/SC situation was a strange one, but hopefully they still close that loophole so it doesn't happen any more in the future. If they don't close the loophole we could well end up with races where the drivers all dive into the pits so as to not allow an advantage.

Sucks to be Haas. I suspect some heads will be rolling. One mistake is bad enough, but two in a row?

[Rollo]

Why is Vettel's hair shaped like an ashtray?

I have a feeling that this is the opening to a Dad Joke.