Don’t they have extra fuel this year? That would help negate the need to fuel save and so encourage all the drivers who are able to do so, push for the fastest lap toward the end.
Stands to reason.
Óbviously it is an emergency measure. A patch on the real issues. I will not make much of a difference not add much excitement and if anything it highlights the desperate times of bóóóring ´races´.
Nevertheless it does show that management is aware. Maybe a next step will actualy chánge something.
Don’t they have extra fuel this year? That would help negate the need to fuel save and so encourage all the drivers who are able to do so, push for the fastest lap toward the end.
Tyre choices for the weekend:
A heavy bias towards the C4 Soft, unsurprising given the nature of the circuit, with lots of relatively slow 90-degree corners, and the fact that the circuit is largely public road, and will be "green" until the race itself. The C4 is the "old" Ultrasoft, with C5 the Hypersoft, C3 used to be the Soft, and C2 the Medium.
All clear? Good.
Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
RIP Charlie Whiting. Sad and unwelcome news to start the season with.
That's such sad news, and a day before the season starts as well.
Shoes don't come much bigger than his.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/h...death/4352284/
Very sad news indeed, he will be sorely missed.
It's hard to imagine the impact of the passing of Charlie Whiting - not only was he the man who pressed the button to start the races, he was ultimately responsible for ensuring the safety of everybody on and around the track, from ensuring that the track itself was safe, and complied with the requirements of the FIA, to being the ultimate decision maker when it came to deploying the Safety Car, VSC or red flags.
He was the man who made the final decisions on scrutineering matters, and driver conduct. And it's a measure of the man that he did all of these things, and more, and was universally liked and respected within the paddock.
He knew all of the tricks of the Formula 1 trade, because he'd spent so many years working alongside Bernie Ecclestone, firstly at Brabham, and subsequently at the FIA when Bernie ran the show on behalf of FOM. So there was nobody better qualified to take on the role of poacher-turned-gamekeeper as Race Director. Charlie, and the late Professor Sid Watkins, did so much to improve safety in Formula 1, and by doing so, in motor sport in general.
Rest in peace, Charlie. The world of Formula 1 is a poorer and sadder place without you.
Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
It really is the end of an era. As much as any great champion in formula 1.
RIP Charlie.
Real shame. There are drivers the world over that owe their lives to the safety changes he helped develop.
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Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
I don't have the time tonight to read and digest all of the info in the link below however a very quick skim read was quite interesting.
https://f1metrics.wordpress.com/2019...ason-analysis/
The first practise session is in not that many hours from now.
Very sad loss to both his immediate and F1 families.
Right, Hamilton was done with the sandbagging crap.
Seems Mercedes have pulled away again over the winter.
... and Williams are over 4sec off the lead pace!
Embarrassing.
That is quite an epic gap!
I watched some of the practice sessions early this morning, it did seem that Mercedes have been hiding the performance of their car, but it is only free practice, I think oz is more like a test session to check what the teams learnt in Spain and what they have fixed.
Then there was Williams!....................................I really want George Russell to do well
How was the Mclaren of Norris?
Based upon Hamilton's FP2 pace Williams would need to be around 6 seconds slower in quali to fall foul of the 107% rule, that gives them a 2sec cushion relative to FP2 times posted.
I had to check that the 107% rule still existed, it's been so long since it has been used!
Mercedes pace does look strong with both drivers topping the charts, both are circumspect about their apparent advantage. Is that their true pace relative to others? I doubt it however I still think you'd lose money if you bet on anyone else other than Lewis for pole, especially after last year's spectacular effort. He's only won twice at Albert Park despite 7 (I think) poles, though.
Further down the field Kimi is looking quite handy and there's "only" a 0.7sec gap between the 2nd fastest team so far (RB) and the 9th (McL) , then there's over a 2sec chasm to you-know-who.
I wonder if Ross Brawn would consider tacking on Charlie Whiting's role. I would view him as a eminently qualified for it. I know its very early doors, but Charlie had such a massive presence and important job in managing the show, that there wouldn't be many people capable of taking the job on.
Williams running out of spares already, how embarrassing
I won’t spoil it for the late risers, only to say Stroll still a waste of a good race seat.
Kimi gave an interview
Very good. The first turn should be interesting between Max, Botas and Vettel, especially if Lewis is a bit slow off the line
Drive of the day has to go to Norris and McLaren . He really does look as if he has the right stuff.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The Merc looks very stiff. Could be an interesting run to the first corner.
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Let's hope this season isn't another Hamilton bore fest...F1 is losing fans in droves over the last few years.
I'll unfortunatly not be able to watch it but looking at the mid field of the table qualifying looks tight. Top drives to me would be Leclerc and Norris. Be interesting to see how they perform in the race. Notable disappointments would be Stroll (always said he was operating outside his talent / skill level and the sooner daddy see's this the better) and Gasly (hope this was down to an error in qualifying as I feel he has natural pace).
Wrong - at a 4 year high apparently.
https://motorsportbroadcasting.com/2...our-year-high/
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Mercedes certainly kept their powder dry throughout pre-season testing, where they didn't run on anything softer than the Medium tyre, and didn't waste too much effort in trying to set headline-grabbing times.
It's too early to suggest that we're in for another boring season of Mercedes domination, and Melbourne is a bit of a one-off circuit, but the others still seem to have some catching up to do. The Ferrari looks more planted and stable than the Mercedes, but the stopwatch doesn't lie.
McLaren have work to do, but Carlos Sainz was unlucky to have his second Q1 run spoiled by Kubica's tyre debris, although Lando Norris did an excellent job to qualify "best of the rookies". Pierre Gasly's stock has fallen very early in the season, and I imagine that Dr Marko isn't happy to see one of his cars so far back on the grid.
Williams? I suspect that Melbourne is probably another test session for them, but they're some way off the pace of Racing Point, their reference as the other Mercedes customer car. The two teams seem to be polar opposites, Racing Point having been rescued from the ashes of Force India, who habitually managed to win the "loaves and fishes" award for struggling through and seemingly running a Formula 1 team on fresh air, although it subsequently turned out to be fresh air and not actually fulfilling their contractural obligations to their suppliers (or drivers) while Williams seem to have all of the resources and trappings of a front of the midfield team without the actual performance of such.
An interesting session, albeit one which doesn't necessarily provide any solid pointers towards the season ahead.
Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
The pace of the Merc is impressive, but I can't help but feel the twitchiness could play a factor. Hamilton was wrestling with the car the whole time, the Ferrari looks so much easier to drive by comparison. It'll be very interesting to see how that plays out over the course of a full Grand Prix
Good solid start for Mercedes - let's see what the race brings.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Anyone that classes the last season (and robergs title winning season) as a bore fest doesn't really understand the sport imho.
Anyone that made it through the Schumacher era still watching the sport would surely understand how boring it can be!
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Schumacher's team mates weren't allowed to race him. They had a totally dominant car at points, and only one driver allowed to win.
Looking at it purely from a stats point of view misses out all the nuance. Last season was exciting. Over the course of the season, Ferrari had the stronger car for a prolonged period. The second half of the season, Hamilton stepped up even further and was almost faultless, while Ferrari and their drivers made errors. Verstappen was electric over the second half. The emergence of Le Clerc, the haas/Renault battle. All brilliant.
I don't think you can reduce it to numbers and decide it's boring. The best guy in the field is driving at his peak, and in the past 5 years 2 titles have been relatively easy. But 2 have gone down to the final race, and last season Ferrari errors skewed the final points tally.
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Fangio won 4 WC's on the bounce.
Schumacher won 5 Wc' on the bounce - in a totally dominate car, with tyres specifically designed for it.
Vettel won 4 WC's on the bounce.
Lewis has only won 2 WC's on the bounce and suddenly F1 it becomes a bore fest!
I might understand if you were complaining that it was boring that Mercedes were so dominant, having won 5 WC on the bounce, but in all honestly you seem to have forgotten the dominance of the Ford Cosworth engined cars.
Why not just enjoy the season and then decide whether it was a bore fest or not. Who knows what drama might unfold in 2019.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Ok, ´boring´is relative; there is curling as a sport per example.
That said, F1 is not an overtaking fest is it?!
The áwesome master class by Mercedes and especially Hamilton does not promise close racing at the front does it?
Too early though to already write the season off as the first race has not started yet and also Melboune is not the most representative track.
It is a bit of a gloomy picture however that the first few races are likely to be predictable.
We will see and fingers crossed there will be overtakes for position by the front runners on track.
Just finished watching the quali session, I can't believe I managed to get through the day without finding out the results.
I also can't quite get my head around Lando Norris' 8th. What a fantastic result, and it was great to see young Billy Monger interview him post session. I hope that he can achieve a decent finish though with both Renaults and Gasly (some way!) behind he may have his work cut out.
Without wanting to keep on bumping the Williams name up who do you think is feeling worse, them or Ferrari? Williams knew where they'd be relative to others before they even landed in Australia, Ferrari relative to Mercedes less so. That's some margin to the German giant and for them to witness Bottas step up to the plate as well surely made them wince a touch, their saviour is that this is just the first "finding your feet" race. Kudos to Mattia Binotto for his openness in his interview, and for being interviewed at all.
The real story though is the one concerning Vettel's soup strainer. I mean, really...?
Edit to add - Williams must be smarting more than ever - poor performance in the relative obscurity of testing and then again under the spotlight and scrutiny in public.
Last edited by CardShark; 16th March 2019 at 22:20.
I think Williams will be feeling worse, according to their drivers they have discovered a major fault with the car that will take them 2-3 months to fix! So they are likely to be at the back of the grid and right off of the pace for that period at least.
Ferrari are almost exactly as far behind Mercedes in qualifying as they were one year ago; they won that race and had the fastest car for much of the season. They may not be happy, but they will at least have some hope that they can do the same this year.