Rate the race: 2015 Australian Grand Prix

2015 Australian Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Australian Grand Prix.

F1 Fanatic holds polls on each race to find out which fans thought of every race during the season.

Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2015 Australian Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (1%)
  • 9 (1%)
  • 8 (3%)
  • 7 (9%)
  • 6 (21%)
  • 5 (22%)
  • 4 (19%)
  • 3 (12%)
  • 2 (7%)
  • 1 (5%)

Total Voters: 1,073

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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286 comments on “Rate the race: 2015 Australian Grand Prix”

  1. 5/10. Was a very boring race indeed. Comparable to Russia last year. Barely any overtakes and barely any strategy. Honda and Renault need to get their act together if we’re going to have an interesting season. I doubt Malaysia will be any better. Fingers crossed Bahrain can deliver a great race for the third year in a row. Great job by Hamilton, Nasr, Sainz, Verstappen, and by Vettel to get a podium in his first race at Ferrari. Button should get an honorable mention as well. To get within a tenth of Ericsson yesterday was pretty good considering where the car’s pace is compared to the Sauber. And the way he defended Perez in the first stint was pretty impressive. But McLaren-Honda really need to get their act together if they want to keep Fernando Alonso. If it continues like this for the rest of the year, I wouldn’t be surprised if Alonso is eyeing Rosberg’s Mercedes seat, even at a reduced salary, and Massa’s Williams seat for 2016.

    P.S. Did anybody feel like this was more of what you expected in 2014? And 2014 what you expected in 2015? And also what was up with the pitstops? Not only were they slow, but why were there so many errors? Sainz, Raikkonen (twice) and Ricciardo.

    1. Don’t think it can be compared to Russia but it was dull. 6/10 for me.

      1. I would actually compare it to Russia a lot… especially the anthem part at the beginning. Very ‘Putin Grand Prix’ like. A bit of shame in my view, it was really not necessary…. and I live in AU.
        I’ve been to the race past two years and this time opted to stay out and don’t regret it. Gave it a 3 only due to the great performances from Nasr and Sainz (although it looked quite weird when he lost two positions at the beginning of the race). Shame on Massa though, he should be third.

        1. @toxic Massa was more shame on Williams, still not relearned strategy. Not a classic, this race

        2. @toxic

          especially the anthem part at the beginning

          Haven’t they done that at every race since Russia? (Not that I’m saying it wasn’t done in the first place as a sop to Putin).

          1. Honestly, haven’t noticed it before @keithcollantine which maybe is why it did bother me a bit. Maybe it’s the Aussie broadcast that made it look so bad but I really felt it’s unnecessary and copy cat like. Also past two years I was at Albert Park nowhere near the pit straight so I could have missed it. Maybe it’s just the fact that F1 is so declining in the past years. It becomes less of a sporting event and more of a ‘show’ that is so expensive to run that organizers must pump something extra to at least brake even.

        3. They always play our anthem at the start of the race, and (I assume) at other races they play the local anthem. At least there’s not a prayer as well like V8 supercars. And that’s a local category in a secular country…

    2. The pitstop problems were weird: why always the rear left?

      1. @paeschli
        It destroyed Kimi and Sainz race.

        1. At least Sainz finished the race. I felt bad for Verstappen, he did everthing he needed to score his first points this weekend.

      2. Didn’t they bump into each other at the beginning of the race which may have caused some damage?

        1. Maybe…but one’s left rear can’t bump into another’s left rear

          1. Of course they can. It just requires one of the cars to be going the wrong way round… Or to be upside down ;)

    3. Very very boring…

      1. The Blade Runner (@)
        16th March 2015, 9:04

        I think the race probably got a higher rating from Mercedes and Ferrari fans than it did from others which is completely understandable. I did enjoy seeing an improvement in Ferrari’s fortunes and early evidence that Vettel’s decision to move from RB appears justified. Other than that, for me it was a 2/10. My knee-jerk reaction yesterday was:

        WORST. RACE. EVER.

        With a little hindsight I realise that is probably a little over the top! Nonetheless, not the season opener I was hoping for.

        1. As a Ferrari fan I still won’t rate this race, yes its good to see their engine is better but a 30 second difference in a 58 lap race and cars significantly faster for lap after lap unable to pass the car the caught so quickly seems to be real significant problems for formula 1. Let hope for better

        2. Worst Race Ever? Apart from races that have caused fatalities, the worst race was the 2005 US Grand Prix at Indianapolis. Without a shadow of a doubt.

    4. On the subject of strategy: I agree with @Mashiat that there was none is this grand prix! Kimi and Max tried something but we couldn’t see their result cause of their DNF. My view is that pirelli was extremely conservative with the compounds. If the selection was ssoft and soft I think there would be more variation in strategy and at least 2 or 3 stops for each car, so more action.

      The main thing for me is the rule to start the race with q2 tires, which is rubbish. They say this way there will be more cars running in qualy but what they are doing for FPs? All cars in FP1 done 12, 13 or 19 laps (torro rosso and Mercs). Should I attend Friday for so little running? Or should I go Saturday to see Lewis beet Nico with his eyes closed? I will attend Sunday to witness Lewis’s impersonation of Nigell 1992. Only the mustache is missing…..

      If any driver could choose to start the race in any tire compound the outcome of the race would be the same (Lewis or Nico winning) but the rest of the field would be unknown IMO.

      FIA and all teams must immediately address this situation. I am pretty sure that Lewis will win more races than last year, and do a ‘Senna’. F1 is in real bad shape and in decline (nothing like 88-89 and 92-93) and we can’t afford a boredom fest like today. So the tires MUST be aggressive. And go ahead and ban all radio communication. The should allow words like box, push now, stop the car etc.

      There must be some entertainment in races. People are paying good money for the tv feed or for race tickets. We now know the first two cars in every race so at least for p3 and back we must have big fights.

    5. It was not a stellar race by any means, but was encouraging for the rest of the season for several reasons…

      1) Money was not might – Lotus, Toro Rosso and especially Sauber [in race trim] showed excellent levels of performance despite being among the teams most under pressure to make ends meet, whilst Red Bull and McLaren floundered.

      2) We can stop nievely thinking 2014 was representative of Vettel or Raikkonen’s abilities – The inter-team battle at Ferrari is set to be one of the key points of intrigue of 2015.

      3) Terrific teenagers [and Nasr] – The rookies of 2015 all performed excellently, with Nasr especially producing a near fault free run to P5 and in doing so humiliated his more experienced teammate. Pay driver? Who…me?

      4) An anonymous glimmer of promise from Rosberg – A lackluster weekend disguised some excellent early stint pace for Nico on the medium tyre – his primary deficit to Hamilton in races in 2014 – where he was as fast if not faster than Lewis after Mercedes’ one and only stop.

      5) A rejuvenated Ferrari can take the fight to Williams – A messy weekend and the lack of the mechanical grip that hampered Williams at slow speed tracks and in the wet handed a rather easy podium to Vettel, but come Sepang, presuming Williams’ main man is fit, we can expect battle royal for P3.

      6) McLaren’s hands are clean – The Honda derived power deficit is giving McLaren a similar power deficit to a full ERS failure. In Abu Dhabi this saw Rosberg fall to P14 and lap around four seconds off the pace: since another four seconds would catapult McLaren into podium contention, the MP4-30 chassis does appear an improvement on its predecessors.

    6. I’ve been an F! fan for 59 years.
      If not for Nasr, Sainz, and Verstappen… this might have been the most boring ever.
      15 cars starting, 13 after the first lap…..
      One McLaren, one Williams, no Lotus………
      I gave it a 2.

    7. Watched the race on my phone as the wife wanted some diapers at Mothercare – Saw 2 women racing for a “Sale” babygrow …… It was more exciting than he GP. ….. Best moment … hoping Jenson would get a point …. worst moment …. Listening to Horner whinging … again.
      (F1 is dead)

      1. chequeredlife55
        16th March 2015, 23:15

        aussie race was horrible, the back of grid poverty,the merc dominance is so big its worse than the red bull advantage ever had, rosberg is mentally broken just like webber was after 2010 attempt,hamilton has crushed him,the only guy in black with huge gold chain after race while all the guys are in silver, shows on rosbergs face now,we need equal equipment like formula e really xciting stuff there,hamilton is no way ahead of say ricciardo in same equip,see top gear f1 drivers in the kia

    8. 4/10 was my score, and I think I was being generous. Only 15 cars starting the race was pitiful. I’m not blaming the 2 that broke down on their way to the grid – the problem lies with Bernie doing nothing to invite new teams or stimulate the bottom half of the grid. The two Mercedes were in a different league, and Rosberg never posed a serious threat to Hamilton. Glad to see points for Sauber, a competitive Ferrari coming from their shambles of last year, and the continued Williams resurgence.

  2. At least McLaren finished the race…almost 2 laps behind.

    1. Never mind, more than 2 laps behind

      1. Well, everyone 6th and down were already lapped @mashiat, that puts it into context a bit

  3. 5. Not an exciting race when only 15 cars at the start. Some actions here and there, too few.

  4. Sad to say, but I thought it was utterly boring..

    1. This is how racing was in the Schumacher era and before! This will teach people to stop complaining about every little thing. I can’t believe how much 2014 was derided by some people, mostly those who never watched races before 2003. This type of race was the norm back then and it bergers belief that some people are always calling for a ‘return to the good ol’ days’. Well, this is the return to the good old days! Enjoy.

      1. I have watched F1 since 1981 and i was in the stands today. This one was a shocker. Dreadfully dull race and last season was the dullest season in all that time. We need 26 cars, not 15. An absolute procession. Can’t really see why i’d go back next year unless the competition is closer.

        1. yes not even worth watching when only one team is going to win

      2. @blackmamba, Thing is, if F1 depends on consideration because “it could be worse”, then we’re all wasting our time. Honestly a Bahrain-like revival to decent racing is needed, soon.

      3. Blackmamba: You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. This race was boring because it wasn’t competitive and there was a depleted field. What in gods name does that have to do with F1 before the Schumacher era? You can’t really compare the two eras because they are almost completely different, yet you just did. Apparently we were all transported back to the 90s when F1 cars sounded like a hoover, drivers have DRS to help them get past the driver in front, when two types of compound have to be used for no real reason at all and tyres are useless after 30 laps, when teams are forced to use limited numbers of engines/gearboxes leading to conservative driving unless absolutely necessary, were teams are restricted to one strategy choice (whether to change tyres once or twice)

        No wait, we had none of this in the 90s. F1 is boring these days because of all the changes that have happened over the past 15 years. We call it the good ‘ol days for a reason.

    2. Yes, race was not great but I took very good things from it.

      1. Lewis will be harder to beat this year, good luck Nico
      2. Seb is happy and Ferrari has done a phenomenal job over the winter
      3. Fernando Alonso is not in a happy place, seeing his former team making massive ground while McLaren Honda has transformed itself into Caterham
      4. Australian fans are committed to F1 despite s many negatives surrounding the sport the thousands of enthusiastic fans at Albert Park is great news for F1

      1. Those Aussie fans were there only for DR and what he did in 2014 but if DR will not do any good in 2015 9which look very much like it is whit Renault and RBR) then I’m afraid that most of those Aussie fans will give the Australian GP 2016 a miss and F1 will never ever see them again. I have been going to the Australian GP for the last 25 years and have been in Melbourne (I’m a Sydney boy) for the full 3 days and found it getting more expensive, found the theatrics getting bigger with the main event being very boring and an overrated event that I will never ever go to again after this one. Sorry but my heart bleeds to see how F1 has deteriorated since the hustler Bernie Ecclestone took the rains off the true F1 enthusiasts of the past.

  5. Rate the race ? Where was the Race ?

    Such a shame for F1 !!!! Mr Eccolstone do you see this debacle ?????

    Good job F.Nasr and J Button !!!!

    1. I gave a rating if 4 … Go ahead intimidate me please !!!!

      1. I’m with you on this one mate. I gave it 3. The worst F1 race in all of human history.

        1. I give that to USA 05 but it wasn’t great especially for an opener on a great circuit like Albert Park. Score of 4 for me, imagine if the track had been Abu Dhabi!

          1. I think the earlier starting time destroyed the typical atmosphere Melbourne had in recent years a bit.

            The race was so boring it doesn’t help either.

        2. For that reason I gave it a 2. I thought of giving it a three, then I asked myself what would I seriously the rate as a 2 or a 1?

          So I settled on a 2.

          I’m not sure why I picked 2 over 1.

          1. I gave it a 2…. that’s the lowest I could ever give an F1 race… any F1 is better than a 1 but this was as boring as it could get…

            How will BBC compile a “highlights” programme from this ?

      2. I gave it 4 too.

        Of course it’s much too early to write off the entertainment value of the season after one race, but that was the worst Australian GP in a few years.

        1. With due respect a hearty congratulations for all the folks who rated this race 10 or even 9 for having watched one of the most exciting races of their life !!!!!

          1. And with due respect for the ppl how rated this races 1 to 5. Sorry that F1 could not give you the great show or the entertainment you new fans wanted. There was so much to follow. There is more to a racing in F1 then just cars passing one another. But to each his own.

        2. And “KoosOos” “There is more to a racing in F1 then just cars passing one another. But to each his own” and what is that? You have to be kidding us if you think that F1 should not be about racing and the pinnacle of racing.

          1. Racing is part of F1 but that is not all that F1 is.There is the team battles,the internal driver battles of a team, see how much the other team closed the gab to the leading team, the politics. That is what made F1 great and better then any other motorsport.
            But you all love to use the words pinnacle of racing but none of you even now what it means or the consensuses of it. If you want F1 to be the pinnacle of motorsport then you will have to accept that it will be a series of one of the team dominating the sport most of the time. That the regs will not always suit you. These are by far the most advanced cars in any motor sport.

      3. i gave it 2, this race was a joke…

    2. Surely if Williams need a driver for Malaysia…. Felipe Nasr? Sauber could then run Van der Garde/Ericsson to ease the legal heat on them.

      1. I gave it a 2. Depressing at best.many cars missing at the start. The only good thing is that Ferrari is about half a second slower than Mercedes. The Mercedes were pushing each other hard and vettel finished just 30 seconds behind. Ferrari should be thankfull to Allison and whoever improved the PU. Renault on the other hand is going backwards. Good thing is that they are the ones with the most tokens. And hopefully Ferrari will used their 2 or 3 more tokens than Mercedes in order to close the gap even more. It will be nice to have at least two teams fighting for the race. Mclaren should be happy that at least they finished the race. Hopefully what they said about the engine being turn down is true and that they will update the car and put the PU at their maximum.

    3. It pains me to say this, but I feel that Formula 1 is broken. Something needs to change, and I feel that change needs to start at the top, both in the FOM and the FIA. It’s time for those that have profited from the sport for so long to put something back in. I love Formula 1, and I want it to be awesome, but at the moment it’s in a pretty sad state.

      1. #OustBernie

  6. As bad as that was, we need to remember, last years first two races were horrible then after that we had plenty of amazing races

    1. Gave it a 4 also, does it really deserve more? I doubt it

    2. @bezza695 I didn’t find it that bad a race, especially since there was only 15 cars starting so there was bound to be less action with fewer cars than usual. But I’d disagree that there was plenty of amazing races last year – The complete opposite. Only Bahrain, Canada and Hungary were great races. All of the others were decent or poor in my opinion. Not that I’m complaining about it not being an exciting season but we’re in for more of the same I reckon in 2015.

  7. 4/10

    Considering the usual excitement we get from Albert Park, this race was pretty underwhelming. Lack of any real fight for the lead, and only a handful of overtaking manoeuvres. The sight of just 15 cars taking the start (of the 20 entered) is pretty embarrassing for the sport too…

    Redeeming qualities: Sauber’s frankly miraculous performance considering the weekend they’ve had, and the excellent debuts from the Toro Rosso boys, particularly Verstappen, providing some on track excitement

  8. That was the mot disappointing start to a season I can ever remember.

    The loss of Magnussen, Kvyat and Bottas is just unfortunate, but when you have the pitiful number of just 18 cars qualify, then lose three other cars before the race and then two cars on the opening lap, the race was doomed from the start.

    This race proves more than anything how important it is to have a healthy full grid of cars. Forget Mercedes domination, the sport must address this issue as a matter of absolute priority for the sake of its own existence.

    1. +1. it supposed to be some battle in the midfield but suddenly kvyat and 2 lotus were out of the race.

    2. @willwood

      This race proves more than anything how important it is to have a healthy full grid of cars. Forget Mercedes domination, the sport must address this issue as a matter of absolute priority for the sake of its own existence.

      Couldn’t agree more. Hopefully that message is one those running the sport are finally starting to grasp. But I’m not optimistic.

    3. @willwood I agree about F1 needing a healthy grid, but I do think a proper season-opener of attrition is a good thing.

      I liked that there were fewer cars, it was simpler to follow everything and I liked how points were up for grabs for those that weren’t really quick enough to get them in a predictable race (Perez despite his spin and not being fast, Sainz despite the pit stop problems, and Button almost got points).

      It reminded me of two very unique season-openers of 2002 and 2008.

      1. @enigma I agree that a race of attrition like 2002 or 2008 can be an exciting one, but I don’t think today’s race was anything like that.

        Instead of starting a race with a full grid and slowly losing cars through accidents or mechanical failures to whittle down the field over the course of the race and provide multiple moments of drama, instead we started with 15 cars on the grid, lost two by the end of the first lap, which left 13 cars for the vast majority of the race until we lost two more through separate mechanical issues.

        This was not an unusual race in terms of circuit or conditions, this was your average dry grand prix with just one early Safety Car and only 13 cars racing for the vast majority of it. I really don’t think that’s enough cars to be able to provide many interesting battles or incidents during a ninety minute long race.

        As I say, losing three cars before the start was really bad luck and so this hopefully won’t be a situation we’ll see repeated again this season. But it does go to show that the more cars we have racing, the more chance of there being something exciting for us to focus on even while Hamilton and Rosberg run rings around the rest of the field out front.

        1. @enigma @willwood Agreed, I don’t think having cars retire from races is a bad thing. It’s supposed to be a technically challenging sport and that means not everyone will finish every time.

          But when you have such a small field in the first place, a few retirements quickly add up so a significant percentage of the entrant. It’s another reason why F1 needs to get back to having a full grid of 26 cars. And, after that, consider whether that limit needs revising upwards.

          1. The points system needs addressing as well. We were in a situation today where two-thirds of the drivers who took the start were (almost) guaranteed to score points. The current system was devised for an anticipated grid of 26 cars in 2011. If we have a situation next season where there are only 9-10 teams, we need to go back to only awarding points to the top 6 or 8.

          2. @red-andy I already have a fix in mind for that which would work however large or small the grid is – get rid of points systems!

    4. for some reason it looked very hectic. Teams not prepared, cars braking even before the start and the race itself looked like it’s slow motion. even the few battles we got looked a bit clumsy and not to exciting. Something is definitely missing…. oh wait it’s the cars.

      1. Have to agree with the above comments. I hadn’t been all that concerned about the grid size before, but that race really accented it. I’m sure this was an anomaly…well…a bit sure…so hopefully the races will only get better, but ya, not a good start to the F1 season unless you are in a Merc and your name is Lewis. Well, at least Nico can still say he’s within a stone’s throw, but if he’s always throwing them at LH’s rear wing that won’t help. And I’m sure SV is not displeased.

        Surprising really. I would have expected this of last year’s first race, being the beginning of a totally new chapter, but not for this season after stability in the regs. Perhaps the ‘money saving’ from reduced testing is actually no saving at all if this is the result.

  9. 4. It reminded me of a decade ago with the dearth of passing, and I probably would rate it lower if there wasn’t a racing withdrawal being taken care of.

  10. Gave it a 5 just because after two laps only 13 cars were running.

  11. 5/10
    In general it was not a great race (weekend). In the build up it was about Manor “participating” in order to get their price money and Sauber signing contradictory contracts and spending their time in court.
    Mercedes dominant as expected. Ferrari has overtaken the customer Mercedes teams as well as Renault. The rookies did well – especially Nasr. Enstone/PVDSA had a shocker with a double retirement on lap 1, but Mclaren was even worse. Pit stops were rusty down the entire pitlane.
    New graphics from FOM are looking good, but Bernie using the broadcast as his personal twitter account is not :)

    Should be an interesting season to find out who will be third in the WDC.

    1. Why did Grosjean retire? They didn’t say anything about it here.

      1. @paeschli Yes I did – it was mentioned on the live page and is also in the race summary article.

        1. Sorry @keithcollantine, I was referring to the TV broadcasting

          1. but you said “here”

  12. is that what we should consider motor sport? 0/10

    1. I was looking for a 0/10 option myself.
      A veritable PROCESSION.

  13. Boring as hell

  14. Nice to have F1 back, disappointing to have such a poor opening race.

    Sauber / Ferrari’s performance was good, McLaren’s was laughable. No on track action except a bit from Button (somehow). Melbourne doesn’t normally produce races as bad as this, hopefully not a bad sign for the rest of the season.

    I’m tired.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      16th March 2015, 9:47

      I don’t think there’s any reason to think the rest of this season will be this bad. It was just a bad race… The McLarens will catch up to the field, Renault will improve, we’ll have 2 Williams instead of one and Alonso will be back.

      This was just proof that making regulations that require extraordinarily complicated cars and then allowing next to no testing time doesn’t work.

  15. I gave it a 6 because I’m happy F1 is back and for Ferrari, but it deserved… lower

    1. then vote lower if it deserves so..

  16. 1/10, and I am a Hamilton fan.

  17. 6/10

    I didn’t think it was that bad to be honest, Wasn’t the best race but I’ve certainly seen much, much worse.

    Was at least a bit of close racing/overtaking going on through the race.

    As to the various DNF’s, Were people not complaining when everyone was finishing a few years back? It’s also not as if this was teh most DNF’s ever seen here.

  18. 4/10. Most disappointing season opener I can remember and the lowest rating I’ve given a race. This was largely due to the depleted field, and that is largely due to the bad management of the sport. It’s sad to see all the efforts of the hundreds of team employees go to waste and it’s a crime that the paying spectators and viewers should get such a shabby product for their money.

    But I’ll still watch the next race.

  19. Utter farce. Between the Giedo circus and this race it’s painfully obvious that the sport needs to do some soul searching.

  20. Mansell's_Stache
    15th March 2015, 6:49

    4…utterly pathetic. F1 is in a sad state.

  21. Boring. I was hoping we would at least have some wheel to wheel between the Mercedes boys. I think the Shot of Jos kind of echoes how most of us will feel as the season moves forward.

  22. Half marks for half a grid? Strangely I still gave it a 7 haha

  23. 4/10
    Very boring race, first i gave it a 5 then when i watched Arnold Schwarzenegger on the podium, i have nothing against him BTW but it’s a desperate show buiss Bernie esque move i decided to gave it a 4

  24. Matt (@hamiltonfan1705)
    15th March 2015, 6:53

    3/10 I’ve been watching f1 since mid 2005 and that was the worst Aussie gp I’ve watched. China 2014 and Russia 14 were better.

    1. the worst aussie gp, really?

      1998, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007 & maybe 2011 (dont remember much about that race) were far worse!

  25. McLaren finishing outside the points in a race where 11 cars make it until the end …

  26. I usually overrate the race.Not this time. Well maybe I did when I gave it a 4.

  27. It can’t be worse. This racing was terrible, tedious, boring. I do not comprehend why I got up at six o’clock in the morning.
    2/10

    1. so i guess you were watching a different race?

      guess you missed some of the close racing or didn’t see any of the overtaking?

      ok there wasn’t loads, but i have seen many, many races with far less.

      people just expect every race to have 100 overtakes now, perhaps you should go watch nascar instead?

  28. Below average. a 4 will do it.

    Good to see Vettel on the podium and great performance from Sauber.

    Lewis just toying with Rosberg the entire race, giving us a perfect show of winning as slow as possible.

    1. Rosberg was obviously just told to stay behind. They raced like McLaren in 1998…

  29. Seriously F1 is in trouble, this was terrible, I’m Australian I want to be proud of this race, how can I be? 2/10 then Arnie did the post race interviews so I make it a 3.

  30. gave it 6/10. not the most exciting race, but better than russia last year.

  31. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    15th March 2015, 6:57

    6/10. It is a boring race, not much drama happened, but the overtake from Ericsson on Sainz Jr, the Button-Pérez battle (which was only short) and then Sauber scoring a points finish gave me a point up for the race.

  32. best part of the gp was that I did not have to pay for watching it. everything else awful.

  33. Great to see the Ferrari car performing a lot better and their engine doing a lot better too. Sauber must be pretty pleased now and it’s really nice to see them with both cars in points after a disastrous 2014. Really shame Kimi DNF! What exactly happened to him?
    It’s really bad to see so few cars finishing the race! Less than 20 cars at the start of the race is pretty bad in my opinion. Something must be done as soon as possible, no doubt.
    RBR = 4th-5th team?!?! Wow, that’s something!
    McLaren = dead last?!?! Wow, who would have thought about it?!? Really feel for ALO. Wonder what he’s thinking now, very probably regreting this move to McLaren.

    1. “It’s really bad to see so few cars finishing the race!”

      Why? This isn’t even the least number of finishes at Melbourne?

      as to the low start number, bottas injury can’t be helped & neither can the 2 car failures (magnussen & kvyat).
      the 2 manor cars didn’t run but they will at the next race so its not an issue that goes beyond today.

  34. Darren Danga
    15th March 2015, 7:04

    Its time for Bennie Ecolstone to leave formula 1!? I rate it very poor ! Thee grid is too small and its predictable, no drama a big yawn! Bennie the dictator must go asap, before formula1 becomes extinct! ?

  35. 1/10 Worst race in years. This is F1? This is “the pinnacle of motorsport? 16 cars at the star? 11 at the end? Not battle at all in the main positions? Mr. Old Man Bernie, your F1 is a charade. Yes, you and your accomplices are millionaires but your work is a complete failure. Go home, vain…

    1. 15 cars at the start, Dear Vain Bernie…

    2. no one forced you to watch. you are welcome to leave

      1. ‘B3rn13’ is your real-life name ‘Bernie’ or do actually support that scumbag?

        1. +1 hahahaha

      2. @b3rn13 This type of response is just so immature.

  36. I’m not even sure the race can be rated. There was far too much whiskey-tango-foxtrot going on.

    It does appear that Ferrari has caught Williams in performance, and the gap between them will be decided entirely by driver ability, although I’m not sure Ferrari should try to compete with Williams on “most botched pitstop of the season”.

    Mercedes has maintained their lead, although it sounded like they had a couple electrical gremlins as well.

    Sauber gets “most improved” so far, and right now, it’s almost looking like the Toro Rosso is as fast, if not faster, than the Red Bull.

    So far, Nasr gets the rookie of the season award.

  37. Gave it a 5 out of 10.

    The only interesting part was Massa or Vettle ending up on the podium, and that ended up sort of lop sided.

  38. Sweden beat Finland, best race since 1989.

  39. No battle up front, and no cars left behind them.

  40. for me the only exciting part was Arnie’s podium interview. they didn’t even bother to properly show the Mercs in the race. hope Ferrari catches up and we can have fight for 1st place.

  41. Almost a case that the advertisements during the race were more interesting.
    What has Renault got to show for 12months of development. they clearly have the worst power plant on the grid, ooops except for Honda :).
    It really surprises me that Honda, with its huge budget and facilites is so slow. I really was expecting much more from them after all the hype last year. Again really dissapointing.
    Maybe time to only watch WRC where the focus is not on battery powered, hybrid prius garbage. Bernie and F1 has lost the plot !!!!

  42. 6/10 – and not in too bad a way. It was a bit boring but if that puts one off the screen, then one should perhaps put oneself off F1.

  43. 2/10 or so for the race and 10/10 for the interview. Good chosen questions with connection to both f1 as well as the interviewers popularity.

  44. 4/10 – I was quite happy to see Vettel fit in the podium, but also unhappy because Vettel did not put effort to win that position. Having only 11 racers since lap 40 shows that the crews, teams, and the race itself is unready. Position changes happen a lot, not because of the racers effort, but because of the pit failure and car problems. Many of you will say “worse things happen in the past”, but with how advanced our technology is now, none of this should happen.

    1. @jsimon23

      How can you say Vettel didn’t earn it? He stayed on top of Massa, pulled out the lap times he needed after Massa tried for the undercut, then managed the gap.

      What did Massa do to earn P3? Get stuck behind RIC with fresh tires and Mercedes engine? Was there anything wrong with his stop? No, it was faster than Ferrari’s.

      How can Hamilton or Rosberg be happy with there positions? What effort did the put in?

      Nasr earned 5th for sure, holding of RIC at various times when RIC was faster.

  45. It wasn’t worth getting up early.

  46. I don’t see how this race deserves anything more than a 3 or 4/10. There were no surprises really other than Bottas sideline and Sauber having more speed then initially thought but not too much more. Testing showed the world they could be strong and they’ve converted it (at least in Australia). Other than that everything else was predictable.

    Kvyat’s sideline was predictable, one of the Mc-Honda’s (if not both) not making the race was predictable and other Renault problems as well.

  47. My guess is that’s because more people access sites from mobile devices nowadays. I watched the race with my phone in hand today (with the Formula1.com trial version on). The mobile browser layout was just fine.

    1. *misplaced reply.

  48. 5/10
    Not the worst race ever, but I don’t feel that watching it was worth getting up before 6am on a Sunday.

    And as someone who prefers high reliability (even if it brings duller races) to high attrition, it is a bit worrisome for me seeing that many cars drop out.

  49. slow, boring, dull, obsolete, fake, tiring, shoddy, depressing, painful, castrated, sad, predictable, processional, over-priced, artificial, under-attended, mis-managed, badly
    produced, echo of the past, over monetized, non-event, turn-off, 2/10.

  50. A generous 4/10.

    I’m not sure whether it was the 5am start, or the fact that we had 11 cars less on the grid than we should have done, but I simply do not feel that was worth getting up for. No battle for the lead. No battle for P3 after the stops. The best battle on the track, in fact, the only real prolonged battle on the track, was over last place.

    It was simply naff.

  51. no alonso, no bottas, mercedes in their own race, I would have preferred to watch paint dry.

  52. Gave it a 3/10 1pt each for Vettel getting a podium, Nasr getting points, and Arnie being there

  53. 4/10 it was a boring race and to be honest it seems like Button was the only one who was providing the entertainment with his battle with Perez

  54. ColdFly F1 (@)
    15th March 2015, 7:30

    5 – as Ricciardo said: “a bit of a dull race.”

    This just shows that we need more than 15-20 cars. And I still blame Bernie – If he would not keep most of the revenues, then I’m sure we would have more teams on the grid.
    Very solid race Hamilton. Well done Nasr. Happy for Vettel. Pity that Verstappen could not show how fast he could be on softs.

  55. Melchior (@)
    15th March 2015, 7:30

    It was a 4 from me.Very disappointed at the lack of any team pushing the Mercedes.
    I think that this season is going to be far worse than last season if you are not a Mercedes fan

  56. I’m less annoyed that CH10 only have 1hr highlights for the next couple of races.

    1. I wonder if their decision to not use Sky or BCC commentary affected the viewing pleasure? I think it did for me. Having Mark Webber in the commentary box was good for the insight, but Matt White, Alan Jones and Darryl Beattie do not really compare to David Croft and Martin Brundle, or even Ben Edwards and David Coulthard.

  57. Two thoughts: 1) How much lower would this race be rated if it had been the 3rd or 4th race of the season and we didn’t have a winter’s worth of racing withdrawal to make this seem better.

    2) Its time to dump the new power plants. The hybrid drive systems were supposed to make F1 cars and engines more relevant commercially and more environmentally friendly. These are complete failures in both aspects. Seeing as many engines fail and blow up as we’ve seen lately isn’t good for marketing hybrids. Also V8’s might not be as fuel efficient; but if you have to figure in the environmental impacts of manufacturing the engines and keeping them running. Not only does the more complex design and manufacturing process have a greater carbon footprint, all of the replacement parts needed to deal with all of their issues have a big carbon footprint too.

    Let’s quit kidding ourselves about these power systems being “environmentally friendly” and get back to real racing and back to the days when the vast majority of the cars finished the race. There were far more retirements from this race before the end of lap 2 than we used to see in most any entire races.

    1. @prodrive2010

      Seeing as many engines fail and blow up as we’ve seen lately isn’t good for marketing hybrids.

      But that obviously isn’t the case because these are the engines the car manufacturers want. They don’t want the V8s. Which is why we’ve got what we’ve got.

  58. I was quite excited about Button and Mclaren whether they are gonna grab that 10th or blow the engine or dive into Perez. Out of a possible DNF they manage to finish the race and I’m happy. I’m grateful to Mclaren for making me feel like I’m supporting Minardi all of a sudden:) It will be a long and painful year for a Mclaren fan.

  59. Booring … 3/10 … And that was generous !

  60. 2/10 Farcical race… Kept hearing the Benny Hill theme song over and over in my head as I watched this.
    Oh and.. Sainz 1 – Verstappen 0 !! Sainz could have ended a bit higher had they not botched his pit stop in all honesty!

    Oh and does the blown honda mean ALO only has 3 engines for the rest of the season??

    1. Oh and does the blown honda mean ALO only has 3 engines for the rest of the season??

      Good question! I think so. I mean, KMag raced ALO’s car, right?! Or they have 3 cars? Poor ALO…

  61. Neil (@neilosjames)
    15th March 2015, 7:38

    Gave it a 6, not much in the way of action but some good drives. Was fun watching Button defend from Perez.

  62. What bothers me is that the results of this poll are now shown in a grid not as a list. I wan’t to see that normal distribution!

    1. Agreed, math geeks gotta geek!

  63. 4/10
    Not the organizers fault. Putting aside the joy of F1 being back, there were simply not enough cars on the grid ready to race and most of those who made it weren’t up to spec.
    This lack of reliability and differences in performance is much worse than the worsening of the engine sound from the NA era to the current turbo era.

  64. 5/10. In a lot of ways it looked like the first race of a new generation, even more than last year’s Australian GP. Cars breaking down before even getting to the grid, some retirements, very sloppy pit lane action, fuel saving and some weird performances.

    Overall there wasn’t a lot of actual racing, the battle for the win was pretty straightforward, the battle for P3 was decided in the pits and even the scrap between Nasr, Ricciardo, Sainz and Raikkonen was nothing special. But F1 is back and there are some cool stories, like Vettel with Ferrari on the podium, Sauber scoring a lot of points despite a terrible weekend and Mclaren doing a full race!

  65. 4/10 – I would rather see 30 cars start a race and 11 finish it than what we had today. F1 is in a shockingly bad state financially. This race had a few minor battles, but really was a pretty pedestrian affair. Didn’t expect reliability to be such a terrible issue 2nd year in on new regs. Nasr though is the shining talent from today through a cloud of blue smoke from engine blow ups.

  66. This is why F1 needs more cars, the field seemed pretty empty. 6/10

  67. 8! Because Sweden got it’s first points since 1989! Otherwise pretty unexciting race. Some good driving from Nasr though, but I think overall most drove quite cautiously.

  68. While the race wasn’t that spectacular in the front, it’s worth noting the remarkable performance of the rookies Nasr, Sainz and Ericsson, really a pity for Verstappen. Sauber’s Nasr finished 5th in his first race while Lewis finished 3rd in his first race. I guess we can be happy we have fresh new blood in the grid! Sauber lost in court and won on the track! We shall see how they are going to settle things in Malaysia!

  69. 6/10 Yeah that was a bit of a let down. I guess the two main reasons for this are 1) the field being more spread out than in recent years; and 2) the lack of participants. Of course it’s bad luck that there are a number of drivers who DNS, but if you only have nine teams who can provide a car, the likelihood that there are only fifteen starters is higher than when you have twelve teams (pretty trivial, but that’s how it is).

    One of the other reasons I did not really enjoy the race was all the fuss off the track this week. The situation at Sauber was beyond ridiculous. Manor’s puppet-show was a bit ridiculous too. It distracted me a lot from what was actually happening on the track.

    But a big shout-out to FOM for the progress they have made over the winter. The on-screen graphics look slick and give a much clearer picture of what was happening. In particular, the simple addition of tyre compound in the bar at the bottom of the screen was pretty nice. Also, the social media stuff (Twitter, Youtube, even Instagram) is a big step forwards. If they can sort out the website and the app, they’re golden.

    1. Adding to that last point, the CGI images they keep forcing on us are horrible. Absolutely horrible. The problem with them is they are so obviously fake – it just keeps grabbing my attention, it’s really distracting. I would prefer it if they just paint a Rolex/Pirelli logo on the grass or tarmac, like they used to do. Oh, and Ecclestone needs to stop with the CGI messages, it’s one of the most decadent things I’ve seen in my entire life.

      1. Oh, and Ecclestone needs to stop with the CGI messages,

        But without those we would have never had “Bernie says: Think before you bribe!” XD

  70. I gave it a 3, which may be a bit harsh for one of my favourite venues, but the race was anything but a thriller.
    First, there was that horrible 15-car grid that even went down to 13 by the end of lap 1. That’s about half as many as it should be. Giving away points to the top 10 finishers is simply not justified with a grid like that!
    The second problem was Pirelli’s conservative approach to the race. One-stop strategies galore, with gaps between all the cars, it was like Sochi all over again. :(
    The third ingredient was the aforementioned fact that there was almost no close racing. After the start, we had Nasr jumping Sainz, Pérez clashing with Button, Ericsson catching Sainz, and that was it.
    Very disappointing race, unfortunately.

    1. Mr win or lose
      15th March 2015, 9:30

      The Australian GP is usually a 2-stop race. Because of the nature of the track (relatively big speed differences between the cars and very little overtaking opportunities) it makes sense not to be too conservative with the tyres. Indeed, this year’s 1-stop strategies were not too exciting to watch. Probably soft and supersoft would have been a better tyre allocation.

  71. This race was a farce – I vote a 2 because there is only one race I can remember that was worse which was the four car race at indianapolis. 11 finishers in a relatively tangle free race with perfect weather is a poor showing. The spectacle is far from what it used to be, the cars sound like a*se. I was ready to call myself an ex F1 fan near the end of last season. I dont feel like watching any more races this season, so I guess im an ex fan now. rant over.

    1. There has never been such a thing as a four car race at Indianapolis. You might want to check your facts.
      (It was six cars)

  72. Looking forward to the beginning of the MotoGP season and I say that as a long time F-1 fan. Watched the race and my wife asked what I was looking at as the camera panned from one solitary race car to yet another solitary race car. Boring yes.

    I appreciate the technical progress and excellence of the leading Mercedes squad. Bravo.

  73. Simply not enough cars on track

  74. Having been to the Aus GP for the last 7 years, this was easily the most disappointing race. Starting the race with only 15 cars was pitiful and you could tell none of the drivers were really pushing (why would you when you’re almost guaranteed points just for finishing?) Definitely not the start to the season I was hoping for. Voted 4 but thinking a lower score might have been appropriate. ..

  75. Exciting? No. But nor was last year’s Australian Grand Prix. But the racing last season really got going after Bahrain (Russia & Monaco aside). I’m not deeply concerned, yet. Besides, can’t really remember a true humdinger barring 2010 at Albert Park. Things should get better!

    As for only 15 cars starting… It was no Indy 2005, that must be made clear. Manor will get going soon enough, and it’s unlikely a post-qualifying injury and two mechanical failures will cause DNS’s before every race. It’s true though, that with a full grid, 20/21 cars would have started, depending if you take the same % or number of dropouts. That is more of a pressing concern for the sport.

    Let’s hope for improvement for the season!

  76. I give it 6..but should be lower..Maybe because Vettel podium and Ferrari race pace..

  77. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    15th March 2015, 9:35

    5.

    Was a pretty chaotic race without much racing. I think the number of dropouts before the race even began really took the wind out of its sails.

    A larger grid would’ve seen some better racing.

    Not every race will be good, but this was especially strange.

  78. I’m glad Hamilton won, but I’m also glad that I didn’t get up at 5 AM to watch it :)

    I am cheating on F1, as I watched Formula E last night …. the close finish between Nicolas Prost and Scott Speed was probably better than anything I missed this morning :)

    1. shame the rest of the formula e race was so utterly dull.

      that series is so damn boring, the cars look slow because they are slow, they sound horrendous, the tracks are awful, the car swapping is dumb, the fan boost is ridiculously artificial, most of the drivers are f1 rejects, you see far bad driving with really silly errors & bits of contact & there’s far more ‘cruising’ to save energy than you see in any f1 race.

      i watched the 1st few formula e races just to see what it was all about, will not be watching the rest, awful series thats slower than pretty much everything but go-karts with boring cars which refuses to race on real circuits to avoid lap time comparisons because they are embarrassed by how slow the cars are.

      1. Totally disagree with that, formula e is not trying to be anything but formula e. The fan boost isn’t great but it is no more artificial than DRS or the boost button f1 cars had in the 80’s. As for the rejects comment I disagree with that too, some didn’t make an impact but a lot of them had rubbish cars and no time to prove themselves. At least there is close action in formula e (though I get lost at the pitstops)

  79. A boring race, a hand full of passes and little excitement. Mercedes looked like they were just cruising….again. I was a bit surprised by Ferrari though. But not by Sauber, they went well in pre-season and well in the race.

  80. Can I just ask why people feel that cars retiring made F1 look like a joke today?

    Retirements are a part of the sport, Always have been & i’ve seen loads of races over the years that had far more retirements & far less finishers than today’s race & don’t remember anyone complaining about it.

    Yes only 15 cars started but I don’t think you can really blame all that on the officials.
    20 cars were entered, 2 didn’t run because they had technical problems, 1 driver withdrew due to injury & 2 had technical issues on there way to the grid.
    How is any of that down to the officials?

    Manor’s problem is trying to run a 2014 engine with the 2015 electronics which are apparently not compatible & they could not get the 2014 electrical systems out to run, At the next race they will have these sorted out & we will be back to a 20 car grid.

    20 cars is enough, We had 20 cars for most of the last 2 decades & I cannot recall people complaining that it was too small. Sure more would be nice but I don’t see 20 as a problem.

    looking back at the last race at adelaide, 2 drivers didn’t start, 1 retired after 2 laps a 2nd after 8 laps & only 6 cars were running at the end with the winner 2 laps ahead of anyone else. nobody was saying f1 was in crisis & that the race was a joke back then.

    1. 20 cars… on paper!!

      1. Was the same before because of the 107% rule, 20 cars were entered but at times not all 20 qualified.

        Speaking of which i’m not entirely convinced Manor would have been within 107% this weekend even had they got the cars running. I can see them struggling to make 107% until they get there 2015 car ready where I think they will also get a 2015 engine.

  81. I see most of the guys are disappointed. I kinda agree. I gave a 6, mostly because I’m happy F1 is back. But when you know right from the start who’s going to take the first 2 place ( = Mercedes)… you bet the race is kinda bad. This is worse than MS/Ferrari domination years. Not only the car seems stronger, but the drivers combo is stronger too. W/o any tech problems or accidents, I don’t see how anyone else can access positions 1 and 2. This might be a record breaking year.

    1. @corrado-dub so none of the racing behind the top 2 matters?

      i couldn’t care a less if the winning driver dominates with no fight for the win because i don’t just watch the leaders.
      there’s 18 cars behind the mercedes & a lot of close battling to be done, if the racing from 3rd back is as good as it was in 2014 then i don’t care if mercedes finish 1st/2nd every race because a race with good racing is still a good race regardless of who wins & by how much.

      same reason i don’t see 2002/2004 as been boring years, yes schumacher/ferrari were the dominant package but there was plenty of good racing behind. same was true in 1988 & every other year where a team had dominance.

      if you only care about who wins & by how much & still consider a race full of action from 3rd back boring then i think your watching the wrong sport.

      1. … or maybe you should think things over! People watch the sports for the confrontations… OK… but they’re interested mostly who will win… not who will loose! Given your judgement, when we have a certain competition where we know right from start who’s going to win… maybe FIA should award Hamilton and Mercedes as champions, Rorberg as vice-champion right now… and let us look at the rest of the races where the other teams fight for any other position except 1 and 2. Maybe I should another sport, but maybe you should stop watching any sport/competition at all… because you’re missing 1 of the most important parts….. = the eternal question “who’s winning?”

        1. @corrado-dub i didn’t say i didn’t care about the winners, i just said that its not the biggest factor in the race for me when it comes to enjoyment. i just want to see some good racing & i don’t care if that happens at the front or the very back.

          the guy who won could utterly dominate & lap everyone but if there was great racing further down the order with some good close battles & exciting overtaking i’d still think it was a great race.

          i think the 1995 australian gp is a good example, damon hill was 2 laps infront but there was a lot of good racing & other stuff going on throughout the rest of the field so overall i enjoyed that race despite hill’s dominance.
          and like i say it was the same in 2002/2004 when ferrari were dominated, was a lot of good racing going on behind that kept me entertained.
          stuff like this for instance-
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH6dkya900s&hd=1

      2. People like unpredictability.

  82. I actually think the race was thrilling until the very end. One more retirement and McLaren would have been in points! :-).
    I worry that this might have been the closest look at points McLaren will have the whole season.

  83. 1 pitstop took a lot action out of it. We want bold Pirelli from 2 years back who’s not afraid to make tyres not last!

    1. If one stop is the way to go I immediatley downgrade the race. One-stopping should be a skill, not the way to go for everyone…

  84. Not much entertainment value but an interesting race. Not at all surprised by manors complete lack of attempt to race.

    Seeing Lewis measure the gap back to Rosberg the entire race was interesting. Obviously the risk aa safety car many building a gap may have proved pointless.

    And hoping for a final retirement giving Jenson a point held my interest.

    Mercedes have done what everyone feared though, they’ve increased the gap. I know Melbourne isn’t the best benchmark but I just don’t see them being touched this year.

  85. I have never had so little enthusiasm going into a season and, sadly, my pessimism was met fully.

    I gave it 1/10. Worst Melbourne race since 2004 and a worse season opener than Bahrain 2010.

    I’m not concerned by Merc dominating. The Ferrari v Williams v Red Bull (when circuit characteristics allow them to be in the mix) battle should produce the best battles/racing over the season. But when one Williams doesn’t start and the other gets hampered in T1, it makes it a bore.

    The attrition rate doesn’t automatically make it bad. 1999 was a great race as front-running cars continually dropped out.

    At races last year there were dull moments, but at most of them you could see clearly that they were building to something exciting by the end of the race. None of that today. After 5 laps the order was pretty much set and the field just got more strung out the further the race went on.

    It was the perfect race for Bernie to order a safety car for no reason, just to make it interesting.

    I need to dig up my copy of the 2006 Aus GP. That might cleanse my soiled eyes.

  86. 4/10

    This race was awful. The small starting grid was a bad joke. Then, we had 13 cars driving around, with barely any duels (I only remember the Perez-Button fight, and Raïkkönen’s desperate attempts to re-pass Toro Rossos), and it was clear from lap 1 turn 1 that Lewis would win this. All the big overtakings were done with the pitstops, probably because of fuel saving strategies. Even DRS couldn’t help.

    This really says a lot about the poor state of F1 : shrinking grid, racing ruined by the fuel saving, grid dominated by the teams of the Strategy Group, difficulty to start something in F1 because of the lack of testing… F1 isn’t going in the right direction it seems, and I’m not very optimistic about it’s future….

  87. It was very dull and I actually fell asleep before the end and woke up when Croft was shouting about Hamilton winning so not sure if it was exciting when I was asleep but what I saw was dull. A disappointment.

    1. Oh and I voted 5/10

  88. I gave this a 5. People have been pretty quick to write off thi race but I actually enjoyed it a bit, mostly because I was happy to see the Saubers up there and interested to see that they were on the same pace as a RedBull.
    I feel this season will be dull up front but will be interesting down the rest of the field. I’m happy Button saw the chequered flag and this data will be very handy indeed, little by little that car will get there and I’m sure next year they’ll be at the sharp end. I’m fascinated to know where the Lotus’ will be

  89. 4/10

    This is what we thought might happen last year with non-starters and mechanical failures. It seems a year’s experience hasn’t led to a better show with a more even grid and improved reliability.

  90. Sat in the stands at turn 3, I found it a quite enjoyable race rate a 7 out of 10. The attrition rate at the start (or even before!) was rather high, but the on track action at least where we were sat was not bad.
    It was oddly the race I would have thought Melbourne 2014 was going be as many teams struggled with their cars. In terms of the season the cruising Merc 1 – 2 win is concerning.
    Was pleased to see Button get to the end, although based on the performance of the car those missing demised back markers Caterham should be happy as it appears McLaren have replaced them….

    1. @wombat1m

      As a weekend to be there it was great. When you’re at the track you’re not as critical of the overall action because you only see a small part of it and the atmosphere lifts it, and it certainly had atmosphere this year.

      Everyone I met at the track this year enjoyed it, great weather, great crowd, lots of twists in the story over the weekend.

      There was cheering going on for everyone, we got to see Hamilton win, Ricciardo drag an ‘undrivable’ car in to some good points and that sense at any point Buttons car might just explode, or might make some points. It was a great atmosphere.

      People need to remember the booing isn’t fans, it’s tourists who’s knowledge is limited to ‘oh he’s not Australian/British? Well boo!’

      Every real fan I met there supported most of the drivers. Maybe a bit of animosity for Rosberg and no one shed a tear for Maldonado, but fans don’t boo. It’s the tourists.

      1. @philipgb

        I know what you mean by that about being less critical when you are at the track, and did think about that when I wrote that comment. But when I also compare it to some of the other races I’ve been to – the excruciatingly dull Singapore 2013 race particularly springs to mind – I just felt this was quite enjoyable. And yes good weather in great place, and not having got up at 5am to watch on TV also help!

  91. I give it a 1 or 2. Hey Bernie, these engines and the money issues are Killing the sport! Lets see, we lost 2 teams last year, one semi saved at the last sec. But, they couldn’t race because the engine mapping is sooooo complicated. Pitiful. 2 of the 4 engine manufacturer’s are having a difficult time even finishing a session without blowing up. If the tech geniuses at both Honda and Renault can’t build an engine to complete a race something is Broken! As a lifetime fan of F1, I am almost ready to move on to another series. It appears the greenies are succeeding in killing the sport. The pinnacle of MOTERsport has become about saving fuel, controlling the world’s most expensive batteries, and virtual testing. Both of my brothers were lifelong F1 fans, but have lost interest and stopped watching. Now I think I understand why.

    1. If the tech geniuses at both Honda and Renault can’t build an engine to complete a race something is Broken!

      Not really, used to be far more mechanical retirements & engines failures a decade ago, guess f1 was only not brokem in 2011-2013 when there were not so many mechanical issues as both before then & after engine failures were fairly common.

      how quickly people forget.

  92. I think there is a fairly easy solution, put Alonso or Vettel in Rosberg his car…

    1. Or put Alonso AND Vettel in a 3 car Merc team.

  93. 8/10. Quality race & expected attrition for the opener. This is how F1 should be (I’ve seen every race since 88′). If you want lots of passing and results that are more of a lottery than an actual race, watch NASCAR.

  94. Terrible race for spectators, the cars sounded awful. And only 15 cars on the grid. F1 has become a big joke. Everyone applauded the V8 super cars that supported the F1 show though, they sounded like actual race cars, lots of overtaking. Everyone save your money and go watch something else. F1 is dead……

    1. the cars sounded awful

      @detomaso No, they didn’t!

      this constant whining over the engine sound is getting old now, there’s nothing wrong with it, they sound fine & by all accounts are a fair bit louder this year.

  95. Well, first of all I think it’s quite difficult to put a mark to a Grand Prix, as lots of action always occur during every Formula 1 weekend. After saying that, this race was chaotic in many ways, with more retirements before the race that during the race itself. With 15 cars on track, I think We could have watch a much worse race, but there were some interesting facts that we always discover in Australia (Ferrari pace, RedBull position, Honda engine performance so far…) that make it a 6/10. Hoping for better racing in Malaysia (long straights, rain, wide track).

    Not the best race of course but it is always worth to wake up in the morning for a good reason. And Formula 1 is, was, and will be the best one!

  96. It was an alright race. Not the best track/weather for exciting races but can see a bit of 2011 happening again- just Hamilton out in front the whole time like Vettel was then good racing in the mid-field. Doubt Rosberg will put much of a challenge this season- think he’s quite deflated after last year. Becoming a father I think will slow him down whilst Hamilton’s freer as well as the fact he’s quicker.
    Great race for the Brazilians and the Toro Rossos, good to see Ferrari back at front altho left feeling sorry for Alonso…

  97. It was a dull race, no question about it. Almost everything was wrong with this start of season: lack of cars in the grid, lack of competition, lack of emotion…

    Besides the pleasure of watching Seb driving a Ferrari, and the positive race of the rookie Nasr, everything else was just…embarrassing. Red Bull was a joke, Maclaren was a huge joke, and Nico still far way from Ham, so it’s necessary to ask: Is this model of F1 a motor sport anymore?

  98. @fat-tyre
    Hahaha clearly you are….

    I see a lot these fake “I’m a Lewis Hamilton fan”.

  99. Anyone know why the VSC was not used in the race?

  100. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the season a few back now where they opened in Bahrain on the endurance version of the circuit and bored everyone witless. There were some interesting battles and good stories in there, there just wasn’t enough cars to fully flesh it out.

    There were also two cars never much more than a couple of seconds apart up at the very front, which years ago would have been manna from heaven for the TV bods, but they barely got a look in on-screen.

  101. Oleg (@aleajactaest)
    15th March 2015, 13:19

    Solid 2/10, went to bed again after 10 laps.

    1. in which case you have no right to vote as you didn’t see the race.

  102. 6/10. It was one of those weekends (not just the race) that was filled with weird incidents, but lacked some genuine excitement (see Ham-Ros battle).

    +1 for Arnold on the podium and actually doing his job properly.

  103. this is a really boring race , its like mercedes are the only team in competition , all other teams are just there to create a traffic…. their performance difference is just too large , its like LMP1 racing against LMP2 or even GT category

    1. Maybe they should run GP2 simultaneously, at leat some noise and something to watch !

  104. Soap Opera, now is more entertaining the drama around the race itself, what a boring race and awful way to win 30 second lead ! Are you serious ? Poor Lewis he is facing the “not real champion” as Vettel did in Redbull domination.

  105. Dreadful. F1 needs to heed the warning of this race. Just 15 cars starting, only two cars which ever had a shot at victory. 11 cars finishing. Good quality teams like Force India and McLaren scrapping over last place. There are no positives to draw from this race. It was a dark day for Formula 1.

  106. Voted 7/10, would like to give a 4/10 to F1, it’s fans and the media. I watched an entertaining race and afterwards I see nothing but panic, tears, hysteria and foul language.

    Honestly considering dropping the visiting of F1 media out of my daily routine as its far more depressing than actually watching F1.

  107. 3/10 A one stopper with a tiny starting grid was never going to score well but this was a huge bore fest

  108. Massively disappointed with the entire spectacle. Everyone keeps saying the cars look fast but no matter how I look they don’t seem to go any faster. And the tuk-tuk sound only makes it worse. Halfway through the race I was more interested about the ICC Cricket World Cup match which I wouldn’t have bothered even if someone put a gun to my head. The Mercedes results were never in question – but the margin makes a complete mockery of the so called “sport”. No wonder F1 is classified as entertainment in some countries and for the first time I shamefully agree with them.

    PS: Congratulations to Mr.Vettel on being the first Ferrari driver in 8 years to not win their first race for Ferrari – ignoring Luca Badoer ofcourse

  109. 3/10 and I think that’s generous.

    Spectacularly dull – I physically felt myself age.

    Best parts were coming from Ericsson showing the boy actually can do something, Nasr for being pretty darn good for a first race and Button battling Perez in a car that clearly is a generation away from the rest.

    But it was a rather dull race. Rosberg never looked like he was anywhere near Hamilton and they looked more than capable of lapping the entire field without breaking a sweat. If this is what the rest of the season is like this is not going to be an exciting season.

  110. If I were Toto Wolff over the next few weeks I would be looking around and feeling threatened and uneasy. I would be thinking: “Is this what we signed up for? All the late nights and sponsor meetings?”

    It is already becoming a point of embarrassment for Mercedes to be dominating such a small grid, and still receiving so little TV time. It’s diminishing the efforts of the drivers and engineers and the integrity of the sport. Dominant cars amongst healthy competition is one thing. With barely enough cars besides Mercs to even pick up any points, that’s another thing entirely.

    It’s on big players like Merc and Ferrari to push for a bigger grid this year. The awkwardness is going to become deafening as the season goes on

  111. This will be the easiest title of histories of constructors,
    principally if the main rivals of Mercedes continue running with only one of the cars.

  112. Dull Race 4 out of 10
    I still don’t like the sound please bring back at least V8

  113. Apex Assassin
    15th March 2015, 14:50

    I think anyone giving a vote of 4 or 5 is being very generous. It was a 3 tops. Too few entrants, too little racing… in fact there were what? 3 on track passes after lap 1? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….

    1. Mr win or lose
      15th March 2015, 22:38

      If I counted correctly there were 9 overtakes.

  114. Simon (@weeniebeenie)
    15th March 2015, 14:51

    With an effective 13 cars in the main race it was never going to be a classic. It could have certainly been better though, if the Mercs had raced each other and there had been more battles. As it was, we got very little of that. Can’t really go above 4/10.

  115. Good: Nasr. Fortunate to escape getting squeezed at turn 1, not really his fault, but punchy and fast after that. (Sauber’s useless management will probably replace him with Needy Giedo now)
    Button. Impressive clean racing and car-positioning, made the finish.
    Sainz, quick and unfortunate victim of a pit howler
    TV graphics: Pitstop times are a big improvement, the fuel comparison (what little I saw of it) is better too.

    Bad: Dull race, 5 out of 10. Most of the dark horses were out of contention early (Bottas, Lotuses, Verstappen & Sainz) and Williams v Ferrari was settled by a well-timed stop for Vettel.
    Perez. Couldn’t pass a McLaren-Honda without hitting it, could pass a safety car line though.
    Bummer for Kevin. Got some practice at standing round the garage with earphones on, he’ll get used to that…
    Pit stops in general, so many mistakes.
    Pathetic sight of 15 cars on the grid, one of them just about staggering off it
    Pathetic sight of Arnie on the podium. AustrALian – it’s not the same thing.
    Dreadful BBC highlights show. Any sense of anticipation killed off by 15 minutes of lame “build-up” scripted chats between presenters, arm-folding driver video clips and slow-motion rubbish. Gushing, aimless questioning of the winner by Suzi Peter Principle Perry. Once the race finally got going it was fine, though.

  116. 6. Quite an average race, even if there were a couple interesting battles (Massa vs. Vettel vs. Raikkonen, Perez vs. Button). I just wish that in Malaysia there are 20 cars in the grid without a single warm-up lap breakdown, which happened to Magnussen and Kvyat today.

  117. I have never been so disappointed with an F1 season opener. Qualifying included. I may have changed and have other priorities, but the racing was poor and it all looked so amateur apart from the top three. It is nice to see races where backmarkers, with luck, can score points, but with such a little number of starters it was almost no surprise, and the fact we lost three of the most interesting drivers on the grid was bad luck. Not the new cars, not the driver changes managed to make me interested as I used to be, even at one of my favourite tracks. The season should go upwards, I hope. 5/10

    1. @Fixy Shouldn’t you rate it lower than 5/10 then? :)

      1. @Enigma I should, I’m too kind ;) It was a season opener after all, I even managed to pay attention throught it all, something I didn’t often do last year!

  118. just plain traffic

  119. To be honest the best performance today was by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

  120. Completely middle of the road race for me. There was a bit of excitement around the opening laps and the pit stops but otherwise I found it processional. I should be interested in the overtaking, defending and wheel to wheel racing, not whose car is going to expire and move everyone up one slot.

    All credit to Mercedes and Hamilton for being undeniably good, but I’m starting to miss having a legitimate fight at the front of the field. Hamilton never looked under pressure from Rosberg and I expect the same story all season. Rosberg can keep Hamilton honest, and punish any mistakes he may make, but I don’t consider trundling around two seconds behind to be a race, especially when it seems that Hamilton can control the gap as he pleases.

    1. I scored it a 5. Forgot about that little detail!

  121. Why was Vettel boo’d? I understand he was a*h0le as few years ago but some people really need to grow up.

    1. Hamilton got booed as well, the a lot of people laughed when he cut the joke about Arnie being taller in his films.

      Vettel was booed but I remember hearing cheers when he spoke some Italian!

      I wouldn’t dwell on it at all, it seems if you win enough a certain section of the crowd will boo you no matter what. I just hope it doesn’t become too widespread, hooliganism is a blight on other sports and I’d hate for such behaviour to infect F1.

    2. @ootony and colossal-squid in Canada a couple years back people started shouting “lewwwww” to Hamilton. It sounds like a boo of course and it threw me off until my brother told me what people were shouting. Seems they stole the idea from a hockey player from Vancouver whose name was similar and that’s how theyd cheer him too.
      That said if it was booing that’s pretty lousy but you can almost understand. There must have been some pretty frustrated fans today

  122. The worst F1 race since Indianapolis with only 6 cars at the start (2006?). I don’t understand why people can’t see that at the root of all this sad state of affairs is Bernie. He outlived his usefulness to F1 by a decade. His greed and dementia is killing F1. If he does not go soon, F1, as we know it, might be doomed.

    1. The worst F1 race since Indianapolis with only 6 cars at the start (2006?).

      @svianna been plenty of races that were worse since 2005 (bahrain/abu-dhabi 2010 for instance).

      the peopel who think this was one of the worst races have clearly not been watching for very long & have certainly not been watching some of the utterly patheticly boring drs-fest’s of recent years, now those races are the personification of boring!

  123. Loved the exciting opening shots of trackside adverts, closely followed by the one of a group of accelerating logos & trademarks. Clever CGI overlays from B.E. he’s sooo cool! Some great long held views of rear wings with various sponsers, nicely displayed, wow. Beautifully framed shots of Rolex signs interrupted by some cars. Hip stories with fresh graphics, well-presented hi res corporate agendas, some overtaking by bold intellectual properties with occasional interuptions by a “race”–whatever that is. An actor interviewed some people to close it out. Great fighting among all the brands imho. Can’t wait for the upcoming commercials for the “jewel in the crown” or the big ass yachts of Yas Marina, by god, that’s what motor racing’s all about. 11/10

    1. +1 Lol hahahah

  124. i was watching the race with a first time viewer of f1, i had to try to explain to him why mercedes were ahead, and why there was no passing, and what things like drs were. he left half way through to chat to his girlfriend on the phone and did not return to see the end of the race. me a viewer of 20 years of f1 was similarily dissapointed and bored by the race. f1 sees to be getting worse and worse, a pay driver even finished 5th ahead of a world championships and race winners.

    1. world champions i meant

    2. Perhaps that pay driver might actually be pretty good?

  125. what you saw someone racing ? I must have missed that what with all the noise and that. Go back and watch a classic race season see what your missing.

  126. I gave it a 5. Overall the race was not that bad all things considering. You take limited testing for numerous teams, new updates, new engines and new drivers into consideration and you should become realistic in regards to expectations. What lowered the rating is the fact that, personally, racing was not the main talking point of the weekend and other factors ruined the build up and excitement.

  127. those who think that mercedes performance is ‘wrong’ are clearly not racing fans let alone f1 fans.

    they have done a better job than the rest & fully deserve there success. if the others cannot make cars/engines that can compete then they do not deserve to get anywhere near mercedes.

    mercedes performance should be applauded & not jeered!

    1. Completely agree, this is professional sport and everyone should give their best, if Mercedes best is so much better than the others then hats off to them, it is up to the others to improve and take the fight to them.

      1. Totally agree. They’ve done the best job by a long margin!

        I think we haven’t seen their true pace today. They totally controlled the gap. More is to come!

        It’s a long way off yet but I’d say Hamilton is nailed on for a third title this year. He’s on another level.

  128. Yeah, so… Getting up so early to watch the race live from the UK is becoming somewhat of a tradition for us. This morning though, I was already beginning to doubt the reasoning behind my commitment.

    I’ve been watching F1 for some years now. Since 1993, we’ve had a few dull races, but not like this. This was special and I’ll tell you why.

    We’ve had a few warning signs about the decline of the sport’s popularity, with a decline in TV audiences and the luke warm reception to the new engines, but today the warning should now be written on the wall for all of F1’s rulers and contenders alike to see as clear as day.

    The first bone I have to pick is with the engines. Yes, yes, yes. I know there needs to be a drive for efficiency and a test bed for road car applicable technology is needed, but these engines simply do not work within the current regulatory framework. The situation is bordering on a farce. These engines are a totally new departure for F1, and so, need lots of development. The teams can’t test the engines, the engine manufacturers can only make a token (see what I did there?) effort for development. Despite this, each driver is expected to use four power units per season. What? How can you expect teams to push when they have to run conservative races, purely to avoid a penalty later in the season? Not only that, but how can you expect each driver to use only four power units when it’s a gamble if it finishes the parade lap or not?

    The old engines were frustrating for manufacturers because they couldn’t develop it. The development of technology that feeds their road car business took a hit because of that, giving way to manufacture apathy for the sport. How are these engines going to challenge that? Well, they’re not. How can the slower teams catch the leaders with no testing and very little room for engine development? Well, they can’t.

    On top of this, they’re so expensive that two teams folded after operating on an already overstretched budget and the longer term future of two established teams has been cast in to doubt. I don’t have the answers, but surely something needs to be done to sort these engines out. Perhaps a new engine formula based on fuel flow rate and maximum fuel load alone. Let the engine manufacturers do what they like, providing the maximum amount of fuel per race is not exceeded and fuel flow is regulated? I don’t know…

    My second point is the constant tweeking of the regulations to improve the ‘show’. Things like DRS have distorted the idea of racing for the people that don’t usually watch motorsports. The regular veterans of F1 have a different idea of racing to the new comers, and with the best intentions, you can’t cater to both. It’s as if everyone is expecting a million overtakes and complain if they don’t get it. DRS needs to be scrapped on this basis. The 2009 aero changes created loads of great overtakes. I’m still not sure why the DRS was needed.

    Some people seem to have an artificial idea of racing, because the rule makers have created artificial racing. You can go a long way to fixing F1’s problems just by not altering the mix all of the time. Let the teams race and good racing will prevail.

    Couple this with the way FOM promotes its sport. It’s almost doomed. Never mind the poor official online support and content, but the TV viewing situation in the UK is symbolic of a poor marketing strategy (I realise that the BBC sold out). Sky Sports F1 is firmly in the artificial camp. It’s expensive, the quality of the coverage is poor (just one big advert, broken up with further advert breaks). There seems to be a scoop sensational mentally in their reporting. That might work in the world of football, but it’s just annoying in the world of F1. The BBC now has poor, fractured coverage because they don’t cover every race. Its a joke, really. Viewing figures will take a hit when the passing viewers don’t watch because they don’t want to subscribe. That, in turn, hits the pockets of the teams in reduced sponsorship money. F1’s marketing model only really works with maximum exposure and can only be achieved on free-to-air TV. They’ll be less money for FOM, admittedly. Oh well…

    As I understand, the there’s an opportunity to change things for the future this season. Let’s hope they stop the slide!

    1. This is a really interesting and (I feel) accurate post. Good read.

      1. I agree completely. F1 is in a horrible state.

        I keep saying it. Fuel & tyres saving along with ridiculous DRS is horrible.

        (along with all the other problems we already know)

    2. Well said Andy,
      I’m a lifetime fan of F1 (since late 70s) and am losing Faith that the sport will survive following its current path. It astounds me that those in charge can’t see it and or fix it. Just to list a few, we have engines that are so complex that teams are at the race but can’t participate b/c of computer mapping code. World champion teams can’t complete the installation lap. Many cars are devoid of sponsorship. 4 engines for 20 races and they can’t test them, that nuts. There is zero chance that another engine manufacturer will join the sport after seeing the way Honda has been treated. So much more to say about what’s broken….

      1. Thank you, guys. I’m glad you enjoyed my post.

        To be fair to FOM and the FIA, they’ve tried to keep the regulations as stable as possible because of the damage they’ve done previously by making too many changes too quickly.

        For me, the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons really did spoil us.

        2008 was really close. We had some great races! Hamilton wins the title…

        2009 gave us the best F1 story so far, with Brawn winning the title after only just making the grid (with a car designed with Honda money, admittedly). McLaren and Fezza at the back of the grid as the order was mixed up with new areo regurgitations. Adjustable front wings, kers and massive front tyres gave way to some of the best overtaking I’ve ever seen (Button’s title winning drive in Brazil, for instance). This season also coincided with the BBC winning the live coverage contract from ITV. No more adverts! Free Practice sessions being televised, the GP Forum after the races, world class coverage etc etc…

        2010 gave us some great racing and innovation. I didn’t like the idea of banning refuelling, but things like the ‘f’ duct and wobbly front wings showed us that the engineers could still steal a march on the competition by being creative.

        The fact that the WDC was handed from one British driver to another helped the sports exposure in the UK. And remember in 2010, Vettel didn’t lead the championship until the final race, where he nicked the prize. No one really saw it coming.

        The sport was in good shape, despite some of the early races in 2010 being boring.

        Since then, you need to carry around a document full of the year’s TV listings to decide what channel you want to watch the race on, because Sky Sports F1 is all shout and no trousers. Despite the ‘sky pad’ and all of the other useless fads they throw at it, the coverage is geared to break new stories and not so much of the digestion of some of the established facts. So, despite paying good money for it, I only watch it when I have no other option.

        So, in a list, not necessarily in order of priority…

        1) Put the whole season back on free-to-air television to help smaller teams attract more sponsorship in their home markets. Also stops the fans feeling like they’re being fleeced whilst the grid shrinks.

        2) Relax the engine regulations to give other teams a chance of catching the front runners and to make the formula less about engines and more balanced.

        3) Get rid of the hateful DRS to make overtakes good again. This will also make the racing easier to follow.

        4) Make the front tyres wider (2009 spec) giving more mechanical grip to allow for closer following.

    3. Great post @andybantam I’d love to put it into the rate the race article but it isnt really about the race and it’s just so long! I think you should repost in the forum so more people see it. You hit the nail on the head.

  129. @keithcollantine i don’t know if it’s just me but I don’t see the percentages in vertical, one per line, as previous years. If this is wanted i would say it doesn’t give a clear graphic view of how the votes are distributed.

    1. Simon (@weeniebeenie)
      15th March 2015, 21:29

      I’m thinking it is to try and kerb herd voting/bandwagon jumping, so people don’t just jump on the longest bars already there. Personally I would make the results completely invisible until you’ve voted.

  130. 6/10. A good race, not the most exciting race ever but far from the least exciting. A good show by Mercedes, they are doing it properly, much like Ferrari in the early 2000’s, and are showing the world why they deserve to win the championships again. Nice to see Ferrari, and Raikkonen in particular, back near the sharp end of things, and nice too to see Sauber going well, there was some really good racing by their two drivers, that is a real boost for the whole team after all the things that were going on with Van der Garde in the build up. A shame about Manor Marussia not being able to run and a shame about the lack of starters but i’m sure this will be a one off occurrence and that the grid will be back to 20 cars for the next race.

  131. It was very boring, I rated for 3. I’m glad to performance of Sauber and Kimi’s speed, otherwise I didn’t like this race.

  132. Objectively, I gave it 4 points. Not enough cars and not enough on-track action.

    Subjectively, it was even worse than that. I like to see the Finnish drivers doing well, but one of them was absent through injury and the other’s race was ruined by contact at the start and terrible pit-stops.

  133. Not only was this a dull GP, but it was a dull three days.

    The Aussie GP is THE sporting event of the year for me, I love it. Living in Oz it is the only race of the year where we get full coverage of the whole weekend, and to top it off it’s the first race of the year. I’ve been watching the full race weekend coverage of this race since Adelaide ’92.

    What unfolded this weekend was without doubt the dullest Aussie GP weekend we’ve had. The sparse field of cars, the conservative running in practice, the unfathomably slow lap times… and that was before the race itself which took things to an even lower level. The only highlight for me was Lewis’s pole lap.

    I think back to the best practice session I’ve ever seen, and that was FP3 at Melbourne 1997. The cars were stunningly quick compared to the previous year, the drivers were thrashing the cars (Ralf Schumacher on his debut in particular was mega) and Villeneuve came along and blew them all away by two seconds. It was brutal, it was spectacular, it was full of action and excitement… it was nothing like what I saw this past weekend.

    1 out of 10.

    1. Agree, agree, agree…

      The teams are more focused on not breaking anything to avoid later engine penalties and fuel usage. That’s if they’re not just concentrating on survival.

      It’s just so un F1-like.

      I live in the UK and I’ve been watching your V8 Supercars. They’re brilliant! How contemporary F1 is supposed to follow the V8s on that circuit and not look pompous is beyond me…

      I watch the British Touring Car Championship in the UK. It’s a fraction of the cost and produces some of the best racing available, imo.

      I still watch F1, even when I get fed up with it. That’s because I’m a bit of a geek with it. Other people aren’t like me and they will start to switch off.

  134. Absolute rubbish! The most expensive piece of crap on the planet. Can’t wait for motogp to start and way more interested to see how jenny tinmouth gets on in Bsb.

  135. Nooooo!!….F1 is turning up to be worst than NASCAR !!!!
    The shame !….
    Sarcasm aside, I really hope to things to get better, more competitive. We need ALO and the whole grid. I want to see some real racing.

    1. I never thought I would say this, but at least Nascar has full grids, cars with real sponsorship, close racing, engines that sound good and great online tech stuff to use and watch during the races. F1 needs a new direction something fierce. :)

  136. Its a shame really, unlimited testing is required and car development. This race is a 3 for me. Maybe Bernie and team must think of a qualifying tyre good for 2 laps, then no more q1 q2 or q3, and qualify only 30mins. Even with the best car a driver might get nervous and make a mistake.
    The tyres should last 25 laps or a pit stop window for 3 laps, get drivers to make mistakes like marquez did in moto gp.
    Aag f1 is too controlled, cars driven at detuned pace, or I should buy a playstation f1 game and stop watching

  137. The race was 1 out of 10 and formula 1 is dead. I have been an avid Motorsport fan for 15 years. Up until last year I attended 1 or 2 races a year and watched every race live regardless of time. I live in Australia and been to every Melbourne GP, and try and get to the Singapore GP every year. This is the first year I refuse to attend a race. The racing is boring, the cars sound pathetic, and the whole event is not worth the money. F1 needs a major revamp, the cars have become way too technical and for once I agree with Horner and Redbull. It is pathetic there is only 15 cars on a grid which can hold 24. It is pathetic that the slowest cars is over 4 seconds off the pace. It is pathetic that manor travelled to Australia with 20tonnes worth of gear to sit in a garage.

    The FIA and the teams have successfully ruined f1 and it will be dead in 3 years if nothing changes.

    I have watched a lot of GP and even when schumi dominated or mclaren or redbull dominated there was action behind. Everyone remember those years when even if there was little overtaking you could physical see the drivers pushing hard, schumi v mika, Alonso V Webber, Vetell v Webber.

    This year, vetell despite having a car nearly 0.5sec faster could not get past massa. The new f1 rules with noses, whilst looking better has made it harder to follow then last year. The next GP will be even worse.

  138. kenneth chapman
    16th March 2015, 2:33

    Just to add to the mix, i gave it a 2. if that is the very best racing from the ‘pinnacle of motorsport’ then it’s time to move on. there is absolutely no way that any other team will be able to mount a challenge to mercedes. rumours are that they, mercedes, have a further large upgrade planned. dear oh dear…do they really need it? what is going to happen if these PU’s continue to lunch themselves? ricci faces a bleak year with only three PU’s to do possibly 19 races. he will have to take penalties on top of the shoddy engines being supplied. what a great year to look forward to.

  139. Today the RBR supremo Horner was complaining about engine regulations and about F1 as it is and can be improved but as usual there is always those that say what about when RBR were this or that, but in saying all this if fans want to watch a boring F1 like the Australian GP from now on or like it’s been for the last 5 years and now it will go into its 6th year fine but there won’t be many fans left except Merc or Ferrari fans who are one eyed and would barrack irrespective of the competition or the racing or the destructive rules in F1.

    My suggestions are that, first of all Bernie has to go and take his companies with him and/or sell them, secondly the FIA has to do a similar thing(s) that is done in the Le Mans (WEC) series the Formula E series or the good old horse racing and that is that top the cars or horses are handicapped, be it with additional weight or ballast, or different tyres that degrade sooner, different fuel mixtures or fuel flow etc etc because the way that F1 is going now the series will end with no fans and/or TV viewers or F1 will self-destruct in a big way with no way of recovering it ever. I for one find the WEC series and formula E much more enjoyable and their regulations to follow and watch then any FIA/F1 GP but fore mostly knowing that I’m filling Bernie Ecclestone’s pockets full of Euros and reading the continual scandalous melodramas in F1 of LH’s haircut, earrings and mood or his fight with NR.

    It’s a darn shame that this wonderful and completive sport that was so full of life in the 60’s 70’s 80’s was taken over by Ecclestone’s companies and slowly but surely destroyed and made to what it is today and that is an unwatchable bore fest of rules, restrictions and exhaustive costs. How can the FIA and F1 justify costs when the hydraulic jack that lifts the cars at a pit stop is valued at £250,000 each and the rules specify that you have to have 2 of them? How can the FIA and F1 justify and allow the Sauber incident where Giedo van der Garde was so badly treated and Sauber was allowed to sign 3 drivers’ contracts with a value in excess of 25 million to be signed with only 2 cars in their garage? How can a sport which supposed to be the so called panicle of motor racing and a sport that earns hundreds of millions of dollars a year allow this miniscule monetary scandal embarrass it throughout the world? There is lots wrong with the FIA/F1 and if these things are not fixed sooner than later I’m afraid that fans like myself will abandon the sport in droves.

  140. Tgere is nothing to rate because this was not a race it was a procession of an inevitable one team wining which even they didn’t eventuate into a race because the winner lead from start to finish. Very poor and if you want us to rate it from to 10 then I’m afraif I have to give it a score of -5.

  141. I made the mistake watching it in the pub with friends. Company was good, but i don’t think any of paid attention after 3 laps. I am glad i never saw the dreaded Russian GP last year (sorry, i don’t watch putin fests), so i can’t compare it to that. My comparison, it was worse then anything i have seen in the last few decades (excluding the farce at the US GP with 6 cars).

    3/10 and only because i never gave anything lower then a 5 yet (need to keep some buffer if this is the sampling for 2015)

    1. And now that i see the total votes, i distinctly remember that votes for races would draw 1200+ votes, we are now at 907… think the decline in numbers says enough to be honest

  142. What a snorefest. The most boring race in my 32 years of following F1, Even a day at work passess more quickly than that race. It was painful to watch.

    I just fel so sad that my favourite sport in the world has also become the most boring sport in the world.

  143. I gave it 9 just because it was proper racing between Midfield team (Count Red Bull In), Good to see Ferrari, Sauber back and Mclaren Finish the race – Spectacular. I won’t mind 11 Car Finish due to all down to reliability (Most of them Suffer at first race – So its OK). Bring on Malaysia and picture will be even more better.

    I didn’t gave 10 because of Mercedes 1-2 and sad to see it will be same till Mid-Season at least. I hope Ferrari Evo 2 is on Par (Aerodynamically too) beginning Spa-Francorchamps

  144. It was not a race I was happy that I got outof bed at 4am for honestly! The biggest problems seem to be the lack of overtaking even with DRS the cars seemed unable to follow and pass, Kimi showed that if you have to push and can do the times can be much faster but now the formula is about conserving, tires, fuel, energy … it seems to have lost its spark. On top of that Mercedes seems to be significantly faster than even team that use the same engines and Hamilton seems to have the upper hand on Rosberg which means we could have a full season of Hamilton easy wins

    1. Don’t think that the engine is the same at Mercedes.
      The ones they “sell” to others is not the one they developed for themselves and use !

  145. well…that happened

    3/10

  146. One of the worse I have ever seen, and this on a “per definition” nice track.
    They should have let Susie Wolff race, don’t know why Claire said no, beats me ?

  147. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
    16th March 2015, 12:13

    I’m not sure it deserves the 5/10 I scored it, but it was nice just to see the sport back on ours screens. The win was far too easy for Hamilton, Rosberg didn’t seem able to mount a convincing challenge; still, it was disappointing to hear boos for Hamilton on the podium – why is it his fault that no one came close? I really enjoyed the performances that Vettel and Nasr put it – Vettel reminded us of his quality after a poor season last year; Nasr showed good pace and pulled a couple of nice overtaking moves. I’ll be cheering on Sauber this year, the car looks great too!

  148. F1 2015

    Red Bull sulking and perilously close to going
    Williams struggling along making a loss but it can’t last forever……2018 gone!
    McLaren putting a brave face on a declining empire how long before the F1 arm of the company is cut off……2020 gone!
    Force India are now teetering on the brink doom…..2016 gone!
    Sauber staring into the abyss despite their better car……2016 gone!
    Torro Rosso seem lost these days……2016 gone?
    Ferrari look like an unhappy frightening place to be employed…..if they don’t win 2018 gone!
    Manor….bless them, really is it just for the FOM money……….June gone!?

    and

    Mercedes, $$$$$$$$$$$$ for a couple of glory years, fulfil the plan then they lose and …. ‘puff’ they’re gone too!

  149. I feel sorry for the fans, so few cars and so few battles of any genuine interest.
    Bernie and Todt need to get a grip on this situation, I have watched F1 for four decades and this is the least interest I have had in a season for many many years.
    I scored it a 2, my lowest ever.

  150. 5/10 for me. Was not worth getting out of bed at that time for, and was obviously not helped by having so few starters and then another two retiring on the first lap. Had Bottas started, Raikkonen kept out of trouble and the two Lotus’ continued for more than a few hundred metres, we might have had a few interesting battles. But there was very little in the way of on track action. A shame.

  151. 13/58. Rounded up to 3/10. It took 13 laps for the most compelling thing in F1 to be the battle for LAST PLACE.

  152. 5/10. The attrition rate throughout the weekend killed it for me. I did like coverage focusing on the midfield and back of the pack (lol McLaren) though. And going forward, seems like its going to be the Ferrari PU teams battling the 2nd tier Merc teams and RBR that will provide watchable racing for the season, plus McHonda’s “ascent from the bottom” for non-racing entertainment.

  153. Only 5/10 in my opinion. The top two were decided in Qualifying, lots of cars dropped out and only a few good bits, including Nasr’s brilliant progression to fifth on his debut. Now the question is “will Mercedes break down” rather than “will anyone catch up”, as the Brackley squad could comfortably win all twenty races based on this race and last year.

    Yes I like the team (otherwise I wouldn’t have visited their HQ at the end of last year) but it’s even more predictable than the Ferrari days and is pretty demoralising for everyone else!

  154. 5. 3 points for the race plus a bonus of 2 for Arnold!!!!

  155. Bring back the the V10,V12, or V8 other wise good buy F1 it is so boring and the cars sound and go like a Hyundai Getz the only time it was exciting is the when the twin seater Minardi F1 was on the track now thats what F1 car should sound like.What next solar power F1.

  156. Next solar panel F1 what a Joke Get rid of Bernie

  157. I thought it was a pretty boring race so only gave it a 4, even though I only watched the highlights there didn’t seem to be much action.

    The main things that stood out from the race apart from the Mercedes dominance was the small size of the grid and all the mistakes during the pit stops.

    Although they finished last I was surprised that McLaren managed to get to the chequered flag.

  158. I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, but did anyone else notice the graphic on the start/finish line at the start of the race? Similar to the crap we saw in (I think) Austra last year. This time a note from Bernie to a friend. I’m getting quite tired of this but clearly F1 is all about Bernie. It’s just so tacky.

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