It may just take a few minutes for the update to come through by I have my Cache Killer turned on and it’s still IndyCar. No rush just making sure you know
my local weather report for today can confirm it is warm 25c with little threat of rain atm… I live 15km from the circuit and if it does rain, it’ll rain here first, so will keep u guys informed
as a local even I don’t know what Melbourne weather will do until it decides to do it… If u bring an umbrella it will be dry, if you forget it, it will rain
As always there’s a list of legitimate feeds at the top, obviously I’m not going to publish a list of illegal ones because FOM will shut the site down.
Finally we re underway guys, wish I had the first session on tv. Gotta wait for the 2nd to watch. Gonna follow here through out my night shift in the loader.
What is the point wating in the garage ? All the teams keep complaining about the restriction on testing and now they don’t even use their time on practice ?
Really ? I thought they set it on SS, seems they learned to decrease the stops further making it less of tactical mess ups which they are far more prone :)
Pretty sure they were on the yellow marked rubber. Yes, less visits to pits and more running on track will help Ferrari avoid taking difficult decisions :)
Looks like sky have a new driver timing graphic in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. I can take a guess but does anyone know what the grren/white/purple blocks are. Do we now have 10 sectors every lap? I’ve had to watch without sound so the commentary may have said something so don’t shoot me
Without seeing the screens (at work), my guess is green is a PB for a driver, White is non PB non best sector overall, and purple will be fastest time in that sector overall?
I am giddy for this season. Even with the potential reduction in overtaking, these machines look like proper beasts on track. This looks to be an exciting turn for the sport and with new access and direction, we may be nearing a new golden era. One can hope, right?
About the New FOM graphic of sector timing is the dots show sector with in sector i mean some sort of marshall posts or sectional points in between sectors
Wouldn’t be surprised if they did and it wouldn’t necessarily mean they aren’t that quick. That said, I wasn’t convinced by their pace in testing. Not onboard the hype train, let’s say!
I dont know keith obviously im not in Hype Train but i feel there is a vast difference in them compared to last season or putting it this way ive never seen a Ferrari team like this since 2009 or 10 i believe. they haven’t done big mouth statements they are keeping them selves a very low profile , Lets see how they go
Already entered. Though my prediction might be just wishful thinking… What would be cool to see is at the end of the year the cars come back to Melbourne to post times to see how much development they do over the year. Won’t happen, but it would be cool to compare.
Seems the Mercedes is so long Bottas is having difficulty getting out of his garage. Hamilton can turn out more cleanly as there’s a bit more space to the side of his car but there’s a strut on one side which gets in the way for Bottas. It’s always hard to tell for sure but it appeared as though the W08 was the longest car in pre-season testing. (Height and width are fixed by the regulations of course.)
I dont know but Vettel has K issues according to tweet posted here. But then again no one is really pushing so every one is hiding pace. About Ferrari pace they didn’t improve as much as we expect them to be from S to SS
Welcome back in time for second practice everyone. We could see the track record fall in the next 90 minutes – the target is Sebastian Vettel’s 1’23.529 from Q2 in 2011, set in a Red Bull-Renault RB7.
He was upto 4 tenths quicker than Kimi till that point and completely lost it in the last sector. Not sure Hamilton being there had something to do with it.
Still good to see the Ferrari punching in those times.
I dont get it what people are expecting from others Merc is still the best car in field. they have great Aero and Impressive PU. NO way any team can cut the PU side with a winter alone. they may cut them by Aero but in PU they are best and they will be ahead
I think this season will be much more boring than the last one. At least last year we had rosberg vs Hamilton. It will be a breeze this year for hamilton, mark my words.
Not really a 2+2 = 4 kind of assumption to be made. Could be that Merc is more suited to this track than Ferrari. And we haven’t even gone to race pace yet.
Maybe how they had to change their suspension didn’t help either. Yeah, let’s hope Vettel can at least keep up a bit of pressure on Lewis this weekend, and Bottas gets to look at Hamilton’s data and improve too :-)
The year we finally get to understand that Schumacher wasn’t an old slow version but rather ROS was very fast already? Could be. BOT needs to study that HAM data and use it!
Schumi definitely was on the wrong side in terms of age. But Rosberg was known for his speed already since his Williams years. But yes, it was not a bad showing at all from the veteran.
But when you are on a q sim lap and on faster tire you will be going faster they might not be faster than merc but they are not quicker than their harder tire fast time in some timing loops
The Tires all the Compounds are very highly durable i can see US lasting for 30 laps easy 1 stopper with US and SS no use of S at all unless temp makes graining harder to manage
Maybe if anyone has an issue in lap one and gambles on going to the end they might take softs, but then again, the SS could possibly manage the whole race too with a bit of management
Yes, Unless like Last year Austria where SS despite being Quickest the graining made it hard to use compared to S. i see no reason why they use S here apart from first lap mess up by some
Had to laugh at saying it is positive Ricciardo had only 0.9 degradation, a bit less than Hamilton – only to, half a minute later calculationg their averages being 1:28.0 HAM vs. 1:29.3 RIC; that’s not going to help much then is it (and it was quite clear from the times).
I think the merc shown that they are fastest as Vettel stated too many times before today. Lets see how the season goes but i hope we are in a good season rather than a boring one. F1 needs a competitive season like 2010 where multiple teams are in until end of year
The best thing changed is Symonds working with Sky. Instead of Ted hyping crazy (and often somewhat Hamilton/Brit biased) theories, we get some real insight.
I think Ted is great – if he was a guest on Celebrity Brain Crash on Grand Tour. For me, be much happier if Ted’s hyped up drivel and fake pronouncements remained in his smarmy imagination.
Looking forward to hearing more from Symonds this season. Refreshing to watch someone on TV who has actual technical experience in F1.
Bit of a funny interview with Ricciardo there. He almost seemed coy to admit they thought they do have something in hand (if they get back to what they were doing this morning) there. I hope they do.
I’m from the US and here NBC does not even offer commentary on FP1 and FP3, which turns out to be a good thing because when they do offer commentary (FP2, Qualy, and Race), the advertising in just unbearable. Sometimes they cut to ads as cars are closely racing side by side or when somebody is on a charge of fastest laps. I envy the Sky F1 coverage.
It’s interesting, Raikkonen always gets very sniffy and defensive whenever anyone suggests he might do better in the new cars, but he really does look more comfortable in them.
I thought Williams’ testing pace looked suspicious and so far there’s been nothing to suggest they are genuinely as quick as Massa’s best laps at the Circuit de Catalunya.
While I agree that Mercedes is likely to be sandbagging, remember yesterday afternoon might on a different track temperature. Hamilton out now again, see if he has a response.
Ferrari has a reputation of over-performing in Free Practice, but I have to say they seem to take a very patient approach to all three Practice sessions so far, so no one can know.
I fail to see what would be the point of hiding performance a couple of hours away from qualifying. What’s the other team going to do with the information? Try to go faster?
People start their race strategies with Qualy, so if ur faster than all competition, u might go one way with strategy compared to if u were on pace or slightly off pace
I don’t get why Stroll didn’t want to do other junior formulae? If he’s got the money to be in F1, 2-3 years in quicker single seaters surely can’t harm. I don’t get it.
As much as I want Stroll to be out of his depth just to justify my own prejudices about his background, I think it’s still too early to make him out as a Maldonado-type.
And remember we’ve got some great prizes to win in the Predictions Championship this year so make your first entry of the new season here before qualifying starts:
Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live for the first qualifying session of 2017!
If you weren’t here in time for practice the first thing you should know is the first driver change of 2017 happened a bit earlier than we all expected:
Ok, looking forward to this qualifying. While I did put a notification in my calendar, putting my phone on silent meant having a nice lie in during FP3, so I’m even more thrilled for this session!. Is the pace of the Renault real, or was it more that others did not get a chance to improve with the red flag. And are Williams in trouble with reliability? Also, who expects Vettel to still be ahead come Q3? And will Bottas get as close to lewis as he was last session. All those questions :-)
Looking at the predictions is very interesting… seems like a vast majority vote for a Hamilton pole, with runner up being Vettel. After that it’s almost a dead heat between Kimi and Bottas with the lone (so far that I saw) Verstappen vote (1:18.000!)
Interesting how people think of their predictions :)
Nothing, but I couldn’t pick between Vettel and Hamilton. I figured Kimi over Bottas was likely, so I went with something I knew wouldn’t be correct, but would be second most likely.
so u treat the predictions like a traditional bet, going for the odds
I guess so :)
I think it is still more likely for Bottas to get pole than for Kimi. For the race, off course, Ferrari will again use Kimi as test bed for Vettel (pitting him 3-4 laps too early) or let him hang out to dry (pitting him 2 laps too late), so yeah he is not getting on the podium
But the race doesn’t reflect on the qualifying, does it? Or are we all wrong about the “the race is on Sunday” comments? :D
Off course a lot can happen in the race. And the points get dealed on Sunday. But starting at the front does give a very strong indication of how things will go. Especially with the gaps to further back we have and reliability what it is, it would need serious mishaps to change that.
Lots of 1:21.xxx predictions. Not sure where everyone is seeing a 1.4 second improvement from any of the drivers can come from? Anyways, went for HAM pole & sweep.
I’m currently doing my statistics course in Univ. Would be interesting to do some statistical analysis on these predictions! Why didn’t I think of it before…
I get the impression that they are still struggling to get things together @dragoll since they had to ditch the fancy suspension. You can see they got the chassis wrong because they are blaming the engine again
Where did the “we didn’t change anything much” go then Horner? I still think that the thing they hadto change has a large influence on why RBR are not there on pace.
Jon Noble @NobleF1 4m4 minutes ago More Ferrari has already fitted second Control Electronics and Energy Store to Kimi Raikkonen’s car. Only allowed four for season.
Hamilton reported his car was sliding a bit more in the second and third sectors according to Mercedes. Track temperature was up a bit in the third session compared to yesterday and there’ll be more rubber down – they’ve just had the third Supercars race of the weekend.
Hopes: 1 – Ferrari really is competitive with Mercedes 2 – Hulk places the Renault higher than it should be 3 – McLaren/Honda can qualify in a decent place for the race without melting down. (hope & a prayer here)
Call me an idiot but it might be possible that Red Bull has been sandbagging all this time since pre season and they may actually have an absolutely awesome car that will storm pole and win.
I am not a red bull fan and have still predicted ferrari to win but I think they are that slick/sneaky to do something like that, especially with Horner and Ric talking about a slim chance to challenge for the championship. Makes you think they have something hidden.
I know this is a stretch but it could be possible that they will even wait for a couple of race to lull other teams into a false sense of security.
Yep. Just a theory. Look, they have already started blaming the engine. That is a clear sign that they went wrong somewhere and are not fast enough to me.
Bit of an embarrassment for Liberty Media in their first race weekend since taking over the sport to have these television problems. They seemed to lose track footage for a few minutes and now no timing graphics.
Since we get only a one or maximum 2 stops, there really is no good reason to save on the tyres, is there. Also the Ultras might warm up better currently
That’s my lucky number gone. Heartbreaking. Despite me having a whole host of reasons preventing me from ever claiming it myself. I’m too tall. Too heavy. Too poor. Too old. And I lack natural talent.
Palmer starting out as the same embaressment he was at the start of last year. Altough I guess there is a point to what Vandoorne mentions about having only very little time to do it
The car is fine. But lets give him a bit of slack, he is a rookie. I think it is more embarresing for the likes of Palmer and Magnussen to be this far off their team mates after at least a year more experience
The cream of the crop really showed their hand in this Q1 session. As expected the weakling teammates are already eliminated or trailing their teammates by large margins.
Mercedes having a .2s advantage over Ferrari. We rarely see Ferrari making up performance to Mercedes in Q3, more often the other way around. So things are close but Mercedes seems to have it.
So OCO, MAG, VAN, STR, PAL really didn’t deliver today compared to their teammates. Some are excused, most are not. Let’s keep an eye on them next race…
Positively surprised about McLaren. After all the problems they’ve had (and still have) the deficit to the midfield is relatively small. I think McLaren can challenge for P4 this year.
Yes, that’s what he did, but I must say I don’t really understand *why* he did it! We could all see he gave up on the final bit of the straight… Maybe he wanted to test something on the car.
Webber didn’t in his first race. And Daniel had solid races hre too. I think it is just that these cars when you start to loose them, they just get away from you
Bottas made a mistake on the straights which relegated him to third by just .002s. He still has the chance to make up the position. But I would hope everything stays the same, a Merc – Ferrari front row should be great to watch!
It feels more and more that RedBull was heavily impacted by the “active suspension” bann. Merc and Ferrari are there, RedBull is having such trouble. They’ve always had their car ready and dialed for the 1st race, but not this time.
Obviously I never trust a word he says, but Horner said that they had never ran it before, and had only just introduced it in testing last month, so it’s unlikely it would impact them much.
He is doing his BS talk on that @alesici. They have looked quite unstable ever since the second test session, where they had to drop that suspension. He also kept telling us that the changes to exhaust blowing wouldn’t change much. Only to later blame the FIA and the competition for hurting their speed by a massive amount from that.
Well, I guess that does put a lot of tension and excitement into the session. Especially with those drops blowing over making it a tad slippery on the grass maybe.
Still hoping Ferrari have a little more left in the tank for Vet or Rai to go Pole, that is what my heart says anyways, my head says it will be Ham P1.
First of all, they were 1.7 seconds faster, not 1 second. And then the 5 second thing was vs. 2015 times – they were about 4.2 seconds faster than that. And let’s remember that Australia doesn’t have that many fast corners where the difference will be larger
Great. Vettel manages to split the MErcedes cars. Good to have him smelling blood and pushing it. Bottas can still be happy to have at least managed to be less than 3 tenths behind Hamilton for his first mercedes qualifying. Solid effort from Massa, great lap from Grosjean. Verstappen really had to husstle that Red Bull, but well done too.
Hope this sets the tone for 2017. HAM and VET are by far the most successful drivers of their generation and we are long overdue a proper title fight between the two.
Keith, there is an Edit button shown for your comments.. “WordPress 4.7.3 is available! Please notify the site administrator. Sorry, you are not allowed to edit this comment.”
So will it be a total mix of strategies today or will everyone end up doing 1 stop only? There is potential for RIC to try more agressive strategy. Maybe Ferrari splitting theirs too, one driver try 2 stops?
I think it is going to be VET-HAM-BOT with VET-HAM always no more than 2 seconds apart for the whole race, no real passes between them but a constant tension. Similar to Austin 2012
Would love to see VET, RAI and VER but I think it will be HAM, VET, BOT, I think with these new cars there will be some coming together on the opening lap and the front three will get away.
Aus GP might set the record for most non-starting drivers or most substitutes used. 2015 – Alonso couldn’t start. 2016 – Bottas couldn’t start 2017 – Pascal and (probably) Ricciardo also can’t start
I am not even sure they got the car beack before the race. But if they would be able to install a new gearbox in time, then Ricciardo could indeed start from the pitlane.
Well, we might still get 20 cars to start the race. STR managed to solve the issue with Kvyat. And Red Bull is frantically trying to replace a sensor to get Ricciardo to start at least from the pitlane
They are trying a reset, not a sensor change. Resets may not work. If I remember correctly, Kimi did one in 2015 mid-race (very long pitstop) but the problem re-occured immediately. Also, VET in 2014 Aus GP started after a reset but it didn’t work
we might have Verstappen hounding Kimi soon. But Kimi is far too slow IMO. Is it possible Lewis was teasing with his remark about the grip? Both he and Vettel now made a massive gain on Bottas.
Pretty sure they are actually happy that the reset sort of worked. I thiink McLaren called him in because of the display issue and losing power, in a hope to manage a reset and get him going.
Can’t remember ever seeing a car’s brakes lock fully and then unlock and allow them to continue. Remember Vergne’s brake fire at Suzuk a few years ago…
What’s the deal with old engines – didn’t they want to introduce a rule prohibiting that? Farcical imo – especially since Sauber/Toro Rosso last year surely aren’t direct competitors; if anything they provide more mileage.
Agree. Good to see that the tyres can withstand being behind another car for a while. And off course with less stops, and hard passing, it’s not quite as easy to actually get past in the pits.
Hello, So now that’ interesting: when ROS had to pass VER for the title last year, he did it. Now with newer tyres, HAM did not do it… Of course everything’s different, but the season is going to be interesting!!
I think if Hamilton loses this, it is his belief that you can’t overtake in these cars, or at least that you can’t overtake Verstappen that did him in. The car had the pace.
The Ferrari looks to be the most stable/reliable over long runs and varying conditions/tires. The Mercs have outright pace but need clean air. This is going to be a great season!
I hope on a more conventional track the slipstream will work better. It’s a weird track this one, even the pit straight doesn’t lead to a particularly obvious passing corner
Ricciardo utterly dejected on the radio. They spent a while chatting over whether to give up and save the engine or stay out hoping for a Safety Car or points through retirements.
I’m not sure Olav Mol is in Australia though, ever since his wife was ill a couple of years ago he stopped going. If so, he’s not really having direct knowledge.
Ferrari is faster on race pace it seems, and Mercedes on quali. Very interesting. Mercedes strategy was pathetic, unless they absolutely had to bring Hamilton in. Otherwise, absolute trash.
I think Ferrari were doing mind games. They had Vettel get close to Hamilton to make Merc think they were going to undercut, so Mercedes panicked and pitted. Ha!
Hamilton wasn’t losing Vettel at all in the first stint and Vettel got a close as possible without actually overtaking Hamilton. Bottas in the second Merc was far away from the Ferrari as well.
Looks like Lewis is just not in the right mindset. He started with complaining about grip at the grid, then started about his tyres from lap 10 onwards and now again. His complaining got MErcedes to a wrong strategy, giving away the race win. Now he might be losing 2nd to that as well.
I don’t mind this as I watch F1 way back from MSC-Mika days, but I wonder how the newer viewers think about this race. I think it’s good even though it lacks proper battle and overtaking, they pushed all the way.
Well it seems like the predictions were right, no one’s been able to hold a 1 second gap for long at all. Not much chance of an overtake if you can’t even get within a second.
Verstappen close and possibly overtaking Kimi. Vettel 10s ahead of the closest Mercedes. I know Ferrari likes to play the No.1 Driver game, but if they did make a great car this season, Kimi may just put an early end to their Constructor Championship dream.
See tweet sidebar from @keithcollantine Kvyat was desperate not to pit, asking “is there anything I can do?” “No, we need an engine air refill.” #F1 #AusGP
I think the team made th mistake of listening to Lewis and bringing him in too soon after his complaining. Bottas clearly was a lot faster for the last stint, but seems to have been told to just hold position in 3rd. Not even convinced Ferrari was faster per se. Just Lewis talked himself into feeling miserable about the car and the tyres.
I think the big question is, why did they all go for softs. I guess they counted on running quite a bit below maximum (as they have been doing for the last 5 years).
I suspect that some teams/drivrs were saving the car, fuel, tyres etc far too much here. A bit like what we saw in 2010 in Bahrain where everyone expected it to be far harder to make to the finish than it turned out to be. Next race they sped up by quite a bit.
Te me it looked like Lewis was talking himself into feeling bad on them more than there being a real issue with the tyes. I also think all of them could have easily done the second stint on the SSofts and been a lot faster overall.
Why were there some boos when Bottas got on the podium?! Maybe the Hamilton fans didn’t like that he was so close to beating him. I think he got told to hold off. He may possibly have managed an overtake though.
I think it’s purely in response to the end of last year, nothing personal as they showed when he thanked the crowd for coming out. But I doubt they’d be booing if not for that.
Imagine if Redbull get their act together and we could have 3(6) cars fighting for the win! That would be awesome! Even if the racing on track is not great, just this uncertainty is great for F1.
Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live for the first race weekend of the 2017 season!
Hey Keith, all… so pumped for this season :)
The twitter list on the side is IndyCar, should be changed to F1?
Yes it should! If you refresh the page it should be OK.
I did a F5 and a Ctrl+F5 and still indycar
It may just take a few minutes for the update to come through by I have my Cache Killer turned on and it’s still IndyCar. No rush just making sure you know
my local weather report for today can confirm it is warm 25c with little threat of rain atm… I live 15km from the circuit and if it does rain, it’ll rain here first, so will keep u guys informed
As a local do you think it ll rain tomorrow?
as a local even I don’t know what Melbourne weather will do until it decides to do it… If u bring an umbrella it will be dry, if you forget it, it will rain
Haha I know what you mean, I live on one of the Great Lakes and every morning they call for sunshine, rain with snow showers.
And if you don’t like it, wait 5 minutes until it’s doing something different. 40 seasons in one day.
Any free live feeds
As always there’s a list of legitimate feeds at the top, obviously I’m not going to publish a list of illegal ones because FOM will shut the site down.
Thanks
Finally we re underway guys, wish I had the first session on tv. Gotta wait for the 2nd to watch. Gonna follow here through out my night shift in the loader.
Cars look good!
So now we have to sign in to even see the lap times? What part of making F1 more accessible to fans is this?
One of my favourite times of the year. It’s good to be back.
Live Time on the web seems to be blocked. Not updating after 2 laps.
They sent a message about technical problems a while ago.
What is the point wating in the garage ? All the teams keep complaining about the restriction on testing and now they don’t even use their time on practice ?
Maybe they don’t need to run that urgently on a track that’s very green.
Everyone’s got cold feet or what?
Stroll is the brave man.
OK guys the Twitter feed on the left should be fixed for good now if you refresh again. Sorry about that, new season glitches!
Thanks Keith, looks good! As long as ur not powered by Honda u should be good
What kind of nonsense is that with the engines -_-
Looks like Stroll will be the first driver to do a timed lap. Big pressure on him, obviously this isn’t one of the tracks he was able to test* on.
*Williams hate it if you refer to his runs in the 2014 car as ‘testing’. It was ‘practice’, of course…
interesting split display… I like it
Yeah that’s a nice improvement.
£5 on Stroll putting it into the wall by the end of the session.
No way I’d take that bet! LOL
Might not be this session, but he will during the course of the weekend for sure
?!
Wow, we’re already 3.3s up on this session last year!
Can’t agree with the criticism that the new regs were about making the cars quicker for the sake of it. This is what it is about!
Is Ricciardo’s mirrors broken?
No, it’s a reflection of a sticker. I see what you mean tho.
Cool! Thank you. Will need to observe it a lil more next time :)
The Ferrari looks quite weird from on board.
Weird good or weird bad?
Ferrari running on softs and into 1:25s. Vettel not running, only fly in the ointment.
Really ? I thought they set it on SS, seems they learned to decrease the stops further making it less of tactical mess ups which they are far more prone :)
Pretty sure they were on the yellow marked rubber. Yes, less visits to pits and more running on track will help Ferrari avoid taking difficult decisions :)
I’m loving the way they’re attacking turn 1 already! I can’t wait to see them in qualifying!
its nice to see the cars so aggressive :)
Still the rule of one set must be returned back after 40 min in Fp1 was there ?
Yep that’s right. Really don’t like fiddly little rules like that but whatever…
Let’s the show begins
Am I missing something….or are the times much slower than expected?
3.3s faster than last year after 40 minutes? Seems OK to me. Target was 5s versus 2015 (at a different track).
Sorry it’s actually 4.6s versus last year at the moment, though this session was damp in 2016.
Oh…you’re right. I wasn’t comparing to FP1 from last year but rather Qualifying. Thanks
For reference, last year’s quickest in FP1 was Hamilton’s 1m29.725s. They are plenty fast already.
Looks like sky have a new driver timing graphic in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. I can take a guess but does anyone know what the grren/white/purple blocks are. Do we now have 10 sectors every lap? I’ve had to watch without sound so the commentary may have said something so don’t shoot me
That’ll be FOM, not Sky.
And yes, it’s the timing sub-sectors which have been in place for several years but never part of the international graphics set until now.
Aha! Couldn’t see anything on the F1 app. Will look again.
each dot represents 200M or so, said Crofty
I love this site! Anything you need to know, answered. Cheers.
Without seeing the screens (at work), my guess is green is a PB for a driver, White is non PB non best sector overall, and purple will be fastest time in that sector overall?
Sound any better this year, either at source or mic pick-up?
I am giddy for this season. Even with the potential reduction in overtaking, these machines look like proper beasts on track. This looks to be an exciting turn for the sport and with new access and direction, we may be nearing a new golden era. One can hope, right?
About the New FOM graphic of sector timing is the dots show sector with in sector i mean some sort of marshall posts or sectional points in between sectors
Does it relate to corners and corner speed. Or perhaps they have timing loops?
and the race tape comes out for merc, nice :)
Is it me or are FOM trying to zoom in more like they used to do to capture the speed?
I feel there is some difference in presentation but cant exactly tell what it exactly is
That final turn looks so much more planted on acceleration in these cars.
That Honda sounds ill.
How ill? Death-bed ill or bad cough ill?
Did Bottas go out of track somewhere? His front left had patches of yellow on it.
It seems to be coming from the kerbs.
some where in S3 i guess
Hoping we get some replays. He seems quite slow on those tires compared to Hamilton.
Yup. Just saw replays. Went over aggressive and out of the tracks.
The new cars just look awesome. Here’s the first practice picture gallery of 2017:
https://www.racefans.net/2017/03/24/2017-australian-grand-prix-practice-pictures/
Van Doorne had a minor off at turn 1.
So the highly reliable Ferrari in testing and its driver are sitting out of FP1?
Seb seems content to observe… I think that team are quietly confident this year.
Haha I’d find it funny if Ferrari ended up 6th and 7th or something
They have run only on softs till now.
I mean them sitting in the garage.
Doubtful. I’d bet they put most of 2016 resources behind this year’s car. I think they conceded 2016 early which is why they “under-performed”
Wouldn’t be surprised if they did and it wouldn’t necessarily mean they aren’t that quick. That said, I wasn’t convinced by their pace in testing. Not onboard the hype train, let’s say!
I dont know keith obviously im not in Hype Train but i feel there is a vast difference in them compared to last season or putting it this way ive never seen a Ferrari team like this since 2009 or 10 i believe. they haven’t done big mouth statements they are keeping them selves a very low profile , Lets see how they go
Awesome. Very aggresive
so Ferrari holding their cards to their chests. Only ran Softs while others ran Supersofts and Merc running Ultrasofts
last year Q vs this year FP1 we are only 0.4 off. I guess pole will be sub 20 tomorrow if its dry
Are we going to see sub 1:20s on Saturday? sub 1:19s?
There’s a prize if you can get it right :-)
https://www.racefans.net/predictions/
Already entered. Though my prediction might be just wishful thinking… What would be cool to see is at the end of the year the cars come back to Melbourne to post times to see how much development they do over the year. Won’t happen, but it would be cool to compare.
Judging by past years…about 3-3.2 seconds difference between FP1 and Qualy
There’s one other variable to keep in mind, of course:
Rain may affect first qualifying of 2017
The McLaren is quite the contrast to the Force India. The latter full of sponsors.
Hearing interesting things about Force India’s weight gain. They may not be the only ones heavier than they intended to be…
Who else are heavier?
And moving…..fast….
Ferrari are going to hit the tracks :)
@evered7 good to see u back for another season mate!
Likewise, buddy! Hoping for a great season of racing.
Super Softs?
Yup. 1 tenth between the drivers. But RB and Merc seem faster.
Hello all. This looks great!
Does that Vettel onboard looked any where near like pushing ?
He suspects an MGU-K problem according to his radio (see tweets).
Ah that sucks
Seems the Mercedes is so long Bottas is having difficulty getting out of his garage. Hamilton can turn out more cleanly as there’s a bit more space to the side of his car but there’s a strut on one side which gets in the way for Bottas. It’s always hard to tell for sure but it appeared as though the W08 was the longest car in pre-season testing. (Height and width are fixed by the regulations of course.)
Crofty was saying it is 3.7m long
Will be interesting around Monaco Hairpin later in the year ;)
Baku Castle section will be fun
They do seem slightly too long in fairness
Excited for 2017 f1
a 1:28 race lap time a 20 in q is surely possible sub 20 is a guess
Ferrari just .8s faster than Haas? I don’t believe it.
Relax no one is pushing mate. :)
Have a feeling that Haas might have shown the cards.
I honestly doubt that but lets wait for some more hours shall we :)
By Q3 tomorrow every thing will be displayed
Can’t wait for FP2 and long run times. Of courses Q3 will tell all tales.
What was Hamilton’s fuelled lap on US again? 1.28.xxx? Verstappen’s 1.29.3 on SS.
Juggling between 28 low to high guess some sort of saving and pushing is going on
Ah. So the ferrari having problems……again. Lol.
Why? Somthing happen? To early for any firm conclusions surely?
Yeah. Vettel reported problems with his MGU -K
Session’s over, sad times :(
cyas for FP2
Well that went quickly, in every sense! Here’s the first practice report of 2017:
https://www.racefans.net/2017/03/24/2017-australian-grand-prix-first-practice-result-fp1/
Howdy all! Nice to finally some 2017 F1 cars circulating now that NBCSN has graced us here in the states with FP2.
Well, evidently this is a delayed broadcast of FP1. Thanks NBC!
OK, NBC is broadcasting FP2 as well…
FP2 in 15 min or 1 hr 15 min?
15 minutes from now
Ah thanks :)
How does Ferrari do it. They did not look like they were just hiding pace in FP1, were they?
Rather like just having issues.
I dont know but Vettel has K issues according to tweet posted here.
But then again no one is really pushing so every one is hiding pace.
About Ferrari pace they didn’t improve as much as we expect them to be from S to SS
The only thing that is certain from FP1 is that the cars are really fast
Welcome back in time for second practice everyone. We could see the track record fall in the next 90 minutes – the target is Sebastian Vettel’s 1’23.529 from Q2 in 2011, set in a Red Bull-Renault RB7.
Ah so Max/Vet/Alo wasn’t going out any time soon then
So what do people think of the new graphic for lap times/sectors?
Mixed: it keeps drawing my eyes to it, instead of at the car; but, it gives more direct feedback about how the lap is going, so I’ll take it.
I think the McLaren looks quite nice.
The Honda engine sure sounds funny…
Back in the V8 era they had an odd-sounding engine too, it was the only one which sounded distinctively. Unfortunately it was also rubbish…
Pretty sad to see how they stick with both of those in this new era. Odd sound is great, but the performance, sigh.
Right, if it performed the sound wouldn’t matter too much. This sound is more like a cry for help…
I guess we’ll hear Grosjean complaining about the brakes again a lot this weekend.
You can take that to the bank :-)
Issue for Magnussen then, they told him to slow down and get back in
With longer lasting tires & more aero downforce creating more wake behind the car, I wonder if we are going to see more 1 stoppers
Uploading some new pictures and struck once again by how awesome this year’s cars look.
Okay, so RAI a bit faster than BOT, but you’d expect both to be able to go faster with SS; VET lost in last sector with traffic.
Lewis 0.009 slower than Kimi, but he is on softs…
Hm, did Ferrari copy the Williams mirror stalks (or independent development) since testing?
1.24.926 for Vettel on SS, 1.25.096 for Hamilton on S
So now VET goes 1st, but still not the fastest in the last sector. By the way, what does the grey sector indicators mean; no data?
Not improvement over his PB
Ah, so it is what used to be ‘white’ times then, thanks.
He was upto 4 tenths quicker than Kimi till that point and completely lost it in the last sector. Not sure Hamilton being there had something to do with it.
Still good to see the Ferrari punching in those times.
Hearing a lot more team radio in this session. Writing up what I can in the Twitter feed. Will post longer messages here when necessary.
Those sidepod wings on the red bull look like shoulder blades :)
Jo Palmer gets the honors of crashing the first for the new year.
RED FLAG
First crash of the year. And these Renault overalls are hideous
but still already an improvement on the yellow bottom, black shirt from testing.
Vettel will be very happy about that McLaren going past him :-)
So, unless VER (have to get used to that) had an issue, he’s been somewhat penalised for waiting to go out – which is good.
So Renault and Williams are causing the issues on track. While Honda seem to be running pretty much with no issues :)
I don’t think we need to see quite that much Massa walking, I’d rather have cars on track.
…and there’s Grosjean complaining about his brakes!
good to see some things stay the same in F1… that and PAL showing quality driving skills
He was whining about the whole last year also. I read somewhere kmag has no problems with them.
Ferrari wasn’t sandbagging at all then looking at the times they are posting now.
Vettel q sim got disturbed twice from the looks of it one from Massa and another from Palmer
So earlier we had a great season if Mercedes were out of the picture, now its just Hamilton that needs to excuse himself from proceedings?
And Mercedes let it rip. Half a second faster than an improved Vettel. Bottas just behind that in 3rd, still learning?
I dont get it what people are expecting from others Merc is still the best car in field.
they have great Aero and Impressive PU. NO way any team can cut the PU side with a winter alone. they may cut them by Aero but in PU they are best and they will be ahead
Or will we come to appreciate Rosbergs speed a bit more when Bottas can’t quite get close to Lewis anywhere?
It certainly seems to give Ferrari a better chance to start on the front row for now.
1.23.620, wow
So, stoffel a bit faster than ALO – at least he’s not yet being shown up.
Woah, Max
Lots of grass in the front wing – shows how low they’ve got it!
Giving us spectacular already :-)
I think this season will be much more boring than the last one. At least last year we had rosberg vs Hamilton. It will be a breeze this year for hamilton, mark my words.
AUS isn’t a very representative track, so could still be that VET is in it.
Yeah. Exactly. Aus is not a Mercedes strong track AFAIK. So if merc destroy Ferrari here…
Not really a 2+2 = 4 kind of assumption to be made. Could be that Merc is more suited to this track than Ferrari. And we haven’t even gone to race pace yet.
The situation looks pretty clear to me. Ferrari are way behind mercedes at the moment.
Max is trying too hard. RB not really having the best of the downforce producing machines?
Maybe how they had to change their suspension didn’t help either. Yeah, let’s hope Vettel can at least keep up a bit of pressure on Lewis this weekend, and Bottas gets to look at Hamilton’s data and improve too :-)
Me feels the gap is too big to be reduced by a bit of data copying. I think Rosberg will get more respect this year than any of his of years in F1 ;)
The year we finally get to understand that Schumacher wasn’t an old slow version but rather ROS was very fast already? Could be. BOT needs to study that HAM data and use it!
Schumi definitely was on the wrong side in terms of age. But Rosberg was known for his speed already since his Williams years. But yes, it was not a bad showing at all from the veteran.
yeah, could well be @evered7
Bottas has a one year contract? He needs to get down and get to grips with the car quickly.
So far pretty much as expected. Looks like testing is not that bad of a basis for predictions.
Hey @bascb welcome to another season mate!
Hi too. Looking forward to an interesting year. Biggest question: will McLaren be able to get to the finish :-)
if they running like now yes
i can’t imagine them finishing the race atm
Agreed, though I’m surprised they haven’t had a failure yet in FP1 & 2. Still 3 seconds off the pace however.
One thing im not convinced of Ferrari pace is that They have some Grey bars instead of all green bars in timing loops in their ultra soft runs
Or maybe the tyres being a bit harder means only Mercedes has the proper DF to switch them really on here.
But when you are on a q sim lap and on faster tire you will be going faster they might not be faster than merc but they are not quicker than their harder tire fast time in some timing loops
Well, since this is the first time ever they show it, it’s quite hard to know how it behaved in earlier years …
Agree :))
I think Hamilton’s lap also had some grey ones
I know some in S1 and 3 but from what i saw ferrari had more and thats both for Seb and Rai
The cars are really beautiful this year.
Ross Brawn is already at the Mercedes garage haha
Oh, Crofty shows he’s worth something – picking up that conversation from Brawn about strategy group.
Brawn getting down to business right away.
Good to hear him focussed.
technically they all started work in Testing, so he’s probably into full swing by now
Ricciardo goes to a good car from a Ok car & beats a 4 time WC.
Let’s see what Bottas is made of.
Any proper site where find a good live stream ?
The list of live video links is at the top as usual.
Thank you Keith
@Keith I am not able to find any links on the top!
@Paul, have you found?
A Simple 1 Stopper US-SS
Seems likely indeed. Wonder is some will try SS-US instead.
Possible for RBR /SF likely to upset Bottas
Another stoppage for Magnussen.
Did HAM have traffic, or is that the tyres going (last laps 1:41, 1:33 …)
probably traffic, quite a few cars on track now.
He came back to 1:28.0. So traffic.
Omnious run from him than, degredation very much under control with those US from him.
Well Kvyat was able to overtake someone…
solid run from Ocon so far, staying in the high 1:29s for much of his run of 11 laps on the US
We don’t know the fuel loads, but Vettel a lot slower in general than the Mercedes boys on the long run
He is on slower tyres, so that might be a factor, but 21 laps on US from HAM with not much degradation does indeed look omnious.
But even on the same tyre he was much slower
if the F1 Timing app is correct, HAM has completed 21 laps on his UltraSofts
The Ferrari seems very, very steady and smooth in the corners.
but not too fast on a long run though
Lots of downforce?
But speed is not there at all.
That run from RIC so far on US is well over a second off Hamilton.
he looks slower than Rai as well
Anyone else having connection issues with the F1 app? Keep losing connection…
Sauber doing a steady stint on softs as well. Not too much deg. So the tires seem to be holding for all.
Ericsson ending the session early
Quite a few drivers having graining on the front right by the looks of it.
The Tires all the Compounds are very highly durable i can see US lasting for 30 laps easy 1 stopper with US and SS no use of S at all unless temp makes graining harder to manage
Maybe if anyone has an issue in lap one and gambles on going to the end they might take softs, but then again, the SS could possibly manage the whole race too with a bit of management
Yes, Unless like Last year Austria where SS despite being Quickest the graining made it hard to use compared to S. i see no reason why they use S here apart from first lap mess up by some
We didn’t get quite as many WAG shots when there were actually cars on track going fast. I hope that is a trend
the cameramen liked Verstappen’s sister
I like her too. Could well be racing too :-)
Had to laugh at saying it is positive Ricciardo had only 0.9 degradation, a bit less than Hamilton – only to, half a minute later calculationg their averages being 1:28.0 HAM vs. 1:29.3 RIC; that’s not going to help much then is it (and it was quite clear from the times).
I think the merc shown that they are fastest as Vettel stated too many times before today.
Lets see how the season goes but i hope we are in a good season rather than a boring one. F1 needs a competitive season like 2010 where multiple teams are in until end of year
Well that’s the first day of running done everyone. First up here’s the second practice report:
https://www.racefans.net/2017/03/24/hamilton-completes-practice-sweep-ahead-vettel/
And don’t forget to make your predictions – we’ve got a total of 13 prizes to win this weekend!
https://www.racefans.net/predictions/
Well atleast the purists will enjoy the racing now(except DRS). F1 tradition for the win!
The best thing changed is Symonds working with Sky. Instead of Ted hyping crazy (and often somewhat Hamilton/Brit biased) theories, we get some real insight.
What’s happened to Ted? I think he’s great
I think Ted is great – if he was a guest on Celebrity Brain Crash on Grand Tour. For me, be much happier if Ted’s hyped up drivel and fake pronouncements remained in his smarmy imagination.
Looking forward to hearing more from Symonds this season. Refreshing to watch someone on TV who has actual technical experience in F1.
Bit of a funny interview with Ricciardo there. He almost seemed coy to admit they thought they do have something in hand (if they get back to what they were doing this morning) there. I hope they do.
I hope so too, but both Horner and Verstappen saying they were more or less where they expected to be makes me hesistant to credit it much.
So, is Lewis trying to crack Valtteri? I think he might be having a go at it.
Okay, got to go, and will be traveling during qualifying, so let’s say: see you all on Sunday, hopefully it turns out closer than it looks so far.
Hello everyone and welcome to live comments for today’s final practice session.
Big news at Sauber today:
Giovinazzi to make F1 debut in place of Wehrlein at Sauber
Good morning all from the south of France.
Good morning from sunny Perth Australia. Love the testing coverage you provided this year. So excited for this season.
Hello Alll!!! Soo good to be back!!! Couldn’t join the live chat yesterday
Always nice to see you LAK, happy new season! :-)
Aww thanks same here! Can’t wait to see what it this season has for us!
welcome back to the new season mate!
Thanks! Hope you enjoy the season too! :)
Kimi’s stopped
And he’s back, seems like a technical issue
Left rear flat.
Oh thanks
No one is sure why the engine cut out.
This Ferrari is gorgeous.
It’s the nicest I’ve seen in years.
Those “Formula 1 Experiences” signs scream Liberty Media.. Hope they’re fan friendly experiences.
Yep they are – here’s more about them:
https://www.racefans.net/groups/f1/forum/topic/f1-launches-f1-experiences/
Thanks!
Vettel into 1:23. 1:23.989.
yeah Ferrari running US tyres on a longer run i think, they didn’t run it in FP2 when everyone else was
They did run but the run was interrupted with many on track disturbances in the form of other cars.
Interesting that he does the best lap after a few laps on the run. Significant improvement as well.
This pink needs getting used to lol, at least it’s a nice pale pink. Ok now I feel like I want to have some bubble gum..
I don’t mind getting some color diversity to the grid haha. Not a big fan of the pink car, but still a supporter.
Yeah it’s growing on me.
Kvyat sitting in a (cold) puddle.
hrmm… extinguisher gone off?
When you pay sky for a premium service and they cannot get sky-go to work, you know it is a rip-off.
Back to the “special” internet stream for me!
I’m from the US and here NBC does not even offer commentary on FP1 and FP3, which turns out to be a good thing because when they do offer commentary (FP2, Qualy, and Race), the advertising in just unbearable. Sometimes they cut to ads as cars are closely racing side by side or when somebody is on a charge of fastest laps. I envy the Sky F1 coverage.
As Antonio Giovinazzi is making his race debut you can now select him in the Predictions Championship:
https://www.racefans.net/predictions/
And you can also pick him as one of the drivers you support.
Nice to see Mercedes not being able to usurp the fastest time on a tire compound one level harder.
Lewis .5s behind Vettel on a harder tyre compound.
Is Sky Sports coverage always this weak or are they just having a bad weekend?
Relying on them this weekend and still thinking should I watch from Sky or from pay-per-view this year
Grosjean was all over the place through the hairpin but yet looked stupidly fast.
These new cars are ridiculous.
Hi there Will nice to see you :)
Looks like degradation is so low on the ultra-softs the front-runners are going to use used sets in qualifying.
But why would they? Is there an advantage?
Kimi 0.001 ahead of Vettel
Interesting qualy battle between the Ferraris this year?
It’s interesting, Raikkonen always gets very sniffy and defensive whenever anyone suggests he might do better in the new cars, but he really does look more comfortable in them.
Quickly put to bed by Vettel with a 6 tenths faster time.
I thought Williams’ testing pace looked suspicious and so far there’s been nothing to suggest they are genuinely as quick as Massa’s best laps at the Circuit de Catalunya.
New track record
There it is! Think we’ve got more to come though…
For now.
Mercedes sandbagging. Ham did a 1:23.6 yesterday, didn’t he?
While I agree that Mercedes is likely to be sandbagging, remember yesterday afternoon might on a different track temperature. Hamilton out now again, see if he has a response.
It is there. But if Ferrari improved more than a half second, I expected Mercedes to at least match their best time.
Yes he did. But i think will be close between Vettel and him on qualy.
I think Mercedes will be at least a couple of tenths faster. Let’s see.
Hello guys. New track record. I expect a pole lap in mid 1:21s
Just tuned in – the Ferrari pace genuine?
Ferrari has a reputation of over-performing in Free Practice, but I have to say they seem to take a very patient approach to all three Practice sessions so far, so no one can know.
Probably some qualifying sim. We won’t exactly know till Q3.
Lewis and Bottas 0.5s behind the Ferrari on same tyres.
Ferrari’s typical FP performance push or its sheer pace in action?
I fail to see what would be the point of hiding performance a couple of hours away from qualifying. What’s the other team going to do with the information? Try to go faster?
They can observe your specific sector times, see where you’re going a bit faster, observe your set-up, then try to improve their own.
People start their race strategies with Qualy, so if ur faster than all competition, u might go one way with strategy compared to if u were on pace or slightly off pace
Verstappen sounding a bit miffed on the radio.
Stroll in barrier
agreed
Haha Stroll or Palmer, who will crash first in the race?
Stroll brushed the barriers, red flag.
Would be useful if we had full standings on the left hand side.. Hoping its missing is just because of a graphic glitch or something
Stroll keeps on strolling
FOM is trying to fix it
Tuned in, Stroll in the wall, all is normal
nod… I’m surprised it hadn’t happened earlier
hahaha woooooooo
This guy is the new Maldonado.
took the words out of my mouth!!
A good stream if anyone needs one
Looking at Hulkenberg in fifth thinking “that’s good for Force India”, then realised “that’s really good for Renault!”
LOL!
Hehe
Same place as Maldonado in 2012 race?
Same place as Bottas in 2014. Maldonado crashed couple of corners before that
oh! thanks! yup it was costly for Bottas as well as he was really on to some great points that day.
No Maldonado’s crash was at turn seven. Easy to get them mixed up through there’s about three corners like at Melbourne!
Thank you Keith.
Lawrence Stroll looking unimpressed in the Williams pit. Perhaps he’s realising this season is going to cost a bit more than he expected.
LUL http://hasstrollcrashed.today/ not updated, but funny to see page exists
Think a guy on here registered that during testing.
It just crashed, if there’s no bot to pull the data, which F1 won’t provide crash data, then a human has to manually update that.
I don’t get why Stroll didn’t want to do other junior formulae? If he’s got the money to be in F1, 2-3 years in quicker single seaters surely can’t harm. I don’t get it.
Looks like he needs it too.
Victor: kids these days don’t want to wait
Strolldonado crashes! Update the website!
so if it was anyone else, we’d be recalling Bottas doing exactly the same thing on debut in Williams
bottas didn’t crash 3x during pre-testing….
As much as I want Stroll to be out of his depth just to justify my own prejudices about his background, I think it’s still too early to make him out as a Maldonado-type.
I’m liking the HULK in P5… Renault looking potentially the 4th best car
That ferrari mechanic flirting rather than focusing on the job haha
there is always a PR guy that looks after the celebs in garages, i think that might be his job
Tell me you wouldn’t do the same if Nicole Kidman visits your garage haha
Wouldn’t.
Kimi and Seb getting chatty with Nicole Kidman. Confident they are :)
Kimi to Nicole: bwoahhhh…
No smile from Kimi lol
The Iceman talked. That is a big leap from him. Smile may come post Q3 :)
Hehe let’s wait and see..
yes they are…… Confident!!!
yes they are…… Confident!!!
maybe Hulk leaving FI for Renault was the right move?
I think so too. Factory engine + stable team it seems to be a good formula for success when done right
could be a good year for him, i think new regs play to his strengths as well
Yeah I think so too… HULK and VET are similar, when they feel happy, they perform out of their skin
Thanks for joining in guys, here’s the session report:
https://www.racefans.net/2017/03/25/vettel-puts-ferrari-top-stroll-crash-ends-practice/
And remember we’ve got some great prizes to win in the Predictions Championship this year so make your first entry of the new season here before qualifying starts:
https://www.racefans.net/predictions/
Gearbox change for Stroll so he gets a five-place grid penalty.
yeah doesn’t surprise me… 1st of many throughout the year I suspect
Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live for the first qualifying session of 2017!
If you weren’t here in time for practice the first thing you should know is the first driver change of 2017 happened a bit earlier than we all expected:
Giovinazzi to make F1 debut in place of Wehrlein at Sauber
The second thing you should know is Ferrari are leading the times at the moment:
Vettel puts Ferrari on top as Stroll crash ends practice
And the third thing you should know is you’ve got less than an hour to make your first Predictions Championship entry for the new season:
Win F1 games, videos and more with your Australian GP predictions
Have to wait till Q3 to know who got the fastest car this time around. So near yet so far.
Ok, looking forward to this qualifying. While I did put a notification in my calendar, putting my phone on silent meant having a nice lie in during FP3, so I’m even more thrilled for this session!. Is the pace of the Renault real, or was it more that others did not get a chance to improve with the red flag. And are Williams in trouble with reliability?
Also, who expects Vettel to still be ahead come Q3? And will Bottas get as close to lewis as he was last session. All those questions :-)
I can’t wait… so much hype :)
Looking at the predictions is very interesting… seems like a vast majority vote for a Hamilton pole, with runner up being Vettel. After that it’s almost a dead heat between Kimi and Bottas with the lone (so far that I saw) Verstappen vote (1:18.000!)
Interesting how people think of their predictions :)
Given that you’ve described my prediction, which way did you go?
I went with a Kimi pole (couldn’t choose between Hamilton and Vettel) and a Hamilton win.
what have you seen in Kimi to think he could get on pole?
Nothing, but I couldn’t pick between Vettel and Hamilton. I figured Kimi over Bottas was likely, so I went with something I knew wouldn’t be correct, but would be second most likely.
so u treat the predictions like a traditional bet, going for the odds
I guess so :)
I think it is still more likely for Bottas to get pole than for Kimi. For the race, off course, Ferrari will again use Kimi as test bed for Vettel (pitting him 3-4 laps too early) or let him hang out to dry (pitting him 2 laps too late), so yeah he is not getting on the podium
But the race doesn’t reflect on the qualifying, does it? Or are we all wrong about the “the race is on Sunday” comments? :D
Off course a lot can happen in the race. And the points get dealed on Sunday. But starting at the front does give a very strong indication of how things will go. Especially with the gaps to further back we have and reliability what it is, it would need serious mishaps to change that.
Lots of 1:21.xxx predictions. Not sure where everyone is seeing a 1.4 second improvement from any of the drivers can come from? Anyways, went for HAM pole & sweep.
I’m currently doing my statistics course in Univ. Would be interesting to do some statistical analysis on these predictions! Why didn’t I think of it before…
its funny for me to watch sky’s interview with Max / Martin drive around my home town
:-)
at the moment they’re driving around St Kilda / Port Melbourne, and I work in Port Melbourne :P
Can anyone stop Mercedes dominating in Australia?
I do think that Vettel might have a chance at splitting them. Or maybe I just hope he could?
I think RBR are sandbagging too, but how much is the question
I get the impression that they are still struggling to get things together @dragoll since they had to ditch the fancy suspension. You can see they got the chassis wrong because they are blaming the engine again
Where did the “we didn’t change anything much” go then Horner? I still think that the thing they hadto change has a large influence on why RBR are not there on pace.
Good morning everyone. How do you rate the chances of a Vettel pole?
Maybe 20%? Less?
Sounds about right to me
Jon Noble @NobleF1 4m4 minutes ago
More
Ferrari has already fitted second Control Electronics and Energy Store to Kimi Raikkonen’s car. Only allowed four for season.
oops. And again, the tech issues are at Kimis car.
i feel for you and Kimi, we as kimi fans collectively grief for such occurrence
Thus restoring the second driver status with the Finn.
Hamilton reported his car was sliding a bit more in the second and third sectors according to Mercedes. Track temperature was up a bit in the third session compared to yesterday and there’ll be more rubber down – they’ve just had the third Supercars race of the weekend.
Hopes:
1 – Ferrari really is competitive with Mercedes
2 – Hulk places the Renault higher than it should be
3 – McLaren/Honda can qualify in a decent place for the race without melting down. (hope & a prayer here)
All of that would be great yes.
And we are green! So, who will drop out in Q1?
Stroll probably will (will he do a lap even?), maybe the Saubers? Palmer, and Kvyat? Or stoffel?
Hii there BasCB! :)
Hi, welcome to the new season!
Thanks! Enjoy the season!
Sky looks gray-ish. Rain coming soon?
no rain around track… its clear. the hype over rain is just that, hype..
Jos Verstappen on Dutch tv: “Maximum result for Max is 5-7”. “It’s going to be a tough year”.
Weather radar around melbourne.. there is little to nothing around… http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR023.loop.shtml#skip
Stoffel right back in the pits…. Jeez
Call me an idiot but it might be possible that Red Bull has been sandbagging all this time since pre season and they may actually have an absolutely awesome car that will storm pole and win.
I am not a red bull fan and have still predicted ferrari to win but I think they are that slick/sneaky to do something like that, especially with Horner and Ric talking about a slim chance to challenge for the championship. Makes you think they have something hidden.
I know this is a stretch but it could be possible that they will even wait for a couple of race to lull other teams into a false sense of security.
I know this sounds crazy but just a theory
I wouldn’t have put it past them
Yep. Just a theory. Look, they have already started blaming the engine. That is a clear sign that they went wrong somewhere and are not fast enough to me.
Is live timing not working?
Crofty just mentioned they are having issues with the live timing on world feed
We will now know the true pace of everybody, yikes!
Bit of an embarrassment for Liberty Media in their first race weekend since taking over the sport to have these television problems. They seemed to lose track footage for a few minutes and now no timing graphics.
Bernie sabotaging stuff :-O
An embarrassment no doubt seeing they said they were working on it something like 3 hours ago. Did they turn it off and turn it on again?
Since we get only a one or maximum 2 stops, there really is no good reason to save on the tyres, is there. Also the Ultras might warm up better currently
Trouble for Vandoorne?
Here we go Vandorne already has problems
Morning F1Fanatic! Welcome back everybody!
Morning! Welcome to the new season
Unspecified deity on a bike, the onboard looks terrifyingly quick through 11/12!!!!
This is great :D
A mclaren broken already?
HULK 7th
Stroll will be able to set a lap then. Good for him.
Red Bull slower than Force India and just a tenth quicker than Renault is hard to get your head around.
I think RAI is safe… Stroll unlikely to come out, VAN may not come out, and PAL, not sure if he intends on coming out…
Stroll is just doing a lap out there …
yeah i saw that just as i hit post, lul
but slow
Welcome back for the new season! I’m just watching the new cars for the first time. Those tires look YOOOGE. Looks like some good grip.
It’s so annoying not having on-screen timing graphic. They better fix this for Q3 where the real battle is.
Love ocons helmet, wish the car looked a little like that
Yeah, a bit more vibrant colour than the rather bleached pink of the car.
The pink cars are giving me heartburn. :)
Force Gaviscon!
the FI pink isn’t quite pink, it kinda looks like a white car washed with a red overalls
Yeah though so too, wish it was a little more violent pink
Kimi beating the other Finn in the Mercedes. Both on US.
Kmag off at turn 12. Always scary there, but caught it.
Giovinazzi up on Ericsson
Ericsson bumped him
Giovinazzi showing why he should excite us!
In the end he made a mistake that enabled Ericsson to beat him. Markus got a bit of a wake up call too.
Nooooo! Giovinazzi is running number 36?!
That’s my lucky number gone. Heartbreaking. Despite me having a whole host of reasons preventing me from ever claiming it myself. I’m too tall. Too heavy. Too poor. Too old. And I lack natural talent.
Alonso! Yes, rain please, laughing hard
Nice lap from Max there. Maybe the RB do have some speed.
At least Alonso made it!
Neat the new very granular timing graphics. Not sure if it’s useful.
wow, palmer v hulk may be the most one sided pairing in a while
Verstappen 3rd..
Interesting , are RB sandbagging..
wow Alonso. just around 1.5 second off P1 isnt looking that bad. a nice surprise there
RAI need to go out on ulta-softs. ERI 15th at 1:26.236.
Hi
Go home Palmer…
Palmer starting out as the same embaressment he was at the start of last year. Altough I guess there is a point to what Vandoorne mentions about having only very little time to do it
HULK 5th. PAL 20th…
I’m gald for HUL. The guy is a class act and deserves more recognition IMHO
I could not agree more mate
So happy to see him in car that has the potential to get competitive
Hulkenberg thrashing Palmer.. Grosjean pounds Magnussen… Alonso crushes Vandoorne. I’m loving the fact that driver skill is having a bigger effect.
Hats off to Giovinazzi though.. pretty impressive performance from him.
Just wait for Vandoorne to show his real talent, by the logic you are using vandoorne is already better than button based on 1 result
Palmer is looking increasingly very ordinary driver. Look at the gap to Hulk.
And that then also qualifies magnussen …
Why don’t they show proper timing screens?
sky says there is a tech problem with the official feed.
this session kinda proves that last year renault had one of the worst driver pairing in a long long time
True!
From the wide panoramic shot – the rain is coming!
From the people who are actually there at the track: NOPE
there is no rain coming… i live 15km away from track and the weather radar shows none. http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR023.loop.shtml
You see it on the radar and in the international feed :) Maybe you’re on the other side?
I was so annoyed that there was no timing on the screen
Russian hackers! :-)
I don’t know if Stroll’s car still survives from damage in FP3, but if that’s his pace, those who are calling for his replacement may have a point.
the crash itself in testing and FP3 is probably more to the point ;)
The car is fine. But lets give him a bit of slack, he is a rookie. I think it is more embarresing for the likes of Palmer and Magnussen to be this far off their team mates after at least a year more experience
Thank you Pat Symonds to not being victim of positive Brit bias. Rightly pointing out that the real difference is probably Hulk
so glad the mighty hulk not driving around in that pinky car. Hulk in a good place. Factory Renault
Glad to see that drivers are finally making the difference (Hill’s point)!
+1
That would certainly be a positive yeah.
I’m glad to see big gaps between teammates. Finding the limit is clearly a lot harder than it has been. Driver skill matters again!
the field itself seems much closer this year
Is the timing screen working at all?
With rtl there is no problem
Thank you. I was talking of the F1 Live Timing. Seems that Bottas and Hamilton got into the timed lap a lil later and hence no times shown.
All good.
Thank god the left side timing returns!
The cream of the crop really showed their hand in this Q1 session. As expected the weakling teammates are already eliminated or trailing their teammates by large margins.
Giovanazzi showing to be an exciting rookie. Although I guess we can cut Vandoorne some slack here vs. Alonso
He had a fuel pressure problem.
Alonsos rain is approaching
Looks like we might have rain in Q3
123.215 – Bottas, nice
nice Bottas.. I still think if this was Q3 Lewis would have pushed more..
Fantastic Bottas.
If he can be within 3/10s in Q3 I’ll be happy this weekend.
Hamilton with used ultras?
both on fresh USs. Remember, they will start the race on these tyres.
Hamilton on used US, expects to go again perhaps
Hamilton did have used ultras on, he will probably run again.
wait, they changed the graphic now. Those were indeed used ones, so will he do another lap then?
That new graphic is really nice in showing the comparison between Hamilton and Bottas in single loops
Yup
Yeap, Hamilton was on used ultras
So I’m off to work, you guys have fun
Good day! Do as I do, following f1 fanatic on train :)
Torro Rossi cars really looks good
If you can afford the research, may as well, I suppose.
Vintage Raikkonen radio there.
Mercedes having a .2s advantage over Ferrari. We rarely see Ferrari making up performance to Mercedes in Q3, more often the other way around. So things are close but Mercedes seems to have it.
Verstappen also on used ultra softs
Why ham and ves on used?
Cos if it rains it won’t matter and they’ll have a fresh set tomorrow?
Saving tyres for Q3 and the race?
Rain for Q3? Might make it interesting. If not, I’m going HAM, VET, RAI, BOT
I’d be surprised if a Ferrari can split the Mercs today. Let’s hope for some rain though.. I’d predict Alonso getting in to the top 8 if it does.
He might have done, if he didn’t have that pig of an engine.
Lol love Kimi’s radios
What he say i missed it?
Good lap from Massa.
Another broken McLaren. Shocker.
first engine down then …
Honda is the Samsung of F1. lol
Pretty soon they won’t be able to put th e cars on planes 🤣
Seems running behind a team mate and complaining to the team is a thing (Verstappen, Vandoorne). And being hampered by cars ahead too.
Man these cars look alive in the corners. Awesome.
Vettel coming out with a sizable advantage over the overall field? He has a spare US compound from Q1, trying out setups for Q3?
Since Verstappen and Hamilton did their first laps on used US he did not save anything compared to them.
Lot of new graphics! Like them, especially the 27 sub-sectors
Yeah so much detail
I can’t believe I ever got used to those old, weird-looking tall wings… These cars are beautiful again.
It’s odd: I never really minded them, but now the look oddly squished
Yeah, I know the feeling.
Did Hamilton do another run on new tyres?
so far he hasn’t
No
Weird..
Yeah, don’t understand that
Well, they must have a lot of faith in these new tires
Or maybe he wasn’t on used US tyres afteall and they made a mistake with the graph?
Or the graph is wrong or this tyres are rock solid, because Hamilton will have to start on them
He’s only done one more lap on them than Bottas has so not a big difference.
Temperatures going down hurting ppl wanting to imporve? We’ve seen that before in Australia (relatively late afternoon)
And we have rain apparently
BBC 5live mentioned that although it doesn’t look like it is raining yet
ok, HAM was on new tyres not used
Phew
yeah, not the first time they have the graph wrong.
Good to know that Alonso’s car did not fail on him completely. He did improve his lap in the end, with the engine running
P13 is much better than what I thought McLaren could do
Finishing the session with both cars functional is a plus (a positive surprise even) in my view!
Massa will get a penalty for that
What for?
Evidently blocked Perez
ok Q3 will tell us just how close Ferrari and RBR are to Merc
According to Mercedes Hamilton started Q2 on a new set of ultra-softs, so perhaps there’s an error on the tyre graphic.
So OCO, MAG, VAN, STR, PAL really didn’t deliver today compared to their teammates. Some are excused, most are not. Let’s keep an eye on them next race…
Well to be fair, stoffel had more or less one lap to do the trick
Stoffel yes. Palmer and Stroll made their weekends difficult by crashing.
Indeed, I wouldn’t be too harsh on Vandoorne. But Palmer and Magnussen got their backsides handed to them. And Giovanazzi nicely woke up Ericsson too.
Positively surprised about McLaren. After all the problems they’ve had (and still have) the deficit to the midfield is relatively small. I think McLaren can challenge for P4 this year.
u must own a very rosey pair of glasses
I wish that to be true
Hopefully they won’t have to replace their engines before the race…
The old war horse is still there and kicking. Massa saving Williams this season.
Best of the rest so far, after Merc/Ferrrari/RBR
Great to see, didn’t like the comments made over his retirement, he didn’t deserve that much negativity, now he has the chance to prove them wrong
Q3 is finally here!
Raining in turn 13 – SkyF1 according to spectators
They are wheeling the Merc out of the garage. The problem Keith mentioned yesterday with the less room for the big car.
yeah, apparently he can’t turn out of the garage because the FW would hit something.
Looking forward to hotel hairpin in Monaco then
So amateur meteorologists here said it won’t rain, eh?
the rain is on the north side of the city, not enough to wet the track
Hello all!
Does anyone know why VET went back on track, stopped his lap, but still slightly improved his time?
He had a great lap, but seemed to not want to show his hand at the straight, he closed the DRS early by braking BEFORE the top speed loop
Yes, that’s what he did,
but I must say I don’t really understand *why* he did it! We could all see he gave up on the final bit of the straight… Maybe he wanted to test something on the car.
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR023.loop.shtml rain on the north side of the city, the track is the south side of the city
So who is in q3?
Bot, ham, rai, vet, ric, ver, mas, gro, kvy, sai – Not correct order
Glad to see the large difference between teammates as well
wow I have to tsay the new timing screen on the global feed is good. with sub-sector info
Come on Bottas
Wow HAM has been sandbagging it. I thought VET was
Fast times
A Merc – Ferrari front row? Bring it on!!!
Damn, I should have stuck with that last pole prediction time.
Oh what a shame for Ricciardo!
What is it with Aussie drivers underperforming in Melbourne?
Webber didn’t in his first race. And Daniel had solid races hre too. I think it is just that these cars when you start to loose them, they just get away from you
Yeah, but that was only good race ever by Webber there. He also crashed more often than not in Melbourne. RIC continuing from where he left
Oh Daniel!!
ferrari may not be faster, but so much closer than last year for sure
That mistake from Bottas on the straight did it for him. And now Daniel put paid to fast times from the others
That was very scruffy from him from the start.
Such a shame. That was a great session so far.
Bottas made a mistake on the straights which relegated him to third by just .002s. He still has the chance to make up the position. But I would hope everything stays the same, a Merc – Ferrari front row should be great to watch!
It feels more and more that RedBull was heavily impacted by the “active suspension” bann. Merc and Ferrari are there, RedBull is having such trouble. They’ve always had their car ready and dialed for the 1st race, but not this time.
Obviously I never trust a word he says, but Horner said that they had never ran it before, and had only just introduced it in testing last month, so it’s unlikely it would impact them much.
He is doing his BS talk on that @alesici. They have looked quite unstable ever since the second test session, where they had to drop that suspension. He also kept telling us that the changes to exhaust blowing wouldn’t change much. Only to later blame the FIA and the competition for hurting their speed by a massive amount from that.
Well, I guess that does put a lot of tension and excitement into the session. Especially with those drops blowing over making it a tad slippery on the grass maybe.
AMuS reported after testing that Mercedes holds an advantage of 0.3 sec over Ferrari. They couldn’t have made a more precise prediction.
Good job from them, yeah
Good on Ferrari for not making them look bad :-)
Grosjean showing that when the brakes hold on, that Haas is a good car, at least in the hands of a good driver!
The target was for the new cars to be five seconds quicker than 2015 Spanish Grand Prix pole position time.
For comparison the 2015 Australian Grand Prix pole position time was 1’26.327. They’re 3.831s up on that so far.
They look so much more faster and much more dynamic – way to go, F1!
Although, the benefit in Melbourne will be lower as there are lesser number of high speed corners here.
I’d go along with that. Tyre compound difference too.
Sunshine again. Busy last few minutes guaranteed.
Still hoping Ferrari have a little more left in the tank for Vet or Rai to go Pole, that is what my heart says anyways, my head says it will be Ham P1.
Ok, so Perez was having some issues with either the engine or the gb?
Glad nobody has mentioned changing the qualy format lately. This should be fun finish.
haas livery looks much better on track than in photos
Rain predicted for tomorrow as well?
No
http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/melbourne.shtml?ref=hdr
28c and 20% rain probability
That is a very impressive lap for Grosjean in the Haas.
Great result for Grosjean!
VET lost most of his time against HAM on 3rd sector alone
Yeah he sprung that on us!
1:22.1xx for the pole?
1:22.188 Hamilton , Vettel 1.22.268
I like how that graphic adapts as they go. A driver can have a purple, but it changes to grey when the guy behind goes faster at that loop.
Wow that’s amazing!
wow
WOOT!!! VET2nd
YES SEB!!!!
grande Seb Fantastica
Well, that’s ultra dissapointing
Where is 5s a lap faster cars? They were 1s faster than last year. I want my money back.
You got it all wrong
First of all, they were 1.7 seconds faster, not 1 second. And then the 5 second thing was vs. 2015 times – they were about 4.2 seconds faster than that. And let’s remember that Australia doesn’t have that many fast corners where the difference will be larger
Regardless of what you think of either of them, VET and HAM fighting it out will be entertaining. Looking forward to seeing the race pace.
Well that’s exciting
my heart is pounding hard!! vet!!! forza ferrari
Great one from Seb. Hope they can kick on from there.
It seems the driver really will make a difference this year.
Great. Vettel manages to split the MErcedes cars. Good to have him smelling blood and pushing it. Bottas can still be happy to have at least managed to be less than 3 tenths behind Hamilton for his first mercedes qualifying. Solid effort from Massa, great lap from Grosjean. Verstappen really had to husstle that Red Bull, but well done too.
Grande Seb Grande Fantastica Qualificationale
Damm Lewis and Seb put up some weight…
Vet hasn’t got to the weighing bridge yet. He’s inspecting each and everyone of the cars there :)
Hes looking for 0.300s
Lewis was taking a look as well. But Vet was almost doing a research paper on them.
Important to develop the car from here.
They are pro’s and know that everything counts, also to look for inspirational ideas.
Hope this sets the tone for 2017. HAM and VET are by far the most successful drivers of their generation and we are long overdue a proper title fight between the two.
Good quali. Nice to see the new cars. Sub sector times make it even more interesting.
Here’s the grid: https://www.racefans.net/2017/03/25/2017-australian-grand-prix-grid/
We don’t know whether Daniel will have to get a new GB yet though, that could still change it up a bit
Great result for Haas too, KMag looking really weak today though.
Hello everybody and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live, it’s almost time for the first race of the new season!
The Australian Grand Prix will begin in just over one-and-a-quarter hours.
Good morning from Sweden everybody. Hope that Ericsson crashes out.
I got my expectations low for this race
Always wonderful to hear Pat Symonds voice
Ricciardo’s going to be an interesting test of how tricky overtaking his. He’s usually willing to take a shot from further back than most.
Assuming he doesn’t trip over someone at turn one, of course…
Keith, there is an Edit button shown for your comments..
“WordPress 4.7.3 is available! Please notify the site administrator.
Sorry, you are not allowed to edit this comment.”
OK I’ll look into that.
So will it be a total mix of strategies today or will everyone end up doing 1 stop only? There is potential for RIC to try more agressive strategy. Maybe Ferrari splitting theirs too, one driver try 2 stops?
I don’t think there’s going to be much variation in terms of strategy. One-stoppers all round:
https://www.racefans.net/2017/03/25/ferrari-poised-push-mercedes-will-new-rules-wreck-racing/
Good morning from Berlin.
Hoping for a Good race
The best Day of the year… f1 begining 😈
Live from Montréal guys!
Enjoy the race my friends
Agree, thanks you too!
Good morning from Mumbai!
When does the race start (in UTC)?
31 minutes from now
5AM UTC
What will be your top 3 today? Will Vettel do it? What about Bottas?
I think it is going to be VET-HAM-BOT with VET-HAM always no more than 2 seconds apart for the whole race, no real passes between them but a constant tension. Similar to Austin 2012
Would love to see VET, RAI and VER but I think it will be HAM, VET, BOT, I think with these new cars there will be some coming together on the opening lap and the front three will get away.
Head says HAM, BOT, VET heart says HAM, VET, BOT
And a good morning from Australia’s northern neighbour, I guess
Good afternoon from, funnily enough, Melbourne :)
Rain please.
not going to happen
We don’t need rain. THis is the first race of the year. I want to see them go fast. Lets see how they manage over a GP difference
*distance
Looks like bad news for Dan
Ricciardo stuck on track, engine running, no gears
Ricciardo having Webber’s luck this race.
A bit like “kvyat’s Australian curse” too, not even making it to the grid
Was really looking forward to watching him try to move up through the field. What a disappointment
Well, I really feel for him.
% attrition for this race? How many will finish the race today?
3rd year or may be 4th year in a row a Redbull is struggling in Melbourne
Vettel in 14/ Kvyat 15 and 16 now Ric
Aus GP might set the record for most non-starting drivers or most substitutes used. 2015 – Alonso couldn’t start. 2016 – Bottas couldn’t start 2017 – Pascal and (probably) Ricciardo also can’t start
good morning guys from germany, never mind to get up this early when its Melbourne race Day
Good morning to you too! Just saw Ricciardo stopping on track underway to the grid, so he is not starting
Guten Morgan Friederike… Its the one race where I’m actually awake :P
Morgen.
Moin Moin aus dem Schwarzwald :)
RIC DNS?
Electrical issue.
Seems like poor thing..
Good Morning F1Fanatics! Enjoy your first race of the season! :)
Good morning everybody! Race on!
Something went wrong for RB when fixing RIC’s car after yesterday’s shunt?
Can’t RIC start from the pit lane?
He can, if they fix it in time
I am not even sure they got the car beack before the race. But if they would be able to install a new gearbox in time, then Ricciardo could indeed start from the pitlane.
Good morning. 1am counts as morning..
that’s dedication
good morning to all
Hello everybody from Malaysia. It’s been a long winter and here we are..all the best to everybody
Oops, so it looks like Kvyat also might not be able to start. His fire extinguisher went off on the grid.
Has he ever started in Melbourne?
Only start was 2014
Oh dear..
Gutted for Ric
And the local fans
Down to 19 cars already – hopefully Kvyat doesn’t make it 18 (he’s already failed to start the last two Australian Grands Prix).
https://www.racefans.net/2017/03/26/ricciardo-australian-gp-start/
with that extinguisher going off, It looks likely his Kvyat’s Australian curse will continue.
RIC DNS not certain yet?
Red Bull is trying to fix the car to start from pitlane
RIC DNS confirmed
:( Shame really
Good morning, guys!
Very excited for the race. Hopefully Ferrari can challenge today.
Hello from Perú. If my heart rate is increasing just by watching the transmission, I just can’t even imagine how these guys can handle the pressure.
Ricciardo in the car again
Oh yay :)))
“#GO_DAN” :) (shown on TV when RIC’s race is in the jaws of a DNS…)
How impressive if Haas btw, doesn’t get enough credit. A proper team.
Quite the change from the previous 3 new teams
Especially nice considering all their doomsayers
Ross Brawn and Todt together.
It’s official, the Ferrari International Assistance is back.
Well, we might still get 20 cars to start the race. STR managed to solve the issue with Kvyat. And Red Bull is frantically trying to replace a sensor to get Ricciardo to start at least from the pitlane
Hope they get Ricciardo going
They are trying a reset, not a sensor change. Resets may not work. If I remember correctly, Kimi did one in 2015 mid-race (very long pitstop) but the problem re-occured immediately. Also, VET in 2014 Aus GP started after a reset but it didn’t work
Yeah hope they manage to do so ..
Hello everyone.
Loving this feeling every year… All the excitement before the first race.
I know! And the feeling that we have so many races ahead..
Hello everyone; made it just in time. How are you all doing?
Good morning, excited and ready to go
Yep, same here; let’s hope the race delivers!
Hi there! Great and you? Enjoy the new season :)
hey bosy, its a great feeling, new season, new expectations, hype is real :)
Well pumped.
Hoping from a great race from Denver, Colorado!
good morning to you too! Yeah, looking forward to see them racing again :-)
Ready to go!
Good morning and have a good fun with f1 2017
Thought I saw a little man but it turned out to be Jean Todt
hi everyone
VET to win imo
I’d be perfectly happy with that
Exactly my thoughts.
So who will be the first to the first corner? Lewis, Vettel, or will either Kimi or Bottas surprise them
Grosjean. Remember Suzuka 2013…
That would be epic :-)
Vettel
just woke up. Didn’t see the gridwalk. Anyone saw Bernie on the grid?
Bernie hasn’t been visiting Australia for years now.
Pleasee. Be able to keep up with the merc.
hi everyonejust woke up. Didn’t see the gridwalk. Anyone saw Bernie on the grid?
Here we go everyone – here’s to a fantastic 2017!
Amen!! Yikes! Yay!
Why on earth would you start on softs? Surely even the SSofts should last most of the race
Aborted start
Uhhhhh the tension and then this
Why did they abort the start?
Hulk was in the wrong spot
Giving Red Bull more time to finish their homework?
Ahh my nerves… Haha another formation lap..
Well that’ll help with fuel consumption…
Exactly what I was coming to say.
Hey are being good sports for the Aussies
Hulk parked on the wrong place?
I think he overshot his marks a bit
Is RIC a lap down now?
Or he has more fuel than the field
race has not started for that to happen.
No
Uh I love these torro rossos
Good poont
Point
Is this going down to 56 laps?
Haha Keith’s comment <—
Good Morning!
Hamilton talking the same talk he had in Brazil … preparing to lose the start already?
Hahaha I called that! M.Ericsson :DDD
Beautiful move from Perez
Ericsson and Magnussen spun off, clean start for Ham, Bottas fighting Vettel, Perez passes.. Lots of overtaking liking this..
Vettel closer to Ham than Bot to Vet.
Perez looking racey!
McLaren still running
Vettel’s quick.
Finally!
RIC’s out.
Wow, VET attacking and not been attacked!
Gooooo Daniel!
Woo hoo!
Ricciardo is joining the race two laps down !
Ricciardo is running. Whether fully well or just for the show remains to be seen.
Vettel less than a sec away from Ham.. Very fast indeed
Flap Vettel
Kimi seems way off
nearly a tank slapper from vettel
MB cannot go away… this is good and promising
not a lot of graphics? another glitch?
If RIC catches the back field I would be VERY impressed!!
First 6 cars keeping sight on eachother. Vettel really chasing Hamilton
So.. worrying start for the season.. very few overtakes in the first two laps.. thanks to the wider cars?
Ferrari quicker on race pace?
Good on red Bull to send RIC and not worrying about stressing engine!
Are Kimi and Vettel driving the same spec of Ferrari? He is consistently .9~1s down.
Seems the folowing car can follow this year?
Not so much actually
Just being positive (which is a good thing), they’re not really close
we might have Verstappen hounding Kimi soon. But Kimi is far too slow IMO. Is it possible Lewis was teasing with his remark about the grip? Both he and Vettel now made a massive gain on Bottas.
Stroll flirted with disaster at turn one, he did well to stay out of trouble there.
he nearly killed 3 cars o.O
So Alonso had another solid start to gain places too.
Aaaand, commercials….
German engineering
Well at least it’s still for free, so I won’t complain too much
Ricciardo straight passed Vandoorne
We’ll get a feeling on how difficult it is to pass in 2017 from RIC now
Have fun. Yes that is what we want to see. Give it to us Daniel!
I bet Bottas will be thrilled with a podium first time out if he can make it through
seems they lose quite a lot from passing backmarkers (Magnussen, Ericsson)
Damn Vettel is fast..
Not a bad pass by fresh tyred Stroll on Ericsson.
Seems like we’re getting a lot more team radio than at the end of last year.
Yes yay!
Vandoorne parked way too long
ctrl=alt=del
It’s a Mclaren, Surprised he got going again.
yeah. At least he did get going in the end.
It’s how many laps and both still running, time to get the hopes up
Horror stop for Vandoorne he lost power it seems, he’s back out.
Pretty sure they are actually happy that the reset sort of worked. I thiink McLaren called him in because of the display issue and losing power, in a hope to manage a reset and get him going.
Yeah thank God he got going again..
Damn this pink cars look strange
I love the idea, but the execution was poor, why not go straight for hot pink
From Stroll’s onboard, he looks to be constantly on edge.
Gap info has been removed from the free live timing on F1.com :(
https://f1.tfeed.net/live
How many of the cars will be lapped? The front two are two seconds faster than cars from 6th onwardss.
NBC coverage of F1 isn’t so much racing interrupted by some advertising breaks as advertising interrupted by some racing breaks.
I really hope Liberty Media works out some sort of pay channel set up so we can watch without interruption
Best live timing site – https://f1.tfeed.net/live
Vettel keeping pace there, looking dangerous..
How come RIC not one of the fastest laps? Is he having a Sunday drive?
Can’t remember ever seeing a car’s brakes lock fully and then unlock and allow them to continue. Remember Vergne’s brake fire at Suzuk a few years ago…
Weirdly, Palmer had the problem during the middle of turn 14 that let Ricci past. There was a little puff of smoke. They barely brake there.
And now it’s happened again!
Good that we didn’t hear any “HE HIT ME!” radio
What’s the deal with old engines – didn’t they want to introduce a rule prohibiting that? Farcical imo – especially since Sauber/Toro Rosso last year surely aren’t direct competitors; if anything they provide more mileage.
They are cheaper for the team
So are 2014 engines I’m sure.
Nooooo
Grosjean comes into the pits smoking, oh shame his race is over it seems.
What if he lost an engine already?
Awww poor GRO
I know the overtaking isn’t as much as previous years but I love this racing. You can tell they’re driving the cars hard.
Ferrari engine going kaput :(
I rather like that drivers aren’t just being told to stay two seconds behind the car in front until the pit stops begin.
Agree. Good to see that the tyres can withstand being behind another car for a while. And off course with less stops, and hard passing, it’s not quite as easy to actually get past in the pits.
One Ferrari engine gone bang.
Poor Grosjean
Vettel is a hound today
Oh he looks like a sad puppy
Watch Alonso finishing 7th
Is it just me or does the audio sound different/better on the broadcast? Vrrrrroooooom!
Sounds great to me to
Is it not dangerous to leave a car that is not working, out on track?
Vettel is close
Vettel and Hamilton in a class of their own
Looks like the cars are beginning to tear up the Astroturf at the exit of turn 12.
Hoping it is a matter of setup not working for Kimi. Otherwise it is a waste of a good car in Ferrari this year.
Ok Hamilton pits.. Here we go …. He uses softs
Palmer retires.
I think Vettel will win this race
Or not, Hamilton is faster on softs
So it’s strategy time for the scuderia, don’t let me down guys
Ham not far behind Verstappen. Was that wise timing?
ferrari just match the merc strategy, dont be cute and f it up
Pit Vettel now and he’ll come out behind Hamilton.
i mean tire strat, don’t want them to two stop or anything
Ferrari ain’t overtaking Mercedes on track on same tires.
Hamilton might be stuck behind Verstappen
But I must admit I like to see some nice overtakes by ham
Martin Brundle: “This is the overcut” speaking about Vettel not pitting..
Yeah not working, hamilton going purple as Brundle points out also.
Behind Verstappen now though. And Kimi up ahead.
Clean air for Seb might work
looks like it might get close, Hamilton switching on those softs nicely. But he might lose time behind Verstappen and Kimi
Last three laps within 3tenths of each one for Vettel. Very consistent.
Vettel coming up on back markers
Blue flags shouts coming up
I can’t get the F1 Live Timing to work. Does anyone know of an alternative?
https://f1.tfeed.net/live
Thanks. It looks promising.
Ham told :” Still safe to Vettel, but we need to overtake Verstappen”
He doesn’t seem too happy about passing Verstappen
ok… HAM stuck behind VER is being held up now… VER: 1:29.380 | SEB: 1:28.578
Bottas being sacrificed? He is slowest of top3.
Might just be trying to save fuel, save the tyres and go extra long
Pit Vettel
he come to the backmarkers… i hope they dont pay that
You are safe from Vettel. You have to get past Verstappen…. What does that pit message mean???
HAM gonna throw toys out of pram if this strategy fails.
Deja vu for Hamilton. Can’t pass this guy either in STR or in RB :)
Ham : “no way I can pass this guy”
Vettel finally pitting..
Did I see Ericssons engine go poof in the background of Hamilton?
Vettel first!
Wow, loving this, the drivers sound absolutely buggered on the radio. Not even half way :D
Ohhhhhhu never cheered so much for such a long time
Ahhhh Vettel ahead of Ham!! Ham now not only has Verstappen but Vettel ahead of Verstappen!
Forza!!
OMG yesss. Lets go vettel + Max
VET!!!! woohoo!!!!
Well this tie Ferrari got the strategy right
Oh guys my heart….
COME ON SEB!!!!!
Crowd cheering for “anyone but hamilton” :P
Hello,
So now that’ interesting: when ROS had to pass VER for the title last year, he did it. Now with newer tyres, HAM did not do it… Of course everything’s different, but the season is going to be interesting!!
Only worry for Ferrari is two of its engines have gone. One from 2017 and one from 2016. Customer cars but still.
Love this style of racing. Not fake just go go go
Very interesting onboard replay from Hamilton as Vettel rejoined – just look how much understeer he had in turn one.
I think if Hamilton loses this, it is his belief that you can’t overtake in these cars, or at least that you can’t overtake Verstappen that did him in. The car had the pace.
Let’s hope there is no safety car
What I don’t understand is why Merc pitted HAM so early.
He was complaining about the tyres going.
He was complaining about the tyres for several laps.
Okay. Then it seems that the Ferrari really is easier on its tires.
Verstappen pits
Lots of yellow flags today it seems.
I think it might become usual this season
What timing from Ferrari!! What a great pitstop. What a great defence from VET. It is those critical 30 seconds that may have won Ferrari the race!
Let’s hope this year is legacy work for Seb and Ferrari.
Raikkonen’s pace can’t have been that good if Vettel is this close to him having pitted.
I see team orders coming in
Verstappen saw that the softs are just no use?
Slow stop for Hamilton cost it. 3.3 seconds, Bottas was 2.2
Bad strategy also. Well, we will have a good season it seems
What is plan B ?
Bolt US with 20 laps to go
A second stop to go back onto ultra-softs or super-softs, I’d guess.
I guess they won’t know how much you ll gain till they try it
28 laps, McLaren,… Impressive
Bottas is now a lot faster than Hamilton???
Im guessing hes trying out a alternative strategy.
Newer tyres, a lot faster than Vettel too
RIC, just can’t catch a break this weekend.
The Ferrari looks to be the most stable/reliable over long runs and varying conditions/tires. The Mercs have outright pace but need clean air. This is going to be a great season!
Ricciardo next to the track. What happended to him
Aww not Ricciardo’s day today
Or yesterday
Once HAM is 22-23 seconds of RAI, Plan B can engage
Ricciardo probably wants a beer by now!
Cmon director, back to the reace, we get it…
No kidding!
Bottas now slightly faster than Hamilton, isn’t he? Both a few tenths faster than vettel, but need to make up seconds.
Horner on Sky: “This looks like an engine failure”
I hope on a more conventional track the slipstream will work better. It’s a weird track this one, even the pit straight doesn’t lead to a particularly obvious passing corner
Alonso p10, nice!
RIC DNF
lack of graphics kinda frustrating, whats going on?
Kvyat has done >30 laps on US, Lewis did 17!
Ricciardo utterly dejected on the radio. They spent a while chatting over whether to give up and save the engine or stay out hoping for a Safety Car or points through retirements.
Can’t imagine the first race going like this for anyone especially your home race
Bottas seems faster than Hamilton, come on Lewis!
A second last lap. I think it is all in Lewis head though.
+1 Lewis lost his speed when lost his 1st place…
Lewis had to straight up fight with the new tyres, bottas tyres are fresh and no one on one fights causing degradation
True, but Lewis send to go through his tyres faster. It’s why he’s second now.
Hamilton is slow.
Yup Bottas is closing up on him,,
So much for Hamilton will destroy Bottas.
Herd about different strategys?
There won’t be any.
Nope everyone is on the same strategy. Bottas just suddenly got alot faster than Hamilton. Right.
Nbc stream coverage is utter garbage.. Nothing but commercials
Vettel needs to only maintain the gap. Comfortable cushion now.
HAM slower than BOT. Didn’t see that coming. BOT does have 7 laps fresher tyres though.
Looks like car balance is very different between them. BOT was slower with Ultrasofts, now faster with Softs.
It’s nice to see track position at a premium again. A new layer to the strategy.
Alonso must be annoyed – finally Ferrari produce a good car.
In 2010 and 2012 Ferrari was good. That is 2/5 times. Alonso should have been patient and waited.
If I was Bottas I would be in cruise control for a P3. Save tyres because you won’t be able to get by Ham If u catch him
Yeah, not much of a racer if he drove like that
What is he’s best gp result so far?
Bottas is faster than you!…
Lol
He’ll be asking the team to get that sluggish car out of his way in an attempt to catch Vettel for the race lead :-)
I can’t really see many marbles, which is great to erm…not see.
If HAM pits now (plan B), he would come out behind Verstappen again. So obviously, that won’t happen
@bascb r u watching the Dutch coverage? I’ve just been told that the dutch commentator is 1000% sure that the merc is burning oil
LOL
Really? Didn’t they ban that before the season. Nope, i am watching a Sky stream from the Czech Republic.
No banning necessary, that’s never been allowed.
I’m skeptical, but interesting to know if the commentator legit said it or not.. apparently he has been told by ex-merc mechanics
I’m not sure Olav Mol is in Australia though, ever since his wife was ill a couple of years ago he stopped going. If so, he’s not really having direct knowledge.
Karun is very insightful, but he does have an anti-Ferrari bias
Hamilton told he’s still on Plan A, hope this is a good sign..
Plan A = 1 stopper, Plan B = 2 stopper, neither get him in the lead from where he is now
I’ve seen more of the Animals of Australia, the streets of Melbourne and the beaches of Melbourne than I have of the race, sort it out NBCSN.
Yeah, I pay way too much just to have F1 coverage only to miss 40% of the action on air or online. It’s disgraceful…
Seriously it’s a joke.. The nbc stream is trash
“Battle for 2nd” and they show the Mercs… gotta love that :D
I certainly do :D
Hamilton is to concentrate on getting 2nd than catching 1st. Bottas near to him than he is to Vettel.
No G-force telemetry graphic? If there was ever a year to have it… :(
They are having big troubles with onscreen graphics. Team colours are wrong etc.
Good point!! Hopefully, they will fix it for next race
How long untill “Bottas hit me, Bottas hit me” :) ?
I think we might hear “lets switch the cars around, tell Lewis to let me go” from Bottas :-)
Bottas only hits back, remember him and kimi
They must let Bottas pass if MB want to have a chance in win…
C’mon Rosberg, you can do it! Oh.
Lol
hehe :) I’m cheering for Williams to take the 2nd. Oh, wait…
Verstappen on SS, but doesn’t seem to be making any inroads into Kimi
He is taking a second off each lap. Kimi just responded back though.
Yep, my bad! Looks like even Ferrari didn’t get the strategy 100% right. Red Bull did
Kimi in real danger of losing 4th. What is he playing at?
Ferrari is faster on race pace it seems, and Mercedes on quali. Very interesting.
Mercedes strategy was pathetic, unless they absolutely had to bring Hamilton in. Otherwise, absolute trash.
I think Ferrari were doing mind games. They had Vettel get close to Hamilton to make Merc think they were going to undercut, so Mercedes panicked and pitted. Ha!
Could be
I am not convinced ferrari is faster, but Mercedes/HAM just didn’t get it right.
Could be too
Hamilton wasn’t losing Vettel at all in the first stint and Vettel got a close as possible without actually overtaking Hamilton. Bottas in the second Merc was far away from the Ferrari as well.
Hamilton asking about his tyres in comparison to Bottas and Vettel
Looks like Lewis is just not in the right mindset. He started with complaining about grip at the grid, then started about his tyres from lap 10 onwards and now again. His complaining got MErcedes to a wrong strategy, giving away the race win. Now he might be losing 2nd to that as well.
What a boring race.. bring back degradable tyres and get rid of those wings..
Well at least I had a little heart attack when vet pitted
Quietly strong race for Massa. 6th would be his best finish for nearly a year.
Leading the mid-pack with a solid race
Not bad for his comeback
VET’s tyres 6 laps fresher than HAM’s. Can’t see HAM catching him.
Since Hamilton is the slowest car of the top 3 he won’t be doing that at all, no.
I don’t mind this as I watch F1 way back from MSC-Mika days, but I wonder how the newer viewers think about this race. I think it’s good even though it lacks proper battle and overtaking, they pushed all the way.
Will we see any tyres going over the cliff?
Certainly not the softs
Only 14 laps to go!
Cars can’t follow. As we thought, those front wings. Ridiculous.
Vettel had no problem
Well it seems like the predictions were right, no one’s been able to hold a 1 second gap for long at all. Not much chance of an overtake if you can’t even get within a second.
Vettel did for a good amount of laps.
Team orders at Toro Rosso.
Pastor stroll is showing off
So, even if BOT gets past HAM, I think it will be very hard for him to take on VET, gap too big, and he isn’t a second per lap faster.
So basically no overtakes so far.
We did have overtakes. PErez did several, for example
I really try to be fair to stroll, defending him here and there, but he is making it very difficult
looks like his car was to blame here though
Reliability isn’t exactly great through the field.
Ferrari had a set of new SS IIRC. Could have gone with that for Kimi. Just a punt for third. Else fall back safely to 4th.
Are the races faster this year? Or am I imagining?
They are faster
Lewis not a happy bunny today, is he.
Okay, so now HAM,BOT seem about .6s faster than VET; due to traffic then?
Happy for the torro rosso drivers! They deserve that after last year
VErstappen now homing in on Kimi.
Bottas isn’t planing to pit, right?
Good to see Kvyat having a solid race
And that in Australia! And after all the disappointments last season
Its the curse of the Red Bull in Australia
looks like Mercedes told Bottas to hold position behind Hamilton.
Ham keeping gap to bottas, i think hes just settled for 2nd at this point, unless hes saving for a big attack?
Not even Rosberg would do that and Bottas is even more timid.
He has got the gap down to 6.x seconds now, but of course, VET probably is letting him get to about 3s.
NBC now doing one commercial per lap apparently.
Verstappen close and possibly overtaking Kimi.
Vettel 10s ahead of the closest Mercedes.
I know Ferrari likes to play the No.1 Driver game, but if they did make a great car this season, Kimi may just put an early end to their Constructor Championship dream.
Ferrari’s win isn’t going to go up in smoke is it? They can’t be too confident with both Haas cars out.
But they had great distance in testing
Verstappen and Vettel have actually been fastest in the second half of the race! Shows the Red Bull potential
Its just that Verstappen is on the super softs.
What kind of strategy is that from kvyat? Debris damaging his tyres?
See tweet sidebar from @keithcollantine Kvyat was desperate not to pit, asking “is there anything I can do?” “No, we need an engine air refill.” #F1 #AusGP
has there been an actual overtake today?
Multiple on Alonso ;)
Yep plenty, but sadly not shown a lot, at least at rtl
Ferrari customers are not showing great reliability this race.
No come on Alonso keep those points
That was inevitable.. Alonso down to 12th, great passes by Ocon and Hulk
Nice
Wow very brave from Ocon
No overtaking ?
With DRS against a limping Honda, hardly an exciting accomplishment
True I commented too early
Nice Racing
Saying MAG was suspension failure not engine.
Kyvat flap, cute
Only 4 laps to go, this race is fast
NBC showing wrong Ocon replay. I hate them
No overtaking. Easy to go past Mc with no power
Vet just rubbing it in now. FP on pretty old tires.
VET FLAP
Best anthem coming up! It’s race 1 of 20 but imagine a 5 time Champion.
Second that. Best combo for me :)
Oh shame Alonso has to retire…
FLap for Seb. I can picture his mechanics sweating, like during his Red Bull days.
Dotd, nothing special really
Perez maybe? Good few overtakes. If not Vettel just for being quick? Gio for finishing on short notice? You’re right.
Yeah though of those three too
Oh dear, I’ve been waiting 4 months for this?
VET 10secs ahead of HAM… I’m so happy, but trying not to get ahead of myself
Good guy Kvyat, wanting to at least have a go at FLAP :-)
Kvyat a stronger race than Sainz after qualifying just a few hundreds behind yesterday.
Ok it seems like it’s going to be Vettel, Ham, Bottas… Not long to go
Did the FIA not consider that the fans wanted to enjoy a race of the same length – it’s too short! That said, a really boring race.
It is short!
Everyone wants the FP. Bottas first and now Kimi.
Haha Max asking for the fast lap time
Kimi FLAP
Finger alert
I really want to see Vet emotions at podium. Good job. Bottas and Massa too!
Oh I waited so long for this
Vettel wins!
YESSSS!!!! VETTEL WINS!!!!!
Looks like Merc have dropped the ball, Vettel hasn’t had to break sweat.
Mercedes 2-3. B E A utiful
Forza VETTEL!!! :)
Not a big gap for Bottas. Very impressive
Hell yeah! Finally an interesting season ahead
Merc made a big mistake, but seems Vettel was easily faster today
I think the team made th mistake of listening to Lewis and bringing him in too soon after his complaining. Bottas clearly was a lot faster for the last stint, but seems to have been told to just hold position in 3rd. Not even convinced Ferrari was faster per se. Just Lewis talked himself into feeling miserable about the car and the tyres.
I think the big question is, why did they all go for softs. I guess they counted on running quite a bit below maximum (as they have been doing for the last 5 years).
Forza FERRARI
Grande Lovoro Giornata Fantastica
5xWDC here we come
well, I don’t think I get any point for prediction. But, someone else than Mercedes/HAM winning is good.
decent points for me. Got the first two, but in the wrong order. Got Bottas and Kimi in the right position. And I got pole right
Nice job, Gina.
Gina is fast!
Vettel seems to have won this easily, Mercedes have got a huge battle up their sleeves!
Ferrari car fast and Merc made a mistake..that’s the recipe for success..we’ll see next race
Nice job Ferrari and Vettel. Great job from Pirelli as well.
Good race. A normal one.
We have a great season ahead!!
Nice to see Ferrari doing their talking on the track where it counts.
What has been wrong with the graphics today? i really miss the ones at the bottem of the screen.
I blame Bernie. No doubt he wants us to pay for his broken app instead.
The Alfa Romeo 4 leaf clover on the engine cover obviously gave them some good luck
Wellllll, it should have happened last year so let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
true, the Mercs were very vulnerable here last year.
The winning radio messages from Ferrari sounds much calmer than that of 2015 also, I really like this new culture at Ferrari. Hope it lasts!
The fans can’t be allowed on track with the cars still on the track! Dangerous stuff
thought it was quite nice
So apperently Hamilton forgot to throw out his sandbags from the trunk. Great race.
Let’s all appreciate that Ferrari didn’t f… Up the strategy
+1
Nice for a change. Hope they keep it up
Fans on the track on the VL gave me a bit of a scare.
Yep someone f*ed up security there.
But who’s leading the championship? :D
A Ferrari driver. Last time this happened was 1625 days ago, per F1 twitter feed. :o)
Lewis looks gassed
Bottas too, they look tired compared to the last 5 years
Nice to see they are all talking and happy. Very different from Hamilton/Rosberg’s days
any idea why Kimi was so off pace?
He was all weekend and didn’t seemed too happy with the setting
He gave an indication on Saturday TBF :)
I suspect that some teams/drivrs were saving the car, fuel, tyres etc far too much here. A bit like what we saw in 2010 in Bahrain where everyone expected it to be far harder to make to the finish than it turned out to be. Next race they sped up by quite a bit.
The fact that we had so many flaps in the last few laps does suggest that indeed.
exactly
car balance was way too understeery, which Kimi hates.
must be nice for Lewis to be able to actually speak with his team mate for once and not just toss hats back and forth
Ger / Ita national anthems hold so many memories for me… I love this
Yup
For everyone :)
Yeah.. memories of boring races and the same car winning over and over..
Reminds me of Michael Schumacher
Best combo
Wolff: We were not quick enough. The tyre was degrading and maybe we thought it was degrading more than it was but it is a good wake-up call
Te me it looked like Lewis was talking himself into feeling bad on them more than there being a real issue with the tyes. I also think all of them could have easily done the second stint on the SSofts and been a lot faster overall.
Why were there some boos when Bottas got on the podium?! Maybe the Hamilton fans didn’t like that he was so close to beating him. I think he got told to hold off. He may possibly have managed an overtake though.
I am pretty sure you are right about Bottas being told to hold station, yes.
The problem is when I see the Ferrari team happily singing their anthem I can’t help but be happy for them lol. They’re so cheerful!
The victory is so much sweeter when they come few and far between… its just a great feeling
So, how will Alonso like that – is he hoping next race goes easily to Mercedes, or glad for his old team, and another car winning again?
Yay Webber
Feels like a podium we’ll see a lot in 2017. I’m hoping that it doesn’t take Red Bill too long to catch up! Looks promising either way!
Booing, thats Not fair. .
Why are they booing Lewis? What is that about??
Must be the comeback of the “sporting” toffosi
tiffosi
Would’ve been great to see Schumi doing one of these podiums interviews, especially if it was a Seb-Ferrari win :(
Thanks as always for your company guys, lots more coming today but here’s what we’ve got first:
Rate the race: 2017 Australian Grand Prix
Vettel wins as Ferrari sting Mercedes in Australia
2017 Australian Grand Prix race result
2017 Australian Grand Prix championship points
Thanks Keith!
Thanks Keith as always for making this possible :)
Is Hamilton getting booed?
Yes, a pity. Hamilton ignoring it and talking over it with compliments for the great crowd, smart.
Booing, pathetic.
So much for the “happy” australian. Pathetic
I think it’s purely in response to the end of last year, nothing personal as they showed when he thanked the crowd for coming out. But I doubt they’d be booing if not for that.
If they are booing for that, it is even more pathetic. It shows that beside the lack of politeness they know nothing about racing.
Lewis still refuses to acknowledge that Nico beat him last season. He just comes off as a complete half-forward flanker.
Imagine if Redbull get their act together and we could have 3(6) cars fighting for the win! That would be awesome! Even if the racing on track is not great, just this uncertainty is great for F1.
Well, I’m off, having breakfast with my mother before taking train back to Berlin; enjoy the rest of the day and see you all for Bahrain.
Well, I’m off, having breakfast with my mother before taking train back to Berlin; enjoy the rest of the day and see you all for the next race.
Vettel’s got some serious Italian-speaking skills.
As is his driving, not as good as Alonso who was capable of doing all race communication in ITA, not just a simple “thank you”