Low chance of rain at Melbourne

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We haven’t had a wet Australian Grand Prix since the event moved to Melbourne in 1996 and it looks set to stay that way for the 15th F1 race at the Albert Park track this weekend.

There is only a slight chance of rain during the race according to the Australian Government Bureau of Meterology, which says there will be “patchy rain later in the day” in Melbourne on Sunday.

The forecasts for the week ahead in Melbourne suggest temperatures will be in the mid-to-high 20s.

With the ‘twilight’ start time introduced last year we will see track temperatures will drop throughout the race, which will play a role in the team’s set-up preparations. The race starts at 5pm local time. Temperatures were already falling by that time today and dropped by around 3C during the next two hours.

The low sunlight proved a problem for drivers last year who complained of glare at some points on the circuit. As the track isn’t lit any serious disruption to the race could result in the full distance not being completed, as we saw at Malaysia last year.

Read more: Australian Grand Prix live TV Times

2010 Australian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    38 comments on “Low chance of rain at Melbourne”

    1. Well, I’m probably taking the risk and not taking an umbrella so I hope it doesn’t rain ! 28 degrees on sunday should be quite pleasant for spectators.

    2. Last year it was super hot despite the 5pm start. There is no rhyme nor reason as to temp drop in Melbourne. It just depends on the wind rather than the time of day – very hard to draw parallels!!!

    3. Melbourne is notorious for changing weather conditions, or the four season in one day cliche. A recent storm called off horse racing for the first time in a hundred years or so, not so much due to the rain, but the hail!

      I wouldn’t like to think what a big hail stone might do a delicate spot on an F1 car at a few hundred k’s per hour.

      1. Terry Fabulous
        22nd March 2010, 9:55

        Check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY5ySG4KVRs&feature=related Imagine this at the race!!! makes Malaysia look like a light summer storm!

    4. So webber is not getting what he wanted? He will just have to lower the RedBull into Quali mode then and get it off against Seb for pole.

    5. Webber to win Aussie GP FTW

    6. Jonesracing82
      22nd March 2010, 10:18

      i live in Melb and the forecast changes by the day! if we do get rain i hope the track has lights as it could be too dark for the race……. just what our race needs

      1. It’s already too dark, rain or no rain.

        How does Bernie expect to attract casuals with this start time? “Come to Melbourne to squint at some cars! Don’t forget a baseball cap to keep the glare out of your eyes!”

        Utter crap. All for a marginal increase the European viewership numbers……. I hate this man, he has to go.

        1. I agree. H ehas done it so it ‘s all great and perfect for Europeon viewwers, but he has to remember that there are other F1 fans in the world too! And besides we always have to stay up late to watch there races so why can’t the Europeon F1 fans just stay up for one lousy night… oh thats right Bernie has made it that way!

          1. It’s not “great and perfect” for European viewers. It’s still 7AM on a Sunday morning. Why would I want to get up at 7AM to see sunset?

            The man has seems to have OCD to go along with his dementia, he just can’t stop with the pointless fiddling.

            1. Mark Hitchcock
              22nd March 2010, 11:49

              Yeah, that’s the stupid thing about the time change. If it was perfect for the UK/Europe then you could see his logic, but as it is I know the casual fans in my house won’t wake up at 7 to watch it, they’ll wait for the repeat. Just like they would have if it was at its proper start time.

        2. Agreed. 2pm local time race start for every race except Singapore and Abu Dhabi.

          In fact, make Singapore a twilight race as well. The scenery looks gorgeous in the one practice session that’s held with any natural light (Saturday practice, I think). How about a European night race instead, say, at Valencia? Better than seeing nothing than building sites and the occasional bit of beach and/or ocean.

          1. Sarcasm meant or not, that would work!
            In Spain all the big football matches are played at night on the Saturday rather than the UK and most of Europes traditional 3pm. Sky show the matches about “late tea time” and it is a good viewing time for Europe so F1 could try the same thing as well. Afterall we wouldn’t be missing much scenery wise. It might also be the happy medium for perfect vieing times all over the world! Say 8pm Race start, Not too late for for Europe, wwhich would be 8am in Australia, not too early (I’m getting up earlier to watch their race), and about 12mid day North American Race start, the perfect time.

        3. I agree. Formula One promotes itself as a “global sport” but it is scheduled for only one time zone: Europe.

    7. I think humidity will be a factor in Melbourne. It’s been South-East Asian style humid here for a while, and especially since that storm. Without a bit of decent rain this week to help clear it, we might see alot of retirements on Sunday. Plus, if it’s sunny, the track temp will drop substantially between the start and finish of the race, while the ambient will still stay high. Very similar to last year.

      I still think Bernie’s race time in Melbourne is both stupid and dangerous, too – and it’s going to get worse if he keeps giving round one of the championship to the deserted, sorry – desert.

    8. People have been complaining about the lack of action in Bahrain and now they’re on about one of the elements to create some action because it’s dangerous …

      I for one think they shouldn’t have stopped the Malaysian GP last year – racing in sunshine only is for IRL.
      Glare ? In Le Mans they have the same problem when accelerating on the Hunaudieres straight.
      All part of racing and the best drivers in the world should be able to cope.

      1. Mark Hitchcock
        22nd March 2010, 11:55

        Regarding Malaysia, even if it wasn’t dangerous (which it clearly was), if they couldn’t even drive in a straight line without spinning off the track what would be the point in carrying on?

        1. I remember hearing over the tv from car radio “I can’t see!” or something to that nature,

          can’t remember who, maybe bourdais?

        2. The Malaysian GP video on formula1.com was probably my favourite of last year

      2. its also the glare affecting the spectators. Depending on where you are sitting/standing it can be hard to see the cars.

    9. “We haven’t had a wet Australian Grand Prix since the event moved to Melbourne in 1996”

      Didn’t 2003 start wet but dry out pretty quickly?

      1. BarneyDaGumble
        22nd March 2010, 12:51

        Yeah but it was effectively a dry race from the start as I remember, most cars started on drys with a few on wets for a couple of laps, a bit like Piquet jr at Spa in 2008

        1. Wrong. Most cars started on wets, only a few started on dries, and the choice of what tyre to start on and when to switch had a singnificant effect on the rest of the race, so it deserves to count as a rain-affected race.

      2. True, it didn’t rain during the race though.

    10. Do you remember last year’s race? Tyres startes to wear off and we saw quite an interesting race. Hope same will happen this year, if not – another processional race is impending.

      1. I’m finding it hard to think of a single processional race at Melbourne, I’m sure there has been one but my only memories of Melbourne are full of overtaking manoeuvres and guys going sideways into the walls.

        Admittedly this could be because it’s often the first race of the season and I’m so deprived of F1 action from the winter break that I’m happy with any F1 action :-)

    11. http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/vic/forecasts/melbourne.shtml for Melbourne weather forecast. I’ll post it in the preview post aswell.

      1. I did put that link in the article, it’s a useful forecast.

    12. I want a wet race.

    13. The Nude Wizard
      23rd March 2010, 10:48

      I actually just checked the weather for Melb, I’m headed down again this year and noticed there was rain predicted for saturday. But as already said Melbourne weather changes alot over the day “four seasons in one day” as the crowded house song/saying goes for Melbourne.

      I assume the tyre rules for the top 10 wouldn’t apply if they had to set their quali times on wet/intermediates?

      1. I assume the tyre rules for the top 10 wouldn’t apply if they had to set their quali times on wet/intermediates?

        Yep that’s right.

    14. BBC are ramping up their prediction for rain during the race – or are they just trying to get more people to tune in?

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/weather/ianfergusson/2010/03/australian-grand-prix-forecast.shtml

      1. I’d say it’s too early to predict the weather acurately but the Met Office is the best meteorogical forecasting corp in the business so if they are expecting rain there probably will be rain at some point over the next three days.

    15. Melbourne weather forecast. I’ll try to post it in the preview post aswell! so who do you think will win at melbourne this year!!!!!!!!!!

    16. The only rain we have had in melbourne is just enough to dirty my car

        1. 2hrs of rain 3weeks ago?

          Im loking forward to the 31c on raceday

    17. rain or no rain, umbrella girl will be there. lol

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