Australian F1 GP

[wombat666]

Saturday, few (if any) rain showers, becoming fine and cool, 18C.
Sunday, fine and mild, 20C.

 

[wombat666]

Friday's very wet practice times.

 

[noddy]

What a mess the new qualifying was, 4 mins left on the clock and no cars on the track. OK result may have been the same but still not pleasant to watch.

 

[wombat666]

Another idiotic F1 cock up.
If the inmates running the asylum feel the need for qualifying change (I've never liked the 3 section one BTW) then perhaps the Bathurst 1000 type of format would be best.
Say, the usual the three 'Free Practice' sessions, followed by a 30 minute 'Qualifying' session to set the grid from P11 down and a single lap 'Top Ten Shootout' for positions 1 - 10.
That gives the ten fastest runners a clear lap for the pointy end of the grid.............they get one 'warm up' lap to the line and a single timed '***' lap for the final 10 positions.
Nothing new really, IMHO this would be better for the teams and easier for the spectators, as well as adding an extra edge to the qualifying.

Slogged my way up the 'Eastlink' and back without getting the RS wet or dirty but I think I'll stay home and watch the race on TV, at least Fox take the Sky feed, and trying to keep to 100kph on the 'Link' in a car that will cruise at twice that number is PITA.
Observations: Both RBR and Renault wear a peculiar matt finish, or rather semi-matt, supposedly for 'aerodynamic flow' assistance. While they were behind both their STR siblings I'd be expecting the reverse come the race.
Hamilton put in a stonking lap for pole, Nico over drove it again and wasn't very pleased at all, I did hear mention of 970+BHP coming out of the works engines!
Ferrari ended up next best but I'll lay even money both 'Red Cars' will be more competitive over race distance, Force India look pretty good, the McLaren Hondas are down on power but way quicker than last year and sound rather fierce, Williams looked a bit average, HAAS made a very good showing, Sauber not so much, while Manor are just as sluggish as 2015 and are stuck with a couple of very ordinary drivers, Haryanto must have come with a huge bag of Indonesian gold while Werlien is probably part of the engine package.
I managed to work out how the new 'Communication' regulations work, if they are policed correctly the drivers will just have to drive, as they should.

An interesting (if brisk) day at the races but I still can't warm to the present generation of cars.
However, the V8 Supercar races were great, three down for the weekend and so far 'RBR-888' have dominated with all three cars filling the podiums, and (I think) one of the Penske Falcons the highest of the Fords.

 

[huub vink]

I'm a bit puzzled about the qualifications rules and I really wonder whether it contributes to make them this complex. And I'm not sure the car in pole is the one which was fastest or just the most lucky one.

For me one of the most surprising things was the qualification of the Torro Rossos. They both qualified quite a bit faster than the Red Bulls from the senior team.

An early rise tomorrow as the race starts at 6 AM local time here........

 

[wombat666]

I'm a bit puzzled about the qualifications rules and I really wonder whether it contributes to make them this complex. And I'm not sure the car in pole is the one which was fastest or just the most lucky one.
For me one of the most surprising things was the qualification of the Torro Rossos. They both qualified quite a bit faster than the Red Bulls from the senior team.
An early rise tomorrow as the race starts at 6 AM local time here........

The regulations were more or less based around knocking out the slowest car every 90 seconds.
That's probably an over simplification huub but it is the only way I can sum them up!
'Elimination Qualifying' is the official description, and the following is a section of a very lengthy document.

"33.1 The qualifying practice session will take place on the day before the race from 14.00 to 15.00.
The session will be run as follows:
a) From 14.00 to 14.16 (Q1) all cars will be permitted on the track. Seven minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. The same procedure will then apply after 8m30s, 10m0s, 11m30s, 13m0s and 14m30s leaving sixteen cars eligible to continue. At the end of the session all drivers on the track may complete the lap they are on and, once these final laps have been completed, the driver last in the classification may take no further part in the qualifying practice session.
Lap times achieved by the fifteen remaining cars will then be deleted.


b) From 14.24 to 14.39 (Q2) the fifteen remaining cars will be permitted on the track. Six minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. The same procedure will then apply after 7m30s, 9m0s, 10m30s, 12m0s and 13m30s leaving nine cars eligible to continue. At the end of the session all drivers on the track may complete the lap they are on and, once these final laps have been completed, the driver last in the classification may take no further part in the qualifying practice session.
Lap times achieved by the eight remaining cars will then be deleted.


c) From 14.46 to 15.00 (Q3) the eight remaining cars will be permitted on the track. Five minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. The same procedure will then apply after 6m30s, 8m0s, 9m30s, 11m0s and 12m30s leaving two cars eligible to continue. At the end of the session any driver on the track may complete the lap he is on and, once any final lap has been completed, the overall classification will be established.
The above procedure is based upon 22 cars being officially eligible to take part in the Event. If 24 cars are eligible eight will be excluded after Q1 and Q2, if 26 cars are eligible nine cars will be excluded after Q1 and Q2, and so on if fewer cars are eligible. If necessary, the intervals between the sessions and eliminations will be adjusted to ensure Q3 remains unchanged.


35.2
a) The grid will be drawn up as follows:

i) The last seven positions will be occupied by the cars eliminated during Q1, the fastest in 16th position.
ii) The next seven positions will be occupied by the cars eliminated during Q2, the fastest in 9th position.
iii) The top eight positions will be occupied by the cars which took part in Q3, the fastest from the position on the grid which was the pole position in the previous year or, on a new circuit, has been designated as such by the FIA safety delegate.
If two or more drivers set identical times during Q1, Q2 or Q3 priority will be given to the one who set it first.
If more (or less) than 22 cars are entered in the championship appropriate amendments will be made to the above in accordance with Article 33.1.

b) If more than one driver fails to set a time during Q2 or Q3 they will be arranged in the
following order:

i) Any driver who attempted to set a qualifying time by starting a flying lap.
ii) Any driver who failed to start a flying lap.
iii) Any driver who failed to leave the pits during the period.

c) Once the grid has been established in accordance with a) and b) above, grid position penalties will be applied to the drivers in question in the order the offences were committed. If, following qualifying, more than one driver incurs a penalty under Article 23.4(f) or Article 23.6(a) preference will be given to the driver whose team first informed the technical delegate that a power unit or gearbox change will be carried out.


d) Any driver who incurs a penalty under Article 23.4(f) or Article 23.6(a) will take precedence over any driver whose qualifying times have been deleted for any reason.

If more than one driver falls into a single category in b) or d) above they will be arranged on the grid in the order they were classified in the previous period of qualifying or, in the case of Q1, the order they were classified in P3."

It was a shambles with drivers eliminated for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and all the Team Principals called a meeting for 12:00.
Only 30 minutes later they announced their intention of returning to the previous system as of next weekend's second Championship round.
I'm not sure if the FIA and the Poison Dwarf have officially ratified this but I doubt that will alter the position adopted by the teams.

 

[huub vink]

Thanks for the explanation! It was an interesting race. You could clearly see that Daniel Ricciardo had been a victim of the new qualification rules.
Ferrari and Mercedes are still in the lead, but seem to be closer than last year.

The Haas team looked very promising and although Renault still has a lot of work to do I expect they will develop very fast. And the Honda engine still doesn't meet the expectations.....

 

[Panther_99FS]

Tough to see between Mercedes & Ferrari who was faster - as once one got out in front, the other couldn't pass. It was worrysome for me because when Nico was in 3rd, he had nothing for the Ferraris.....

Ah gotta love aerodynamics!

 

[Daveroo]

i dont know if im seeing this live or not,its 10:00 am here....but on lap 17?....was a hell of a wreck,called out the full course red flag. thing for me,what ever the cause was,or who was at fault,but what really impressed me was when the dust settled,the Hass driver got out and hurried back to the driver whos car was destroyed.to me thats great sportsmanship.ive noticed in nascar,even when a car has been absolutly destroyed,the other driver(s) involoved just walk off to that persons ambulance.

 

[wombat666]

Tough to see between Mercedes & Ferrari who was faster - as once one got out in front, the other couldn't pass. It was worrysome for me because when Nico was in 3rd, he had nothing for the Ferraris.....

Ah gotta love aerodynamics!

Indeed yes, Verstappen was going ballistic because he reckoned he was faster than Sainz but the STR 'chaps' wouldn't tell Carlos to let him pass (not allowed these days!), so their reply was more or less 'If you are faster then go get him'.......
And Verstappen had no chance because the aero off Sainz car made it impossible.
That aside, I get the feeling that Carlos is not going to make life easy for Max this season, he seems to be showing more steel than in 2015.

 

[huub vink]

I think the same applies for Nico Rosberg, he blocked Lewis Hamilton in the first corner, due to which Lewis moved into the sixth place.

From Dutch television I learned that Verstappen claimed that he would have his last tyre change before Carlos Sainz had his last change. As said, its a claim, I don't know whether this is true. Torro Rosso obviously has a fast car, they should have done more with it (but that is my biased opnion).

But I can recall Max didn't move out of the way when he was told to let Carlos pass during last year's season, so he shouldn't complain now.

Cheers,
Huub

 

[Ferry_vO]

STR made a tactical error putting both cars on the soft tires during the red flag, instead of the medium compound. The extra stop required cost them a lot of points. P5 and 6 would have been possible without that extra stop.