Australian Grand Prix 2013, Melbourne - Race 1/19

I don't think it's as bad as you might think...I'm assuming they have gone for a dry setup which obviously hurt them in qualy. Maldonado just couldn't get the lap together and Bottas only just squeezed in being a rookie. If they were setup for a wet qualy and that's their pace then they're in trouble! :eek:
 
I'm kind of hoping that Q2 and Q3 are at least that wet too. Would the FIA Cancel qualifying in it's entirety or send the cars out anyway?

Either way, media and fan backlash would be both immense and hilarious. :D

Basically, they've scheduled the GP at the wrong time - just for the world TV market... They've done this with other races too.

FOM 'Oh, it'll be great to have the race on at 4pm local time so it's on at prime time around the world'
Locals 'Errrr... we always get torrential rain at 4:30pm at this time of year'
FOM ' Nonsense. We'll be fine'

... ... ...

Locals 'Told you'
FOM '... Crap ...'
Locals 'Oh, it gets dark at 6pm too.'
 
I'd the like it to continue raining so a whole race gets canned so they can do something about the utter stupidity that these cars can't or won't run when it rains. Especially in comparison to say 96-98 ish where they ran some races in torrential rain.
 
Flibster said:
I'm kind of hoping that Q2 and Q3 are at least that wet too. Would the FIA Cancel qualifying in it's entirety or send the cars out anyway?

Either way, media and fan backlash would be both immense and hilarious. :D

Basically, they've scheduled the GP at the wrong time - just for the world TV market... They've done this with other races too.

FOM 'Oh, it'll be great to have the race on at 4pm local time so it's on at prime time around the world'
Locals 'Errrr... we always get torrential rain at 4:30pm at this time of year'
FOM ' Nonsense. We'll be fine'

... ... ...

Locals 'Told you'
FOM '... Crap ...'
Locals 'Oh, it gets dark at 6pm too.'
Click to expand...

Do they usually have rain affected quali /race in Melbourne - it doesnt appear to be that usual (although I know its only relatively recently they changed the timing to dusk ish)

I was there not long ago for the race and it was absolutely scortching hot in the middle of the day - so can kind of understand why they might want the schedule changing
 
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My partner got up and watched this live (she loves F1 as well like me). I was a lazy boy and stayed in bed and rolled down to the lounge about 7:30. A wise decision I feel! :)
Oh well. Can stay up late tonight then get a few hours and then watch the race live.
 
They used to have monsoon tyres back in 2003 if I recall? Why not get some of those on the cars, makes a mockery of the entire thing if they can't run in that water. Yes the standing water is an issue, and probably isn't helped at all by the painted lines on the track.

Still, they did the right thing, you can see why they cancelled qually, the people making those decisions are at fault if something happens to one of the drivers/marshals/fans if its deemed to be unsafe to race.

Still, they should at least move the race back a few hours, even if it does mean that it would muck up with European TV times. Those that want to wake up in the middle of the night will, those that don't have a re-run, just like in the early 2000's.
 
sjcf1 said:
Still, they should at least move the race back a few hours, even if it does mean that it would muck up with European TV times. Those that want to wake up in the middle of the night will, those that don't have a re-run, just like in the early 2000's.
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They can't move the race back, they had to cancel q2 and q3 because it the weather wasn't getting better and more importantly, it was getting dark.

Qualifying should take ~55 minutes.
Race starts at the same time, and should take ~90 minutes - only gives them the ability to postpone the race for 30-45minutes maximum. And that's if it's dry.
 
Flibster said:
They can't move the race back, they had to cancel q2 and q3 because it the weather wasn't getting better and more importantly, it was getting dark.

Qualifying should take ~55 minutes.
Race starts at the same time, and should take ~90 minutes - only gives them the ability to postpone the race for 30-45minutes maximum. And that's if it's dry.
Click to expand...

I believe he's suggesting they start earlier, to avoid the sunset issue in bad weather.

If they started midnight uk time that would give them several hours to wait out the bad weather for qually etc.
 
If the weather's anything like it was today, there isn't gonna be any visible sign of a sun to set! They definitely push it too tight with the schedueling with some of the Asian/Australian start times though to try and make it fit around TV better. Sun always seems to be an issue in Australia, and Korea in particular. If they're gonna make us get up on a Sunday morning (fair enough), what's the difference whether it's 5am or 6am?

I think there'd be more mileage for them in starting it lunchtime local, and making people stay up late instead, but alas
 
Flibster said:
They can't move the race back, they had to cancel q2 and q3 because it the weather wasn't getting better and more importantly, it was getting dark.
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Not this year, what they've done is the most sensible thing to do for this year. But for future years they should move the race back a few hours so it starts earlier. We have this problem most years in Malaysia. Fans would rather wake up earlier and actually have a qually session on rather than getting up slightly later and possibly not having them.
 
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