Australian Grand Prix 2015, Melbourne - Race 1/19

OldCoals said:
Boullier suggested McLaren are going to change tack and crank the engine up and the deal with whatever problems it throws up rather than the current method of plodding around and tinkering at the edges.

Seems he may have been reading what some of us have been suggesting. :D
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No no, I'm an armchair expert, I can't have an opinion, I can't have a genuinely good suggestion at all because they are smarter than everyone else and only people involved can comment.... blarggh.

Aside from learning that turned down so they are embarrassingly slow the engine has an equal chance of finishing the race or blowing up before it starts. They didn't learn anything, how does the aero perform going max speed... no clue because they didn't run it. How does the engine perform at max pace, no idea, how reliable is the engine at max pace, no idea, where are the heat/failure points when going max speed... no idea.

What is the point of working to get the engine reliable at half speed... it's meaningless. You could spend three months working on issues at half speed then find a whole bunch of new issues at max speed which you haven't worked on that whole time because you never bothered to check it.

Reliability in a performance range you can't use is meaningless and refusing to run turned up only delays finding out what other issues crop up when you run at higher speed. A vibration might occur at 12k rpm that doesn't show up at 9k rpm and you're giving yourself less time to fix it by waiting longer to find it.

anticonscience said:
What a boring race.

Says something when you hardly see the person in first.
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Yup, multiple things made it uncompetitive. I actually don't think Australia lends itself well to being the first race of a season. RBR challenged Merc here last year because it's a high downforce performance track where Williams aren't competitive, the gap looks bigger only because Williams weren't competitive at these tracks last year while RBR were.... but renault/rbr have gone backwards. Ferrari improved but one car got stuck behind a slower Williams and the other got screwed repeatedly.

It's also the highest fuel saving track of the year and without significant numbers of safety car laps that hurt them this year more than most years here. Lack of bunching the pack up particularly nearer the end where most people would then have had a little less fuel concern and been closer to the guy infront meant this race was pretty rubbish.

This track frankly to be good needs crashes, safety cars and 22 cars starting would have made that more likely. Would favour being later in the season when reliability is usually better.
 
Full FIA Stewards statement on Manor Marissua.

The stewards convened to determine whether there had been a breach of Article 13.2 (f) of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations relating to the participation in the event by the Manor Marussia F1 Team.

The Stewards received a written explanation from the team and were provided with further information by team representatives.

In addition the stewards received information from the FIA Technical Delegate.

Having considered all available material, the Stewards determined that there had not been a breach of Article 13.2 (f), on the basis that the team had:

1. Attended the event

2. Brought a significant quantity of material and equipment with it

3. Produced all required documents for checking

4. Taken part in Scrutineering and its 2 cars were eligible to compete

5. Brought sufficient staff to prepare the cars for competition

6. Continued to work and do all within it's ability to enable the 2 cars to compete

7. Prepared the cars to a state where they were mechanically complete

8. Would not have been able to achieve a software configuration that allowed the 2 cars to be operated in Practice or Qualifying sessions, even if they had worked outside curfew requirements

Therefore the Stewards accepted that the team explained it had used all reasonable endeavours to ensure that its cars were able to compete in active competition, therefore the Stewards take no further action during the event.
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knip said:
Come on Lewis, show a bit of respect for the anthems. Waving, fidgeting and playing with your damn hair is not ok. :rolleyes:
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Well he is a tax exile, so I doubt the anthem of any country means much to him when he doesn't contribute anyway :)

Start to finish race for him, mercs are going to be runaways.
Battle for third looks very much like Ferrari, will be interesting to see how everyone else manages with the variation in circuits as we go through the year.
 
Ferrari seem to have a really decent car this year. Nasr is also showing himself - as much as he could at least - in the Sauber. Not a great deal of action though. Roll on WEC.
 
Nasr is a funny one, he showed flashes of talent in GP2 over the 3 years, but never really stood out for me. Happy to see him in F1 though and doing well at that.

The lack of action in the race didn't surprise me, as I'm not keen on the Melbourne circuit, not an overtaking fest unless the conditions are mixed.

The lack of cars though did really disappoint me however, an 18 car grid let alone a 15 car starting grid is shocking and FOM/FIA/Strategy group needs to look into why this is. Hopefully something like this will be a kick up the backside, not holding my breath though... :(

Lewis toyed with Nico today, had the extra pace in his pocket when needed, not challenged at all sadly.

Roll onto next week, 12 Hours of Sebring! :cool:
 
What a pathetic start to the season, boring after less than a lap.

I was expecting Mercedes to be out in front but was hoping for at least some racing in the rest of the pack. I know the season often gets off to a slow start but I couldn't sit through many 'races' like that.
 
knip said:
Come on Lewis, show a bit of respect for the anthems. Waving, fidgeting and playing with your damn hair is not ok. :rolleyes:
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I thought the same, he just doesn't care. I like Lewis, he's a fantastic driver. But the arrogance of the man..
 
Vertigo1 said:
Have to agree with the earlier comments about Damon, whoever it was that made them.

He's hopeless in front of the camera. Keeps stuttering, repeating words, umming and ahhing and then only states the blinding obvious, offering no real insight at all.

On a similar note, what on earth was Jolyon Palmer doing commentating on the practice sessions? He's got no F1 experience at all and presume he's never even driven the circuit as it's an F1-only track I believe? Give us someone who's actually driven an F1 race or has circuit knowledge to offer the "expert" opinion.
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They aren't there to offer expert opinion in the practice sessions, they are there to be an interesting talking point and offer their view. They have all sorts of people join Crofty on Friday and I think its great. Keeps things interesting. Herbert did one of the sessions, they quite often get a teams reserve driver in or someone hanging about not racing. Susie Wolff has been on a few times, and some team bosses, all sorts.

Jolyon was pretty good.
 
Think I made the right choice in going to bed after 5 laps or so.
Wiyh team I support completely out and placing no little bets the whole thing was really dull.

Not so bothered about the front but nothing really happened at all.

I certainly won't be staying in for any races this year if weather over the weekends is nice.
Also if I couldn't watch for free on skygo I definitely wouldn't pay for any of it

And testing is pretty indicative of pace
 
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Got up to watch the start, fell back to sleep after the first pit-stops and dozed through the rest of the race and post-race.

Interesting that Vettel is competitive again after everyone said he couldn't drive a non blown-diffuser car. Maybe there was something in all the CT talk last season about them giving him Webber's car. :p
 
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