Justin:
Well, ultimately, there were no great surprises. Lewis out ahead flanked by a Ferrari. That was an astonishing lap by Lewis and a huge gap to Kimi.
It caused a bit of a fruity press conference afterwards - Gotta love these two exchanging words.
Bottas has his work cut out after hitting the wall quite heavily. Still, with the speed on the Mercedes you'd expect him to rise through to the top 5 with relative ease.
The Renault team look strong, as do Haas (they have apparently remained within the rules whilst actually building very little of their car compared to other teams) - the latter are surely the most improved/ big surprise of 2018 so far?!
Fernando Alonso said during the build up that this would be the worst weekend for McLaren. He'd better hope so. I'd imagine they didn't have qualifying 11th and 12th in mind before Q3. That said, Alonso seemed ok with it.
There is a big gap between the top 3 teams and the best of the rest. There was one second from Daniel Ricciardo back to Kevin Magnussen. Not sure if I'm more concerned by that gap or the one between Lewis and the rest.
That said, the flip side is the top 3 were all mega close after Q2...but Lewis was holding back until obliterating everyone in Q3.
Unless Ferrari and Red Bull pull something very special out of the bag tomorrow (today now if anyone down under reads this), I don't think anyone other than Lewis will win this race.
It's great that F1 is back, but I hope we have fighting at the front tomorrow and don't just have to rely on midfield for close up racing.
We shall see.
Showing posts with label australian gp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label australian gp. Show all posts
Saturday, 24 March 2018
Thursday, 22 March 2018
Nearly time for lights out!!
Justin:
I think I either need to do a live blog during the race highlights on Sunday, or at least cynically post a blog during to piggyback on all the hashtag traffic to get me more readers :-).
There's just a handful of days until FP1 and we get more of an idea of the pecking order.
I'm competing yet again in a Fantasy F1 contest. I've picked 3 teams - my drivers include Ricciardo, Bottas, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Perez, Sainz. In fact, the Renault drivers and engines pop up a fair bit. Ocon is in there too.
I'm just bloody excited for it all to start now.
Have I mentioned this blogger is off to Canada in June too?!
F1 is back!
*Update - FP1 is very soon now!! F1 is back. This blog post is pretty much just me getting very excited and wanting to post something!!
I think I either need to do a live blog during the race highlights on Sunday, or at least cynically post a blog during to piggyback on all the hashtag traffic to get me more readers :-).
There's just a handful of days until FP1 and we get more of an idea of the pecking order.
I'm competing yet again in a Fantasy F1 contest. I've picked 3 teams - my drivers include Ricciardo, Bottas, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Perez, Sainz. In fact, the Renault drivers and engines pop up a fair bit. Ocon is in there too.
I'm just bloody excited for it all to start now.
Have I mentioned this blogger is off to Canada in June too?!
F1 is back!
*Update - FP1 is very soon now!! F1 is back. This blog post is pretty much just me getting very excited and wanting to post something!!
Sunday, 20 March 2016
Welcome back old friend - Round 1: Australia
Justin:
So much to cover...
First off, hats off to Channel 4 for their first effort at covering this awesome sport. There was definitely room for improvement....too many advert breaks for a highlights show, Steve Jones interrupting DC and Webber a fair amount (to be fair that is probably just because he can't quite believe his luck) and a few other bits.
All in all (as Vettel would say), not bad at all people. Hell, you have saved me from either missing F1 entirely or having to turn to the dark side and purchase Sky!
Was lovely hearing The Chain and indeed hearing Ben Edwards shouting "Lights out, away we go!".
Where I'm at
I sometimes lost the will to live with F1 last year. Hamilton dominating and not even his teammate coming close to being near him = Formula Bore! Rosberg sprang into life over the last few races, giving us and him hope for 2016.
I've missed F1 so much over the winter, don't get me wrong. But, I don't think I could take much of the same this year...
Race report
...Which is good, because the Australian GP was a solid season opener. Ferrari and Vettel cocked up big time - so much so that had they fitted the medium tyres when everyone else did, they may very well have won. Though, Rosberg showed pretty awesome pace throughout anyway, keeping up with the red guys.
As a friend pointed out, Channel 4 managed to not show Rosbergs amazing out lap to be on the tailpipe of Vettel. All we saw was Rosberg appearing behind him.
Ok, there wasn't a great deal of fighting at the front, but there was a bit. For the rest of the season, it is imperative that Rosberg and Vettel challenge Hamilton. Throw Kimi in there too - what rotten luck he had yet again. He was keeping pace until his engine blew up! Hell, Ricciardo could be in there too, who knows. Williams not so much on this display. They were nowhere.
Hamilton had a shabby start, which kind of threw his race out of whack from the start. He recovered very well for a strong second place.
Picking up where he left off
I'd imagine nobody knows more than Rosberg that he has to do it every race this year. He needs to be on it all year. Nothing else will come close to being good enough. He was on it today. He has won the last 4 races and will be gaining belief all the time now.
Grosjean and Haas
My driver of the day has to be this guy. He is a class act. Haas took him on board because he is fast and consistent. He delivers. He is my driver of the day, no question at all. For Haas to get 6th place on their debut is a stunning, amazing result. Well done to all of them! Does Grosjean have an eye on a Ferrari seat for 2017? Ferrari would be silly not to have one eye on him.
Palmer
I can only name one driver of the day. This guy was on TV more, battling with more people, and indeed giving himself a pretty damn good name in F1. He defended well, overtook well and it was an awesome debut frankly.
McLaren pace
Promising improvements here. Both drivers seem much happier. Then again, the only way was up after 2015. That said, they qualified only 1.5 seconds behind the Mercedes pair.
I think I speak for everyone..
Alonso's crash was absolutely horrifying frankly. The car was a total mangled mess of carbon fibre. Very happy to see him get out and walk away. He'll be back fighting hard in Bahrain.
Sainz vs Verstappen
This could be the teammate rivalry to end all others at this rate (Merc boys aside). Sainz doesn't seem to Verstappen spitting his dummy.
To round off with
I actually thought it was quite fun seeing Webber and Vettel joking around on the podium. I don't like Vettel, but it goes to show that once guys leave F1, there is always a thawing of frosty teammate relationships. They were enemies whilst being teammates, but with time, it's nice to see they can have a joke every now and again.
How to be Mark Webber...
Just add "mate" onto the end of every sentence :-)
To Bahrain!!!!
Me, the blog author, in Hungary 2015 decked out in Alonso gear.
So much to cover...
First off, hats off to Channel 4 for their first effort at covering this awesome sport. There was definitely room for improvement....too many advert breaks for a highlights show, Steve Jones interrupting DC and Webber a fair amount (to be fair that is probably just because he can't quite believe his luck) and a few other bits.
All in all (as Vettel would say), not bad at all people. Hell, you have saved me from either missing F1 entirely or having to turn to the dark side and purchase Sky!
Was lovely hearing The Chain and indeed hearing Ben Edwards shouting "Lights out, away we go!".
Where I'm at
I sometimes lost the will to live with F1 last year. Hamilton dominating and not even his teammate coming close to being near him = Formula Bore! Rosberg sprang into life over the last few races, giving us and him hope for 2016.
I've missed F1 so much over the winter, don't get me wrong. But, I don't think I could take much of the same this year...
Race report
...Which is good, because the Australian GP was a solid season opener. Ferrari and Vettel cocked up big time - so much so that had they fitted the medium tyres when everyone else did, they may very well have won. Though, Rosberg showed pretty awesome pace throughout anyway, keeping up with the red guys.
As a friend pointed out, Channel 4 managed to not show Rosbergs amazing out lap to be on the tailpipe of Vettel. All we saw was Rosberg appearing behind him.
Ok, there wasn't a great deal of fighting at the front, but there was a bit. For the rest of the season, it is imperative that Rosberg and Vettel challenge Hamilton. Throw Kimi in there too - what rotten luck he had yet again. He was keeping pace until his engine blew up! Hell, Ricciardo could be in there too, who knows. Williams not so much on this display. They were nowhere.
Hamilton had a shabby start, which kind of threw his race out of whack from the start. He recovered very well for a strong second place.
Picking up where he left off
I'd imagine nobody knows more than Rosberg that he has to do it every race this year. He needs to be on it all year. Nothing else will come close to being good enough. He was on it today. He has won the last 4 races and will be gaining belief all the time now.
Grosjean and Haas
My driver of the day has to be this guy. He is a class act. Haas took him on board because he is fast and consistent. He delivers. He is my driver of the day, no question at all. For Haas to get 6th place on their debut is a stunning, amazing result. Well done to all of them! Does Grosjean have an eye on a Ferrari seat for 2017? Ferrari would be silly not to have one eye on him.
Palmer
I can only name one driver of the day. This guy was on TV more, battling with more people, and indeed giving himself a pretty damn good name in F1. He defended well, overtook well and it was an awesome debut frankly.
McLaren pace
Promising improvements here. Both drivers seem much happier. Then again, the only way was up after 2015. That said, they qualified only 1.5 seconds behind the Mercedes pair.
I think I speak for everyone..
Alonso's crash was absolutely horrifying frankly. The car was a total mangled mess of carbon fibre. Very happy to see him get out and walk away. He'll be back fighting hard in Bahrain.
Sainz vs Verstappen
This could be the teammate rivalry to end all others at this rate (Merc boys aside). Sainz doesn't seem to Verstappen spitting his dummy.
To round off with
I actually thought it was quite fun seeing Webber and Vettel joking around on the podium. I don't like Vettel, but it goes to show that once guys leave F1, there is always a thawing of frosty teammate relationships. They were enemies whilst being teammates, but with time, it's nice to see they can have a joke every now and again.
How to be Mark Webber...
Just add "mate" onto the end of every sentence :-)
To Bahrain!!!!
Me, the blog author, in Hungary 2015 decked out in Alonso gear.
Sunday, 17 March 2013
Kimi - A one stop strategy before the race ;-)
Justin:
Starting from where we left off in 2012 seems to be the main theme for Round 1 in Australia.
The three men on the podium were the top three in the title race last year and I would possibly put Kimi alongside Seb and Fernando in terms of real title contenders for 2013.
Of course, it's just one race and it's a quite particular street circuit in Albert Park. Malaysia has a lot of rather different characteristics as a track with fast, sweeping corners which may mean we'll see other cars coming to the front.
By way of a two stop strategy, and a one stop strategy before the race.... Kimi beat Fernando by over ten seconds in the end, with Vettel a further ten seconds down the road in third.
There was some great racing, nail biting stuff in the early stages with Vettel being hustled by the two very quick Ferrari's.
Mclaren are absolutely nowhere and Lewis must be loving his move to Mercedes, where he finished a solid if unspectacular fifth.
Sergio Perez's debut in his new team was frankly not good enough. Ok, its a difficult car, with JB struggling to ninth. But as we all know in F1 you must beat your team-mate first and foremost. I almost forgot Perez was in the race at all to be perfectly honest.
Mark Webber had a rubbish start yet again, from second on the grid. We learned later that he had an electronics fault AND no kers...does this guy get any good luck at all, ever?! Great recovery drive to sixth.
Adrian Sutil should get a mention - he led the race after a year out and didnt look out of place amongst the front runners at all. He faded due to differing strategies, but still finished a well earned seventh.
Good to see Massa is still keeping Alonso very honest, as he did in the last handful of races last year.
Alonso said the pace of the Lotus was a worry. Keeping things in perspective though, Ferrari have turned up with a very fast car. This time last year theirs was an absolute dog.
It seems Mclaren has brought the ugly duckling along this year.
Pecking order looks like Ferrari and Red Bull (RB may have better one lap pace but they seem to ruin their tyres in the race), Lotus then a small gap to Mercedes. Mclaren have fallen back and need to sort themselves out quickly.
To Malaysia in one week!
This isn't the Kimi we know - he usually drinks all the booze :-)
Starting from where we left off in 2012 seems to be the main theme for Round 1 in Australia.
The three men on the podium were the top three in the title race last year and I would possibly put Kimi alongside Seb and Fernando in terms of real title contenders for 2013.
Of course, it's just one race and it's a quite particular street circuit in Albert Park. Malaysia has a lot of rather different characteristics as a track with fast, sweeping corners which may mean we'll see other cars coming to the front.
By way of a two stop strategy, and a one stop strategy before the race.... Kimi beat Fernando by over ten seconds in the end, with Vettel a further ten seconds down the road in third.
There was some great racing, nail biting stuff in the early stages with Vettel being hustled by the two very quick Ferrari's.
Mclaren are absolutely nowhere and Lewis must be loving his move to Mercedes, where he finished a solid if unspectacular fifth.
Sergio Perez's debut in his new team was frankly not good enough. Ok, its a difficult car, with JB struggling to ninth. But as we all know in F1 you must beat your team-mate first and foremost. I almost forgot Perez was in the race at all to be perfectly honest.
Mark Webber had a rubbish start yet again, from second on the grid. We learned later that he had an electronics fault AND no kers...does this guy get any good luck at all, ever?! Great recovery drive to sixth.
Adrian Sutil should get a mention - he led the race after a year out and didnt look out of place amongst the front runners at all. He faded due to differing strategies, but still finished a well earned seventh.
Good to see Massa is still keeping Alonso very honest, as he did in the last handful of races last year.
Alonso said the pace of the Lotus was a worry. Keeping things in perspective though, Ferrari have turned up with a very fast car. This time last year theirs was an absolute dog.
It seems Mclaren has brought the ugly duckling along this year.
Pecking order looks like Ferrari and Red Bull (RB may have better one lap pace but they seem to ruin their tyres in the race), Lotus then a small gap to Mercedes. Mclaren have fallen back and need to sort themselves out quickly.
To Malaysia in one week!
This isn't the Kimi we know - he usually drinks all the booze :-)
Friday, 26 March 2010
Welcome to the blog
Phil: Welcome to our new blog. We're one race into one of the most eagerly anticipated Formula 1 seasons in years, with Alonso at Ferrari, the return of Michael Schumacher, three new teams and a ban on refuelling. The first race, at Bahrain two weeks ago, however, was criticised for being a bit boring. Well, you haven't seen boring yet. Wait until a few more blog entries, you'll be begging for Bahrain 2010 then.
This weekend's race in Melbourne is billed as a sunset spectacular. That's sunset in Australia, so still redeye in the UK. We'll post again over the weekend, if we can be bothered to get up early at watch it.
This weekend's race in Melbourne is billed as a sunset spectacular. That's sunset in Australia, so still redeye in the UK. We'll post again over the weekend, if we can be bothered to get up early at watch it.
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