2016 Australian Grand Prix

Had Ferrari put medium tires on during that red flag...
 
I always record the F1 races to DVD so that I have a known-good copy. I had my recorder programmed for a 3:00 (EDST) cut-off. Due to Alonso's crash, the coverage ran longer than I expected. When I tried to re-start my DVD recorder, I got a message on the screen that "This program is not allowed to be recorded" and the recorder shut itself off. WTF? Did this happen to anyone else?

SL
 
Had Ferrari put medium tires on during that red flag...

Speculation by the NBCSN team was that the high temperatures would force the Mercs to pit, but Mercedes did almost all of their testing on the Medium tire so they know how long it would last.

As such, I think we would have seen the same finish as I believe that the Mercs would have had the pace on them to catch and pass Vettel.

Unfortunately, once the race went to Safety Car / Red Flag, that ended any chance for a Ferrari win as Vettel needed that gap he had built to keep him in the #1 position.

Awesome job by RoGro to bring the Haas home 6th.
 
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Speculation by the NBCSN team was that the high temperatures would force the Mercs to pit, but Mercedes did almost all of their testing on the Medium tire so they know how long it would last.

As such, I think we would have seen the same finish as I believe that the Mercs would have had the pace on them to catch and pass Vettel.

Unfortunately, once the race went to Safety Car / Red Flag, that ended any chance for a Ferrari win as Vettel needed that gap he had built to keep him in the #1 position.

Awesome job by RoGro to bring the Haas home 6th.

Though if Raikkonen hadn't broken down there was always the possibility he could have gotten ahead of Rosberg and given Vettel a chance to build the gap again.
 
Basically the exact same crash as 20 years ago, same spot and everything
In his usual nonchalant fashion, Brundle quipped "that looks familiar" on Sky when seeing the replay of Alonso's crash...
 
i think ferrari had enough pace that if they also put on medium during the red flag, to stay in front of the mercs
merc didn't win the race, ferrari lost it

just like no one but the tactical team at STR is to blame for the result, max was running forth! a could've easily stayed in that position with the correct tires
big congrats to Haas though, that's how you do a startup! :D

i thoroughly enjoyed that race :)
 
What a gigantic fuck up. Knew the race was lost when they went purple-purple. I hope they learn from this mistake.
Also, I hope this is not a freak occurrence, something like Mercedes forgetting to tighten their Uberboost rotator splint and then after fixing that issue they go on to 1-2 the rest of the championship.

All in all a good result but such a pity cos it could have been so much better. Such a great start from both, good pace, bad strategy.

Alonso's crash just... lucky. After losing Jules, after so much fuss about the safety of F1s, I don't see this getting any safer.

- - - Updated - - -

Basically the exact same crash as 20 years ago, same spot and everything

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xthv8r_martin-brundle-crash-1996_auto


And this...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuphlb_r-schumacher-and-villeneuve-crash-in-australia-2001_sport
 
Alonso's crash just... lucky. After losing Jules, after so much fuss about the safety of F1s, I don't see this getting any safer.


Not to put light on F1 safety concerns but this is being a wee bit dramatic. There have been several crashes like Alonso's over the years and they all have something in common. The driver hopping out and wandering back to the pits on his own steam before a doctor declares he's perfectly fine. This is because the cars are designed for such crashes, Martin Brundle even re-joined the race after his shunt. Jules Bianchi's crash was a freak accident which bears no resemblance. The issue there was that the crash bypassed all of the crash structures of the car so Bianchi ended up absorbing a lot of the impact, even with a roof apparently he'd still have been killed as the tractor was too high really short of surrounding the tractor with crash structure there would not have been a lot you could do apart from have a rule where as soon as a tractor is on the track you red flag the race.
 
Not to put light on F1 safety concerns but this is being a wee bit dramatic. There have been several crashes like Alonso's over the years and they all have something in common. The driver hopping out and wandering back to the pits on his own steam before a doctor declares he's perfectly fine. This is because the cars are designed for such crashes, Martin Brundle even re-joined the race after his shunt. Jules Bianchi's crash was a freak accident which bears no resemblance. The issue there was that the crash bypassed all of the crash structures of the car so Bianchi ended up absorbing a lot of the impact, even with a roof apparently he'd still have been killed as the tractor was too high really short of surrounding the tractor with crash structure there would not have been a lot you could do apart from have a rule where as soon as a tractor is on the track you red flag the race.

even if Bianchi had a halo device and even if that were strong enough to stop the car
the decelleration would've been so big, he still would've had brain damage...
it's not the impact that killed him, it was the deceleration...
 
even if Bianchi had a halo device and even if that were strong enough to stop the car
the decelleration would've been so big, he still would've had brain damage...
it's not the impact that killed him, it was the deceleration...

That's what I said "absorbing a lot of the impact" maybe you'll say "oh deceleration" but that's what I meant otherwise I wouldn't have gone on about crash structures. Also "even with a roof apparently he'd still have been killed" I didn't and have never said the halo would have saved him.
 
My point is that it's about time we stop kidding ourselves, the cars are as safe as they're gonna be, and freak accidents will keep happening no matter what they do.
And you're absolutely right, Brundle walked away from the crash, as did Alonso, and this is with 20 years of car safety developments in between. So let's stop implementing rules which lower the spectacle in the name of safety, such as those which make the cars uglier (see, Severus Snape noses)

Anyway that was a parenthesis. On with the season.
 
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