2017 Australian GP

bone

"bangle for president"
Joined
Jan 14, 2004
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16,814
Location
belgium!!
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Volvo V40 & Yamaha Banshee
so, first 2 practice session finished.
hamilton on top, with vettel second, albeit 0.5s behind

not sure how to react...
"yes, ferrari got within half a second, we've got a battle on our hand"
or
"shit, still half a second, ham will romp off again"
 
All that hype about Ferrari kicking everyone's ass and the Mercs way out front again. Although they did run ultrasofts and the Ferrari's used supersofts ......
Stoffel managed 33 condecutive laps (a record) and Alonso managed 12th which is a surprise.... But we'll see tomorrow when everyone really goes for it. I expect laptimes to drop by atleast another second
 
Alonso really is extracting all the juice out of that crapbox. Funnily enough, the F1 Reddit seems to have decided that the McLaren is now the most beautiful car ever or something. In the run up to the race there were like 3 different threads saying how good it looks. I think it's all pity.

I set my alarm for qualy and I vaguely remember waking up, but after that, its all a blur, and then when I woke up for real, I was entirely sure (and surprised) Alonso somehow had gotten pole. This lasted a full half hour till I checked the websites.

Anyway I do hope we have a battle in our hands, if the Ferrari runs better in the race than in quali like it used to, it should be interesting.
 
I never thought I'd be rooting so hard for Seb to win a race.
 
Hamilton bitches and moans so much, it's beautiful to see him lose. Well done Seb.
 
^ all true but man was this a boring race. Aside from Vettel beating Ham in the pits, and Alonso heroically trying to hold to a point this wasn't particularly interesting...
 
If completely new cars (first good looking cars in about a decade), attrition to the balls where 7 DNFs, and most importantly Mercedes getting beat fair and square with race pace is not exciting enough, you might need to just quit watching.
 
I sometimes wonder what a race needs to have for the "F1 fans" to consider it "exciting" because it seems like most races this one had a handful of moments and the rest was just hoping that nothing bad happened to whichever car you are interested in. There was a bit of tension at the end with Verstappen catching Raikkonen and Bottas catching Hamilton though the commentators constantly talking about how you can't overtake here took some of that tension away. And at the start you had them have to go around again because someone parked in the wrong slot and that always adds to the tension of the start. It's far from the most exciting race that will happen this year but I don't think it'll be the most boring, that'll probably be Monaco.
 
Watch tapes of golden ear Prost/Senna races. It's mostly a procession as well, punctuated by a few laps (or even moments) of intense fighting.
 
If completely new cars (first good looking cars in about a decade), attrition to the balls where 7 DNFs, and most importantly Mercedes getting beat fair and square with race pace is not exciting enough, you might need to just quit watching.
Unlike you, whoever wins does not influence my liking or disliking of the race one bit. Yes, it's nice to see Ferrari beat Merc fair and square (even if it was in the pits rather than on track) but that doesn't make for an exciting race.

Yes, many cars broke down. So? I want to see people fighting to get past, and struggling to do so.... Which was lacking....
 
^you should go watch touringcars
F1 has never been like that, and never will...

i liked the race, and congrats to ferrari, well done!
if only they would get rid of blue flags!
 
if only they would get rid of blue flags!
I remember one Monaco GP where P2 was blocked in his pursuit of the leader for ten laps or so by a backmarker... he was FUMING! Good times...
 
I don't have a specific problem with blue flags but I'd rather have them then not.
 
Vettel, on the other hand, said he had no problems following HAM. All the while, both the Merc and to a lesser extend the Red Bull traditionally sucked in dirty air even under the old rules and in the V8 era, so I would not put too much into their driver's complaints. Let's see how this season plays out...
 
My favourite era of F1 is 2005-2008. Raikkonen, Alonso, Kubica, Hamilton, Massa... And there weren't that many passing moments on the track. The strategy played as much of a role as it did in Australian GP, and that to me seems much more classy than the fake DRS passes.

Don't forget that the top 3 spots aren't the whole race, there were many exciting moments throughout the whole field - Perez on Kvyat, Vettel pit exit, Hulk/Ocon/Alonso three wide... If you want constant passing, watch NASCAR.
 
I get that I wont get passes every other lap, but you just named ALL the passes in the entire race.... Not even an interesting midfield scrap....
 
Yesterday's race was amazing, I don't know what you guys are on about.


:p
 
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