2016 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix

[MBKF1 91]

The first race of the season is finally here!

I think we discuss this every year, but who's staying up for practice and who's gonna sleep?!

I've got to be at work for 8am tomorrow so I need sleep lol. I'm going to set an alarm for 6am and skip through both sessions in time for 7am so I can get ready to go.

I would love to stay up and watch it if I had the day off, but also it looks like the practice is going to be wet, so if they don't do any running then it'll be a complete waste of time.

[onetwothree 0]

I'm staying up for practice.

Body is 12 characters too short.

[buttonfan 5]

I'm staying up (or at least I'll try :p ) 

[Mexicola 9]

I honestly think this first race could decide the championship. If Nico wins, then he's got a shot. If Lewis gets the upperhand, psychologically he's finished - dead and buried.

I'm rooting for Palmer. His dad's cool, he seems cool and he looks like a cross between Paul Banks from Interpol and Ed O'Brien from Radiohead. 



Marvellous.

[Chadwick8505 0]

I'm staying up but in America it's only 930pm, so perfect time to watch F1 haha

[Syn 2]

Chadwick8505 said:

I'm staying up but in America it's only 930pm, so perfect time to watch F1 haha

Currently watching as well.

[RevolvingPrawn 1]

SynGamer said:

Chadwick8505 said:

I'm staying up but in America it's only 930pm, so perfect time to watch F1 haha

Currently watching as well.

Just past 3am here now :| As much as I love Albert Park being the opening race, I sometimes wish it wasn't!

[Chadwick8505 0]

Pretty boring session because of the weather. No real issues for anyone (except Sainz apparently). Great to see an American F1 team, hopefully they have something. Renault may have gone with a boring livery... But damn does yellow look good on track. 

No no one really got to show what they really have yet, maybe in FP2. 

[VetteIfan 0]

Mexicola said:

 I'm rooting for Palmer. His dad's cool, he seems cool and he looks like a cross between Paul Banks from Interpol and Ed O'Brien from Radiohead. 

I think I'm just rooting for Renault in general. Two very likeable drivers, a livery with some colour and the fact it's just glorious to see a team with such a long racing heritage back in competition.

To be fair, and to not make it seem like I'm just jumping on a bandwagon, I have been a big detractor of Renault over the past few years. Clearly they have not had a strong start to the hybrid era. But I sincerely hope they can turn it around. 

[f1since08 58]

I'm having an interweb ban tomorrow morning until the qualifying highlights have been on C4!

[MBKF1 91]

I'm gonna watch the Sky coverage of Qualifying tomorrow as I have to be up for 6am anyway as I'm going out early, but I'll definitely record C4's highlights and give them a watch when I get home. Really looking forward to their coverage, they've been doing a lot of good things by the look of it.

[Jiggy 5]

This new quali format is hilarious. It's also retarded, but it's hilarious. They also need to get rid of it ASAP, but it's hilarious.

Haas would've been quick though.

[Jiggy 5]

Okay, it's official, the 2016 season is going to be absolutely trash as well.

[GoldenColt 1]

The new quali format is crap. I expect it to be scrapped alltogether until Bahrain.

In other news: 50th pole for Lewis and Mercedes looking as dominant as ever. :p

[ImDyingYouIdiot 0]

Yep, that was absolute and complete trash. Mucking up the one thing that works in F1 is an achievement in itself though.

[MBKF1 91]

That was a lot worse than I thought it was going to be. If that makes the end of the season then I'll be very surprised.

[VetteIfan 0]

Yep, awful. Instead of bringing about surprising results, if anything it just distances the field as the top guys can just do one lap and save all their tyres. 

The Ferrari was 1.4 seconds off Mercedes' in qualifying here last year. This year it's 8 tenths. So I'm going to use McLaren logic and say they've got closer and that's promising for the race pace. But, more than likely, congratulations to Lewis Hamilton on his 4th world title. Spectacular acheivment. 

The one happiness I can take from that session is Toro Rosso. After the 2nd test I predicted they might have the 4th best car. They actually look like they have the 3rd best car. And that is close to where they would've been throughout last year if they had a decent engine. Very much looking forward to seeing Verstappen and Sainz in that car this season now they can fight on the straights. 

[GoldenColt 1]

Lewis' pole lap was only 0,3 off Vettel's 2011 EBD-assisted pole. And back then, they were allowed to use DRS everywhere during quali. These cars are seriously fast. Imagine proper tyres being fitted to them.

[Jiggy 5]

I think Verstappen or Sainz might actually win a race with some luck. It's like the 1997 Jordan line-up, with the difference that Verstappen and Sainz are a lot more smarter and composed than Fisichella and R. Schumacher.

[VetteIfan 0]

GoldenColt said:

Lewis' pole lap was only 0,3 off Vettel's 2011 EBD-assisted pole. And back then, they were allowed to use DRS everywhere during quali. These cars are seriously fast. Imagine proper tyres being fitted to them.

2011 lap was on softs, today's lap was on super soft. Plus the engines now are some 150-200bhp ahead of the power limited V8's, which more than makes up for the unlimited use of DRS. Cars are also different weights. So it's kind of like comparing apples with oranges, but the pace is certainly strong. 

Bear in mind the 2017 rule changes are apparently going to make the cars 2-3 seconds faster as well. Frightening. 

[GoldenColt 1]

But weren't the 2011 tyres softer than the 2016 ones? You're right about the engines though, but then again, the cars also weigh considerably more than they did back then.

[Hughesy 251]

First things first, what a lap from Hamilton! Whoever came up with this new qualifying format deserves to be shot in the bollocks, actually shoot each ball individually for maximum pain! Bloody awful, hope they go back to the old format as nothing was wrong with it.....

MBKF1 said:

That was a lot worse than I thought it was going to be. If that makes the end of the season then I'll be very surprised.

If it makes it to the next race I won't be watching qualifying.

[ImDyingYouIdiot 0]

https://twitter.com/SkySportsF1/status/711146056956911616

Anybody surprised? No? Thought so.

[GoldenColt 1]

Let's hope the only change will be to revert back to the old quali-format.

[Jiggy 5]

Seriously, the guy that designed it should be taken to a dark room and get the creativity beaten out of him.