[Race] Australian Grand Prix 2023: Grand Prix Weekend Thread - Round 3 of 23

[Greem]

That's what I meant - F1 can never ever use a solution from elsewhere. FCY? VSC! Push to pass? DRS!

I love F1, but by $deity they need to get their heads out of their rear ends sometimes.

[Tourer]

Loved all three parts of qualifying today - the colder track temps than expected had them all struggling to get heat into the tyres & we saw some genuine heroics.

Max on pole but he really had to work at it, "Mr Saturday" next to him on the front row, then Lewis and Fernando breathing down their necks from the 2nd row. Great stuff.

Plus Alex Albon in 8th and felt like he could go even better really - really good sessions.

Disappointment has to be the Ferraris, 5th & 7th - lot of work to do as they haven't looked "on it" at any stage this weekend really.

Years ago Bernie floated the idea (toungue in cheek of course) of sprinklers at every track to wet down the surface - from today that isn't needed - just turn up with tyres expecting warm/hot conditions and then have much cooler conditions - seemed to work OK.

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by Tourer

Loved all three parts of qualifying today - the colder track temps than expected had them all struggling to get heat into the tyres & we saw some genuine heroics.

Max on pole but he really had to work at it, "Mr Saturday" next to him on the front row, then Lewis and Fernando breathing down their necks from the 2nd row. Great stuff.

Plus Alex Albon in 8th and felt like he could go even better really - really good sessions.

Disappointment has to be the Ferraris, 5th & 7th - lot of work to do as they haven't looked "on it" at any stage this weekend really.

Years ago Bernie floated the idea (toungue in cheek of course) of sprinklers at every track to wet down the surface - from today that isn't needed - just turn up with tyres expecting warm/hot conditions and then have much cooler conditions - seemed to work OK.

Had a friend comment that it was the most engaging qualifying, the most fun to watch in years.
If the race was as good as the qualifying, we might get a ripper tomorrow.
I might need it or my entry in prediction is sunk....

[Kingair]

Good qualifying session, shame for Perez.

Looks like a few showers for Melbourne Sunday morning, but a dry cool afternoon for the race.

[chillibowl]

yeah that was a fun session and Max really pulled out a stunner on his last lap.

top 6 or 7 separated by half a second, i believe, which could make for a very interesting race if the gap is similar over the race distance....or if RB have some reliability issues.

in the past year and a bit, Ham seems to opt for an alternative (seemingly less optimal even) strategy then GR??? im guessing they wont try that here but they have to cover off Alonso somehow. a double podium finish for Merc would be absolutely massive given all the speculation about their failed design concept.

Albon surely impressed but im leaning towards Stroll as impressing me the most so far this season. injuries to start the season and he is surprisingly closer to Alonso then i thought he could be.

again all the ingredients for a great race, hopefully it all comes together!

Button on the SKY commentary which i enjoyed. he brings some calmness to the proceedings which i appreciated more due to the sleepy time time zone this race falls into for me lol!

[BTCC frog]

I also thought it was a very entertaining qualifying session, it is a lot more interesting when drivers are setting so many laps on the same tyres.

Whenever there are greasy conditions, Max Verstappen seems a shoo-in for pole, and today was no different.

George Russell once again did an outstanding job to beat Lewis Hamilton. Both this season and last I expected Hamilton to destroy him and he was much closer last year than I thought although the points table flatters him, while this season he has genuinely been as good as Hamilton and stronger in Jeddah. Combined with the fact that Bottas is now more likely to be outpaced by Zhou than the other way around, I suspect Hamilton isn't quite as good a driver as I thought he was a few years ago.

Meanwhile, I have said in the past that Lando Norris is the driver most likely to challenge Max Verstappen in the next era of Formula 1, thinking him to be an outstanding talent. However, over the past three races, Oscar Piastri has genuinely shown himself to be almost on the level of Norris despite being a rookie. Perhaps I overrated Norris a little and Ricciardo was actually doing even worse than it seemed in 2021 and 2022, but although I still consider Norris to be better than Leclerc and one of the top talents in Formula 1 at the moment, I would like to change my answer and say that the next world championship not won by Max Verstappen will go to Oscar Piastri, although that will be quite a few years in the future. McLaren possibly have the strongest driver lineup, and the worst car, on the grid.

Nico Hulkenberg is also massively impressing for Haas, consistently quicker than Magnussen so far this season, and Albon and Tsunoda are also doing a solid job for their teams. The Alpine battle is too close to call but currently Ocon holds the upper hand over Gasly.

And it will be interesting to see Sergio Perez fight his way through from the back tomorrow, although not as much as it would be if there weren't four DRS zones because it is unlikely that he will make a single impressive overtake, and will instead just blast past every car on the straights.

I find I always have one burning problem with Formula 1 that I desperately want to change and get far more worked up over than is really necessary. A few years ago it was all about that stupid Q2 tyre rule, then I was most interested in getting rid of sprint races, then it was unnecessary red flags and safety cars, particularly hating incidents like Baku 2021 when the race was restarted with a standing start with two laps to go, and fears that suggestions that Abu Dhabi 2021 should have ended in the same way would lead to a precedent in the future. And now I just despise DRS and want it scrapped immediately.

[S griffin]

Very interesting quali. Checo has been making quite a few mistakes through the sessions. Throwing it away in Q1 was the tip of the iceberg. Is he trying too hard to beat Max?

Another pole for Max, but great job by the Mercs, especially Russell. The run down to the first corner will be interesting

Great job by Albon to get in the top 10. Now remember what he did from last here last year

Nice to see Ricciardo back in the paddock and smiling. Been too long since we saw that grin

[P38 in workshop]

Originally Posted by BTCC frog

George Russell once again did an outstanding job to beat Lewis Hamilton. Both this season and last I expected Hamilton to destroy him and he was much closer last year than I thought although the points table flatters him, while this season he has genuinely been as good as Hamilton and stronger in Jeddah. Combined with the fact that Bottas is now more likely to be outpaced by Zhou than the other way around, I suspect Hamilton isn't quite as good a driver as I thought he was a few years ago.

An excellent point and if we look back a few years we might arrive at a similar conclusion regarding Sebastian Vettel and before him Michael Schumacher.The driver is the most visible member of the team that created a package that works with the prevailing set of regulations.If the design and manufacturing elements of the team have produced something quite outstanding,they get less approbation.Obviously,it helps to have a driver who can work with the concept they present for racing.

[275 GTB-4]

How great is Albert Park this year...EVEN the V8s put on a good show :-)

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

surprisingly, i have to agree this sounds excessive...would like to know how their race simulations (assuming they do that sort of thing) predict what the outcome/benefit is. we talk about transparency and in this area there definitely needs to be more openness about how they are predicting the outcome/benefit of additional zones.

DITCH DRS!

[bjohnsonsmith]

A great start from Russell but Leclerc goes into the gravel at Turn 3 and its an FCY.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Albon loses it at Turn 7 and is out of the race. Second FCY.

Edit: Red flag.

[BTCC frog]

This is the worst, most pathetic red flag I have ever seen.

Firstly, these are supposed to be the best drivers in the world. They can manage to drive through a corner with a bit of gravel on track, and most of it can easily be sweeped up during a safety car period.

But instead, through pure bad luck, George Russell has just been demoted from 1st to 7th and utterly robbed of the race lead, with the same terrible luck affecting Sainz and others. A very simple fix for this would be to have rolling starts after a red flag, and ban changing tyres behind it, because this is supposed to be a sport and it is simply unfair for luck to make such a huge difference to the results. That is far worse than losing a few laps behind the safety car.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by BTCC frog

This is the worst, most pathetic red flag I have ever seen.

Firstly, these are supposed to be the best drivers in the world. They can manage to drive through a corner with a bit of gravel on track, and most of it can easily be sweeped up during a safety car period.

But instead, through pure bad luck, George Russell has just been demoted from 1st to 7th and utterly robbed of the race lead, with the same terrible luck affecting Sainz and others. A very simple fix for this would be to have rolling starts after a red flag, and ban changing tyres behind it, because this is supposed to be a sport and it is simply unfair for luck to make such a huge difference to the results. That is far worse than losing a few laps behind the safety car.

I was surprised they red flagged the race but maybe there was a lot of debris, that couldn't be cleared up under the SC.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Russell out as his Mercedes turns into a mobile bonfire. VSC.

[Beau2]

Poor George. From brilliance to disaster in less than 20 laps. Could end up being a very poor weekend for Mercedes if they can't keep those tyres fresh.

Absolutely bonkers weekend so far - 3 promising "lead" drivers out from their teams already.

[275 GTB-4]

WHY???? can't F1 have the same car number scheme as F2 and F3...the lower classes are brilliant for car spotting! :-)

[bjohnsonsmith]

K Mag's car has turned into a tricycle, after hitting the wall at the exit of Turn 2. FCY with 4 laps to.

[marcel82]

Originally Posted by BTCC frog

This is the worst, most pathetic red flag I have ever seen.

they beat their record.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Second red flag. At least the race won't end under yellow.

[Tourer]

Wow - another red flag for debris. Feels OTT but race control has more info than me.
Going to be a nuts couple of laps from this standing start.

[275 GTB-4]

Need a rolling start after some warm up laps...

[bjohnsonsmith]

Dani Ric on the grid in RBR colours.

[275 GTB-4]

Carnage after a re-start, what could possibly go wrong?? Brilliant decision from Race Control (NOT!)

[bjohnsonsmith]

Red flags breed red flags.