2023 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 31 - April 02

[organic]

FOM dosed the race control with something controlled this morning knowing that they needed drama to keep us all interested in the 4 weeks off.

You heard it here first

[Shal_Leg16]

Watched the highlights again .
After the finish,
Horner - and well done
Max - yah …..win is win we take it…..etc

The tone and lac of satisfaction/joy in their voices ffs. Its that simple, max is like only 1 job to keep that car in 1 peace and on track thats all and its a guaranteed win.

Starting to feel its worse then the mercs domination in hybrid era.

[Sieper]

Why wouldn't they penalise him?

If all drivers didn't complete a sector that's doesn't mean Carlos didn't cause a crash.

Yeah I question the 5s penalty. If you effectively negate what happened by putting Alonso back up then why penalize Sainz race? Give him a penalty point instead? Hard to say i guess.

And Sargent got away completely free from any penalty, yet he careered into the bad of another car.

Yeah, that was pretty bleak. But it is his rookie year.

[chrisc90]

Can anyone see any possible way that this could be sorted out?

Im in favour of going back to lap 55 when the red flag come out for the Haas of Magnusson.

The facts are that:
No timing data was made after the restart on lap 57, due to the cars not crossing the end of Sector 1.
That is why there was a massively shuffled grid excluding the cars that were crashed at turn 1.
That 2nd restart (behind the SC) then should have gone back to the order on lap 55.
Sainz got a 5second penalty for contact with Alonso
Sargent got away with his contact with De Vries on the run down into turn 1.
Race restarts again behind the SC to finish the race with the order from lap 55 - with the crashed cars excluded
Haas protest because Hulkenburg lost his P4 after the crashes on lap 57. Meaning he is now P8.

[chrisc90]

Watched the highlights again .
After the finish,
Horner - and well done
Max - yah …..win is win we take it…..etc

The tone and lac of satisfaction/joy in their voices ffs. Its that simple, max is like only 1 job to keep that car in 1 peace and on track thats all and its a guaranteed win.

Starting to feel its worse then the mercs domination in hybrid era.

I think the tone of everyone was bleek after the events of the last 3 laps. Took them over a hour to do 3 laps and a complete mess up of the restarts. Then they go out and do a parade behind the SC to take the chequered flag.

Im sure the morale between the pitwall and drivers (all) would have been different if the race finished in a normal circumstance.

[piast9]

Very nice GP. Of course the controversy with the red flags but correct me if I'm wrong. Wasn't it a rule or policy that if there's a SC which is predicted to not end until the end of the GP then the race is red flagged? I think it was. It was established after the dramatic SC procedure at the last race of 2021 season.

For me that procedure is OK. It were the drivers who caused the mayhem at the restart.

[mendis]

Anyone decipher what Mercedes was trying pull off with that early pitting of George? It seemed like a desperate attempt to remove him out of Hamilton's way. They were asking him to maintain pace while Hamilton was attacking him. They didn't let him get full out if those tyres and dropped him at sea with that Ill timed pit stop.

[cplchanb]

Anyone decipher what Mercedes was trying pull off with that early pitting of George? It seemed like a desperate attempt to remove him out of Hamilton's way. They were asking him to maintain pace while Hamilton was attacking him. They didn't let him get full out if those tyres and dropped him at sea with that Ill timed pit stop.

It would've been the right call any other time because it could've given them possibly net position as max did not pit and the field was bunched up. Nobody expected a bit of gravel to cause a red flag.....

[chrisc90]

Anyone decipher what Mercedes was trying pull off with that early pitting of George? It seemed like a desperate attempt to remove him out of Hamilton's way. They were asking him to maintain pace while Hamilton was attacking him. They didn't let him get full out if those tyres and dropped him at sea with that Ill timed pit stop.

I think they just took a risk with a cheap stop under the safety car at the time. Bit odd considering it was only lap 7 on medium tyres that should have gone MUCH longer into the GP at the time the decision was made. Poor strategy call in my opinion at that point in the race. Lewis needed the DRS of George to keep Max behind. George didnt seem too happy about it either.
Wonder if there was a bit of team orders happening there

[mendis]

Anyone decipher what Mercedes was trying pull off with that early pitting of George? It seemed like a desperate attempt to remove him out of Hamilton's way. They were asking him to maintain pace while Hamilton was attacking him. They didn't let him get full out if those tyres and dropped him at sea with that Ill timed pit stop.

It would've been the right call any other time because it could've given them possibly net position as max did not pit and the field was bunched up. Nobody expected a bit of gravel to cause a red flag.....

Red Bull would have got by both Mercedes one way or the other. It was overestimation of monstrous proportions if they thought they could gamble with 2 cars and nick a win.

[mendis]

Anyone decipher what Mercedes was trying pull off with that early pitting of George? It seemed like a desperate attempt to remove him out of Hamilton's way. They were asking him to maintain pace while Hamilton was attacking him. They didn't let him get full out if those tyres and dropped him at sea with that Ill timed pit stop.

I think they just took a risk with a cheap stop under the safety car at the time. Bit odd considering it was only lap 7 on medium tyres that should have gone MUCH longer into the GP at the time the decision was made. Poor strategy call in my opinion at that point in the race. Lewis needed the DRS of George to keep Max behind. George didnt seem too happy about it either.
Wonder if there was a bit of team orders happening there

He would have been a sitting duck later in the race if it was the only stop because there was no guarantee of another stop unless they had a crystal ball to predict SC and Red Flags

[chrisc90]

Anyone decipher what Mercedes was trying pull off with that early pitting of George? It seemed like a desperate attempt to remove him out of Hamilton's way. They were asking him to maintain pace while Hamilton was attacking him. They didn't let him get full out if those tyres and dropped him at sea with that Ill timed pit stop.

It would've been the right call any other time because it could've given them possibly net position as max did not pit and the field was bunched up. Nobody expected a bit of gravel to cause a red flag.....

Quite possibly was the right call to be fair - especially given the hard would have lasted to the end of the race pretty comfortably from lap 7/8. Whether the other cars would have made good tracks infront with the medium tyre on would have been the key question.

De vries did 37 laps on the medium after lap 8. Pirelli called a 1 stopped M-H with the mediums lasting 22 laps, so they were probably a bit ahead with the medium lasting that little.

So say your medium lasted 30-35laps from start of race you could have gone M-S as the tyre deg was much better than expected.

Would Russell of kept within 23seconds of lewis/Max infront? Would have been interesting to see where come out in relation to Lewis, but I think Max would have had the pace in the lead once he cleared Lewis. I think the Medium would have had to have been .750 faster than the hard in race pace in order for Lewis to keep ahead under normal conditions/pitlane timings. I think.

[Alo_Fan]

What's so difficult about saying "race has ended these are the results".

Funny that they went for maximum entertainment and ended up with maximum anti-climax.

Well based on the previous timings, both Alpines would have been in the points which would have been even more strange given they were both a pile of parts at turn 2!

It has happened before, when Alonso hit Webber in Brazil 2003, cars absolutely wrecked, the race was called, results from 2 laps before were validated.

He didn't hit Webber, he hit the debris. I remember that was a mega shunt!

[DGP123]

Watched the highlights again .
After the finish,
Horner - and well done
Max - yah …..win is win we take it…..etc

The tone and lac of satisfaction/joy in their voices ffs. Its that simple, max is like only 1 job to keep that car in 1 peace and on track thats all and its a guaranteed win.

Starting to feel its worse then the mercs domination in hybrid era.

Yeah, totally agree. I don’t think it was down to the way the race ended. Max knows this season is a piece of cake, he looks and sounds bored. There’s no real joy or celebration, knowing how easy this is. It’s not his or the teams fault, but it’s not a good look being so miserable, complaining and moaning, yet still winning by such a large margin.

I’m convinced the grass incident was him being purely bored, and just losing focus. Had to laugh when Max breezed past Lewis, gained a three second lead, and the commentator said ‘well that’s it, it’s over’.

[AR3-GP]

What a travesty from race control.