2015 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne

[mikeerfol]

Alonso?

[aral]

Alonso?

that is not very humourous

[Shrieker]

Hamilton mentally will be stronger than ever. He'll get the pole and the win.

Alonso?

that is not very humourous

It is, if you're aware of the context

[PlatinumZealot]

Alonso?

My God!
haha.. Can't believe I typed that.

Who knows?! place your bets!

[Harsha]

I'm predicting a thrashing for Rosberg. Hamilton will get him off Gaurd again because of the tyre choice.

Dry Race:
HAM
ROS + 15 (then order to turn down engine)
MAS + 30
BOT + 31 (breathing down massa's neck)
VET + 34
RIC + 34
RAI + 38
GRO + 40
ALO + 41

Whats this person doing here
Any way if its a dry then i will replace Alo with Kvyat
If wet then
Ham , Ros , Vet , Ric , Mas , Rai ,Bot , Kvy, Gro, But.

[Vasconia]

Quali:

1. Rosberg
2. Hamilton
3. Bottas
4. Vettel
5. Massa
6. Raikkonen
7. Ricciardo
8. Hulkenberg
9. Kvyat
10. Button

Race:

1. Rosberg
2. Bottas
3. Vettel
4. Hamilton
6. Massa
7. Raikkonen
8. Kyvat
9. Hulkenberg
10. Perez

Both Mclaren DNF.
Riccardo DNF.

I wish it could rain!

On what grounds do you think Hamilton will possibly finish fourth? The Merc looks as dominant as last year and it's a definite 1 or 2 if the car works. The only team that could be a threat this year is Honda. We don't know their performance yet.

Reliabitly problems, not enough for a DNF but something similar to what happened in Canada.

[turbof1]

Guys, while I think speculating on the finishing order is pretty ok in the race thread, let's not whack eachother pubes out just because you don't agree with someone's list. Unless we call in Marty from Back from the Future, I don't see how we can critizise eachother.

I for instance think that Badoer will win the race with a caterham after taken over Sauber which got broke after loosing its case against vd Garde. Caterham brings its own totally new engine with an afterburner, goes to P1 on qualifying, then burn everyone else on the grid just when the lights go out. Hamilton will find this racism, going back to his iconic 2011 statement "maybe it's because I'm black" (no Hamilton, now you are black of being burned), Bottas will whimple it off saying Finnish sauna's are hotter and Ron Dennis will somehow link this to Alonso's accident.

How does that sound?

[Tim.Wright]

...let's not whack eachother pubes out...

Quoted for prosterity

[WaikeCU]

What have you been smoking turbo?

[Jef Patat]

How does that sound?

Reasonable, though I don't think Hamilton will call it racism.

[FrukostScones]

anyone sees McLaren on a surprise pole?

maybe the car is a one lap wonder?

[mikeerfol]

I'd be happy with both qualifying inside the top 10 and when it comes to the race, let's start the rain dance!

[ChrisF1]

anyone sees McLaren on a surprise pole?

maybe the car is a one lap wonder?

Fingers crossed, as it isn't likely to do much more than one lap..

[Phil]

The way testing went, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Q1 is well underway while the Hondas are inside the garage with the mechanics underneath it trying to fix problem N+41231 to get it to run...

Then again, we're talking about QF here. I'd be surprised if they get some decent running in Practice 1 or 2. I know people will point to RedBull last year, but RedBull was one out of 3 teams for Renault. Yes, they all struggled, but combined, Renault still had quite a bit of info from the 3 pre-testing days. Honda is not only fighting very limited data on their PU, they also only have a single team with extremely tight packaging. Having that said, I can also see McLaren do quite well once it does run as hoped.

Ohh, I'm so excited. Friday can't come soon enough!

[Fulcrum]

Considering everything they have been through, I wonder if it might not be a good idea to start both McLaren's from the pit lane? The reasoning for this approach is as follows:

1) They have had very limited mileage, and running their engines hot during free practice and qualifying is likely to test their reliability. McLaren are likely as not going to take engine penalties this year, but running gently during practice to test their systems and foregoing qualifying would help eke them out a bit further.
2) McLaren have stated (tacitly) they are unlikely to be troubling the people at the front anyway.
3) McLaren have also stated (perhaps verbatim) their reliability will let them down at some point; finishing would be an achievement.
4) Grid starts involve significant elements of risk. Granted, drivers are better behaved than they have been, and pile-ups are not that frequent, but imagine McLaren losing one, or both, of their cars in the first couple of corners. They would have learned nothing about their race pace, durability, tire wear, etc...

If both cars were to start from the pit lane they could remove the element of risk involved with a grid start. They could run in clean air, adopt optimal tire strategies and give themselves their best chance of finishing. Points would obviously be very difficult but, as they never appeared likely, this shouldn't be of concern at this point.