2015 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne

[Phil]

I detest the podium interviews. Pointless and adds nothing to the event.

I think they're good for the people that are actually at the event (and paid more to get there than most F1 fans spend on watching F1 over the entire season!). If you've just sat through 1.5 to 2 hours of racing, actually joining the podium celebrations and getting them to answer a few questions on stage makes it more personal towards the fans there. Being at the track means you don't hear the post-race interviews at all - and given you've just watched the race live, chances are, some events that happened during the race and may have been crucial in deciding who wins is lost on most spectators. I think the interviews are great. Perhaps not all the questions, or interviewers, but that's easily solvable.

[xDama]

i must say i genuinly liked seeing Arnie on stage, much better than the standard boring interviews of [ i'm sorry to vent but extremely irritating ] eddie jordan, david coulthard, and former F1 drivers. It made the podium interviews look more 'personal' instead of just some standard yabba-yabba repeat of what we all saw during the race.

Think it would improve viewer ratings and the show if Bernie managed to snag some celebs doing the interviews [offcourse they should have enough iq to be able to count pass their fingertips]. Jean-luc p....eh.... ...Patrick Stewart, or Ian Mcallen , Dicaprio, Jackblack would make an awesome interview, Will Smith, Beyonce - oh dear, imagine the scene if Nicole would have to do the interview

Anyway, i'd say there's a good route to go there.

I loved the Arnie-interview as well, even though it made me cringe once in a while.

There've been some genuinely bad moments on those podium-interviews and I don't like 'em at all. It would be nice if the drivers could speak their minds and/or have some fun on stage, but 95% of the time it's just pure PR-talk and BS. Yes Rosberg, I'm talking about you.

'for sure.

[WaikeCU]

Yeah, I don't think I want to see 19 times a former F1 driver, interviewing present F1 drivers during the season. I like the idea of bringing celebrities to the picture interviewing the drivers on the podium. See it as a bit of networking with celebrities bringing new viewers to F1. Imagine Lebron James suddenly emerging onto the podium asking questions and carrying the winner on his back on podium. What epic moment would that be? When there's an opportunity to bring new viewers, they really need to take it with both hands.

[CBeck113]

Celebs that are also known car / racing fans would be great - think about Jay Leno or Jeremy Clarkson doing an interview...

[atanatizante]

I don't think that's manageable with just 4 compounds for all tracks and conditions across a season, but if it remained as S/S, S, M and H then 3 compounds should be taken to each weekend with Pirelli deciding on the final 2 compounds after FP1 and 2. It's too difficult naming compounds weeks in advance, not knowing how the weather or new generations of cars will affect tyre performance.

Its a nice idea but practically its very difficult to do.

20 cars, doing 3 stops each, best allow for an extra stop per car incase of punctures etc so thats 80 tyres allow another 3 sets for qualifying.. 7 x 20 = 140 tyres.

Then try what 3 different compounds? ~420 hand made tyres with 2/3rds going on the scrap heap unused after each weekend.

I don't understand why can't they enforce the mandatory 3 stops within current tyres, as I proposed a couple of years ago ... could someone enlighten me?
And why isn't feasible a rule for an entirely inverted qualy grid for the race in order to improve overtakings, as mentioned here :
http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... 58#p569658

[Moose]

I don't think that's manageable with just 4 compounds for all tracks and conditions across a season, but if it remained as S/S, S, M and H then 3 compounds should be taken to each weekend with Pirelli deciding on the final 2 compounds after FP1 and 2. It's too difficult naming compounds weeks in advance, not knowing how the weather or new generations of cars will affect tyre performance.

Its a nice idea but practically its very difficult to do.

20 cars, doing 3 stops each, best allow for an extra stop per car incase of punctures etc so thats 80 tyres allow another 3 sets for qualifying.. 7 x 20 = 140 tyres.

Then try what 3 different compounds? ~420 hand made tyres with 2/3rds going on the scrap heap unused after each weekend.

I don't understand why can't they enforce the mandatory 3 stops within current tyres, as I proposed a couple of years ago ... could someone enlighten me?
And why isn't feasible a rule for an entirely inverted qualy grid for the race in order to improve overtakings, as mentioned here :
http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... 58#p569658

The result would simply be everyone stopping on the last but one lap. If you can do the race in 2 stops, there's no advantage in stopping earlier, other than letting the people behind you undercut you.

[foxmulder_ms]

Celebs that are also known car / racing fans would be great - think about Jay Leno or Jeremy Clarkson doing an interview...

hahhaha, CLARKSON will be EPIC!

[BanMeToo]

Clarkson would make too much light of it all to be a suitable interviewer

[atanatizante]

I don't understand why can't they enforce the mandatory 3 stops within current tyres, as I proposed a couple of years ago ... could someone enlighten me?
And why isn't feasible a rule for an entirely inverted qualy grid for the race in order to improve overtakings, as mentioned here :
http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... 58#p569658

The result would simply be everyone stopping on the last but one lap. If you can do the race in 2 stops, there's no advantage in stopping earlier, other than letting the people behind you undercut you.

Not if you can engineer tyres that last only 12 to 15 laps and my belief is within current tyres they could do that ... the only thing they must do is change their tyre allocation for each event and be more aggressive rather than more conservative like they are now ... do you follow?

[Moose]

Not if you can engineer tyres that last only 12 to 15 laps and my belief is within current tyres they could do that ... the only thing they must do is change their tyre allocation for each event and be more aggressive rather than more conservative like they are now ... do you follow?

Of course, the correct solution is for the FIA/FOM to ask Pirelli to produce tires that last ~15 laps on option and ~25 laps on prime. That's what we've had for several years now. What's certainly not the correct solution is for the FIA to tell the teams "you must change tires at least twice".

Unfortunately, The FIA/FOM telling Pirelli to produce tires that last 15-25 laps results in Pirelli getting a terrible reputation for producing crappy tires, so Pirelli aren't overly fond of that solution.

[AnthonyG]

F1 needs refueling, not tyres.

[NathanOlder]

Has anyone found any onboard footage from Kimi on the opening lap?

[SiLo]

I think they should be allowed to use any tire in the range they want at any time. But that all tires have a linear degradation, and are all each faster than the last.

So some teams could try a no stop race, but be slower each lap, or a 4 stop race but be a lot faster each lap. It would be great to watch.

[Andres125sx]

I think they should be allowed to use any tire in the range they want at any time. But that all tires have a linear degradation, and are all each faster than the last.

So some teams could try a no stop race, but be slower each lap, or a 4 stop race but be a lot faster each lap. It would be great to watch.

Agree!

People complain about engines, about sound, about refuelling... but nothing make current F1 cars as slow as being forced to use sub-optimal tires

They should be free to use any of the four dry compounds, forcing teams to use two different compounds on every race, and only those two compounds is anything but reasonable for the suposed pinacle of motorsports

[Moose]

I think they should be allowed to use any tire in the range they want at any time. But that all tires have a linear degradation, and are all each faster than the last.

So some teams could try a no stop race, but be slower each lap, or a 4 stop race but be a lot faster each lap. It would be great to watch.

Except in practice, that wouldn't happen.

In practice, the teams would all test each tire once in practice for the race, build a model of exactly how fast they are and when, and then all use exactly the same choice of tire for the race, because they would all calculate the optimal race the same way.

This already happens in fact. Teams all tend to agree on the optimal tire strategy, and go out and run it.