2016 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 18-20

[MBilcke]

Is that fuel flying out of Alonso's car when he starts to flip? Is it normal and dangerous with all those sparks? Perhaps part of the reason for red flag?

[gandharva]

Is that fuel flying out of Alonso's car when he starts to flip? Is it normal and dangerous with all those sparks? Perhaps part of the reason for red flag?

Cooling liquid.

[Chene_Mostert]

Vettel had a 12 second lead on those softs before the red flag and second was the worst he was going to finish IMHO....

That's an IF too. Red Flag, Safety Cars are PART OF RACING (your own words).

Actually not, its a random event. A start on the other hand is a part of the race, every race has a start.

[MBilcke]

Is that fuel flying out of Alonso's car when he starts to flip? Is it normal and dangerous with all those sparks? Perhaps part of the reason for red flag?

Cooling liquid.

Aha! Not flamable?

[gandharva]

Ethylene glycol is flammable. But I'm not sure what exact composition is used in F1.

[Kiril Varbanov]

DOTD is here - http://www.f1technical.net/poll/index.php?dispid=314 - cast your vote!

[Mr.G]

For me it looks OK. I mean Ferrari is deffinetly better than last year. It was obvious that Vettel tried to maintain the second set of SS to last as long as possible. Also wiht the S he try to keep them usable for the last laps. Without the red flags it would be much harder times for Mercedes. The strategy choice from Ferrari went wrong, thats for sure

Regarding to flames from intake - there is a paper air filter... Kimmi probably mesed up something in the safety car phase. I mean without the radi comunication it was on him to change the modes, so it was more like wrong handling of the engine settings than failure...

[Just_a_fan]

Alonso's crash reminiscent of Brundle in 1996 and Villeneuve in 2001. Sadly, Villeneuve's crash killed a marshall of course. All three drivers were lucky and it's a testament to the FIA's drive to improve standards over the years.

[Mr.G]

Here VET vs. ROS

http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?page ... %20Rosberg

[Phil]

Mercedes is mighty. Not much more to say than that really. They maintained the same pace of that Ferrari while on technically slower tires. Even without the red-flag, I'm not sure they could have irked out a win today. If Vettel had started the race after the red-flag on soft tires, I'm fairly confident Rosberg would have eaten him with his Mercedes; at the very least by the point Vettel would have had to stop again.

Equally, the red-flag was also very costly to Hamilton. Had he not stopped for mediums before the crash, he could have capitalized on a better grid position for the restart, just like Ricciardo did. That would have given us a great battle for the win between him, Rosberg and perhaps Vettel. Instead, he was behind Ricciardo and both TorroRossos which cost him a lot of time and an impossible task of making it to the front without further crashes/safety cars etc. Still, the start of the race and that mighty start of the Ferraris will be something to bear in mind.

Good for Nico and his mindset starting into this season. Hamilton looked quite positive post race; I think he felt quite confident after the difficult race he had to end up in 2nd and only 6 seconds off the winning time. Bahrain will be much more normal race - a proper race circuit, more overtaking opportunities, more predictability.

Very happy for Ricciardo. Had hoped he could have finished on the podium, but the pace of that RedBull is not that bad. Neither is that of the TorroRosso. I think TR will do well this season; They were a lot harder to overtake by the Mercedes than Ricciardo later was. I put that down to the engine.

[gandharva]

They were a lot harder to overtake by the Mercedes than Ricciardo later was. I put that down to the engine.

Ricciardo was more easy to overtake for Hamilton because he nursed his tires at that stage of the race.

[henra]

* If Vettel started on M and Rosberg and cars behind on SS, Vettel would have lost a few position.

Not starting on SS wasn't the question. That's a given.
The genuinely stupid decision was to run a second set of SS.
At least the car seemed much more competitive than last year. That should give us some hope to see more interesting races this year. The level of Merc F*ck-Upyism required for an interesting race seems significantly lowered.
That they didn't capitalise on it this time was a classic Ferrari move. Always, if you think they can't throw it away they get ingenuous.

[TheGkbrk]

I was wondering if that destroyed engine in Fernando's car will reduce from his allowed number of engines throughout the season.

And I can't describe how scared I was when I see Fernando upside down. I am so glad he is okay.

[Shrieker]

Mercedes were already attempting to go to the end with Hamilton before Alonso's crash and the subsequent red flag.

That should've been a wake up call for Ferrari. Too bad they didn't get the hint. Today Mercedes not only had the best car, but also they were the best team out there. No mistake pit stops, and hauling the drivers from the hole they themselves dug and fell into. Ferrari did just the opposite...

[Blackout]

They were a lot harder to overtake by the Mercedes than Ricciardo later was. I put that down to the engine.

Ricciardo clearly let the Merc overtake him. He was managing the tires. And the same Ricciardo overtook some Merc engined cars easily. And the same Toro Rosso couldn't overtake the Renault easily despite the latter had much older tires. I put that down to the engine There is no evidence the 2015 Ferrari is stronger than the 2016 Renault. But there is many hints that the latter is close to the former today.