2016 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 18-20

[FW17]

I am not sure how Pirelli built those medium tyres but 56 laps is impressive =D>

I guess Kevin Magnussen will be Pirelli's Ambassador in F1

[Kiril Varbanov]

Sky has pretty good summation of what happened in Melbourne - I tend to agree with pretty much everything - http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/ ... tralian-gp

[Vasconia]

I agree, I love both Sainz and Max. we need pilots like them, I hope both will end up fighting for WDC someday, that would be epic. As for this race I think Sainz did well in not letting pass Max or he would be a forever number 2. But it is also true that Max, although reckless, has an extra capacity of overtaking when risking a bit, just look how fast he took Palmer after Sainz pass him. Maybe this will be a Senna Prost v2 some day.

This weekend I watched the Quali in Movistar F1 and the race in a Belgium TV channel, and it was really funny on how in spanish TV Sainz is a hero and always harmed by the team in detriment to Max and in Belgium TV the opposite stands. Maybe a bit like F1tech

I agree with you, Max is very aggresive and gifted when its about overtaking. But in this case he took advantage of Sainz´s overtake to do the same, Palmer lost the perfect approach to the corner when he was overtaken.

Anyway I love battles like this one!!!, and I prefer if Sainz and Verstappen can battle with no team orders. But if team orders exit they must be the same for all.

[Sniffit]

When will people realize that cars driving at up to 100m/sec is inherently dangerous? Gravel traps have advantages and disadvantages, so does tarmac run-off areas. The matter of fact is, cars at those speed will always present a risk. Circumstance will show if the safety measures in place will prevent death, but there will never be a guarantee. Instead of searching for the 'perfect safety measure for that one particular incident', maybe people searching for a 100% safe sport should consider F1 becoming a remote-controlled race where drivers sit in a box and remote control their cars?

This!
Or they might, play curling, but with full hockey gear.
You can preach safety safety safety but not without ruining the sport.

Had some people on here gotten to decide ralley would be driven on large open fields, alpine skiing in the kids slope and motogp not at all.

[misterbeam]

Last years times-actual

Ham: 1:26.327 --- 1:23.837 Diff: ~ 2.5 sec
Vet: 1:27.757 --- 1:24.675 Diff: ~ 3.1 sec
Mas: 1:27.718 --- 1:25.458 Diff: ~ 2.3 sec
Ric: 1:28.329 --- 1:25.589 Diff: ~ 2.7 sec
Sai: 1:28.510 --- 1:25.512 Diff: ~ 3.0 sec

Huge progress over the winter break for all teams, maybe some new track records this year.

Different tires, last year wad on Softs, this on Super Softs

But they were already faster on softs

[SiLo]

Any news on why Mercedes got such rubbish starts? Both of them looked like they were just standing still at the beginning.

[Phil]

Overheating clutches, similar to last year when there was an extra warm up lap before the race start. Hamilton vs Rosberg; Hamilton said in an interview he had a bit of wheel spin.

[hemichromis]

He acted all spoiled on the radio, but he really had the speed. First of all he got pitted after Sainz when he was in front of him. Then the pit crew were not ready, in which he lost a lot of time. But then he managed to close the gap to Sainz. Then it was known that Sainz had ignored the team order. When Verstappen spun, he was still able to close the gap yet again to Sainz. Well, if you ignore team orders then you really have to proof that you have a reason to ignore it and that was by passing the cars in front of you, which Sainz hasn't done.

Red bull used to do that with Ricciardo and Kvyat. Afterwards on the last lap they reversed their positions.

Singapore 2015;

Team asks Verstappen to let Sainz through as Sainz was faster.
Verstappen' response: NO!

Why would Sainz yield this year?

wake up. Sainz screwed verstappen by pitting first. that is strike 1 and it was a heavy blow. it was uncalled for and selfish.
Verstappen drove in front of Sainz. Leading team driver has the call on the pitstop. Therefore, Verstappen had the RIGHT to pit before Sainz did, and Sainz HAD to yield and wait. Vertappen complained on his tires just as much as Sainz.
Despite being on a different strategy, the team HAD to call verstappen in. Instead, they took in Sainz. that was the big wrong. Sainz got a unearned benefit and effectively the team undercut their own driver that was actually faster.

This is the wrong from the Sainz department, Sainz' race engineer and the team itself. it was thoroughly wrong, no matter what position they're racing in.

But matters got worse when they did not appropriately inform Verstappen on their tactics to pit him. Meanwhile, the driver still is able to decide for himself to pit. I have zero doubt that verstappen said ; i'm coming in when entering the pitlane.
the team SHOULD have had his tires ready and able to get ready in the time it takes for pit entry and arriving at the garage.
they weren't and it was a mess. That was strike and blow 2 for Verstappen and should never have happened. it was something you wouldn't even forgive HAAS as a newcomer.

Obviously, this destroyed Verstappens great performance during the weekend and saw him stranded behind his teammate.

Verstappen is to blame for losing his temper [ quite the Verstappen character family flaw ], but the team & Sainz are to blame for screwing him over. The team knows this and gave a clear message to Sainz; push or swap.

I fully understand Sainz not moving aside, indeed especially with what happened last year though the circumstances were different. The result in this being Verstappen could have scored a lot more than just 1 point. Either way, verstappen was too heated up to keep his calm and control, and made mistakes.

but it must above all not be forgotten how this happened:
cause: STR Team made errors that are dismal, & Sainz was egoistic and selfish by fully knowing he screwed over his teammate in the very first GP by pitting first whilst being behind him.

To be honest, i really dont get why Verstappen is burned for being 'vocal' about it.
Kimi Raikkonen is praised as the cool guy and people worship him for his behaviour, but when Verstappen does the same it's 'immature' and because he's a 'teenager'?
sorry for being harsh but GTFO.
I do think Verstappen should keep his temper. Keeping calm is what sets him apart from his father, and is why he is essentialy the better driver. When he lets his temper get the hold of him he's heading for a 100% repeat of Jos,
making heated mistakes and ending in the sandpits, offtrack, or being too harsh on his car, ending with only being able
to drive for midfield or even backfield teams.

This will definately be a paramount year for Verstappen. it would be foolish to throw the potential away like that.

Wake up!

Neither Sainz or Vestappen choose who pits first, the team does that, especially in a team like Toro Roso!

To blame Sainz for any of it is quite poor and hard to understand.

I remember seeing Red Bull drivers Kvyat and Ricciardo asked to swap positions last year to attempt to pass the car in front.
Kvyat let Ricciardo past, Ricciardo failed to pass the car in front so he allowed Kvyat back in front.
This kind of team work is necessary to maximise the results of the team.

Vestappen complaining about Sainz is quite understandable but to keep going on and on about it through the race and after is a bit pointless and immature.

Vestappen is a great driver, probably better than Sainz but needs to calm down and grow up a little bit.

[dans79]

Overheating clutches, similar to last year when there was an extra warm up lap before the race start. Hamilton vs Rosberg; Hamilton said in an interview he had a bit of wheel spin.

Merc needs to fix this, as it made the 1-2 a lot harder than it needed to be.

[timekiller001]

Except Grosjean didn´t change direction twice as Esteban did


BTW, before you start saying I´m spanish and I´m biased, that´s the conclusion they got in Sky, british TV. Gutierrez moved the wheel left when he shouldn´t. They draw a line on the onboard camera over the wheel to notice any movement, and it´s easy to see how he moved the wheel left just before the impact

Esteban was on the inside defending his line, then moved back to the racing line for the corner....where's the problem with that? Should he stay on the inside because an ex-champ is trying to make an impossible move? Even if he doesn't have the F1 experience as Fred does, he didn't expect a move there because it is simply not possible to pass there.

The camera showing Gutierrez from the front proved that. He didn't look in the mirrors as he (probably) didn't expect Alonso to be able to attack. Turning left is the normal racing line there. Racing incident.

[Fer.Fan]

Vary strange...

Alonso din`t receive any penalty for his "Maldonado style" crash. Because of "his" red flag Ferrari and Vettel did`t win.

Alonso is to blame and should receive grid penalty.

[The_table]

Alonso is one of the best drivers in the world, he did not expect Gutierrez to brake so soon, wheel to wheel racing is all about trust between the drivers.

[PlatinumZealot]

They said there was an ERS glitch in Gutierez's car. Something about it starting harvesting too early.

[godlameroso]

Fastest race lap was done by Riccardo 1:28.997, that surprised me but it was done on relatively fresh super softs. Target time was like I said 1:32 ish, and it'll be around 1:39 for the next race.

[Andres125sx]

No you come from Spain so that explains your comment
We both have pink glasses for our driver

Maybe you cannot be objective with drivers you like, but I always try to, and try it hard.

you should try harder, you haven't been objective with Sainz and Verstappen since last year 1st GP.
geesh.

Any proof or just free talk?