2017 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 24 - 26 March

[iotar__]

Everybody is underestimating one young valteri bottas!
I say bottas for the win and Hamilton finding more excuses why his season is starting badly.

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I think and wish that Bottas will beat hamilton. Bottas looks better than rosberg and...

Better on a wheel to wheel battle yes, but faster? I have my doubts.

- who is this everybody OP was speaking of? Bottas is the 2nd best choice for this seat and Merc has the best pair of drivers out of top 3 (in theory, before on track events)

- What makes you say Bottas is better at wheel to wheel? It's one of the first areas he needs to improve. He used to be a bit passive then started risking with bad results (~end of '15) which shows that you can't switch aggressive approach on and off easily in F1. Spiteful type too (crashing into Raik on purpose, Verst in Baku) and sometimes clumsy (pit crash).

- if he's quick enough over one lap (tenths) or consistently under pressure remains to be seen but it's one of his strengths, along with high speed parts and metronomic and technically clean race pace. One team but I don't recall a good wet race and some tyre problems from time to time (Bahr '16). Should be less problematic in '17 and at Merc.

- IMO he should be fine, bigger problem might be 5 races in a row under scrutiny and dealing with failure. BTW I don't recall many people (even excluding fanatics) saying that Rosberg has elite one lap speed before Merc, I don't want to brag but I want my points .

[Vladimir]

1. Vet
2. Ric
3. Ham
4. Ves
5. Bot
6. Hul
7. Gro
8. Pal
9. Per
10. Sai

[ChrisDanger]

Tyre allocations are by Pirelli for the first 5 races of the year, so to use an F1 cliche "it's the same for everyone..."

7 sets; 4 sets; 2 sets

From Australia to Spain, teams will have identical tyre allocations: seven sets of the softest compound available, four sets of the middle compound, and two of the hardest compound. In Australia, these are ultrasoft, supersoft and soft (in order).

[F1Krof]

We're having first Ferrari double since Silverstone 2010. Which is awesome and --- nightmare at the same time. Because they won't let them race and it will be even more boring than 14'-16' , Vettel will disappear into the sunset, Kimi will play #2 , and the picture of Australia will repeat 19 more times with some variations.

If they let them race however... (naahhh they won't).

[GPR-A duplicate2]

We're having first Ferrari double since Silverstone 2010. Which is awesome and --- nightmare at the same time. Because they won't let them race and it will be even more boring than 14'-16' , Vettel will disappear into the sunset, Kimi will play #2 , and the picture of Australia will repeat 19 more times with some variations.

If they let them race however... (naahhh they won't).

codemasters or rfactor?

[rayden]

I think and wish that Bottas will beat hamilton. Bottas looks better than rosberg and...

Better on a wheel to wheel battle yes, but faster? I have my doubts.

- who is this everybody OP was speaking of? Bottas is the 2nd best choice for this seat and Merc has the best pair of drivers out of top 3 (in theory, before on track events)

- What makes you say Bottas is better at wheel to wheel? It's one of the first areas he needs to improve. He used to be a bit passive then started risking with bad results (~end of '15) which shows that you can't switch aggressive approach on and off easily in F1. Spiteful type too (crashing into Raik on purpose, Verst in Baku) and sometimes clumsy (pit crash).

- if he's quick enough over one lap (tenths) or consistently under pressure remains to be seen but it's one of his strengths, along with high speed parts and metronomic and technically clean race pace. One team but I don't recall a good wet race and some tyre problems from time to time (Bahr '16). Should be less problematic in '17 and at Merc.

- IMO he should be fine, bigger problem might be 5 races in a row under scrutiny and dealing with failure. BTW I don't recall many people (even excluding fanatics) saying that Rosberg has elite one lap speed before Merc, I don't want to brag but I want my points .

Agree with most of what you said, accept for bolded, that has to be Red Bull, don't even see how that is up for debate.

[rekoildale]

Everybody is underestimating one young valteri bottas!
I say bottas for the win and Hamilton finding more excuses why his season is starting badly.

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

I think and wish that Bottas will beat hamilton. Bottas looks better than rosberg and...

I am sorry to break your wish but it was widely observed that Bottas lagged behind Ham in the first test causing Nikki and Toto to be a bit worried. Botas inched closer in the second test but worryingly again not on the pace that Nico was relative to Lewis. I am talking Race pace.

Lets see. Bottas is strong willed and will be on top of the car in no time. Anyway i live in Australia and going to the grand prix and its gonna be fantastic!!!!

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[Vasconia]

Well, Ferrari´s line up has five 5 WC so....

[F1Krof]

codemasters or rfactor?

Anywhere you like sir.

[Andres125sx]

I cant understand how is Alonso best driver in F1 when Hamilton has nearly beaten him in his rookie season.

Look at McLaren wall reaction when Hamilton made a pole, then look at McLaren wall reaction when Alonso made a pole. Then put yourself in front of a mirror and try to say: "that was a fair battle and both drivers received same support" without laughing.

I can´t

We don´t fight Kimi, we fight Alonso. Ron Dennis dixit.... And Kimi won by 1 point, instant Karma

[Vasconia]

I cant understand how is Alonso best driver in F1 when Hamilton has nearly beaten him in his rookie season.

Look at McLaren wall reaction when Hamilton made a pole, then look at McLaren wall reaction when Alonso made a pole. Then put yourself in front of a mirror and try to say: "that was a fair battle and both drivers received same support" without laughing.

I can´t

We don´t fight Kimi, we fight Alonso. Ron Dennis dixit.... And Kimi won by 1 point, instant Karma

To be fair with Alonso its pretty clear that he had to battle with his own team during the second half the season so there was no a clean battle between both drivers.

Anyway it is also clear that Alonso was taken by surprise when Hamilton was faster than him in some races when the season started. It´s a shame that both were in the same team because the battle could have been epic.

We are in 2017 and I stil wait to enjoy this battle without stupid politics.

[AMG.Tzan]

I cant understand how is Alonso best driver in F1 when Hamilton has nearly beaten him in his rookie season.

Look at McLaren wall reaction when Hamilton made a pole, then look at McLaren wall reaction when Alonso made a pole. Then put yourself in front of a mirror and try to say: "that was a fair battle and both drivers received same support" without laughing.

I can´t

We don´t fight Kimi, we fight Alonso. Ron Dennis dixit.... And Kimi won by 1 point, instant Karma

To be fair with Alonso its pretty clear that he had to battle with his own team during the second half the season so there was no a clean battle between both drivers.

Anyway it is also clear that Alonso was taken by surprise when Hamilton was faster than him in some races when the season started. It´s a shame that both were in the same team because the battle could have been epic.

We are in 2017 and I stil wait to enjoy this battle without stupid politics.

It was Alonso's arrogance that put him in a battle with his own team! Same happened at Ferrari...it was always someone else's fault...not his!! After all there's not much in getting the only driver with a WDC back then into your team and not support him! Had Alonso put his head down and did not crash at Fuji for example he would have won it! Not only that but had he kept a good relationship with his team he may had also won the 2008 WDC since McLaren were frontrunners then! I imagine that had he been in Hamilton's seat in 2016 (with the same mechanical problems) and lost the WDC he would have left the team again! =D>
Anyway...it's just sad and frustrating that McLaren are not frontrunners today with Alonso fighting with Hamilton, Vettel and the RBs!! Sad and frustrating for Formula 1 itself!!

[Phil]

For those wanting to follow the race; make sure you are aware that most clocks will be set to SUMMER TIME this sunday (daylight saving).

Therefore; times should be (CET/CEST - GMT+1/+2) for Central Europe [Paris, Berlin, Zurich, Italy etc]

FP1 Friday 02:00 - 03:30
FP2 Friday 06:00 - 07:30
FP3 Saturday 04:00 - 05:00
QF Saturday 07:00 - 08:00
Race Sunday 07:00 - 09:00

As far as I can tell, Channel 4 Broadcast will NOT be live.

[domh245]

As far as I can tell, Channel 4 Broadcast will NOT be live.

Why on earth would Channel 4 waste one of their few live broadcasts on a race that starts at 6AM in the UK?

[Phil]

Because people like me want to watch it and its the first race of the season?

I think it's bad enough they are only showing half of the races, but that's an entirely different topic.