2018 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 22 -25 March

[Gothrek]

Looks like another WDC/WCC for Mercedes. The biggest budget wins yet again.

[Manjhi]

Sorry but why others have to make the car? There is no rule that stops FI doing the same as HAAS they just doesn't want to... It's they're choice... Wasn't others "laughing" about the Haas idea from beginning? And now when he got successful with his approach they are just jealous?

I don't think SFI ever laughed at any team for their business model, they once did raised question regarding the partnership between Ferrari & Haas, not only they, even Sauber, Lotus/Renault also raised the same question.

I don't think anybody is against partnership between teams regarding technology but it is the extent to which two teams collaborate in developing the car. For example, RB & TR are the closest teams on the grid than Ferrari & Haas and probably they'll be sharing some critical details with each others, but does that make TR B-team of RB ? Yes, it does. And this does raise the question about the character of F1, where TR sometimes completely surrenders its autonomy to RB guys, and I think majority of F1 fans will be against such things. And thats why we appreciate teams like FI & Sauber who have kept the DNA of F1 alive by creating their own car, even if they don't succeed and fail miserably.

And I don't want to see Haas being B-team of Ferrari, otherwise it will not be a brand name like SFI & Sauber, who can get good sponsors on their car when they need one.

[Andres125sx]

I don't know, but you must be one of the biggest pessimists around here

Of course LH is favourite, but to forecast such an easy championship without even seeing the first race it's a bit too much.

Mercedes have bulletproof reliability, the fastest car by a decent enough margin, and one driver who is clearly better than his teammate.

Call me a pessimist if you like, but I just don’t see anyone else winning it. Formula 1 has become as predictable as the Bundesliga, and Mercedes is Bayern.

Sure, but I can put a lot of buts in between.
They are known for their reliability, but this year you only need one bad moment for your planning to disarray with only 3 PUs available.
It seems they have the better car, but we don't know anything yet about windows of operation, track suitability, in-season development ( in which Ferrari really sucks, but with RBR so close now, it 's a different story). First image can be so delusive
That holds true for Ferrari as well. And, moreover, Ferrari has a clear No1 in contrast to Mercedes ......

....sorry I couldn´t continue reading beyond this, I was laughing too hard


Anycase don´t take me wrong, I think all teams do more or less the same because that´s their job, doing all they are allowed to do to beat their rivals.

[matt_b]

Wet Qualification

Dry race

Gonna be fun! Can't wait!

Wet Qualification

Mixed conditions race

Now its fun

[dans79]

1. wet fp3
2. drying qualifying
3. dry race
4. much whining and crying

[F1Fan2018]

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/events/gra ... 2018-03-24

Wet Qualifying and maybe a wet race not sure what times the race is local time

[TAG]

Force India's success over the last couple of seasons has been the highlight of the sport for me. Nothing like embarrassing a team with three or four times your budget.

[taperoo2k]

It's plausible that the engines are more tuned down on Fridays than before due to the higher mileage these engines have to cover this year.

I'd expect they'll run the engines in modes that minimises the wear and tear on a PU aka limit the damage that decreases performance over time. I doubt we'll see how fast the cars are over a single lap until qualifying and actual race pace until the race itself.

As for those complaining ? Let's wait and see if Mercedes have had to sacrifice a bit of performance for improved reliability, that might give an opening to Ferrari and Renault to catch up a little bit (Honda still has a mountain to climb). In any case, I expect to see most of the manufacturers making calculated decisions to bring performance upgrades to certain races at the cost of a grid penalty. I don't think these Power Unit rules will have the desired effect to bring costs down. This is a really slim possibility (I don't believe it will happen/hope not), but we might see a race where the grid is entirely decided by the order of Grid penalties handed down by the FIA (A mix of power unit failures and manufacturers bringing upgrades that breaks the 3 PU limit). Could be another token development like fiasco.

[Kingshark]

Unfortunately, it tells you something about the state of this sport when pretty much everyone already knows the WDC and WCC before the season has even begun.

Let’s be real, do even the biggest optimists seriously believe that anyone other than Hamilton will actually win the championship?

I tells us that it's like being in the early part of the 2000 era? Could be worse, Mercedes could have asked Rosberg or Bottas to move aside white they were leading the race and let Hamilton win.

Nah, the 2000s were better than this era. Other teams could actually compete with Ferrari in every season apart from 2002 and 2004. 2003 in particular was an amazing season.

FIA managed to slow down Ferrari by 2005, we won’t see Mercedes slowing down until 2021 at the earliest.

[foxmulder_ms]

So far for me,

Biggest nice surprise: Haas
Biggest disappointment: Renault.

[foxmulder_ms]

Looks like another WDC/WCC for Mercedes. The biggest budget wins yet again.

How do you even know that?? Why do you think they spend more than Ferrari or RedBull.

[zac510]

Biggest disappointment: Renault.

I had the feeling that Renault had moved up a bit, but not in the top3 yet. Were you expecting them to be mixing with the top 3?

[the EDGE]

Looks like another WDC/WCC for Mercedes. The biggest budget wins yet again.

How do you even know that?? Why do you think they spend more than Ferrari or RedBull.

https://www.f1today.net/en/news/f1/2369 ... s-for-2018

[SiLo]

Got to remember how much cost Mercedes sink into engine development as well. It may not be as clear cut as you think.

[dans79]

Looks like another WDC/WCC for Mercedes. The biggest budget wins yet again.

How do you even know that?? Why do you think they spend more than Ferrari or RedBull.

https://www.f1today.net/en/news/f1/2369 ... s-for-2018

I'm pretty sure that's not what he was referring to!