2017 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 24 - 26 March

[Andres125sx]

Move of the race: Ocon vs Alonso!

I am not an Ocon of FI fan, but that car seems to have possibilities of being the best of the rest.

And Ocon stuffing it to Alonso. Awesome. And in typical fashion Alonso finds a problem with the car right after having his lunch money taken from him. I just don't understand why people rate him so highly. Maybe years ago, but not for years.

If you find it surprising people rating Alonso so high, imagine how surprising we find your statement saying Ocon move vs Alonso was the move of the race when he couldn´t pass that embarrasingly slow McHonda in 25 laps and only managed to do it when the McLaren broke apart

[tristancliffe]

He is under the impression that Alonso only radioed about his problem after Ocon passed him. However, the world feed images clearly show he showed down considerably which is what allowed Ocon to make that pass. I suspect the radio message was made before he was overtaken, but not broadcast until afterwards.

I thought it was a good, enjoyable race. Let's hope the rest of the season is equally unpredictable.

[Chuckjr]

Make no mistake, the Ferrari in VET's hands was the faster car. HAM could do nothing to pull away from VET the entire first stint of the race. Nothing. Had HAM been in the faster car like last year, he would have easily pulled away in all that lovely, clean air. Alas, he could do nothing of the kind. He actually jacked his tires trying--while in clean air! He could not get away despite VET being in dirty air. The Ferrari is a beast. Both HAM and Toto say this -- they insist the Ferrari is faster. Why? Because it is.

Now, in quali trim, the Merc seems to have a stronger engine that can overcome its 'inferior to Ferrari' chassis, but not in race trim. VET was the fastest car in race trim in Oz.

Seems BOT is happy to take crumbs from HAM's table. That's disappointing. At least ROS was fearless. I don't get that sense with BOT. I'm getting the sense he will do whatever the team wants him to do and not cause conflict with HAM....BOT likely wants a contract renewal at the end of the season more than he is willing to risk losing it to fight HAM to win races. Smh.

Let's see what happens in China to know how much faster the Ferrari is in race pace. Great job Maranello clawing back to the sharp end of the grid. That was no small accomplishment.

[Fifty]

Move of the race: Ocon vs Alonso!

I am not an Ocon of FI fan, but that car seems to have possibilities of being the best of the rest.

And Ocon stuffing it to Alonso. Awesome. And in typical fashion Alonso finds a problem with the car right after having his lunch money taken from him. I just don't understand why people rate him so highly. Maybe years ago, but not for years.

If you find it surprising people rating Alonso so high, imagine how surprising we find your statement saying Ocon move vs Alonso was the move of the race when he couldn´t pass that embarrasingly slow McHonda in 25 laps and only managed to do it when the McLaren broke apart

It was the move of the race because it Not only involved slolonso but also a Third car in the fight.
If it had simply just been around the McLaren I would've chalked it up to a more rookie driver put the smack down on an overrated driver and that was it but not the move of the race.

[Fifty]

He is under the impression that Alonso only radioed about his problem after Ocon passed him. However, the world feed images clearly show he showed down considerably which is what allowed Ocon to make that pass. I suspect the radio message was made before he was overtaken, but not broadcast until afterwards.

I thought it was a good, enjoyable race. Let's hope the rest of the season is equally unpredictable.

The worlds feed said that he stopped because of a suspected suspension issue. Not an engine issue or a speed issue. This occurred supposedly after the pass. I'm fairly certain that if he was slowing down it was due to him being over the hill and not to that crappy McLaren Honda actually going slower. On the flipside that force India seems to be one of the best of the rest at this opening round. Look at Perez who I also do not like and how he fared.
If for Force India can keep up with the progress of advancement they will do very well this year.

[Sieper]

It was a cool move, except for Vettel just slotting in before Verstappen and Hamilton the only moment that had me excited! I actually cheered them on. But, did Ocon not ever so slightly touch Alonso's right rear wheel (with his front left) just a corner (or two) before they both passed Alonso? Did that not damage Alonso's suspension? Hampering his "speed" (McLaren Honda's variant of speed) and finally allowing them both passed?

[donskar]

Good race from many perspectives. Most important, for the sport, we can at least hope to see some racing between teams for the win, rather than between only Merc #1 and Merc #2. RBR will surely improve, so a 3-way fight for wins is possible -- and desirable. Good to see Honda gaining some reliability. Force India looks strong and Williams will improve.

[giantfan10]

I wonder what went wrong with Mercedes , Hamilton was complaining all day about his tyres yet we did not hear a word from Bottas.

Bottas had the same complaints after the race. He said he was sliding around in the first stint. Basically the same as Hamilton, and the pace he had shows that.
I think Mercedes W08 has the same DNA from previous cars on street circuits. It just doesn't treat the tyres right. Singapore is usually where ferrari shines and mercedes suffers, the new regs may be exaggerating that effect on their car now, where we see them suffering here in Melbourne.
This issue is something the team need to look into.

Not so fast my friend : ) Ferrari also had issues with the ultrasoft.go watch Kimis post race interview and he alluded to the fact that Ferrari were also sliding around on the Ultrasofts and that they already had a fix for the issue but couldnt implement it because of parc fermme.he says the soft tire was ideal and the only reason max was sniffing around his heels is because he had him under control and also needed to save some fuel.

[giantfan10]

Move of the race: Ocon vs Alonso!

I am not an Ocon of FI fan, but that car seems to have possibilities of being the best of the rest.

And Ocon stuffing it to Alonso. Awesome. And in typical fashion Alonso finds a problem with the car right after having his lunch money taken from him. I just don't understand why people rate him so highly. Maybe years ago, but not for years.

Well i guess you missed Ocon banging his front wheels against Alonsos right rear and damaging Alonso's suspension.dont let facts get in the way of a good story though lol.

[giantfan10]

Good race from many perspectives. Most important, for the sport, we can at least hope to see some racing between teams for the win, rather than between only Merc #1 and Merc #2. RBR will surely improve, so a 3-way fight for wins is possible -- and desirable. Good to see Honda gaining some reliability. Force India looks strong and Williams will improve.

Red Bull is nowhere close to Ferrari and Mercedes... dont let Max's late race position behind Kimi fool you into thinking that Red Bull is competitive. Kimi was saving fuel and not really bothered with max who was on the softer tire. Thats from Kimi's post race interview.
Add to that the fact that all through testing we heard from renault in typical renault fashion about how they had fixed the MGU-k? issue they had during testing and that all was well, aaaand then they show up to the first race with the 2016 spec being run in their engines.

[Schuttelberg]

Also, what a drive by Alonso! But then, his interview after was quite pathetic.

Pathetic? Why?

He said he drove probably his best race ever. Imagine his frustration when that was only good for a 10th place, and not even that was achieved because of a car failure


Pathetic is current McHonda situation, Alonso only express what any driver in his position would. Fair question here, what do you think Seb would have said in that situation? Think twice before posting please, we all have hear his complains for much less than that


I think people usually forget how frustrating must be Alonso situation. This was a 3-4 years proyect to fight for victories, we´re in third and after an awesome drive he was 10th to then retire. And you say he´s pathetic because of saying he can´t be happy with this result?

I understand his tirade about Honda once during pre season as a tactic to put them under pressure by using the press but there's no need to malign them again and again. You're a fan of his, I understand but this is a terminal problem with him. It's not like he's kept his mouth shut for two years and now he's letting the toys out of the pram. He's been on it season after season. Whenever there's a result, it's his 'driving' and whenever it's doom and gloom it's either the team or the PU.

Your jibe at Vettel is hilarious. He's a cranky old nut on the track and complains a lot about the driving standards of his peers but I challenge you to show me one evidence of Vettel blaming/bitching about his own team. He stood by them all of last year and even in 2014 which was his worst year, he acknowledged Ricciardo and never blamed the team. Ever heard of a chap named Michael Schumacher? Never heard him bash his team. I always think before posting mate. Always.

Again, in my opinion, driving wise Alonso was the DOTD but his attitude is piss poor in terms of team spirit and team morale. It happened at Renault in his championship years, at McLaren, at Renault again, at Ferrari and now Honda. You might be the best driver in the world which I think he is, although he thinks he's a driving god but his tirades are getting boring and desperate. Almost seems like an attempt to stay in the news. Like I said, best driver in the world but if you can't build a good team around you, it's useless. And I don't think Alonso has learned.

[giantfan10]

Hamilton's take:
Having radioed in that he was lacking grip at several points during the race, Hamilton explained afterwards: "The team asked me to give information where the tyres are throughout the run – and just the race that we had planned to race and I was asked to race wasn't necessarily the optimum.

"We didn't firstly have the pace to be able to pull a gap, for example, to Sebastian, we knew that early on. We continued on this road, which just didn't end up working out.

"There's an area that we have to work on, obviously our tyre usage is something [that] we understand is where we're losing . So we're just trying to make changes to improve that in the future, which we will do."

[fiohaa]

F1 is back to how it was in 2007, which is an improvement at least. Now they can at least refocus on fixing the problems that have been in f1 for almost 3 decades now - following cars closely, and budget caps - before it all went tits up with the pirelli tyre degrading nonsense.

finally we have drivers being able to drive again. Hardly any mention of tyre cliffs or tyre overheating and all of that, so refreshing. i can't remember the last time i saw a Q3 driver spin in quali like that.
and we finally have 2 teams able to compete for wins, Redbull and Renault will one day join the other 2 hopefully.

i find it amusing how when pirelli first introduced the tyre racing, most people on this forum (old people) were lauding it, saying how strategy is so important, how drivers have never been able to push 100% before - and really simply didn't understand what was meant by drivers pushing the tyre.
I'm glad finally the people running F1 realised how wrong they all were, and we have normal F1 back.

i've not seen an 'overcut' since the refuelling days (arguable if it was a genuine overcut given that Ham was quicker than Vet after his pitstop, but still - the point is Vet had pace to push).
just brilliant to see drivers being able to drive to their maximum again.

as for Alonso - i have 0 sympathy. None. He ran away from Mclaren when he realised Ham was as quick as him, to the point where he'd rather have gone back to a worse Renault car than put up with inter team competition.
He then did the same again at Ferrari when he lost patience, unlike say schumi he sweated and struggled for 3 years.
And now Vettel is essentially taking all the glory that Alonso would have had, had he stayed. Its all his own fault.

[Radley]

Was there a race? NBC just showed commercials every 3 laps...

[Goran2812]

Bulier said he was nursing the car practically the entire race because of some front brake duct problems and floor damage.
As I see that you are clearly an Alonso hater I wont get into discussion with you, but had to say that the reason for him having a DNF today was not related with Ocon touching him.