2015 Australian GP Discussion Thread

AdrianBelmonte_ · Post by **AdrianBelmonte_** » 15 Mar 2015, 06:41

gnrpoison wrote:Sauber 4th in Constructors, a bit surprising after the earlier problems and what happened last year.

Right, what a race for Van der Garde, oh wait...

johnston21 · Post by **johnston21** » 15 Mar 2015, 06:42

...and did you notice Arnold chatting with Toto on the grid before the race start? lol "We're baaaack"

...Best podium interview, ever!

Paul Hayes · Post by **Paul Hayes** » 15 Mar 2015, 06:45

Poor old Button, all that effort and one short of a point!

sswishbone · Post by **sswishbone** » 15 Mar 2015, 06:45

A Brit flanked by two Germans, better to not mention... *gets shot*

sswishbone · Post by **sswishbone** » 15 Mar 2015, 06:48

THIS... IS... NOT... HAPPENING....!!!

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 15 Mar 2015, 06:48

Arnold Schwarzenegger WTF? Hamilton's reaction, though! :lol:

good_Ralf · Post by **good_Ralf** » 15 Mar 2015, 06:51

So pleased for Sauber and Nasr especially. I saw this dude back in 2012 in GP2 and thought, he could be a real success story if he gets to F1. Now he has done, he achieved a great debut result and although I'm sure that will be his best finish for the year, if he keeps this up he is in for a big career.

Post by **Londoner** » 15 Mar 2015, 06:52

Hamilton appears to have eclipsed Vettel as the biggest heel in F1 in Australian eyes.

AdrianBelmonte_ · Post by **AdrianBelmonte_** » 15 Mar 2015, 06:53

"I'LL BE BACK"

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 15 Mar 2015, 07:23

Julien wrote:3) The sport became so artificial that the drivers became more like engineers rather than the heroes. All the gadgets, the adjustments etc. mean that F1 is now 80% about the car and 20% about the drivers. Don't tell me that Vettel and Raikkonen are 1 second slower than Hamilton and Rosberg, or that Button couldn't do better than 17th on the grid...

That's always been the case though...

Post by **Miguel98** » 15 Mar 2015, 07:53

That was a good race. And a race with actual unreliablity, which is good! It's been how many years since a race finished with only 11 cars exactly?

A good race by both the Mercedes boys. It seemed Hamilton was toying Rosberg though, which makes me worried. Ferrari seems to have the 2nd best car, on pair with Williams. Which makes me sad, since Alonso left there because he was driving shiteboxes.. And he's still driving a shitbox, with McLaren.

Such an impressive race by Nasr. Fantastic. Purelly amazing. That Sauber is one sleek car down the straights.

Spectoremg · Post by **Spectoremg** » 15 Mar 2015, 15:11

Hamilton's gold chain was a joke right? Or was he made Lord Mayor of Melbourne for winning the race? :roll:

Press_Play2002 · Post by **Press_Play2002** » 15 Mar 2015, 15:34

Spectoremg wrote:Hamilton's gold chain was a joke right? Or was he made Lord Mayor of Melbourne for winning the race?

Probably both; Temporarily though.

Barbazza · Post by **Barbazza** » 15 Mar 2015, 17:11

That was exactly as as I feared and I did indeed fast forward through most of it. 15 starters was pathetic.

If I wanted to watch an uncompetitive farce of a race with not many starters and one dominant team, I've got WTCC. God, even Formula E is better now. A sad state of affairs.

Post by **mario** » 15 Mar 2015, 17:21

Miguel98 wrote:That was a good race. And a race with actual unreliablity, which is good! It's been how many years since a race finished with only 11 cars exactly?

A good race by both the Mercedes boys. It seemed Hamilton was toying Rosberg though, which makes me worried. Ferrari seems to have the 2nd best car, on pair with Williams. Which makes me sad, since Alonso left there because he was driving shiteboxes.. And he's still driving a shitbox, with McLaren.

Such an impressive race by Nasr. Fantastic. Purelly amazing. That Sauber is one sleek car down the straights.

I have to agree that it did look as if Hamilton was simply pacing himself against Rosberg for much of the race - the fact that, whenever Rosberg began to close in on him, Hamilton could always open the gap back up again, suggests that Hamilton was holding back for much of the race. If Hamilton can unleash that sort of performance more regularly, Rosberg will need to dig very deep to find something to match him with.

As for other quarters, the open discontent Red Bull has with Renault is almost painful to listen to, especially when you have Horner saying "I have no idea how they have managed to **** it up so badly" to camera. If Renault continue to be smashed this badly, I honestly have to wonder what it will do for Renault's long term prospects in the sport - their public image is taking a battering and the financial costs of the new engine format are going to be a drain on resources too.

Spectoremg · Post by **Spectoremg** » 15 Mar 2015, 17:31

Miguel98 wrote:That was a good race. And a race with actual unreliablity, which is good! It's been how many years since a race finished with only 11 cars exactly?

A good race by both the Mercedes boys. It seemed Hamilton was toying Rosberg though, which makes me worried. Ferrari seems to have the 2nd best car, on pair with Williams. Which makes me sad, since Alonso left there because he was driving shiteboxes.. And he's still driving a shitbox, with McLaren.

Such an impressive race by Nasr. Fantastic. Purelly amazing. That Sauber is one sleek car down the straights.

Did you see the same procession that I did?

Post by **mario** » 15 Mar 2015, 21:07

There is at least one positive from Horner's public complaints, which is the fact that Toto Wolff has given very short shrift to Horner's comments and responded in the way that I imagine most of us would like to tell Horner to. His response to Horner is simply "I think just get your f***ing head down, work hard and try to sort it out." http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/motorsport/sto ... ixqWYxR.99

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 15 Mar 2015, 21:35

I'm pretty sure Sauber had their best season start of all their story.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 15 Mar 2015, 21:53

Dj_bereta wrote:I'm pretty sure Sauber had their best season start of all their story.

Nope. 2001, Heidfeld P4, Raikkonen P6.

watka · Post by **watka** » 16 Mar 2015, 00:22

Salamander wrote:
Dj_bereta wrote:I'm pretty sure Sauber had their best season start of all their story.

Nope. 2001, Heidfeld P4, Raikkonen P6.

Nasr was great but I wasn't impressed with Ericsson to be honest. He's had his bottom handed to him by a rookie in both qualifying and the race and was a bit scrappy during the race too. His early pitstop may have cost him though.

Bit worrying from a championship point of view that Hamilton had Rosberg easily covered. Rosberg now seems to have the mentality that he is inferior and must somehow try every trick in the book to knock Hamilton off his perch rather than believing in his own natural talents.

UncreativeUsername37 · Post by **UncreativeUsername37** » 16 Mar 2015, 00:50

watka wrote:Bit worrying from a championship point of view that Hamilton had Rosberg easily covered. Rosberg now seems to have the mentality that he is inferior and must somehow try every trick in the book to knock Hamilton off his perch rather than believing in his own natural talents.

Well, it's true.

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 16 Mar 2015, 06:51

watka wrote:Bit worrying from a championship point of view that Hamilton had Rosberg easily covered. Rosberg now seems to have the mentality that he is inferior and must somehow try every trick in the book to knock Hamilton off his perch rather than believing in his own natural talents.

I only saw one short interview with him after the race and his words and body language were that of a beaten man, which seemed quite unusual for Rosberg, normally its Hamilton acting like the sky's about to fall on him after a bad race. I'm sure he'll pick himself up but we all know most of his championship challenge last year came about through Hamiltons misfortune. I really think the only person that could beat Hamilton at the moment would be Fernando Alonso in a decent-ish car and well....

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 16 Mar 2015, 13:17

mario wrote:
Miguel98 wrote:That was a good race. And a race with actual unreliablity, which is good! It's been how many years since a race finished with only 11 cars exactly?

A good race by both the Mercedes boys. It seemed Hamilton was toying Rosberg though, which makes me worried. Ferrari seems to have the 2nd best car, on pair with Williams. Which makes me sad, since Alonso left there because he was driving shiteboxes.. And he's still driving a shitbox, with McLaren.

Such an impressive race by Nasr. Fantastic. Purelly amazing. That Sauber is one sleek car down the straights.

I have to agree that it did look as if Hamilton was simply pacing himself against Rosberg for much of the race - the fact that, whenever Rosberg began to close in on him, Hamilton could always open the gap back up again, suggests that Hamilton was holding back for much of the race. If Hamilton can unleash that sort of performance more regularly, Rosberg will need to dig very deep to find something to match him with.

As for other quarters, the open discontent Red Bull has with Renault is almost painful to listen to, especially when you have Horner saying "I have no idea how they have managed to **** it up so badly" to camera. If Renault continue to be smashed this badly, I honestly have to wonder what it will do for Renault's long term prospects in the sport - their public image is taking a battering and the financial costs of the new engine format are going to be a drain on resources too.

Well NBC is reporting Renault wants to buy Toro Rosso? And that RBR is pulling a Ferrari and threatening a pullout. I must say though Marko is right, when Vetted was winning, everything was getting banned (diffusers, engine maps etc). And he never won by this much. Now that Mercedes is crushing all, it's just oh well? Seems odd.

F1000X · Post by **F1000X** » 16 Mar 2015, 15:13

Wallio wrote: Well NBC is reporting Renault wants to buy Toro Rosso? And that RBR is pulling a Ferrari and threatening a pullout. I must say though Marko is right, when Vetted was winning, everything was getting banned (diffusers, engine maps etc). And he never won by this much. Now that Mercedes is crushing all, it's just oh well? Seems odd.

Well, what can they ban? They did away with FRIC last year and that changed nothing.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 16 Mar 2015, 16:45

F1000X wrote:
Wallio wrote: Well NBC is reporting Renault wants to buy Toro Rosso? And that RBR is pulling a Ferrari and threatening a pullout. I must say though Marko is right, when Vetted was winning, everything was getting banned (diffusers, engine maps etc). And he never won by this much. Now that Mercedes is crushing all, it's just oh well? Seems odd.

Well, what can they ban? They did away with FRIC last year and that changed nothing.

They could ban Mercedes for cheating. Suppose the FIA "discovered" some "illegal" software on the car...

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 16 Mar 2015, 17:42

Simtek wrote:
F1000X wrote:Well, what can they ban? They did away with FRIC last year and that changed nothing.

They could ban Mercedes for cheating. Suppose the FIA "discovered" some "illegal" software on the car...

Well, that would have been one thing that the FIA definitely could not have discovered on the Manor cars last weekend...

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 16 Mar 2015, 18:26

F1000X wrote:Well, what can they ban? They did away with FRIC last year and that changed nothing.

Oh, so that's why I haven't heard Hamilton say that recently.

Post by **mario** » 16 Mar 2015, 18:42

Wallio wrote:
mario wrote:
Miguel98 wrote:That was a good race. And a race with actual unreliablity, which is good! It's been how many years since a race finished with only 11 cars exactly?

A good race by both the Mercedes boys. It seemed Hamilton was toying Rosberg though, which makes me worried. Ferrari seems to have the 2nd best car, on pair with Williams. Which makes me sad, since Alonso left there because he was driving shiteboxes.. And he's still driving a shitbox, with McLaren.

Such an impressive race by Nasr. Fantastic. Purelly amazing. That Sauber is one sleek car down the straights.

I have to agree that it did look as if Hamilton was simply pacing himself against Rosberg for much of the race - the fact that, whenever Rosberg began to close in on him, Hamilton could always open the gap back up again, suggests that Hamilton was holding back for much of the race. If Hamilton can unleash that sort of performance more regularly, Rosberg will need to dig very deep to find something to match him with.

As for other quarters, the open discontent Red Bull has with Renault is almost painful to listen to, especially when you have Horner saying "I have no idea how they have managed to **** it up so badly" to camera. If Renault continue to be smashed this badly, I honestly have to wonder what it will do for Renault's long term prospects in the sport - their public image is taking a battering and the financial costs of the new engine format are going to be a drain on resources too.

Well NBC is reporting Renault wants to buy Toro Rosso? And that RBR is pulling a Ferrari and threatening a pullout. I must say though Marko is right, when Vetted was winning, everything was getting banned (diffusers, engine maps etc). And he never won by this much. Now that Mercedes is crushing all, it's just oh well? Seems odd.

As F1000X points out, the FRIC ban last year seemed to be targeted at Mercedes, but that had a fairly negligible impact on them (you have to say that Lotus who were worst affected by the ban).

In the case of Red Bull, there was often one specific item where it was clear that they had an advantage. In the case of Mercedes, there is no one specific thing that you can identify about the W06 - their engine advantage is not so clear cut (Williams have said that they think Ferrari's engine is pretty close to Mercedes's engine now), and there is no single aero piece that is particularly distinguishing; it's more the case of a series of well optimised components rather than a particular distinctive feature, and you can't rule against that.

Furthermore, I also have something of an issue when Horner complains about the rule changes he claims were made to hobble Red Bull. His quote is:

When we were winning, and we were never winning to the advantage that they have, I remember that double diffusers were banned, exhausts were moved, flexible bodywork was prohibited, engine mapping mid-season was changed … anything was done, and that wasn't just unique to Red Bull but Williams in previous years and McLaren etc.

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/motorsport/story/194721.html

The thing is, Red Bull were the leading campaigners behind the move to get double diffusers banned, because they were hoping to gain a massive competitive advantage if that was banned.

As for the prohibition on flexible bodywork, technically that has always been banned and so it could be argued that the FIA was simply enforcing existing legislation against Red Bull - equally, Red Bull were not the only team that the FIA took action against, as McLaren were also under scrutiny for their front wing design in that era too.

As for the engine maps, it depends which ones you talk about, because whilst some hit Red Bull hard, some also hit their rivals just as hard, if not harder (especially the bans on hot blowing, which only really affected Ferrari and Mercedes).

TheFlyingCaterham · Post by **TheFlyingCaterham** » 17 Mar 2015, 07:43

Heres the first couple of races that I recorded the starts for with my rejectful camera skills

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MCXtnlgz_YQ
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hYkDJTCmAUI
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xGIYzvZWNsY
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_N8B08yUNSo

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 17 Mar 2015, 13:18

mario wrote:As F1000X points out, the FRIC ban last year seemed to be targeted at Mercedes, but that had a fairly negligible impact on them (you have to say that Lotus who were worst affected by the ban).

In the case of Red Bull, there was often one specific item where it was clear that they had an advantage. In the case of Mercedes, there is no one specific thing that you can identify about the W06 - their engine advantage is not so clear cut (Williams have said that they think Ferrari's engine is pretty close to Mercedes's engine now), and there is no single aero piece that is particularly distinguishing; it's more the case of a series of well optimised components rather than a particular distinctive feature, and you can't rule against that.

Furthermore, I also have something of an issue when Horner complains about the rule changes he claims were made to hobble Red Bull. His quote is:
When we were winning, and we were never winning to the advantage that they have, I remember that double diffusers were banned, exhausts were moved, flexible bodywork was prohibited, engine mapping mid-season was changed … anything was done, and that wasn't just unique to Red Bull but Williams in previous years and McLaren etc.

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/motorsport/story/194721.html

The thing is, Red Bull were the leading campaigners behind the move to get double diffusers banned, because they were hoping to gain a massive competitive advantage if that was banned.

As for the prohibition on flexible bodywork, technically that has always been banned and so it could be argued that the FIA was simply enforcing existing legislation against Red Bull - equally, Red Bull were not the only team that the FIA took action against, as McLaren were also under scrutiny for their front wing design in that era too.

As for the engine maps, it depends which ones you talk about, because whilst some hit Red Bull hard, some also hit their rivals just as hard, if not harder (especially the bans on hot blowing, which only really affected Ferrari and Mercedes).

Sure, Renault is a bit behind to say the least, but I believe that is not the whole story. Horner's constant bitching about engines and Renault's poor job seems to be deflecting attentions from the fact that, now with Newey involved in other stuff, Red Bull seemed to have dropped the ball this year. If there is one strange thing that is been happening ever since pre-season testing is that STR looks to be the closest it has been to RBR since 08. I mean, how long has been since both STR out qualified a Red Bull car on merit alone? Even despite this being their youngest and most inexperienced driver pairing ever. Toro Rosso even seem to be ahead of both Sauber and Force India, not to mention Lotus, on pure pace alone despite their apparent engine deficit.

watka · Post by **watka** » 17 Mar 2015, 13:38

DanielPT wrote:
Sure, Renault is a bit behind to say the least, but I believe that is not the whole story. Horner's constant bitching about engines and Renault's poor job seems to be deflecting attentions from the fact that, now with Newey involved in other stuff, Red Bull seemed to have dropped the ball this year. If there is one strange thing that is been happening ever since pre-season testing is that STR looks to be the closest it has been to RBR since 08. I mean, how long has been since both STR out qualified a Red Bull car on merit alone? Even despite this being their youngest and most inexperienced driver pairing ever. Toro Rosso even seem to be ahead of both Sauber and Force India, not to mention Lotus, on pure pace alone despite their apparent engine deficit.

A lot has been made of the drivability of the Red Bull and when I think of drivability, the first thing that comes to mind is "tyres" not "engine". I imagine that power delivery, especially with ERS, is still a pretty big problem with Renault, but it can't be the whole problem. Last season it was evident that Red Bull had a fundamentally good car but it was let down by the power unit. It's probably too early to say, but early indications are that the same could not be said for this year's car. If anything, Red Bull were quite possibly happy that Kvyat didn't race because he could have been embarrassingly off the pace.

Warren Hughes · Post by **Warren Hughes** » 18 Mar 2015, 10:27

I enjoyed the Oz GP to be honest, with the exception of the non-battle for the win. I only watched the BBC highlights on Sunday evening though, maybe if I'd seen the whole thing - at 5 in the morning - I might not have been quite so entertained.

Agree with those who say Rosberg looks a beaten man before the season's really got going. Remember the interview from early last season: "Break me down mentally? Good luck with that one" - well it's happened, and Nico doesn't look like he has the answers.

Shizuka · Post by **Shizuka** » 18 Mar 2015, 13:49

Here's Formel1.de's comparison of the best lap times from the teams in 2014 and 2015:

Jick Magger · Post by **Jick Magger** » 18 Mar 2015, 14:16

I wonder if McLaren are going to follow Rosberg's fine example and invite all the other Formula One Teams to their accident debfrief. Hmm, I wonder!

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 18 Mar 2015, 23:37

Shizuka wrote:Here's Formel1.de's comparison of the best lap times from the teams in 2014 and 2015:

...which, in turn, put McLaren further off the pace in Melbourne this year than Caterham were last year...

Don't worry, Ron, I've got some leftover green paint to make your cars look more authentic. And a bit of white so you can paint "This could be YOU" on the sidepods...

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 19 Mar 2015, 10:23

dinizintheoven wrote:
Shizuka wrote:Here's Formel1.de's comparison of the best lap times from the teams in 2014 and 2015:

...which, in turn, put McLaren further off the pace in Melbourne this year than Caterham were last year...

Don't worry, Ron, I've got some leftover green paint to make your cars look more authentic. And a bit of white so you can paint "This could be YOU" on the sidepods...

Regardless, one has to celebrate how McLaren went backwards and, with all the courage in the world and in the face of no real reject teams on the grid, decided to pick up the reject banner and wave it for everyone to see the reject spirit is still very much alive in F1. Heartwarming stuff!

In other news, Alonso might not be in an hurry to drive this year.

Collieafc · Post by **Collieafc** » 19 Mar 2015, 13:22

Alonso must want to throw the remote at the telly every time he sees Vettel now. Ferrari, although not winning, appear to have made improvements while McLaren may be bottom of the pile - wonder of the bookies will take odds on premature retirement?

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 19 Mar 2015, 18:53

Collieafc wrote:Alonso must want to throw the remote at the telly every time he sees Vettel now. Ferrari, although not winning, appear to have made improvements while McLaren may be bottom of the pile - wonder of the bookies will take odds on premature retirement?

Oh great, because I needed even more people to ask when I will run an Alonso ragequit RNG.

Spectoremg · Post by **Spectoremg** » 19 Mar 2015, 19:41

Collieafc wrote:Alonso must want to throw the remote at the telly every time he sees Vettel now. Ferrari, although not winning, appear to have made improvements while McLaren may be bottom of the pile - wonder of the bookies will take odds on premature retirement?

Interesting observation; 33 years old and in a team that's going absolutely nowhere.

Jan Magnussen · Post by **Rob Dylan** » 19 Mar 2015, 20:04

Spectoremg wrote:
Collieafc wrote:Alonso must want to throw the remote at the telly every time he sees Vettel now. Ferrari, although not winning, appear to have made improvements while McLaren may be bottom of the pile - wonder of the bookies will take odds on premature retirement?

Interesting observation; 33 years old and in a team that's going absolutely nowhere.

A two-time world champion, in fact...
I'm standing up!