[iamahunter]

In the 2022 Formula1 season:

• Australia is BACK!
• Ferrari is back!
• And Sebastian Vettel is back in the car!

As a temporary facility, Albert Park can be quite bumpy - though resurfacing for 2022 will no doubt improve matters - while the circuit at the start of the weekend is often slippery, rubbering in as the sessions progress. It’s also a circuit that requires a well-sorted chassis, with several spots on the track where the drivers require a reactive front end to allow them to chuck it into a corner. Melbourne is also one of the faster tracks on the calendar, with Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 pole lap set at an average of over 235km/h.

Schedule

Schedule in IST

The Circuit


The lake does look a little odd


2019 Race Results


Drivers Championship


Constructors Championship


Weather

Pointers

• Mercedes is bringing some major update to their car! If they hit it right, it would make the F1 more interesting this season!
• Wish I could see Daniel on the podium at his home ground, doesn't seem likely, but who knows!
• Last time when F1 was here, KMag was will Haas(as if he never left), Grosjean was still in F1 and Gasley was with the RedBull!
• Alpha Tauri was Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda with Albon and Kvyat.
• Aston Martin was Racing Point BWT Mercedes with Stroll and Perez.

Many such changes to the teams, circuit and the car itself! Lets see how the drama unfolds this year!

[bmw_lover]

very impressed by Perez's consistent purple sector times and faster lap times than Max's. Have always rooted for him since the beginning of last season. This season he is going to give tough competition to his teammate unless team orders play spoilsport. Last race's pole position has given him the confidence (the last thing he needed) to perform to his true potential.

he also looks more comfortable with the car of the two Red Bull drivers.

[ecenandu]

Not a bad day for Mclaren today. Alonso was on a great lap before the hydraulics let go. He was stuck in 4th gear and the engine got cutoff before the crash.

With Saniz in 9th, Redbull got the upper hand with regards to strategy. Hoping for a good race tomorrow



Just showing off,. Took me a good 10hours to finish the build.

[shibujp]

The Ferraris look on the pace for a third race running. Augurs good for this season. Great lap by Leclerc to qualify on pole especially given the shot of his in car visibility. But the bouncing of the Merc is on another level. Even looking at it is painful. How Hamilton and Russell get that car so high up the sheets is a testament to their skills.

We were robbed of Alonso somewhere close to the front row thanks to some errant hydraulics that failed to give him a downshift on what was a screamer of a lap. But definitely has potential in that car.

The turnaround has to be McLaren who seem to have got a handle on their problems and seem to have a very competitive car on their hands. Hope they have not sacrificed race pace on what is a very fast circuit.

The last sector seems to be Max weakness. On both Q3 laps he made errors on this sector without which he would have been on pole. But I guess RB would be happy with two cars in the front row.

Mick Schumacher outqualified KMag. Should be a boost for what is looking a better season for young Schumy as long as he keeps his car off the walls.

Expected Gasly to be in the top 10 but i guess the performance of the McLaren's has increased competition in the mid field if you can call it that. The top 9 at one point were separated by 0.6s.

It's the battle of the floors this season with the stiff, heavier floor philosophy competing with lighter flexible one.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[Chetan_Rao]

Leclerc is looking the deal!

Ferrari seem to finally have given him a car to compete, and he's demonstrated both pace when in space and a calm head in close situations, in equal measure.

A shame Red Bull have reliability issues. Didn't have the pace today for the win, but constructors points will be critical. Merc move up the table with a double points finish when both front runners had a DNF each.

[cule1899_bhp]

Perfect weekend for Charles Leclerc, not so as a team for Ferrari due to no score from Sainz. They'd have pulled away in the constructor's championship quite a bit if both cars ended up on the podium. Nevertheless Verstappen's retirement leaves them with enough room with the Redbulls while giving the Mercedes more damage limitation as they continued to eke performance out of that 'potentially pacey' car for another weekend.

Very much impressed with Albon's drive, drove that Williams on hard compounds for 57 laps and scored an impressive point to open their account for the season. Hope this boosts them to further turn their fortunes.

A huge disappointment as a Fernando Alonso fan in another 'what could have been'. Hope Alpine gets their stuff together and give him a car to compete as he's yet to have a clean weekend.

Great race in general for F1 especially to be welcomed back down under as there were battles for several positions even with DRS trains.
Hope Ferrari makes it an all red weekend in Imola in two week's time. Looking forward to more of the close racing.

[BlueFreedom]

New regulations are allowing close driving, else this GP would have been a snooze fest. Charles had to battle it out twice with Max on the SC restart and he seems to have got a measure of Max. Ferrari seems to be an all round package feel for Perez seems a bit unlucky. The Old fox Alonso showed what he is capable of.
Merc picking up points being at the right time might probably help them in the later stages of the calendar in mounting pressure on Ferrari for WCC if they are able to fix the issue with their car.
Shout out to Albon what a drive, rules are pretty clear a driver should minimum use two different compounds of tires but I wasn't aware that if your first set of tire lasts for the entire race you still have to use a different compound forcing a pit stop

[aim120]

Ferrari is on a league of its own. It was was 0.6 second a lap faster then the redbull.
I think mercedes strategy will be to just concentrate on race pace. Lewis was actually catching perez. In the subsequent laps in the second stint, lap time of mercedes drivers where again similar to redbull. They where mainly loosing time on straights.

Alonso was no where, was expecting a podium.

[kaak009]

The decision of Alonso to pit for Mediums at such a later stage did get him down the ranks. Should have pitted on Softs which might have got him the fastest lap provided he pushes to the limits.
Really sad to see Horner not being there for Checo during celebrations, really gives insights on who is the second driver and who leads the team. Reliability remains a concern, 2 DNFs in 3 races is just not good.

[Flying Shadow]

Originally Posted by kaak009

Really sad to see Horner not being there for Checo during celebrations, really gives insights on who is the second driver and who leads the team.

It has been always clear as to who their Primary driver is.
Checo was roped in last year as Helmut Marko and Horner felt he would be the best to play 2nd fiddle to Max, which he did splendidly last season.

But, little did they know that Checo would come guns blazing this season.

I expect at least a handful of Poles and Wins from Checo this season if Redbull can keep up the development race against Ferrari.

[mnram]

Originally Posted by Flying Shadow

It has been always clear as to who their Primary driver is.
Checo was roped in last year as Helmut Marko and Horner felt he would be the best to play 2nd fiddle to Max, which he did splendidly last season.

But, little did they know that Checo would come guns blazing this season.

I expect at least a handful of Poles and Wins from Checo this season if Redbull can keep up the development race against Ferrari.

Exactly. It is disappointing to say the least, when the team's enthusiasm is much much less for PER (Including his own side of the garage) compared to VER. Helmut and Horner should not expect him to play 2nd fiddle throughout. Is it going to become a RIC and VER 2018 situation soon?

[shibujp]

Ferrari and Leclerc drove a flawless race. They are beginning to exhibit the kind of consistency that characterized their dominant years on the early 2000s. Pity about Sainz though - would have really cemented Ferrari's position to have him finish the race.

The real story of the weekend is Mclaren's return to form. To have both cars finish in the top ten in P5 and P6 shows that they have great race pace. Would be interesting to see if they can challenge the Mercs.

Albon and Williams put together an inspired strategy that won them a well deserved point. 57 laps on the hards and a mandatory pitstop on the last lap to change the tyres. Others in the paddock might look at adopting this strategy in future races.

Bottas did well to get upto P8 after his run of consecutive Q3 appearances sadly came to an end. Zhou too is acquitting himself well in the second Alfa given his rookie status.

Happy that Mercedes gave Russell his podium and there was not of the rubbish that they played with Bottas in. Russell also did well to keep Hamilton out of DRS range. Lucky yes with the safety car but then as last year proved you do need luck too.


There is no way Red Bull can be happy with how their season is turning out. As the championships of the past few years have shown, maximising each weekend is crucial and there these kind of reliability issues can have serious consequences down the line.

Verstappen is already 46 points behind the championship leader and Red Bull third in the constructors behind Mercedes which is supposed to have a weak package. But the major thing is that they finish.

At this point Red Bull has to rely on really bringing a package that really obliterates it's rivals and also rely on a real slump in form of it's rival both of which is not so probable. More so since there a some really strong packages in the midfield that as Alsonso demonstrated can potentially upset the applecart.

Drive on,
Shibu

[dpat17]

Just look at the this clip to witness the extent of porpoising experienced by the Ferrari. You can see Charles literally bouncing in his seat during the sector 2. Even with this they are too fast for the competition.

https://youtu.be/X9xnArvm6wE