Likewise @themightyant, good to be back following live with you.
For the first competitive session of the season that was pretty exciting. One interesting change seems to be that the battery no longer needs a cooldown lap with the new system. The tyres will be the determining factor of whether a driver can go for a second push lap in a row.
Super rare Max out from spin but seems to be 100% on the car. Which came in super helpful for Kimi who nailed a good enough lap straight away. Although I hope whatever his infringement was is nothing of importance.
And yes that Toto grin was both telling and hilarious 😄.
Sooooo… we don’t quite know where Red Bull are with Max out, but over three quarters of a second between Russell Mercedes and the next best team, and I don’t think he maxed those laps. That’s a bit ominous. And it’s not just the engine as 4 teams use that engine. Great recovery from Antonelli, though he may get demoted. Hadjar did great. Is the curse of 2nd red bull seat over…
But I expect the gaps to all shift around quite quickly as new parts etc. come out, hopefully not a landslide season, that’s boring.
Was surprised McLaren stepped up, I thought they were a bit behind. Ferrari dropped a bit to in Q2 and Q3, will be interesting to see if their hyped super start actually happens in race.
Now comes the really important thing, seeing if the rule changes actually make better racing! Everything crossed.
@BearsEatBeets great point about the battery charge not needing another lap.
Looking forward to racing tomorrow. Haven’t quite decided if I’m doing the 4am live or 7.55 replay. Will likely depend how the days goes. 7.55 is tempting.
@themightyant Hopefully the teams find improvements pretty quick otherwise George has one hand on the trophy already with pretty much only his teammate to worry about. You could fit half the grid in the gap they have over everyone else now, last season (does that wording make sense?).
The Ferrari almost seemed better on the mediums. I wonder if they are going to be better in race pace again.
The start is going to be super interesting tomorrow.
I imagine I'm going to flip flop over the rest of today over of doing live or re-run. I think the (albeit miniscule) chance something changes with the schedule might push me towards live. I'll probably skip most of the build-up though if I do. Now I'm thinking once the post qualifying coverage is done I'm going back to sleep for a couple of hours.
@BearsEatBeets while I wasn’t signed up to the Ferrari hype train (as I said a few days ago) I did expect them to be a bit better. But Anthony Davidson highlighted some power issues and also suggested their smaller turbo while advantageous in same areas and tracks is expected to be slower in Australia.
It going to be fast progress for all teams this season, the order will shift, but the issue is Mercedes aren’t going to be standing still either. If it was engine / compression ratios why’s are McLaren etc. also 0.8s behind. Williams etc.
Should be interesting to see it all unfold. Enjoy sleep. Till tomorrow.
Only just caught up.That Merc is a rocket ship.
Felt sorry for Max, he was a passenger in that event..
Im not hardcore enough, I'll wait for the 8am rerun tomorrow 🤣
@Titntin Agreed nothing Max could do. But should be interesting with him battling back from last. I expect he would have been closer than the rest to Mercedes, Red Bull seem to have put together a great car. Racing Bulls too.
TBH I will "probably" do the 7:55 tomorrow. 5am was just the right side of acceptable for me. I'm an early riser already. But 4am (and pre-show from 2:30am, probably not) but slightly depends how I find my day goes. I really just wanted to see the first qualifying live, it's our first chance to REALLY start to see how the cars shakedown.
I said I would do a season prediction. I meant to do it before qualifying, though as others have said this is likely pretty pointless as with new rules the order we saw today will likely change around. But it's just a bit of fun.
Constructors
1. Mercedes
2. Red Bull
3. Ferrari
4. Mclaren
5. Racing Bulls
6. Audi
7. Haas
8. Williams
9. Alpine
10. Aston Martin
11. Cadillac
Drivers
1. George Russell
2. Max Verstappen
3. Kimi Antonelli
4. Charles Leclerc
5. Lewis Hamilton
6. Isak Hadjar
7. Oscar Piastri
8. Lando Norris
9. Arvin Lindblad
10. Liam Lawson
11. Nico Hulkenberg
12. Gabriel Bortoletto
13. Olly Bearman
14. Carlos Sainz
15. Alex Albon
16. Esteban Ocon
17. Pierre Gasly
18. Fernando Alonso
19. Franco Colapinto
20. Lance Stroll
21. Sergio Perez
22. Valtteri Bottas
@themightyant@Titntin I'm definitely not normally an early riser but I spent most of the day thinking I'd most likely do the silly time to watch it live. Checking the schedule again the full re-run at 8 (plus maybe 30 minute build-up replay) is certainly starting to feel like the more sane choice.
My only minor concern is the method I use to watch. I watch these early ones while still in bed using my laptop hooked up to the TV. I'd hate to click on the Sky website to chose the livestream and have the homepage have a big banner of the result.
Those look like some hard to argue predictions for places. I don't think I would do one much different. I'm going to be less bold and watch the first race then maybe do one.
Those onboards from qualifying are dismal, aren’t they? I can’t wait to see all the drivers coast down the pit straight at Baku before their flyings laps.
There’ll be plenty of time for them to take in the sights.
Can’t believe this has come round again so soon, I will be catching the highlights on Ch4 (UK) so will have to ensure that I avoid BBC News website as they do like to spoil the result.
Also totally forgot about the WRC and I see ITV (UK) already has two episodes up for me to watch.
Does anyone here watch the WRC? It was cracking last year and we almost clinched the title. Hopefully a better result this year.
Just watched. LOTS of thoughts. But my first thought is that that was an exciting race, and more competitive than I thought.
Before I say anything else I don't want to get TOO carried away after just one race (I remember the wheel to wheel racing / overtakes in the first race of the LAST reg change that never happened much after) but I think there were positive signs.
Ferrari ended up only 15s behind George after losing 10s by NOT pitting under VSC (only 3s behind Kimi). This track was deemed to be a less good one for them, could be closer than we think.
Overtaking!
That Ferrari Start! If Lewis hadn't been boxed in and then off track it could have been Charles and Lewis P1 and P2 out of turn 1!
Red Bull also look like they will competitive, generally looked faster than McLaren, even if Max couldn't pass at the end. He had carved his way through the rest of the field, ended with fastest lap by around 0.25s.
Alonso up to P10 on the first lap (before falling back, I have to watch that onboard!)
I was slightly waiting for Mercedes tyres to fall off a cliff, but they didn't until the last 3-4 laps. Too late.
Not sure on Ferrari's strategy, especially brining in Lewis +2 or 3 laps later, he lost around 6s on Charles in the first stop
But then he closed in on Charles and looked the faster on track for most of the race. Good to see he's not washed up!
5 Brits in the top 8. Lindblad did really well on debut, Bearman too.
Gasly and Bortoletto also impressed.
Didn't see any DRS trains! / equivalents
Fun fact: The cars were 3.5s slower in qualifying than last year, but in the race they were a little faster than last year. Fastest lap 1:22:091 v 1:22:1x last year. And this is just the start of these regs, the cars will get faster. Good to see.
Negative signs
Australian curse continues, felt for Oscar
Reliability could be a huge issue. 5 DNFs & Stroll +15 laps
Aston having a bit of a shocker, but got some race data.
It's hard to tell if a car is gaining as over a lap they can gain and lose around up to 0.5ish seconds in different sectors and then lose is again.
I'm still not TOTALLY sold on the battery + boost overtaking, SOME of the moves looked a bit easy. But it is tactical and strategic. Too early to tell how this balances out.
I probably have other thoughts but that will do for now. What did you all think?
I might rewatch syncing to the matt and tommy watch along.
Yeah pretty decent race (just finished the rerun). The later half settled down a bit compared to the start but some good racing at the beginning.
Just seeing the cooldown room I don't remember them showing that replay of someone almost going into the back of someone else at the start. Hopefully Ant will go into that a bit more soon.
The Mercs clearly are strong but if Ferrari hade made a better job of their strategy it might have been closer. I wonder if they were planning on coming in the lap they closed the pit entry.
Shame for Piastri to not even start but looks like McLaren have some work to do. I was quite surprised Lando held off Max at the end.
It seems there could be some very fast learning this year. I suppose it will depend how quickly they can figure out and produce new parts.
Even though it can seem odd to see the cars lift off so early when on board I thought the race turned out quite good. It will be interesting to see how things develop.
I don't remember them showing that replay of someone almost going into the back of someone else at the start.
@BearsEatBeets Definitely never saw that in live footage. This was a HUGE concern going into the season. Really bloody dangerous. I think they might have to have think about this, as it could end very badly.
As Bernie Collins keeps saying it's a massive development year and while Merc looks to have a head start this can change VERY quickly as other teams bring upgrades and figure out how to unlock the best in their car. Hopefully it's not Merc next with a big upgrade!
@themightyant you were probably commenting the same time I was but I'm a slow typist. A much more coherent summation than me.
I forgot about Alonso's start and the program has just changed making me remember it's re-run and it doesn't have all the post race stuff. I might have to check out the Youtube page for some more in-depth coverage of the start.
Yeah good start to the F1 career of Lindblad. I'm glad I put him and Bearman in my fantasy team.
That's surprising about the fastest lap being quicker, and a good sign.
EDIT: Deja-vu 😄, I wonder if they will possibly extend that 'pre-start' bit before the lights to try and avoid things like that. Also, I think Bernie Collins is the best pundit Sky have and hope she is at more races this year.
EDIT 2: Crofty seems to be grating on me more and more. His sweet shop analogy for battery usage was moronic.
I know it’s only one race but if we get more racing like we did today then I’m all for it. Still not a huge fan of the whole idea of needing to lift and coast during qualifying to charge the battery. I hope there can be a solution there as it’s always great seeing the drivers go flat out constantly to set the best lap.
Feeling a little hopeful going into next weekend though!
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