2018 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 22 -25 March

[zac510]

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?

It tells us that sport is a meritocracy and especially F1. Those with the collective (teams) greatest skills and ability will mostly win.
If you just want entertainment you should probably watch something else other than the outright championship battle (ie midfield) and that is true for all sports where the best team is far better.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

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.

For 10 long years, the 100 mtrs and 200 mtrs sprinting was in a sorry state, where one individual was simply winning everything. Even before a sprint starts, you know who is going to win! That was crap, isn't it? How much the world hated that man! Same goes for Mercedes! They both deserve to be hated for living upto the goal of a sport, that is to be the pinnacle of it's category. Something must "be/have been" done to stop that man from winning, Olympic committee was just a bunch of jokers, as are FIA and Liberty! This tells you about the state of these sports!

[TAG]

For 10 long years, the 100 mtrs and 200 mtrs sprinting was in a sorry state, where one individual was simply winning everything. Even before a sprint starts, you know who is going to win! That was crap, isn't it? How much the world hated that man! Same goes for Mercedes! They both deserve to be hated for living upto the goal of a sport, that is to be the pinnacle of it's category. Something must "be/have been" done to stop that man from winning, Olympic committee was just a bunch of jokers, as are FIA and Liberty! This tells you about the state of these sports!

The only thing some fans like more than their team winning is complaining about other teams winning.
We might be in for a looong season of complaining.

[FMP]

Does somebody have a go-to-place for lap times from FP? Or do I really have to replay the whole F1 app coverage and write them down? I just don't like the "Sky Sports said...".

[Sevach]

Does somebody have a go-to-place for lap times from FP? Or do I really have to replay the whole F1 app coverage and write them down? I just don't like the "Sky Sports said...".

Try here
https://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula- ... nformation

[Mandrake]

Good analysis of the first two practice sessions. You gotta translate for yourself for the moment:

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... ckt-stars/

[FMP]

Does somebody have a go-to-place for lap times from FP? Or do I really have to replay the whole F1 app coverage and write them down? I just don't like the "Sky Sports said...".

Try here
https://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula- ... nformation

I just feel so stupid... For a few years I relied on second hand information, infuriated by the fact that FIA had the data but not releasing it... #SillyMe Thanks alot!

[search]

Schmidt seems to have totally lost the plot though. No idea how he managed to miss that Grosjean was the only driver to use the ultrasofts in the end of the session, meaning he had already burned 12 laps of fuel (worth ~0.8s) on reds before starting this run. If you add that amount of time, you get a normal result with Haas as 4th fastest team

[DVB]

Wet Qualification

Dry race

Gonna be fun! Can't wait!

[bauc]

Wet Qualification

Dry race

Gonna be fun! Can't wait!

[Big Mangalhit]

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?

It tells us that sport is a meritocracy and especially F1. Those with the collective (teams) greatest skills and ability will mostly win.
If you just want entertainment you should probably watch something else other than the outright championship battle (ie midfield) and that is true for all sports where the best team is far better.

I wouldn't say it is a meritocracy at all... If it were I think Findia would be winning. When you have such a disparity of budgets and even worse, prize money, then it isn't exactly based solely on merit. 100m/200m sprints is much more of a meritocracy in the sense that if you are really good you can win even if you come from a low budget background.

In F1 you have teams like Mercedes and RB backed by huge corporations, and even worse Ferrari which on top of that get a huge legacy bonus, then you have others just struggling to stay afloat. Also from the beginning of the drivers career you need sponsors and loads of money to get access to the faster cars. Heck even to be in F1 you need to pay loads of money and indeed several times money>talent to be in an F1 car, how is that for a meritocracy??

[digitalrurouni]

These are times from FP2 2017. Having watched FP2 today, times have almost remained the same. In fact, FP2 fastest time by Lewis is slower than last year's FP2 time. Temperatures have remained more or less similar. What happened to all the development done to the cars in the last 12 months? Only Red Bull seems to have gone faster.

https://s9.postimg.org/p9acq9ezz/2017_aus_gp.png

1- Halo, some kg weight at a pretty high position, affecting total weight, CoG and aerodynamics
2- PUs must last 7 GPs, so in FP they´re probably at the most conservative setting

Wait until Q and we´ll know, it´s less than 24h ahead

Pretty much this. And may I also reiterate how horrendous those halos are and how much they have ruined the experience of the onboard. Ugh! The more I think about it the more I get.

[Restomaniac]

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.

For 10 long years, the 100 mtrs and 200 mtrs sprinting was in a sorry state, where one individual was simply winning everything. Even before a sprint starts, you know who is going to win! That was crap, isn't it? How much the world hated that man! Same goes for Mercedes! They both deserve to be hated for living upto the goal of a sport, that is to be the pinnacle of it's category. Something must "be/have been" done to stop that man from winning, Olympic committee was just a bunch of jokers, as are FIA and Liberty! This tells you about the state of these sports!

It happens in Many sports large and small.
From Manchester United in the 90's and the ABU (Anyone But United) group. To Wigan in Rugby League who were totally hated at the time.

[dans79]

The only thing some fans like more than their team winning is complaining about other teams winning.
We might be in for a looong season of complaining.

It's sad really, I think some like doing that more than they do actually watching the sport.

[zac510]

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?

It tells us that sport is a meritocracy and especially F1. Those with the collective (teams) greatest skills and ability will mostly win.
If you just want entertainment you should probably watch something else other than the outright championship battle (ie midfield) and that is true for all sports where the best team is far better.

I wouldn't say it is a meritocracy at all... If it were I think Findia would be winning. When you have such a disparity of budgets and even worse, prize money, then it isn't exactly based solely on merit. 100m/200m sprints is much more of a meritocracy in the sense that if you are really good you can win even if you come from a low budget background.

In F1 you have teams like Mercedes and RB backed by huge corporations, and even worse Ferrari which on top of that get a huge legacy bonus, then you have others just struggling to stay afloat. Also from the beginning of the drivers career you need sponsors and loads of money to get access to the faster cars. Heck even to be in F1 you need to pay loads of money and indeed several times money>talent to be in an F1 car, how is that for a meritocracy??

Having money is merit, though unfortunately. but it's shallow merit, for sure. That's why I qualified my comment on merit with the word collective - you really do need the money, engineers, factory, drivers. I know what you mean about FI though, their merit:expenditure ratio is outstanding but they don't have the best merit in every category.

Fortunately money does not always correlate to merit; Toyota, Honda, BAR etc all proved that at various points.