10 Thoughts on the Australian Grand Prix

"Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney" (braddelaparker)
03/21/2016 at 08:45 • Filed to: 10 thoughts on F1, formula 1, f1, racing

1. Don’t want to bury the lede, but quite impressed by Haas’s debut.

The chassis looked good in qualifying, argey bargey bologna aside, and it was always going to have the power, but what a great performance by the American-British outfit. Today’s result alone will likely propel them ahead of Manor and Sauber in the EOY standings regardless of what happens the rest of the season, which is impossible to overstate the importance of for that team’s long-term health.

2. Make no bones about it, Ferrari threw this race away.

Vettel doesn’t necessarily win if they don’t flub his stop, but he’s competing with Rosberg at the end of the race instead of stuck behind Hamilton on dying tires. And Raikkonen’s car not making it to the end of the race, while a part of racing, is inexcusable given his performance to that point and the grip Ferrari had on the race then. Kimi needs to carry his load this year for Ferrari to take the fight to Mercedes, and he did today and the team let him down.

3. Mercedes still has a dominant chassis, but has Ferrari really narrowed the gap?

Was Hamilton’s performance today just a matter of a poor start and a car setup that he wasn’t completely happy with? FOM didn’t show much of Rosberg he was out front so it’s hard to say how happy he was with the chassis. Ferrari’s gains look mostly to be in the power unit, but it’s hard to analyze the Vettel vs. Hamilton battle once Vettel’s tires fell off.

4. The lone Red Bull looked good, but power is still an issue.

Frightening to think what that car could do with anything even as competent as the 2015 Ferrari PU that the Toro Rossos have.

5. Williams’ question marks grow bigger

The question with Williams coming into the last two seasons was if their prior season success was fleeting, or if they would be pulled back into the clutches of the mid-field. And yet, here we are after race one and we might know even less than we did going in. Bottas’ starting position didn’t help with clarity, but Massa was just kind of floating around there in the middle on his own.

As a fan of Williams, personally, I can’t help but shake the feeling that they’ll be less competitive with the frontrunners this season than they were last, even if they’ve managed to put up a gap over the midfield. Toro Rosso is looking increasingly likely to join and perhaps overtake Williams in the gap-tier of the grid, and based on pace is there already as of Australia.

6. On the subject of the “gap-tier”, Force India blended into this race as well

I didn’t catch what happened with Perez’s pit stop, but if you neutralize strategy it appears the Force Indias are catching on the Williams and Toro Rossos in terms of pace.

7. Renault and McLaren Improve

McLaren’s overall pace is way up with Jenson Button finishing with the 8th fastest lap of the race. With Alonson having been a bit quicker than Button overall it would have been interesting to see where he landed in this race. Still quite a step behind the pack, but without another pair of cars fielding Honda engines it’s difficult to get a full profile of their gains.

Renault’s outright pace is still in the bottom 25%, but they ran a solid race. I would have expected Palmer to be solid, but he really did run a pretty good race. Didn’t get a read on Magnussen’s return, personally, but he looks on a pace basis to have approximated Palmer’s performance

8. Manor?

Wehrlein was quick, Haryanto wasn’t, and that was expected. But Wehrlein was probably quicker than expected, finishing with the 12th quickest lap time.

Still, I think this says more for Wehrlein and the Mercedes engines he represents than Manor. I’m still not sold on Manor until Mercedes commits to a full Haas-Ferrari type arrangement, but it looks like Manor has a shot to get off the end of the bench and put Sauber into that spot, which appears to be something Sauber can ill-afford.

9. Rosberg v. Hamilton

Post-race Hamilton attempted to blame Rosberg for his poor start, despite having done the same on a multitude of occasions to Rosberg last year and giving Rosberg the opportunity to be the aggressor to begin with. Going back to 2015, this is four wins in a row for Rosberg. Has the tide fully turned and has Rosberg finally gotten to grips with the chassis in the way Hamilton had early in 2015?

10. Finally, a caveat

Australia is always a bit of a crapshoot given its timing, especially with the change in tires, tire selection, and the (brief) qualifying experiment. Last season saw a Williams on the podium and a Sauber very nearly in the points, and today’s race featured a red flag and featured six retirements. Bahrain could be a very different race, especially for those back-half teams who appeared to take a step forward today.

Up next is Bahrain in two weeks’ time, and it should be a lot more interesting than many were fearing coming into the season given today’s result.

DISCUSSION (12)

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney
03/20/2016 at 16:46

Kinja'd!!!

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney
03/20/2016 at 16:48

Damn it!!!!

Kinja'd!!!

Biggus Dickus (RevsBro) > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney
03/20/2016 at 16:52

I don’t agree entirely with #2. IMO, the Ferrari is the best Chasis while Mercedes still had the best power unit. Honestly, the red flag is what killed Seb. He had opened a pretty significant gap by the time the flag came out.

Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney > Biggus Dickus (RevsBro)
03/20/2016 at 17:09

I don’t know that I buy that Ferrari has a better chassis, but I think it’s absolutely up for discussion.

Red flag really did do a number on Seb and a lot of other battles in the field as well.

Maxxuman > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney
03/20/2016 at 17:30

You mentioned xth fastest lap a few times but didn't mention that Ricciardo had the fastest of the race.

Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney > Maxxuman
03/20/2016 at 23:42

Right you are, no idea how I failed to notice that while looking at lap charts!

Maxxuman > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney
03/20/2016 at 23:54

I saw it mentioned in the F1.com team by team writeup.

ReaperChief > Biggus Dickus (RevsBro)
03/21/2016 at 07:15

The red flag killed Hamilton, too. He went with mediums while the others had softs or supersofts, forcing them to make one more stop. The red flag eliminated that kind of advantage..

ceanderson920 > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
03/21/2016 at 12:37

Does anyone know why this happened? I was pissed when they showed kimi in the pits with fire coming out. I believe he was in 2nd, and after the start he and seb had it makes it sad to see.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > ceanderson920
03/21/2016 at 13:27

Rumor is a turbo failure. I don’t think they gave an official reason.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Biggus Dickus (RevsBro)
03/23/2016 at 14:07

Yup - what was his lead before the wreck?

Biggus Dickus (RevsBro) > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
03/23/2016 at 14:24

I think it was around 10 seconds.