The Official 2017 Australian Grand Prix Thread **Spoilers**

[Vocal Minority]

Looking forward to this.

Sticking to my guns that Ferrari have closed the gap to Merc. Can see it being pretty close at the top.

McLrens to last a combined total of 34 laps

[thegreenhell]

I really hope that the pace shown by Ferrari in testing is genuine, but I can't help feeling that Mercedes will pull another second out of the bag simply by turning their engine up. I'm also expecting Red Bull to turn up with the mega-upgrade package that they didn't want to reveal to the world in testing, and be right on the pace.

McLaren will DNS due to using up their entire season allocation of engines in the practice and qualifying sessions.

[robinessex]

So, generate new interest in 'new' F1 by not showing it live unless you have SKY. So I will continue my absence since the Beeb ratted on all it's licence holders.

[Vocal Minority]

In fairness Liberty just can't rip up the contracts in inherited.

[tommunster10]

QUAL:

1.Lewis
2. Bottas
3. Vettel
4. Massa
5. Kimi
6.Max
7. Dan
8. Stroll

Alonso out in Q3 and has melt down and disappears to live in the Outback with a tribe.

[DanielSan]

TheInternet said:

Interesting prediction.

May I suggest a sweepstake for the number of laps the new McLaren will complete? Winner gets the bottle of beer in the OP.

Given their current best is 11 in one go I'll choose 12 because I'm an optimist like that.

I'll take this bet aswell. I'm going for 34 laps.






Possibly combined between both cars

[eps]

Tyre options available?

[TheInternet]

eps said:

Tyre options available?

Tyre choices available: Ultrasoft, supersoft, soft.

Couldn't find the individual driver selections.

[TheInternet]

Curious to know how many circuits' fastest laps will be broken this year. There are several records that have stood since 2004 that could be up for the taking, Australia being one of them.

[ukaskew]

TheInternet said:

Tyre choices available: Ultrasoft, supersoft, soft.

Ultrasoft is compulsory for Q3, according to the F1 website, interestingly.

Think they're going to need to rename these if the low degradation pans out as expected. If they can do a one-stopper on Ultrasoft and Soft the Medium tyre is presumably going to go to the moon and back.

[suffolk009]

1.HAM
2.BOT
3.RAI

And my biggest hope is that McLaren don't embarass themselves. It would be nice for both cars to finish, preferably not plumb last.

Beyond that, I hope the new regs produce some great racing with opportunity for real overtakes.

[Dr Z]

TheInternet said:

eps said:

Tyre options available?

Tyre choices available: Ultrasoft, supersoft, soft.

Couldn't find the individual driver selections.

Because of the tyres and cars being totally new, Pirelli supply a standard set of tyres for all teams/drivers for the first five races, IIRC. Tyre choices will be available later on, when all parties have a decent handle on them from running on a few different circuit surfaces.

[anonymous-user]

TheInternet said:

Curious to know how many circuits' fastest laps will be broken this year. There are several records that have stood since 2004 that could be up for the taking, Australia being one of them.

Weren't they getting close to a few last year? I imagine, despite the potential straight line deficit (I say potential, because the engines this year are more powerful, and the greater cornering speed means they're carrying more onto the straights anyway, so I'd expect the difference to show only on the longer straights), the cars will smash a few this year.

[Vocal Minority]

They were knocking on the doors of 5 seconds quicker from last years tests - the step up in performance will be significant

[HardtopManual]

TheInternet said:

May I suggest a sweepstake for the number of laps the new McLaren will complete? Winner gets the bottle of beer in the OP.

At racing speeds? 3.

[Crafty_]

robinessex said:

So, generate new interest in 'new' F1 by not showing it live unless you have SKY. So I will continue my absence since the Beeb ratted on all it's licence holders.

As someone said LM have just taken over a bunch of contracts that they are no doubt looking and working in to future plans.
LM and Sky have history and its not that amicable so no love lost. The interesting bit is that Murdoch is trying to sell Sky to Fox - not sure how LM would view that.

I suspect that LM will in time look to re-negotiate all TV contracts worldwide so that they can flog streaming coverage on the net. They need to cover the hole in the income first though.

[robinessex]

Crafty_ said:

robinessex said:

So, generate new interest in 'new' F1 by not showing it live unless you have SKY. So I will continue my absence since the Beeb ratted on all it's licence holders.

As someone said LM have just taken over a bunch of contracts that they are no doubt looking and working in to future plans.
LM and Sky have history and its not that amicable so no love lost. The interesting bit is that Murdoch is trying to sell Sky to Fox - not sure how LM would view that.

I suspect that LM will in time look to re-negotiate all TV contracts worldwide so that they can flog streaming coverage on the net. They need to cover the hole in the income first though.

I pay a TV licence, and I'm not paying anymore to watch live F1. Channel 4’s audience down 1.25 million compared with BBC’s coverage
The BBC’s coverage averaged 3.11 million viewers, meaning that Channel 4’s 2016 audience was down 36.8 percent.

https://f1broadcasting.co/2016/12/15/formula-1s-uk...

Edited by robinessex on Monday 20th March 20:46

[eps]

Dr Z said:

TheInternet said:

eps said:

Tyre options available?

Tyre choices available: Ultrasoft, supersoft, soft.

Couldn't find the individual driver selections.

Because of the tyres and cars being totally new, Pirelli supply a standard set of tyres for all teams/drivers for the first five races, IIRC. Tyre choices will be available later on, when all parties have a decent handle on them from running on a few different circuit surfaces.

Cheers and cheers!

[Crafty_]

Then I very much doubt you'll ever see live F1 again, unless you do so by illegal methods.

I agree its all ultimately the BBC's fault but I don't see it ever going back to how it was.

[schmalex]

I much prefer the highlights show. Live F1 is generally a waste of a perfectly good morning