Official 2023 Australian Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

[Piginapoke]

We’re in Australia, so lots of walls like Saudi but hopefully there's more competition for the Red Bulls…. Leclerc always goes well here so you never know.

Interesting to see if Perez can keep his street circuit form going, and if Aston, Ferrari and Mercedes can take a step up- as unlikely as this seems after the first two rounds.

Norris needs a better weekend to assert himself over Piastri, regardless of how well the car goes here.

Here’s to a great race.

Date(s): Friday 31 March to Sunday 2 April 2023.

UK Broadcast Timings (and track time)

All sessions are live on Sky F1. Qualifying and the race are shown as highlights on Channel 4.





2022 Race Highlights:

https://youtu.be/dt8ANZIZ8Co

Live timing for all sessions available here:

https://www.formula1.com/en/f1-live.html

Lap times, PU component use, technical reports and Stewards' decisions for the weekend will appear here:

https://www.fia.com/documents/championships/fia-fo...

Weather forecast: (currently mixed, maybe rain on Sunday)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2158177

Tyre options:

Pirelli is bringing its medium compounds, so C2, C3 and C4



2022 Race Result:



Drivers’ Championship:



Constructors’ Championship:

[PhilAsia]

Max to waft-a-win.

Perez engine turned down.

Also rans...

[TheDeuce]

Can we change the poll to predict which driver will end third? First and second are an easy guess..

[Sandpit Steve]

Can’t see past the Red Bulls, assuming their reliability holds up.

Of note, is that for the first time F2 and F3 are going to Australia as support races, which will be a good experience for the support series. No idea how they got the budget, for what must be a 747 full of kit for each series.

[Jasandjules]

Likely to be pretty boring again at least at the front. Battle for 3-10th might be spicy though.

[ChocolateFrog]

Jasandjules said:

Likely to be pretty boring again at least at the front. Battle for 3-10th might be spicy though.

Struggling to get too excited, which is a shame.

Aus is usually a poor race anyway without the front row lockout.

[Chamon_Lee]

?? what the fk is even the point in voting lol

[fttm]

Wasn't sure where to put this but hey ho , Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button competing in NASCAR at COTA tomorrow , early evening UK time if anyone is interested .

[mk1coopers]

Thanks for starting the thread PiaP, I fear something radical will need to happen to save this season from becoming a bore-fest, I don’t think we will even be lucky enough to have a NR / LH style internal team battle at RB as they will just hobble SP if he gets to close to MV.

For all the tweaking of the regulations to make thing ‘more equal’ all we have ended up with is one team dominating again, that domination is also subject to the murkiness of officially recognised rule breaking (cost cap).

Although this may all be great drama for the DTS generation it doesn’t do anything but taint the sport’s reputation (for me), there’s too much mention of ‘the show’ now.

More use of the FF button on the remote coming up at the weekend if it doesn’t get closer at the front.

[Pflanzgarten]

mk1coopers said:

For all the tweaking of the regulations to make thing ‘more equal’ all we have ended up with is one team dominating again

It happens every single time they do a rule change. The strange thing is everyone thinking it'll be different this time.

Don't worry though, things ill close up again just nicely in time for the next rule change where it'll haven all over again

[Cold]

Not sure why there's all the moaning. We've had a different winner every race so far.

[rdjohn]

….but a very high probability of Max in a Red Bull as indicated-by the vote.

I suspect we will watch C4 and hope to be pleasantly surprised as well as celebrating not having to listen to the tripe spewed by Croft.

[thegreenhell]

Definitely one for the C4 highlights. Aus is never a great race at the best of times, and it doesn't have that first race of the season excitement to get up for now.

[phil1979]

Cold said:

Not sure why there's all the moaning. We've had a different winner every race so far.

Because St. Lewis hasn't won yet.

[Ardennes92]

Cold said:

Not sure why there's all the moaning. We've had a different winner every race so far.

Not confirmed by manufacturers positions though

[anonymous-user]

There’s a lot of comparison between the supposed dominance of Mercedes and the prospect of something similar with Red Bull in this era. So I found some stats of Mercedes 1-2 finishes

2022 - 1 of 22
2020 - 5 of 22
2019 - 9 of 21
2018 - 4 of 21
2017 - 4 of 20
2016 - 8 of 21
2015 - 12 of 19
2014 - 11 of 19

I thought it was interesting, I’ll put money on Red Bull getting more than 50% 1-2 finishes this year…

[mk1coopers]

Pflanzgarten said:

mk1coopers said:

For all the tweaking of the regulations to make thing ‘more equal’ all we have ended up with is one team dominating again

It happens every single time they do a rule change. The strange thing is everyone thinking it'll be different this time.

Don't worry though, things ill close up again just nicely in time for the next rule change where it'll haven all over again

A little more context for what I wrote as the above is a bit of a selective quote, I don’t mind if one team is better than the rest, I do mind if said team is clearly bias to one of its drivers, and has a proven rule break against it during the development of the car, no matter how much they protest it didn’t help them.

When Mercedes were out in front their drivers fought each other, sometimes to the detriment of the team (double DNF due to collision, drivers trying to back the other into the pack etc), there was then a change when VB came to the team, but still no clear team orders until one of them was clear in the championship. The last time RB were out in front there was some Seb bias, but Webber did fight for wins, again sometimes to the detriment of the team, ( double DNF due to collisions, multi 2:1 etc), same with Prost and Senna fighting at McLaren, then we go full circle to Ferrari, who very much like RB had a clear number one in MS, and (as they all do) sailed very close to the wind on regulations, plus MS wasn’t adverse to some ‘beneficial’ contact, which is a trait of MV when it suits.

When you approach a race weekend, this early in the season, thinking that the race is one drivers to loose, it really takes the edge off wanting to watch it live, and not wanting to fast forward through large parts as nothing is really happening, just my opinion and I’m sure there will be lots of people that agree and disagree with it

Edited by mk1coopers on Sunday 26th March 15:41

[PhilAsia]

mk1coopers said:

Pflanzgarten said:

mk1coopers said:

For all the tweaking of the regulations to make thing ‘more equal’ all we have ended up with is one team dominating again

It happens every single time they do a rule change. The strange thing is everyone thinking it'll be different this time.

Don't worry though, things ill close up again just nicely in time for the next rule change where it'll haven all over again

A little more context for what I wrote as the above is a bit of a selective quote, I don’t mind if one team is better than the rest, I do mind if said team is clearly bias to one of its drivers, and has a proven rule break against it during the development of the car, no matter how much they protest it didn’t help them.

When Mercedes were out in front their drivers fought each other, sometimes to the detriment of the team (double DNF due to collision, drivers trying to back the other into the pack etc), there was then a change when VB came to the team, but still no clear team orders until one of them was clear in the championship. The last time RB were out in front there was some Seb bias, but Webber did fight for wins, again sometimes to the detriment of the team, ( double DNF due to collisions, multi 2:1 etc), same with Prost and Senna fighting at McLaren, then we go full circle to Ferrari, who very much like RB had a clear number one in MS, and (as they all do) sailed very close to the wind on regulations, plus MS wasn’t adverse to some ‘beneficial’ contact, which is a trait of MV when it suits.

When you approach a race weekend, this early in the season, thinking that the race is one drivers to loose, it really takes the edge off wanting to watch it live, and not wanting to fast forward through large parts as nothing is really happening, just my opinion and I’m sure there will be lots of people that agree and disagree with it

Edited by mk1coopers on Sunday 26th March 15:41

[sandman77]

phil1979 said:

Because St. Lewis hasn't won yet.

Ha! Funny that you are the first person to mention him so far.

[Mark-C]

sandman77 said:

phil1979 said:

Because St. Lewis hasn't won yet.

Ha! Funny that you are the first person to mention him so far.

Weird isn't it ;-)

I've gone Perez out of hope that it will give us a better season