The Official 2015 Melbourne Grand Prix Thread ***Spoilers***

[LaurasOtherHalf]

dr_gn said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Red555 said:

ferrisbueller said:

TonyF said:

Where was the racing upfront ?
I feel desperately sorry for hamilton because he wants to win this year ( a resounding given anyway) to equal his idols (ayrton senna) 3 world titles.
In sennas day, he had to fight every inch of every lap to win and he did that very well, whereas hamilton / rosberg could stop for lunch mid race.... how is that "winning".
Very shallow victories, bring back hard fought wins bernie before its to late.
F1 is a bloody farce.

1988

1992

That would be quite a good question-name a triple world champion that didn't have one totally dominant season.

Piquet? Lauda?

Senna.

In 91? I seem to remember it as Senna's year

[SpeedMattersNot]

LAWSY1 said:

Yes, sadly i agree wholeheartedly. Methinks their ste life obviously takes its toll and seems to remove their S.O.H. and thus 'speed matters not'

[LAWSY1]

All good

SpeedMattersNot said:

LAWSY1 said:

Yes, sadly i agree wholeheartedly. Methinks their ste life obviously takes its toll and seems to remove their S.O.H. and thus 'speed matters not'

[fezst]

DanielSan said:

stephen300o said:

1. Hamilton
2. Rosberg
3. Bottas

Copy n paste for year.

I'd say Massa 3rd, but his form in Melbourne is shocking. He must hate the place.

Good prediction that man.

[dr_gn]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

dr_gn said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Red555 said:

ferrisbueller said:

TonyF said:

Where was the racing upfront ?
I feel desperately sorry for hamilton because he wants to win this year ( a resounding given anyway) to equal his idols (ayrton senna) 3 world titles.
In sennas day, he had to fight every inch of every lap to win and he did that very well, whereas hamilton / rosberg could stop for lunch mid race.... how is that "winning".
Very shallow victories, bring back hard fought wins bernie before its to late.
F1 is a bloody farce.

1988

1992

That would be quite a good question-name a triple world champion that didn't have one totally dominant season.

Piquet? Lauda?

Senna.

In 91? I seem to remember it as Senna's year

Winning less than half the races, and having 5 winners from 3 constructors during the year isn't having a "totally dominant season".

[speedysoprano]

fezst said:

DanielSan said:

stephen300o said:

1. Hamilton
2. Rosberg
3. Bottas

Copy n paste for year.

I'd say Massa 3rd, but his form in Melbourne is shocking. He must hate the place.

Good prediction that man.

I'm still not convinced by Bottas. He's certainly quick and talented, but I'm not sure he has the ability to close the deal. I'd like to be proven wrong.

I think we're more likely to see the Ferraris up on the bottom step (or maybe higher if there are extenuating circumstances).

[IainT]

speedysoprano said:

I'm still not convinced by Bottas. He's certainly quick and talented, but I'm not sure he has the ability to close the deal. I'd like to be proven wrong.

I think we're more likely to see the Ferraris up on the bottom step (or maybe higher if there are extenuating circumstances).

I don't agree about Bottas being unconvincing but he's a young driver that's still developing. He drives with a decent maturity compared to some.

If the Williams and Ferrari have similar performance I'm expecting Vettel's experience and skill to win out over Massa and occasionally Bottas.

[rdjohn]

I think Ferarri will struggle to match the Williams for straight line speed on the 2 long straights in Malaysia.

Botas has the mental capacity to win, but I think that Williams's financial deficit to Ferrari will probably mean they will loose out for 2nd WCC placing. I doubt that they can afford to develop their car at a fast enough pace, but I hope that I am wrong.

[teacake]

woof said:

I find it amazing that f1 instead of making itself more available it's charging for as much as it can and giving fans (who are already paying to view the races ) less info and interaction. Bernie has never understood modern marketing

This. So much this. For a sport that basically turns on the technical stuff and the stats, it's madness to cut the audience off from the data. They should be using the timing data as a hook to draw in their audience. Not just making it available on the web or in an app, but creating an open-source API to the raw data and allowing other people to do creative things with it. It's really frustrating that Gale Force F1 were doing things with timing data 15 years ago - for free - that can't be done now. Such a missed opportunity.

I tried the official live timing app. Red-hot phone and a flat battery within 30 minutes. Not trying that again.

[hdrflow]

Doesn't even need to be open source. A REST one returning XML or JSON would be more than enough. Easy to monetise as well. The whole F1 governance model is completely broken and it doesn't help the FIA is just the most passive and inactive organisation in the whole world. At least with Max Mosley we knew it still existed!

[marshalla]

teacake said:

woof said:

I find it amazing that f1 instead of making itself more available it's charging for as much as it can and giving fans (who are already paying to view the races ) less info and interaction. Bernie has never understood modern marketing

This. So much this. For a sport that basically turns on the technical stuff and the stats, it's madness to cut the audience off from the data. They should be using the timing data as a hook to draw in their audience. Not just making it available on the web or in an app, but creating an open-source API to the raw data and allowing other people to do creative things with it. It's really frustrating that Gale Force F1 were doing things with timing data 15 years ago - for free - that can't be done now. Such a missed opportunity.

I tried the official live timing app. Red-hot phone and a flat battery within 30 minutes. Not trying that again.

There are no fans - we are all customers or products.

[Europa1]

marshalla said:

teacake said:

woof said:

I find it amazing that f1 instead of making itself more available it's charging for as much as it can and giving fans (who are already paying to view the races ) less info and interaction. Bernie has never understood modern marketing

This. So much this. For a sport that basically turns on the technical stuff and the stats, it's madness to cut the audience off from the data. They should be using the timing data as a hook to draw in their audience. Not just making it available on the web or in an app, but creating an open-source API to the raw data and allowing other people to do creative things with it. It's really frustrating that Gale Force F1 were doing things with timing data 15 years ago - for free - that can't be done now. Such a missed opportunity.

I tried the official live timing app. Red-hot phone and a flat battery within 30 minutes. Not trying that again.

There are no fans - we are all customers or products.

I'm someone in a profession who is lucky enough to have a reasonable amount of disposable income to occasionally spend on things I enjoy who really likes cars and racing. But apparently I follow the worng sport because by Bernie's measure I am not F1's target audience. I'm not a Rolex-wearing old giffer.

[RYH64E]

Europa1 said:

I'm someone in a profession who is lucky enough to have a reasonable amount of disposable income to occasionally spend on things I enjoy who really likes cars and racing. But apparently I follow the worng sport because by Bernie's measure I am not F1's target audience. I'm not a Rolex-wearing old giffer.

It would appear that Bernies target market isn't the same as the current target market for F1, wealthy old giffers don't tend to buy Renaults of any sort nor are they particularly interested in poxy hybrids or fuel economy (imo).