The Official Australian Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

[Dr Z]

It is time.



Date(s): Friday 23 March - Sunday 25 march 2018

UK Broadcast Timings (and local time)

All sessions are live on Sky F1 with highlights show for qualifying and the race on Channel 4.

Session	Day	Sky F1	Channel 4	Session Start	Local Time
Practice 1	Fri	0030	-	0100	1200
Practice 2	Fri	0445	-	0500	1600
Practice 3	Sat	0245	-	0300	1400
Qualifying	Sat	0555	1300	0600	1700
Race	Sun	0605	1430	0610	1610

Note: Clocks go forward Saturday night/Sunday morning in the UK.

Albert Park, Melbourne



Live timing for all sessions available here:

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/f1-...

Info such as lap times, PU use, technical reports, stewards decisions etc for the weekend will appear here:

https://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-c...

Weather forecast:

http://www.myweather2.com/Motor-Racing/Australia/A...

The tyre choices:




2017 Qualifying





2017 Race






Fastest Race Lap: 1:26.538 (L56, K. Räikkönen; Ferrari)

---

Who will win it this time, and who will go on to win the big prize?

Get your predictions in.

Note: the tyre compounds are all softer than last year in a bid to encourage two or more stops, with a larger working window.

Oops, can a mod insert 2018 in the title.

Tyre working ranges:

Edited by Dr Z on Thursday 22 March 12:25

[Dr Z]

The Moose said:

HustleRussell said:

The Moose said:

do you know what the opening lyrics to the Lion King actually mean? I looked it up for something else recently.

There comes a lion.

Yep, it's a lion.

Lion.

It sounds better in Zulu.

thegreenhell said:

Don't forget that clocks go forwards an hour overnight Saturday/Sunday if you're planning to set your alarm to watch it live.

Forgot that, OP updated.

HorneyMX5 said:

Is the UK start time of 6:10 take my into account the clock changes?

I need to be at Brooklands for 8:30 which is an hour from me and will be gutted if I can’t watxh the full race.

The race at local time is starting an hour earlier than qualifying (according to the F1 app) which matches up with the clocks going forward here in UK...

red_slr said:

Looking forward to seeing how Sergey Sirotkin does.

I predict he'll be quicker than Stroll, which unfortunately for him, is not really saying much.

Looked good in GP2/F2 though.

[Dr Z]

An interesting development before this weekend's racing.

• The FIA have been monitoring oil use by the cars last year and have found that while Renault and Honda engines consumed ~0.1L/100km, the Merc and Ferrari engines appeared to consume exactly the number specified by the rules, i.e. 1.2L/100km when that was in force and in the latter part of the season, 0.9L/100km, raising suspicions.
• The oil consumption limit this year is 0.6L/100km, however this cannot be policed during a qualifying session due to the error rate of the sensor used.
• The FIA are to weigh the oil tanks of all cars before and after qualifying this weekend to more accurately measure oil use for qualifying.
• The spec of oil that can be used has been specified more clearly for this year, with only one (approved) spec that can be used for a particular GP weekend.

Source: AMuS/F1 Technical Regulations


Could mix things up! Renault/Honda engined teams will be licking their lips.

[Dr Z]

stevesingo said:

The problem the FiA has is they are measuring quantity in a tank and not flow in a line, Measuring the oil tank level periodically will give a rate of burn and the longer the time period the more accurate the measurement.

Over one lap, one could expect the engine to burn slightly more than (due to no fuel saving) 100kg/race laps amount of fuel, so 100/58=1.82kg or probably closer to 2kg. The amount of oil consumed would be 0.6/100*lap length, in the case of Aus, (5.303km), 0.031lt, or just over a shot glass full, or about 25grams. Good luck with that.

Yeah, I'm not sure how they're going to measure such a small amount to prove infringement either, even if for qualifying they ended up running at twice or thrice the limit, that still comes in at less than 100g.

RBR seem sure that this is the big advantage Merc/Ferrari cars have against them during qualifying.

A curious sentence in the Tech Regs:

F1 Technical Regulations Article 20.7.4 said:

Engine oil samples taken during an Event will be checked for conformity by using a fourier transform infrared (FTIR) technique, which will compare the sample taken with that submitted at the start of the event. Samples which differ from the reference engine oil in a manner consistent with fuel dilution, engine fluids contamination and oil ageing as a result of normal engine operation, will be considered to conform. Samples which differ from the reference engine oil in a manner consistent with the mixing with other engine oils, which have been approved by the FIA for use by the team, will be deemed to comply, provided that the adulterant oils are in total present at no more than 10% in the sample. However, the FIA retains the right to subject the oil sample to further testing at an FIA approved laboratory.

[my emphasis]

Weird when teams are only allowed to use one approved spec of oil at a given GP weekend, which must be declared prior to the event. But this oil could be contaminated with another oil spec up to 10%.

Edited by Dr Z on Wednesday 21st March 14:52

[Dr Z]

The practice pace seems about the same as last year. No big jump on long run/race pace either.

Wet quali & race?

FP1:



FP2:

[Dr Z]

Agree with a few posters here, the sandbags were firmly on for 1-lap pace today. However, I'm liking what I'm seeing in the long runs. Not much seperating the top 3.

McLaren appear to be right at the head of the pack behind the top 3.



This could be good.

Also agree, the halo has made a mess of the onboard views. Suspect this will be adjusted quite quickly.

[Dr Z]

A note about the tyres;

The Ultrasoft and Supersoft are lower working range compounds, while the Soft is high working range.

From preseason testing, most cars were happier on the medium tyres, which was a high working range tyre even though it was cold and the resurfaced tarmac was much smoother than previously.

It suggests that these cars are working these tyres well, almost too well for the low working range compounds, and we most probably will not see the top 10 qualifying cars pushing hard in the 1st stint like last year (unfortunately).

In practice today it looked like the low working range tyres were having to be nursed over a lap on quali sims .i.e. like old school quali tyres.

Conditions were very warm with track temp in the mid 40 C today, so it could have contributed to cars not extracting as much pace from the softer low working range compounds, apart from the usual sandbags.

Tomorrow and sunday are forecast to be much colder (in the mid 20 C), so today's setup work would have been looking ahead. The pecking order could shuffle quite a bit in the midfield--perhaps even at the sharp end as some cars might work better in the colder temps than others.

[Dr Z]

The Party Mode got turned on just then.

[Dr Z]

Must say, Hartley's experience showed today. Gasly might be the more fancied one but I'm feeling he's going to have his hands full trying to beat Hartley over the season.

The most improved teams from 2017 Qualifying?

Renault
McLaren
Sauber
RBR
Force India
Mercedes
Haas
Ferrari
Williams
Toro Rosso

...in that order!

Edited by Dr Z on Saturday 24th March 10:24

[Dr Z]

Tyres left for the race:



RB drivers will start on the super softs...Be nice if the Q2/Q1 scalps run the counter strategy.

Not going to be a 2 -stop predicted by Pirelli then. How good is their simulation tool, I wonder?

[Dr Z]

ajprice said:

KevinCamaroSS said:

Car-Matt said:

In Summary

McLaren will soon be the 4th best team on merit unless Ferrari pump resources into Haas to destroy them

Since they did not even make it to Q3 I think that may be a bit of wishful thinking?

they're 11th and 12th, Alonso got nudged out of Q3 because he wasn't putting in a time at the very end of Q3, The TR Hondas are 16th and 20th. Last year McLaren were 13th and 18th on the grid. They haven't 'done a Brawn', but nobody expected them to, they're holding their own in the mid pack so far, ahead of Williams, ahead of Force India. They'll be happy with that for the first race qualifying.

Yep, Alonso made a mistake in the 1st sector too I think, could have easily been in Q3, his Q2 lap was slower than Q1. Sainz put in the best lap behind the top 3 (from both Q2 & Q3), a 1m23.0s in Q2. Several cars, including him couldn't replicate that in Q3, when I thought the track might have fell away a bit, rather than grip up like usual.

Vettel only improved a tenth from Q2 to Q3.

[Dr Z]

VSC was timely for the works Ferrari.

[Dr Z]

Vettel v Hamilton @ Oz; Round 2 ... Go!

[Dr Z]

ukaskew said:

Can't get my head around how the VSC helped Vettel so much. So would it have been quicker for Hamilton to pit as well?!

Ham already pitted so no gains to be had...if he pitted under VSC again...he would lose even more time.

[Dr Z]

Wow, Vettel is on maximum attack and the Merc looks just plain quicker.

[Dr Z]

jsf said:

so st racing, st onboard camera views, st totty, st music, st tyres, st power saving.

Hamilton will walk this championship, the mercedes is miles faster.

[Dr Z]

Fresh Prince said:

HustleRussell said:

Enjoyed Chandhok’s side by side qualifying lap comparison, so surprised to see that the Ferraris were actually faster on the straights than the Mercedes.

Yeah that was very interesting for me, especially in light of all the Mercedes “party mode” comments...

Some hard lessons were learned by Ferrari last year, especially the humiliation @ Monza.

On peak power over a quali lap, they're definitely up there with Merc. Their car is longer this year and it seems there are a lot of aero detail on the car that suggest a focus on aero efficiency for this year.

However, I still think they're someway off Merc on fuel efficiency...

So the car concept is not as mature as Merc and thus lacking in ultimate grip compared to Merc, which was quite evident in the quali onboards. Hamilton's Q3 onboard was certainly eye popping in the speed he was carrying through some corners.

My take is that Merc's fuel efficiency advantage allows them to run more downforce (and thus drag) on the car, that translates to better 1-lap pace but doesn't hurt race pace.

BTW, for those complaining about the lack of overtaking...may be short memories, but it has always been like this at this track.

Edited by Dr Z on Sunday 25th March 17:53

[Dr Z]

yonex said:

I'd say the Mercedes had 0.2-0.3 advantage over each lap in clear air. What does a team need, a second a lap and DRS and engine boost, just to overtake?

How can they not see how broken it is?

Actually, I'd say the advantage was a bit more than that over Ferrari, but what people are missing here is that Merc had pushed the cooling on Hamilton's car to the limit, anticipating a race where Hamilton leads from the front. When he had to follow another car, he started to run hot and had to back off to keep the temps under control, which meant he couldn't attack Vettel continuously.

You relax the cooling, you give away lap time.

The number thrown around is a 1.8s delta to be able to pass around this track and this has never been any better or worse than in the past.

I'm fairly certain that Hamilton had the car underneath him to pass Vettel today, if he'd have been able to apply constant pressure and induce a mistake somewhere. It's not supposed to be easy to pass a 4 x WDC though? This guy is not some rookie. The Merc was much quicker than the Ferrari in the slower corners, especially I noticed he was gaining several tenths in sector 3.

It's also not about just being quicker in overall lap time, you need to be quick in the right places to be able to pass.

[Dr Z]

Andy S15 said:

Interesting radio chatter from Kimi, he was rather upset by Vettel's strategy. Apparently Ferrari's strategy there was to cover off Kimi and Kimi was kept in the dark, they didn't even think they were in with a shout of taking the lead.

Not sure about that...Given pit lane time loss was around 22 seconds, Kimi would have been 6 or so seconds up the road if/when Vettel would have been brought in, without the VSC/SC. There's no way he was going catch and pass Kimi on the same tyres then, even with a tyre offset.

The only reason he was left out so long was he could pit clear of the Haas behind, as several posters here have noted.

AW111 said:

Webber was amusing discussing Max's problems trying to get around Alonso. Not critical, just pointing out that Alonso was slightly varying his lines & braking points, so Max couldn't predict exactly where he'd be from lap to lap.

Clever race by Alonso, he used to do this with McHonda a lot. Bring others into play creating a DRS train, but this time he had the straight line speed to fend off attacks...it helped that it was Max behind him with a wounded RB.

Whilst it was fortuitous, McLaren have matched their best ever results in a race (5th & 9th) during their three years with Honda, on the 1st race with Renault...with a package that looks nowhere near being as optimised as the other cars. The fact that they were on the same race pace as the works Renault with this package, speaks volumes.

Driver of the Day for me: Ricciardo.

Talking about a 1.8second performance advantage to pass around here. I'm sure he didn't have that much when he passed Hulk. Sheer guts and guile. That's an overtake I can appreciate.

Don't want to see 10 passes a minute. I'd take 1 overtake over a race like that, anyday.

Different strokes for different folks.

[Dr Z]

_#_thuglife