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:

[Piginapoke]

I think even less paint on the rear of the McLaren?

[Piginapoke]

Sandpit Steve said:

Petrus1983 said:

My spies at McLaren inform me that ALL paint is coming off and they’ve dispatched the tea boy to Halfords to buy some go faster stripes. My moneys on Lando for the win now.

Toto has already said that the 2022 silver car had 6kg of paint and stickers, but the 2023 black one has 3.2kg. That’s a massive saving, if you can get it past the sponsors.

Wow, 6kg seems huge

[Piginapoke]

Ferrari may be slower than we’d all like, but it’s still a beauty

[Piginapoke]

motomk said:

Rain arrived

|

Roulettes

Thanks for the pics, fantastic. Keep them coming!

[Piginapoke]

Get in Albon, a terrific lap

[Piginapoke]

Oops Checo. Wonder if that was driver error or car issue.

[Piginapoke]

eastsider said:

Max in Checo’s head - game over man

Looked more car than driver to me.

[Piginapoke]

Albon and Williams looking fast today, fantastic

[Piginapoke]

A Williams in Q3, who’d have thought it?

[Piginapoke]

Top 10 covered by 1 second, good to see. Well done George and Alex, two brilliant laps

[Piginapoke]

GiantCardboardPlato said:

Really enjoyable qualifying session i thought. Constantly evolving with a few twists and turns, Hulkenberg and Albon doing a great job. Alonso show Lance where he really is. David Croft totally unable to see Verstappen’ s first Q3 lap was woeful and there was a clear 0.5-0.8 sec improvement in it for free.

Or be able to notice that Verstappen’s final Q3 lap was a banger….

[Piginapoke]

Lewis spoke well I thought. Merc must be hopeful for tomorrow

[Piginapoke]

PhilAsia said:

Not Jos Verstappen: "Yeah, I almost hit a bird..."

Jos?

[Piginapoke]

Morning all

[Piginapoke]

snotrag said:

Albons rear left gone soft before the corner entry perhaps?

Maybe, but I think he just had an oversteer moment

[Piginapoke]

This is a potentially great race ruined by the red flag and retirements.

[Piginapoke]

GMT13 said:

This was actually looking like having the potential to be a decent race til the red flag.

Split strategies at the front with Russell and sainz could've been interesting. Then Perez and the others who pitted on lap 1 going onto hards to the end would've also been interesting.

Instead we get a red flag, everybody switchers to hards, no strategy differences, just 50 laps of conserving fuel and tyres

Yep. Totally agree. I’m off to cycle a bike