2016 Rolex Australian Grand Prix

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LMSCorvetteGT2
I feel Bernie watched a little too much DTM. I found the "success weight ballast" from their a bit of a joke when it comes to the idea of racing. But with is being a spec series I didn't find it surprising they'd try and balance the field in such a way. Here in F1 I completely agree with you, it has no place.
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Success ballast is a genuine way of pegging back cars. Some series do it terribly, like WTCC, but when it's done race-by-race like the BTCC, it works really well.

But, I don't think they should be aiming for that in F1. It's never going to be a wheel to wheel series, and it never has been. What they need to do is simplify drastically and start from a blank sheet.
 
Bo
Success ballast is a genuine way of pegging back cars. Some series do it terribly, like WTCC, but when it's done race-by-race like the BTCC, it works really well.
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Eh I don't see what's "genuine" in it when it comes to anything outside of spec racing. Thus proto-formulaic stuff shouldn't have such things. If two cars are to weigh 1200kg and one weighs 1194kg due to a smaller driver then sure a six kg bias to equal on the playing field and see if it really makes a difference should be done. Other than that I don't see any genuine quality to it.

But, I don't think they should be aiming for that in F1. It's never going to be a wheel to wheel series, and it never has been. What they need to do is simplify drastically and start from a blank sheet.
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Then we agree.
 
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Bo
Success ballast is a genuine way of pegging back cars.
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I had an idea a while ago for what I call "co-constructor cars". It's like customer cars, but rather than buy after the fact, customers foot the bill up-front. They essentially own the car because they developed it concurrently. It would come with a budget cap to keep costs down, and would come with the condition that all teams get chassis, engine and software upgrades at the same time. Outside that, there would be a separate championship for teams.
 
Good... it ranks as one of the most idiotic ideas in F1 history... first example was Gutierrez being knocked out midlap before going provisional 4th - with more than 5 minutes of Q1 to go...

Meanwhile, C4's coverage is practically identical to BBC and its looking good so far...
 
Touring Mars
Good... it ranks as one of the most idiotic ideas in F1 history... first example was Gutierrez being knocked out midlap before going provisional 4th - with more than 5 minutes of Q1 to go...

Meanwhile, C4's coverage is practically identical to BBC and its looking good so far...
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It was pretty bad, a number of drivers made comments on it. And the only good comment I saw from a driver was by Palmer. Figures.
 
I am just watching qualifying now and Button was in the ridiculous situation where he could not possibly avoid being eliminated even when the clock was on someone else, and therefore there was no point in him even going out. Seeing an empty track for the last 1m 48s of Q2 in good weather is a total fail.
 
Man, seeing the pics online people leaving the stands with 4 mins is depressing. An example of how bad F1 has become
 
Not only that, Button said that they did not have the tyres left. Now taking into consideration that FP1 and FP2 were on inters, that shows how bodged up this system really is. This may have worked IF they had qualifying tyres for starters and the end of the 90s would allow a driver to finish their lap provided they were in sector three.
 
Completely ridiculous qualifying. Q1 was okay, sort of, but Q3? Mad. 👎

Upside. C4 at least showed all of qualifying which the BBC never did on races they didn't show live. 👍
 
Can I say that this new qualify format is a complete bull****? Even worse than the non-sound of the last year cars...
 
Yeah, I was willing to give it a chance but that just did not work in the slightest. Drivers did not have the time to set a new lap and even if they did, they wouldn't have had the tyres.

The only way this could possibly work is if they had specific quali tyres that were hard enough to allow them to just constantly lap and potentially get faster.

C4 coverage was a decent start, have to see how they get on live though.
 
I was asleep when this happened, I'm going to watch this apparent :censored:show of a qualifying session.
 
Flaren89
Even worse than the non-sound of the last year cars...
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Oh noes! Muh noise!!1

If you think those two things are even remotely comparable, they're not. One was a complete embarrassment and completely ruined any chance of on-track action, and the other was a pleasant change that made no difference to the on track action.
 
Had Rosberg's first Q3 lap been good enough for second, we might have seen a Mercedes shoot-out in the final minutes. The elimination format forced him to start his second run with 7 or so minutes left, in order to jump the Ferrari's. Hamilton went at the same time so we got some kind of shoot-out, but he could have waited in the garage to see exactly what Rosberg could do and then go out if still necessary knowing Rosberg couldn't respond. Disappointed in Ferrari for not taking a shot and for letting Mercedes do their own thing.
 
Pezzarinho17
Had Rosberg's first Q3 lap been good enough for second, we might have seen a Mercedes shoot-out in the final minutes. The elimination format forced him to start his second run with 7 or so minutes left, in order to jump the Ferrari's. Hamilton went at the same time so we got some kind of shoot-out, but he could have waited in the garage to see exactly what Rosberg could do and then go out if still necessary knowing Rosberg couldn't respond. Disappointed in Ferrari for not taking a shot and for letting Mercedes do their own thing.
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I think it's very possible Ferrari would have gone out but chose against it to make a further point. They were happy with their positions so had nothing to lose but show F1 the flaws they told them would exist. The fact Vettel turned up to the post-Quali interview in t-shirt and jeans also surely was done on purpose.
 
Is it really that difficult to carry a cloth in the car to wipe your own visor clean? :rolleyes:

James Hunt used to do that back in the day...
 
Tired Tyres
Is it really that difficult to carry a cloth in the car to wipe your own visor clean? :rolleyes:

James Hunt used to do that back in the day...
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Is this sarcasm?

The cars are much more physically demanding these days. I dare you to operate a cloth to wipe off your visor on a straight going close to 200mph, imparting your own vision with the wiping, and winds trying to blow your hand and cloth off.
 
Just finished watching Qualifying and yeah... it was kind of a disaster. Scrap that, they made a complete and utter balls of it. There was no meaningful running for the final 4mins and nothing whatsoever for the final 2mins.

An all-new format being adopted 3 weeks before the commencement of a season reeked of desperation to inject some excitement into F1 but it has ended up, unsurprisingly, as another entry in the fail column. It needs substantial tweaking at the very least and I am happy to watch it again to see if they crack it.

However, the real question is, did F1 qualifying need tampering with at all?
 
It has been sad to the the demise of the racing series I grew up with.

Eventhough I follow F1 news and online discussions closely I still have no clue how the new tyre regs work and was suprised when Gutierrez got knocked out in Q1 eventhough he was on a quick lap.

Lets be honest, who ever came up with this new Q-format is a total idiot. Yes, a last minute shoot out between the two fastest drivers sounds nice in theory, but it wont work with this system. If you got a car capable of getting P1 and dont go out at ~7 to 6 minutes left in Q3, you will risk dropping to P3-5. So you have to set your second attempt earlier, once you do that you`re tires will be dead afterwards and there will be no time to refuel/pit/outlap/hotlap anymore (as seen today with Hamilton/Rosberg).
Also this new system forces everyone besides Merc/Ferrari to use up too many option tyres in Q1, many teams had no fresh super softs left after their first attempt in Q2.

Now to the tyres rules, as I said i still dont completly understand them, but combined with our new Q regs teams seem to have a real shortage on qualifying only tyres. Yet, even if we increase the number of tyre sets available, it wont do much because drivers doing a bad first run wont have enough time to change theirs tyres....:banghead::banghead::banghead:
 

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