First impression of F1 2015

[F1Sidecar]

So we have had the first race of the season. Dam those Merc's were fast! Even faster than I though and I got the impression that they had more in the tank. The Ferrari's have sorted themselves out a bit and oh dear what a mess the Bulls and the McHonda's are in. Its worse for the bulls as they are where they are and there is very little they can do to change the material facts where as the McHonda's will get better. Now we had a bit of a strange set of circumstances that produced the low numbers on Sunday but by Joe it was a Snooze fest. I set my alarm, watched the start and then woke up at about 7am having missed the race after the first stops. I hadn't missed much judging by the highlights.

I am a Hammy fan but the car he has is too fast compared to the others. Rosberg needs to up his game and/or the others need to sort themselves out fast. I don't want another load of years like the Schumacher/Ferrari days. Or that Vettle period. the books make those 4 years look closer than they were. There were some cracking races in those 4 years with days that you had no idea who would win.

I posted on here before that I think F1 is in a spot of bother at present and the 50+'s had a fit. I am saying it again.

What did you think? Can anyone say they enjoyed the race?

Albert park is an odd track so its not the end of the world but if this year is going be like that all year F1 needs a re think.

And this Redbull threat......Horner is such a snake in the grass. "for the good of F1! Ha! from him! Who do they think they are!?!?! Ferrari? they bloody well are not. Either shut up or go away.

So what do the other die hard fans think. Doubt there are too many casual fans on here......

[andone89]

I also woke up very early to watch the practice, quali and the race. I am an Alonso fan and I have been watching and following f1 closely since 2010, so my judgement for this race should be fair.

I didn't find first GP of the year live up the hype I had in pre-season testing. Since 2014 season started and the dominance of the Mercedes one 1-2 after another I kinda lost passion and interest to F1. Never have had that problem, feels worrying that something is horribly wrong in formula 1 atm.
Last year there was only one race that was really exciting for me, that was the Hungarian GP, because everyone were on equal terms in terms of who can win it. Ricciardo, Alonso, Hamilton and Rosberg had the chance to take the victroy. None of the other GP's made me feel excited bar the Vettel vs Alonso in the British GP. Every other race (not to be rude)sucked imho. I can see that Hamilton fans are satisfied with the dominance of Mercedes team but please try to see the bigger picture. No-one bar Hamilton and Mercedes fans would even bother to turn on TV in 5 years time if FIA doesn't change the rules to even up the field, like they have done since formula 1 started. (the Bernie's "Fan car",6 wheeler,1980's turbo era, Williams era in 1992, Mclaren-honda era, Ferrari era, Red-bull era and etc, and etc.
It can not be possible that Ferrari, Honda and Renault, all being big manufactures in automotive industry since I was born(1997) and alot time before it, cant build an engine that is as powerful as the mercedes engine in 2 years time, I just dont believe it. Something fishy must be up, Mercedes I think have found a "gray area" in the regulations and have used it for their benefit. Autosport just made an article about such thing(No team name was mentioned).

All in all I am billion % sure that Mercedes will win all the races if not reliability will come play or smth extraordinary(lightning strike or an earthquake), others just can not close the gap to Mercedes, maybe in 5 years time they can, but who cares, no-one is going to watch 1 dull race after another till that time.

I will still watch all of the races, but who knows for how long, If this trend continues...

[cossie]

This train wreak is on the very same path that destroyed American open wheel racing, on word greed. Bernie is running people out if the sport, wish he would just die
.then maybe the sport could flourish. Renealt could just pull the plug and Honda would leave if they feel they are getting screwed

[Manoah2u]

to keep it in Wolff's words:

There's a wall in Jerusalem, go there to complain.

[Shrieker]

Wow he said that ?

[turbof1]

I can pretty much imagine him saying that with his accent.

"Ya knoow, da fellaas at ze fecteury mead a veery geud job. Reed Beull, ya knoow, there iz a wall in jeruuzalem, zhey caann cempleen theihr."

[Jolle]

wel... it was just half an race... Manor weren't racing, Alonso wasn't racing, Bottas wasn't racing, Kvyat wasn't racing, Magnussen wasn't racing and even Hamilton wasn't racing (he just drove fast)

What was funny, that Maldonado was, as expected, the first into the tire wall.

[Manoah2u]

wel... it was just half an race... Manor weren't racing, Alonso wasn't racing, Bottas wasn't racing, Kvyat wasn't racing, Magnussen wasn't racing and even Hamilton wasn't racing (he just drove fast)

What was funny, that Maldonado was, as expected, the first into the tire wall.

yup

http://hasmaldonadocrashedtoday.com/
https://twitter.com/DidPastorCrash/stat ... 0760366081

[poolboy67]

i'm kinda with red bull on their agenda. cause it's true what they said. but the problem is, merc doesn't seem to have these apparent tricks on their car like a blown diffusor ect. so what can fia ban on the merc cars, that isn't on the other cars, without being an obvious move to slow merc down? nothing really.

i think RB is in a bad spot right now, with renault. cause they can't switch to their main rival' engines (merc and ferrari) and they certainly wont get nowhere with honda engines either. make a deal with a new engine supplier? forget it!
it's totally understandable, why they're so fidgety right now.

ferrari sure surprised me! i was hoping they'd be something like 7-5th but i totally wasn't expecting them to be on par with williams! the car looks so composed now! vettel i'd say was kinda lucky that he got the better result than kimi did. cause remember how kimi was ahead of him to first corner. but then regular bad luck hit kimi's way. if you'd combine kimi's fastest sector times, he'd been much faster than vettel too in quali. what i'm saying is, we can forget about kimi loosing his talent or whatever.
but i do think kimi was slightly effected by the last year's rubbish car, in that it looked like he was kinda expecting the car to do something else, but then noticing that the car can actually do more of what he demands from it. cause i saw him overturning the wheels several times. it's kinda like not going to the track for a few years, then come back and then remembering that the car can actually go faster on some corner, and that you can turn the car more there too.
i think kimi will be 100% on the next race. this race was kind of like a warm up. he may be faster than vettel.

it's a shame what happened to bottas. i hope he can race in malaysia. he's got the same problem as kimi did in 2013. pidetään peukkuja!

if van der garde is to race in malaysia, i hope they'll get rid of ericsson. cause that dude is reaaallly slooooowwww. not f1 material.

i wasn't surprised that crashtor maldofunction crashed again. i was fully expecting it. another driver that doesn't deserve to be in f1. i am surprised that he's still in it. most likely because of the money. oh well.

i think verstappen can remove his training wheels now. he did nicely.

as for sainz. well, it's not a nice move to go ruining a AAA word champion's start now is it. rookie error.

[Manoah2u]

Wow he said that ?

yep he very much did

[Jolle]

wel... it was just half an race... Manor weren't racing, Alonso wasn't racing, Bottas wasn't racing, Kvyat wasn't racing, Magnussen wasn't racing and even Hamilton wasn't racing (he just drove fast)

What was funny, that Maldonado was, as expected, the first into the tire wall.

yup

http://hasmaldonadocrashedtoday.com/

https://twitter.com/DidPastorCrash/stat ... 0760366081

here's an idea: Alonso and Maldenado could trade places. Alo would be back at his old team, and we can all play te game: "break(down) or crash" with Maldenado

[Gaz.]

Melbourne has always been excruciatingly boring, every year we look forward to getting our first F1 fix since November and every year some are disappointed. I'm sure people switch on and hope for a Moto125 race when historically the first race of the year has been bloody boring, strewn with mechanical DNF's and DNF's through brain fade and ring rust.

If anyone genuinely expected 18 cars to be separated by 1 second in qually and a tooth and nail scrap between 6 drivers for 1st place then either a) you are new to the sport, b) F1 isn't for you, or c) you've followed F1 for 30 years and you're as thick as pig ---, how you remember your log in details is as mysterious as it is disappointing.

So far I have been surprised by Ferrari's progress, I was expecting Vettel to trip over his bottom lip because the Ferrari was an unruly as last year's car but it looks like Ferrari and Williams will be in a tooth and claw fight for the entire season. Sauber are also a revelation both on and off the track, off because the team principle is a lawyer who has been caught with her knickers down, and on track because they were competitive on merit.

The Force Indias were a huge surprise, they seem to have gone backwards relative to the field.

The big draw for me was Mclaren, I thought Ron was surprisingly dignified in his post race interviews as his rate card disintegrated as quickly as Kevin's engine. He must be regretting the days he was hanging out for a $40m sponsorship deal.

I'll still get up early for Malaysia and it's pre race build up, the only disappointment I am expecting are the usual suspects lamenting time moving on from 1986 and not wasting a minute to bitch, snipe, piss and moan that 'f1 is dead' for the 32nd year in a row.

[MOWOG]

Here's what I think. The pinnacle of motorsports is the race series that is so successful, it can afford to attract quality teams and actually pay good drivers to drive. It pains me to say this, but NASCAR, by that definition, is closer to being the pinnacle of motorsports than Formula One is.

Every week, 20+ teams show up for the NASCAR races. They all have sponsors and they all make enough money out of racing to pay the bills.Contrast that with Formula One where half the field is on the brink of bankruptcy year in and year out, the size of the fields is dwindling, and drivers have to pay millions to get a seat.

Which one has the sustainable business model? Hint: It's not Formula One.

[Vasconia]

i'm kinda with red bull on their agenda. cause it's true what they said. but the problem is, merc doesn't seem to have these apparent tricks on their car like a blown diffusor ect. so what can fia ban on the merc cars, that isn't on the other cars, without being an obvious move to slow merc down? nothing really.

i think RB is in a bad spot right now, with renault. cause they can't switch to their main rival' engines (merc and ferrari) and they certainly wont get nowhere with honda engines either. make a deal with a new engine supplier? forget it!
it's totally understandable, why they're so fidgety right now.

ferrari sure surprised me! i was hoping they'd be something like 7-5th but i totally wasn't expecting them to be on par with williams! the car looks so composed now! vettel i'd say was kinda lucky that he got the better result than kimi did. cause remember how kimi was ahead of him to first corner. but then regular bad luck hit kimi's way. if you'd combine kimi's fastest sector times, he'd been much faster than vettel too in quali. what i'm saying is, we can forget about kimi loosing his talent or whatever.
but i do think kimi was slightly effected by the last year's rubbish car, in that it looked like he was kinda expecting the car to do something else, but then noticing that the car can actually do more of what he demands from it. cause i saw him overturning the wheels several times. it's kinda like not going to the track for a few years, then come back and then remembering that the car can actually go faster on some corner, and that you can turn the car more there too.
i think kimi will be 100% on the next race. this race was kind of like a warm up. he may be faster than vettel.

it's a shame what happened to bottas. i hope he can race in malaysia. he's got the same problem as kimi did in 2013. pidetään peukkuja!

if van der garde is to race in malaysia, i hope they'll get rid of ericsson. cause that dude is reaaallly slooooowwww. not f1 material.

i wasn't surprised that crashtor maldofunction crashed again. i was fully expecting it. another driver that doesn't deserve to be in f1. i am surprised that he's still in it. most likely because of the money. oh well.

i think verstappen can remove his training wheels now. he did nicely.

as for sainz. well, it's not a nice move to go ruining a AAA word champion's start now is it. rookie error.

There is not a correct point of view to say that was his fault. The Ferrari slowed down dramatically after the first corner so it was impossible to avoid the contact.

[SectorOne]

the size of the fields is dwindling,

2000-2016

8 seasons with 11 teams
6 seasons with 10 teams
3 seasons with 12 teams

in 2015 we have 10 teams, so i would say average field over the last 17 seasons.
If Manor stays we´ll have at least 11 teams next year. If they leave we´re back at average fields again.