Formula 1 2013 Season Opener Melbourne 17th March

[RX-7_FD3S]

Yeah Bianchi did a pretty good GP considering he's driving a Marussia.

Great racing from Raikkonen and Alonso as expected, Vettel not so dominant I guess most people are happy. You gotta mention Massa and how pourly Ferrari manage his strategy or rather how they messed his race up so he doesnt bother Fernando.

Quite a good race from Hamilton as well he could probably have done better if he had went from the start for a 3 stop strategy.

 

[Famine]

Took me long enough to catch up...

I didn't really see Kimi doing anything. I saw him sell Sutil a nice dummy - where other cars were stuck behind him for severalty laps - but otherwise he didn't seem to do much. Alonso, Vettel, Massa and Hamilton were all working their socks off, but Kimi... nothing.

And he won the race by a fairly comfortable margin. I dread to think what he's going to do when he has to expend some effort. Either way, I'm off to put some money on him.

 

[DaxCobra]

Looks like it's another season about the tyres.

Lotus might not be fast over 1 lap, but it just doesn't wear it's tyres out so it can keep at that speed all day long. That is the key I fear...

Kimi for WDC?

 

[DemurgicDemon]

Looks like it's another season about the tyres.

Lotus might not be fast over 1 lap, but it just doesn't wear it's tyres out so it can keep at that speed all day long. That is the key I fear...

Kimi for WDC?

As long as it isn't a fourth consecutive title for Vettel, I'm not too fussed who wins it.

 

[tribolik]

I'm looking forward to this so much! It's the first time Im actually going to watch. Any advice on the best General Admission area? Ideally I'd like a great spot for photos and maybe somewhere with a big screen.

Anyway, I think we could see some mixed results. I'm thinking Maldanado might have a good race. Mclarens will be quick and Lotus will be off the pace.Torro Rosso will struggle as well. I think Mercedes will be in a similar situation as last year, and RB will be around 3-4 quickest but still take out the race.

That's my two cents anyway.

Right on the money

Great race... nice to see a Lotus win... too bad about mclaren though... it seems they are in the same position as ferrari was last year

 

[otakukid96]

Not as good of a start to the season as I would have liked, but it was still very exciting. Good job Kimi!

 

[Anghammarad]

Before the race I made a bet with a friend. He's saying Kimi will win the championship, I bet on Vettel. Loser buys a bottle of Champagne. I hope I lose.

 

[KWZX10]

Really sorry for Felipe, but he surely showed that he's there with Fernando. It was great to see them not letting Vettel escape.

 

[wajdi1977]

Last year the Red Bull had also a bad start, so let's wait, at least 4-5 gp!

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Last year the Red Bull had also a bad start, so let's wait, at least 4-5 gp!

Vettel finished 2nd last year ^^

Just saying~

 

[Ardius]

Hmm, intriguing year ahead.

Well, I'll have to eat humble pie with regards to Sutil and Bianchi (and Di Resta I guess). I felt Sutil was a dull choice, Bianchi might be a tad inconsistent and Di Resta would also be underwhelming but a great race for these guys.

Sepang is a totally different track and some cars might come to the fore (Sauber, perhaps McLaren too? maybe the Williams might work better in the faster corners?).

 

[Ken]

Sounds like I missed a good race. My interwebs crashed with 20 laps to go. :sad:

 

[sems4arsenal]

Watched a replay,both Ferraris looked good,kimi was fairly comfortable with the one less stop strategy ,Lewis looked really good. Typical Mark webber start and finally Dissapointing from Mclaren.

 

[Ardius]

Also, I'll just leave this here:

 

[RACECAR]

I'm generally encouraged by Hamilton's finish. Sure the car wasn't quite the balanced machine in comparison to the Lotus but I was not expecting him to do anything good with the Mercedes so I'm geniunely surprised. Its got to be somewhat encouraging for him that to top it all off, he finished ahead of the team he used to drive for.

 

[Imari]

That's a bit harsh. He will become better, yes, but he still can drive a car fast.

Oh certainly. But the fact that he can become better means that he's not yet extracting the full potential of the machinery he's got. Thus, watching him drive it doesn't tell us much about the state of the car.

He did the best of all the rookies, but he was a couple of seconds off the pace of Hulkenburg in quali. Is the car really as slow as the Williams, or is it just that Gutierrez is a rookie?

Let me be clear that I'm not bagging him, it's rare that someone steps into Formula 1 and it quick right off the bat. He needs time before we can make fair judgements of his potential. I'm just saying that his "rookieness" is impeding the evaluation of the Sauber, through no fault of his own.

 

[F1GTR]

Good to see that it wasn't another RB procession like quali seemed to indicate, made getting up early worth it. Strangely uneventful race for this track though.

 

[Samus]

Good to see that it wasn't another RB procession like quali seemed to indicate, made getting up early worth it. Strangely uneventful race for this track though.

The lack of any body contact or contact with the track the whole race was quite astonishing.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Really sorry for Felipe, but he surely showed that he's there with Fernando. It was great to see them not letting Vettel escape.

I genuinely hope Massa is back. He's such a good guy and I've always had huge respect for him. I really hope he can carry on the form he regained at the end of the previous season.

Wasn't Lotus the team that managed their tyres the best as well last season? These tyres being even more fragile must've played right into Lotus' hands. I really hope to see more Kimi on the podium this year. Lotus winning the WDC with Kimi would be something, wouldn't it?

 

[Samus]

I didn't quite catch what he said on the radio but I got the feeling he wasn't happy that Fernando came in first on I think the second stop when he was the lead car.

 

[zed300]

Grosjean might need to look over his shoulder.
He must perform better next round, than the cars he was driving around with.
At least be nearer to Kimi.
I don't see any reason why RB/Vettel should have won, just because they qualyed well.
It was blatantly obvious after Q3 that Vettels car used more tyre to produce the time.
The graining was severe. That first set were never going too far into the race.

Malaysia is whole new kettle of fish. We will have a better idea of how the c'ship might pan out, after the away from Europe rounds are done.

 

[Ryk]

Suzy Perry fronting BBC coverage - excellent.

Kimi was great - And his calm - "Yeah but my car was great"

The Sutil/Di Resta yo-yo was interesting... qualify bad - then get all of the plaudits for a great race... Enjoyed the way the Force Indy's had more top end than the Drag reduced Red Bulls.

Will it be a tyre management year. Hope so.

 

[Mike Rotch]

As we have seen with Ferrari in 2011 and Merc last year, tyre wear issues are not quick fixes. If RB have similar issues next race, it will interesting to see SV have to manage his car - the last 3 years he has had a perfect machine under him and hasn't had to.

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Grosjean might need to look over his shoulder.
He must perform better next round, than the cars he was driving around with.
At least be nearer to Kimi.

Apparently he was pretty pissed off, he left the track pretty early without debriefing said the french tv. In the interview he said he didnt understand why he was so slow, he said it might have something broken on his car. He also seems to be still under heavy pression because of the multiple wreak last year.

 

[Anathema]

Kimi and Lotus did it, excellent.

 

[Samus]

Grosjean might need to look over his shoulder.
He must perform better next round, than the cars he was driving around with.
At least be nearer to Kimi.

It was only one race. I'm pretty sure he hasn't suddenly lost his raw pace of last season.

 

[DemurgicDemon]

Grosjean might need to look over his shoulder.
He must perform better next round, than the cars he was driving around with.
At least be nearer to Kimi.

It does appear as if there is a perfectly valid reason, for Grojean's lack of pace during the race.

 

[Pagey279]

It does appear as if there is a perfectly valid reason, for Grojean's lack of pace during the race.

And you don't think that's him making up some excuse to try and cover his own ass?

I'm sceptical.

 

[Bram Turismo]

I don't doubt Grosjean's ability as an F1 driver after his last season. I'm surprised everyone else still does. Yes, he made some silly mistakes colliding with other drivers but you cannot deny the man showed some very impressive pace last year.

 

[Milouse]

Can someone tell Jean Todt denim shirts went out of fashion in 1997?

The man evolves in a different dimensional plane that have a slight shift in time. He's like that:
- I remember a TV interview of him when he was managing Ferrari, and we see him do all its calculation by hand - no calc machine. And it wasn't 1955 but mid-90's.
- He had a stop at our office once for hands-on on F1GP 2 + interview during the same period, and pointing the game CD-Rom, he asked me a question about "that cartridge"...

In the light of his achievements, we can't say this trait has been a disadvantage