nudge

His eyebrows are too well groomed don't know why but it's the first thing I've noticed in the pic and it unsettled me

Skype is a shithouse. Tried to login after resetting my phone to factory settings, they wanted to send me a verification code to my email since "they think this is a new device", fair enough,the problem is though the email never arrives knobheads.

Kimi and Alonso are the best, as usual

Classic hunting trophy photo. Seriously though, feel sorry for Schrey, his finish didn't count as the car didn't make it to the finish on its own

Yes, saw it earlier today... Only 20 years old, obviously talented, seems hard working and determined as well. Cheering for him and Sauber as well.

The straights in Melbourne are not long enough, there are a lot of 90 degree corners and the track is flat and quite narrow in general, Turn 3 is the only decent place for overtaking, in my opinion. It might be easier in terms of overtaking than Barcelona, Singapore or Monaco, but it still much harder than many others. Meanwhile, Shanghai, Bahrain, COTA, Spa are wide tracks with a lot of runoff, long sweeping corners, heavy braking zones, wide apexes, medium-speed corners followed by straights, all of which allows diverse racing lines and provides opportunities for overtaking. As you said before, overtaking is very difficult in these F1 cars either way; mostly due to new regulations as the cars struggle to follow each other in dirty air and barely any overtakes happen if you don't count DRS, but a track layout still makes a difference nevertheless. Maybe it's more noticeable in other series than F1 though. Personally, the only classic race I remember from Melbourne was when Ralf Schumacher flew over Barrichello, forcing at least a handful of other cars to retire as well I'm sure where were more, but that's honestly the only one I recall from otherwise "boring" track (in my personal opinion).

I'd disagree, it's certainly easier to overtake in some tracks than in some others as they usually offer more opportunities due to either a lot of long straights, or a long straight combined with a tight turn/heavy braking zone. Baku, Shanghai, Bahrain, COTA, Monza, Spa have more overtaking opportunities for that reason, many of them were designed by Tilke the way they are for that reason specifically. Australia, Barcelona, Singapore, Monaco are very difficult to overtake.

Bahrain up next, a power circuit, it will be even harder for Ferrari (and Red Bull) to keep up with Mercedes' PU advantage, so they definitely have work to do. The circuit should at least provide more genuine overtaking opportunities, so more race action, hopefully. One thing I definitely expect from this season is a tight midfield battle though, McLaren, Renault, Haas all looking good.

Only if you appreciate bad sense of dressing and social media obsession

Faithcore was just joking there, he's practicing to be the next F1 commentator for German TV For me, F1 still lives on its image and reputation from the past, as the way it is now, you can hardly even call it racing. The cars are too complicated, too high-tech, the driver has too little control, there's too little if any race action and battles, and as Phil mentioned before, too much is being decided by the team strategy instead of the actual driving on the track. Add too that boring driver personalities off track, dumbed down circuits, stupid tires, artificial rules and gimmicks, overregulation; it's all became too sterile and too much like a racing sim. I'm still watching though, haha.

I love this thread

Yeah, I've read that too

Yeah, it's a nice gesture, and everyone makes mistakes, but still it's surreal how they manage to screw BOTH Grosjean and Magnussen in the pits... Surely should have noticed something was wrong after Magnussen's stop already? Not sure if it was an error by the mechanic(s) or the gun, seems weird either way.

Alonso probably sacrificed a few mechanics. Or sent them to Haas, judging from their today's failure

McLaren didn't fall apart

Oh yes, good call on Leclerc, happy to see him finish the race, good debut. Happy Sauber weren't last, as well

Good to see the smile wiped off Hamilton's face Also, what a disaster for Haas, problems with the wheel gun, could have gotten serious points or even podium today but are left with nothing instead... Shit race though, I don't think I saw a single overtake other than the illegal one by Verstappen on Alonso during the safety car phase

The first race of the season is over, with Kevin Estre, Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor finishing first in a Porsche Manthey Racing #911 Massive respect for Michael Schrey, who pushed his BMW for about 50 meters to the finish line after it ran out of fuel and managed to finish 4th, only to collapse from exhaustion after crossing the finish line Now that's dedication.

Tsk tsk, Lewis

There are hardly any other options next summer, are there? I think they might go for Verstappen in the future, but that's probably more likely once Hamilton retires.

Yup, seems like he's set for that Mercedes seat next season

https://streamable.com/4w9b1 Alonso is already pissed off

Also, Toto Wolff was visibly pissed off

Yes, pushed too hard, took too much kerb, went too wide and lost control in Turn 1. https://streamable.com/0m1cq