Sam Michael's take on Melbourne - Not good :-(

we're heading for an even duller race??? if cares with tyres are even greater in Australia...then drivers will sleeping in their cockpits together with all the people waking up early to see f1!!!

 

Hard to believe isn't it, and yet that seems to be what is being suggested.

I have to say that the more I've been thinking about Melbourne, the more I can't see why it should be any better than Bahrain.
None of the teams are going to risk any unusual strategies and I can't see why the drivers would take more risks with their tyres in Melbourne than they did in Bahrain.

I hope I'm wrong, but it doesn't look good.

 

I used to stay up for this race. Not this year; I'm going to DVR it; not going to ruin my weekend staying up all night for this....

 

They should make a soft tire that is gone after 15 laps if you don't take good care of it.

 

If that strategy is the most likely to win why change it?
Winning is a team's primary goal, not improving the show.

 

Damn.

F1 needs the following changes imo:

Choose which tires you want, not 'you have to use both' (it didn't really work and it still doesn't, so why continue with this all?)
1 engine per weekend. This preserving the engine crap is getting on my tits.

that'll be a HUGE step in the right direction if you ask me. F1 isn't for kids. You come with no money you won't last.

 

Exactly!. It would be racing suicide to try anything other than a one stop strategy as the rules stand right now. You'd need a massive performance advantage over your rivals to even contemplate doing something different, strategy wise, and no team has anything like that sort of luxury, not even Red Bull.

 

The problem though is that whichever tyres they decide to put on the car, the driver is still going to have to protect them from damage to remain competitive. In previous seasons with refuelling, If you wrecked your tyres trying an overtaking manouevre, you'd only have to suffer for 15 laps max before you could push hard again. Now if you wreck your tyres, you have to suffer for half the race or more.

With all the race fuel onboard from the start, there's absolutelty no incentive to try alternative strategies because they'll merely push you further down the field and cause you to struggle. At least with refuelling there were more variables involved which led to more strategies.

I totally agree with you about the engines, this is F1 "sprint" racing, not GT "marathon" racing. It's ridiculous having drivers not pushing to the end of a race in order to preserve the engine for more racing.

One more thing I will say though and that is:

Who was the first person to highlight the possible downside to the new regulations?.

None other than the man who was described on this site as whinging already, Fernando Alonso!.

 

A stopped clock etc. etc.

 

Not just for your home GP though, it's a serious worry for all the GP's.

About the only good thing to come from the new regulations so far is the return of proper, low fuel final qualifying. I'd lost count of the number of times in recent years that the TV commentators would rave about the pole position time, only to find out later that it was set on half the fuel of everybody else. At least now we know who is genuinely fast.

You've got to hand it to him this time though, the alarmbells he was chiming on about are ringing true so far!.

 

Arg

Alonso may be a whining ego-maniac but he is no fool.

 

Sorry,didn't mean to wind you up!

I never thought that for a second!, but time will tell!.

 

Even a broken clock is right twice a day..

 

Ah!, you guys!, great minds and all that!

Time I called it quits!

 

Yeah. Compare me to Steve and then run and hide.

 

I disagree. We already knew who was genuinely fast from Q2 times. Given the inability to overtake, the fuel strategy being incorporated into qualifying gave an important chance for the folks who weren't the absolute fastest to be ahead of someone faster -- someone who might overtake them. Having Q3 be on fumes means that the grid order is the actual fastest order, further reducing the potential for overtaking.

 

+1

Looks like a great weekend to go out and dust off the old dirt bike for the weekend.

 

Generally, the Melbourne races are boring. So are most of the tracks. Melbourne's known for it's notorious first corner incidents, then after that, it's a parade.

While everyone is blaming the tyres are aeros for the lack of overtaking, i think it's deeper than that. It's definitely the engines. 18k rev limit, i knew from the start it was a suicidal decision.

It has made F1 engines more reliable, no doubt, but also much more boring to the fans, and in long term, it still comes back to square one, in terms of cutting costs.

 

Ditch the race limits on the engines and ditch the rev limits as well. Let the engineers have at it to make the cars faster. Then for safety sake take away more aero and give the tyres less grip. Should promote more passing and make the drivers skill more paramount in actually driving the car. Doesn't seem like rocket science to me.

 

My comment wasn't so much about the racing that was created from the old qualifying, it was mainly about the commentators and their Q3 reactions.

I don't know what it was like with your TV coverage, but here in the UK, we had to put up with the TV commentators raving and screaming about the pole position time and how much quicker it was than the P2 time like it was some sort of super performance by the man on pole, when in reality, the lap was quicker due to there being less fuel on board. At least now when they rave about how fast the man on pole went, it's based on his genuine speed and not some fuel adjusted time.

As for your comments, I totally agree with them. The previous qualifying format created a lot more strategic variations which led to much better racing than we saw in Bahrain (and are likely to see in Melbourne).

 

Gee, I thought it was only in the USA where they completely blow off having a race on a great circuit and instead put it on a street course just to attract a crowd.

I wonder what the TV ratings would be if they had an F1 race at Laguna Seca, Mid-Ohio, Road America, Road Atlanta... Riverside, Lime Rock, Bridgehampton.... (sorry)

 

I'd like to watch their skirts blow up coming down the hill at Road Atlanta!

 

I can't even keep track of what circuits are open, and what circuits are closed anymore. I miss Riverside. THOSE were the days, prior to about 1970.