The 2017 Formula One Thread

[Norton]

Yeman beats Hamilton again.

[aging one]

Yes, Good start to the season. The new cars I much better and competitive than last year. Pirelli seems to have gotten the tire formula much better as well.

[harrybarracuda]

It seems Hammy got it right on March 9th then:

"I think Ferrari are bluffing and that they are a lot quicker than they are showing," Hamilton said. "They're very close to us. It's difficult right now to say exactly who is quicker. But they are very close, if not faster.

Australian GP: Sebastian Vettel beats Lewis Hamilton to victory

Vettel wins after staying out longer for his only pit-stop; Ferrari ahead of Mercedes for first time in F1's new hybrid era

Last Updated: 26/03/17 7:55am


F1 2017 is alive and kicking after Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel beat pre-race favourite Lewis Hamilton to victory in the season-opening Australian GP.

Vettel drove a perfectly-judged race to claim the Scuderia's first victory in two years as the all-round excellence of the new Ferrari car and an inspired strategy combined to deliver what was ultimately a comfortable victory.

A dejected Hamilton, a frequent voice of frustration throughout the grand prix, crossed the line almost ten seconds behind Vettel with Valtteri Bottas third on his Mercedes debut.

In 19 of the last 27 seasons, the winner of the first race of the campaign has proceeded to win the championship.

The race was effectively decided at one-third distance by the divergent strategies of Mercedes and Ferrari for their lead drivers and Hamilton's failure to clear the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.


While Vettel ran long on his first stint, Hamilton was told it was "race critical" to pass Verstappen immediately after his early stop for fresh tyres but was unable to do so.

Replays showed Mercedes boss Toto Wolff punching his desk in the team's garage in frustration as Vettel, pitting five laps after his Mercedes rival, emerged in front of the boxed-up Hamilton.

By the time Verstappen himself then pitted, Vettel was already five seconds clear of Hamilton and, after briefly considering the 'Plan B' of a switch to a two-stop strategy, Mercedes opted to follow Vettel home in tacit acknowledgment they had no answers to the speed of Vettel and the SF70-H.

With Kimi Raikkonen, an otherwise anonymous presence in Melbourne, finishing a distant fourth, Ferrari ended the first race of 2017 hold the lead of the Constructors' Championship for the first time in F1's evolving hybrid era.

Hamilton said at the season's launch he wanted a fight for the championship. He certainly has that.

Australian Grand Prix race result
1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, +9.975s
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, +11.250s
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, +22.393s
5. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, +28.827s
6. Felipe Massa, Williams, + 83.386s
7. Sergio Perez, Force India, +1 lap
8. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, + 1 lap
9. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, + 1 lap
10. Esteban Ocon, Force India, +1 lap
11. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, + 1 lap
12. Antonio Giovinazzi, Sauber, +2 laps
13. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, +2 laps
14. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, DNF
15. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, DNF
16. Lance Stroll, Williams, DNF
17. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, DNF
18. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, DNF
19. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, DNF
20. Romain Grosjean, Haas DNF

[VocalNeal]

You should get a job on Fox Sports?

I'm sure they need someone to tell us all what happened? Surely any real race fans would have watched it. Maybe there are some TD members somewhere who don't have a TV?

They said there would be no overtaking but there was at least one three wide overtaking maneuvre!

I watched it in the pub!

[harrybarracuda]

You should get a job on Fox Sports?

I'm sure they need someone to tell us all what happened? Surely any real race fans would have watched it. Maybe there are some TD members somewhere who don't have a TV?

They said there would be no overtaking but there was at least one three wide overtaking maneuvre!

I watched it in the pub!

I can tell.

[bsnub]

Two Haas DNF's...

Shit.

[yortyiam]

Promises to be a more interesting season, if the podium is more varied. I don't know what the score is regarding watching the racing is. Pay to view only? Good luck Lewis!

[harrybarracuda]

Ferrari should have given Kimi's seat to Max.

[Norton]

Two Haas DNF's.

Only 2nd season. They are still working on figuring out how to make those pesky right turns.

[Norton]

Ferrari should have given Kimi's seat to Max

Would be good but costly. Time for Kimi to move on but believe both guys have contracts which makes it complicated. Maybe will come up this silly season.

[harrybarracuda]

Two Haas DNF's.

Only 2nd season. They are still working on figuring out how to make those pesky right turns.

In fairness, only one was an engine failure, the other was a shunt.

[rickschoppers]

Decent race.

[harrybarracuda]

Good to see Lewis fight back and comfortably win the second race.

Now on to Bahrain this weekend, Lewis likes this track and it will also be interesting to see how it handles the new tyres.

[VocalNeal]

I watched the last one in the pub also. I didn't see Hamilton fight anything. He got all the help he needed from safety cars.

[harrybarracuda]

I watched the last one in the pub also. I didn't see Hamilton fight anything. He got all the help he needed from safety cars.

What on earth are you on about?

He always had the pace to stay in front of the Ferrari.

[bsnub]

He got all the help he needed from safety cars.

Agreed.

[harrybarracuda]

How bizarre...

Fernando Alonso will miss the Monaco GP to race in the Indianapolis 500 next month.

The double world champion will race in a Honda-powered McLaren which will be run by the Andretti Autosport team on May 28.

[VocalNeal]

Not the first time. Really the two should be on different days but...

I doubt I will stay up to watch it!

[Norton]

Really the two should be on different days but.

Change Monaco to Saturday. Indi started first 1911. Monaco 1929.

Quite a history.

"David Malsher looks at the history of Formula 1 World Champions competing in the Indianapolis 500, and asks whether Fernando Alonso can match the best of them.

Ever since he settled down and chilled out in that camping chair beside the Interlagos track in 2015, Fernando Alonso has been photoshopped into hundreds of incongruous places – from ‘Where’s Waldo?’ illustrations, to the moon, to outside the Mercedes AMG headquarters in England. None that I saw had him seated in an IndyCar. Was that just too incongruous?

Well no, but it is unusual, and so the story of F1 World Champions competing in the Indianapolis 500 can be swiftly told.

The early pioneers

Alberto Ascari won every World Championship Grand Prix in 1952, but at Indy, officially part of the title race in those days, he drew a blank. He qualified 19th in Ferrari’s official entry, a ‘375 Special’, but its wire wheels apparently couldn’t handle the long lateral loads of the turns – the vicious vertical loads from the areas that were still brick probably didn’t help either – and sent the gorgeous scarlet machine careening off the track just before quarter distance.

Ascari’s greatest rival, five-time World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio, was approaching his 47th birthday and rapidly winding down his F1 career when he decided to try his luck at Indy in ’58. However, when he couldn’t get up to speed in either of the cars he tried in practice, he quietly withdrew, never to try again.

Sir Jack Brabham, like Alonso, was a two-time F1 champ when he arrived at the Brickyard armed with a Cooper Climax, a can-do attitude and the talent to qualify 13th and finish in the top 10 in the nimble but underpowered mid (rear)-engined machine.

A couple years later, Jimmy Clark and Lotus showed up and finished second, and by the time the quiet Scot returned in ’64, it was as World Champion. The following year, Clark did what Alonso will have to do – skipping the Monaco Grand Prix in order to race at Indy. It paid off in every sense, since the Scot triumphed at the Speedway, then flew back to Europe to carry on kicking the backsides of his F1 competitors.

And so with a second title under his wheels, Clark returned to the Speedway in ’66 and while there’s evidence to suggest he won again, confusion at the time and foggy and uncorroborated memories since then will likely obscure the truth forever.

The record books show it was another F1 champ, Graham Hill, who conquered that day, after he and future World Champion Jackie Stewart were teamed together in John Mecom’s George Bignotti-built Lolas.

1967 World Champion Denny Hulme started four Indy 500s, ’67 through ’70, and his first two forays resulted in fourth places. Jochen Rindt’s two attempts at IMS came before his successful but fatal 1970 F1 championship campaign.

An increasingly rare phenomenon

Into the ’70s, drivers became more specialized. One can only wonder what the fully polished but still brave and brilliant ’70s-era Jackie Stewart might have achieved at the Brickyard, a place he enjoyed, competing against drivers he openly admired. As it is, the ’66 race – which he led for 40 laps, and only lost when his engine failed nine laps from home – and ’67 race were the only times JYS competed at IMS.

The only F1 ace who flew back and forth across the Atlantic to qualify and then race in the Indy 500 during the 70s was its 1969 winner, Mario Andretti. He didn’t enter the year after he became F1 World Champion, but was back to have his heart broken in 1980, when his Penske PC9 looked a serious threat to Johnny Rutherford’s winning Chaparral 2K, until retiring with ignition failure. Similar gut punches would come his way in the 1981, ’82, ’87, ’ and ’93 editions of the race. He could have spared himself all that if only he had known that as well as fighting 32 rivals, he’d have to face the curse of the Andrettis at the Brickyard.

There was a Formula 1 champion who conquered the Brickyard over this period, however, a Brazilian ace who threw away the last five years of an F1 career that should have earned him twice as many wins and twice as many championships. Two titles and 14 wins are impressive, of course, but had Emerson Fittipaldi ignored the Copersucar project and instead stayed at McLaren or been wooed by Ferrari, he might now be up with Fangio or at least Prost in terms of titles won."

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...paigns-892968/

[harrybarracuda]

Bahrain Quali is proving a belter.

Hammy, Bottas and Vettel are with a tenth of a second of each other.

Q3 should be fascinating.

[harrybarracuda]

Hammy on pole after the first set of laps, Bottas alongside.
Vettel best behind four tenths back.

Kimi moaning again. Understeer this time.

They're all doing one more.

[harrybarracuda]

Hammy lost time on sector 2 and and Bottas has pole!

Brilliant lap as well.

Vettel half a second back.

[rickschoppers]

Another good race. Hamilton's 5 second penalty cost him dearly.

[harrybarracuda]

Another good race. Hamilton's 5 second penalty cost him dearly.

I can't believe Mercedes tried to stack them when they were so close together. Mercedes seem quite adept at fucking pit stops up.

But nonetheless that was another cracking race.

It's good to see these two battling each other though, two top drivers and two top cars.

Bottas must be wondering what happened to his qualifying pace though, 14 seconds behind.

Next stop Russia April 30th.

[Norton]

Hamilton's 5 second penalty cost him dearly.

Not really as he finished 6.6 secs behind.
Good race. Looks we will have Merc and Ferrari swapping winners all year and Redbull in the fray as well.