Formula One 2014

[JasonM]

Red Bull is appealing the DQ, but that will probably take a bit of time before there's a final decision on that stuff.

And whatever is happening to Vettel is just weird since Ricci did extremely well himself (until his DQ). They need to get that car fixed bad though.

Also very very nice to see Magnussen get a 2nd place in his debut, always good to see rookies make a splash from the get go.

[Lineker]

Gutted for Ricciardo if his DSQ stands. Cracking curtain-raiser though!

[maninblack]

Google's got a birthday Doodle for Senna!

Pretty nice gesture, on their part.

[Lineker]

Red Bull has formally lodged its appeal with the FIA over Daniel Ricciardo's disqualification from the Australian Grand Prix, which will be heard on April 14th.

Ron Dennis reckons that McLaren will be half a second faster by Sepang.

[Noah]

http://au.oztips.yahoo.com

Comp Name:Lineker Memorial EWB F1 Tipping

Comp Number:304749

Comp Password:ewbisgazz

If anyone is interested, I just set up that tipping comp. Up top is a link to the site and just below that is all the information you will need to join.

[Lineker]

I'm not dead :/

[Noah]

Wishful thinking?

Anyway people, it'd be nice if at least one person signed up. Winning by default in a 1 person tipping comp, isn't so fun.

[Lineker]

I would, but apparently I'm dead :/

[Noah]

[Berober]

There, joined up, now you're not alone in the RIP Lineker Cup!

[hugobomb]

Qualifying delayed for 30 minutes at least as it's absolutely chucking it down in Malaysia. Hopefully the wet will makes things interesting and one of the minnows will make it into Q2 again

[MJB]

Terrific work by the Ferrari guys to get Alonso out after his incident with Kvyat in Q2. Magnussen impressed again while Kimi and Fernando slot into their usual positions over the past couple of years. The rain certainly helped the Red Bull guys up the grid but still a good lap by Vettel although someone messed up and he didn't get across the line for one more lap. Not sure that he would have been able to go quicker anyway.

As a Merc and Lewis fan, I'd quite like them to disappear off into the distance tomorrow although if it's dry, the tyres could come into play.

[Lineker]

It's never dry at Sepang!

[Rich]

This race is a bit :/

There is stuff going on but its not the most exciting

[Katsuya]

Ugh I really hope this rain comes in the last 2-3 laps. I want memories of that last-laps shower in Spa back in 08/09(?)

[LUKIE]

Mark Webber Jr. doing a good job following his namesake in failure.

[Lineker]

Bloody hell, when it rains for Ricc it certainly fucking pours

[Troy Maskell]

If I were Ricc I'd find the biggest wrench I could in the pits and just beat my engineers to death, 3 races f**ked for him now (Under new regulations he gets a 10 place grid penalty in Malaysia for the unsafe release)

[MJB]

Pole position, fastest lap and the race win! And he started every lap in the lead (he was behind Hulkenberg for about 10 corners after his first stop). Superb job from Lewis especially considering it's the first time he's done a race distance, including testing. He used less fuel that the rest of the top six and was the last man to stop. Being so far infront would have helped those two things but it's still a great sign for Lewis and Mercedes.

[Lineker]

Rob Smedley will start work for the Williams Formula 1 team at this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix.

Smedley, who worked as Felipe Massa's race engineer at Ferrari from 2006-13, has taken up the role of head of vehicle performance at Williams and is travelling to Bahrain this week after officially starting his new role on Monday.

He will be running the pitwall on race weekends and will be the senior engineer at the track working under chief technical officer Pat Symonds.

That role has been filled by chief test and support engineer Rod Nelson so far this season.

"He'll be track and I will be factory and testing," said Nelson of their job roles.

"I'll do the tests through the season and go to the races that precede those just to get up to speed with where the race team is with the car.

"We will have quite a bit of interplay between us through a race weekend as I'll be running the control room at Williams and he will run the pitwall."

The interaction between factory and race team has been a weakness at Williams at times in recent seasons and this structure, put in place by Symonds, should allow the team to continue on its upward curve.

"When you are racing, you need good communication with the factory because you are after quick turnarounds," said Nelson.

"If you have a problem on Friday, you want it solved on Friday but that's always an issue, keeping lines open all the time."

Massa believes that Smedley is a key recruitment and will bring new ideas to the team.

The Brazilian's relationship with Smedley was one of the longest and most celebrated between race engineer and driver in F1.

"He's going to bring a lot of experience to the team and he's going to bring a lot of good ideas for race team organisation," said Massa.

"There's a lot going on in the team, a lot of improvements, a lot of things that are going in a good direction.

"But there is still a lot to do and I am sure he will be an important key as well."

Rob Smedley first worked as Felipe Massa's race engineer at the 2006 European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

He replaced Gabriele delli Colli in the role because Massa had a difficult relationship with his original race engineer at Ferrari.

Massa claimed his first podium in F1 in that race and was engineered by Smedley for 135 races, 11 of which were wins.