Formula One 2016

[EddieG]

Holy shit, how did he walk away from that?

[Lineker]

Fuck that was a scary moment! The fact he was able to walk away unaided and not hurt just shows how safe F1 cars are nowadays. Would have Alonso been able to escape so easily if a halo or canopy was installed on the car though?

Quote

Nico Rosberg scored his fourth successive Formula 1 victory in an Australian Grand Prix marred by a shocking crash involving Fernando Alonso.

Rosberg, who won the final three races of last season in his Mercedes, finished eight seconds ahead of reigning champion team-mate Lewis Hamilton, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel third.

The race, though, will be remembered for Alonso walking away from a lap-17 shunt in which his McLaren ran into the rear of Esteban Gutierrez's Haas, slammed into the wall and then rolled violently through the gravel trap, forcing a red flag and a 20-minute stoppage.

Following the damp squib of qualifying, which will revert back to the old format from the Bahrain GP after an urgent meeting of team principals and managers prior to the start, the race overall was a shot in the arm for F1, despite the latest Mercedes one-two.

It started with Vettel majestically scything his way between front-row duo Hamilton and Rosberg to take the lead into the first corner.

Behind the four-time champion, Rosberg edged Hamilton wide at Turn 1, and doing so allowed Raikkonen to nip through on the inside to claim second.

Hamilton was relegated to sixth behind not only the Ferraris and Rosberg, but also Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen and Felipe Massa's Williams.

It took four laps for Hamilton to overtake the Williams, and though soon up behind Verstappen he was unable to get close enough to pass, which allowed the leading trio to pull away by the first round of stops.

The tyre choice was fascinating as Vettel and Raikkonen remained on super-softs, while Rosberg switched to softs, with an adrift Hamilton on mediums as Mercedes tried to get him to the end of the race on a one-stop strategy.

The race was then transformed with the crash involving Alonso and Gutierrez, with all cars returning to the pits and many taking advantage of the red flag to change tyres.

Rosberg followed Hamilton onto mediums, but the Ferraris stuck with super-softs and Daniel Ricciardo and the Toro Rossos softs as they restarted behind the safety car in the order Vettel, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Carlos Sainz Jr, Hamilton and Massa.

Raikkonen soon retired from third, his Ferrari appearing to suffer a power-unit failure, leading to flames emerging from the engine cover as he stopped outside his garage.

Vettel could not pull away sufficiently on his super-softs and pitted on lap 35 of 57, handing the lead to Rosberg.

Hamilton was elevated to third by Vettel and the Toro Rossos stopping, then moved down the inside of the soon-to-pit Ricciardo for second with 16 laps to go, leaving him 10s behind his team-mate.

Rosberg managed to hold his ground over the closing laps to clinch his 15th win in F1.

A small mistake by Hamilton on lap 51 brought Vettel into play for second, but the champion kept his rival at bay to claim the runner-up spot, helped by the Ferrari locking up and running onto the grass at the penultimate corner with two laps to go.

Ricciardo claimed fourth, followed by Massa, with Romain Grosjean scoring points for Haas on its debut, the first new team to do so since Toyota with Mika Salo in 2002.

Grosjean benefited from being able to make his sole tyre change under the red flag, meaning he effectively completed the race without pitting.

Force India's Nico Hulkenberg was seventh, followed by Valtteri Bottas for Williams, both unable to pass Grosjean despite following the Haas for half the race.

Sainz and Verstappen caught this group after their pitstops, and had a minor clash near the end that resulted in a spin for Verstappen.

Neither Renault scored on the works team's return - Jolyon Palmer 11th and Kevin Magnussen 12th after a first-lap puncture.

For the second successive year in Melbourne Daniil Kvyat retired before the start, with the Russian's Red Bull grinding to a halt just behind the safety car as the grid formed.

RESULTS - 57 LAPS

Pos	Driver	Car	Gap
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1h48m15.565s
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	8.060s
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	9.643s
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/TAG Heuer	24.330s
5	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	58.979s
6	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1m12.081s
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1m14.199s
8	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1m15.153s
9	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1m15.680s
10	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1m16.833s
11	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1m23.399s
12	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1m25.606s
13	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m31.699s
14	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	1 Lap
15	Felipe Nasr	Sauber/Ferrari	1 Lap
16	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor/Mercedes	1 Lap
-	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	Retirement
-	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Retirement
-	Rio Haryanto	Manor/Mercedes	Retirement
-	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas/Ferrari	Collision
-	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	Collision
-	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull/TAG Heuer	Not started

DRIVERS' STANDINGS

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Nico Rosberg	25
2	Lewis Hamilton	18
3	Sebastian Vettel	15
4	Daniel Ricciardo	12
5	Felipe Massa	10
6	Romain Grosjean	8
7	Nico Hulkenberg	6
8	Valtteri Bottas	4
9	Carlos Sainz	2
10	Max Verstappen	1

CONSTRUCTORS' STANDINGS

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Mercedes	43
2	Ferrari	15
3	Williams/Mercedes	14
4	Red Bull/TAG Heuer	12
5	Haas/Ferrari	8
6	Force India/Mercedes	6
7	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	3
8	Renault	0
9	McLaren/Honda	0
10	Sauber/Ferrari	0
11	Manor/Mercedes	0

 

[Katsuya]

Great race. Was a pretty shocking crash, don't really think Gutierrez was to blame for it either as he'd already started moving left way before Fernando got close. Also, I don't get the whole thing about "would he have been able to escape easily"...it's not like the car was seconds away from exploding. He'd have been stuck in there for a couple minutes max just waiting for them to roll him over. Not pleasant, maybe, but not dangerous. I'd say the bigger problem would have been in the case of Kimi's flamethrower air box.

That Haas looks really good in race pace too. They'd looked nowhere near the pace of the FI's/Williams but Grosjean held them off with ease by the end. This could be a season that really gives him momentum again if he does well...

[Chris2K]

Ah it's fine, you can just buff those scratches out no problem.

[Lineker]

On a serious note, that power unit has to be fucked - meaning that they will face grid penalties towards the end of the season as they use up their four remaining units, for sure.

[Meacon Keaton]

Watching the replay now. Dat wreck dough. Jesus Christ, that was scary.

[Meacon Keaton]

Damn. Was really hoping Vettel would take Hamilton for second there. Shame.

Happy for the Haas team to get that sixth place finish too.

[Gazz]

Apparently the crash was caused by Gutierrez's car entering 'power reduction mode' to charge the battery, which reduces engine power by 150BHP and obviously, causes the car to slow down massively.

That seems like a really bad thing to have when cars are racing nose to tail at 200mph.

[Rich]

@Gazz We should ban passing and driving close together then, for safety.

[Gazz]

Absolutely, only a fool breaks the two second rule.

[JasonM]

On 20-3-2016 at 23:11, Gazz said:

Apparently the crash was caused by Gutierrez's car entering 'power reduction mode' to charge the battery, which reduces engine power by 150BHP and obviously, causes the car to slow down massively.

That seems like a really bad thing to have when cars are racing nose to tail at 200mph.

it's funny because the way it happened reminds me exactly how Max Verstappen crashed into Grosjean last year at Monaco. So yeah, freak accidents happen but it does seem to be a recurring issue.

But it's not an issue that can be fixed as easily, since you can't exactly force drivers to 'take it easy' at the run up to a corner just because the guy ahead of you might go into power saving mode.

[Lineker]

Ferrari have announced that the wife of their technical director James Allison, Rebecca Allison, has died from meningitis.

Mercedes and Ferrari have chosen differing tyre strategies for the second round of the 2016 Formula 1 season in Bahrain. For the Bahrain Grand Prix on April 3, Mercedes has opted to give both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg just one set of the hardest medium-compound tyres, taking six sets each of the soft and super-soft. Ferrari, meanwhile, has given Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen three sets of mediums, just four sets of the softs and six sets of super-softs. The only other drivers to opt for a single set of medium tyres for Bahrain are Renault's Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer, Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen, and Haas driver Esteban Gutierrez. Verstappen has also selected the most sets of soft tyres, choosing seven, while Williams, Renault and Haas have gone for seven sets of super-softs for their drivers.

[Lineker]

Also I have no idea how, but McLaren have somehow saved the gearbox & engine from Alonso's crash on Sunday.

[Meacon Keaton]

Those were literally the only pieces that survived then.

[Lineker]

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Leading Formula 1 drivers have called for change to the way F1 is governed, calling the current structure "obsolete".

F1 has come under fire recently after hastily introducing unpopular changes to its qualifying format on the eve of the season.

This came shortly after commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone called the current version of F1 "the worst it's ever been".

World champion Lewis Hamilton criticised the way F1 is run following his second place finish in the Australian Grand Prix and now the Grand Prix Drivers Association has described the decision-making process "obsolete and ill-structured".

In a letter signed by Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel and GPDA president Alex Wurz, released through the body's Twitter account, the GPDA - which represents drivers - has asked for F1's governance structure to change.

"Formula 1 is currently challenged by a difficult global economic environment, a swift change in fan and consumer behaviour, and a decisive shift in the TV and media landscape," the statement read.

"This makes it fundamental that the sport's leaders make smart and well-considered adjustments.

"We feel that some recent rule changes - on both the sporting and technical side, and including some business decisions - are disruptive, do not address the bigger issues our sport is facing and in some cases could jeopardise its future success.

"We know that among the leaders of the sport - be it the owners, their representatives, the governing body, the teams or other stakeholders - every individual acts with the very best intentions.

"Therefore, the drivers have come to the conclusion that the decision-making process in the sport is obsolete and ill-structured and prevents progress being made.

"Indeed, it can sometimes lead to just the opposite, a gridlock.

"This reflects negatively on our sport, prevents it being fit for the next generation of fans and compromises future global growth.

"We would like to request and urge the owners and all stakeholders of Formula 1 to consider restructuring its own governance."

The GPDA says drivers are "probably the people with the purest interest for Formula 1, beside our fans" and urges F1's bosses to view its statement as being "in the best interests of all" not "a blind and disrespectful attack".

"The future directions and decisions of F1, be they short or long-term, sporting, technical or business orientated, should be based on a clear masterplan," the statement said.

"We need to ensure that F1 remains a sport, a closely-fought competition between the best drivers in extraordinary machines on the coolest race tracks.

"F1 should be home only to be best teams, drivers and circuits, with partners and suppliers fit for such an elite championship.

"Formula 1 has undoubtedly established itself as the pinnacle of motorsport and as such one of the most viewed and popular sports around the world.

"We drivers stand united, offer our help and support for F1 to keep it as such, and further to make it fit and exciting for many years and generations to come."

[JasonM]

See them still do nothing to change it. It won't change until the Drivers boycot a weekend, then change will be aplenty.

[Lineker]

Sky Sports will become the exclusive home of F1 in the UK and Ireland from 2019.

[GA!]

This whole "disillusion every fan so no one watches anymore" project is a work of art. Well done, Bernie.

[Sam]

That right there is one of Formula One's biggest problem, they're fast disappearing behind a pay wall. 

[JasonM]

3 minutes ago, Sam said:

That right there is one of Formula One's biggest problem, they're fast disappearing behind a pay wall. 

Pay-wall's and commentators jerking it over Lewis Hamilton's everything ever.

Everyone but Brundle at Sky has a massive wankfest over everything Hamilton does every race weekend.