Aston Martin F1 deal goes to Red Bull, not Force India as expected.

Channel 4 F1 trailer features "The Chain" - nice...

Well that was a fantastic qualifying.

 

Can we now say Bernie has totally f'ecked it up. What a boring boring boring system. 

After the first three corners of Q1 it went so badly downhill... 

 

Ferrari a lot further off than hoped too.

I had hope for it until I saw how it panned out. :( The window of time the drivers need once they pit rules them out almost immediately.

 

I have an idea. why not give them 45 minutes to qualify, any car at any time during this window and let the fastest car get pole. pretty radical eh?

 

Naturally they will have to tweak it a teeny bit so we get cars on track for the first 40 minutes.

 

 

If they keep the current system, I think they should make it last 2 cars go out and use a 3 minute window. This doubles the time that cars have to get in the pit and change tyres etc and possibly encourages slightly longer runs

Edited 19 March, 201610 yr by Lady Elanore

I preferred the 1980's with 2 cars per driver, 2 1500bhp grenade style qually turbo engines and 2 sets of 1 lap tyres made of black chewing gum.

 

It wasn't safe or cheap but boy was it spectacular...

I see Bernie has admitted the new qualifying format doesn't work! here we go again

It did feel wrong seeing Hamilton and Rosberg out of their cars having set the 2 fastest times with 3 minutes left. Plus Vettel already in his civvies before the interviews.

So the new quali was a bit pants, it also made tv coverage of the action even more problematic than usual and I think it would be this that swung it with Berni ? On the plus side the CH 4 coverage looks OK, the new Suzi Perry replacement did a good job.  :sun: Will be interesting to see Vettel's race pace tomorrow. 

Keep an eye out for the Haas from the back too....

 

Did I see Button set a pacey lap too, still +1 second odd though?

 

I think there will be an almighty crash in the first lap, maybe not the first corner though

I like the big black lines these cars can make coming out of corners Get rid of the areo, make the tyres bigger and stickier, problem solved, great racing Oh and bring back V8s

Alonso's crash, OMG.

 

What a testament to the safety cell design. 

 

What time does it get dark in UK time as restart only just happening?

 

Amazing start by non-Mercs.

 

Perhaps this will be a more interesting season than initially thought and indicated by qualifying?

Big congrats to Haas F1 with a 6th position on their Formula 1 debut,

 

Amazing result for them and for Romain.

I thought C4 weren't doing adverts during the race? Glad Alonso is OK after his small incident..

I thought C4 weren't doing adverts during the race? Glad Alonso is OK after his small incident..

C4 will not show adverts during live races. When showing highlights they will show adverts.

Ferrari chucked that race away IMO, not changing tyres during the red flag on a day when track position was everything.

 

Is it me or is Little Max even more petulant this year?

MInd you he takes after his senior management

 

Mateschitz, Marko and Max the 3 biggest cry babies in F1

Missing being able to watch it now. Its not on All4 yet, how useless is that?

Used to be good watching it at night on the BBC red button.

Positives for pretty much everyone except Manor I think?

Anyone else think it was rather odd that Lewis lined up pointing to the left for the start?

Then Vettel drove up through the gap on the start.

Merc look like they have more of a fight on their hands this year. Vettel had a very real chance of winning the race, although his performance seemed to drop off a bit as the fuel load came down.  Maybe the Ferrari performs a bit better on full tanks ? Bahrain might suit Ferrari so all to play for in a couple of weeks. :sun:  

Enjoyable race and could be a good season.  I thought that Ferrari definitely threw away a win there.  So did Hamilton with his weird start.  I noticed he ducked the issue in post race interviews.  Excellent result for Haas and a very good debut for Jolyon Palmer.  If Renault can make even a small improvement to the car they should be set for regular points finishes.  McLaren have made some progress but have a long way to go.  I agree that Bahrain should suit Ferrari and I'm looking forward to it.

Glad Alonso was unhurt after that spectacular crash but has he accepted responsibility for it or does he think Gutierrez brake tested him?

Am I the only one who is surprised Esteban is even racing any single seater based on talent or lack of. I know he has financial backing

and test time with Ferrari but Haas would have been better with any of the GP2 drivers IMHO.

Both Mercs made really poor starts compared with Ferrari. If Hamilton had given Rosberg A few more cms space he would have been 3rd not 7th by turn 3.

Gutierrez must be rated by Ferrari, they placed him at Haas, but It already looks good for Grosjean to be in the 2nd Ferrari next year.

Edited 21 March, 201610 yr by camelspyyder

Jumping back a bit, I have to agree with Martin Brundle that qualy was a bit weird.