RIP Charlie. So much fun watching some of he driver's briefings with him. Lovely man, completely dedicated to the sport and driver safety.

Looks like Ferrari might not be performing as well on the slower / medium corners. Let's wait until race day, but even Mercedes seemed to be surprised with the gap. Lewis extremely motivated, Bottas as well pushing Lewis hard in Q3.

Incredible Q3 performance from rookie Lando Norris. Haas best of the midfield. VER splitting the Ferraris. Leclerc perhaps showing some understandable nerves in his first qualifying with Ferrari. RAI enjoying himself in the Alfa Romeo.

Williams now relegated to Minardi status.

Claire should just accept the fact that unless something hugely significant changes in F1, Williams will never be a title contender again. Get over it. Aim to develop a closer relationship with Mercedes as a competitive midfield team and wait to become a works team with the entry of a new heavy weight manufacturer in the future, but don't trash the Williams brand.

I wonder if Claire feels that she has to honour her father's legacy and whether that affects her judgement as to what she can realistically hope to achieve.

 

Top work Norris.

 

Valtteri has a new look about him and has been on song all weekend, but as usual Hamilton got the job done when he needed to. Should be a good tussle between these two this year.
Vettel took a while to get going but found his way late in the session. I hope Kimi can get something extra out of his Alfa/Ferrari.
I think its going to take a bit of getting accustomed to the three lights on the back and it will be interesting to see if we get more passing this year with the bigger DRS system.
On another note, I hope that they do something to honour Charlie on track. RIP and thanks!
Great to see the little professor here

 

Yawn.

 

Oh my!!!!

Bottas!!! Red Bull having pace with Honda! McLaren with pace over Renault!! leclerc showing he could have passed team mate Vettle...


Far from a yawn... little passing but a hell of an interesting start to the season.

The Paddock and Merc felt Bottas was underperforming last year... yeah he silenced that.

Red Bull answered the question about the Honda engine having pace.

McLaren shows they have a strong car vs a team with the same engine!!!

Leclerc showed he can be faster then Vettle and backed off... huge!!!

Hamilton says the team needs work... the facade showed a crack...

Wow, this season will be amazing.

 

I think all goes well for a good season, @Foo2rama has summed it up. Yes the race was not all that exciting but many small battles developed mid pack and should continue.

Bottas was so focused when he arrived on track today and it showed, he was a very popular winner. Did he want the fastest lap point or what!

Officials wore black armbands for Charlie and during the minutes silence all I could hear was a baby crying such was the respect shown. Flags on the podium were at half mast.

 

Personally I think yesterday’s results show that without Kimi Räikkönen, Sebastian Vettel has difficulty setting up a car.

 

Have to agree that this year can bring some interesting changes. A lot of youngsters on the grid!

Hamilton, in my opinion was annoyed that he lost out to VB. his reaction in the post race interviews when asked if he was disappointed... his words said one thing, but his facial expressions said something else.

 

Hamilton.

Disappointed - yes

Annoyed - not sure.

They are all ultra-competitive so no one at that level is happy about finishing second. Hamilton is always very good at acknowledging the crowd, his team and his team-mate so I have no issues with what he said. He thrives on competition, whether it be from outside his team or within.

 

Looks like another long, frustrating year for Ferrari. Nowhere competitive in Melbourne. All we heard in pre-testing was the prancing horse had the pace to take it to the Silver Arrows. Err, not so fast.

 

Just returned from joining my IWC-head nephew for a very early (06:10 local time) Live GP start. Very promising opening, happy to see Max and Honda have a party and what may look like joining Merc and Ferrari for the top. To all F1 Heads: i wish you a happy season!

 

Looks like I'll be rooting for the midfield this year lol.
I think Melbourne is a good track for HAAS (despite last years final results) so I won't get too excited yet.
But to finish right behind the (slow?) Ferrari's?
Not bad...

 

You're right, my choice of wording was wrong, he was disappointed as I mentioned. It was just his facial expressions and reaction that were classic Hamilton, a sore loser.

I don't want people to jump me for this comment! I think he's a great driver, always have, you can't take away what he's proven time and time again. His personality is not for me (at least the one he shows on TV).

 

Well that was certainly an interesting kick off to 2019.
At what point today do HAAS fire their left front wheel man into the sun? Poor chap.

RE MERC v FER - the BBC had a very interesting article on the different approaches to the aero design they had both taken, I think written from a view that the FER would be quicker given initial design. However, after sunday, if the article holds true, this year could have a lot of twists and turns.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/47527705

 

A very well written article. On a similar note, did anyone else notice the increased (or perhaps simply more visible in the weather conditions) rear vortices that all the cars were creating?

 

Yep, noticed that on the Alfas in particular on the turn from the straights.

 

Ricciardo...want him to have a great year but shook my head when he left for Renault, then hands over eyes right from the go when he lost the front wing. Glad to see Red Bull is benefitting from the switch to Honda...loved that they made the hard decision last year.

 

This year, much like last season will find conservation of engines will give you a few wins. Hamilton, after seeing how fast VB was at the start seemed to dial back on the loud pedal. He's playing coy again, I have little doubt he will win his 6th championship and another 10+ race wins this season.

How about Lance Stroll? 16th to 8th making him the driver who made up the most positions within the race.

Over in the Ferrari pit I'd suggest there's going to be a battle for number one position between Leclerc and Vettel, and Seb thought last season was difficult.

 

Hi all
Not sure how everyone seems to of missed it but after the race Mercedes have said and showed that Lewis had some serious floor damage on his car which explains why he was unable to catch or match Bottas pace in this race. I'm happy for Bottas and hope he continues to push Hamilton for this season but I don't think it's going to be easy for him to keep the upper hand over him, Max and Red Bull seem to have a really competitive package now that it seems Honda are delivering and can't wait to see just how well he can do this season.

Sucks for McLaren as they seem to of gone out of the frying pan into the fire which reminds me I thought Ricciardo made a mistake with leaving Red Bull for Renault and think he may be the next Alonso in being a great driver but making badly timed moves only time will tell on this. As for the Ferrari's it was only team orders that saved Vettel from being passed by LeClerc and I for one think Eddie Irvines comments on Vettel were spot on about him being a one trick pony and this season may well show that and be his last at Ferrari. It does look like this season is going to be much better than it has been for a while with much closer racing through out the field.

Marc

 

pretty neat, and there is almost a massive cringeworthy moment near the end...