MiniDrivers - 8x01 - 2016 Australian GP

Formula 1 2016 Australian Grand Prix Race

F1 In Numbers: The Stats Behind The Spectacle

Winners and Losers - Australia

The record books will show Nico Rosberg and Mercedes as the victors in the 2016 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix. But results alone don't necessarily reflect a race in its true light. We take a look at who came away from Melbourne on a high, and who heads to Bahrain on a low...

The Winners...


Nico Rosberg
Desperate to prove his end-of-2015 surge was no fluke, and to keep momentum within Mercedes firmly in his camp, this wasn’t exactly a perfect weekend for Rosberg. He was out-performed by his team mate throughout Friday and Saturday, and suffered the ignominy of crashing and ruining a new nose in FP2. Not that he will care now. Sunday is where it matters, and it’s where Rosberg came good. Admittedly Hamilton’s poor start and the red-flag stoppage may have aided his cause, but the German kept a cool head and, crucially, kept in touch with Vettel during the vital mid-race phase when he was shod on medium tyres, Vettel on supersofts. The reward was obvious: victory at the first attempt of the year, and the championship lead for the first time since Monza 2014.

Haas
Not since Toyota in 2002 has an all-new F1 team scored on their debut, but on Sunday Haas did it in style with Romain Grosjean’s superb drive from 18th on the grid to sixth at the flag. Yes, he benefitted - somewhat ironically - from his team mate’s accident, having not pitted prior to the stoppage, but as the saying goes, you make your own luck, and Grosjean grasped his good fortune and refused to let go. Even with a set of very used medium tyres, which were fitted on the 18th lap, he found the pace to stay ahead of Hulkenberg’s Force India and Bottas’ Williams. Some achievement for a team who were targeting the lower midfield - and serious food for thought for the likes of Manor and Sauber.

Daniel Ricciardo
A stonking drive from eighth on the grid to fourth at the flag - and the fastest lap to boot. Red Bull's RB12 doesn’t quite have podium pace yet, but Ricciardo said he loved every moment of his home race. The only pity was that he fell one place short of the top three. Australia’s wait for a home podium continues...

Fernando Alonso
Alonso was in racy form in the early going, after grabbing 10th place, and was in strong contention for a good haul of points when he seemingly misjudged his braking going into Turn 3 on the 17th lap and had a violent accident after colliding with Gutierrez. Not a great end to his weekend you could argue. However, anyone who saw the crash - and the wreckage from which the Spaniard climbed unharmed - would concur that he was very much a winner. The fact that he was back in the paddock and joking with the press just a few minutes later was a tribute to the ever-continuing advances in F1 safety.

Jolyon Palmer
Reigning GP2 champion Palmer put in a cool and collected performance on his F1 debut. After out-qualifying his more experienced - and highly rated - team mate, Kevin Magnussen, Palmer drove a confident and mature maiden race, battled strongly and aggressively with Bottas and the Toro Rossos, and just missed out on a point in 11th place. Father Jonathan - who finished 13th in his first Grand Prix back in 1983 - was no doubt proud.

The 2016 title fight
Over the winter, there were tantalising suggestions that Ferrari could challenge Mercedes this year. In Australia, it was proved. That’s not to say the Scuderia don’t have a slight pace deficit. But from the moment Vettel and Raikkonen jumped ahead at the start, they were comfortably quick enough to stay ahead of the Silver Arrows on merit - and there is a good argument to be made that, without the red flags, they could have held out for victory. For reference, they were 35s behind at the chequered flag last year in Melbourne. On Sunday, Vettel was only 1.5 behind Hamilton and less than 10 off Rosberg - quite some turnaround. That’s not the only cause for optimism. Last year Hamilton’s early run of triumphs lent a sense of inevitably to the title fight, and allowed him to wrap it up early. This year, he starts on the backfoot, against a man who has now won four Grands Prix on the bounce. Game on.

And the losers...


Daniil Kvyat
Red Bull driver Kvyat failed to even make the grid for the second year running in Australia - again through no fault of his own. He surely must take more of the blame for qualifying though - traffic might have forced him onto a second lap on supersoft tyres, but 18th was not a good look when team mate Ricciardo was seven places and a full second up the road in the same session.

Force India
After all their pace in pre-season testing, Force India came down to earth with a bump in Melbourne. Neither car made Q3, but starting from ninth and tenth with free tyre choice, the team were at least hopeful of making a one-stop strategy work. Hulkenberg was indeed always in contention for some points, but surprisingly he could do nothing to find a way past Grosjean and was forced to settle for seventh. Perez, meanwhile, looked racy for a period against Palmer before he had to ease back to cool overheating front brakes, trailing home 13th almost a lap down on the leaders.

Qualifying

The revised knock-out format was hugely anticipated, with the final nine minutes of each phase seeing a driver eliminated every 90 seconds. In Q1 it seemed intriguing, and by Q2 the true challenges were beginning to surface, as teams tried - and often failed - to get their timing right. However, it was Q3 that produced the most surprising spectacle, with Ferrari opting to sit out the closing minutes, content instead to conserve tyres and settle for row-two grid spots. The upshot was that polesitter Lewis Hamilton was out of the car and celebrating in pit lane long before the chequered flag fell - as one former champion pointed out, he could have waved it himself. Hence it was no surprise that for Q3 at least, the new system received an almost universal thumbs-down, and after a meeting on Sunday morning, the teams were united in their call for the old format to be immediately reinstated.

Sauber
This time last year Sauber were celebrating after getting both cars into the points, with then rookie Felipe Nasr finishing fifth on a dream debut. But a lot can change in 12 months. This time out 15th was the Swiss team’s best result after a tough run for Nasr, while Marcus Ericsson’s C35 quit with rear-end vibrations. That was after the Swede picked up a drive-through penalty for his crew failing to ready his car in time at the restart. In Nasr’s words, ‘a lot of work ahead’ here.

Toro Rosso team harmony
For a man who famously likes his drivers to be ruthless, Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost will have some delicate calming to do after Australia. Max Verstappen was the main offender, turning the airwaves blue several times as he lambasted the team’s decision to pit Carlos Sainz first, and then the Spaniard’s attempts to find a way past Palmer. Sainz, meanwhile, refused to switch places on track, before diffusing any talk of tension with typical grace after the race. But while both drivers clearly get on away from the circuit, neither take any prisoners on it. And with Toro Rosso's STR11 capable of fighting near the front, tension is inevitable. As Verstappen put it, “We have a fantastic car, and to finish P10 is not where we should be.” This one is going to run and run…

(source: f1.com)

2016 Australian GP review - bonus

So yesterday I posted a review but it felt like I left out a few important things.

For example Romain Grosjean was 6th in the final results with Haas. A great result if you ask me!

The last time when a completely new team has been 6th in the first race it was also in Australia but in 2002. The Finn Mika Salo was 6th with Toyota which gave the team only 1 point back then. It was still as good as Grosjean's result on Sunday. Brawn GP won their first race in 2009 but the team was basically Honda with a new name and engine supplier.

It was a pity that Haas' other driver, Esteban Gutierrez, couldn't bring the car to the checkered flag. Who knows how many points they could have gotten combined. Haas is definitely a team I will watch closely this season. They might even be a top team some day!

I am probably remembering other things as well later but now I can only remember the things that I have already said and also what Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel did after the race.

Vettel mocked the Mercedes drivers by throwing Lewis Hamilton's cap at him. This was of course because the media did a big thing about Hamilton throwing the number 2 cap at his teammate Nico Rosberg last year. Vettel is really making this sport as funny as it used to be with Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna, Gerhard Berger and Mika Hakkinen who used to be very funny drivers.

I shall probably start doing this in the future as well if I notice that I have forgotten to mention something in my review (to do a bonus post like this one). Last year I just edited the original review but I don't think that people came back to read it again so this is probably a more effective way.

2016 Australian Grand Prix review

Okay guys, this is the first review of the season and I must say that I was very pleased with the start. After Daniil Kvyat's car had failed him on the grid there was another formation lap and it got really interesting. The reason why it was interesting was because of Ferrari's super start. Both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen jumped the Mercs of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg which told us that this season will be much closer between the two teams in front. Who would have thought that it would change so much in an instant?

It is still very possible that this season will have four drivers fighting for the championship instead of two. Melbourne should have been a bad track for the Ferraris but they still gave a huge warning that they are not there to follow the Mercs around anymore. Who knows what will happen in the next races?

Hamilton's start was very bad because he got overtaken by the Ferraris, his teammate Rosberg and also Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen and Williams' Felipe Massa. Of course Hamilton didn't have much trouble overtaking Massa but Verstappen on the other hand was a very difficult driver to overtake. It took him a long time and he even said on the radio that he can't overtake the young Verstappen and needs to change his strategy somehow.

Everything looked great for Ferrari until they made poor choices with their pitstop strategy and then "finally" Raikkonen's engine failed. It is not a good sign if your engine fails you in your first race of the season. Let's just hope that this doesn't happen anymore so that we will se as much fighting between the two top teams as possible. This season must be interesting or F1 will loose even more fans.

After the Finn's retirement it was Rosberg, Hamilton and Vettel fighting for the win and as usual these three made it to the podium in that order. Rosberg is hungrier than ever and this might be his last chance with Mercedes to be a world champion.

What else?

McLaren's Fernando Alonso crashed into Haas' Esteban Gutierrez and it looked for a few seconds that Alonso could have been very hurt. Luckily he came out of his smashed car with nothing more than a small limp. It seemed that Alonso had crashed into Gutierrez by mistake but the truth was that the new Haas' car had slowed down by itself due to a technical error.

The race was stopped for a while so that they could clean up the mess. I would really have liked it if they would have started the race with a grid start instead of behind the safety car but the rules say that the safety car is the way to go.

I also would like to say that Reanult's Jolyon Palmer had a much better race than I expected. He really made it difficult for the more experienced drivers to overtake him. His teammate Kevin Magnussen didn't do much better even though I thought he would. I was happy to see K-Mag back again because he really deserved another chance after his stint with McLaren.

One more thing! Williams' Valtteri Bottas did great at the back overtaking car after car but it didn't really get him to the positions where we are used of seeing him. Verstappen also did great even though he complained on the radio more than usual. Toro Rosso almost seemed better than Red Bull and Williams.

Last but not least my predictions and the results:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT!

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 2nd.
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He won the race.
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. He retired and his teammate Sebastian Vettel was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. It was Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.

Surprise: Kimi Räikkönen will do much better than last year! - He did but retired (like last year as well).

Join our PREDICTORS LEAGUE now!

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get the winner and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points. 

A table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will change once the cars become more competitive. Everyone will say a merc 1,2 so it won't be close or fun.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win him- or herself an admin place on the F1 4 LIFE Facebook page along side AE, JT, MW, MH, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2016 PREDICTORS LEAGUE standings after the Australian GP

1. JI (F1-4-LIFE) - 10 points

1. Darcy P. Lang - 10 points

1. Leonardo Machado - 10 points

1. Larry Gallagher - 10 points

1. James Redman - 10 points

6. AE (F1-4-LIFE) - 5 points

7. JT (F1-4-LIFE) - 0 points

7. PM (F1-4-LIFE) - 0 points

7. Dylan Curry - 0 points

We have had only 9 different predictors this season. But the season has just started. Come onboard in the next GP!

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.