Round 1: Australia 2016: Review

Greetings Internet, 

The day in Australia started with a meeting between all of the team principles and powers that be to discuss the annoyance that was qualifying. A quick unanimous decision saw them reverse the decision they made in the preseason to go for the elimination qualifying. So in Bahrain we will go back to the older format which actually fits the way the current cars are configured. So there was positivity in the air - and by the end of the day it wasn't the only thing to be sailing through the air. The Sunday was considerably better than Saturday and delivered a race of extremes, from some questionable team radio, strategy decisions and of course some extreme destruction. But what we did have was a much better race than many of the outings of 2015 which does bode well for the rest of the year.

At the Start

Out of nowhere we were told that the start procedure had been reconfigured to a single clutch release approach in contrast to a double one - to give the drivers more control. Not that it mattered to Daniil Kvyat who broke down at the end of

the formation lap, and forced an aborted start. At the new start the new system didn't help Mercedes as Vettel jumped into the lead and Raikkonen followed suit. Somewhere near the back Magnussen made friends with someone and cut a tyre showing Jenson with sparks in the process.  The start worked out badly for Lewis who found himself down in 6th, which made the rest of the race looked better, it is always nicer to see Mercedes have to fight for something for once instead of just driving away from the field effortlessly. 

Things settled down and started to look quite interesting, and it seemed like cars were having great difficulty passing each other - as Hamilton struggled to deal with Massa. That battle was interrupted when Magnussen rejoined and got in the way and allowed Lewis to move ahead. He next came across Max Verstappen, and at this stage the dutchman was not completely livid, that would come later. Normally this would not be a problem for a Mercedes, catching and passing a car with a slower engine... except this time Toro Rosso have got themselves a faster power plant. This confused Lewis as he called the team to ask what to do. New radio regulations meant there was no available answers to the question. Then the first round of pitstops came into effect and released Lewis to chase Nico.

Rosberg and Vettel also pitted reasonably early - and rejoined ahead of traffic. In a galling state of affairs for Hamilton, Nico caught him before the briton pitted indicating he was an entire pit stop ahead. A few more laps went by as others played the strategy game before the race got turned upside down

A McLaren Gets Redesigned 

While we were staring at a Ferrari 1-2 the camera cut to Esteban Gutierrez sitting in the gravel with a deflated tyre. A wider shot didn't reveal much more until Martin Brundle pointed out that rolled into utter oblivion against a tyre wall was another car with Fernando Alonso staring at the anihilated wreckage of his McLaren. A slow motion replay revealed that Fernando touched the back of the Haas in front of him and fired into the wall before turn three, sheering off the entire left side of the car. It then hit the gravel trap and took off, completing a full barrel role in the air and flew for several metres before cartwheeling into the wall. Due to the magnitude of the shunt and the amount of debris the red flag was thrown. Which royally messed up the strategy for some drivers, but really helped others. Ironically it was the second Haas that benefited the most by gaining a free pitstop and tyre change. 

Some teams were drawn into an interesting strategy decision - Ferrari went with the softest tyres and attempted to outrun the competition while Mercedes played the long game with the harder option. 

On the restart 

When everything got started again it seemed as if Ferrari had made a bit of mess of the strategy, as had several other teams at the front of the race - with the exception of Mercedes. Over the coming laps several drivers started to see the error of their ways - having to pit to get rid of the softer tyres they put on after the red flag intervention. Raikkonen was the first one to come trundling down the pit lane - not so much because he needed new tyres, but because the Ferrari was on fire. Not in performance terms but in literal terms, and two Ferrari's became one... and the other one was clinging on to a tenuous lead. Jenson and the Toro Rossos pitted first - and it was the Red Bull junior squad who were causing a bit of bother. Sainz was pitted first, despite being the second car on the road - likely for strategic reasons, but when Verstappen pitted the tyres weren't ready for him. Who knows why - Max claims it was a miscommunication of some sorts but who knows.

But things were more entertaining at the other end of the points as Jolyon Palmer was making friends with the Toro Rosso team - headed by Carlos Sainz. Behind the Spaniard was Max Verstappen, who seemed to be losing his mind and was already very cross. Now Mad Max was positively livid - swearing down the radio demanding the team to force Carlos to let him past. Which was childish and absurd - Sainz eventually passed Palmer and Sainz followed. Even though the battle with the Renault was over, the complaints were not... and Max issued a tirade down the radio which was bang out of order. 

Elsewhere other drivers were also finding out that the soft and super soft tyres were not the right call, forcing them into the pits to ensure they could get to the end. When Vettel pitted it suddenly became a Mercedes 1-2, despite the carnage of the day the same result had already formed. 

The end is nigh

With laps running down to the end of the race, the running order had mostly settled - Vettel was trying to make amends for the strategy problem by and late stop by hunting down Hamilton. It seemed like an unlikely prospect but when Lewis locked up into turn nine, the gap instantly closed up. Leading to a potential fight for seconds place. Alas much like qualifying that didn't pay off, Vettel slid off the track in the penultimate corner losing too much time avoiding some debris before re joining.

Where did that debris come from I heard a grand total no no-one asking, well remember Livid Max Verstappen and the fight he was having with Sainz and Palmer. Well having passed the Renault the caught a train of cars headed by Romain Grosjean in the remaining Haas car. Romain benefitted massively from Alonso's exploding McLaren and got a free stop and lots of free track position. They stuck the medium tyres on and were set for the rest of the afternoon. Behind Grosjean was Hulkenberg and Bottas - followed by the squabbling Toro Rossos. Max was clearly furious and was throwing the car everywhere, including a massive sideways moment out of turn 12. Somehow he kept the thing out of the wall and kept chasing Sainz, in the end he tried ramming Carlos out of the way - spinning himself in the process. Karma strikes when you least expect it. 

So the race finished with a Mercedes 1-2 - with Rosberg taking a victory he earned at the first corner with a decisive move on Lewis in turn one. Vettel completed the podium for Ferrari - Ricciardo and Massa rounded out the top 5. A miraculous performance from Grosjean in the Haas, even if it was fueled by good fortune scored him 6th place. Hulkenberg, Bottas and the squabbling Toro Rosso's took home the final points. 

Bonus Points

Today there will be full points, and lots of them - that was an entertaining start of the season and better than most of the previous one.

• 25pts - Romain Grosjean - 6th place for a completely new team is a very strong result, yes strategy handed Romain the place, but ability kept him there
• 18pts - Fernando Alonso - Walked away from an enormous shunt, but that moment where he sailed through the air was mind blowing.
• 15pts - Sebastian Vettel - A brilliant start and pulled away from Rosberg for a while, and a spirited recovery charge after the red flag
• 14pt - Carlos Sainz - Didn't get riled by Verstappen's rant and complaints and kept doing his job under the pressure
• 12pts - Nico Rosberg - After being mauled in qualifying Nico laid down the law in turn one and drove a very strong race after that
• 10pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Another fast starting Ferrari and held his ground until the strategy took over and then the car caught fire
• 8pts -  Daniel Ricciardo - Barring an unfortunate strategy call Ricciardo was on track for a home podium in an underpowered car
• 6pts - Jolyon Palmer - A strong debut today, racing Alonso on lap one, Bottas later on and then the two Toro Rosso drivers
• 4ts - Pascal Werhlein - That Manor GP car gained so many places on the opening lap, but lost out under the red flag
• 2pts - Lewis Hamilton - Still recovered to take home a podium after falling to 7th on the restart
• 1pt - Martin Brundle - How he spotted that McLaren against the wall I don't know

• -1pt - Max Verstappen - Was very immature on the radio today, under the illusion he should have things his own way... well tough
• -1pt - Rachel Brookes - Wrong Haas Rachel, the F1 team is based on the NASCAR team with Gene Haas, not the CART/Indycar team which is Carl Haas. Rather mixed up the introductions there didn't we...

Bahrain Next

Well hopefully the fun we had in Australia can carry across to the Bahrain GP in a fortnight's time - on a track where overtaking is slightly easier and we might not have colossal accidents. Although, the last time that Gutierrez was at Sakhir he was also involved in an accident involving a car sailing through the air - in that instance it has his car performing the acrobatics. But we don't have Maldonado to help out this season.

The night race in Sakhir has seen incredible races, notably in 2014... when Esteban flipped, so maybe with a new/old qualifying format and a close field we might be in for one again. 

Round 1: Australia 2016: Something that claims to be Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

I think I speak for the entire fanbase, the entire paddock and everyone else when I sit back question what in the seven hells was that... I suspected that there might be a few teething problems with the new format, but instead what we were faced with was a disastrous mess, chaos and confusion. Teams had no idea what was happening and even those who did realised relatively quickly that the whole thing was a colossal balls up. What I fail to understand is that with all the engineers, analysts and geniuses in the pit lane never saw this coming. The problem is that none of those clever people were actually invited to the meetings and it was down to the bosses of the individual teams to iron it out... which clearly worked so well. As a pure and theoretical concept it sort of makes sense that it might provide an entertaining and dynamic session... but almost none of that theory actually made it into practice.

In the end did any of these changes actually achieve what Bernie ultimately wanted - to mix up the grid, make Sundays crazy... In a word no. In fact not only did we still end up with a very stereotypical order throughout most of the grid - it took less time to get there and with a lot less track action. So in that respect every single part of this new system turned out to be a complete and utter failure... so on that positive note lets have a look at the story of qualifying.

Q1...ish

The first session of the first race of the season was met with some anticipation and a little dose of skepticism as everyone tried to predict how it was all going to work... or not work as it eventually turned out. So because the first elimination was due seven minutes into the session - they queued in the pits waiting to set an early time. There were a couple of small on track battles to secure track position, Rosberg and Grosjean pounced on Hamilton and

Raikkonen passed Hulkenberg. After the a few minutes the problems of the new format became very obvious... once a driver has set a qualifying lap on a set of tyres, they have to pit and refuel in the garage... This takes longer than the elimination period so it actually becomes impossible for drivers to really compete.

So both Manors, and Haas entries were eliminated without having a chance to do anything about it. Both Grosjean and Gutierrez were on stronger laps but under the rules, if the time runs out.. tough frankly. So it seemed Haas misread the regulations or got the timing wrong. Then Kvyat found himself eliminated due to much the same problem, it isn't possible to turn the car round and out again in 3 minutes same for Felipe Nasr. The only driver who could do anything was Jolyon Palmer, because the last elimination ties up with the end of the session so he was allowed to complete the lap he started unlike anyone else. So Jolyon improve and made it into Q2 at Ericsson's expense.

Q2... sort of

If the first session was a bit of a mess, Q2 was no better because there was even less time for those surviving drivers to set a baseline time. When they completed that first lap - so many were unable to change tyres, fuel up and try

again. If you didn't have the fastest cars at the beginning - you were doomed to elimination, this trapped both Renaults and both McLarens who either too far down to have time to set another lap or didn't really see the point of setting another lap. Only Ferrari and Williams really had enough time to make a real second go of it - which worked for Massa and the Ferrari team. Bottas on the other hand got a little sideways in a couple of places and that was that. 

And here is another problem, even if a car has time remaining in the session before the designated elimination period, it makes no difference because the cars can't perform multiple laps on a single set of qualifying tyres. So not only is the format a mess the tyre options are holding it all back. in the end of Q2 we had a track with no cars on it and no competition... well done everyone.

Q3... almost

So eight cars remained, Toro Rosso, Ferrari, Mercedes, Ricciardo and Massa and traditionally in a Q3 session that would mean some cars would head out for the first run and the rest of them would join in for an all out challenge in the second half of the session. It wouldn't surprise you learn that the reality was far worse than that... far worse.

All the cars went out to set a lap time and Hamilton took a provisional pole from Vettel, Kimi and Nico - Ricciardo crossed the line in 8th place and was eliminated on the spot effectively as there is no time for a reply. It became clear that everyone except the top four would not be able to have a second run, yes that is quite bad but maybe Ferrari and Mercedes would be able to have a fight for pole... But it got even worse when it turned out that the fact that drivers have to change tyres more often due to their poor durability and the nature of the format, Ferrari didn't have any left. So Vettel and Kimi couldn't compete either. With five minutes to go only Hamilton and Rosberg could take part. Nico tried to take pole, but fell 6 hundredth short... and then it was all over. With four minutes to go the track fell silent as Lewis set another devastating laptime. 

If the qualifying session wasn't crushing enough, the fact that Mercedes can comfortably annihilate the competition at will...

Bonus Points

It took a while before I even decided how to score that session, so little happened to actually award points to anyone for it... so as a compromise I have determined that it only deserves half points, and any decent action that might have happened wasn't even shown because the camera focussed on drivers getting out of cars and looking at those being eliminated. For the most part I have no idea what happened to most of the grid... As a result here are the points

5pts - Mad Max Verstappen - 5th place in a Toro Rosso is impressive and because of the system, we saw virtually none of it.
4pts - Carlos Sainz Jnr - 7th makes it two Toro Rossos ahead of the factory team and close to the Ferrari's using the older specification engine
3pts - Romain Grosjean - Scores points for bothering Hamilton at the start of the firs session
2.5pts - Lewis Hamilton - Totally destroyed any competition today, with a comfortable margin to even Nico in the same car
2pts - Fernando Alonso - Got a McLaren close to the top ten... not that there is a top ten in qualifying anymore
1.5pts - Jolyon Palmer - Was the only person to beat the elimination system... but only because of the rules
1pt - Daniel Ricciardo - The only Renault powered car inside the final part of qualifying.
0.5pts - Martin Brundle/David Croft - Get a point each for giving the new session the kicking it needed.

Will Tomorrow be Better

I really hope so, I really do. If it gets much worse I dread to think what the course of action would be going forward. I imagine that Mercedes will, barring failure make complete mincemeat of everyone else. Ferrari might keep them in sight for a little bit before dropping back.

It's everyone else that might provide the entertainment - Verstappen near the front and Kvyat near the back means there might be intrigue throughout the pack. They haven't messed too much with the format of the race... which is the only part of the weekend that needs work... Hopefully tomorrow will give us something to forget the disappointment that was today...

Round 1: Australia 2016 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

The winter off-season has come to an end and everything is back to normal, well it will be in a couple of days time, and this also marks the sixth year for blog HQ... although after the disaster the second half of 2015 encountered I'm not sure that counts. This time around blog HQ knows that there will have to be a few adjustments to the way coverage is presented in this dark and underpopulated corner of the internet. Because in reality it is no longer practical to spend several hours on both a Saturday and a Sunday writing up precisely what the vast majority of people have already seen. In the past I have attempted, generally unsuccessfully to inject humour and other clever things into the monolithic posts, but that never quite went to plan - and it certainly didn't sort out the whole issue of taking up to five hours to produce a post race document. 

So for the next few rounds things might get a little experimental around here - playing with different formats and approaches until one settles and makes sense. At the moment I don't know what those formats will be, I do intend to keep this corner of the internet functioning but I need a quicker more easily produced version of it in all reality.

Enough about that, this is about the first race of the season and seeing if anything that happened in testng is actually relevant. Where we will see Haas compete in their first race and we might get a show and tell from Mad Max as he shows us what his parents got him for Christmas. We shall see if Gutierrez on his return to the grid can take over where Maldonado left off and whether anyone can actually deal with Mercedes. But first...

The News

You might have thought with the start of the season being so close they wouldn't bother messing with the core qualifying format... well it turns out that they in fact would. It was decided a little while ago there was going to be a change afoot - then Bernie being Bernie came up with a mad idea that added a 'handicap' time to the top finishers from the previous race. For example the previous winner or championship leader would have a mandatory block of time added to his fastest qualifying lap. Something to mix the grid up and to keep Mercedes off pole - to avoid this catastrophe the teams voted in an alternative solution. Something called 'Elimination' qualifying - in the beginning this wasn't going to happen until the Spanish GP. But then that was changed and a compromised version was going to be put in place for round one. Then things changed again... don't you just love consistency in the rule making process...

The original version suddenly became the plan and it is going to be introduced this weekend in Melbourne. So what is elimination qualifying, well it seems to be an idea borrowed from the old Burnout video game series - and if the FIA and Bernie are now learning about racing from EA we are well and truly doomed. Next we'll have races where the final few laps are only available as DLC and car physics mean that even the highest grip cars will powerslide through every corner. Finally bonus points will be added for oversized rims, neon lights and hydraulics. Mocking EA aside, the new system works on the premise that the car with the slowest time in a particular session will become eliminated and has to return to the pits. The next slowest then faces the same fate 90 seconds later until the required number of cars are eliminated - the survivors progress into the next round. In Q1 there is a seven minute amnesty on the eliminations and at the seven minute mark the first car is booted out. A total of seven cars are eliminated before Q2. The amnesty is cut to six minutes in Q2 before people start getting eliminated and again seven drivers are eliminated before Q3. In the final shootout the remaining eight cars have five minutes before the eliminations start and they continue until there are only two cars left fighting for pole position.

There are some potential gains for this sort of format - firstly there will be more cars on track at any one time because the only realistic way to avoid relegation is to stay on track and improve your time to avoid being last. So there will be less empty track running, secondly it will add more strategy and unpredictability to the session without necessarily artificially messing up the grid like Bernie wanted....but

There are also some problems, problems I don't think the powers that be have fully realised as of yet - firstly traffic is going to be a serious problem at some tracks, Monaco I am looking at you. Because there will be more cars on track at the same time, which will increase the number of complaints of blocking and drivers holding each other up. I don't think the current system has been developed with all the different permutations considered - what happens with red or yellow flag incidents. If the is only a 90 second window to avoid elimination then these sort of conditions will have a much larger impact on the results. The 90 second window could also become problematic on circuits where the lap is longer than that period - Spa and Singapore for example, furthermore during the elimination stage what happens when a car is on a lap which would move them out of the elimination window but the timer runs out. At the end of each qualifying session drivers can complete the lap they are on... will this carry forward into the elimination stages. The current suggestions indicate that it doesn't but I suspect that will lead to some very cross and potentially confused drivers on Saturday when this actually gets put into practice.

In other news Renault have found some paint for their car, for some bizarre reason the team elected to have yet another strange launch session where they revealed the new livery. Normally I'd complain a lot more but... WE FINALLY HAVE A YELLOW CAR!!. Yes since Jordan became Force India the grid has been sadly lacking in Yellow - Renault themselves were the last team to try a mostly yellow car in 2010 before they started targeting the Lotus name. 

This version, at least in the photos from the launch looks much better and they seem to have borrowed some of the matte finish the Red Bull guys have uncovered over the winter. Some say that the matte paint is lighter than the gloss paint used by the other teams - all I can say is that it is good that Pastor Maldonado isn't going to get his hands on this one and ruin the livery. 

Finally Red Bull have announced in the run up to the Australian GP that they are now making friends with Aston Martin - which must come to the disappointment to the people at Force India who thought they were on the cusp of a deal with the sports car manufacturer. The partnership involves a collaborative project between Aston Martin and Adrian Newey to build a new really quick car that no-one can afford - but one we all wish we could. 

So the Australian GP Weekend

Well the first race of the season has been held in Melbourne since 1996, after leaving the streets of Adelaide. In that time it has seen some interesting races and some less interesting ones. This time last season we saw that an extra year of developing the power units made them incredibly less reliable and most of the field broke down. Alonso broke down before reaching Australia and his replacement (now Renault driver in the Yellow car) broke down in the same car before the start. However testing this season has given us hope that the 2016 Australian GP will be a lot better, and will actually see more than a few cars complete the race.

The track itself if nestled in the middle of Albert park, with walls painted to look like grass lining the edge of the circuit - just to encourage the unsuspecting to crash into them. For the opening race of the season in the modern era we expect teams to be a little more tentative, especially as there more rounds in 2016 with the inclusion of Baku in June, each race means less for the overall championship. As outlined earlier qualifying will be an ultimate mystery - not just for cars working out where they rank in the pecking order but just in terms of seeing quite how the powers that be intend to implement the new rules. 

It is not too much of a surprise to assume that Mercedes will lock out the front row and vanish off into the distance - they are likely so far ahead already that they are travelling to Bahrain for round two. However the pre season testing did suggest that Ferrari have built a reasonably quick car and if one or both of the Mercedes drivers accidentally collides with the other - Vettel, and maybe even Raikkonen will be in close enough proximity to capitalise. 

The middle of the pack however looks quite close and like it was last season, will be the source of anything fun happening there are several teams which may be in the same performance bracket from Red Bull down to McLaren and Haas - with Toro Rosso, Force India, Renault and possible Sauber stuck in the middle. Manor have also made significant improvements - mostly down to actually having a car built the current regulations and with the best engine package bolted into the back. If things do get very messy and chaotic, and on a good day they may be able to pick up a point or two with Wehrlein... while Haryanto might have crashed into something.