Definitely! The days of the Australian Touring Car Championship (which included BMW, Nissan, Volvo, and Jaguar, among others) produced perhaps better racing than today.
My crystal ball says Force India may not be as quick in Australia as they were in Bahrain. They seem to do really well in the high-seed sectors, and struggle in the twisty bits. Albert Park is a twisty, bumpy track.
Unfortunately, I don't have enough money to upgrade my chassis or engine to something definitely better.
Perhaps mandatory tyre stops should be introduced. Martin Whitmarsh suggested it after the race, and although he suggested banning the DDD as well, it's too late for the latter. It's not too late for compulsory two or three tyre stops though. We might actually see drivers really pushing then.
Ban the DDD and introduce limited ground-effect next year, please.
I really wanted Vettel to win after his magnificent qualifying and race pace. Too bad his exhaust conked out on him. Adrian Newey and the Red Bull engineering team really need to focus on their reliability.
Good drive from Hamilton too, but the McLaren always showed good performance through winter testing and free practice. Also a good drive from Rosberg and Schumacher; Rosberg showed he deserves a seat in a top team, and Schumacher hasn't run out of steam yet!
Yup. The ideal trick for the front two row starters will be to get back onto the track after their first pit stop before Sutil and other hard-tyred guys get ahead. With pit stop times reduced to around 18 to 20 seconds, it should be possible for at least Vettel and the Ferraris.
I think McLaren and Mercedes are very well-matched in absolute performance. The bigger factor is in the drivers. Hamilton is the only driver among the four who is in a position to extract maximum performance from the car and the team. Button is new, Schumacher is rusty, and Rosberg is also new. With time, I think you'll see a lot of shuffling in the rank order between those four.
As for Red Bull, I think it'll be a tough fight against Ferrari.
So far:
RBR = Ferrari > McLaren = Mercedes > Renault = Force India > Williams > Sauber = STR > Virgin = Lotus > HRT
I've actually managed to change it from di Grassi to Senna. Mathematically speaking, the extra expense is not worth the reward. I'd rather have 6 million credits in reserve for the next round.
Actually you're right. Q3 qualifiers have to race on the tyres they used to set their fastest Q3 lap, so we could possibly see a lot of Q3 drivers getting stuck in traffic after their first and early tyre stop.
The smaller mass is an advantage, but the disadvantage is that their flywheel system can affect the car's handling adversely. The flywheel is a heavy mass rotating at tens of thousands of revolutions per minute. The gyroscopic effect could possibly cause unwanted stability.
A bit embarrassing, considering that F1 cars have around 150BHP more power than GP2 cars. I wonder whether Dallara used the same engineers for their HRT design as they did when they designed the GP2 cars (you read it right: Dallara designed the GP2 cars, and are the design partners for HRT).
Indeed. Bridgestone has stated that the fastest four (Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, RBR) have similar tyre wear characteristics, but Sauber has the advantage in tyre conservation. The Renault engine is known for being fuel-efficient, contrast to Ferrari, which is rumoured to be fuel-hungry. There are whispers that Williams might reintroduce KERS some time during the season, although it seems very unlikely.
FI looks far more consistent than STR. I think its drivers are also more capable. For STR, Buemi isn't bad, but I'm afraid Alguersuari shouldn't be in that seat -- he's become a European version of Yuji Ide.
I'm really unsure over what to pick. Should I sacrifice driver quality by picking Total for fuel to hedge the risks? Or perhaps choose the cheapest fuel and bump up one of my chassis/engine suppliers? Or perhaps sacrifice chassis/engine and fuel, and choose better drivers?
While the new teams are slow as snails, I love the look of their cars! HRT and Virgin look very cool, and Lotus' paint job is a wonderful blast from the past.