Oh good. Pages of tedious predictions to be replaced by pages of tedious conspiracy theories.

Anyway, going to be an interesting race. Can't see the top guys lasting too many laps but will they get enough of a gap to clear the midfield medium runners? Could be a Button / Vettel / Webber podium. Going by Melbourne, then you could make an argument for Kimi two stopping here, but Lotus will have last year in mind no doubt.

I would like to see a proper frontrunner take the plunge and stick the primes on for Q3. It would be fascinating to see how a car would fare on say the third row with those tyres on.

Ferrari looked good on soft tyres. Seems like this is a Merc track. Red Bull will be there or thereabouts.

Quote from Lotesdelere :

Sebastian Vettel: I may disobey Red Bull orders again

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/22106490

Webber will run him off the road next time.

Then get sacked.

1) which team will score most points? Don't care, would rather discuss the race rather than make guesses that no one will care about next week
2) will pole sitter win the race? See above
3) who wins the race? See above
4) number of cars finish? See above
5) will williams score points? See above
6) who gets the fastest lap? See above
Bonus) first driver to finish lap down? See above

I see the Vettel row rumbles on. No surprise there. I'm interested to see Mark's on track reaction as he can do quite well driving angry - "not bad for a number 2 driver" and all that.

Massa is on for outqualifying Alonso for the 5th race in a row. He's driving quite well this year, which could cause problems for Ferrari later on. If Alonso fails to finish a couple more races and he's behind on points in the later stages how would Ferrari cope with it?

Quote from Intrepid :

May I remind you bunch of numpties that F1 teams with their gigantic resources and massive brains still struggle massively getting a barely accurate tyre model sorted for their simulations.

trying to create an accurate tyre model takes years to get right. deal with it

That's a good point about the F1 teams. Given that, and the time it has taken to get who knows where with the LFS tyre modelling, it does make me wonder whether it was the right decision to approach the physics in the was LFS has. Is it too much to produce an accurate model that works in all situations and then try to boil it down into something that can work in real time on a moderately powerful PC?

Ultimately, Mateschitz is in charge and he seems to be close to Webber, although I'm sure he's not against Vettel after what they have acheived together. If the man writing all the cheques says something needs to happen though then you never know how things will turn out.

Can't be any clearer than that, col.

If the speed limit is 30mph, but there is no fine or penalty points if you exceed it then the limit is ignored - why would you stick to it?

The only thing that happens to Seb now is he gets criticised in the media. Like he cares.

Quote from IsaacPrice :

Are you an idiot? This is how F1 has always been. Actually, not just F1 but motorsport in general. It costs them money to put the cars on the grid and at the end of the day just because we the fans don't like it, doesn't change their job description to get the best result they can and tbh, it's not even "the fans" who don't like it, it's just the uneducated fans who don't even really understand what F1 is and always has been who don't like it.

This. F1's primary function is not to uphold corinthian sporting ideals, nor is it to entertain for that matter. It's primary function is to decide the F1 World Drivers' Championship and the F1 World Constructors Championship.

It costs a massive amount of money so it needs the audiences and the sponsors, therefore entertainment is required as part of the package - a means to an end if you will. As an aside, I wonder what the marketing value of the race and the aftermath was for Red Bull? Anyway, this massive investment needs to be protected by the teams and throwing 43 points into the gravel makes no sense on any level.

Vettel did what he did because he can, and he is utterly ruthless. You can't really blame him for that as there is no crime if there is no punishment and he knows that. This really lies with the Red Bull management. Ross Brawn was very clear (and explanatory) in his messages to Rosberg and if he had ignored it then there's no question in my mind that Sam Bird would be driving in China.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I am also bored of teams deciding which driver will finish in which position. The end of the race was a massive anti-climax, and the political language being used by the drivers was an embarrassment. There should be penalties for any driver who doesn't race during a race.

It's the way F1 has always been. See Peter Collins giving up a championship winning position (and car) for Fangio in 56.

Why do you watch something that bores you?

John Watson thinks that if RBR are to have any authority over Vettel for this and the coming seasons then he needs to be taken down a peg or two. The only sanction available is to suspend him from the next race.

Can't see it happening, but if they don't then they might as well send Vettel to the Team Principal's Press Conference in China instead of Horner.

Quote from CSF :

Considering the team were apparently ready for him, it was a bad attempt at gaining an advantage. It was never going to work, the front wing is far too an important part in modern Formula One aerodynamics. Mark talks about Seb being protected, but Fernando is far more protected from his mistakes by Ferrari.

He remained in 2nd place until the end of the lap. Performance wise it was a risk worth taking as far as Alonso was concerned because he could only feel the damage, not see it. Team should have called him in.

He was hoping it would hang on for 3 or 4 laps so he could get slicks at the same time. It was a risk that didn't work out. There is a difference between knocking a couple of planes off the wing or an end fence and breaking the pillars. Team should have overruled with safety in mind in that instance as Alonso can't see the wing so could know how bad it was.

Quote from S3ANPukekoh3 :

Would they be able to win in a Toro Rosso?

I don't know why everyone is so fanatical about team orders today. I wonder what people would be saying if it had been reversed and Webber has disobeyed and passed Vettel for the win.

If it had been reversed then it would be the same from this (the uninformed) side of the fence. One driver is driving to a pace and the other ignores it. If it was a fair fight then that's fine, but it wasn't.

If Webber had blindsided Vettel then Buemi would be sitting in the No 2 RB come Shanghai...

The problem is that there aren't any sanctions to impose. What will they do - fine him, suspend him, give hm a telling off? The first and last mean nothing whilst they can't suspend him. That means they can't do anything so should race without orders. If they race without orders however, it should apply to both.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Driver preference ultimately.

I guess so - that preference might change when they have it for 30 seconds per lap next year.

Seems odd that Marussia have the KERS button on the right of the wheel, same as the upshifts. Would have thought it would be easier on the left.

Tried it driving home from work. Found it much easier to upshift whilst changing the volume control (on the left in my car) compared to moving through radio stations (on the right)

First sight of the hard tyres at this race. Seems like the opinion was that the graining was made worse by the cooler temps in Australia. I don't think we'll see quite the same problems that we had last week.

My only hope is that they don't stop the race just because it gets a bit wet. Race Control have become very risk averse in recent years.

Does seem to be that McLaren have made a mistake, given the timing of the changes in regulations. Maybe if they had more flexibility in testing they could have back-to-backed last year's car with this one; or even like in the good old days, started with last year's car and had the new one pounding round Silverstone in private testing until it worked. Or not (MP4-18).

Kobayashi signed up for WEC driving a 458.

Quote from BlueFlame :

There's only 1 issue with LHD cars and that's motorway merging but if the car is a saloon or hatchback you have enough windows that actually you can see more with a LHD car than you can with a RHD when merging.

Overtaking on A or B roads is a much bigger issue. Not done it LHD, but RHD on the continent is a nightmare if you're stuck behind a lorry or somesuch.

Can't wait to see who is quick when they finally show their hand in Q3 next week. Even better is that Melbourne is not a particularly representative track, so the guessing game will carry on into the early season.

Hopefully we'll get some idea of who is where over the weekend as everyone should have roughly Melbourne spec cars and a bit of dry weather. Lots of delving into race sim lap times over the next couple of days.

Or customer cars. Like the old days.

Michael is doing what pleases him, and why shouldn't he? He has nothing to prove to anyone and hasn't since around 2001.

Ralf or Michael?