The 2023 Australian Grand Prix Thread

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cmlean
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The 2023 Australian Grand Prix Thread

Post by cmlean » Mon Mar 27, 2023 8:18 pm

This is the place to discuss everything related to the 3rd round of the 2023 season taking place in Australia between the 31st of March and 2nd of April.

The event timetable for the Australian Grand Prix.

Friday
1st Practice 12:30 local time - 02:30 GMT
2nd Practice 16:00 local time - 06:00 GMT

Saturday
Practice 12:30 local time - 02:30 GMT
Qualifying 16:00 local time - 06:00 GMT

Sunday
Race 15:00 local time - 06:00 GMT

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Re: The 2023 Australian Grand Prix Thread

Post by cmlean » Mon Mar 27, 2023 8:34 pm

This weekend, the grand prix circus arrives in Melbourne, Australia.
Red Bull will again be the team to beat after having dominating both previous rounds in the 2023 season.
Will Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin keep punching above his weight? What of his team mate Lance Stroll? Will he be pushing Fernando Alonso across the line or will the unthinkable happen where either Ferrari or Mercedes will finish on the podium?
And what of the other end of the grid? Have McLaren identified some of their problems? All other teams seemed to have moved forward so it will be interesting to see just where they will fall at the end of the event.

Watch this space......

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Re: The 2023 Australian Grand Prix Thread

Post by cmlean » Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:29 pm

FP1 Results

Code: Select all

Pos	Time		Driver		Team
1	1:18.790	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing
2	1:19.223	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
3	1:19.293	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing
4	1:19.317	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin
5	1:19.378	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari
6	1:19.505	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari
7	1:19.536	Lando Norris	McLaren
8	1:19.646	Pierre Gasly	Alpine
9	1:19.699	George Russell	Mercedes
10	1:19.766	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin
11	1:19.766	Alexander Albon	Williams
12	1:19.777	Oscar Piastri	McLaren
13	1:19.806	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas
14	1:19.933	Nyck De Vries	AlphaTauri
15	1:20.074	Logan Sargeant	Williams
16	1:20.175	Esteban Ocon	Alpine
17	1:20.399	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri
18	1:20.419	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo
19	1:20.569	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo
20	1:21.147	Kevin Magnussen	Haas

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Re: The 2023 Australian Grand Prix Thread

Post by cmlean » Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:38 pm

FP2 and the rain has come. Don't you love Melbourne :)

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Re: The 2023 Australian Grand Prix Thread

Post by cmlean » Fri Mar 31, 2023 4:33 pm

FP2 Results

Code: Select all

Pos	Time		Driver		Team
1	1:18.887	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin
2	1:19.332	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari
3	1:19.502	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing
4	1:19.672	George Russell	Mercedes
5	1:19.695	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari
6	1:19.725	Esteban Ocon	Alpine
7	1:20.083	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing
8	1:20.176	Lando Norris	McLaren
9	1:20.194	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas
10	1:20.206	Pierre Gasly	Alpine
11	1:20.220	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri
12	1:20.312	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo
13	1:20.323	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
14	1:20.380	Oscar Piastri	McLaren
15	1:20.470	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo
16	1:20.579	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin
17	1:20.600	Nyck De Vries	AlphaTauri
18	1:21.182	Alexander Albon	Williams
19	1:21.266	Kevin Magnussen	Haas
Logan Sargeant had problems at the end of FP1 and never took to the circuit in FP2
This session became a test for intermediates as it was the first time many had used them in 2023.

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Re: The 2023 Australian Grand Prix Thread

Post by cmlean » Sat Apr 01, 2023 6:13 pm

FP3 Results

Code: Select all

Pos	Time		Driver		Team
1	1:17.565	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing
2	1:17.727	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin
3	1:17.938	Esteban Ocon	Alpine
4	1:17.955	George Russell	Mercedes
5	1:18.094	Pierre Gasly	Alpine
6	1:18.123	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing
7	1:18.127	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari
8	1:18.138	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
9	1:18.198	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin
10	1:18.330	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo
11	1:18.410	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas
12	1:18.553	Alexander Albon	Williams
13	1:18.691	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari
14	1:18.713	Oscar Piastri	McLaren
15	1:18.809	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo
16	1:18.901	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri
17	1:18.947	Logan Sargeant	Williams
18	1:19.056	Kevin Magnussen	Haas
19	1:19.092	Nyck De Vries	AlphaTauri
20	1:19.146	Lando Norris	McLaren

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Re: The 2023 Australian Grand Prix Thread

Post by cmlean » Sat Apr 01, 2023 6:19 pm

Qualifying

Code: Select all

Pos	Time		Driver		Team
1	1:16.732	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing
2	1:16.968	George Russell	Mercedes
3	1:17.104	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
4	1:17.139	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin 
5	1:17.270	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari
6	1:17.308	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin
7	1:17.369	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari
8	1:17.609	Alexander Albon	Williams
9	1:17.675	Pierre Gasly	Alpine
10	1:17.735	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas
________________________________________________________________
11	1:17.768	Esteban Ocon	Alpine
12	1:18.099	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri
13	1:18.119	Lando Norris	McLaren
14	1:18.129	Kevin Magnussen	Haas
15	1:18.335	Nyck De Vries	AlphaTauri
________________________________________________________________
16	1:18.517	Oscar Piastri	McLaren
17	1:18.540	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo
18	1:18.557	Logan Sargeant	Williams
19	1:18.714	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo
20	No Time		Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing

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Re: The 2023 Australian Grand Prix Thread

Post by cmlean » Mon Apr 03, 2023 5:15 am

Race

Code: Select all

Pos	Driver		Team
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
3	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin
4	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin
5	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing
6	Lando Norris	McLaren
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas Ferrari
8	Oscar Piastri	McLaren
9	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo
10	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri
11	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo
12	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari
DNF	Pierre Gasly	Alpine
DNF	Esteban Ocon	Alpine
DNF	Nyck De Vries	AlphaTauri
DNF	Logan Sargeant	Williams
DNF	Kevin Magnussen	Haas
DNF	George Russell	Mercedes
DNF	Alexander Albon	Williams
DNF	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari
Next: Round of Azerbaijan '23
Date: 28-30 April 2023

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Re: The 2023 Australian Grand Prix Thread

Post by cmlean » Mon Apr 03, 2023 5:26 am

Well, what a race. Yes it did end as a parade but, for the first time in history we had 3 red flags in a race.
Unluckiest driver would have to be Carlos Sainz who was given a 5 second penalty for causing a collision. With ensuing restart being a tour to the finish line, he plummeted from 4th on the road to 12th and last.
Team wise, Alpine were dealt a savage blow with both cars being taken out in the last incident. Before that,it was looking like a good day for points with Ocon and Gasly in point scoring positions.
Of the 8 cars that did not finish, only George Russell's Mercedes was due to a mechanical failure.

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Re: The 2023 Australian Grand Prix Thread

Post by Tim » Tue Apr 04, 2023 4:36 pm

That was farcical! I have no problems with red flagging a race .... if justified. The first red flag was arguable but even for the gravel on the track, it wasn't really much BUT deploying the safety car and a lap later red flagging was wrong, those making those calls should know better than that ... the 2nd red flag for a tyre! I don't think it warranted even a safety car. A virtual one would have sufficed.
Yes it is a bonus for the fans to watch multiple standing starts but please don't transform F1 into a fake sport. Anyone with some sense would have predicted the carnage, creating a show where the cars have 2 laps to go, the drivers will take much bigger risks and we saw what happened ... budget cap I hear ? Will the teams be compensated for all that damage ?
The rules around red flags should be tightened and get reviewed so that any odd and strange case is catered for in the rules. To force a restart of the race knowing that there won't be any racing is a joke as well. Why ? Can't race control say that given there is only one lap remaining, the race will be ended ? If a red flag occurs in qualifying with 1 minute remaining, they end qualifying cause the cars won't have time to get to start a lap.
Now if they want to do something different, they could in such cases add time to the clock or add a lap or two to the race but they have to be in the rules, not made up. I think fans on track and those watching on TV were watching for 30 odd minutes of nothing until the podium ...

Until then the race itself was interesting behind Max, a lot of strategic play to see who can look after the hard tyre for that long, of course it all ended up for nothing as the red flag lost us the opportunity to see if any of the drivers ran out of tyre.

With 3 very different tracks down, Red Bull are unbeatable and unless they take each other out or have reliability issues, can't see any other driver winning a race till summer break. Perhaps Monaco may spring a surprise.

But behind them, it is really interesting, Mercedes will be strong at some tracks, Aston Martin seem to be strong everywhere, Ferrari have work to do and maybe even Alpine can join in the fun.

A long wait till Baku!

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