Thank you for not winning.

Well that was interesting, congrats to the top three!

Disappointing to see what’s happening with Alpine

Paging Captain Ahab : it seems that Max's right rear brake was dragging or hung up right from the start of the race . If that is correct what do you think happened ? Is it as simple as an incorrect brake bleeding ? Are there electronic sensors that could cause this ? Or maybe defective parts ?

Later in the race I think it was Ocon that came into the pits with smoking right rear but they found a helmet visor tear off in the brake cooling duct . But that was after a lot of laps so you would expect heat from racing . Max's seemed like it was instant .

Stroll, as many everywhere love to pick on, had a pretty solid race weekend. Alonso only ahead because of fortuitous pit on VSC.

Imagine had Stroll lifted like FA did. It was a low blow and dirty move in my opinion. Should Russell have more expected that? He likely will next time. Glad he’s ok.

Nice win for Carlos!!

Down under.
 

Finally a real race !! And great to see both Haas cars in the points. Thanks to Alonso and Russell for that.

Haas had some good tire strategy and Nico led the way. There long run & tire management ability has gotten better. Nice to see the prancing pony's on the podium 1&2

Three races down and Haas have 4 points . Not a bad start . Their chassis seems to have fixed last year's massive tire deg . They have decent pace . Supposedly they have a good budget so I hope they can develop upgrades to make them faster .

Although Albon didn't get points today I think they are knocking on the door to points . Logan needs to up his game and the team need to work on spare parts and upgrades . There should be no reason for Haas and Williams to not stay in front of Alpine and maybe consistently beat Sauber and Vcarb .

First time this season I watched the pre-race show (live) on ESPN from SKY. Pretty cool in studio stuff with Karun and the overhead shot with a graphic track at his feet and corresponding cockpit video to the right of screen. If you haven't seen it go take a look. It shows the relationship of two cars at particular corners in quali.

Seems to me that Max's troubles may have come from waiting on grid for the back markers to take position after the formation lap. They really need to hustle those guys up.

Well that was a different race. Congrats to Ferrari, I only wish the order was reversed.

Team Red Bull is human. I was starting to get worried.

Danny Ric under pressure to perform or out ?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/formula-one-liam-lawson-edges-closer-to-fulltime-drive-as-red-bull-puts-pressure-on-daniel-ricciardo/D52TT2MRPRGLPDZXM6KFLUZF2A/

Amazing how fun it is when Max is not winning !

Wondering if Fred Is second guessing himself these days. Hamilton is not doing very much and appears behind Russell even when his engine doesn't explode while Sainz is on fire since the start of the season...

What did you all think about the Alonso Russell verdict ? It bothers me a bit. I can see their point, and full on brake checking should be punished... but cleverly braking a bit earlier to take a better line for the next straight and ruin the advantage of a faster guy behind is not quite the same thing. It seemed the smart thing to do. Happens a lot on other tracks where a slower driver will drive slower thru turns where he knows passing is impossible and recharge to the max, then use the battery on the following straight and that is OK. The difference here is George binned the car as a result but I don't think you can attribute that to Alonso's clever planning, he probably doesn't think THAT far ahead nor was Russell right on his ass. It was aero wash, not that close. So I get both sides but IMO if the stewards start questioning these moves, what will come under the scope next? Also Russell has proven quite capable of binning the car in the final laps all by himself and did not leave himself any marging there. Dunno. Seems like a grey area.

Alonso - just for info...

"A bit surprised by a penalty at the end of the race regarding how we should approach the corners or how we should drive the race cars," he wrote.

"At no point do we want to do anything wrong at these speeds. I believe that without gravel on that corner, on any other corner in the world, we will never be even investigated.

"In F1, with over 20 years of experience, with epic duels like Imola 2005/2006/ Brazil 2023, changing racing lines, sacrificing entry speed to have good exits from corners is part of the art of motorsport.

"We never drive at 100% every race lap and every corner, we save fuel, tires, brakes, so being responsible for not making every lap the same is a bit surprising."

I really think the Alonso penalty was BS . His explanation makes sense to me . He's a wiley veteran that knows all the tricks . He didn't do a hard brake check . Russell was caught off guard and lost it . Lessons learned .

That means he's out.

Here are the Sky graphics I mentioned above. The 'track' on the floor moves to make the cars appear to move and the lines are followed. It's pretty cool.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1711391957.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1711391957.jpg

Yeah, I think Alonso's penalty was nonsense. Russel's car was superior in the higher speed sections of the track, Alonso's was superior coming out of the lower speed corners. Russel was clearly going to pass him on that last lap. So, what to do? Try to catch him out and force him to exit that corner at a lower speed, where the Aston Martin had an advantage. Perfectly viable race strategy. The fact that Russel was caught sleeping is on him, not Alonso.

^ bbbbut, its George Russell, he never makes mistakes.

… but maybe Alonso did brake check, he has a history https://youtu.be/h_kPeNlPOJ4?feature=shared

He’s more ruthless than Russell.

I still say it was a dirty calculated move. Then blame the gravel? He knew it was there.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1711415336.jpg

Alonso knew what he was doing.

As for the remote broadcast by Karun, Naomi and Nat, it probably would have been cheaper to fly them there.