TBK-Light.com

There's a difference between complaining about hypothetical scenarios and complaining about something that did happen, though. Got no problem with the speed or sound of the cars, or the unreliability. But the second half of the race was a procession. Malaysia may be better, and there will be good races this year, but you can't really deny that there was very little on-track action after that safety car period, and I wonder if this is going to be something that's going to be repeated as the drivers just try to get the cars home instead of genuinely racing

In what universe was it going to be any other way? The same thing happens every time when there's a major rules change to start a season and the first event is a bit dull (see Daytona 500 2013, Clipsal 500 2013, Melbourne GP 2009).

Nobody with any experience in motorsport should be expecting a lot of aggressive racing or tight finishes when a new rules era starts, that's just naive.

_________________

I thought it was a good race. It wasn't amazing but it was good enough. Some interesting stuff, some oh crap moments and signs that we might have some good competition as the season develops.

Kobayashi's told Sky that he lost rear brakes due to a KERS failure.

I'm guessing this is Jan. Surprisingly the lack of hype around Kevin compared to when Hamilton did a similar feat

_________________
"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

Ant pointing out that a Pre-season concern about the low noses causing cars to sumbarine under cars when hitting them from behind looks like it could indeed be an issue:

Remember that if Bottas didn't have his moment, there wouldn't have been a safety car. Hulk was holding everyone up and the top guys would have been miles ahead. There's no way Bottas would have ended the race higher than 4th, and he'd have to have passed Alonso to do so, and avoided being jumped by Button at the stops. And found a way past Hulk...

His pace was great, but the mistake probably wasn't that costly in the end.

The Williams was clearly faster than the Ferrari at the time Bottas hit the wall. Button was tootling around in 10th or 11th and a complete non-factor. And Hulk was doing his best Jarno Trulli impression after dragging the Force India to somewhere it shouldn't have been on Saturday.

Ricciardo and Magnussen were not a million miles up the road at that time and when they slowed down towards the end Bottas would have been a part of that.

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Next two races may tell more about reliability. With five units in use for 19 race weekends, that means each should last 3.8 race weekends on average.

Obviously depending whether teams will take new units for Malaysia and then re-use the ones used in Melbourne later.

There have been plenty of good season openers after rule changes. Let's not be selective on this. The first race with the V8s in 2006 was fantastic. That's the worst season opener at Melbourne I can remember since 98 -the only one that compares is Bahrain 2010

In any case, it doesn't really matter why there was no action in most of the race. It doesn't change the fact there was no action, and that's ultimately what F1 lives and dies by. If that had been my first F1 race, I doubt I'd bother to watch the next oe - I'd not be interested in the explanations or apologism, because it wasn't entertaining and that's what I'd go away thinking

The season's not a write-off by any means. I'm just not as optimistic as I was. I'm certainly not convinced forcing the drivers to save fuel is the answer to whatever question those running F1 came up with

There's been a few dull opening races at Melbourne. 1998, 2001, 2004 & 2007 come to mind.

2005 was also pretty awful. Today was good. Not a classic but not awful by 1998 or 2004 standards.

_________________
BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

You should work for NASCAR, they share your "every race should be 10/10 or we've failed" mindset.

_________________

Ricciardo's reportedly under investigation for exceeding the fuel flow rate

My, and I think with me a lot of others', first active memory of F1 racing (bar the odd Spa visit in the 90's without actually knowing what was happening) is the 2001 season. Yet, I'm still here!

Also if RIC gets a punishment, my GP Predictor results are completely down the shithole. #priorities

My first f1 race was the '88 Australian GP when McLaren completely destroyed everyone and not much else happened. Didn't do me any harm!

I became an active F1 viewer in 2002. As someone who didn't liked Schumacher that didn't do me harm either.

I fear RBR will be in the shit here, they have made it clear there would be zero tolerance on the fuel related rules this season.

Yep...

http://t.co/0L3BqVJI5p

_________________
My Flickr photography attempts.
My Youtube channel, with highly viewed (for some reason) NR2003 videos, car shows, motorsport.

so he will be DQed for this race then?