Official F1/Motorsport thread

[Kieran76]

It's a terribe circuit though, like most of these modern ones in my opinion. I am sure the first corner at Albert Park will be a lot more exciting.

[NW2013]

Could be in the irk thread really but does Legard have to say "battle has been joined" or some variation thereupon every. F*CKING. race??

[Kieran76]

Quality, my mate came round today to watch the race and he said exactly the same thing. I wish they would swap him for David Croft from Radio 5.

[Shez]

What a dull race.

Everyone was too busy preserving their tyres to worry about racing.

[toythatkills]

Rule changes=phenomenally boring race. Probably won't bother with this again.

[ChrisF]

A lot of the drivers have come out and said its pretty much impossible to overtake.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8567043.stm

[abigsmurf]

Saw the first half of the race and it was incredibly boring.

The rule changes have done nothing to encourage tighter racing with more overtaking. Instead they seem to have made them worse by reducing pit stops (the only time when real action takes place).

What's it going to be like in Monaco? Is it going to go the whole race with the top 6 never changing places?

[On The Edge of Insanity]

It was a very boring start to the season, but Bahrain has never exactly been the most exciting of tracks, so hopefully things will improve.

My main concern is that every finisher - except Hulkenberg - comfortably made it through the race with just one tyre stop. In the first race since the rule change and with such hot conditions you would have expected a few more drivers to wear out their tyres and be forced to pit.

If tyre wear is going to be low enough that drivers only need to pit once every race then it is going to be a very boring season, but Bridgestone could address this by providing less durable tyres. If it was harder to get through the race with just one tyre stop then this would introduce more strategy, with some opting for the performance boost of another set of fresh rubber, while others tried to make do with just one stop.

Things could improve in the next few races as teams get used to the new regulations and start to experiment with different strategies, but at the moment I am unconvinced.

[PeteJ]

On one hand I think it worked ok - there was interest throughout the race as cars further down the pack suddenly got fastest laps, however on the other it was clear that few were driving to the limit. Something is wrong when the world champion says after the race that he spent almost the entire time taking care of tyres.

It's difficult to say if it was a success or not though, the track has never had any particularly good races.

[toythatkills]

On one hand I think it worked ok - there was interest throughout the race as cars further down the pack suddenly got fastest laps

That's the thing. When Jaime Alguesuari in 29th place is getting fastest laps it just shows how slow everyone else is going.

[Rossco]

Yeh that's one thing that stuck in my head when I seen him get fastest lap. Something is not right when that happens. Also, fastest lap was 4 seconds off qualifying time I believe?wouldn't it be benificial to make another stop for new tyres and make faster laps closer to the qualy times or am I missing something?

[Darwock]

The first half was dull but I thought the end was pretty exciting, specifically regarding where Schumacher was going to finish.

I'm lost on all the rule changes so I don't have a clear picture of what's going on... even if I understood the Japanese commentary perfectly, they don't seem to know much about the sport and probably aren't discussing it.

[Richard.John]

They screwed it up didn't they? No drivers just cruise to preserve the tyres, unlike the super sprints we have had since '94.

[cutmymilk]

Yeh that's one thing that stuck in my head when I seen him get fastest lap. Something is not right when that happens. Also, fastest lap was 4 seconds off qualifying time I believe?wouldn't it be benificial to make another stop for new tyres and make faster laps closer to the qualy times or am I missing something?

In theory you are right but then they would just be stuck behind cars with worn tyres anyway, and would have lost a load of places by pitting. The only way to fix it would be to say that drivers have to make at least 2 stops.

[Malc]

In theory you are right but then they would just be stuck behind cars with worn tyres anyway, and would have lost a load of places by pitting. The only way to fix it would be to say that drivers have to make at least 2 stops.

I agree, not only would cars be pitting more often like the previous seasons, but drivers will be able to push harder just before they come in, and it's when they are pushing harder, that's when we get to see more exciting racing.

I do just think all this could have been avoided by leaving refuelling as it was.