F1 2026: Australian GP - Melbourne (Mar 8)

You know that next door neighbour you really hate that fires up his 2 stroke gardening equipment on a Sunday morning? Well that’s any of the cars with a Merc engine coming out of the pit.

The Ferrari is the only one to not cause homicidal tendencies.

The Audi is a chainsaw mosquito.

The start on Sunday is going to be crazy.

RichardInCA wrote

Great to see these times coming in for Fp1….still last year’s FP1 times were 1:17’s so were some way off that pace, but looking forward to seeing much bigger spread of times across the grid this year.

Amazingly tight times among top teams in FP1: Ferrari, RedBull, Mercedes, RacingBull, Audi all within 0.6 seconds of each other!
McLaren within 1.0 of the leaders, though struggling with electric and gearbox issues.

4 Haas and Williams are much further back.

4 CaddyRarris and Alpines are way further back, shuffling among themselves for the last 4 spots among those still running.

Williams was the first to break down with hydraulic pressure and cause yellow flags.
AM barely dirtied the tires before calling it quits.

a

LN1 spent most of FP1 talking to his engineers (in the garage) ...

Stroll did an out lap i think

Alo didn't show his face

Ricky from Ferrari is gone to drink more tea

So far Ferrari and RB seem class of the field. Strong outing from Audi.

Are any of guys watching FP1 with the Sky F1 commentary on Apple TV? I can’t seem to get that commentary only the international commentary even though Apple said they would have both feeds. Not a fan of the international commentary, pretty bland.

RichardInCA wrote

So far Ferrari and RB seem class of the field. Strong outing from Audi.

Order restored: McLaren, Merc, Merc, Ferrari, Ferrari , RB, McLaren, RacingBull, RB. Then the rest.

Looks to me like McLaren and Mercedes have been sand bagging until now.
CaddiRarri and AM may, or may not, qualify within 107%!

FP2 FTD is 1:19.729 with significant fuel load.
Looks like year's top quali time of 1:15.096 might be safe.



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Autoaddict wrote

Are any of guys watching FP1 with the Sky F1 commentary on Apple TV? I can’t seem to get that commentary only the international commentary even though Apple said they would have both feeds. Not a fan of the international commentary, pretty bland.

If you go to the race on the app and then scroll down you’ll find the sky feed - only available live I think

A few photos. Including when Fernando finally appears and interesting perspective shot of the pit lane. Plus my overall view. There are better stands for action but it?s a decent spot.

Oscar suddenly looking good! His stand was cheering. For P2!

Weather down here is so weird. T shirt weather in the sun. Genuine jacket weather in the shade.

Ooh. The V8s are on now! Finally some nice sounds.

Davil wrote

A few photos. Including when Fernando finally appears and interesting perspective shot of the pit lane. Plus my overall view.

Cool pictures

Do you notice anything about the AMR cars as a spectator that they vibrate excessively? Different sounds?

I see some late braking with brakes that don't bite enough to stay on the track though probably just getting the feel of how far they can go.

Killed by Death wrote

The plate partially covering the exhaust outlet has got my attention.

M5Rick wrote

I see some late braking with brakes that don't bite enough to stay on the track though probably just getting the feel of how far they can go.

FP2 : A rather uncomfortable moment for MAX at Turn 10 .

Ough (!)

https://x.com/i/status/2029800566847623680

///M Power-Belgium wrote

FP1 : A rather uncomfortable moment for MAX at Turn 10 .

Ough (!)

https://x.com/i/status/2029800566847623680

Yeah just a bit of CF missing, he's measuring up for the quali.
Did you see dopey RUS trying to push in and LIN putting his foot down standing for no nonsense: New wing needed for 63 being pushed back

"I think, especially at the moment, if you can just have the car operate roughly how you expect it to, then you find a huge amount of lap time, and I think that's probably a big thing at the moment. I think we've been there or thereabouts with our pace." - - - Oscar Piastri (after turning fastest lap in fp2)

Davil wrote

A few photos. Including when Fernando finally appears and interesting perspective shot of the pit lane. Plus my overall view. There are better stands for action but it?s a decent spot.

Oscar suddenly looking good! His stand was cheering. For P2!

Weather down here is so weird. T shirt weather in the sun. Genuine jacket weather in the shade.

Ooh. The V8s are on now! Finally some nice sounds.

Can you hear the clipping track side?

The onboards look/sound like they lifted because of mistake, but they are still on push lap. It is so weird.

Full throttle but losing 50kph due to superclipping by end of straight. Max was lift and coast before turn 6, looks like he was backing off for cool down...but it is a push lap.

///M Power-Belgium wrote

FP2 : A rather uncomfortable moment for MAX at Turn 10 .

Ough (!)

https://x.com/i/status/2029800566847623680

Yeah that was a close call. Good save.

Last thing any of these teams need right now, is to right off a car.

Conor Moore:

Examples of super-clipping during FP1 and FP2.

Imagine this at tracks like Baku, Monza, Las Vegas, etc.

It is going to be bad.

Damn, work has been hectic lately

Thanks GuidoK for setting this up

I'm calling it now, Checo and Stroll win the championship but because they knock each other out on the podium, Max comes in and just takes the trophy and walks home

In all seriousness though, for Australia I am predicting:

1. Max
2. Oscar
3. Lando
4. Kimi
5. Charles

Georgina to DNF still

Hope everyone is well

Apparently AMR has only 2 batteries left (so one for each car); those vibrations apparantly broke a lot of batteries in Bahrein.
A few weeks ago I didn't expect these kind of major problems at AMR. At Williams...sure

M3WC wrote

Examples of super-clipping during FP1 and FP2.

Imagine this at tracks like Baku, Monza, Las Vegas, etc.

It is going to be bad.

super clipping used to be called harvesting (recharging the battery). i don't understand why they have to have a hybrid that doesn't do anything useful. imagine if Aston Martin just took out the EV and just run on ICE and raced against these guys, could be just as fast!

this is exactly why i don't buy PHEVs.

either you have a pure ICE or a pure EV.

GuidoK wrote

Conor Moore:

Laurent Mekies looks much better than usual ...