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[Other Sport] F1 2025







Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,399
Uckfield
Race 1 in the bag.

Nothing like a little light rain to help spice things up. So, what can we conclude from race weekend 1?

  • McLaren do appear to be starting the season in a strong position. Everyone else will need to be on top of their game to challenge them.
  • Oscar and Norris very closely matched? So even if McLaren are dominant, we might have a decent WDC chase regardless.
  • Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes do appear to fill the rest of the top 4 - but in what order will it all settle down?
  • Lots of rookies on the grid = a bit of chaos. Hadjar will a formation lap spin, Doohan caught out on lap 1, Bortoleto and Lawson caught out when the rain came back. But Antonelli - what a drive from him (although he had his own off-track spin).
  • Doohan matched Gasly, even slightly shaded him, all the way until Qually 2 when a Hamilton yellow flag got in the way.
  • Sainz and Hamilton both still have work to do getting comfortable in their new cars.
 


Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
38,663
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
Race 1 in the bag.

Nothing like a little light rain to help spice things up. So, what can we conclude from race weekend 1?

  • McLaren do appear to be starting the season in a strong position. Everyone else will need to be on top of their game to challenge them.
  • Oscar and Norris very closely matched? So even if McLaren are dominant, we might have a decent WDC chase regardless.
  • Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes do appear to fill the rest of the top 4 - but in what order will it all settle down?
  • Lots of rookies on the grid = a bit of chaos. Hadjar will a formation lap spin, Doohan caught out on lap 1, Bortoleto and Lawson caught out when the rain came back. But Antonelli - what a drive from him (although he had his own off-track spin).
  • Doohan matched Gasly, even slightly shaded him, all the way until Qually 2 when a Hamilton yellow flag got in the way.
  • Sainz and Hamilton both still have work to do getting comfortable in their new cars.
Hopefully everyone who was interested has watched the race by now or at least seen the result or highlights.

Interesting to note that "even tougher" rear wing flex checks will be done in China. This as a result of observing all teams in Melbourne so perhaps nothing to change the pecking order immediately. However, front wing flex is going to come under scrutiny from Spain onwards. Will this affect the McLarens in your opinion?

 


Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,399
Uckfield
Hopefully everyone who was interested has watched the race by now or at least seen the result or highlights.

Interesting to note that "even tougher" rear wing flex checks will be done in China. This as a result of observing all teams in Melbourne so perhaps nothing to change the pecking order immediately. However, front wing flex is going to come under scrutiny from Spain onwards. Will this affect the McLarens in your opinion?


I personally think it will affect all the leading teams. Question is how much relative to each other.

Will be very interesting to see how Red Bull go at China. Securing 3rd on the grid and 2nd in the race was a Max Verstappen special. They've clearly got issues (they're still trying out 2 different front wing specs, and they've openly admitted their floor isn't working how they'd like), and that manifested as the first stint went long and the tyres wore down - Max lost ground rapidly on the two McLaren's. Looks like he can mix it with them through the first part of a stint while the tyres are fresh, but once they begin to wear he's going to drift and be vulnerable.

The midfield could be a really interesting watch this season. OK, it was rain affected, but we've got multiple teams that look like they could be scoring points whenever they get a weekend right. And that includes Sauber, surprisingly, but does not include Haas.

Williams, Racing Bulls, Alpine, Aston Martin should all score regular points, and Sauber has the potential to score occasionally. How quickly can Haas fix their car?

The points situation will be really mixed I think, especially early season while those rookies are still settling in. Just 2 out of the 6 starting their first full season finished the race, with 3 of those who didn't finish being potential points scorers (Hadjar, Lawson, Doohan).
 


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