I plan to cover the entire 2018 Formula One Championship Season. I would go as follows:-
Would cover the Qualifying and give predictions for the Race and will cover the Race in brief in my subsequent posts.
I have a few promises to make:-
- I am an out and out Sebastian Vettle Fan, but I will give my best to be impartial.
- I will try not to geek out and keep things simple during the course of the year.
- I will post about the gossip that may do the rounds during the year. Hint:- Daniel Ricciardo is a free agent in 2019, lots to come here.
Lets Begin:-
The new guys on the block:-
-Pierre Gasly for Torro Rosso
-Brendon Hartley for Torro Rosso, he joined the Team from the US GP onwards, so I would still consider him on this list.
-Charles Leclerc for Sauber, tons of talent here, I just hope he gets into a top team fast and doesn’t become one of those drivers who have ton of talent but never get a chance to showcase it.
-Sergey Sirotkin for Williams, it was quite a winter for Williams while choosing their drivers between Sirotkin and Rober Kubica but at the end money trumps, sorry I meant youth.
Rest of the Driver Line up stays the same as last year.
There will be 21 Races in the 2018 Season, with France GP filling in for the outgoing Malaysian GP.
The Liberty Media Effect
With the Americans taking over the sport properly this year, there is a lot of expectation for it to be more entertaining and generally American. They ended last year with changing the Formula 1 logo,and a lot of new updates in the way the show is presented to its audience.
Their Youtube channel has been producing really fun and attractive videos covering the run up to the start of the season, it shows that they are trying to not only attract new audience to the sport but are spicing things up for the current lot.
Even with the Qualifying they have idiot proofed a lot of graphics and in general given that Liberty touch and everything just looks that much better. I am looking forward for the Midas touch on the graphics for Race Day.
I am a die hard F1 fan and I really don’t follow any other sport, I want F1 to be what it once was and I think Liberty has the chops to get that done.
Rule Changes for 2018
Halo,Halo and Halo, they say it will keep the drivers safer but Iam not onboard and I think, it has made Liberty Media’s job to make the sport look exciting a little tougher.
I promised I won’t geek out, so anyone interested about this please go to www.247grandprix.com and get the details.
THE AUSTRALIAN GP 2018
Q1
It had rained during FP3 and made things tricky during the First Qualifying session.
The Mercs showed great pace as expected and so did Ferrari and RedBull.
I must say the Haas impressed us all and Force India kind of did not shine at all, but did enough to push to Q2 an I think it had a lot to do with their drivers.
Q2
Was fun with Vettle setting a blistering time right at the end of Q2, just sowing what the Ferrari’s have got.
Mercs looked as expected, fast. Max was quick and looked comfortable in his Redbull, Daniel did not look like he was having fun, with his engineer telling him that there was time to be made in his lap.
Q2 saw them eliminated.
The eliminated were really good but the others just outshined, like Haas and Renault.
Q3
Saw Valterri Bottas crashing out even before setting his lap and spoiling Lewis’s ongoing lap, forcing a red flag.
I won’t lie but hamilton just dominated this session, either it was Mercedes so called Party Mode or just pure talent. He set a blistering dream like pace, no one even had a chance.
I was surprised with Vettle’s Lap which was slower than Kimi’s.
Everyone else was as expected and nothing else surprised here with the top three being as below:-
Final Lineup
Penalties:
- Daniel Ricciardo has a 3 Place grid penalty, due to an incident in FP2.
- Bottas got a 5 place penalty for a Gear Box change from a crash that measured 27Gs.
Predictions for Race Day
- Kimi Raikonene
- Lewis Hamilton
- Sebastian Vettle
