Any F1 fans

Hamilton finished 5 in the Mercedes and said he will do better next race the tyres are the weak point from the race in Australia as he was to do a two stop but had to change to a 3 stop other wise he would be higher up the grid

Lets hope so

 

Aye I'm a F1 fan here too,

Mercedes doing better than I thought, their tyre issue from last year they appear to have sorted out.

Sepang will be interesting to see what happens, though I don't think we'll see McLaren up there any time soon

 

Yes the first race is always a weird one to get a idea on what's to come but let's hope it's a good year

 

Hamilton need everything to work perfectly for him to win a race, he tends to be gung ho and makes big mistakes when he is under pressure...Lots of better drivers in F1

 

I wouldn't agree but that's your view I like him as a driver and he can only get better as he comes to know the new car

Yes their are other good drivers I only mentioned him here as he is driving a Mercedes now ..... Well as near to a Mercedes as you can get these days

 

Yes, the racing was a secondary interest. What about Suzy Perry???

 

Well the season is early let the fun begin

 

Mercedes had a good start to the Championship with Hamilton qualifying his car in third place while team-mate Nico Rosberg was seventh. And although Rosberg did not reach the chequered flag in Melbourne and Hamilton dropped to fifth, it was - compared to last season - a sure sign that Mercedes are edging closer to the front. "I always like to go forwards rather than backwards, but overall it is a really good step for the team. It was great," said Hamilton. "I'm really happy, way better than we ever expected for the first grand prix, so it's a good place to start. "We've a good platform to work from. The car felt good and I enjoyed every moment. The only thing is we're going to have to figure out where we lost time to other people. "I don't know how they managed to pull away from us so quickly at the start, but we'll keep pushing and we'll get there eventually." Asked whether he was confident that the gap to the front runners was bridgeable, Hamilton said: "Yes, it definitely is. We've a good chance to close up because we've some good things in the pipeline. I really feel we can compete with those guys. The Brit, though, stopped short of predicting that his W04 could be turned into a race-winning car. "Only time will tell," he told the Daily Mail. "If we look back maybe some of the guys will feel a bit frustrated we didn't finish where we started from, or even further forward. "But that's a good feeling to have because we came here not knowing what would happen."

 

She struck me as being nervous, unsure of herself and wearing far too many clothes.

 

Would rather have Natalie Pinkham on SKY!!!

 

mmmmm Suzi Perry



Just imagine Suzi Perry and Carol Vorderman together

 

Given that Lotus currently do not have a main sponsor, winning the first race will not have harmed their chances of securing one, will they be able to provide Kimi with a competitive car through to the end of the season?

Mic

 

Couldnt disagree with you more. Hamilton has scored more wins despite not starting on the front row of the grid than any driver bar Alonso, who has around 60 more Grand Prix on Hamilton and 2 WDC before Hamilton made his debut compared to Vettel who has only ever scored 2 wins from outside the front row.

If you look at race retirements since his debut only around 25% are down to enforced driver error, the others are "racing accidents" or car failure.

Hamilton has completed more overtakes than anyone else in F1 in the last 5 years. Next closest is Alonso.

Hamiltons 1 lap qualifying pace is traditionally around 0.3 sec per lap quicker than his team mate. Only beaten by Alonso and Vettel who do not have pedigree world champion team mates like Hamilton had with Alonso then Button.

Yes Hamilton is a bit gung ho but so was Senna, Mansell, Clarke, Moss, Hunt, Montoya drivers who could extract from the car what wasn't really there, who drove with flair and are never afraid to take a risk or 3. Its these drivers who get really remembered the ones who run away with wins from pole position in a car twice as superior like Vettel or Schumacher in his heyday are not really greats but just stat builders.

It would be interesting to see Vettel up against Alonso in a Ferrari or even Hamilton in a Red Bull. We know Hamilton has stood toe to toe with Alonso in the same equipment and beaten him. Im not sure Vettel could do the same. Not without spitting his dummy out the pram anyway and Vettel's wheel to wheel combat is not as superior as Alonso's, Button's or Hamilton's.

For me the the best drivers in F1 right now are Alonso, Hamilton, Raikkonen and Vettel in that order. Then Button, Rosberg, Massa and Webber in that order.

 

+1 ^

 

I think McLaren Mercedes are going to struggle for the first half dozen of races this season. The car simply hasn’t the pace or handling

However it may pay off next season being it is not an evolution of last years car, like most of the front runners this year.

Always glad when the new season kicks off. :grin:

 

I like Hamilton, he's a very exiting driver to watch but can really understand the comment about him being a bit gung ho, he can tend to get frustrated with things not going his way and kind of lose the plot a bit, a couple of races from last season I seem to remember. Definitely better with him on the starting grid than not. Really exited the new season has started even if I did forget to series link it on the new sky box so only caught half the race

 

Without exciting drivers like Lewis formula 1 would be boring. He reminds me, as Steve posted a bit like a modern day Senna.
Lewis has no fear and goes for every opportunity. I'm real happy he has decided to make the move over to mb!
I'm going to the Abu dhabi race later in the year and I can't wait

 

don't forget Julia Bradbury as well.

 

Hamilton: 'We didn't expect to have such a competitive car'




Having started his debut race for Mercedes third on the grid behind the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, Hamilton held his own as during the early stages as he ran longer on his first set of tyres with the team aiming to do only two stops. However, as the race progressed they were forced to change their strategy to three stops as the tyres wore off pretty quickly during the second stint. Although he had to settle for fifth place in the end, the 28-year-old believes they had a good weekend at Albert Park and feels they will improve even further at the Malaysian GP. "We didn't expect to have such a competitive car," he is quoted as saying by BBC Sport. "Some people will be like, 'Oh, it wasn't great' but I think fifth's good. I had to come in and changes tyres and 27 laps on that tyre [wasn't possible], so we had to covert to a three-stop strategy. I think we'll have a good race in Malaysia."

 

Lauda: 'The situation with the tyres is absolutely stupid'




Niki Lauda has slammed the tyre situation in formula one, accusing Pirelli and the FIA of confusing the fans. "The situation with the tyres is absolutely stupid," the forthright triple world champion, broadcaster and Mercedes team chairman and shareholder said. "Artificially creating more and more pitstops is wrong," Lauda told German newspaper Bild. "Pirelli can't really help it as they are only doing what the FIA ordered them to do, but 90 per cent of the time no one understands what is happening in the races now." Pole sitter Sebastian Vettel finished the 2013 season opener third on Sunday, while Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen did one fewer pitstop and surprisingly won for Lotus from seventh on the grid. Lauda said the current situation, with the tyres more influential than ever before, is confusing for the fans. "My advantage is that I can ask our (Mercedes) engineers. The fans cannot. But even our people are confused. When the tyres are so soft, it's bad for formula one. The fans don't understand if there are more than two pitstops. (For F1) it's a fundamentally wrong path." Pirelli's Paul Hembery hit back: "Many fans have told us they think the racing is more exciting now."