The 2017 Season

[Matt]

But running pace at Australia often doesn't translate very well to the other races anyway, and a rainy qualifying session followed by a dry race would make Sunday even crazier than it usually is here.

[Penfold]

Re: Melbourne not being a great yardstick.  You wouldn't know from my previous comment but I was thinking that very thing yesterday afternoon - and also that the development race this year should yield some nice fat gains.

[Chrill]

Wehrlein has withdrawn from the Australian GP. He is to be replaced by Antonio Giovinazzi. Fitness concerns and shite.

[Penfold]

... and wasn't Giovinazzi impressive in qualifying.  Straight into the car and only a couple of tenths behind Ericsson.

[Chrill]

Indeed. Very impressive. Keep in mind though that Giovinazzi did 2 days of testing at Barcelona. He should know the car OK, but he has never driven the Melbourne circuit. He's a total rookie in the truest of words.

Pascal Wehrlein dropping out of an F1 contest for "fitness concerns" is arguably the worst cause of withdrawal ever. Why did he even bother showing up? The FIA cleared him. Maybe he's just not "feeling up to it". God damnit. I'd prefer to see Giovinazzi take that seat for the season. If we're judging from Giovinazzi's pace in quali in a brand new car with less than 20 laps of experience of the circuit, he is easily fast enough for F1. He'd definitely be able to take the battle to Ericsson and nobody would be surprised if the rookie ended up scoring the best results.

[Penfold]

Gio certainly didn't do his stock any harm with that performance; just a pity Son of Eric ground to a halt when a top ten was on the cards.

[Chrill]

Allow me to question something. If Pascal isn't "fit enough" for Australia some 2 months after his incident at Race of Champions, why would he be fit for China just 14 days later? China is way more aggressive, higher speeds and faster corners. If he is fit enough for China, then clearly something other than fitness is the real reason he pulled out of this race. Something is fishy.

[Penfold]

I know he cited fitness as reason for withdrawal, but I do wonder if hammering round Albert Park in practice didn't simply cause his back to act up.

[Chrill]

In Barcelona pre-season practice, he only ran half days. Ericsson had to fill in during afternoons every day.

[Penfold]

Didn't know that.  Wonder if that was due to him being knackered after half a day's running or from back pain/discomfort.  Either way, makes it less of a surprise that he couldn't manage a full race weekend... and more of a surprise that Sauber believed he could.

[Chrill]

He was scheduled to run 2 days, and Marcus 2 days, at the second pre-season test. He ran 3 mornings, Ericsson ran 3 afternoons and one full day.

Giovinazzi had 2 days in the car in the first pre-season test. Let's say if he doesn't get a seat at Sauber, he will be driving an F1 car somewhere else before too long. Heck, I wouldn't mind Ferrari promoting him directly for 2018 if Kimi doesn't stay on for yet another year. An Italian in a competitive Ferrari, wouldn't that be something?

[Penfold]

It's been over thirty years since the last time it happened so we're overdue.

[Penfold]

Renault expected to provide a decent power boost for Montreal: Bull http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/128698/red-bull-waiting-on-canada-renault-upgrade

I was disappointed at Red Bull's pace compared to Merc/Ferrari in Aus (although stronger in race than quali), but hopefully upgrades from Renault and tweaks to their chassis/aero can close the gap and provide us that rarely observed beast: the three-way constructors fight.

[Chrill]

When did we last have 3 teams winning races on merit in a season?

In 2016, only Mercedes won on merit. Red Bull inherited wins at Spain and Malaysia.
In 2015, Ferrari won on merit in Singapore, arguably Malaysia too. Mercedes won the rest
In 2014, (and I'm now using Wikipedia to remember), Red Bull won in Hungary on merit and inherited 1-2 other races. Mercedes for the rest.
In 2013, the last year of the old engine formula, we might have had 3 winners. Lotus won on merit in Australia, Ferrari on merit in Spain, Red Bull on merit almost everywhere, and then a couple Mercedes wins too.
In 2012, we had that crazy 7 winners in 7 races but that was down to Pirelli producing tyres nobody understood. Button, Alonso, Rosberg, Vettel, MALDONADO, Webber, Hamilton. The first 5 races were won by 5 different teams!! Near the end of the season, we also had a win from a 6th team (Lotus) with Kimi Raikkonen.

So yeah, it's been a while.

[Penfold]

Basing it off WCC points and the ability to win races throughout a season (as opposed to snatching one through good fortune or because your car happens to be nifty round a particular type of track), then 2012 definitely qualifies as a three-way battle, and I'd say 2010 as well.  Scroll back a bit through Wiki... 2003 also seems a likely candidate with Ferrari, Williams & McLaren close right to the end.