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2016 Australia Thoughts

THE BIG PICTURE: Steve Matchett said it best, "Ladies and gentlemen, I think we got ourselves a championship." Don't worry about the actual results. The Ferrari in race trim is competitive.

TRACK: Having said that, let's also point out that Melbourne is typically not a good indicator on how the season unfolds. Let's wait to see what happens in Bahrain before we go totally ga-ga.

EVENT: It's become a nice tradition having Australia kick off the season. Now, if we can only get Brazil to end the season instead of god forsaken Abu Dhabi.

QUALIFYING: If qualifying is dependent on the timing of where you are on the track versus actual speed on the track, then by definition, qualifying is a colossal failure.

RACE: The top three may have virtually duplicated last year, but this year was a whole other story.

START: Who needs a whacked out qualifying system to shake up the grid? A crazy start will do that for you.

ROSBERG: Now Nico's winning when it counts. But, he started the season the same in 2014...

HAMILTON: A new, mellower Lewis? He actually seemed happy after not winning a race.

MERCEDES: The Silver Arrows is still the team to beat, but maybe ... or is it desperate hope ... they are not as far ahead as the past two years.

VETTEL: Sebastian would have won this race had it not been for the red flag, botched pit stop, and poor tire choice. Sure, that's a trio of "ifs" but it points out how competitive Ferrari just may be.

RAIKKONEN: Even Kimi was running well, until his luck continued to get worse.

FERRARI: Okay, it appears you got a good car. The red flag was just bad luck. But, why did you have to go aggressive on the tire choice when you probably did not need to?

RICCIARDO: Not so fast, Toro Rosso youngsters. I'm still the top Red Bull driver.

KVYAT: Just like 2015, your season has yet to start. Daniil should have stayed in Russia.

RED BULL: What, no whining?

MASSA: Once again, Felipe either doesn't impress or quietly gets an excellent finish.

BOTTAS: Once again, the "future" star Valteri is beaten by Massa.

WILLIAMS: Nice, smooth fast pit stops. Imagine that!

TORO ROSSO: Looks like they borrowed the Williams pit crew...

SAINZ: Carlos always believed he was just as good as Jos, but circumstances prevented him from proving that last year. He plans on fixing that this year.

VERSTAPPEN: Max's teenage impatience finally caught up with him.

HAAS F1: For the past year, many fans on message boards, mostly Europeans, were criticizing Haas F1 at every opportunity in a seemingly xenophobic anti-American Formula 1 attack as if an American team cannot possibly be successful. Now, those fans are eating crow. A heaping tray full of crow.

GROSJEAN: Unable to see his former team in the mirrors. So far, Romain is very happy with the risky move to a brand new team.

RENAULT: Welcome back to F1. We'll give you a year to reverse the sad saga of Lotus.

PALMER: Not a bad performance, all things considered.

MAGNUSSEN: Welcome back to F1. Despite the team, Kevin needs to prove himself this year.

ROSSI: Disappointing Alexander couldn't stay in F1.

HARYANTO: But, it's tough to beat out someone who had an entire country paying his way.

WEHRLEIN: However, Pascal deserves this shot.

RED FLAG: Thirty years ago, maybe less, Alonso would have been dead. Certainly back in the so-called but untrue good old days of the 60s and 70s. Which is why those people criticizing the halo makes us sick. We are long past the time where drivers should die in a race car.

ALONSO: Interesting how Fernando is not laying blame on anyone. Is it because he knows he screwed up? Or, is it truly because he's just glad to be alive and truly sees it as a racing incident.

GUTIERREZ: Also interesting Esteban just so happens to be the one involved.

SAUBER: Once again, money problems. Couldn't happen to a better team principal...

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Thankful.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 0 -- The number of pit stops Haas F1 actually performed despite one car finishing sixth.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: The last team to score points in its debut race was Toyota in 2002 at Australia. Mika Salo finished sixth, which back then was worth one point. Toyota would get just one more point the rest of the entire season -- two races later at Brazil, Salo would score another sixth place finish -- and that would be it for the year.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Christian Horner absolutely nails the key reason why the new qualifying system was such an abject failure, "Qualifying should be building up to a crescendo."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Then there's a fan's message board posting which also nailed it, "What? Is F1 trying to be the new IndyCar? Just keep trying to "fix" things until nobody's interested anymore?"

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP 2: Romain Grosjean understanding the great irony, "A French driver in an American team, never say never."

SCHEDULE: Yeah, they should still dump Bahrain, but it's worth looking forward to if for nothing else to really see where Ferrari stacks up against Mercedes.

Copyright © 2016 by Deep Throttle. All Rights Reserved.



RACE RESULTS
  Driver Laps
1. Rosberg 57
2. Hamilton 57
3. Vettel 57
4. Ricciardo 57
5. Massa 57
6. Grosjean 57
7. Hulkenberg 57
8. Bottas 57
9. Sainz 57
10. Verstappen 57
11. Palmer(R) 57
12. Magnussen 57
13. Perez 57
14. Button 56
15. Nasr 56
16. Wehrlein(R) 56
NC Ericsson 38
NC Raikkonen 21
NC Haryanto(R) 17
NC Gutierrez 16
NC Alonso 16
NC Kvyat DNS

Time of Race
1:48:15.565

Margin of Victory
8.060 sec.

Safety Car
1 for 3 laps

Lead Changes
4 among 3 drivers

Lap Leaders
Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen

Fastest Race Lap
Daniel Ricciardo

Pole Position
Lewis Hamilton

CURRENT STANDINGS
  Driver Pts.
1. Rosberg 25
2. Hamilton 18
3. Vettel 15
4. Ricciardo 12
5. Massa 10
6. Grosjean 8
7. Hulkenberg 6
8. Bottas 4
9. Sainz 2
10. Verstappen 1

  Team Pts.
1. Mercedes 43
2. Ferrari 15
3. Williams 14
4. Red Bull 12
5. Haas 8
6. Force India 6
7. Toro Rosso 3
 
 

2024 Thoughts
Bahrain Saudi Arabia Australia Japan
China Miami Emilia Romagna Monaco
Canada Spain Austria Great Britain
Hungary Belgium Holland Italy
Azerbaijan Singapore United States Mexico City
Sao Paulo Las Vegas Qatar Abu Dhabi

2023 Thoughts
Bahrain Saudi Arabia Australia Azerbaijan
Miami Emilia Romagna Monaco Spain
Canada Austria Great Britain Hungary
Belgium Holland Italy Singapore
Japan Qatar United States Mexico City
Sao Paulo Las Vegas Abu Dhabi

2022 Thoughts
Bahrain Saudi Arabia Australia Emilia Romagna
Miami Spain Monaco Azerbaijan
Canada Great Britain Austria France
Hungary Belgium Holland Italy
Singapore Japan United States
Mexico City Sao Paulo Abu Dhabi

2021 Thoughts
Bahrain Emilia Romagna Portugal Spain Monaco
Azerbaijan France Steiermark Austria Great Britain
Hungary Belgium Holland Italy
Russia Turkey United States Mexico City
Sao Paulo Qatar Saudi Arabia Abu Dhabi

2020 Thoughts
Austria Steiermark Hungary Great Britain Anniversary
Spain Belgium Italy Tuscany
Russia Eifel Portugal Emilia Romagna
Turkey Bahrain Sakhir Abu Dhabi

2019 Thoughts
Australia Bahrain China Azerbaijan Spain
Monaco Canada France Austria
Great Britain Germany Hungary Belgium
Italy Singapore Russia Japan
Mexico United States Brazil Abu Dhabi

2018 Thoughts
Australia Bahrain China Azerbaijan Spain
Monaco Canada France Austria
Great Britain Germany Hungary Belgium
Italy Singapore Russia Japan
United States Mexico Brazil Abu Dhabi

2017 Thoughts
Australia China Bahrain Russia
Spain Monaco Canada Azerbaijan
Austria Great Britain Hungary Belgium
Italy Singapore Malaysia Japan
United States Mexico Brazil Abu Dhabi

2016 Thoughts
Australia Bahrain China Russia Spain
Monaco Canada Europe Austria
Great Britain Hungary Germany Belgium
Italy Singapore Malaysia Japan
United States Mexico Brazil Abu Dhabi

2015 Thoughts
Australia Malaysia China Bahrain
Spain Monaco Canada Austria
Great Britain Hungary Belgium Italy
Singapore Japan Russia United States
Mexico Brazil Abu Dhabi

2014 Thoughts
Australia Malaysia Bahrain China
Spain Monaco Canada Austria
Great Britain Germany Hungary Belgium
Italy Singapore Japan Russia
United States Brazil Abu Dhabi

2013 Thoughts
Australia Malaysia China Bahrain
Spain Monaco Canada Great Britain
Germany Hungary Belgium Italy
Singapore South Korea Japan India
Abu Dhabi United States Brazil

2012 Thoughts
Australia Malaysia China Bahrain
Spain Monaco Canada Europe
Great Britain Germany Hungary Belgium
Italy Singapore Japan South Korea
India Abu Dhabi United States Brazil

2011 Thoughts
Australia Malaysia China Turkey
Spain Monaco Canada Europe
Great Britain Germany Hungary Belgium
Italy Singapore Japan South Korea
India Abu Dhabi Brazil

2010 Thoughts
Bahrain Australia Malaysia China
Spain Monaco Turkey Canada
Europe Great Britain Germany Hungary
Belgium Italy Singapore Japan
South Korea Brazil Abu Dhabi

2009 Thoughts
Australia Malaysia China Bahrain
Spain Monaco Turkey Great Britain
Germany Hungary Europe
Belgium Italy Singapore
Japan Brazil Abu Dhabi


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