The Official Shift+F1 V6 Thread of Speed

Right I figure we need somewhere for those of us watching practice, quali and the race to chat about what's going on. So here we are. I can hardly believe it but....it's 30 minutes until lights-out in Melbourne. So let's get the ball rolling:

What did you guys think of qualifying?

Anyone even going to attempt to call a winner?

Will there be a crash on turn one?

I wouldn't be surprised with some kind of incident at turn one! And being a swede, I'm really excited to see if Ericsson can get his car through the entire race. As for a winner, with a good start I think Hamilton can have a good chance of pulling trough.

Being in Sweden, the race starts at 7am and I made the great decision (a few beers in) to skip sleep and just stay up and wait for the race. So I'm hoping I'll be able to stay awake all the way! And also, great work on the podcast Danny, it's gonna be a blast to follow the season with you guys! :)

Cars are currently forming up on the grid. So pumped for the start of the new year. Rain has been on and off in Melbourne all day. It looks like it may hold off other then a light sprinkle.

My money is on either Hmilton or Rosberg. Although I would like to see Ricciardo do well.

How many retirements do you think there will be? I'm thinking a lot.

Thanks mate, sorry about a few mistake I made. I've no idea why I called Mercedes 'Petronas'.

Now that I think of it, really I should be asking if there be a crash on turn three. One is relatively close to the start/finish line, but with these new brake systems, the chance of grabbing some easy overtakes and a whole pack trying to judge the braking point - it could get real messy down there. Fingers crossed! ;)

Haven't watched it in the last few years, but might watch a few races this year with all the new rules and Alt+F1.

Difficult to predict the winner since it won't be raining today.

Hamilton had good practice runs and will be starting first. In F1, always bet on the first. So Hamilton will be the Winner.

A crash on turn ? Wouldn't be surprised to see something happen around Vettel. So much of a weird start that something is bound to happen. Right ?

Qualifying was great. Rain always makes everything interesting. Ricciardo and Hamilton battle at the end was great and it has been a while since I got so excited on qualifying.

Other than the fact that I'm Brazilian, I'm excited for checking out Williams' (and Massa's) performance on dry track. I hope they can repeat the Practice sections better performance.

Seems like this year will be a more interesting one, and god knows we need one of those. Here's hoping!

I'm in the same boat as Drew, new to all of this. I watched some CART and Indy as a kid but it was hard to follow a season as the stations I got really only followed the big races and would often cut them off if they ran long.

I've been learning a lot, though. Quick question, what's the general F1 fan opinion of the Sky Sports F1 commentary crew? Are they generally considered the best you're going to find in English?

Christian horner just spoke to Australian TV saying he has absolutely no idea if the cars will make it to the end of the race or not... Love his honesty but yeah.

@digitalerich: they are pretty great. A lot of people love martin brindle and I am one of them. They do a great job.

It doesn't really seem like theres much love between Hamilton and Rosberg. It'll be interesting to see if they manage to work together in the season. I think we might see some crashes around turn 9/10! A lot of drivers were really close to touching the rear right tire in the wall there during practices.

@digitalerich Yeah Brundle and Crofty are great. if you want someone to drop a leeroy Jenkins meme into your F1 race Crofty is your man.

@digitalerich said:

I think the guys they grabbed from the BBC crew are the best (Brundle, Croft, Kravitz). Anthony Davidson is a clever dude, but I'm not a massive fan of Damon Hill & Simon Lazenby.

Also my ultimate claim to fame is meeting David Croft (http://instagram.com/p/erqniAOnec/) and being the fastest tyre (tire) changer in the UK games press. 5.1 seconds.....but he gave me a few attempts because I was one of the only people he met that day who knew anything about F1. Really nice chap.

Oh btw, anybody have any opinions about Grosjeans behavior during the practices? I mean, sure his car wasn't performing the way they would hope it would perform, but I think he acted like a real douche when you heard him talking and complaining on the radio to the team!

Didn't watch a single race in the last few years, but seeing Drew get into it got me all excited for this season (and all the crazy changes.) So now it's 7 a.m. and I haven't slept at all, sitting at my PC, watching a F1 stream.

Been a crazy event so far with a celeb rolling a car, Giz taking 3 wins in the V8's, and that crazy Q3. Cant wait for the race to start, hope Kimi does well.

Bookmakers we're offering about $15 for Ricciardo to podium on Friday... Really wishing I'd put a tenner on despite the questions of the RB reliability after seeing his pace yesterday

Thanks Danny! Watching for first time because of podcast, and it was a great crash course.

Not a lot gets me up earlier than I need to at the weekends, but F1 is one of them. Go, go, go!

@dannyodwyer: Lazenby has got a bit better but he is still very awkward on camera at times. I still kind of resent Sky for breaking up the BBC team Jake DC and EJ where an unbeatable combo.

Morning all

Fantastic opportunity for a young driver to make his mark today. How great would it be to see a rookie like Magnussen plant his F1 flag on the podium.

@t0ffe said:

Yea that was really something. Hardly helping his image much. I think I'd feel a bit sick for him if he crashed here again.

@freshershest: Yeah, I was really impressed with his performance in P3 and Qualifying so that would be really cool to see!

@dannyodwyer: Question, do you prefer the commentators on BBC or Sky Sports F1? I have seen some of both and think that the guys here in the states on NBC Sports are not as good.

This is going to be crazy. I think we might see maybe 1/3 of the field won't finish with mechanicals and crashes.

Looks like they're running late by a few minutes, unless they've decided to get rid of flying laps this year...

I think most of the cars will run out of fuel.

And concerned about the reliability. Anyone with a car can win today.

What do you guys think?

What do.people think the over/under on the number of finishers will be? 11? 12?

Yesss let's do it.

Wouldn't be surprised if Vettel gets caught up in some mid-pack shenanigans at the start.

Anyone remember years ago when only 4 cars reached the finish in Monte Carlo? That was so hilarious.

You might have a point with the fuel. I wonder how many teams actually ran enough race distances during testing to have a good idea about fuel consumption.

It's going to be fun for sure.

@khann: I hope so

@jrht80: I think we'll have around 10 cars finishing. I think Grosjean will be one of the first to go. He'll be pissed starting from the pit and I think he might make some stupid misstakes because of that.

Trouble for Vettel?

Holy crap, Grosjean drew a drive trough for leaving the pits to early! He's probably a very angry man right now!

RoGro with the drive through....meltdown forthcoming

Grosjean going yolo this race

Oh man! Another formation lap. F1 2014 is already amazing. Shits gonna break all over this race! :D

Fuel watch 2014 goes into high gear with the aborted start.

this shit is already weird. i'm really excited!

I can't remember the last time they waved off the grid.

Do formation laps count towards the race distance? If not, makes the whole fuel shortage more and more interesting.

Two formation-laps is probably really good for the fuel-cunsumption for some teams!

@benderunit22: Yeah, it counts to the race

@benderunit22: Pretty sure they don't

At least Grosjean doesn't start last now

@benderunit22: They do count toward the total lap count.

Man this stream from the NBC app is so delayed compared to everyone else. :(