What I saw:
The cars look excellent and you can easily distinguish teams.
The DRS, it does nothing. Cars can't seem to get close to each other.
Vettel has very similar pace to Bottas.
When Hamilton's car is working, he's quickest. When he's having tire troubles, he's similar to Vettel. I suspect the hyped up rivalry will not come to pass.
Verstappen is a roadblock :)
Bottas has a personal goal of a pole or a win, nothing else is a success. And he's very Finnish about it.
Vettel has more joy in him at Ferrari than he ever had at Red Bull.
Bad luck for some of my favorite drivers. Better luck next time, Danny and Grosjean.
Also too bad for Alonso. He had a WDC point in the bag but the car let him down.
84FSP
Dork
3/27/17 10:49 a.m.
Overall really happy with the 2017 car changes for the season. It will be interesting to see which team can settle down how nervous the chassis all seem to be. The Ferrari's seem to be a threat which is great for a multitude of reasons. I was a bit sad Ricciardo couldn't keep the car on track as that is two disappointing years in a row for him in front of his home crowd.
I don't think we'll have a real picture of everyone's true pace for another race or two, BUT Ferrari's performance did raise an eyebrow or two. I'm entirely anti-Ferrari but it is nice seeing MB at least sweat another team's potential. Hopefully we can have a real race at the front this season, but again time will tell.
Feel bad for Ricciardo, You could see all the emotion in his body language.
I agree with Keith. The cars looked great, but it's going to be a tough year with any passing. DRS did absolutely nothing that I could tell. With low degradation on the tires, the start will probably determine the race assuming no mechanical fallout or wrecks.
Just read a quote from Grosjean that the new cars are pulling nearly 8g's in the fast corners.
That's mind-bending.
84FSP
Dork
3/27/17 3:54 p.m.
Agreed Z31maniac. One of the laps I saw had a 140+mph average. That kind of top speed is crazy. I remember the FIA warning that many tracks would need to make significant changes to runoff areas to safely contain the cars.
The brake dust I saw coming off the cars on a relatively low impact track makes think brake failures should be fun this year. If the brakes were hurting here I can't wait till Monza.
Sky Sports does the coverage that TSN broadcasts in Canada. It's very good, I think, and the best part is the pre and post race shows. They have added Pat Symonds, late of Williams F1 to the broadcast crew, and he seems to know whats going on.
Anyway, Ted and his cameraman were nosing around the paddock before the race, and were showing shots of the front suspensions of the cars before they had the noses but on. Mercedes have a control arm with so many vortex generators and winglets and other crap its hard to imagine.
If you American types can figure out how to stream the Sky coverage, I think its worthwhile.
Yeah, I'm so jealous of TSN and Sky. I was tempted to watch the Spanish broadcast and listen to the BBC 5 radio audio instead of the NBC coverage. At one point they had only just finished telling us what we'd missed on the last commercial break when they cut for another commercial.
Do you think the top speed is any higher, or it the average from higher cornering speeds? Given the greater drag load on the new cars, I'd expect the top speeds to actually be down. However, coming off a corner going 20% faster than before means they're going to have to pave another few acres of pretty pavement.
z31maniac wrote:
Just read a quote from Grosjean that the new cars are pulling nearly 8g's in the fast corners.
That's mind-bending.
It's scary. 5 gees was enough for CART drivers to start suffering from significant vertigo/disorientation/etc symptoms a few years ago, lead the cancellation of a couple of races IIRC. Possibly it's not as significant in F1 because they aren't running those gees for as long (no ovals), but...
ncjay
SuperDork
3/27/17 6:10 p.m.
Read an article where Adrian Newey observed there would be less time spent on the brakes and more flat out corners this season in F1. It'll be interesting to see how many drivers hit the Armco at Monaco this year.
Jay_W
Dork
3/27/17 8:29 p.m.
Monaco is going to be batE36M3 insane.
The formula 1 subreddit is where I go to find livestreams and download the races after the fact for those that aren't getting great coverage. They do post spoilers in there so if the race is over and you don't know the results you may want to avoid it.
Adam
It's only an issue if I'm trying to watch live. There are myriad ways to get a decent copy after the race, but the timing was good for Oz 
Jay_W wrote:
Monaco is going to be batE36M3 insane.
While the cars may be fun to watch being more twitchy than before, I don't see the actual racing being terribly fun.
Botas has mentioned that the 1.5s aero gap has grown to 2.5 sec due to the cars having more downforce. I don't see many on track passes this year happening.
alfadriver wrote:
Jay_W wrote:
Monaco is going to be batE36M3 insane.
While the cars may be fun to watch being more twitchy than before, I don't see the actual racing being terribly fun.
Botas has mentioned that the 1.5s aero gap has grown to 2.5 sec due to the cars having more downforce. I don't see many on track passes this year happening.
Same... I didn't enjoy the race too much after the first 5 laps. Though there were a couple of passes in the midfield that were cool. Mostly a race marred with lots of technical failures. Which can happen during to the first race of the season.
Based on Bottas' comments I feel an ominous season of no passing attempts in the top 8 places, just waiting for pit stops.
Streetwiseguy wrote:
Really?
Enzo would be pissed.
OK, I don't condone it and it is kinda sick, but It's actually really funny. If it had succeeded I think Enzo would have said 'Screw the ransom, spend it on my race team instead'
In reply to codrus:
What I don't get is that every enthusiast, armchair quarter back, race fan and race oriented website and publication. As a group, every one of them said this would be the outcome as soon as the rules were announced. What is it that the powers that be, experts, teams and to a lesser extent drivers think they know/knew that lead them to expect a different outcome?
This isn't a rhetorical question. I'd love to know what they expected differently and why?
In reply to Adrian_Thompson:
Perhaps it was a look back to one of Ferrari's glory times when they were the one marque that won every race and every championship. Not realizing that it wasn't a very interesting show to watch.
Make F1 great again... 
What I don't understand is the aversion to ground effects downforce like for Indycar. Where you can get really good downforce, so the speed they want, and then still have less effective, and less obtrusive to the trailing car wings. That whole thing makes no sense. It also gives more crash space on both sides, which is another way of saying more advertising space. And a look back to cars of the late 70's, which people liked, too.
Adrian_Thompson wrote:
In reply to codrus:
What I don't get is that every enthusiast, armchair quarter back, race fan and race oriented website and publication. As a group, every one of them said this would be the outcome as soon as the rules were announced. What is it that the powers that be, experts, teams and to a lesser extent drivers think they know/knew that lead them to expect a different outcome?
This isn't a rhetorical question. I'd love to know what they expected differently and why?
Yes, well said. I had exactly the same thoughts.
In reply to alfadriver:
Agreed. What's wrong with allowing better underfloor aero that produces less turbulance and putting massive limits on the over car aero. Single or duel element wings front and certainly rear. Far far less turning vanes, bardge boards etc. and for FSM's sake, simple flat end plates for the wings.
I know I'm in the minority, but I far prefer the look of the current DW12 Indy cars than F1 cars. Yes, yes I know 'Spec' has to be bad, but write the damn F1 rules so you get cars closer to that. The racing in Indy car is far far better for running close and passing.
There was exactly one pass for position in the Oz race that didn't involve mechanical failure, pitting, or a wreck. That's terribly boring. I've seen more passing at an autocross!
etifosi
SuperDork
3/29/17 9:25 a.m.
This was how nearly ALL F1 races played out in the pre-DRS era: qualifying-order parades with occasional disruption of said order via pit-wall strategy.
It might just be scarlet fever induced by 'lil red pony stable win, but I might like this "classic-style" F1 over the sitting duck DRS/hi-deg tyre stuff we've seen in recent years.
Does a great race REQUIRE dozens and dozens of passes?
