Inside Line F1 Video - 10 Awesome Reasons To Follow F1 In 2016

For the first time since January Mithila and Kunal are back with an Inside Line F1 Video. And in this one they look back at an amazing Australian Grand Prix. Amazing in that F1 went from the ridiculous in qualifying to the sublime in the race.

They therefore give you 10 very good reasons to follow Formula 1 in 2016. They talk among other things about the most intense team-mate battle (not Rosberg vs. Hamilton), the new opportunity for tyre strategy, why drivers will now be buying post-it notes and finally, why Max Verstappen will be the next multiple World Champion.

You can watch below. Enjoy...

Australian Grand Prix review for Motor Verso - Not so familiar

Here is my first Motor Verso race review of 2016, for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix of last weekend.

Photo: Octane Photography

And there in the nick of time F1 delivered a thriller. Suddenly the talk of crazy qualifying systems, of the sport in crisis, seemed far far away. Suddenly there is a sense of glad confident morning around. Not least among the nevertheless familiar-looking top three finishers from last Sunday's race.

For Motor Verso I give my take on what went on in Melbourne, as I will in every race this season.

Here's the link to my race review: http://www.motorverso.com/australian-gp-2016-review-not-familiar/

Do check out the Motor Verso site too; you'll find motoring news, car reviews and features - the team on the site carry out week-long test drives of the latest cars - as well as photos and videos of the machines.

Australian GP Report - Stop me if you think you've heard this one before

Mercedes-Mercedes-Vettel. Hey ho. But you know the one about not judging books by their cover.

There wasn't too much standard about
Nico Rosberg's latest win
Photo: Octane Photography

There were considerable adventures in getting there. And varying from what Friday and Saturday had indicated it was in fact Nico Rosberg of the two Mercedes that won out in Melbourne's season-opener. Something that should feel familiar and perhaps doesn't, given it's his fourth win in a row.

In another common fallacy, for all that we love to predict F1 races ahead of time we forget that in this sport we have a standing start, and after that in a blink the picture can look very different. It was the case today.

Reminiscent of the Hungary race last year the Ferraris vaulted the previously-imperious Mercs at the get-go with Lewis Hamilton particularly punished. Vettel jumped the two silver cars off the line but what really did for them was that Nico, who'd got a better start than his team mate, ran deep into turn one taking Lewis with him (it didn't look deliberate, more that Nico was off line and locked his front wheels). This allowed the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen past them both too, and Lewis with his momentum checked lost more places to run sixth.

Melbourne Qualifying - Cloud with a silver lining

As the 19th century German Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder once said, "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy". And to put it in F1 terms no new qualifying system survives contact with the sport's reality. Or at least this one didn't.

Not waving but shrugging? Lewis Hamilton
took pole in an absurd session
Photo: Octane Photography

It sounded nice in theory. The clock ticking down continuously and drivers being eliminated incrementally. But it reckoned without F1 as it is. Tyres are designed to degrade and available sets of the softest tyres are finite. These two things coming together mean one chance effectively to set a time. And it showed - today marks tended to be set early and then many under threat of elimination had given up well ahead of the cut-off time as they'd run out of tyres. Even if they had been minded to reply the new system didn't give them an opportunity to as times were too tight. Much of the qualifying hour became an absurd exercise in watching the clock ticking down as cars sat in the garage. Their inevitable exit already set.

Underlining the absurdity, only the two Mercs - not even the Ferraris in other words - went out for a final effort at the end. Then when the pole was won and we got the usual back-slapping on the pit wall, then as the drivers wandered into the weighbridge with their job done, someone noticed that there still was three minutes plus remaining on the clock as it ticked down gingerly, yet removing drivers one at a time. It rather encapsulated the farce.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - F1, Back In Business?

After months of waiting, the 2016 Formula 1 Season is finally here. And while you wait for the five red lights to go out, tune in to the pre-Australian Grand Prix episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast.

Mithila and Kunal talk about how Lewis Hamilton is the ONLY one who is seemingly having the best start to the new season already. They also reveal Williams' strategy to beat Force India while Red Bull Racing prove that the best way to react to being beaten is to quit!

We tell you why a Hamilton-Vettel pairing MIGHT just be needed in 2017, or better, a Hamilton-Alonso pairing in 2018. 'Can Nico Rosberg FINALLY beat Lewis Hamilton?' - our prediction on THE story of 2016. Lastly, Jenson Button could be in his last Formula 1 season. Tune in to find out why.

(Season 2016, Episode 07)

Enter the Vital F1 Prediction competition

You may know that one of the websites I write for is VitalF1.com.

Photo: Octane Photography

VitalF1.com has plenty on it for F1 fans - news, a discussion forum and comment articles among other things. It also has a prediction competition, which is back for the new F1 season, that you can enter.

In each round you pick two drivers to score you points for the competition depending on where they finish in real life. In some races it's the relatively straightforward matter of predicting who'll finish first and second; in others it gets more tricky as you have to try to predict who'll finish in a precise positions further down the order, such as P5 and P6... It's all free too.

The rules and how to take part are in full here: http://vitalf1.com/article.asp?a=3349

And if it helps encourage you to take part then you'll get to take me on, as I'll be taking part in the game too (as 'Talking about F1' - duuuh). Not that beating me is much to get excited about.

Still, hope you're able to take part. It's good fun.

Melbourne Preview: Unknown pleasures

When the flag drops, the b******t stops. OK, F1 races aren't started by flags anymore, so in that sense this aphorism is showing its age. But the fundamental at its core holds firm. And never more so than at the first race gathering of an F1 season.

The Albert Park track in Melbourne is a highly popular venue
By Chris Phutully - https://www.flickr.com/photos/
72562013@N06/13186495033/, CC BY 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/
index.php?curid=31802460

Teams love to create the impression that they know what's going on, that they have incredibly accurate models and intelligence to channel pre-season testing into a coherent competitive order. And from the various analyses that spring up as well as the more general mood music, us watching on can get a broad sense of who's hot and who's not before it's all done in anger too. But really it is not until the actual hour of qualifying for the opening round that we get our proper confirmation, and that goes for the teams us much as the rest of us mere mortals. At that point the bluster of testing, and its various accompanying health warnings that we don't know the respective programmes, fuel loads, extent that the engines are cranked up among the many other things that can influence lap time, fizzles away. The stopwatch suddenly will be much harder to deny.

And it is that which is before us this weekend in Melbourne for the start proper of the 2016 campaign. Almost no matter what happens to the formula, it's hard to think how that will ever be different. Or anything other than tantalising. And that goes for everyone.

Talking about F1 2016 Team-by-Team Season Preview

Now with the season-opening Australian Grand Prix but a week away there are plenty of F1 season previews out there. And Talking about F1 is not one to be left out of this, as you will have likely noticed had you been on this site over the last week or so, given I've written a preview for every competing F1 team in 2016 and its drivers.

All of my team/driver previews are collected in one place; by clicking on the '2016 Team and Driver Guide' tab above you can explore my view on the prospects of every 2016 F1 driver and team. You therefore have no excuse at all for not being genned up before the cars hit the track in Melbourne.

New Grand Prix Times article: Despite everything, there's still a lot wonderful about F1

The existence of a F1 follower in the modern day is one of habitual cringe and self-loathing. You all know about the sport's many problems. That are way too many to list here. And that if anything in recent weeks the embarrassing wrangles have got yet more acute.

Photo: Octane Photography

But with this, and while it's understandable, it's possible we lose sight of the many things that remain good about this sport. In my latest article for Grand Prix Times, as we stand before the 2016 season start I list some reasons to be cheerful. Some of them are very good reasons too.

You can have a read here: http://www.grandprixtimes.com/news/id/11490

2016 F1 Betting Preview - Rosberg and Raikkonen where the value is?

We start off confused, and end up confused on a higher level. So the adage goes. And it fits rather neatly with the annual round of F1 pre-season testing. Interpreting it comes with all sorts of toxic health warnings - the headline lap times mean little; we don't know fuel loads, programmes being run or other vital details. That even with these all teams are making efforts to conceal where they are in the competitive order, and that applies equally whether they're doing well or doing badly. It never stops us trying to interpret it though. And with testing done and the opening round of the season proper a week away, from looking at F1 betting odds at netbet do we have a renewed sense of where the value is?

Nico Rosberg's odds to finally beat his team mate 
Lewis Hamilton over a season may be tempting
Photo: Octane Photography

There was little in Barcelona testing to suggest that Mercedes has been knocked fully off its pedestal and therefore Lewis Hamilton remains rightful favourite to be 2016 world drivers' champion. This is reflected in tight odds though for him to do just that - a bet on Lewis at 20/57 to bag the title doesn't even give you 150% of your stake back.

If you fancy laying some money Lewis's way then evens for him to win no more than 11.5 rounds this year looks better value - he got 'only' 10 wins last season and you'd think this campaign will be more competitive, although on the other hand there after 21 rounds this time rather than the 19 then.

Nico Rosberg by contrast gets fairly tempting odds. For him to continue his good end of 2015 form and win the ultimate prize in 2016 you can back him at 29/10. Maybe even better value is 5/6 on him to get more than 5.5 wins, which would be to match his total from last year at least (which was six) and with two more rounds to do it in.