Merc finally showing their pace a bit - not a surprise.

Alonso to miss Australian Grand Prix

Hmmm. Interesting news; McLaren being economical with the truth or F1 leading the field in concussion management following Jules Bianchi's tragic injury?

Makes you wonder....

Alonso probably decided to sit it out knowing the car will be uncompetitive.

I think I'm going with Gary Hartstein again:

A Former F1 Doc Writes...

As ever, Dr Hartstein is a voice of reason among a lot of frothy finger pointers.

Hope Alonso is back for Malaysia.

Watched the MotorsTV and BBC season previews last night.

The MotorsTV effort was clearly translated (probably from the French) and read by someone who knew nothing about motorsport and whose last 20 years had been filled with voicing over corporate videos.

The most interesting thing in it was to state (not suggest or hypothesise) that the reason for Alonso's crash was that the McLaren was too heavy, so Alonso was told to lose weight. He did this, which made him dizzy and that's what caused the accident.

Er...?

That will be the Alonso who's eight inches shorter - and presumably proportionally lighter - than Button?

So Manor now have their quota of drivers and by the looks of what's being posted on Social media, they have 2 cars in the garage.

Any bets on what lap the leaders catch and lap them? That's if they get within 107% of the pole sitter....

Another excellent point that escaped the attention of the programme makers...

The Giedo van der Garde court ruling is rather unfortunate timing for Sauber. The only sensible outcome would be for Sauber to pay some sort of settlement to him. Trouble is they aren't exactly flush with cash.

Looks like Sauber have appealed the judgment with a 'verdict' due tomorrow morning (OZ time).

From Giedo- I really can't see that working very well!

I foresee "misunderstandings" between driver and team if he does force his way into a race seat...!

It was interesting the GvdG said he had a great relationship with the team. I was trying to figure out how that would be in the current scenario. Presumably he's now saddled them with legal costs (twice seemingly - and for a third time with the appeal), he's going to need to be fitted for the car etc etc I just don't see how it's going to work. But, maybe, with plenty of brass neck he'll end up with a pocket full of cash.

According to Joe Saward, GvdG may have dropped a bo11ock by failing (in conjunction with his team) to apply for a superlicence in time. Although there is some discussion about whose responsibility this is, it might nonetheless be too late. I wouldn't be surprised if Sauber are absent this weekend.

Also some serious shit is about to hit the fan between the FIA and Gary Hartstein.
The background to the story is worth reading up on (FIA top medical man Gérard Saillant visited Hartstein's current employer and tried to get him fired), which made GH understandably cross. I can't help thinking the FIA might be on thin ice. I certainly hope so...

Hartstein vs FIA part 1

Hartstein vs FIA part 2

Nothing too surprising in FP1 or 2. GvdG notable by his absence, as were Sauber in FP1...
Payday for the lawyers on this one, I suspect.

I watched FP1 and FP2 (with lots of coffee) and as you said Jim, nothing too surprising.

However, GvdG did turn up at the circuit. Sauber wouldn't give him a pass so initially he couldn't get in. Eventually he was given a guest pass and went to the Sauber hospitality. He was refused entry and ended up in an FIA office. He then appeared in race overalls!

Nasr and Ericsson were by now sat in the cars and looked like they were going to go in FP1. News than came through that court officials were at the gates and would impound the cars if they ran.

Kaltenborn then left the circuit and whatever happened then, the cars were able to run in FP2.

Adam Cooper has a good summary if anyone is interested.

On track the Mercs looked as dominant as they did last season. Kimi ran well in his race simulation and wasn't far off the Merc pace. Butas ever, we don't know how much fuel either team were carrying.

It would seem no-one will come out of this looking particularly pretty.

GvdG can't really expect to drive, surely? And if he does, which of the other two will sue for their drive?

Sauber have screwed up big-time.

Which I suppose moves McHonda nearer the back... I do hope at least *they* can get their act together.

Sauber, Lotus, Force India and - obviously - Manor Marussia, have all had financial problems of varying desperation. The way I've heard it is that Sauber chose the course of action they did purely based on survival. If they hadn't, they quite possibly wouldn't be on the grid at all.
I don't think anyone at Sauber would have wanted to treat Guido van der Garde - or anyone else - in the way that they did, but in this case, I fear that desperate times called for desperate measures. Monisha Kaltenborn is a trained lawyer, so she won't be surprised at the recent turn of events. There has been sympathy expressed for all the drivers involved and a fair amount of (mainly justified) criticism of Sauber. However, some of the vitriol aimed at Ms Kaltenborn reeks of shameful - if predictable - misogyny.
Hopefully it will all get sorted out without another F1 team falling by the wayside.

Time to move to the new thread!

I think Mrs Kaltenborn lost a lot of sympathy within F1 circles when she said GvdG shouldn't race because to safety reasons.

JB, Brundle, Hill and Herbert all questioned why she'd bring safety into the argument. And from what a few other drivers said in interviews (Hulkenberg and Perez being 2 I remember) they were fully behind GvdG's court actions.

She of all people, being an employment lawyer, should have known what a can of worms she was opening when she dumped GvdG and Sutil.

As an aside, David Croft said GvdG had paid $8m up front last October/November for his 2015 contract. He didn't say where he'd gleaned that pearl from....

anyone fancy some F1 gear

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currently running now!!

I completely agree, bezzer, that Sauber and MK deserve criticism and all three drivers involved deserve greater respect. The comments about safety were clearly a legal ruse and were misplaced, but I've seen comments aimed at MK concerning her competence to run an F1 team that I just don't think would have been asked of a man.

they are selling their racing simulator !!! how cool would that be in your garage??

Simulator:

Ansible Motion P003 Race Simulator (2012) Powered by 4 x DELL Alienware Personal Computers, (3.4GHZ, 7 Processors, 12GB Ram & 4GN AMD HD Graphics Cards ea.), 3 HD Projectors providing 200° Field of View, Six Degrees of Freedom Platform with Mule Cockpit c/w Control Desk. Monitors, Curved Screen etc.

(Subject to availability)

I agree Jim, she doesn't deserve the personal insults.

I just hope it gets resolved....