Posted on 03/05/2026 12:09:14 PM PST by Carriage Hill
Circuit: Albert Park First Grand Prix: 1996, Number of Laps: 58, Circuit Length: 3.295 km, Race Distance: 306.124 km, Lap Record: 1:19.813 Charles Leclerc (2024)
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
She’s kind of scary looking.
I have a Roku streaming subscription and I signed up for Apple TV through Roku. Found out that there seems to be no way to watch a “live event” after its already happened. So with F1 happening all around the world and so much of it in the middle of the night or other odd-hours and no way to record or replay live events, Apple TV is useless to me.
F1.com is a way to do that, but at $10+/month. I just renewed my sub for this year, so there are many benefits and options with it.
The perspective in that photo looks odd, like it was shot with a fish-eye lens, which magnifies what’s in the middle of the frame and shrinks everything else.
Then again, I’ve never seen her in the flesh, so maybe she is naturally scary-looking.
Hambone hasn’t wasted any time getting on with alienating his new ‘interim’ race engineer, Carlo Santi.
Leclerc says Mercedes is finally letting the dogs loose.
https://www.total-motorsport.com/charles-leclerc-mercedes-very-impressive-australian-gp/
She seems awfully fit. She might hurt a guy like me.
Adrian Newey says he didn’t find out what a pickle Honda was in until November.
Newey says Honda bailed on F1 after the 2021 season and took a year away from the sport. And when they came back only about 30% of the original staff came with them.
They returned to F1 under the 2023 rules structure which put a budget cap on engine development. They still haven’t caught up with the teams that already had their 2026 engine programs in progress in pre-spending-cap 2022.
Apparently Honda didn’t bother to tell anybody how bad off they were until he (Newey) went to Japan last November to run to ground the rumors that they were WAY WAY behind in development.
One point I found very telling was that according to Newey, it’s not the KERS, it’s Honda’s ICE that sucks the worst.
https://www.planetf1.com/news/adrian-newey-aston-martin-honda-2026-f1-engine-issues-awareness
It would be a shame to see Newey’s masterpiece scuttled because — and through no fault of his own — Honda had forgot how to build engines.
Hurt me, beat me, make me write bad checks. :-O
I’m horrified!
No more Sky Sports. Those “presenters” are like a part of my family after being with them so much for 10 years. So now we we have so settle for Alex Brundle instead of Martin, just for starters.
I guess I will get used to it, just like when they dropped the “American” crew when ESPN got the contract. (In fact, I cannot even remember their names.)
Sad situation, but F1 will survive it all.
Circuit change made Saturday:
“However on Saturday morning the governing body informed teams that the Turn 8-Turn 9 section would be dropped as a straight mode zone for safety reasons.”
https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2026-australian-grand-prix-fia-drops-straight-mode-safety-fears/
This afternoon’s Formula 3 race, set for 20 laps, was shortened to eight laps (seven counted) after a serious crash caused barrier damage that put the race past the time limit.
On Lap 8, Prema Racing teammates Louis Sharp (NZL) and James Wharton (AUS) collided in Turn 5. Both cars impacted the outside wall heavily, with Sharp’s car ricocheting back onto the circuit, thankfully being avoided by oncoming traffic.
The yellow was waved and then the field returned to pit lane. As less than a half race was done, only quarter quarter points to the top five were awarded based on seven of 20 laps completed. The race completed eight laps but the FIA rules backdated the lap.
https://speedcafe.com/f1-news-2026-australian-grand-prix-wharton-sharp-f3-crash-prema-formula-three/
Yes, heard about this. Pretty big impact on the drivers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.