And so it begins...

[cameraman]

No better way to start a season than with the following trackside report:

"grey, rainy and windy as hell in Melbourne":laugh:




All times Eastern Daylight Time

Practice 1– 9:30 PM – Thursday – March 17 – NBCSN – Live
Practice 2 – 1:30 AM – Friday – March 18 – NBCSN - Live

Practice 3 – 9:00 PM – Friday – March 19 – NBC Sports Extra Live (Web)
Qualifying – 2:00 AM – Saturday – March 19 – NBCSN – Live

PreRace/Race – 12:00 AM – Sunday – March 20 – NBCSN – New
F1 Extra – 3:00 AM – Sunday – March 20 – NBC – Live

PreRace/Race – 12:00 PM – Sunday – March 20 – NBCSN – (Repeat)
F1 Extra – 2:30 PM – Sunday – March 20 – NBCSN – (Repeat)
PreRace/Race – 2:30 PM – Monday – March 21 – NBCSN – (Repeat)

Other: Haas F1: America’s Return to the Grid– 11:30 PM – Wednesday – March 16 – NBCSN – New
Haas F1: America’s Return to the Grid– 8:30 PM – Thursday – March 17 – NBCSN – Repeat
Haas F1: America’s Return to the Grid– 11:00 PM – Saturday – March 18 – NBCSN – Repeat

You might check your local provider as NBC is not very good about publishing accurate information.:saywhat:

[TedN]

For Canadian viewers this site (http://prnmag.com/gear-tech-guides/tv-listings) is the best for all racing. It's updated weekly.

Ted

[NismoZ]

Yeah, check out the end of race 3 of the Adelaide Aussie V-8s...Quite a "rain race"...I especially liked the bolts of lightning and things floating away down pit lane! F-1 NEEDS a good wet race...can they run wets the whole time or is there a penalty if they do? Are there even enough wet tires on hand to DO such a thing? For giggles everyone should HAVE to run slicks for a few laps!

[opinionated ow]

New wantonly complicated process makes no difference to qualifying. In fact, if anything, drivers give up early.

[opinionated ow]

and as i predicted when i first got wind of it...complete WOFTAM

[nissan gtp]

calling it a disaster would be kind

[Insomniac]

I don't think that went at all how they thought it would.

Looks like the teams didn't have much to say that was positive: http://www.autoblog.com/2016/03/19/f1-qualifying-failure-2016/

Personally, I think the teams didn't get it either since you saw drivers finishing laps that won't count. The worst part is they essentially have 7 checkered flags and the first 6 are the original way knockout worked (get your lap in before the checkered) and the last on like it has been (start your lap before checkered). So, instead of the bubble driver fighting elimination, they are giving up.

They could fix the problem somewhat on TV, but the whole thing is simply too complex. It makes tire changes possibly costly if you close to the bubble. Had Q3 drivers just deciding to save a set of tires. (Also new this year is all non-Q3 drivers get an extra set)

If they really want true car-by-car knockout, they'd have to go with something like a 2 lap warm-up and then eliminate the slowest car each lap. Might also need to erase lap times after each lap in Q3.

I think it's too complex, but do wonder if they can tweak it to make it better before just abandoning it after the first try.

[Hard Driver]

New qualifying rules stink... plain and simple.

Tried to fix something that wasn't broken and made it far worse.

So now, the qualifying is about everyone trying to bank a fast lap on their first lap, in a massive scrum at the beginning of Q1, or you will be cut.

[Insomniac]

They're going back to the old way, so it doesn't matter, but it would probably be smarter for the teams that expect to be on the bubble to let the front runners get their laps in first before heading out onto track. There'd be less traffic for the hot laps when you need them.