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With a forecast of 22 and showers for Saturday & Sunday in Melbourne could be an interesting season opener!

I wonder how reliable weather forecasts are at this stage but in that case it could be messed up

Weather forecasts are almost never reliable in south eastern Australia, but let's hope there's at least a bit of drizzle

A bit of rain in the race would be welcomed but I would like to see what outright speed everyone had in qualifying.

This is the only race I would not like to see rain!

It's quite amusing that it may actually rain at the GP as we've just recorded the hottest summer on record in Melbourne, with half of the days in Feb over 30 deg C and we are about to reach 10 days in a row of over 30 deg C in March (Autumn). Today was 37 and tomorrow is forecast for 37 also. It's 9:10pm and it's still 33!

I'm not sure what I would have preferred, this weather over the GP weekend or the predicted 22 & showers.

I'm going so actually rain would probably be pretty pleasant since I'm already getting a bit nervous about overheating in Melbourne.

<irony mode on>
Good news. I was hoping to see F1 cars go in circles behind Safety Car and "dry" the track with those "Blue" Cinturatos. This will be fun. After all It was only few months of the break, I can wait for a proper F1 race another 2 or 4 or 6 or whatever weeks.
<irony mode off>

I hope it does not rain, at least not much, so I can see cars RACE. But most importantly, I want to see the pecking order... or at least a glimpse of it.

Hope it rains...not too much that the SC ruins the race though.

Hope for light rain in the late stages of the races, to mix up the order in the final laps.
Practice and qualify should be dry and hot.

mikeyg123 wrote:This is the only race I would not like to see rain!

Nah, rain is always welcome, we can see where every team stands in a dry Malaysia. Oh wait...

Being damp and cooler could make conditions more similar to that of winter testing - Perhaps not bad if your a Mercedes fan.

McPrancingBull wrote:Being damp and cooler could make conditions more similar to that of winter testing - Perhaps not bad if your a Mercedes fan.

Who knows, hell froze over before

I'd like to see hot and dry, with all the tiny sidepods this year I'd like to see how the cars handle the heat.......RT

If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that a forecast of rain for a race invariably means it will be bright and sunny

You now realise the last two rain-affected opening races were in 1993 and 2003, albeit both only for a short period.

j man wrote:If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that a forecast of rain for a race invariably means it will be bright and sunny

haha that's so true!

mikeyg123 wrote:This is the only race I would not like to see rain!

+1 !

I wanna see how good/bad these Pirelli super-softs are! Honestly don't think we need it to be wet for it to be massively interesting

If it's cold I'm confident that Rosberg or Hamilton will have a solid chance of victory.

BrazilLastCorner2008 wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:This is the only race I would not like to see rain!

+1 !

I wanna see how good/bad these Pirelli super-softs are! Honestly don't think we need it to be wet for it to be massively interesting

Hehe. I kind of want to see rain so that the teams have less data on the tyres, extending the opportunity for different winners in the first few races of the year.

benmc wrote:You now realise the last two rain-affected opening races were in 1993 and 2003, albeit both only for a short period.

Wasn't 2010 (where Jenson spun Fernando on the first corner before making an early move to slicks, gaining second place as a result and subsequently taking the win after Sebastian's brakes failed mid-way through the race) wet, at least for the initial portion?

Edit: oops - Bahrain was the opener that season! Apologies...

Bahrain was the 2010 season opener.

Misinformed wrote:Bahrain was the 2010 season opener.

Yup - somebody is just a little too excited with just a few days to go. Even as I hit the 'Submit' icon I found myself thinking that was Seb's second car problem in two races... oh, hang on...

Getting closer and forecast hasn't changed. I agree with both sides. Dry = better assessment of the initial pecking order & demonstration of the new slicks (which will be the dominant tyre of the season), or Wet = guaranteed action packed race...............I'm just a little bit excited.

just greasy and moderately damp track will do, I don't want to see the pole guy pulling away leaving huge spray and zero visibility for the guys behind, hate that!!!

unless that guy is Alonso/Webber LOL

Rubb. wrote:Weather forecasts are almost never reliable in south eastern Australia, but let's hope there's at least a bit of drizzle

What makes you say that?

When I lived in Melbourne I realised the forecasts there were just about the most accurate I ever heard anywhere in the world.

If there was a front coming up from Geelong you could almost set your watch by the time they said it would arrive.

So Button for the win then

Hoping for rain as I generally find the Aussie GP boring.

mcdo wrote:So Button for the win then

Alonso did rather well in the wet last year as I recall.

I agree with the bloke above me.
The Australian gp needs rain.

Muzzyf1 wrote:I agree with the bloke above me.
The Australian gp needs rain.

I'm not so sure I would normally agree a bit of rain always makes race more exciting. But given the new cars first race and new tyres we don't know what is going to happen so it could be exciting enough without rain.

Dry quali to get some idea of pace and a wet race would be great.

I hope it DOESNT rain, otherwise we'll not see any true pace, and after the race PF1 will be full of you lot bitching that your driver would have won had it not been for the rain

RickM wrote:I hope it DOESNT rain, otherwise we'll not see any true pace, and after the race PF1 will be full of you lot bitching that your driver would have won had it not been for the rain

But My driver will win on the rain

Formula1Fan. wrote:Hoping for rain as I generally find the Aussie GP boring.

mcdo wrote:So Button for the win then

Alonso did rather well in the wet last year as I recall.

It was kind of a joke. But Button is a Melbourne specialist. Throw in some changeable weather and (if the McLaren is competitve) on paper you would reckon he would run away with it.

mcdo wrote:So Button for the win then

I'm not Button fan but I'm going to have to agree with this post. If there's damp/changing conditions then my bet will be Button.

sixwheeler wrote:

Rubb. wrote:Weather forecasts are almost never reliable in south eastern Australia, but let's hope there's at least a bit of drizzle

What makes you say that?

When I lived in Melbourne I realised the forecasts there were just about the most accurate I ever heard anywhere in the world.

If there was a front coming up from Geelong you could almost set your watch by the time they said it would arrive.

It was more a reference to the changeability of the weather really, but I've never know rain predictions to be very accurate. Today for example was supposed to be warm, humid and windy all day. That was correct until about 11:30 when it suddenly got really cold, rained a little bit, then became warm and sunny again until late afternoon when it got cold again. Now it's sitting on about 19 degrees. That's not what they forecast!!

Rubb. wrote:It was more a reference to the changeability of the weather really, but I've never know rain predictions to be very accurate. Today for example was supposed to be warm, humid and windy all day. That was correct until about 11:30 when it suddenly got really cold, rained a little bit, then became warm and sunny again until late afternoon when it got cold again. Now it's sitting on about 19 degrees. That's not what they forecast!!

That is not according the Bureau of Meteorology, although it may have been your experience. It was 28 until 8:30am, then plunged to 22/23 and remained at that temperature (did not rise again) until about 6pm when it began to slowly decrease again, and is currently about 18 degrees. Humidity went from 70% mid morning to 50% midday and is now back at 70% - so quite humid. Wind hovered between 20 & 30km/h all day. 0% Rainfall.

Updated forecast for Saturday - 22 deg C, 80% chance of rain of 3 to 7mm

Updated forecast fro Sunday - 22 deg C, 45% chance of rain of 0 to 2mm

So doesn't look like there is much chance of rain affecting the race significantly, even if it does rain, but I guess in Melbourne, anything could happen! Quali could be interesting though.

The way the weather has been here in Oz recently I will wait until Sunday to see what it is like

Better a wet quali and dry race than vice versa. Although I do agree with most that since it's the first race of the season it'd be best if it stayed dry throughout the weekend. I don't think my heart could take anymore drama!

seems like "a few showers" are still forecast then. nothing heavy just light showers.