Severin

Audi team principal Johnathan Wheatley has left the team with immediate effect. Mattia Binnotto will assume his role. Wheatley is expected to be announced as taking over at Aston Martin, therefore relieving Adrian Newey of his role there. Newey's role as team principal was always intended to be temporary whilst Andy Cowell was seconded at Honda. However, the situation regarding the Honda engine has necessitated a longer term switch..

I've seen plenty of suggestions online that some drivers, particularly Max, are only complaining because they're not winning but here he is in 2023 saying exactly the same thing he is now.

FIA director Nikolas Tombazis has confirmed that no changes to the regulations will be considered until Miami, which suggests that several of the options are still on the table. How any changes might be received by Audi, Ford and Honda remain speculation for now. Additionally, the team principles' post Shanghai meeting to discuss these regulations was postponed until after the Japanese GP. However, following continued concerns, the drivers are said to have brought forward their next planned 'secret' meeting to before the next race. Following the leaked details from the previous one, according to Alex Albon, there is a broad consensus among the drivers.

Never before have the regulations so completely neutralised the driver talent factor. Teams have certainly given former champions duff cars (Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel, Villeneuve, Senna, Piquet etc) but the driver always had the ability to make a real difference. That's no longer much of a factor. Today was better than last week for sure but 90% of 'overtakes' today could be seen coming a mile of and were about deploying battery coming out of a corner rather than bravery under braking and driver skill. Cornering is way too slow with super clipping and when the computer's algorhythm is deploying your power for you we have gone too far. Hell, the software put Piastri in the wall last week because it read the situation wrong! And it undid all of Alonso's good work today. 11th to last in one lap because of the battery. There are good things in the new regs - smaller cars, tyres, the aero - but the engine rules are fundamentally flawed and were designed purely for commercial reasons, not sporting ones, just to get Audi onboard. Not sure it's a price worth paying. They should have taken their kead on this from Indycars PtP system which works really well. If the teams can out develop these rules fast we might find it works out in the end. I'm not convinced but then the newer generation of fans just seem to want to see cars passing each other with a button press. It's just doesn't fit the prestige and levrl of driving excellence that should be F1.

Conversely, I find it a great shame that one of the all time great drivers is forced to bumble about in a mid tier car that has no significant way to allow him demonstrate his skills. The new regs really do neuter the drivers ability to make the difference. Wouldn't be at all surprised to see Verstappen and Alonso quit the sport this year.

Antonelli winning was the best of all likely results. Anything is preferable to a Russell walkover this year. He's insufferable enough already. At least we were a bit closer to proper racing this time too. If the Ferrari's had held station when Russell was behind a 2-3 was on the cards too

1992 and 1993 are the only two years from the '90s with any kind serious electronic driver aids employed, with traction control and active suspension being the most dominant features. I don't think I know anybody who looks back on that era as among the best for racing and that's despite Mansell winning his title and Senna and Prost still racing. 1992 is often cited as one of the least interesting years ever. There was a reason it was banned until the 2000s and then banned again. I'm sure you're right about a percentage of people who will moan about anything but this time there may well be good reason to moan. Hopefully the development race will quickly render the excessive management on these engines obsolete real soon and we won't have to worry about seeing drivers operating well within their , and their car's limits anymore.

I'm not the biggest fan of Peter Windsor but he says much of what I feel far better and in more detail than me, and aside from his slightly ridiculous analogy around COTA, pretty much nails it all in the first 25 minutes of this interview.

I've sat mulling over the race for a few days and watched it a couple of times and come to the following conclusions although I am keeping an open mind as much as possible, going forward. Qualifying was painful to watch and with the possible exception of Monaco is likely no longer essential viewing. Watching cars decelerate huge distances before the start of the corner was simply depressing and battery management means those, on the ragged edge, ball out quali laps are history. We will also have seen some of the world's greatest circuits and corners taken away because you can't go flat out anymore. As for the race, aside from the initial launch (which was much improved on the synchronised starts we've seen for a number of years), the opening laps appeared exciting with plenty of changes of position but once they were beyond the first corner virtually none of the overtakes felt earned and almost none happened in the braking zone. It felt too much like the driver's abilities were lost in deference to battery management. Yes, mastering that is a skill but it doesn't feel like pure racing and for me does F1 no favours. Secondly, after the drivers had completed a third or so of the race, they'd all figured out the ideal places to deploy battery and even that element was lost. So we settled in to a more traditional looking race, with tyre management and pitstops coming in to play but by then the writing was on the wall. Melbourne isn't the most typical circuit and things might be different at others. We won't truly know the effect of these rules until into the European leg but I'm not sold on them so far.

Well done matto on your win, and thanks to every one who threw a few points Delilah Bon's way. I thought it was going to be a real marmite choice so to come in the middle with over a ton in points is pleasantly surprising. Political and socially charged songs can often be divisive and she's possibly a touch abrasive for some but I hope a few of you found something there to investigate.

I'm just hoping these new rules and super complex cars make for a lot more reliability issues throughout the grid. It's possible the rule change mid season will nerf the Mercs anyway and Verstappen Hadjar's time suggests Verstappen could well take the fight to George on some tracks

February Pos/Artist/plays 01 Kate Bush 90 02 Lambrini Girls 75 03 Delilah Bon 70 04 Joy Division 47 05 Johnny Cash 43 06 Die Spitz 40 07 KNIFE BRIDE 40 08 HotWax 39 09 GWAR 38 10 Cranes 36 11 Heartworms 34 12 YONAKA 24 13 congratulations 23 14 The Pogues 23 15 fakeyourdeath 22 16 Saint Agnes 22 17 Joan Jett 21 18 The Prodigy 21 19 Pet Shop Boys 20 20 Prince & the Revolution 20 21 Tobias Forsner 19 22 Hana Piranha 17 23 Lard 17 24 Siouxsie & the Banshees 17 25 The Southern Death Cult 17 26 PROJECTOR 16 27 The House of Love 16 28 Witch Fever 16 29 Mimi Barks 15 30 The Bangles 14 31 JJ72 13 32 Shadow Reichenstein 13 33 Skunk Anansie 13 34 Soundgarden 13 35 Squeeze 13 36 The Horrors 13 37 Faith No More 12 38 Nine Inch Nails 12 39 Nirvana 12 40 Slipknot 12 The Year to Date Pos/Artist/plays 01 (24) Kate Bush 117 (+90) 02 (06) Heartworms 81 (+34) 03 (01)The Cramps 81 (+2) 04 (16) HotWax 80 (+39) 05 (NE) Lambrini Girls 77 (+75) 06 (09) Siouxsie & the Banshees 74 (+17) 07 (NE) Delilah Bon 72 08 (02) Garbage 63 (-) 09 (03) Simple Minds 60 (-) 10 (04) The Clash 60 (-) 11 (05) Gaffa Tape Sandy 59 (-) 12 (08) The Damned (+6) 13 (07) L7 52 (+2) 14 (NE) Johnny Cash 49 15 (NE) Joy Division 47 16 (10) Killing Joke 47 (-) 17 (11) The Lords of the New Church 46 (-) 18 (12) Red Lorry Yellow Lorry 45 (-) 19 (13) Marilyn Manson 44 (-) 20 (14) Ministry 44 (-) 21 (NE) KNIFE BRIDE 43 22 (NE) Die Spitz 42 23 (15) Manic Street Preachers 42 (-) 24 (17) Bambie Thug 40 (-) 25 (NE) Cranes 40 26 (18) Joan Jett & the Blackhearts 40 (+4) 27 (NE) GWAR 38 28 (NE) YONAKA 37 29 (23) Bruce Springsteen 36 (+9) 30 (50) Joan Jett 35 (+21) 31 (19) LOA LOA 35 (-) 32 (NE) Saint Agnes 35 33 (31) Faith No More 34 (+12) 34 (NE) congratulations 31 35 (29) Midnight Oil 31 (+8) 36 (20) The Beatles 31 (-) 37 (21) Motorhead 30 (-) 38 (22) Fields of the Nephilim 29 (-) 39 (38) Rob Zombie 29 (+10) 40 (NE) Pet Shop Boys 28 41 (42) The Sisters of Mercy 28 (+10) 42 (NE) The Prodigy 26 43 (40) Depeche Mode 25 (+7) 44 (37) LN 25 (+6) 45 (NE) PROJECTOR 24 46 (34) Sick Joy 24 (+4) 47 (25) Sleeper 24 (-) 48 (26) The Jesus & Mary Chain 24 (-) 49 (27) Eat Your Make-Up 23 (-) 50 (28) Gaye Bykers on Acid 23 (-) Dropouts Kid Kapichi 23 (+4) Beastie Boys 22 (-) Eville 21 (+6) Goodbye Mr Mackenzie 20 (-) Shadow Project 20 (-) Beastmilk 19 (-) Chappell Roan 18 (-) Korn 18 (-) Eurythmics 17 (-) Die So Fluid 17 (+2) Birdeatsbaby 15 (-) Iggy Pop 15 System of a Down 15 The Libertines 15

Spare a thought for those of us who remember Andrea Moda Formula

Also if they're going to cancel the Russian GP over illegal wars of aggression then there's at least another 3 weekends spare in North America...

Turkey would be the obvious candidate but the logistics of doing it with fans potentially attending there is quite different to under Covid lockdown.