Have they changed qualification rules this year

Not too much.

Obviously fuel is irrelevant due to no refuelling.

So...
Q1, 20 mins, slowest 7 eliminated.
Q2, 15 mins, slowest 7 eliminated.
Q3, 10 mins, fastest 10 remaining the tyres used to set the fastest lap by each driver are the tyres that that driver has to start the race with. Unless the track conditions change (i.e. dry quali, wet race).

Good result for Red Bull.

Bloody hell ! Alonso is back with avengance (sp)

Found it rather boring to be honest. The commentators were struggling for things to say !

All the hype and a boring race in the end tbh. Vettel looks good for the season if the car is more reliable and the prancing horses look good.

+1

I'm not sure about having to use both compounds in a race. I think it would be nice to have the odd wildcard trying to make the distance on a single set of rubber. It looks as though there was quite a bit of tentative driving today, hopefully things will improve and more risks taken in the next few races.

However, there aren't many better things to do on a Sunday afternoon.

Yeah, that was very dull. I've been looking forward to the start of the season for weeks, then we've had the most boring race I think I've ever seen. The new changes to the track make it too long and the middle section is far too slow and technical, wasn't it designed to produce more overtaking opportunities - not that we saw many.

I guess it will take the drivers a few races to learn just how much they can push early on with a full load of fuel, and also later on when the tyres are struggling. Saying that, I've always found the Bahrain track produces a dull race anyway, so maybe it wasn't indicative of the season ahead. Let's wait until we get to Europe and see if the new rules are still producing boring, procession races.

Yeah, very boring race.

I think the lack of refuelling is probably the main cause. Like the guys said, they're going to qualify on the softer tyres and swap out after 15 laps and go the distance on the harder compound.

No tension in the pitstops caused by refuelling etc...

It might sound a bit stupid but I think it could be good for the sport (spectator-wise) to make a rule for minimum 2 tyre changes during the race and the tyre changes have to be done in 2 out of the 3 thirds of the race. i.e. change in lap 15 and then lap 35 or something.

That way there is no nursing the tyres home.

It's a tricky one.

Yes, it's tricky; in some ways I'd rather see them have to nurse the tyres home, because it rewards the drivers who've looked after their tyres in the earlier stages. But yes, a pretty dull race; only seemed to be two overtaking moves in the whole two hours - was definitely nodding off towards the end, and not helped by the commentator, Jonathan whatsit. Can't believe he's still got the job, frankly. Still, it's early in the season - but not quite the scintillating start I was hoping for.

Cheers, Pete.

Fit cars with guns. End off.

Frankly though, if the sport is only exciting when they stop playing, the sport is sh*t.

The main reason F1 is so monumentally dull is that overtaking is a rare event. It's essentially just a very fast, very expensive, over-hyped motorway journey.

The reason that overtaking is so very rare is that the cars have far too much grip through the corners. The cars go round corners like the drivers aren't involved; just add block signalling and you'd have a railway. The only time someone gets over taken is when they have a problem.

If they want to make it exciting then they should ban aerodynamics. Outlaw front and rear wings and see if that improves things.

TBH, that's not a bad idea.

I suppose though that's what they were trying to do last year with the aero changes.

The engineers managed to get round it anyway and keep the same levels of downforce.

If you outlaw wings then you may as well enlcose the tyres and put the engine in the front.

Hang on, that sounds somewhat familiar. I'm wanting to patent a metal device that stops the drivers getting wet when it rains - can I add it to your design too?

I got so bored watching it I started building my media server