2013 Australian GP - Albert Park

[beelsebob]

Nico said in an interview they were surprised by tyre degradation. Initialy they wanted to do 2 stops, but they couldn't because of the tyres. Seems merc's tyre problems are far from over. Nico's face after his race said it all.

I have to disagree with this. They thought they had better degradation than others and tried a 2stop. It turns out they had equal degradation and had to do 3. Under shooting above average expectations is better than under shooting average expectations.

I must say I'm pleasantly surprised. They really made the super softs work for them in a way the others couldn't. Had they gone 3stop from the start IMO they would've been in the podium hunt. Late strategy changes are always bad.

Mind you their raw pace in the opening laps wasn't too hot.

Right, I think everyone is concentrating on the wrong thing with the tyres. The tyres were more than good enough (if anything better than anyone but Lotus). What's worrying is simply that their race pace was a good half a second a lap down on average compared to RBR, Ferrari and Lotus. That though, can be made up "simply" by adding more DF/drag, there doesn't appear to be anything fundamentally wrong with the car though.

Conclusion: I think they have a solid foundation, but are a little behind the top 3 just at the moment.

[chuckdanny]

Anyone noticed the big sparks underneath Kimi's car? For what I can tell, it was the only car that did that?

I did ! and the most surprising is that it was not only at the start with full fuel onboard but even at the end... maybe a trickery there... ?
I did not notice it on grosjean's car though...

[stefan_]

Just curiously what's the rule on backmarkers using DRS while fighting amongst each other and under blue flags? I noticed that toward the end when Alonso was lapping the Marussia and Caterham the Marussia had DRS open trying to make a pass while Alonso also had DRS open trying to get around them. They're allowed to fight their own battles but don't they have to yield first?

If you have the 1s gap you can open the DRS no matter who is around you. The fact that you must give room to a car that is lapping you while doing that is a situation you must handle with care, making sure you are not in the way of the faster car.

[alpen]

Just curiously what's the rule on backmarkers using DRS while fighting amongst each other and under blue flags? I noticed that toward the end when Alonso was lapping the Marussia and Caterham the Marussia had DRS open trying to make a pass while Alonso also had DRS open trying to get around them. They're allowed to fight their own battles but don't they have to yield first?

If you have the 1s gap you can open the DRS no matter who is around you. The fact that you must give room to a car that is lapping you while doing that is a situation you must handle with care, making sure you are not in the way of the faster car.

So it ends up being a bit of a grey area situation when it occurs as it did during the race with Alonso passing the Caterham but not the Marussia due to DRS being open and potentially being held up in turns 1&2 before passing on the way to 3?

[hollus]

Lapped cars showed a blue flag have anyways 3 corners to yield, so they were both in their perfect right not to let Alonso pass before turn 3. Does anyone know if they have to allow the faster car through before or after those 3 corners (i.e. in the flat out area called turn 4 in this case, where Alonso got to them in the main straight)?

[Goran2812]

Anyone noticed the big sparks underneath Kimi's car? For what I can tell, it was the only car that did that?

I did ! and the most surprising is that it was not only at the start with full fuel onboard but even at the end... maybe a trickery there... ?
I did not notice it on grosjean's car though...

Alonso also bottomed up a lot and had sparks flying all over the place...

[stefan_]

via F1 Fanatic

[Nomore]

This seems to be a massively drivable car, making it easy to get a laptime immediately. Look at how Alonso's 2nd outlap was enough to jump Sutil and Vettel at once. Fantastic consistency and race pace.

this time i agree..

[Godius]

Does anyone know why Sutils tyre degradation on the super softs was so freaking high? I expected him to be very quick in his last stint; low fuel, super softs, + clean air.

[nhojekim]

Yes, best race pace.
The Lotus and redbull are up there as well. I guess the. First race of the season the strategy will warp things a bit, as the teams familarize themselves with the tyres, but ferrari do seem to be able to hang onto redbull. It's very drivable as well, as felipe is no complaining or spinning out as he usually does.

Although Ferrari does have the best race pace as a team... Raikkonen had the best race pace today. That said we don't know how much time was lost behind Sutil and Vettel. The car seems to fair better in the race than in qualifying again, as it is normal since it is based on the F2012. A dry qualifying in Malaysia ( i know there is a great chance of not getting it ) will give us a clearer picture of where everyone stands.

So, upgrades. We saw the new upper fin on the front brake ducts and the absence of the so called shark mouth. Anyone notice something else different? I am not sure but I think the lower half of the sidepod turning vanes is different. Has anyone got a good pic of that?

I still think Ferrari had the best race pace rather than the Lotus. It was the 2 stop strategy that gave Lotus the win.

[kilcoo316]

Does anyone know why Sutils tyre degradation on the super softs was so freaking high? I expected him to be very quick in his last stint; low fuel, super softs, + clean air.

How did Ricciardo and Bianchi do on their last stints anyone? [Wondering if it was something to do with the evolution of rubber on the track at that stage of the race.]


I could hazard guesses, but they'd be little more than that.

[f1316]

This seems to be a massively drivable car, making it easy to get a laptime immediately. Look at how Alonso's 2nd outlap was enough to jump Sutil and Vettel at once. Fantastic consistency and race pace.

this time i agree..

Actually, it was Massa, Vettel and Sutil (the last being, in fairness, just after the stop). Would love to know what that lap was, out of interest.

On a more car-related point, the great thing for Ferrari is the Melbourne shouldn't have played to their strengths; the Lotus and RB were supposed to have much better traction, which is pretty important at that track, and the Ferrari's strength (from last year's car and Barca testing appearances) seemed to be high speed corners, not to mention top speed was high too.

Both should be good for Malaysia.

[myurr]

Does anyone know why Sutils tyre degradation on the super softs was so freaking high? I expected him to be very quick in his last stint; low fuel, super softs, + clean air.

Even brand new super softs were graining after a couple of laps, and those were used supers that went on Sutil's car. Happened to the front runners as well in the first stint, but after a few laps of graining the tyres clean up again. That was why Hamilton was able to do a 13 lap stint on them with reasonably good pace.

[Nomore]

This seems to be a massively drivable car, making it easy to get a laptime immediately. Look at how Alonso's 2nd outlap was enough to jump Sutil and Vettel at once. Fantastic consistency and race pace.

this time i agree..

Actually, it was Massa, Vettel and Sutil (the last being, in fairness, just after the stop). Would love to know what that lap was, out of interest.

On a more car-related point, the great thing for Ferrari is the Melbourne shouldn't have played to their strengths; the Lotus and RB were supposed to have much better traction, which is pretty important at that track, and the Ferrari's strength (from last year's car and Barca testing appearances) seemed to be high speed corners, not to mention top speed was high too.

Both should be good for Malaysia.

100% agree

In Australia Ferrari has never been fast since 2007

[munudeges]

Although Ferrari does have the best race pace as a team... Raikkonen had the best race pace today.

It wasn't just that Raikkonen had comparable pace but that he had comparable pace while using a set of tyres less. When you take into account that he was head and shoulders above. Frankly that would worry me greatly about Lotus.