2017 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 24 - 26 March

[wrcsti]

Good side by side comparison commentary there from D61. I hadn't seen a Vettel onboard but the glimpses I did see were that he's pushing as hard as that car can go. Hamilton by comparison was silk with his inputs and the Merc accelerates out of corners way ahead if the Ferrari.

I think tomorrow we'll see the gap even clearer.

My opinion is that its a difference in driving style and slight car handling differences.
Vettel is consistently later on the brakes and as a result later on the throttle at or before the apex.
Hamilton is earlier on the brakes and earlier on the throttle.
That accounts for hamilton being faster on corner exit "slow in fast out"
its interesting to see the laps side by side and the obvious mistakes vettel made.
Does a full load of fuel at race start magnify the slight oversteer that vettel has or does it cure it?
does car length have anything to do with vettels oversteer and Hamiltons slight understeer?
is it down to hamilton having a better setup?
Hamilton had a more balanced car which in turn makes it look as if he wasnt pushing...trust me he was, he just didnt make any mistakes and vettel made a few which accounts for a quarter of a second.

I agree with this, its well known vettel and kimi prefer cars that have a slight oversteer.

[iotar__]

Everyone is talking about the starts going to be more difficult this year. Will they, given the tires are this much wider?

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/240677/1/g ... -2017.html

Haas driver Grosjean explained the challenge on Wednesday, explaining how the fine margins involved in finding the perfect bite point on the clutch will make good starts in 2017 more down to luck than judgement.

“It's not yet mastered. Some are good, some are really bad,” Grosjean said when asked about his practice starts through testing.

“It's interesting because everything depends on the grip of the track. If you drop the clutch at a good place, then you have a good start. If you don't then either you get wheelspin or you get clutch slip, so it's a pretty tricky one.

“I guess it's going to be more down to a bit of luck to find the sweet spot on the clutch to get the start. The problem is that you never now what the grip is going to be like.

“Back in the past we had a region where the clutch was slipping and the torque was good. Now it's just going to be where maybe you're five per cent too much clutch and that's not going to go anywhere. Maybe you're five not enough and you'll wheelspin and it's not going to go anywhere.

“Once the Pirellis start to spin, they're not having a good time trying to recover.”

Same direction: hardware not matching bigger driver's impact.

[Chuckjr]

If Ferrari can get a jump at the starts, they will not need more than 2nd or 3rd starting position. Put all those crazy aero bits on the Merc in dirty air and I'm thinking the Merc pace will likely suffer maybe more than most, but we'll see. Looking forward to the race.

[ringo]

Which engine has the most ellipses?

Ringo didn't respond, maybe he's moved past his ellipses, or just maybe, Red Bull dropped their ellipse technology after they discovered that 1 person in the whole world found them out.

No, not really i am just avoiding wasting time with you . Funny how something from so many years ago is so intriguing to you haha. Maybe you should do some background reading on aircraft aerodynamics and aerodynamic efficiency?

For those who may not know, that was simply a surface detail used by the designers of the redbull cars over the years; which i noticed and supported with an actual CFD study of different side pod designs.

I've reserved myself to making simple posts these days after scrolling through miles of chatter. The actual interest in the science behind the F1 cars is less prevalent; and has been anchored in journalistic watered down jargon.
I've accepted this and silly responses like the ones above.

[ringo]

Good analysis from the video. Ferrari looks to have more downforce on the car, but setup needs tweaking.
https://twitter.com/MBrundleF1/status/8 ... 8359280640

[Phil]

Thanks iotar. Great. More start lotteries this year...

[Singabule]

Ricciardo is so unlucky

[cplchanb]

danny ric's RB has broken down to the grid>>>!!! wont even get to start the race poor honey badger

[F1NAC]

kvyat also . Apparently fire extinguisher went off

[3jawchuck]

Apparently (according to Brundle and images on screen) Daniil Kvyat's fire extinguisher went off on the grid. Another Danny with bad luck this morning.
Any idea if they can recharge/change it in time? I imagine they're pretty integrated and not an easy thing to reach, then they have to figure out why it happened.

[Singabule]

Gearbox? Related to K?

[cplchanb]

Apparently (according to Brundle and images on screen) Daniil Kvyat's fire extinguisher went off on the grid. Another Danny with bad luck this morning.
Any idea if they can recharge/change it in time? I imagine they're pretty integrated and not an easy thing to reach, then they have to figure out why it happened.

hopefully they got a spare bottle somewhere...theyll have to take off the engine cover pieces possibly to access it.
i really hope its a plug and play thing and no wire splicing will be required

[Steven]

Good morning everyone!
Please join us in the chatbox during the race http://www.f1technical.net/live/

[cplchanb]

looks like they might be able to save DR's car in time (provided the sensor issue can be cleared)
ironically the new earlier mandated time to arrive at the grid may actually be the saving grace as there a few more minutes to troubleshoot

[F1NAC]

So Rocky is now engineer for Ricciardo