2018 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 22 -25 March

[Jambier]

What an awful race
No overtaking possible, undeserved winner.

Really sad if this year is like this

[Jambier]

I found this picture only few minutes ago:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZEXZpuX4AAZYk9.jpg:large

Overtaking at Albert Park is difficult, overtaking a Ferrari today was even harder

Well even Alonso and the slow McLaren held VES,HUL,BOT...

[Rodzilla]

vettel also knew about the plan to go longer so thats why he was slower in the first phase

Erm what? Without the VSC he would have been nowhere near either Hamilton or Raikkonen. So by that logic the plan was 'go really slow so that you are almost certainly going to finish miles off the lead and your teammate'.

the plan was to put raikkonen in and leave vettel out longer, this is a basic situation when its 2 vs 1 because mercedes have to give up the lead at least momentarily

[proteus]

I found this picture only few minutes ago:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZEXZpuX4AAZYk9.jpg:large

Overtaking at Albert Park is difficult, overtaking a Ferrari today was even harder

Well even Alonso and the slow McLaren held VES,HUL,BOT...

Aparently quick enough to be infront.

[Sieper]

0,1 liter per 100 km, that is about 0,3 liter for a race distance. Streetcar engines are no reference, agreed. That is what Renault uses up and apparently even the Mercedes customer teams, this data was posted last year. When the limit was reduced to 0.9 the actual usage was 0,89 liter in that chart. To me that shows it has no reference to real oil usage but can be strictly controlled (If there is truth to these numbers;which I do believe).

Listen I am for the one top three teams with the biggest power deficit, (RBR) so offcourse I would like the playfield leveled a bit more (how much it is I don’t know) but it is the actual rule book oil is not meant as fuel and the merc engine seems capable (If the Numbers posted are correct) of meeting the next to zero oil burn If that were now to be the enforced rule.

And If it were enforced to 0,1 and merc would still be party moding in Q3 at least that would shut my whining up for good! A good thing for all parties involved so Lets hope 0,1 will get enforced at Some point.

Were you moaning when RedBull found a clever way to dominate?

No, of course not, but Any unfair advantage (like RBR flexi front wing Silverstone last year) usually gets killed straight away, and that is only right.rules are rules and If you outsmart them it will at Some point get taken away (or become the norm).

[Restomaniac]

vettel also knew about the plan to go longer so thats why he was slower in the first phase

Erm what? Without the VSC he would have been nowhere near either Hamilton or Raikkonen. So by that logic the plan was 'go really slow so that you are almost certainly going to finish miles off the lead and your teammate'.

the plan was to put raikkonen in and leave vettel out longer, this is a basic situation when its 2 vs 1 because mercedes have to give up the lead at least momentarily

Vettel would have been nowhere near Hamilton or Raikkonen without his blind luck. To then make out that it was all a master plan?

[sosic2121]

vettel also knew about the plan to go longer so thats why he was slower in the first phase

Erm what? Without the VSC he would have been nowhere near either Hamilton or Raikkonen. So by that logic the plan was 'go really slow so that you are almost certainly going to finish miles off the lead and your teammate'.

Exactly!
But that was the only way to win today and they went for it. It's just that it payed off this. Without VSC Seb would have finished 3rd.

[Sieper]

So, why did Vettel stay out so long, he was loosing more and more time, at Some point his only hope was a virtual safety car. Just at that point one Haas car got stopped on track and then one more, just at the perfect time. That was very lucky.

[ripper]

I found this picture only few minutes ago:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZEXZpuX4AAZYk9.jpg:large

Overtaking at Albert Park is difficult, overtaking a Ferrari today was even harder

Well even Alonso and the slow McLaren held VES,HUL,BOT...

Yeah I know, track position is king here and VET was lucky to have a VSC at right moment. I was just pointing out that FER used less much less wing/downforce than MER if they were able to gain some time on straights in qualy mode. In race trim probabily this helped them in defending thier position.

I don't know if it's FER car's philosophy or they are running less drag due to thirstier PU

[Xwang]

vettel also knew about the plan to go longer so thats why he was slower in the first phase

Erm what? Without the VSC he would have been nowhere near either Hamilton or Raikkonen. So by that logic the plan was 'go really slow so that you are almost certainly going to finish miles off the lead and your teammate'.

the plan was to put raikkonen in and leave vettel out longer, this is a basic situation when its 2 vs 1 because mercedes have to give up the lead at least momentarily

This was IMHO the only way to force Hamilton to change his tyres.
The 6 seconds gap to Vet were too much for Vet being a real threat if he was the first to pit.

I agree that Hamilton driven Mercedes was faster than Ferrari, but for sure not 0.7 second for each lap of the race.
I mean that he was able to do some laps 0.7 seconds faster, but not all the laps (probably fuel management) otherwise at lap 20 he should have been 14 seconds ahead Raikkonen and not 3 seconds.
So I think that the Hamilton driven Mercedes had about 0.2 second/lap advantage, but wasn't able to overtake on this circuit (Bottas driven Mercedes has done nothing all the race).

[Juzh]

https://twitter.com/LukeSmithF1/status/ ... 0363103233

Had VSC not happened, this would have made zero difference to RAI's race. He had more than enough time not to get overcut by Vettel, so it's a non-issue.
Raikkonen is just overreacting because he thought Vettel overcut him already at that moment, when in reality he was nowhere close.

[Fulcrum]

Poor Kimi, having done everything right, had to be content with 3rd. You need to feel for him.

Commentators constantly referencing how good Kimi has been on the tyres in testing, best at managing stint pace, pulling away from Seb in the first stint.

Ferrari brings Kimi in first. Okay then.

[Juzh]

Ferrari brings Kimi in first. Okay then.

Or they bring in Vettel first and he undercuts Raikkonen and people still get mad. Make up your mind.

[dans79]

On the display of Lewis it was visible he changed back from "Attack mode" 5 laps before end. After that he started losing 1 second a lap.

Very clear, it's amazing how flattering Strat14 can be to a driver.

The same can be said for a dumb luck safety car.

[ripper]

There's one thing I don't understand about VET strategy: if there wasn't any VSC or SC would they have tried SS instead of S?