2018 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 22 -25 March

[JonoNic]

I for one would love to see DRS activation happen much earlier in the straight. Possibly on or even before the apex of the corner. The balancing act of traction out of corners and gaining a good top speed could be complicated by the chance of spinning out. The car in front should also have some DRS assistance but not as apparent as the following car.

Would a driver activate DRS earlier at a place like Monaco?

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[digitalrurouni]

And I don't understand the need for Mercedes to always run a tiny gap with the cars behind them. From what I could see Lewis could extend his gap at will.

Mental scars (China, Russia and of all, Malaysia) of 2016, I guess.

No to mention if they are out front leading by 20 seconds people complain like children that they are destroying the sport.

That is another argument I never understand lol. But yeah I agree. If I was the team honcho for whatever team was dominant I would sure as hell unleash the dominance at every single track I would go to instead of sandbagging. I hate sandbagging.

[Sieper]

But that is the most important argument, If Mercedes do destroy the opponents a season long (and even if their customers teams would also(Williams was not too far off a few years ago) then pretty quickly somekind of rule would be introduced to kill the advantage partially. That is I think the main reason fro Merc not going full on always. Plus saving engines (3 per season) and saving fuel for a later attack/defend. In any case, it is sensible not to go too far in the lead for a good many of reasons.

[Juzh]

Well, Monaco can also be quite lame, but usually we have a few crashes there as the walls are everywhere. How many overtakes did we have with the pre 2017 smaller wings (and less wide tires). Was it any/much better?

Overtaking at Albert Park was poor, but still better than what we saw on Sunday (source:https://www.pitpass.com/58686/Why-overt ... urne-alone):

The Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit has never been great for overtaking. If you go back to the last Australian Grand Prix run under a stable set of regulations, without any major incidents or too many cars starting out of position, you will find precious few passing manoeuvres to note. 2015 featured 13 overtakes - 10 of which were completed using DRS. 2014 was a similar story, with 24 total overtakes - eight with the help of DRS.

Yes, this year's Australian Grand Prix featured only 12 changes of position - including two "normal" overtakes and three overtakes with the assistance of DRS. But the variability year-on-year at this event can be significant. In 2016, a race with a red flag, three Safety Car appearances and plenty of cars starting out of position featured 40 changes of position on track. 2017, by contrast, saw none of these factors, with cars qualifying pretty much as expected and performance differentials throughout the field not sufficient to make changes of position an inevitability.

2014 quali was wet, thus cars were out of position. Mercedes powered cars had ridicioulus engine advantage that race, but they started out of position because of rain.
Another reason for more overtakes were comically slow cars, with like no downforce at all. Fastest lap was 8.4s (!!!!!) slower than track record. New SF18 (2018 superformula chassis) cars would beat the crap out those 2014 F1 cars on some tracks, with 2/3s the power, while costing 100 times less.

[vanburin]

2014 quali was wet, thus cars were out of position. Mercedes powered cars had ridicioulus engine advantage that race, but they started out of position because of rain.
Another reason for more overtakes were comically slow cars, with like no downforce at all. Fastest lap was 8.4s (!!!!!) slower than track record. New SF18 (2018 superformula chassis) cars would beat the crap out those 2014 F1 cars on some tracks, with 2/3s the power, while costing 100 times less.

Good point! it just further reinforces the argument that overtaking at Albert Park is extremely difficult, unless there is a significant speed delta between the two cars. The 2017 and on specifications have only made that worse!

I think it's fair to assess the circuits now rather than the cars. Even in 2009 which was lauded as the year where downforce would be stripped allowing cars to run as close together as possible (and the introduction of KERS), the average number of overtaking moves per race went DOWN compared to 2006, 2007 and 2008.

With the cars as fast as ever, I can't see it ever going back. Speed is marketable, and everyone from a marketing standpoint loves to hype the news headlines of "fastest lap recorded in HISTORY!!"

[dans79]

But that is the most important argument, If Mercedes do destroy the opponents a season long (and even if their customers teams would also(Williams was not too far off a few years ago) then pretty quickly somekind of rule would be introduced to kill the advantage partially.

This is a part of European culture I will never understand. Their seems to be a subconscious (for lack of a better term) urge to knock anyone down who is deemed to be doing to well.

[Andres125sx]

I for one would love to see DRS activation happen much earlier in the straight. Possibly on or even before the apex of the corner. The balancing act of traction out of corners and gaining a good top speed could be complicated by the chance of spinning out. The car in front should also have some DRS assistance but not as apparent as the following car.

Would a driver activate DRS earlier at a place like Monaco?

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I don´t think so. Take into account F1 cars are traction limited up to 3rd or even 4th gear even in a straight, so activating DRS will reduce traction and acceleration.... and I think this would harm more than what they´d gain due to the reduced drag, but this is just my guess

[Just_a_fan]

But that is the most important argument, If Mercedes do destroy the opponents a season long (and even if their customers teams would also(Williams was not too far off a few years ago) then pretty quickly somekind of rule would be introduced to kill the advantage partially.

This is a part of European culture I will never understand. Their seems to be a subconscious (for lack of a better term) urge to knock anyone down who is deemed to be doing to well.

In this instance, it's not about knocking back someone who is doing well. It's about ensuring the sport survives. If the FIA just took a laissez-faire attitude, F1 would implode within a couple of years. The rules are changed to ensure that there is some chance that one team won't dominate until the rest all give up hope and leave. Note that Indy etc. get around this by having, effectively, a spec-series. F1 isn't a spec-series, it's a prototype series.

Note: there is never an attempt to knock back a successful driver - the more successful a driver is, the more he is held in high regard. It's only the teams that are pegged by the rule s(or at least, that's the intention).

[JonoNic]

I for one would love to see DRS activation happen much earlier in the straight. Possibly on or even before the apex of the corner. The balancing act of traction out of corners and gaining a good top speed could be complicated by the chance of spinning out. The car in front should also have some DRS assistance but not as apparent as the following car.

Would a driver activate DRS earlier at a place like Monaco?

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I don´t think so. Take into account F1 cars are traction limited up to 3rd or even 4th gear even in a straight, so activating DRS will reduce traction and acceleration.... and I think this would harm more than what they´d gain due to the reduced drag, but this is just my guess

However, guessing where to manually activate DRS will bring in some skill into the equation I think or some unpredictability. Just a thought though...

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[dans79]

In this instance, it's not about knocking back someone who is doing well. It's about ensuring the sport survives. If the FIA just took a laissez-faire attitude, F1 would implode within a couple of years. The rules are changed to ensure that there is some chance that one team won't dominate until the rest all give up hope and leave. Note that Indy etc. get around this by having, effectively, a spec-series. F1 isn't a spec-series, it's a prototype series.

All Formula series work this way, doesn't matter if it's cars, boats or planes, someone will almost always dominate. If you want to ensure the sport survives change the rules more frequently, and more substantially, not every 6 to 10 years, or make is a spec series and be done with it.

[Sieper]

But that is the most important argument, If Mercedes do destroy the opponents a season long (and even if their customers teams would also(Williams was not too far off a few years ago) then pretty quickly somekind of rule would be introduced to kill the advantage partially.

This is a part of European culture I will never understand. Their seems to be a subconscious (for lack of a better term) urge to knock anyone down who is deemed to be doing to well.

Well, that may be so, certainly that is present in parts of my home country, I myself like to admire who is doing good, but it really has nothing to do with the reasoning in F1. There is a rule that engines must be in a certain bandwidth f.e. That is why it is beneficial for a team like Merc, the benchmark, not to push it too much, that way they can remain on top more easily as otherwise the politics of F1 (complaining RBR, Ferrari, Renault etc.) would start to weigh on FIA ruling. And I believe personally FIA is right to do so as competition is what we all like to see the most. I am guessing you are from USA (A country I still regard very highLy) and f.e. In the NBA they have similar rules in place, budget cap, first draft etc. All to make the competition better.

[rogazilla]

One position that I maintain and I will probably be blast for saying it.

NO BLUE FLAG! You are racing. just because there is a back marker does not mean they are not racing also. Earn it!

End rant...

[AMG.Tzan]

Personally i liked the race and i like this kind of racing! For me overtakes isn't the most important thing...performance and hard overtakes are the way to go! Formula 1 right now is as it should be!! Motorsport leading engine and aerodynamic technology...fastest motorsport in the world! Almost 1000hp...tons of downforce...cars look fast and are fast! I loved seeing Verstappen throwing it at every corner and finally losing it...it really reminded me of Gilles Villeneuve's insane driving! After all Australia always was difficult to overtake...so nothing new here!

[strad]

Ross Brawn notes in his book that if you do too well and they can't "knock you back" any other way that the teams will gang up to change the rules on you.

[digitalrurouni]

Ok so they changed the rules last year and made it more aero dependent and made the cars look visually more appealing. Great move. Despite what folks were saying that aero means Red Bull would have an edge it was a 2 horse race for the most of the year with Mercedes at the end having done a better job adapting to the regulations. So when despite changing rules and having driver changes in the lineup if a team does better I don't see why the sport would implode. Ok fine let's sandbag but let's do it reasonably. And software glitch or not don't people on the pit wall use stopwatches no more? Sheesh.