2019 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 15-17

[wickedz50]

I think the BBC article will show to be true as the races go by.

Also there is talk of Ferrari being this far behind last year...

Yes, but they had a floor issue in Aus holding them back (they dont now and just look confused)

And they had the magic engine mode. Which after FIA clarifications, no longer exists.

This year is very different for them, but in a bad way.

Do not miss the sad demise of their boss, I felt 2018 fell apart right after Marcioni passed away. Binnoto has some explanations to give or 2019 will take back Ferrari to where they were in 2014.

[Pany]

Is All about engine. Many talks about chassis and drivers up to now, most of which are correct . But engines? Mercedes power unit is entered in a new performance and efficiency level. Ferrari and Renault after tricks and bla bla are still well behind after 6 years

[tranquility2k4]

Seb just asked toto how big was the desert you put in the car during testing lol

[zibby43]

I think the BBC article will show to be true as the races go by.

Also there is talk of Ferrari being this far behind last year...

Yes, but they had a floor issue in Aus holding them back (they dont now and just look confused)

And they had the magic engine mode. Which after FIA clarifications, no longer exists.

This year is very different for them, but in a bad way.

You're right, they came back in Bahrain much stronger and last year I don't think Merc were that far ahead in Melbourne, I think Lewis just did one of his mega laps, they were all very even up until then in qualifying, plus quite even in the race,whereas this year throughout the entire weekend on long and short runs Merc look dominant. Regarding the BBC article, maybe Ferrari went for easy option to have a well balanced car, whereas Merc took more difficult option with more potential and have mastered it already with their wealth of resource. I am intrigued as to who the engineer is who wrote that article because they seemed quite bias towards that approach, I can only think it's someone from Merc or RB as pretty much everyone else has gone other way and I don't see why a leading aero guy would be talking up that philosophy so much if their own team isn't using it?

One final point - Renault and Honda would appear closer to the top engines, I'd really like to see some proper analysis of this. I wonder how much RB are losing due to their most expensive and best car ever as Marko put it, and how much is Honda.

I mentioned it in passing earlier in the thread, but I couldn't believe how many analysts and commentators glossed over the fact that Mercedes only had the opportunity to run their "actual" W10 for 1 week in testing.

Mercedes essentially ran a late November 2018 spec chassis in the first week of testing. Then came the revised FW, side pods, nose, bargeboards, floor, etc.

Perhaps Mercedes was able to analyze the data from the 2nd week of testing and improve upon the car they decided was clearly the better specification?

There are other things I have been pondering (such as the ability to run even heavier in testing this year with the additional fuel capacity) and the fact that Merc was evaluating a brand new engine design.

[Unc1eM0nty]

Have to hope Ferrari's performance is an aberration and they will improve in the immediate races to come.

Last year they went on to dominate the next few races, they will be there or there abouts

[ispano6]

Norris being in the top 10 is probably an outlier in that he outperformed Gasly and Giovinazzi and their better machinery. The Alfa is a better car than the Mclaren and Giovinazzi didn't seem to put together the good enough sectors when it counted. Gasly seems to either have terrible luck or he's helping out others by sandbagging his RB15!
But to only go for one run in Q3?

[tranquility2k4]

Have to hope Ferrari's performance is an aberration and they will improve in the immediate races to come.

Last year they went on to dominate the next few races, they will be there or there abouts

Look at my earlier post which states big differences between this year and last. Melbourne last year was much closer than it looks this year (forgetting about Hamilton's pole time) and Ferrari had a floor issue and magic engine tricks it introduced for next few races. Unless they have something up their sleeve then it looks less likely they can close the gap to quickly however I do think Ferrari looks better in high speed corners, so on a different track they may be stronger.

[FittingMechanics]

Norris being in the top 10 is probably an outlier in that he outperformed Gasly and Giovinazzi and their better machinery. The Alfa is a better car than the Mclaren and Giovinazzi didn't seem to put together the good enough sectors when it counted. Gasly seems to either have terrible luck or he's helping out others by sandbagging his RB15!
But to only go for one run in Q3?

That's some leap of imagination. Norris had S3 that was 1 tenth of his best, so he didn't nail all of his sectors in that run that put him above Alfa. Kimi had almost exactly the same laptime in Q2 and Q3, time that was behind Norris. Giovanazzi obviously botched his Q2 run as his Q1 was faster, but I doubt he could have been much faster than Kimi.

All of this is with ignoring the fact that Sainz is more experienced driver in McLaren, was faster than Norris during the whole weekend, and probably would have been faster than Norris in qualy if he didn't catch Kubica with a puncture.

McLaren is 5th fastest team in Melbourne, we'll see how it is in the next races.

[TNTHead]

Sending Gasly just one time out in Q3 is obviously a team error. VER had a chassis swap between Fp2 and Fp3 with a not dialed in setup as he put it. So performance comparisons after one qualy is still difficult.

Very curious to see what the race pace is of Ferrari and RB

[SmallSoldier]

Norris being in the top 10 is probably an outlier in that he outperformed Gasly and Giovinazzi and their better machinery. The Alfa is a better car than the Mclaren and Giovinazzi didn't seem to put together the good enough sectors when it counted. Gasly seems to either have terrible luck or he's helping out others by sandbagging his RB15!
But to only go for one run in Q3?

You forgot one other thing... He also outqualified Kimi... Lol


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[Jambier]

What a defeat for Renault
So small budget... And terrible qualy.

Behind a Racing Point.
I think they will question their F1 program

[Racer X]

Racing Point is just about where I expected then to be somewhere in the midle'.

[DutchDopey]

What a defeat for Renault
So small budget... And terrible qualy.

Behind a Racing Point.
I think they will question their F1 program

They have an amazing budget, they just needed to choose between an engine and a driver and they chose the driver... (sorry, just saw the Netflix series).

[Sierra117]

You will get a proper analysis tomorrow in the pre race build up. Shame there's no teds notebook for the qualy like usual.

Yeah, what's the deal with that? Why no Notebook? All my years I cannot understand why people decide to leave out the one thing nobody asked to be removed like the headphone jack, removable batteries etc. etc. absolutely bizarre. I hope it comes back for the next qualies.

[F1Fan2018]

You will get a proper analysis tomorrow in the pre race build up. Shame there's no teds notebook for the qualy like usual.

Yeah, what's the deal with that? Why no Notebook? All my years I cannot understand why people decide to leave out the one thing nobody asked to be removed like the headphone jack, removable batteries etc. etc. absolutely bizarre. I hope it comes back for the next qualies.

Sky Said yesterday Ted will be back next week with a new show I think, not sure if Teds notebook will continue but he will still be on sky not too sure in what capacity though.