2019 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 15-17

[Jolle]

so a whole year of developing, all the new cars and looking at the times of 2018 and the Q now, nothing really has changed....
Hamilton 7th up Vettel, with Verstappen a few tenths behind it. Good solid performance of HAAS and an early swallow for McLaren (they were 11 and 12 last year)

[Restomaniac]

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.

That whole thing smacks of a situation where they had chosen to not renew Kravitz and then they got a viewer base backlash and had to throw something together. Chandhok is very knowledgable but it do think they have him in the wrong place and why remove Kravitz if the replacement doesn’t do a replacement to Ted’s notebook?

[NathanOlder]

Yeah sky said a new midweek show with Ted. But they already had a midweek report last year. So its just Ted on the show instead of probably Pinkham.
Maybe Ted has commitments this weekend. Cant say I've seen him in Melbourne

[komninosm]

What happened to Bottas last lap?

[Juzh]

Either ferrari/merc have been hit hard on their party modes with the extra restrictions put in place on the PUs this year, or honda has practically closed the gap completely, which would be quite astonishing.

[komninosm]

Whoever was on the Ferrari hype train, now

https://media.giphy.com/media/dCdGHgF7yFHFK/giphy.gif

Matrix I member

[Jambier]

Impossible: RB have the best chassis of the world.

Of course, it will be Honda's fault if they don't win championship

[iotar__]

Mercs - Ferrari 0.2 between them max
Redbull 0.5 behind
Renault & Alfa
Closely chased by Haas
0.1
Mclaren
Racing Point
Toro rosso
2 seconds
Williams

- Not really accurate, neither were most of the predictions. Yes, it's Australia.

- obligatory, give the man a better car
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:21.442
6 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:21.826

- F1's teams' driver choices and coverage by shill media not to mention internet audience is a joke. That's how Sauber ends up with Giovinazzi/Raikkonen and Renault overpays Ricciardo with the money the saved wasting the seat on Palmer instead of keeping Magnussen . While complaining that their budget is smaller than Ferrari's. Reality in F1 does not matter.

[yelistener]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtkFZqfc-hs

Either ferrari/merc have been hit hard on their party modes with the extra restrictions put in place on the PUs this year, or honda has practically closed the gap completely, which would be quite astonishing.

And on the othe hand, Mercedes beats RB at every middle-slow corner. RB was known to be the best through middle-slow corner, so that is definitely not a good sign if we dont to see Mercedes knocks everyone else out in 2019.

[cokata]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtkFZqfc-hs

Either ferrari/merc have been hit hard on their party modes with the extra restrictions put in place on the PUs this year, or honda has practically closed the gap completely, which would be quite astonishing.

It seems to me that Ferrari and Merc have noticeable advantage in high speed corners, so maybe RBR is running less DF, or they just have a crappier chassis which i find difficult to believe.

Also Ferrari are a match to Merc in straight line speed and high speed corners, but they give a lot of time away in the medium and slow speed corners and on braking most likely.

This for me suggests that they are not on top of the tires as much as Merc are. Also Merc did look to have an advantage in S3 from Barca testing. Hopefully this means that the car is competitive with a better understanding and management of the tires. We shall see in the next couple of races

[Schuttelberg]

Impossible: RB have the best chassis of the world.

Of course, it will be Honda's fault if they don't win championship

I'm guessing your comment was a sarcastic one. I think Red Bull had a lot to prove after the divorce with Renault and I for one was expecting them to fall behind Renault and be the 4th best team. However, 4th to start off with a brand new partner and to go through that whole integration process with what looks like decent reliability is a brilliant start. If you've followed the sport for the last decade, Red Bull are always slow starters but almost certainly end up with the best chassis by year end.

I think for them to convincingly be third best at least shows that the move to Honda basically lost them nothing but gives them factory backing and works status from a manufacturer who have had a hard time but also won a lot in F1 previously.

It's just one qualifying, but initial impressions definitely indicate that Red Bull's decision was the correct one and this at least offers them some hope of parity in terms of power against rival manufacturers.

To be honest, I think Horner might be the happiest bloke in the paddock. Even more so than the Mercedes group. I have no doubt that Red Bull is the best team of this decade in terms of operations. They're not very likeable, but that's the first thing you need to be to succeed in F1.

[godsire]

Impossible: RB have the best chassis of the world.

Of course, it will be Honda's fault if they don't win championship

I'm guessing your comment was a sarcastic one. I think Red Bull had a lot to prove after the divorce with Renault and I for one was expecting them to fall behind Renault and be the 4th best team. However, 4th to start off with a brand new partner and to go through that whole integration process with what looks like decent reliability is a brilliant start. If you've followed the sport for the last decade, Red Bull are always slow starters but almost certainly end up with the best chassis by year end.

I think for them to convincingly be third best at least shows that the move to Honda basically lost them nothing but gives them factory backing and works status from a manufacturer who have had a hard time but also won a lot in F1 previously.

It's just one qualifying, but initial impressions definitely indicate that Red Bull's decision was the correct one and this at least offers them some hope of parity in terms of power against rival manufacturers.

To be honest, I think Horner might be the happiest bloke in the paddock. Even more so than the Mercedes group. I have no doubt that Red Bull is the best team of this decade in terms of operations. They're not very likeable, but that's the first thing you need to be to succeed in F1.

Sorry Sir but this is some kind of illusion. Mercedes are currently on the verge of 6th straight double championship (not achieved by any team in history), proved themselves to be best while fighting from behind and you are calling RBR the best team in a decade?

They hardly battled against anyone for the last seasons - steady 3rd place all the time. Not to mention they nearly gave away 2 titles to Ferrari with a much better car (2010, 2012). Also all the results are a proof that just like McLaren their claims of best chassis on the grid are pure PR lies.

[JPBD1990]

‪Honestly for the good of the sport Mercedes should consider adjusting their media strategy. We’re sick of this underdog story now, it’s transparent and contrived. People are mostly disappointed today, not impressed by their “miraculous turnaround”. That simple. Keep it real!

[MtthsMlw]

[jumpingfish]

Vettel said: "I thought the sectors might still be there. I think a little bit of everything. I don’t think the straightline is a problem so I think we are quite competitive down the straights but I think we’re just losing in the corners. There are 16 corners around here and I think it’s a fairly even spread so probably by the looks of it… and so far it was more in the medium and lower speed stuff rather than the high speed stuff."
IMO, in 2018 season was same problem with low-middle turns - remember Monaco/Singapore/2019 testing day 8 - Ham got back his gap in 3rd sector.. So, this season can copy previous one