2019 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 15-17

[LM10]

No I didn't say Melbourne was RB-friendly. This is a stop-and-go track, clearly not in RB's favor.

What I meant was, I hope being slower than Mercedes at middle-slow corners was indeed because of low DF setup, not RB's chassis being inferior, because the latter would mean Mercedes will dominate RB-friendly tracks like Monaco or Hungarian. No one wants to see that happen, as that'd be 2016 all over again.

Alright, now I get what you meant. Well, you're right. Though, I don't think that Mercedes being fastest in low-speed sections will automatically make them world champions. Let's see what happens in the next couple of races.

[Juzh]

As vettel said they're losing equally almost everywhere, not a single thing that really stands out. Just small loses compounding themselves over the lap. Car is simply too slow.

[LM10]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gNzoy1hmSA

As vettel said they're losing equally almost everywhere, not a single thing that really stands out. Just small loses compounding themselves over the lap. Car is simply too slow.

It's so strange, though. Looking at both laps next to each other, the Ferrari seems to be much more relaxed/stable (which normally translates into fast laps, some might assume). Hamilton, on the other hand, looks absolutely on the edge. His head and steering wheel moved as if he was in a just launched rocket.

However, the times show a completely different story. Also, the Ferrari looks more understeery than Mercedes.

[SiLo]

This is a street circuit. You're going to want a nimble car that gets the nose in easily and that's exactly what Mercedes had.

[Fede90]

Another boring season? After 6 years i'm pretty tired. Twitter's comments are most the same, nobody wants an uncompetitive championship with a mercenary mercedes' second driver

[TAG]

It was an exciting qualifying, interesting reading the commentaries here.... bah, who am I kidding, it was hilarious reading the commentaries. Perhaps another intervention from the gods is on order for Ferrari tomorrow. I pick Norris for fast lap extra point.

[bosanac1]

There must be more performance to unlock from that Ferrari.

Haas to be that close to Ferrari makes zero sense.

Maybe Ferrari was running conservative mode for reliability reasons.?

Something is off. Could they have miscalculated aero and have more drag than others? Even in corners they don't look like they have Mercedes downforce.

From that Hamilton/Vettel comparison video side by side.

Lewis is on the edge, Vettel is like doing sunday race lap and dealing with understeer.

And checking the speed trap from all intermediates, Ferrari are on the bottom end.

Shaking of head from Binotto is very worrying.


.................................


Seeing Renault that far off is ridiculous.

Every year I keep thinking they will be the top 4 team and pushing close to top 3 and its not happening.

To get beat out in quali by McLaren and rookie too (norris) is joke.

That being said Norris did amazing, what a talent that kid is. Part of me wants Norris and Alonso driving this year.

[balintgabulya]

Congratz to Mercedes for the lock-out.

For the dissappointed Ferrari fans, there are a lot of unknowns that give some hope...
- Is the Mercedes quali-mode godlike again?
- Did Ferrari fail to setup properly?
- Is Melbourne a Mercedes track?
- Does Mercedes have a similarly dominant race pace?

Just as it was unlikely that Mercedes was 0.5 s behind after testing, it is just as unlikely that they are 0.7s ahead ...

On a different note:

Q1 was dope, amazing to see everyone but the Williams within 1.2 s, Ferrari forced to switch to Softs on LeClerc.

Expecting a Mercedes domination for tomorrow, that will likely be disturbed by a safety car, some amazing battles in the midfield with Ricciardo in 12th and Gasly 17th.

[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?

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


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Lol yes, and Max beat Leclerc. So Honda is faster than one Ferrari, lol. Lol.

[pantherxxx]

There must be more performance to unlock from that Ferrari.

Haas to be that close to Ferrari makes zero sense.

Maybe Ferrari was running conservative mode for reliability reasons.?

Those are the rumors. Mattia Binotto said that they have reliability issues. Now they turned down the engine to avoid major reliability problems. The Italian team has compensated for the lack of power by a different aero setup on the SF90, which is causing instability. Their car is nowhere as good as where in Barcelona.

Source: https://www.f1analisitecnica.com/2019/0 ... fiche.html

[GrizzleBoy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gNzoy1hmSA

As vettel said they're losing equally almost everywhere, not a single thing that really stands out. Just small loses compounding themselves over the lap. Car is simply too slow.

Yeah I just watched this.

As far as I can see the Ferrari is losing out every time high energy deployment is needed on the straights and basically every time rotates the steering wheel.

Seriously look at it. Every time Seb needs to turn the car he drops back 0.05-0.1s. Seb is no newbie when it comes to having a car that needs throwing around the track, but it seems like the Ferraris can't or won't respond to that because he doesn't look to be pushing (even if he is).₩

Another thing to note is that Sebs top speed was one of the lowest of anyone in Q3 with 303 in the speed trap compared to 307 from Lewis.

However Leclerc had a top speed at or near to Lewis.

So it seems like they've cranked up the down force on Sebs car to make up for the fact that the thing just doesn't seem to want to turn in to corners like the Merc can (surely a benefit of Merc having around 2x the amount of direct downforce generating front wing surface).

We'll have to see how the lower top speed affects overtaking tomorrow and how powerful three DRS zones and big DRS openings will help.

I guess more importantly, how the Ferraris seemingly lethargic front end performs with dirty air from the cars in front and if its seeming inherent smoothness is a positive or benefit for tyres and race pace.

[foxmulder_ms]

Another boring season? After 6 years i'm pretty tired. Twitter's comments are most the same, nobody wants an uncompetitive championship with a mercenary mercedes' second driver

100% disagree. Hamilton vs baby face was fun. Also the last two years were great too, ferrari imploded towards the end of both seasons. If that didnt happen it was down to the last race both years.

This year everyone is closer to each other than any other time I can recall. Look at that times!!! Merc has advantage (probably circuit specific) but other than that it is crazy close.

[GrandAxe]

Those people handing Merc the 2019 championship are the same level of stupid as those who handed Ferrari the championship after two weeks of testing.

Every single year it's the same but it's not until the completion of the 3rd race that we really see a pattern developing and who has the early pace in the car.

But even after the third race this is no guide to where we end up at the end of the season, we then enter the development race so my advice would be to sit back and enjoy the toing and froing and which ever team/drive does the best over the season will win without trying to make predictions this early or you'll just look as stupid as the hacks at Autosport.

While speculation can be annoying, this sort of post isn't much better. Its best to be civil and let everyone be.

[Unf]

I want to admit that in Australia's 2018 gap between Hamilton and Ferrari's was the same - 0.7s. After that - Vettel has easy won Bahrain GP. We need to wait untill next race to say something true.

[foxmulder_ms]

It was an exciting qualifying, interesting reading the commentaries here.... bah, who am I kidding, it was hilarious reading the commentaries. Perhaps another intervention from the gods is on order for Ferrari tomorrow. I pick Norris for fast lap extra point.

Nope... Those points belong to Kimi for whole seasons.