2019 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 15-17

[Ringleheim]

Looks like Kubica's right harm cant take the pressure of qualifying. He seems to not able to react quickly and strongly enough to keep the car on a fine line.
I think he will be better in the races, but Williams really made a bad choice by keeping him over other prospects.
Russel will continue to beat him by over 1 second in qualy.

anyhow i will reserve judgement for the relative position of the cars. This track is a funny one, and i think it boils down to confidence and lack of mistakes that determines who comes out on top in qualifying. That Ferrari will be much faster in the race; possibly dominant, with the redbull not far behind.
I'm not too convince about mercedes as a race car; it still looks twitchy and very bouncy. The season is far from over.

Thoroughly impressed with the new team drivers. I have sneaking suspicion that Gasly has more speed than Max. Giovinazi seems to be a quicker race driver than Kimi. Norris and Sainz about equal. There will be fire works in the coming races.

Did you miss the part where Kimi destroyed Giovi in qualifying? I'm no Kimi lover either!

[NathanOlder]

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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And Max outqualified Leclerc. Your point is?

My point is simply that qualifying results are not reflective of true or outright pace (whatever that means to you) but the result of a driver putting together a sufficient time at an opportune moment when it matters. In that regard Norris as a driver/car combination delivered where as RBR Gasly laid an egg. Will we consistently see Norris ahead of Gasly? Time will tell.

He was making the point that, you say Alfa is a better car and Norris out did Giovinazzi. When Norris out did both Alfa drivers, so that points more towards the Mclaren being better than the Alfa. You make a point in that Giovinazzi messed up and couldn't put together the good enough sectors when it counted. When it was both drivers than were beat by Norris.

Sainz unlucky not to progress because of Kubica's puncture. Norris has clear runs and best both Alfas.

[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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And Max outqualified Leclerc. Your point is?

My point is simply that qualifying results are not reflective of true or outright pace (whatever that means to you) but the result of a driver putting together a sufficient time at an opportune moment when it matters. In that regard Norris as a driver/car combination delivered where as RBR Gasly laid an egg. Will we consistently see Norris ahead of Gasly? Time will tell.

My point is that he did outqualified both Alfa Romeo’s, outqualifying the quicker of the 2 (Kimi), which shows that shouldn’t count GIO as been in front of him (I believe Renault simply didn’t had a great Q2 and could have probably been in front of him)... I don’t think that we will see Norris ahead of Gasly in the first part of the season.

But simply based on qualifying at Melbourne, they are fighting it clearly in the middle of the midfield and seem to be faster than STR, Racing Point and Alfa... Probably matched with Renault and behind Haas.


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[J_Ryder]

The high rake cars slow down faster at lift off.

That would only be the case if they had more drag. Do you think the high take cars are draggier?

When lifting, the rear suspension rises and that makes the car draggier in my view.

[etusch]

Can Ferrari fight back?

The pre-season favourites for many, Ferrari have been blown away by Mercedes in the first qualifying session. However, whilst the Silver Arrows' one-lap pace brought a dominant Saturday for the Brackley team, it by no means rules out Ferrari on Sunday, or for the remainder of the season.

Last year, Ferrari's tactics and Mercedes' errors yielded a win for the Scuderia, despite a similar qualifying result, and we're yet to discover how each team performs in the real race runs, with added factors such as tyre wear.

It's worth remembering that even if Ferrari can't compete with Mercedes in race one, they fought back strongly in 2018 by taking pole position in the following three races.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/aust ... innovation

[etusch]

[Just_a_fan]

Is this going to be a one stopper? Start on soft then swap to medium for the run to the flag.

[zeph]

I don't how much of an advantage the softs are, but would Gasly benefit from all those unused sets he has? Could he do two or three stops and just drive 'em all to shreds?

[Sieper]

If he can get back in to the top 10 and the frontrunners are still pressuring eachother the the fastest lap is his to take.

[munudeges]

I have been thinking about Hamilton's decision to move from McLaren to Mercedes in the context of Ricciardo going from Red Bull to Renault. Both moves were head scratchers at the time. Hamilton pulled it off though and now it looks like the obvious choice.

Mercedes had the resources. Renault just don't. I actually understand Ricciardo's decision though, because after the Baku crash, which was completely Verstappen's fault, Red Bull tried to apportion blame equally. It was over there.

[etusch]

I don't how much of an advantage the softs are, but would Gasly benefit from all those unused sets he has? Could he do two or three stops and just drive 'em all to shreds?

first he must have a clean start. then he can take fastest lap point in worst scenario.
I also wonder pit stop count. Verstappen not has unused tyres but one set

[siskue2005]

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

And whose fault is that?
Mercedes for doing their job?
Or the incompetent Ferrari team with their high budget?

[SmallSoldier]

Is this going to be a one stopper? Start on soft then swap to medium for the run to the flag.

The fastest strategy is start on Softs and close to lap 27 move into Mediums to the finish flag.

An strategy that could be as fast (but probably not faster) is to start on Softs and close to lap 22 move into Hards (which should allow to push more on the Softs at the beginning)

A 2 stopper, with soft - soft - and short stint on medium should also be fast, but it will depend a lot on track positioning and with Melbourne been a hard to pass circuit, probably not the preferred strategy.


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[Phil]

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

I actually didn't think 2017 and 2018 was that bad - certainly 2018 was one of the best seasons since perhaps 2012. Funnily, I loathed the RedBull winning days as much as you do probably Hamilton winning, but in 2012, I was rooting for Seb in that last race...

(And no, I don't think this one will be boring either)

[DVB]

2012 best season ever with 7 different race-winners in the first 7 races.