2019 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 15-17

[Mansell89]

Welcome back to the podium HONDA - what a journey so far.

[the EDGE]

I am speechless about the way Merc screwed Lewis over

Covering Ferrari-off is something you do when your in or near your pit window

Not something you do when you have another 20 laps of decent rubber left

Time and time again they do this, admittedly usually to Bottas, but they seriously need to sort out their race strategy calls

They would have to pit eventually, no (I mean on the next 3 laps) ? Last thing Mercedes wanted was Hamilton to emerge behind Vettel even with more fresh rubber.
But I can't understand why do it the very next lap when you have such gap (above 5 secs IIRC).

They covered off Vettel and it nearly cost them 2nd to Verstappen

Merc need to learn to run their own race, there was no need to cover Vettel this early in the season, if Vettel was struggling with his tyres then that’s Vettels look out

Merc made the wrong call, fortunately it didn’t cost them this time round but they need to learn from it

[dans79]

"Why am I so slow?" The real question Ferrari has to answer.
The next question is why they played the ugly number 1 driver card so early in the season.

If Ferrari's advantage is to be found in medium and high speed corners, then they had nowhere at Albert Park to harness that advantage.

If they raced tomorrow at Spa, I think we would see different results.

Sadly, Merc is faster than them in all corner types, the advantage is just greater in the slower corners.
Ferrari has to fix their understeer problems to mount any sort of challenge, especially as their lower downforce front wing design would eat up their tyres faster than Mercs and Red Bull's higher downforce choice.

Yep, and the only way to rectify the issue is more downforce from the front wing.

[F1NAC]

Ferrari demolished. I think they didn't pit because they couldn't do a 1.25.5

They did 1:21.2 yesterday on low fuel and new tyres. Ofcourse they could get 1:25.5...

As for gap, they had 35s gap to magnussen. Thats quite alot of leeway for a bad pit, over 10 seconds.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

Maybe they had serious problem with PU on one car and decided not to risk it on another, hence doubt to get into 25's .

Leclerc had some pace with leaders on harder tyres until he ran into Vettel. But while others started pushing for FL's Ferraris had like 3,4 seconds per LAP deficit...

[ringo]

The DRS didn't work at all this race, but i guess it's a difficult balance to find. What is good is that the drivers were able to follow closely. So all in all i think the tech regs are a success. No one was complaining about losing the front end because they are following too closely, and in fact we saw some really close battles such as gasly vs daniil, giovinazzi and the others, Kevin and Hulk. So i can't complain. The race was a good one, it just didn't have a close battle up front. The battles were fought in the middle.
Again, i think Leclerc will bite Vettel's head off soon enough. He is just learning the car now, i am giving him 3 races to to get on vettel's nerves.

[Phil]

I personally dont buy the supposed engine issues. Vettel seemed to be slower by a similar rate vs his team mate then Hamilton was relative to Bottas. Both Hamilton and Vettel ran a compromised race. I think many are underestimating what it means having to do 10-15 more laps on a stint, esoecially when the cars at that point are much heavier as a result of the full fuel tanks.

[zeph]

Russell 2 and Kubica 3 laps down.

Wonder whose head is gonna roll next.

[saviour stivala]

"I am going to beat everybody" true to his word he was.

[Juzh]

Again, i think Leclerc will bite Vettel's head off soon enough. He is just learning the car now, i am giving him 3 races to to get on vettel's nerves.

You also said yesterday ferrari will have good race pace and possibly be even dominant, just goes to show how full of nonsense (wanting to use a stronger word, but we know how the mods work) you really are.

[GrandAxe]

If Ferrari's advantage is to be found in medium and high speed corners, then they had nowhere at Albert Park to harness that advantage.

If they raced tomorrow at Spa, I think we would see different results.

Sadly, Merc is faster than them in all corner types, the advantage is just greater in the slower corners.
Ferrari has to fix their understeer problems to mount any sort of challenge, especially as their lower downforce front wing design would eat up their tyres faster than Mercs and Red Bull's higher downforce choice.

Yep, and the only way to rectify the issue is more downforce from the front wing.

After Bottas dominant display, even having the tyres to set fastest lap on the last lap, its almost safe to predict that the Red Bull's would be much more of a nuisance to Ferrari than Ferrari would be to Merc.
Until they sort out their front wing, Ferrari might beat Red Bull in pole shoot outs, but get eaten up in the race.

[LM10]

"Why am I so slow?" The real question Ferrari has to answer.
The next question is why they played the ugly number 1 driver card so early in the season.

Because they already (indirectly) announced to do so even before the season started. So it's not really a question to be answered.
Leclerc is a very good driver and person. I really like him. But he will learn from race to race. He told he needs to convince his team that he's faster in order to make it hard for them to choose Vettel as number 1 driver. However, this race weekend it was not the case yet as he was slower in Qualifying and also in the race when he lost like 10 seconds to his team mate in the first stint.

[nevill3]

It looks to me that Bottas has taken a leaf from Rosberg's book and has taken things to another level within himself, well done for him I am pleased. This season has gotten a little more interesting. Mercedes had to cover off Ferrari because this is the first race with the newer tyre compounds and so they were unsure of just how the newer tyres would react.

[Sevach]

Is that really Bottas?

Ferrari needs a new car.
I don't think Leclerc was good today, his initial stint was crap, he caught Vettel and could've finished infront but that's the minimum when Vettel was on such a crappy strategy and supousedly with engine problems.

Good race for Verstappen.

[Shader]

"Why am I so slow?" The real question Ferrari has to answer.
The next question is why they played the ugly number 1 driver card so early in the season.

Because they already (indirectly) announced to do so even before the season started. So it's not really a question to be answered.
Leclerc is a very good driver and person. I really like him. But he will learn from race to race. He told he needs to convince his team that he's faster in order to make it hard for them to choose Vettel as number 1 driver. However, this race weekend it was not the case yet as he was slower in Qualifying and also in the race when he lost like 10 seconds to his team mate in the first stint.

https://www.gpblog.com/en/videos/32915/ ... alia-.html

This is no way to treat your young driver in his first race for the team... Fact is, he was faster in the end, why not let him overtake? They lost more than they gained with this move.

[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?

Please. Ferrari is "incompetent" huh? Then what is everyone else besides Mercedes? Criminally inept?

I can't remember a time in F1 when 1 team was not dominant for a certain duration of time. When this happens, it is on the other teams to raise their game and bring the challenge to the dominant team.

Yes incompetent because they have the highest budget of all teams and still in 2nd place... other teams don't have the amount of money or resources like Mercedes and Ferrari. So the difference?