2019 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 15-17

[GrizzleBoy]

As I noted yesterday, Vettel easily had the slowest speed trap numbers out of all the front runners in qualifying by a good few mph, including Verstappen who had one of the top speeds.

Like I said yesterday, the car is just not good enough at producing front downforce so Ferrari bumped up his wing levels, making him even slower in the race when he is out of DRS range.

You can tell from his qualifying onboard that there is nowhere he can push the car to get it to turn like it needed to.

Either that, or he didn't feel like being rough with the car would actually benefit him at all.

In terms of aggressiveness when it came to wheel input, Seb was driving the Ferrari in Q3 like it was a car with half a tank of fuel and used tyres. As if he knew that if he pushed it the way he would wrangle his 2011 red bull, the car just wouldn't accept it.

I guess that goes back to his comments about not being confident with the car yet too. He doesn't have the trust in the cars ability to fully commit and imo it showed in qualifying.

Maybe it's what Hamilton went through in 2011 where as a guy who is happy to have a car that can rotate around the front axle, he just could not get his head around the required driving style of the blown diffusers which kept the rear so stable and stuck to the ground.

Or maybe the Ferrari in 2019 just isn't what it needs to be design wise to compete.

It's only the first race and while Seb managed to win the last couple AUS GP through a more stable car in 2017 and a bit of luck in 2018, I don't think I've seen him as uncomfortable or bewildered as he was today.

We shall see I guess.

[Phil]

GPR-A; You may have missed it, but Verstappen started ahead of Leclerc. While you're full of criticism, I'm actually very impressed by him. He had a good start, nearly challenged Vettel but knew exactly when to pull out to not collide. He made a small error in his first stint (sight seeing / detour on the grass) but apart from that very solid. Not sure what there is to criticize.

I never felt he would threaten Vettel at the first race, as Melbourne is very bumpy and high confidence. My bet he will improve greatly at Bahrain.

[GPR-A]

I don't think it is a criticism of Leclerc. Some folks, unnecessarily hyped him to beat Vettel. I am stating what should have really been expected of a new kid. If he would have focused on Verstappen, instead of charging on the outside of Vettel, probably he could have held Verstappen behind. But that doesn't mean an error. The fact is, his speed when mattered, was still down on Vettel.

[F1Krof]

The race was dull as usual. Merc had good pace, while Red Bull impressed. As for Ferrari, I think it just wasn't their day, I expect them to be much stronger on Bahrain, it's Seb's favorite tracks and Ferrari have a good record there.

But above all, two things are clear, new front wing didn't do shite, if there was any effect I think it was from the bigger rear wing, and it is too early to conclude anything.

[the EDGE]

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

I am not sure I agree on this. Yes, in retrospective, they should proceed with their normal race, but at that point who expected that Vettel would be THAT slow? So much that Verstappen would be able to overtake him in his second attempt?
Mercedes just didn't want Hamilton find himself behind another car (let alone behind a Ferrari), possibly due to flashbacks of 2017 & 2018. They didn't want to repeat the mistakes of the past, I'm fine with it really.

But as I said earlier, pitting on the very next lap was really nonsense. Even one or two laps longer it could have a great impact and maybe LH would be better off.

At the end of the day, Ham paid for his bad start. He was the one exposed to the strategies of the others, so not much to see around here. I'm pretty certain, if he was the first to turn on turn one, the result would be exactly the same (even in terms of distances), par a switch of positions of the Mercedes' drivers.

Mercedes should have know the medium tyre was much slower than the soft and they should have know how long the soft tyre would have last

To be quite frank, it doesn't matter if it was Lewis or Bottas they called in early... the call was early, way to early, and they needlessly risked a 1-2 today through a bad strategy call and lost us the opportunity to see Lewis & Bottas go head to head

Everyone who watched F1, or at least everyone reading this knows with Pirelli tyres its better to have fresh rubber at the end of the race. All Merc did today was needlessly binned a decent set of soft rubber in exchange for slower medium rubber that then had to last too long.

I knew it, they should have know it. there is no excuse for them not to. There was no reason they had to cover-off Vettel, they should have been focused on their own race with an eye on Verstappen too, he only qualified a tenth slower than Vettel, he is just as big a threat this season

Mercedes were very very lucky today, if they don't learn from it then it will end up costing them points later in the season

[GPR-A]

Or maybe the Ferrari in 2019 just isn't what it needs to be design wise to compete.

It's only the first race and while Seb managed to win the last couple AUS GP through a more stable car in 2017 and a bit of luck in 2018, I don't think I've seen him as uncomfortable or bewildered as he was today.

Too premature to think that SF90 is wrong in it's design. I hope they bounce back and get to the bottom of issues. Bahrain puts premium on good down force through fast sectors and power, which should help the Ferrari bounce back. But I am worried for Ferrari due to their less than stellar ability to develop the car through the season.

Mercedes' performance on this track shouldn't have been a surprise, if people would have taken the best S3 time of Hamilton from the last day of testing. But people wanted to brush that aside with various excuses as they did not want to believe a car can be that good for one sector. They spent the entire first test, focusing on different suspension options and working on some sort of simulated four wheel steering, other than working through PU reliability. They probably still need work for their high speed cornering ability, which would put them back into the grasp of Ferrari in Bahrain.

[f1316]

That’s right Ferrari, even with a clear gap to give Leclerc a free stop for soft tyres, don’t bother using it... just give your opposition that extra point....

It’s one thing to be slow but at least maximise what you can get. Unfathomable.

[Bill_Kar]

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

I am not sure I agree on this. Yes, in retrospective, they should proceed with their normal race, but at that point who expected that Vettel would be THAT slow? So much that Verstappen would be able to overtake him in his second attempt?
Mercedes just didn't want Hamilton find himself behind another car (let alone behind a Ferrari), possibly due to flashbacks of 2017 & 2018. They didn't want to repeat the mistakes of the past, I'm fine with it really.

But as I said earlier, pitting on the very next lap was really nonsense. Even one or two laps longer it could have a great impact and maybe LH would be better off.

At the end of the day, Ham paid for his bad start. He was the one exposed to the strategies of the others, so not much to see around here. I'm pretty certain, if he was the first to turn on turn one, the result would be exactly the same (even in terms of distances), par a switch of positions of the Mercedes' drivers.

Mercedes should have know the medium tyre was much slower than the soft and they should have know how long the soft tyre would have last

To be quite frank, it doesn't matter if it was Lewis or Bottas they called in early... the call was early, way to early, and they needlessly risked a 1-2 today through a bad strategy call and lost us the opportunity to see Lewis & Bottas go head to head

Everyone who watched F1, or at least everyone reading this knows with Pirelli tyres its better to have fresh rubber at the end of the race. All Merc did today was needlessly binned a decent set of soft rubber in exchange for slower medium rubber that then had to last too long.

I knew it, they should have know it. there is no excuse for them not to. There was no reason they had to cover-off Vettel, they should have been focused on their own race with an eye on Verstappen too, he only qualified a tenth slower than Vettel, he is just as big a threat this season

Mercedes were very very lucky today, if they don't learn from it then it will end up costing them points later in the season

Yes, of course he would have an advantage, I'm not implying that Vettel would be faster. Far from that. But even if Vettel was much slower, you can't risk positioning your car behind him. Not to mention this is Albert Park, with almost no great point to overtake.They turned out to be wrong, but I insist it was a decent call at the time.

What is more, if we are to believe that Ham did have a floor problem, most probably he wouldn't even get challenged by anyone. But as he confidently said, he was never really threatened by Verstappen (he was asked by Brundle whether he had him under control or not and he answered categorically yes)

[ricardo-rs]

Welcome to the F1technical! I'm the Hamilton's fan but I'm not happy because Hamilton finished 2nd position as no good.

[Tim.Wright]

But above all, two things are clear, new front wing didn't do shite, if there was any effect I think it was from the bigger rear wing, and it is too early to conclude anything.

New wings made a massive difference. Didn't you see how many Trulli-trains there were? That wasn't possible last year as the tyres would go off due to the loss of aero load and the chasing car's would fall off after a couple of laps.

[oT v1]

Don’t agree with the Merc criticism for lewis’s stop, for me that was the logical thing to do at the time. Ferrari wouldn’t have thrown Vettel under the bus (even though in hindsight he wasn’t anywhere remotely close to the bus stop) will a wild stop so Merc has to respect it.

Very happy with the podium, Bottas was perfect. More worried for Ferrari going forward, let’s see how the ‘real’ tracks play out first though!

[Sierra117]

Did anybody notice a weird howl, like something from the crowd haww-ing just before the first corner? I swear I hope I'm wrong and this isn't a fake-audience effect that they've put in because it really sounds like it.

[oT v1]

Did anybody notice a weird howl, like something from the crowd haww-ing just before the first corner? I swear I hope I'm wrong and this isn't a fake-audience effect that they've put in because it really sounds like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdD8gEGj0to

Er Yh, RIC detenated his front wing infront of thousands of fans

[Sierra117]

Did anybody notice a weird howl, like something from the crowd haww-ing just before the first corner? I swear I hope I'm wrong and this isn't a fake-audience effect that they've put in because it really sounds like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdD8gEGj0to

Er Yh, RIC detenated his front wing infront of thousands of fans

I know but it seemed a bit too perfect and a bit weirdly timed. Oh well.

[oT v1]

You’re right though it was a bit strange, maybe they only mic’d up a certain section over others. I did a double take too before thinking “ahhh shiit that must have been Ricciardo then”