2019 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 15-17

[Mamba]

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.

And if there was a mistake during the pit stop? Wheel stuck, wheel nut not locking and they lose a place? Then you and frankly I too would be calling them out for taking a stupid risk.

It was a bad weekend for them. They got both cars home with points and plenty of data to analise. Fastest lap was just an extra solitary point which did not warrant the extra risk.

[siskue2005]

I agree with you. If it is other way around they would pitted Vettel for extra point. I am 100% sure they(ferrari) will not win this year 2019 wdc and wcc with Vettel and average driver Lec(seems Kimi better than Lec). Ferrari Need Alonso at any cost.

Lec is no Ves. If Ferrari had to put a young driver alongside Vet they should have done it with Ves in 2017, which would have been far more logical. Lec is no Ves. Its Vet who will carry through the challenge just like in previous year..where is Ferrari's brains the lord only knows? a competetive car is not a championship winning car alone ...you need 2 championship capable winning drivers working as a team to drive the competetive car to win a championship. Alonso is past and so will Vet. Ferrari winning championship is also of the past.

You mean like McLaren did 2007 when they put Hamilton alongside Alonso? As we all know that worked out great in the end, didn't it? Well, at least for Ferrari it did.

That was their management problem... nothing to do with both drivers being competent.... infact that made even more faster than Ferrari as both of them pushed each other and reached a level which they would have never attained otherwise.

[siskue2005]

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.

And if there was a mistake during the pit stop? Wheel stuck, wheel nut not locking and they lose a place? Then you and frankly I too would be calling them out for taking a stupid risk.

It was a bad weekend for them. They got both cars home with points and plenty of data to analise. Fastest lap was just an extra solitary point which did not warrant the extra risk.

A pitstop costs only 20sec ... he was 34 sec ahead of Haas... even if some how he had a 40 sec pitstop (chances of it are nil) then too he could have easily breezed past the Haas with his new tyres and speed.

Fastest lap is an extra point, of which we have 21 this season ... that could alone make the difference in a championship fight. It is worth the risk, didn't u see all top 3 cars turning up their engines and going for it in the end?
Ferrari should have gone for it, might not get a chance like this.... instead they gave up that point and handed it to Bottas, making him the first driver in history to get 26 points one race ( in effect losing 2 points to mercedes)

Moreover if a championship contenting team cannot pull a pressure less easy 3 sec pitstop without any issues then why even bother to turn for the race or to even win a championship

[Schuttelberg]

Arrivabene or Binotto, the operational errors continue at Ferrari. There is no logical reason for not having Vettel on two stops after Verstappen passed him. He had one point to lose assuming he would have got the FL. He might have also started a domino effect and if there was a SC, he could have got second with some luck. I think it was the right call to not have Leclerc and Vettel fight because Ferrari will either be in a battle for 2nd at least. But, it was totally daft to not have Leclerc box and go for the FL once he was asked to hold station. You're competing against the most dominant force F1 has ever seen. You need to maximise every millimetre you get.

[jumpingfish]

Do they had enough pace for making fastest lap after pit with their problems?

[Schuttelberg]

Do they had enough pace for making fastest lap after pit with their problems?

Let's say they didn't. What would Leclerc have lost trying?

[LM10]

Not to make conspiracy

On Wednesday or Thursday Ferrari car was inspected for the first time

Any news about Magic pieces on the front/rear suspension that were disallowed?

Otherwise, they would have done pretty terrible housework in simulation

I assume Ferrari might have asked FIA for clarification before building their suspension system. At least this would be a no brainer instead of doing hundreds of kilometers in testing, setting the car up and knowing the suspension system is likely to be deemed illegal. So I can't really imagine there would have been any unknowns in inspections.

[jumpingfish]

Do they had enough pace for making fastest lap after pit with their problems?

Let's say they didn't. What would Leclerc have lost trying?

He could lose some time on the pit then fly off the track, giving way to Haas. Of course, this is all guesswork but if rumours about engine problems and unbalanced car are true, Binotto could be more careful

[Phil]

I'm totally with Schuttelberg on this one;

1.)
Why didn't they pit Vettel the moment he got passed by Max? That surely could have caused a domino effect with Hamilton already being less than sure if he could get to the end on those tires. The lower you finish in the points, the less the difference between positions. They could have also profited by getting Leclerc (who did not have to pit again) up a position relative to Hamilton if that had worked. At that point of the race, it was an unknown if Hamilton could make it and less so if he could hold on to second. I think it was worth the bluff to be aggressive, especially since finishing 4th & 5th and 4th and 6th wouldn't have been that bad, but with the potential to put your opposition under pressure and get an advantage for that point for fastest lap.

2.)
Why did they not pit either Leclerc or Vettel for fresh rubber to challence Mercedes on the fastest lap? The benefit IMO certainly outweighed any potential drawback given the positions they were in...

[Dr. Acula]

Lec is no Ves. If Ferrari had to put a young driver alongside Vet they should have done it with Ves in 2017, which would have been far more logical. Lec is no Ves. Its Vet who will carry through the challenge just like in previous year..where is Ferrari's brains the lord only knows? a competetive car is not a championship winning car alone ...you need 2 championship capable winning drivers working as a team to drive the competetive car to win a championship. Alonso is past and so will Vet. Ferrari winning championship is also of the past.

You mean like McLaren did 2007 when they put Hamilton alongside Alonso? As we all know that worked out great in the end, didn't it? Well, at least for Ferrari it did.

That was their management problem... nothing to do with both drivers being competent.... infact that made even more faster than Ferrari as both of them pushed each other and reached a level which they would have never attained otherwise.

Well, basically the same happend with Rosberg/Hamilton, Senna/Prost, Arnoux/Prost, Jones/Reutemann, Vettel/Webber and Mansell/Piquet just to call a few.
It's not a managment problem. The problem here is that top level racing driver are simply very bad losers and the worst of all is to lose against a teammate because in that case you can't make any excuses about the car being slow. Also, weren't there some rumours that Verstappen and Ricciardo didnt' get a long to well during the last season?

[tpe]

If we learned anything from this races is that Ferrari hasn't fix their operations. Race management is poor to say the least.

[siskue2005]

Do they had enough pace for making fastest lap after pit with their problems?

They did 1.21.1 in qualy, don't tell me they cannot beat 1.25.5 in the end of the race with 3 laps used qualy tyres and with similar fuel to qualifying even with turned down engine modes

[Wynters]

My take is that Vettel likely ran into trouble because he didnt manage his stint like that, was on the attack, but then likely lost too much tire performance towards the end of that very long stint.

I suspect you are right. Vettel hammered his tyres in his outlap where as Hamilton was able to bring them up to temperature at a far more controlled pace.

[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.

And if there was a mistake during the pit stop? Wheel stuck, wheel nut not locking and they lose a place? Then you and frankly I too would be calling them out for taking a stupid risk.

It was a bad weekend for them. They got both cars home with points and plenty of data to analise. Fastest lap was just an extra solitary point which did not warrant the extra risk.

A pitstop costs only 20sec ... he was 34 sec ahead of Haas... even if some how he had a 40 sec pitstop (chances of it are nil) then too he could have easily breezed past the Haas with his new tyres and speed.

Fastest lap is an extra point, of which we have 21 this season ... that could alone make the difference in a championship fight. It is worth the risk, didn't u see all top 3 cars turning up their engines and going for it in the end?
Ferrari should have gone for it, might not get a chance like this.... instead they gave up that point and handed it to Bottas, making him the first driver in history to get 26 points one race ( in effect losing 2 points to mercedes)

Moreover if a championship contenting team cannot pull a pressure less easy 3 sec pitstop without any issues then why even bother to turn for the race or to even win a championship

I understand the point about risking a mistake at a pit stop - Binotto said this was their rationale - but as has been said, in the context of going racing, all of which is risk, this was a low-risk way to not only benefit by a ‘free’ point but take one away from your rivals. Leclerc taking the fastest lap which would otherwise have gone to Bottas is a 2 point swing between Mercedes and Ferrari. That can count at the end of the season.

On a different note, I’m also wondering whether, if it’s indeed true that Mercedes performed better than they expected - which they claim - and Ferrari didn’t have the grip they experienced in testing - which they claim - that the two are linked. I.e. something in the conditions and/or track both solved a Mercedes issue and created one for Ferrari, relative to both teams’ testing form. I’m not 100% sure I believe Mercedes’ rhetoric about believing they were behind, but clearly Ferrari’s performance here is not simply their level as they expected it to be; it’s not as if they performed to their expected level and everyone else just turned up faster.

[Wynters]

• Good point for Stroll.

• Midfield looks nice and close (at Melbourne-style tracks, anyway).

• Gio ruined a lot of races but saved his team mate from a lot of pressure doing it.

• Ferrari made the right call to ensure Hamilton couldn't win by stopping Vettel early.

• Mercedes made the right call covering Vettel and securing the 1-2.

• Ferari then dropped the ball by not only preventing Leclerc from being in a position to benefit from a Verstappen/Hamilton clash but also not allowing him to gain an easy point / force the leader to burn up valuable max power mode.

• Ferrari's strategy says a lot about how little they rate Red Bull as a challenger this season.

• Haas really need to sort out their pit techniques.

• I wonder if Gasly was simply struggling with lack of overtake or if he damaged his car taking off Kubica's front wing?

• Hamilton (start), Vettel (error on exit to let Verstappen overtake), Verstappen (giving Hamilon 3 seconds in the last 10 laps) and Leclerc (running wide just after the start) all made small mistakes today. Bottas looked imperious.

• Renault failure already.

• Honda failure for Gasly too.