2017 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 24 - 26 March

[dren]

I was expecting Williams to look a bit better.

[godlameroso]

We won't see all the cards on the table until qualifying. Mercedes is definitely ahead, if they're only ahead by .5 seconds or less, that's not insurmountable. Last year Ferrari was .7 off the pace so there was no hope, and Red Bull was .5 off the pace. They(RB) were the only ones that could bother Mercedes and the only other team to win a race. If Ferrari is .5 or less off the pace they have a chance to catch up through chassis and engine developments, if it's .3 or less then that means that the team and the driver can make a difference, if Mercedes or their drivers make any mistakes they will lose, likewise for Ferrari. A .3 second or less difference means that performance can swing one way or the other depending on circumstances like track layout, weather, strategy, team, or driver performance, fatigue, and fuel economy.

We saw this clearly last year in the midfield battles.

[i70q7m7ghw]

It seems like Hamilton is ahead of the Ferrari's, but Bottas might be in trouble and could find himself in 3rd or 4th in qualifying and the race.

Red Bull were all talk during the preseason, shame.

Williams seem to be quite far back compared to how they looked in testing...

[ME4ME]

We won't see all the cards on the table until qualifying. Mercedes is definitely ahead, if they're only ahead by .5 seconds or less, that's not insurmountable. Last year Ferrari was .7 off the pace so there was no hope, and Red Bull was .5 off the pace. They(RB) were the only ones that could bother Mercedes and the only other team to win a race. If Ferrari is .5 or less off the pace they have a chance to catch up through chassis and engine developments,

You got that right, they have a chance. But realistically, a very very slim one. Over the last years, neither Ferrari nor Red Bull have shown to be able to out-develop Mercedes. In the areas they did, that was because of the vast deficit they had right from the start.

I really hope Ferrari and Red Bull are within 3 tenths. Otherwise, the season will lack the one thing it needs: different candidates for the win.

[godlameroso]

Yep! You also have to consider the scope for development inherent in the regulations, there's a lot of low hanging fruit with the floor, the barge boards, sidepod intakes. There's also a chance that those that went too complex with their designs find it hard to develop and start getting caught by others with more "basic" designs. That alone could make things interesting as we see big swings in performance from race to race because of car development.

Or maybe Mercedes and Ferrari really are ahead of the game and are employing a bird feather philosophy to their cars.

You could say their cars are designed by real bird brains

[atanatizante]

1. From the best race sims times set on FP2 we should compare for analysis :
Hamilton - 1.28,237 - 11 - ultrasoft and
Vettel - 1.29,172 - 11 - supersoft
and bearing in mind Pirelli said it`s almost 0,7 sec/lap between US>SS>S on this track we could say Ham has 2 tenths in hand over Vettel ... but yeah we don`t know the fuel load and PU mappings ... maybe S3 times could tell us more about fuel load for each car ...

2. I`m still don`t know whether they should use both SS and S tyre for the race ... I think Pirelli said it`s mandatory to use both of them just not to see a boring, processional 1 stop race ... but some top teams could easily do their qualy laps on SS in Q2 and just having a 1 stop race ... after all Ham did 14 laps with US so they could easily do 22-25 laps on SS and and then switching to the mandatory soft tyre for the last 33-36 laps ... In contrast Merc could do a US-S/SS-US for a 2 stop race for 2 reasons: 1. it`s the fastest strategy on time overall, knowing they have the best Qualy pace and could easily start from the first row ... and 2. it`s a more flexible strategy in case of a SC period like last year was ...

[Sevach]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/pire ... et-885562/

Given this i don't think there's any rule forcing the use of both SS and S, most people will do half the race on Ultras and go for SS after.

[dans79]

Softs and super softs are the mandatory compounds.
http://www.fia.com/news/f1-pirelli-anno ... ese-grands

The top teams will do Q2 on super softs and start with those, and then one stop for softs. I think starting on ultra softs would require two stops or a compromised pace. With the low deg, I don't know if a 2 stopper would be a good idea.




Baring incidents of some kind the order after 2 or 3 laps, will probably be the finishing order.

[GoranF1]

Wet fp3 and Q ???

[FrukostScones]

Wet fp3 and Q ???

we will find out soon, good night.

[DVB]

FP3 is between 14:00 and 15:00 local time. At 14:00 is 0.2mm rain predicted, but near 15:00 it is going to 1mm. So yes, FP3 will be wet but Q will be 80% dry. =D>

[GoranF1]

FP3 is between 14:00 and 15:00 local time. At 14:00 is 0.2mm rain predicted, but near 15:00 it is going to 1mm. So yes, FP3 will be wet but Q will be 80% dry. =D>

If it is wet there is a greather chance fo Alonso pole position than if it is dry.

[Sevach]

Softs and super softs are the mandatory compounds.
http://www.fia.com/news/f1-pirelli-anno ... ese-grands

The top teams will do Q2 on super softs and start with those, and then one stop for softs. I think starting on ultra softs would require two stops or a compromised pace. With the low deg, I don't know if a 2 stopper would be a good idea.




Baring incidents of some kind the order after 2 or 3 laps, will probably be the finishing order.

You didn't read what you posted did you?

"These are the tyres that must be available (one of them to be used) at some point in the race:
One set of P Zero Yellow soft
One set of P Zero Red supersoft"

You only have to use one of them, not both.

[dans79]

You didn't read what you posted did you?

I did, that's why I added a qualifier/explanation.

[Multi21]

Has anyone given any thoughts to what visibility will be like following someone in the rain? May not be an issue in fp3 but it tends to downpour in China from time to time. Sorry very off topic I know it's just the thought occurred to me.