2019 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 15-17

[Bill_Kar]

I can't help but feel like this is Mercedes way of appeasing Bottas last year. 20s over Lewis? Come on.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

A win is a win, no matter what the difference. Bottas won the race at the start, that was it. The gap was huge because LH had to manage his tires in order to be sure that he's going to the end. Bottas had the normal race that Mercedes expected.

[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

[dans79]

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

Thankfully, unless Ferrari has a resurgence that'll stop after another race or two.

[GrandAxe]

"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.

[Ringleheim]

Still dont know why Ferrari didnt go for that extra point, pit leclerc, put him on softs and hunt that FL.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

This one especially seeems silly, they had nothing to lose. Except if they thought even with new tyres they couldn't do it, which could be possible with a car as slow as this ferrari.

That's not true. A pitstop is always a somewhat risky process and the gap behind Leclerc wasn't huge. You're risking a wheel not going on right or a slow pit costing you a spot to the car behind you, etc.

He also would have had to actually get the fastest lap once on track.

I am surprised Ferrari did not let Leclerc past Vettel.

I think they were just being conservative with the decision to not let Leclerc come in and go for the fastest lap. I think other teams in the same situation would possibly do the same thing.

[AMG.Tzan]

8 poles and still only 2 wins for Hamilton in Australia...that should also be a record!!
So happy to see Honda at last on the podium...and Verstappen fighting with Vettel!!
Leclerc should have finished in front of Vettel but Ferrari didn't think so...!

[tranquility2k4]

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

[Phil]

Toto just said on ORF that Hamilton lost temperature in his tires as a result of the early stop and Hamilton wanting to manage the stint to get to the end. In other words; Hamiltons race compromised as a result of them having to cover Vettels very early stop.

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.

[Ringleheim]

"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.

[Bill_Kar]

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).

[Sierra117]

We know one thing for sure. Hamilton's going to be in super hunger-mode and determined now and we'll see some great stuff hopefully like there was with Nico.

I can't get used to that moustache on Vettel lol. He should dye it darker lol.

[JPBD1990]

It’s good to have f1 back. Happy to see a Bottas victory, makes the embarrassment that was my team (ferrari’s) performance slightly more tolerable.

[z.topoln]

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

[GrandAxe]

"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.

[MtthsMlw]

Toto just said on ORF that Hamilton lost temperature in his tires as a result of the early stop and Hamilton wanting to manage the stint to get to the end. In other words; Hamiltons race compromised as a result of them having to cover Vettels very early stop.

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.

Maybe he also pushed too hard at the beginning of the second stint to cover a possible overcut from Verstappen.