2019 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 15-17

[siskue2005]

Still the first race and Ferrari are protecting The finger

True

[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.

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.

Fair enough. He's both new and young, so its understandable they'd want him to prove himself.

[siskue2005]

They did 1.22 in qualy.. they could have easily beat Bottas' lap of 1.25.5 even with 3 laps old tyres used in qualy

[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.

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.

Your drama making is not gonna change the fact that Leclerc already has been knowing this for a long time now and didn't show any form of frustration, but understanding instead.
Again, he told he should convince his team, but yesterday and today he surely didn't. But that's perfectly normal as it's his first season and was his first race in this new team and new car. If he turns out to be outright faster than Vettel in the next races, I'll back up the opinion that it would be silly to make him number 2 driver. But for now, there are no indications yet.

[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.

[nokivasara]

"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.

Who's more likely to be fighting for a WDC-title? Ferrari needs to do this to even have a glimmer of hope to beat Ham this year. It's not nice but it's understandable.
Leclerc may or may not push Vettel in the coming races, if he does and ends up with more points than Vettel then this was the wrong decision.


Very happy for Honda, great performance in both teams. Being a Mclaren fan it sucked when they broke up with Honda, didn't like it then, feel the same way today...

[komninosm]

Leclerc only ended up in that position due to strategy. Would be unfair if that strategy then also cost him that point vs his team mate, especially given they were only fighting themselves for those points.

I think the point is they could pit Leclerc and let him try for fastest lap, since Vettel had some power issues anyway.

[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.

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.

You have to feel for Leclerc. The team might have considered that his race wasn't that great and that he only caught Vettel due to being on the hardest tyre. Vettel radioed that his tyres were done pretty much 20 laps to the end of the race.

Still if Leclerc had been allowed past, it would have potentially given Ferrari a higher haul of constructor points, because Leclerc could have fought for (and possibly won) the new fastest lap point.

[Bill_Kar]

Leclerc only ended up in that position due to strategy. Would be unfair if that strategy then also cost him that point vs his team mate, especially given they were only fighting themselves for those points.

I think the point is they could pit Leclerc and let him try for fastest lap, since Vettel had some power issues anyway.

Why do you think PU issues are a given? There is no official confirmation as of now.
Plus, they would have told him when he asked why we are so slow. I think the tires was the greatest factor.

Edit: Vettel confirmed there weren't any engine issues

https://twitter.com/Vetteleclerc/status ... 07840?s=19

[siskue2005]

Leclerc only ended up in that position due to strategy. Would be unfair if that strategy then also cost him that point vs his team mate, especially given they were only fighting themselves for those points.

I think the point is they could pit Leclerc and let him try for fastest lap, since Vettel had some power issues anyway.

They would rather give up that point to someone else than give it to leclerc ...which would have made leclerc just one point behind Vettel...
They need to protect their precious queen as they have indirectly said that before the season starts

[selvam_e2002]

Leclerc only ended up in that position due to strategy. Would be unfair if that strategy then also cost him that point vs his team mate, especially given they were only fighting themselves for those points.

I think the point is they could pit Leclerc and let him try for fastest lap, since Vettel had some power issues anyway.

They would rather give up that point to someone else than give it to leclerc ...which would have made leclerc just one point behind Vettel...
They need to protect their precious queen as they have indirectly said that before the season starts

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.

[wickedz50]

Can this year be all Valteri Bothas like Nico in 2016? the guy deserves every bit of the win today, low profile yet a deserving winner.

[Mamba]

"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.

I disagree. The driver dynamic was already set to let Leclerc learn without pressure. Plus, the total team points tally would not change. They gained nor lost anything.

[LM10]

Leclerc only ended up in that position due to strategy. Would be unfair if that strategy then also cost him that point vs his team mate, especially given they were only fighting themselves for those points.

I think the point is they could pit Leclerc and let him try for fastest lap, since Vettel had some power issues anyway.

Why do you think PU issues are a given? There is no official confirmation as of now.
Plus, they would have told him when he asked why we are so slow. I think the tires was the greatest factor.

Edit: Vettel confirmed there weren't any engine issues

https://twitter.com/Vetteleclerc/status ... 07840?s=19

Tyres surely were another influencing factor, but look at those speed differences. Looks like PU issues or some save mode to prevent issues.
We don't know, but also on track the Ferraris (especially Vettel against Verstappen) looked like standing still on the straights in comparison.

https://twitter.com/SmilexTech/status/1 ... 2266447877

[Restomaniac]

After a bit of a think I have to say that I found that rather depressing.

Ferrari slower than Mercedes in most corners and they also somehow eat their tyres more. (Vettel was a Duck to Verstappen and admitted his tyres had gone where as Hamilton was just keeping him in check (Admitted by Verstappen)).

I think we have found the answer about front wing philosophies. The problem is that it may take Ferrari months to find a work around and that’s even before we consider that Ferrari haven't exactly been stellar with their mid season upgrades recently.