Count me in on the understeer theory (fact is more like it come to think of it), as it was very evident in bahrain trough the entire weekend, car just wouldn't turn it as it should. Actually in testing before the update it was silly how much steering lock it required to get any rotation going. I believe at the moment their only way to somewhat balance the car is to remove rear downforce. This makes them slower in almost all types of corners but absurdly fast on straights. Seriously, last time a car had such straight line supremacy was 2019 sf90h. Ok, that one was even more silly, but you get the idea.
Jeddah with it's very long straights played into their strengths as they were able to reduce rear downforce even further, curing understeer problem to a higher degree. Not perfect, but visibly better than in Bahrain.
Question is now where does this leave us for melbourne? On the old track I would flat out put ferrari as big favourites, however this new track I would say sits somewhere in between bahrain and jeddah, so I hope for another competitive weekend. I just hope high speed cornering is not too compromised vs ferrari.
Understeer could be part of over weight problems and inability to carry some ballast at the front, maybe the car is even very rear heavy (is that possible under fixed weight distribution?). If they're able to solve this issue I expect advantages will be compounded as a result. In any case, they will have to put more front grip on the car in one way or another or else they'll be eaten by ferrari on most high downforce tracks.
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