2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

[jacme22]

Formula E race. They need to reduce the need for energy management somehow.

We also were close to disaster at the start, it’s not only less attractive racing it’s more dangerous too.

Regarding the pace. Peeking order as expected with one surprise. Well done audi.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC3dwg0bkAI ... name=large

https://x.com/F1BigData/status/2030522873077547386?s=20

Race pace difference less than two-tenths. It is NOT the 2014 blowout people think it's going to be. That can be easily made up through strategy, starts, track differences, deployment differences, upgrades, etc.

Or Merc didn’t feel the need to push. I think they have more than that.

[Partymood]

So every manufacturer had atleast one failure each.

No, only Red Bull and AM had a PU failure.

[Cuky]

I am amazed at how stiff Ferrari are about sticking to their strategy and not adapting to the circumstances, which would have surely given them a shot at the win.
Rocket start from LEC, awesome overtakes against Russell, especially at the dirty part, good race pace and then... no pit. Or pit at the most dumb window. It's going to be a long season, let's hope the rest can catch up.

They were in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. On first VSC They were ahead and if they pitted Mercedes would probably keep one of their cars out to have track position and try to hold them up for the other car. They could have splitted the strategy for Leclerc and Hamilton, but again they were both just ahead of Mercedes cars so Mercedes would have them covered.

Also, I think whatever Ferrari did today they would be P3 and P4 at the end. How Mercedes took just handful of laps to get back at their gearboxes after they stopped is astonishing.

[Jambier]

We have some great rave action thanks to Ferrari

But reality is that it will soon be the NOR vs VER scenario

No overtaking possible. Really bad rules for race action.

[Emag]

Wouldn't it be better to just bite the bullet and have slower cars, but limit deployment throughout the lap so they never deplete the entire battery in half a straight? Seems like the easiest short-term solution.

[f1isgood]

I am curious to see if Mercedes keeps having a larger gaps on certain tracks than others or if its uniform. For eg I would expect them to be not that far ahead at Bahrain as opposed to Catalunya. Time will tellm

[Waz]

Slightly mixed feelings about the race. The opening battle between George and Charles was almost comical if you understand why it was so frenetic, but it was also entertaining to see leaders swap positions so much. You could tell that Charles knew the best chance he had was to be in front at all costs to stop George pulling a gap.

Unlucky with the pit lane being closed during the Bottas VSC on the 2nd lap. Pitting then might have revived the fight for the lead.

[McL-H]

Watching combination wolff-russell for a whole year? Sigh..

Btw Toto in Drive to Survive seemed to be saying he wouldn't allow inter team battles like McLaren did. If Mercedes is well ahead it could be very boring.

You all will be calling for Papaya rules to be back.

I always thought the criticism of McLaren was ludicrous. Shouldn't commentators and pundits be advocating against 1st/2nd driver nonsense? Criticising a team for giving their drivers equal opportunity is plain stupid.

Agreed.

[McL-H]

Jesus there's even more Russell haters than Norris haters in here

It's even worse on social media

No one likes snakes.

[FittingMechanics]

They were in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. On first VSC They were ahead and if they pitted Mercedes would probably keep one of their cars out to have track position and try to hold them up for the other car. They could have splitted the strategy for Leclerc and Hamilton, but again they were both just ahead of Mercedes cars so Mercedes would have them covered.

Also, I think whatever Ferrari did today they would be P3 and P4 at the end. How Mercedes took just handful of laps to get back at their gearboxes after they stopped is astonishing.

I suffered with these explanations last year as well (when McLaren fumbled their strategies).

Ferrari should have at least split their strategy at first VSC. I know giving up track position is hard, they almost got lucky with the second VSC, but if you want to maximize chances of your guys challenging Mercedes you have to force Mercedes into tough decisions. Staying out with both cars makes things simple for Mercedes.

I bet the reason Ferrari didn't pit is the same reason McLaren used to do it, they don't want to disadvantage either driver. This is a bad way to drive strategy and will be reason they achieve suboptimal team results. For McLaren it was because they felt they are so much ahead that they are not under threat (almost lost the WDC because of it), but for Ferrari it makes no sense as Mercedes is ahead.

[FittingMechanics]

Wouldn't it be better to just bite the bullet and have slower cars, but limit deployment throughout the lap so they never deplete the entire battery in half a straight? Seems like the easiest short-term solution.

Depleting battery on half the straight is not the problem in my opinion. Sure they may lose some top speed if they achieved it on battery power but it will not be extreme. It will be a slight decrease in speed because they will still have 400 kW with SLM.

Problem that is that because recharge amount is much higher than recharge they can gain through braking, these cars have to do super clipping (so net 0 kW) or even use lift and harvest (negative -300 or 350?). This is very different experience then if the cars were on 400 kW positive ICE power.

I agree with you that limiting deployable/rechargable amount would be the easiest solution. If you can limit it to a level that is achievable through brakes, without lift and harvest or super clipping, that would work really well.

Another option is to ban super clipping. This is probably the worst way to recharge the battery for us the viewers, the cars coast at 0 net kW and just slowly lose speed. Lift and harvest is more like the start of the braking zone, they couldn't use it for half the straight.

Does anyone know what would be the power equivalent of F1 brakes?

[MB_Racer]

Ferrari robbed us of a good race. Not pitting under that first VSC is a crime.

Maybe it comes back to them with tire life but if they pitted at that time we would probably have Mercedes-Ferrari fight for most of the race.

Once again Ferrari is going to make such an entertaining season… thank god they are here

Joke aside their strategy team are real clowns… professional ones no doubt

[MB_Racer]

LeClerc clearly showing better racecraft than Russel, IMHO.
But nothing can compensate for an illegal PU advantage.

Are you serious or you are making a joke ?

Leclerc should have pitted major mistake… his strategy team is a joke also seriously… good driver but no world champion material sadly…

What illegal PU are you taking about ?

[Sieper]

Congrats Mercedes. I don’t like the constant drs and the charching, power modes. Cars are too heavy too.

[mzso]

Just the sort of brilliance we have come to expect from the Ferrari strategy team. Giving away any chance of victory and handing it at a platter to Mercedes. No tactics, no logic, no sense. They must be just warming up, because normally they would have screwed Leclerc more and got him behind Hamilton or even fifth.

They had one chance, keeping their cars in front of the respective Mercedes cars (or try staying within 1s and extra recovery), which the drivers did fine. So of course they decided to let Mercedes a cheap pit stop while themselves went for full time loss and let them drive in free air.