2014 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne

[iotar__]

I'm sure you'd be saying the same thing if roles were reversed at RB. Simply because you're so objective thinking.

I'm very objective and so are the numbers [Q]:
17 3 Daniel Ricciardo 17:03:08 303.2
18 1 Sebastian Vettel 17:08:26 302.0
Good thing you can blame everything on Renault these days.

[ringo]

Hamilton on pole? what happened to the rain god Vettel?
Slept out qualifying, i'm surprised my Mag and Ric. But yeah, this year will be down to car hustling. The drivers who can wrangle the car will tend to qualify high. Not so sure about race conditions and tyre wear though.

Vettel is under pressure. So i expect more fallouts in performance with him. He doesn't have old boy webber and diffuser tricks any more. And i think things will loke like early last year when they didn't get the diffuser right and webber was doing the better job. Only that Daniel will do a much better whooping on the champ.

[henra]

Friday times showed a pretty good picture already. Merc >> RBR > Ferrari/Williams/McLaren > others.

For anyone except perhaps Merc this must be most alarming.

RB with crippled engine and without any meaningful testing (and no aero testing in the winter tests) already number 2. And this even in the wet where the Renault PU was allegedly still lacking a lot of driveability improvements...

At latest at race three I can see the rest of the field being destroyed by Merc + RB (if they achieve sufficient reliability). Anyway an improvement over last season.
Re: Performance of Vettel. Similar to RB in pre- season testing I wouldn't count him off, yet. Even if today's performance wasn't entirely due to software issues, which I suspect it wasn't.
In the past he wasn't the quickest to adapt to big changes, requiring change of driving style. With the early version of the EBD on the RB8 he initially struggled way more than Marc Webber and even temporarily went back to the traditional exhaust. But once he got in tune with it, he mastered it. I wouldn't be too surprised to see him in tune with the new car in a few races. It's important that the others grab every point they can until then. At least the chances are looking OK that he will have to face some competition even in the second half of the season.

For Ferrari things are starting to look dim. Rather good mileage in winter tests, even started with aero tuning in the tests, yet apparently already behind the Merc and an immature RB/Renault.

[Juzh]

I'm sure you'd be saying the same thing if roles were reversed at RB. Simply because you're so objective thinking.

I'm very objective and so are the numbers [Q]:
17 3 Daniel Ricciardo 17:03:08 303.2
18 1 Sebastian Vettel 17:08:26 302.0
Good thing you can blame everything on Renault these days.

Tells us nothing. Down on power could mean a lot of things with all these recovery systems. There's no way vettel is 2.4s slower than ric on pace.

Hamilton on pole? what happened to the rain god Vettel?
Slept out qualifying, i'm surprised my Mag and Ric. But yeah, this year will be down to car hustling. The drivers who can wrangle the car will tend to qualify high. Not so sure about race conditions and tyre wear though.

Vettel is under pressure. So i expect more fallouts in performance with him. He doesn't have old boy webber and diffuser tricks any more. And i think things will loke like early last year when they didn't get the diffuser right and webber was doing the better job. Only that Daniel will do a much better whooping on the champ.

Early last year? You mean 2012? Yeah, the same year when vettel led championship 4 races in and was generally quicker in races bar some exceptions.
Even chilton could put that merc in top 10. And when did anyone say vettel is rain god?

[GrandAxe]

I wonder if Vettel has been shown up by Ricciardo? That was a comprehensive drubbing!
Ricciardo was a whopping 1.156 seconds faster than Vettel in Q1 and a devastating 2.373 seconds faster in Q3!

Damn! "Wickedness" in high places!

Perhaps Vettel was flattered by an aging Webber? I know its still early season but...

[mikeerfol]

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/03/15/v ... um=twitter

Vettel and Magnussen face yellow flag investigation

[mclaren_mircea]

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/03/15/v ... um=twitter

Vettel and Magnussen face yellow flag investigation

OH nooo Raikkonen destroyed Mclaren's chanches

[mikeerfol]

Red Bull say Vettel will be ok.

Alonso under investigation for impeding Gutierrez as well.

[gray41]

Usual penalty for ignoring yellow?

Do we see penalty points added now too?

[mclaren_mircea]

It's always the same. The Ferrari driver will be cleared, the Mclaren driver will be punished

[JimClarkFan]

Lets not write Vettel off just yet lol.

One qualifying session, I mean come on.

[CHT]

Merc drivers concern for tomorrow race will be fuel. I think Ric has got a good chance if he doesnt lose to many positions at the start.

[mikeerfol]

It's always the same. The Ferrari driver will be cleared, the Mclaren driver will be punished

Magnussen is ok apparently, no penalty.

[atanatizante]

Regarding from above speeds traps could we presume that:
a) Merc drivers went for a wet setup (or at least in Lewis`s case) or they just add a little bit RW?
b) RB drivers went for a wet setup? just compare FP3 and Qualy ...
c) Ferrari drivers gambled with a dry setup?
d) Macca drivers also for a dry setup?
e) Williams the same dry setup?
f) Hulk also a dry setup?

Yeah, I know it`s a lot of guessing stuff, but in a prospect of a ~40% wet race on Sunday fill free and give us some thoughts regarding this matter guys, please !

[F1NAC]

http://imgur.com/TGg8Kqs.jpg

Regarding from above speeds traps could we presume that:
a) Merc drivers went for a wet setup (or at least in Lewis`s case) or they just add a little bit RW?
b) RB drivers went for a wet setup? just compare FP3 and Qualy ...
c) Ferrari drivers gambled with a dry setup?
d) Macca drivers also for a dry setup?
e) Williams the same dry setup?
f) Hulk also a dry setup?

Yeah, I know it`s a lot of guessing stuff, but in a prospect of a ~40% wet race on Sunday fill free and give us some thoughts regarding this matter guys, please !

you said that Ham went for wet setup and Ferrari drivers for dry and difference between ALO's and HAM's top speed are minor