2018 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 22 -25 March

[NoDivergence]

----------S1 -------- S2 -------- S3 ------ Lap time
Ham-26.698 -- 22.066 -- 32.400 -- 1:21.164
Rai - 26.992 -- 22.204 -- 32.632 -- 1:21.828
Vet - 27.018 -- 22.129 -- 32.691 -- 1:21.838
Ver - 26.971 -- 22.241 -- 32.563 -- 1:21.879

First sector already shows the party mode. 3 tenths of a second faster than the others.

Not really... Ferrari was faster in all of the traps. That Merc is insane in high speed and low speed traction corners.

https://i.imgur.com/GNMlfnh.png

[Sieper]

Kimi wasn’t in Barcelona nor in Singapore. I expect him to be very agressive, certainly towards Verstappen to safeguard Vettel, they did the same in hungary last year.

[Sieper]

----------S1 -------- S2 -------- S3 ------ Lap time
Ham-26.698 -- 22.066 -- 32.400 -- 1:21.164
Rai - 26.992 -- 22.204 -- 32.632 -- 1:21.828
Vet - 27.018 -- 22.129 -- 32.691 -- 1:21.838
Ver - 26.971 -- 22.241 -- 32.563 -- 1:21.879

First sector already shows the party mode. 3 tenths of a second faster than the others.

Not really... Ferrari was faster in all of the traps. That Merc is insane in high speed and low speed traction corners.

https://i.imgur.com/GNMlfnh.png

Mercedes runs higher wings, they can do that because of their engine supremacy, this allows for higher cornerspeeds and overall is the best way to spent the extra hp.

[Jambier]

Ferrari and Mercedes still use 0.6l
While Renault only uses 0.1l

So yes, RBR and Renault have a weakness in qualy.

Speaking of pure pace, it is very sad to see McLaren almost 2sec from RBR with same engine.



Gap to other teams from top team seems immense!

[Jambier]

Kimi wasn’t in Barcelona nor in Singapore. I expect him to be very agressive, certainly towards Verstappen to safeguard Vettel, they did the same in hungary last year.

It will be interesting to see if Ferrari will "sacrify" already RAI to let VET pass as they usually do.

[NoDivergence]

First sector already shows the party mode. 3 tenths of a second faster than the others.

Not really... Ferrari was faster in all of the traps. That Merc is insane in high speed and low speed traction corners.

https://i.imgur.com/GNMlfnh.png

Mercedes runs higher wings, they can do that because of their engine supremacy, this allows for higher cornerspeeds and overall is the best way to spent the extra hp.

Of course, but Ferrari is faster. Why didn't they run more wing?

[Gothrek]

Season over, Mercedes WCC/WDC yet again.
See you guys in March 2019. I am not watching another free WDC for Hamilton again.

[jurinius]

Kimi wasn’t in Barcelona nor in Singapore. I expect him to be very agressive, certainly towards Verstappen to safeguard Vettel, they did the same in hungary last year.

hum hum probably ! but this is the first race of the year, Kimi doesn't have anything to do with safeguarding. He will go all out to keep his position. But As we know 88% chance for a crash between him and Seb who will try to pass like he deserves that ignoring Kimi position...

[ripper]

----------S1 -------- S2 -------- S3 ------ Lap time
Ham-26.698 -- 22.066 -- 32.400 -- 1:21.164
Rai - 26.992 -- 22.204 -- 32.632 -- 1:21.828
Vet - 27.018 -- 22.129 -- 32.691 -- 1:21.838
Ver - 26.971 -- 22.241 -- 32.563 -- 1:21.879

First sector already shows the party mode. 3 tenths of a second faster than the others.

Not really... Ferrari was faster in all of the traps. That Merc is insane in high speed and low speed traction corners.

https://i.imgur.com/GNMlfnh.png

I guess that this year Ferrari's concept is a low drag one compared to last season one: RAI and HAM gained same km/h from finish line to speed trap. Mercedes' PU is known to be better than Ferrari's so I think that the same gain is due to a lower drag approach

My second guess is that they tried to get more downforce by increasing wheelbase thus producing more downforce from floor/diffuser, but they still haven't sorted car settings or they have some correlation issue between cfd/wind gallery and track (or they did a worse job than Mercedes).

[iotar__]

Mercedes runs higher wings, they can do that because of their engine supremacy, this allows for higher cornerspeeds and overall is the best way to spent the extra hp.

A. In Australia? Where would that work , which corners? ~Mid-high track, stop and go/street, with no high speed corners, and really long straights. Nevermind just pointing out. B. IMO that's all wrong anyway. C. Myths of engines cannot die.

- Told you that Mercedes clearly ahead wouldn't be a surprise. I want my points.

- 0,7s behind Red Bull - Best Chassis Frauds Championship Leaders of 2018 season. This is how F1 works, empty hype is not refundable, they will not give back media attenttion from their lies. Same

- Bottas' crash - diva strikes again! It's not him it's a randomly behaving long wheel-base car fluctuating DF.
- I'm surprised that media experts judging cars by looking at them in corners and shouting 'planted' didn't foresee Haas' form; didn't draw conclusions from times either, it's the teams (Renault) that had to tell them who's quick. Renault is very close, it will be interesting in high speed.

[Sieper]

Mercedes runs higher wings, they can do that because of their engine supremacy, this allows for higher cornerspeeds and overall is the best way to spent the extra hp.

A. In Australia? Where would that work , which corners? ~Mid-high track, stop and go/street, with no high speed corners, and really long straights. Nevermind just pointing out. B. IMO that's all wrong anyway. C. Myths of engines cannot die.

- Told you that Mercedes clearly ahead wouldn't be a surprise. I want my points.

- 0,7s behind Red Bull - Best Chassis Frauds Championship Leaders of 2018 season. This is how F1 works, empty hype is not refundable, they will not give back media attenttion from their lies. Same

- Bottas' crash - diva strikes again! It's not him it's a randomly behaving long wheel-base car fluctuating DF.
- I'm surprised that media experts judging cars by looking at them in corners and shouting 'planted' didn't foresee Haas' form; didn't draw conclusions from times either, it's the teams (Renault) that had to tell them who's quick. Renault is very close, it will be interesting in high speed.

Here are your points Who contested you in the claim merc would be best?

[Hail22]

Season over, Mercedes WCC/WDC yet again.
See you guys in March 2019. I am not watching another free WDC for Hamilton again.

Indeed plus add the diversity bs discussed during the team principal press conference. The series has turned into a farce.

[Bisonas]

You can't compare Q2 laps with Q1 laps. Especially when Mclaren and Alonso messed up their last, supposedly fastest lap on Q2. Alonso got stuck behind Sainz for Outlap and Qually lap.
With a more in depth analysis i could say that Mclaren in AUS was somewhere between 1.0 to 1.2 sec behind red bull on Qually trim. RB didn't run US tires on Q2 and that complicated calculations a little bit. We don't know race pace yet.
Its a very long way before Mclaren reach the top 3, but IMO its a very short way before reaching best of the rest . (if they aren't already)

[Just_a_fan]

Interesting little fact on the BBC - Hamilton has now had 7 poles in Oz but only won 1 race. As far as the statistics go, it's all to play for tomorrow.

[NathanOlder]

Interesting little fact on the BBC - Hamilton has now had 7 poles in Oz but only won 1 race. As far as the statistics go, it's all to play for tomorrow.

And as far as statistics go, If lewis wins the Australian GP he smashes the championship and has it wrapped up 4 races from the end. So theres a 1 in 7 chance the season is over tomorrow