2018 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 22 -25 March

[NathanOlder]

So Bottas has a 5 grid penalty for a gearbox change. Surely it makes sense to change the whole PU and start last instead of 15th

[giantfan10]

"I was waiting to put a good lap in to wipe the smile off your face. " -L Hamilton. I think Vettel should be worried more about beating his teammate than Mercedes' party mode.

AAnd it turns out that Vettel was right and Hamilton was lying i guess to make himself look better?
from https://www.racefans.net/2018/03/24/ham ... -confirms/

In an exchanged with Sebastian Vettel during the post-qualifying press conference Hamilton suggested he hadn’t engaged a high-power setting.
“I can assure you we don’t have a party mode,” said Hamilton. “I used the same mode from Q2 to end of Q3. So there was no extra mode that I engaged.”
“So what were you doing before?” Vettel asked. “I was waiting to put a good lap in, wipe the smile off your face,” replied Hamilton.
Speaking to media afterwards Wolff confirmed “there is a party mode in the car, we switched the party mode on in Q3.”
Wolff also makes Nikki lauda a liar who claimed that Hamilton went faster in his second run in Q3 because he was on new tires.

[RZS10]

He'd be using engine no2 from the allowed 3, there's no advantage in it, he wouldn't be adding another one to the pool

[matt_b]

So Bottas has a 5 grid penalty for a gearbox change. Surely it makes sense to change the whole PU and start last instead of 15th

No point in changing undamaged parts for identical parts and waste an upgraded version later in the season.

[Mr.G]

Not sure if this is relevant but i saw a few people complaining about the new graphics (Not here), i personally like them, the "driver in danger" thingy was a cool addition.

So if VES hadn't made his mistake it would have been HAM,RAI,VES, I'd say that's quite good news for the championship?

Vettel did a mistake too...

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Unless I'm looking at the forecast wrong, then its a dry race.

To be fair in this case I think I'd like it dry as it will give us a good indication of where everybody actually sits with no big variable.

Was interesting to see big performance from Mercedes, even with the oil burning now totally gone. I personally suspected they never used it anyway and it was just Ferrari.

They still have 0,6 liter (per 100k) to play with. Hamilton isn’t such a bad driver that he can only concentrate for 1 lap. The extra performance of the last Q3 lap is still coming from somewhere.

You can keep screaming loud for the rest of the season and I don't think anyone would buy the BS of oil burning.

The reason why Mercedes has been unstoppable is that their advantage does not come from one single silver bullet area like double diffuser, EBD or flexi wings.

[bonjon1979]

Ferrari had a totally new set up on the car that they didn’t get to dial in during fp3. That, a mistake from Vettel and a stellar lap from Hamilton gives your the difference. I’d be surprised if the gap is that big next race.

[foxmulder_ms]

Kimi in 2 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN87KZOrTkI

[Fulcrum]

Kimi's looking a bit thinner. Perhaps the partying has tapered off with becoming a parent.

[TAG]

Side by side from ESPN here.

http://www.espn.co.uk/video/clip?id=22896872

[jurinius]

Well Ferrari drivers didn't handle the car nicely and have made some mistakes, but I don't totally buy those "they had a new car in hands... they don't understand the car..., they don't have magic button..., they don't see the power button..." . As for people who are talkin about that magic boost, is that too easy to handle a car with a "potential" new motor cartography just for 1 lap ? Anyway that's quite interesting how the same driver can throw the car through the corners in consecutive laps managing to gain as much as LH did ! I guess the "party mode" also drives...

[Vanja #66]

A lot was written in this thread, but not a lot about strategies. I've probably missed some of the posts, but what are general expectations? I don't think anyone will be able to go for a 1 stop, we may even see 3 stops here and there (Bottas in full attack mode comes to my mind).

[Sieper]

Unless I'm looking at the forecast wrong, then its a dry race.

To be fair in this case I think I'd like it dry as it will give us a good indication of where everybody actually sits with no big variable.

Was interesting to see big performance from Mercedes, even with the oil burning now totally gone. I personally suspected they never used it anyway and it was just Ferrari.

They still have 0,6 liter (per 100k) to play with. Hamilton isn’t such a bad driver that he can only concentrate for 1 lap. The extra performance of the last Q3 lap is still coming from somewhere.

You can keep screaming loud for the rest of the season and I don't think anyone would buy the BS of oil burning.

The reason why Mercedes has been unstoppable is that their advantage does not come from one single silver bullet area like double diffuser, EBD or flexi wings.

It Is not BS, it is just part of the mix you mentioned, merc has the most overcapacity in their engine and also are burning oil still, 0,6 liter is allowed so they use it. Look, they put in a unit last year pre schedule to be able to use 1,2 Instead of 0,9 limit. All facts and they speak louder then words. And I am not screaming, just discussing, no need to make remarks. You just don’t want to hear it so you are trying to silence me.

Well don’t worry, to me this is now a fact, I wont be talking about it anymore at every race, but this was the first Q3 of 2018 with the lower limit and I was curious to see If they still had enough with the 0,6 liter and now it is clear to me the answer is Yes.

[Sieper]

Not sure if this is relevant but i saw a few people complaining about the new graphics (Not here), i personally like them, the "driver in danger" thingy was a cool addition.

So if VES hadn't made his mistake it would have been HAM,RAI,VES, I'd say that's quite good news for the championship?

Vettel did a mistake too...

That is true, Vettel, Max were also very close in run 1 of Q3, mere thousands of a second between them. It was not a given that Either one would be ahead of the other had they both not made a mistake.

[CriXus]

There are two possibilities:
1) Merc have so much power advantage, that can get away with some loss of time on the straights, but gain big advantage in turns.
2) There were reports about Ferrari lack of downforce on the rear and they had to trim on the front to balance the car.