2018 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 22 -25 March

[LM10]

As for Qualy: Ferrari, Toro Rosso and Honda fans must be feeling a little frustrated after all the hype from pre-season.

There was no hype for Ferrari. The opposite was the case.

RBR was slower in pre season, but people kept on telling that they are second in pecking order. They were slower in qualifying, but some people still keep on telling that Ferrari is slower. This is quite interesting, if you ask me.

[TAG]

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.

Not sure what you keep trying to rehash here is the the fact that both Ferrari and Mercedes are burning .6l of oil per 100km or is it that Mercedes are better than Ferrari because of it? You seem to be arguing different position in different posts.

The rule is going to be adhered to otherwise they' DSQ a results. What's your issue beyond that?

[Jambier]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVOAg-YV0wk

Interesting.
Confirms that Ferrari engine is huge but Merc chassis is better.

Modulo the downforce setting

[Just_a_fan]

The side by side comparison is interesting. Hamilton made so much time in a few corners, particularly in the first sector. Kimi was catching on the straights. But that Mercedes was on rails through the corners. No magic buttons help with that, just spot on aero and a driver who has a total feel for and trust in the car.

[Sevach]

Side by side from ESPN here.

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

OMG after the first corner you just know it's over.

[Sieper]

So you are arguing, despite Toto confirming it, Mercedes has no performance mode? Lewis Hamilton on skill alone is able to run 0,8 sec faster in one round, 0,45 of it in the mostly straight sector 1. He is able to go .45 of a second faster on a straight without a performance mode?

Why are you so stubborn in not wanting to hear anything about it. And If they have a performance mode, why cant oil burn be part of that, Andy If not, why did they put a 1,2 liter burning engine in the car at Monza last year. If it is so unimpirtant, no oil burned, why do that? That makes no sense to me.

Here, this is what I predict for next race, also Bottas will be able to go 0,4 0,5 second faster in his last Q3 round (the rest is the Hamilton surplus in quality).

Also, Yes I do believe merc has implemented it better then Ferrari.

[TAG]

Side by side from ESPN here.

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

OMG after the first corner you just know it's over.

Yeah, the car is better under braking, into a corner and accelerating out of the corner. Massive gap. Ferrari does have the top end, seems much more efficient there.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVOAg-YV0wk

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.

That statement would be true, IF Merc would have been holding up with Ferrari on straight line AND being faster on corners. That is not the case. Because Kimi seems to be recovering the time on straights, shows Merc has done a compromise and have let the straight line performance go (or maybe they cannot maintain) in favor of cornering performance. IF they remove some amount of downforce, Lewis would most likely have been matching Kimi on straights, but at a lesser advantage on corners.

So, it's not that they can bolt on their best level of downforce and still be ahead OR on par with Ferrari on straights.

[dans79]

The rule is going to be adhered to otherwise they' DSQ a results. What's your issue beyond that?

That the team he wants to be in front isn't. It's a cruel cruel world!

[ferkan]

This is interesting as Wolff and Lauda say Hamilton was pitch perfect as far as tire prep goes and they were surprised by grip he had there. Perhaps it was mix of great lap coupled with tires being in perfect window. Certainly it didnt look anywhere that good for Valteri and Ham before Q3, it was scruffy actually.

As for engines, AMUS reports that Merc engineers think Ferrari needs to save less fuel during race and that could be an issue. Merc certainly doesnt seem to enjoy same engine advantage compared to last year (look at top 10 teams today).

In any case...perhaps we might actually see interesting season if Ferrari gets on top of things and RB gets few horsies more.

[Ringleheim]

My take on qualifying is that of course McLaren has a "Party Mode" but I'm not sure that alone is why Hamilton had such a big advantage on the final lap.

I believe Party Mode would have been on for Hamilton's 2nd last fast lap, when he was only a couple hundredths faster than Vettel and Verstappen.

On the last lap, Vettel by his own admission made a mistake, trying to late brake and it didn't work, and no doubt Hamilton put together a superb lap, one we got to see live at the time. Martin Brundle was taken aback at the level of commitment Lewis put into it; I'm not sure he could have gone any faster.

So a perfect lap from Hamilton when it matters most (something he's good at) combined with a mistake from Vettel when it matter most (Something he likes to do) and you get a big speed differential which likely doesn't mean anything for the race.

I expect McLaren/Ferrari to be very, very close on race pace and with Red Bull sneaking in there too.

Should be a good race!

[Vanja #66]

This is interesting as Wolff and Lauda say Hamilton was pitch perfect as far as tire prep goes and they were surprised by grip he had there. Perhaps it was mix of great lap coupled with tires being in perfect window. Certainly it didnt look anywhere that good for Valteri and Ham before Q3, it was scruffy actually.

As for engines, AMUS reports that Merc engineers think Ferrari needs to save less fuel during race and that could be an issue. Merc certainly doesnt seem to enjoy same engine advantage compared to last year (look at top 10 teams today).

In any case...perhaps we might actually see interesting season if Ferrari gets on top of things and RB gets few horsies more.

That same AMuS reported Ferrari had to save fuel dramatically in Barcelona, that Haas was ahead of them, and Red Bull by far as well. Now they report Merc has to save fuel?

[CriXus]

There is a suggestion by Italian jurno that Ferrari has stripped some wings to cope with fuel saving.

[F1NAC]

My take on qualifying is that of course McLaren has a "Party Mode" but I'm not sure that alone is why Hamilton had such a big advantage on the final lap.

I believe Party Mode would have been on for Hamilton's 2nd last fast lap, when he was only a couple hundredths faster than Vettel and Verstappen.

On the last lap, Vettel by his own admission made a mistake, trying to late brake and it didn't work, and no doubt Hamilton put together a superb lap, one we got to see live at the time. Martin Brundle was taken aback at the level of commitment Lewis put into it; I'm not sure he could have gone any faster.

So a perfect lap from Hamilton when it matters most (something he's good at) combined with a mistake from Vettel when it matter most (Something he likes to do) and you get a big speed differential which likely doesn't mean anything for the race.

I expect McLaren/Ferrari to be very, very close on race pace and with Red Bull sneaking in there too.

Should be a good race!

McLaren

[bauc]

Almost 12 hours to go, hope for a good race tomorrow, it would be great if Ferrari has a better start so we can see some good racing on the track, as if we see HAM disappear after 4-5 laps it would be a de ja vu race