2018 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 22 -25 March

[sosic2121]

Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better!

Actually, that (probably) happened.
Hamilton closed the gap, entered DRS, but after start/finishing straight he started loosing time. He changed engine mode at the end of the lap(T14 - T15). By that time he lost about a second to Vettel.
Before that lap he was much faster.

[Rodzilla]

Erm what? Without the VSC he would have been nowhere near either Hamilton or Raikkonen. So by that logic the plan was 'go really slow so that you are almost certainly going to finish miles off the lead and your teammate'.

the plan was to put raikkonen in and leave vettel out longer, this is a basic situation when its 2 vs 1 because mercedes have to give up the lead at least momentarily

Vettel would have been nowhere near Hamilton or Raikkonen without his blind luck. To then make out that it was all a master plan?

well part of that plan is about getting track position so that luck can happen to you, im actually surprised that i have to explain this lol

even without the luck splitting the strategy is the best thing you can do in that situation, hamilton and mercedes would love it if you make simple on them and just pit at the same time

this way you pit one early so you force hamilton to either endure a long 2nd stint or give up the lead then you bring in vettel 10 laps later who has given up time but will have fresher tyres for the rest of the race

whatever you think about this plan, the fact is that ferrari were doing it and thats why vettel was slower early in the race

[ripper]

Poor Kimi, having done everything right, had to be content with 3rd. You need to feel for him.

Commentators constantly referencing how good Kimi has been on the tyres in testing, best at managing stint pace, pulling away from Seb in the first stint.

Ferrari brings Kimi in first. Okay then.

Usually who's is leading is the first to be pitted, otherwise he can be overcutted by his teammate.

[dans79]

Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better!

Actually, that (probably) happened.
Hamilton closed the gap, entered DRS, but after start/finishing straight he started loosing time. He changed engine mode at the end of the lap(T14 - T15). By that time he lost about a second to Vettel.
Before that lap he was much faster.

I was referring to the reasoning.

[Fulcrum]

Ferrari brings Kimi in first. Okay then.

Or they bring in Vettel first and he undercuts Raikkonen and people still get mad. Make up your mind.

On those tyres and at that stage in the race? Unlikely. How many undercuts happened today? Even Red Bull struggled to do it relative to much slower cars.

In any event, Kimi had in excess of 3.5 seconds at the point of stopping. This could easily have been managed if Raikkonen's interests were to the benefit of the team, which we all know, they are not.

[Poleman]

What people seem to not get is that even when HAM went off STRAT 14 mode doesnt mean that he kept pushing hard at the next mode he went in,so no it wasnt the STRAT 14 that gave him the 1s per lap,guy just backed off completely to save the engine and thats that.

[Fulcrum]

Do we have an overtake count for this race? Overtaking basically felt impossible today. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

[sosic2121]

Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better!

Actually, that (probably) happened.
Hamilton closed the gap, entered DRS, but after start/finishing straight he started loosing time. He changed engine mode at the end of the lap(T14 - T15). By that time he lost about a second to Vettel.
Before that lap he was much faster.

aaa
OK then

[NathanOlder]

Anyone have any clue on this.

Was just going over the live timing again, and was interested in Vettels Final sector on his in lap. The live timing never displayed his sector time. So I thought maybe that was due to him pitting.

Alonso and Ricciardo both pit the same lap and their times were displayed Ric - 63.2 and Alo - 65.7. Would be really interested to see Vettels S3 time on his pit lap.

Anyone shed some light on to this ??

[matt_b]

So, why did Vettel stay out so long, he was loosing more and more time, at Some point his only hope was a virtual safety car. Just at that point one Haas car got stopped on track and then one more, just at the perfect time. That was very lucky.

Ferrari must've been thinking why are Mercedes cruising on fresh softs? lets stay out because were not even losing any time to Lewis so theres no gain from pitting at this moment. Mercedes made themselves vulnerable to this scenario and had the pace to cover it.

[Restomaniac]

the plan was to put raikkonen in and leave vettel out longer, this is a basic situation when its 2 vs 1 because mercedes have to give up the lead at least momentarily

Vettel would have been nowhere near Hamilton or Raikkonen without his blind luck. To then make out that it was all a master plan?

well part of that plan is about getting track position so that luck can happen to you, im actually surprised that i have to explain this lol

even without the luck splitting the strategy is the best thing you can do in that situation, hamilton and mercedes would love it if you make simple on them and just pit at the same time

this way you pit one early so you force hamilton to either endure a long 2nd stint or give up the lead then you bring in vettel 10 laps later who has given up time but will have fresher tyres for the rest of the race

whatever you think about this plan, the fact is that ferrari were doing it and thats why vettel was slower early in the race

No Vettel was slower because.........He was slower.

Dress it up all you like but Vettel was slower and won due to dumb luck.

[sosic2121]

There's one thing I don't understand about VET strategy: if there wasn't any VSC or SC would they have tried SS instead of S?

Probably!
That's the only other option they had.
All of this was possible because Bottas wasn't there, just as Kimi wasn't there so many times last season!

Ferrari should have sacked Kimi long time ago! Too often he's just to slow, even for a number 2 driver. Useless!

[Restomaniac]

There's one thing I don't understand about VET strategy: if there wasn't any VSC or SC would they have tried SS instead of S?

Looking at how impossible overtaking seemed to be then without the VSC Vettel was hosed.

[Rodzilla]

Poor Kimi, having done everything right, had to be content with 3rd. You need to feel for him.

Commentators constantly referencing how good Kimi has been on the tyres in testing, best at managing stint pace, pulling away from Seb in the first stint.

Ferrari brings Kimi in first. Okay then.

this is logical since it creates a long 2nd stint for both kimi and lewis

kimi wouldnt be able to undercut lewis anyway so i dont understand why you wouldnt want this?

[Jambier]

Dress it up all you like but Vettel was slower and won due to dumb luck.

Yes not many things with this race.

Same peking order than qualy
No over taking
Luck decided victory

Next race quick please...