2018 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 22 -25 March

[Edax]

Yes, but that's not the point.

Gap between the cars was much narrower. Overtaking was possible. KERS tactics helped with that.
In the end, 6 teams and 8 drivers won at least one race that year.
Since 2014 only 3 teams and 7(?) drivers won a race and no one is even hoping that could change this year, or till 2020...

And your point is?


not to mention overtaking was different because KERS deployment was manual, so a driver could store it up and deploy it at will.

IMO wide cars and power units "ruined" F1.

I disagree about KERS. It gave much flexibility to attacking driver.

I think that is not just technology. Cars have improved but so have the drivers, driver training etc. many overtakes in the past were caused by the leading driver making a mistake. The playstation generarion rarely makes mistakes.

That said I am curious why adelaide does so badly. It looks like the tow effect is almost nonexistent on the straight. Could it have something to do with the track being so narrow and enclosed by walls?

[zac510]

"Hamilton becomes seventh winner in seven races in the Canadian Grand Prix"

IMO, almost all rule changes since then ruined racing a bit more.
Wide cars and PUs are the worst, followed by thermal degradation tires.

The reason there were seven winners in seven races that year was due to the tire degradation gamble that were the Pirelli tires in the 2012 season.

Do you believe that, if we go back to 2012 tires, we could have 7 winners in 7 races?

It's an excellent observation, but the replies show people can't handle too much predictability (Merc era) or too little predictability (2012 tyres). Sports fans are fickle for sure, but this pattern shows up in other forms of entertainment like movies and music because it's part of the way human brain is wired; it just has to have the right amount of predictability for us to accept it.

[netoperek]

I wouldn't consider current generation of drivers to be better in any case. There's plenty of paydrivers and very few genuine talent within youngest additions. What we got though, are some pretty fat cows of a car, completely dependent on proper powerplan for all of PU units, with constant fuel managment mode on and ultra sensitive aero package on top of it all.
I also liked KERS as both attacking and defending option. It leveled the field really nicely and most importantly it's usage has been driver dependent. There has been many unsuccesful attacks those days that I enjoyed much more than succesful ones nowadays.

[sosic2121]

Since 2014 only 3 teams and 7(?) drivers won a race and no one is even hoping that could change this year, or till 2020...

6 drivers isn't it ?

You are correct.

[sosic2121]

And your point is?


not to mention overtaking was different because KERS deployment was manual, so a driver could store it up and deploy it at will.

IMO wide cars and power units "ruined" F1.

I disagree about KERS. It gave much flexibility to attacking driver.

I think that is not just technology. Cars have improved but so have the drivers, driver training etc. many overtakes in the past were caused by the leading driver making a mistake. The playstation generarion rarely makes mistakes.

That said I am curious why adelaide does so badly. It looks like the tow effect is almost nonexistent on the straight. Could it have something to do with the track being so narrow and enclosed by walls?

Tow in general is not there any more. Maybe after the last corner leading car is just too far away.

Level of driving is certainly better than it was 20 years ago. Is that because drivers are better, or cars are more predictable I can't say. But with large run off areas they pay less when they do make a mistake.

[tranquility2k4]

I'm not as worried about overtaking as some. Australia last year had 1 overtake from memory and it looked like the tow effect had gone completely and that overtaking was almost impossible. At many other races we had a healthy amount of overtaking. It's very much circuit dependant. Also Pirelli will be more aggressive with their tyres in the coming races and so that may help too.

[tranquility2k4]

Something I am a bit confused by is how the cars are only around 1 - 1.5 seconds quicker than last year in Aus on average. If there is this so called 2 seconds gained in development during the season then surely if we brought back last year's cars now they would be significantly faster + the whole point is your new car for 2018 should be faster than the one you finished off with in 2018. I realise rules have changed, notably the Halo. But is there anything I'm missing here?

I know sometimes it's easy to think if the cars are +1.5 up on last year in Aus then come the end of the season they would be +3.5 faster in say Abu Dhabi, but that doesn't take into account that in the previous year they would also have had the +2 sec hypothetical development rate, so you're looking at a like for like. But for the first race of the season I don't think this applies and therefore the car should be much faster (especially as we have faster tyres).

[vanburin]

Something I am a bit confused by is how the cars are only around 1 - 1.5 seconds quicker than last year in Aus on average. If there is this so called 2 seconds gained in development during the season then surely if we brought back last year's cars now they would be significantly faster + the whole point is your new car for 2018 should be faster than the one you finished off with in 2018. I realise rules have changed, notably the Halo. But is there anything I'm missing here?

I know sometimes it's easy to think if the cars are +1.5 up on last year in Aus then come the end of the season they would be +3.5 faster in say Abu Dhabi, but that doesn't take into account that in the previous year they would also have had the +2 sec hypothetical development rate, so you're looking at a like for like. But for the first race of the season I don't think this applies and therefore the car should be much faster (especially as we have faster tyres).

For comparison purposes:


2014 Pole Lap - N/A (Wet Qualy)
2015 Pole Lap - 1:26.327
2016 Pole Lap - 1:23.837
2017 Pole Lap - 1:22.188
2018 Pole Lap - 1:21.164

2014 Fastest Lap - 1:32.478
2015 Fastest Lap - 1:30.945
2016 Fastest Lap - 1:28.997 (Ricciardo)
2017 Fastest Lap - 1:26.538 (Kimi)
2018 Fastest Lap - 1:25.945 (Ricciardo)

Now of course Fastest Laps are a little more difficult to read into because they are dependent on variables that aren't consistent (usually come to be during a flyer lap at tee end of the race when someone puts on a fresh set of tyres for one reason or the other). Saying that, there were substantial gains made in the first 3 years of the new Turbo era, but the delta that has diminished year to year.

It's been bandied about a bit that the Halo has some negative consequences (increased weight, COG concerns). I think realistically we may just be getting to a point of convergence towards the ultimate pace the current cars/specifications can reach, and the ultimate lap time a track can provide. Larger and more substantial updates are now producing smaller and smaller gains. Simply put, it's just not feasible to think that every year 2-3 seconds (for example) would be shaved off a given lap time. At some point the ultimate lap time for the circuit (and therefore any given car) must theoretically be reached.

[dans79]

Tow in general is not there any more. Maybe after the last corner leading car is just too far away.

Level of driving is certainly better than it was 20 years ago. Is that because drivers are better, or cars are more predictable I can't say.

The Tow is still there, Vettel on Lewis in spa last year is a good example. IMO, the issue is that a lot of tracks currently on the calendar have one or or more hard braking zones before passing zones. Since the cars are so aero sensitive now the trailing car falls back under hard braking, because they can't get enough DF on the front wing.

This yields the yo-yo effect we see so often now, where the gap grows and shrinks until a pass happens or the trailing car chews up their tires, or overheats something.

[Moose]

Yeh - people often miss that the key to an overtaking spot is not in the corner you do the overtaking in - it's in the corner you come out of before the straight. You need a corner that's fast enough that you don't get limited by the length of the car as to how close you can get behind, but not so fast that aero completely screws you over.

This is why turn 1 at Brazil is such a good overtaking spot. It's got little to do with the shape of the senna S (well, a little, the downhill braking zone makes it relatively easy to outbrake someone), instead it's all to do with the fact that Mergulho and Junção let a car stay close, and get into the slipstream early on the way up the hill.

[matt_b]

Great questions about the race answered here.

[johnny comelately]

Back to the conspiracy theory which I think has not been laid to rest - Wheelnutgate.
they claim crossthreading happened twice

[maxxer]

Back to the conspiracy theory which I think has not been laid to rest - Wheelnutgate.
they claim crossthreading happened twice
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ch9E-tQWEAIzB06.jpg

Well at least it did spice up the race a bit
All this going on about overtaking and the circuit not being good and all.
It is the first race in the season everyone getting used to the new cars and situation.
If you put melbourne at the end of the year , then yeah sure there is more overtaking.
Look at it even the Force India's didnt hit eachother.
In a few races there will be more wilder starts i am sure.
Yeah the high speed corners on melbourne are sick and the slow speed corners are slow and really tight so you cant dive in without risk
Still i love F1 just as much as when it was all free on eurosport and i could see senna / hill / schumacher driving so called boring races. No DRS back then and also not every race was full of overtaking.

[SteveRacer]

Too bad Haas had the wheel nut problem. They went to SS tires while the cars around them went to S tires. Would have been interesting to see that play out.

[NathanOlder]

Imagine if it were Ferrari who had the wheel nut problems. Haas on the podium