2019 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 15-17

[bauc]

I want to admit that in Australia's 2018 gap between Hamilton and Ferrari's was the same - 0.7s. After that - Vettel has easy won Bahrain GP. We need to wait untill next race to say something true.

Good point!

[GPR-A]

I want to admit that in Australia's 2018 gap between Hamilton and Ferrari's was the same - 0.7s. After that - Vettel has easy won Bahrain GP. We need to wait untill next race to say something true.

Good point!

It was Mercedes who fluffed the Bahrain GP, where both their cars were faster in the race and Ferrari took the gamble on one stop and went longer than even they had anticipated on that set of tyres. Mercedes believed Ferrari will make two stops and kept managing their pace and finally when they realized it, it was a little too late. Bottas couldn't pull an overtaking move on Vettel in the dying moments, for which many considered him to be too weak to be a championship contender. Ricciardo said, he could have pulled that move easily. It was anything but an easy win for Ferrari.

If what happened last year is a template, then Mercedes and Hamilton are going to win the championships!

[Bill_Kar]

I want to admit that in Australia's 2018 gap between Hamilton and Ferrari's was the same - 0.7s. After that - Vettel has easy won Bahrain GP. We need to wait untill next race to say something true.

This has been debunked numerous times. No need to grow false hopes BECAUSE of this. I'm not saying it's over, far from this, but using last year's GP is not reliable.

[nacho]

Only place where Ferrari is on par seems to be corner exits. Vettel loses on almost all braking zones / corner entries and in latter parts of straights. The magical mid straight acceleration they had last year is missing at the moment.

[Capharol]

Note to myself: never ever again go in a raceday topic
Good comments are as rare here as water in the desert
Byebye

[jurinius]

A tongue in cheek winners and losers after qualifying.
...

Perez: Daddy's money can't buy talent, confirmed.
Stroll: see above.

Hulkenberg: Renault are paying Ricciardo how much? Can I have a raise please?
Ricciardo: Damage control mode, engaged. And... Smile!

Albon: Just don't bin it tomorrow.
Kvyat: Have you heard? The 8th season of Game of Thrones starts soon.

Russell: Will not be driving for Williams next year.
Kubica: This is not Mario Kart, if you hit the wall you do not get a power-up.

As funny as those quotes are for Ric, Kvyat, Kubica I still have moderation in judgement speaking about Perez or Stroll Daddies contribution because it is so easy and always about "talent" when something goes wrong.
Can we talk about those Racing Point F1 cars performance and drivability !? cause I remember Perez was a genius driver earlier in the decade... Also Hulk hype will not change years after years... Let's see tomorrow

[SmallSoldier]

There must be more performance to unlock from that Ferrari.

Haas to be that close to Ferrari makes zero sense.

Maybe Ferrari was running conservative mode for reliability reasons.?

Something is off. Could they have miscalculated aero and have more drag than others? Even in corners they don't look like they have Mercedes downforce.

From that Hamilton/Vettel comparison video side by side.

Lewis is on the edge, Vettel is like doing sunday race lap and dealing with understeer.

And checking the speed trap from all intermediates, Ferrari are on the bottom end.

Shaking of head from Binotto is very worrying.


.................................


Seeing Renault that far off is ridiculous.

Every year I keep thinking they will be the top 4 team and pushing close to top 3 and its not happening.

To get beat out in quali by McLaren and rookie too (norris) is joke.

That being said Norris did amazing, what a talent that kid is. Part of me wants Norris and Alonso driving this year.

Not only is it too early to bash on Renault, we have to consider the improvements year on year... Renault improved their lap time 0.97 year on year, while Mercedes and Ferrari improved theirs by 0.68 and 0.64 respectively and RBR by 0.56... So based on improvement year on year, Renault has improved more than the top 3 and therefore closed the gap to the front by 3 tenths so far... Interestingly Mclaren has improved by 1.39 seconds compared to last year and therefore closed the gap by 0.8 seconds (most improved of those 5 teams)... And it’s race one in a circuit that really isn’t the measuring stick for the rest of the season


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[ringo]

Looks like Kubica's right arm cant take the pressure of qualifying. He seems to not able to react quickly and strongly enough to keep the car on a fine line.
I think he will be better in the races, but Williams really made a bad choice by keeping him over other prospects.
Russel will continue to beat him by over 1 second in qualy.

anyhow i will reserve judgement for the relative position of the cars. This track is a funny one, and i think it boils down to confidence and lack of mistakes that determines who comes out on top in qualifying. That Ferrari will be much faster in the race; possibly dominant, with the redbull not far behind.
I'm not too convince about mercedes as a race car; it still looks twitchy and very bouncy. The season is far from over.

Thoroughly impressed with the new team drivers. I have sneaking suspicion that Gasly has more speed than Max. Giovinazi seems to be a quicker race driver than Kimi. Norris and Sainz about equal. There will be fire works in the coming races.

[ispano6]

Norris being in the top 10 is probably an outlier in that he outperformed Gasly and Giovinazzi and their better machinery. The Alfa is a better car than the Mclaren and Giovinazzi didn't seem to put together the good enough sectors when it counted. Gasly seems to either have terrible luck or he's helping out others by sandbagging his RB15!
But to only go for one run in Q3?

You forgot one other thing... He also outqualified Kimi... Lol


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And Max outqualified Leclerc. Your point is?

My point is simply that qualifying results are not reflective of true or outright pace (whatever that means to you) but the result of a driver putting together a sufficient time at an opportune moment when it matters. In that regard Norris as a driver/car combination delivered where as RBR Gasly laid an egg. Will we consistently see Norris ahead of Gasly? Time will tell.

[Jambier]

There must be more performance to unlock from that Ferrari.

Haas to be that close to Ferrari makes zero sense.

Maybe Ferrari was running conservative mode for reliability reasons.?

Something is off. Could they have miscalculated aero and have more drag than others? Even in corners they don't look like they have Mercedes downforce.

From that Hamilton/Vettel comparison video side by side.

Lewis is on the edge, Vettel is like doing sunday race lap and dealing with understeer.

And checking the speed trap from all intermediates, Ferrari are on the bottom end.

Shaking of head from Binotto is very worrying.


.................................


Seeing Renault that far off is ridiculous.

Every year I keep thinking they will be the top 4 team and pushing close to top 3 and its not happening.

To get beat out in quali by McLaren and rookie too (norris) is joke.

That being said Norris did amazing, what a talent that kid is. Part of me wants Norris and Alonso driving this year.

Renault is the big fail of the year - as I feared -
I think I'll prefer see them stop their F1 program and being an engine provider to McLaren, like Honda and Red Bull, and working together to join the top.

They will never achieve anything with current program. Maybe lucky podium in the coming years that's all

[Jambier]

In next race Ferrari will be far better and closer to Mercedes.

And red bull as always on a league of their own . Far from the two top teams, far from the midfield

[Phil]

Renault is the big fail of the year - as I feared -
I think I'll prefer see them stop their F1 program and being an engine provider to McLaren, like Honda and Red Bull, and working together to join the top.

They had a problem on Hulkenbergs car, he never got a second go in Q2. He would have made Q3 for sure. Hard to judge them accurately because of that.

[munudeges]

Renault is the big fail of the year - as I feared -
I think I'll prefer see them stop their F1 program and being an engine provider to McLaren, like Honda and Red Bull, and working together to join the top.

I fear you are correct. They stopped their own team when they were winning for a reason. Quite why they think that doing running their own team again is a good idea I don't know. To get further up the grid they are going to have to recruit, and spend, big. Much bigger than they have done.

[Ringleheim]

Note to myself: never ever again go in a raceday topic
Good comments are as rare here as water in the desert
Byebye

It's sad. It's like this at all of these online discussion forums. I participate in many of them on a very wide range of topics. At the end of the day, almost all of them function as an opportunity for anti-social people to argue with anonymous strangers--and not a lot more.

[Ringleheim]

Renault is the big fail of the year - as I feared -
I think I'll prefer see them stop their F1 program and being an engine provider to McLaren, like Honda and Red Bull, and working together to join the top.

I fear you are correct. They stopped their own team when they were winning for a reason. Quite why they think that doing running their own team again is a good idea I don't know. To get further up the grid they are going to have to recruit, and spend, big. Much bigger than they have done.

I have been thinking about Hamilton's decision to move from McLaren to Mercedes in the context of Ricciardo going from Red Bull to Renault. Both moves were head scratchers at the time. Hamilton pulled it off though and now it looks like the obvious choice. I do NOT think it will work out like that for Ricciardo. For whatever reason, I just don't see Renault getting out of its own way these days.

And Honda is nothing of what Honda used to be. We've seen that through several iterations now. I really wonder what happened at Honda.

In any event, I agree Renault is not expected to do a whole lot.