Australian GP 2017 - Race thread - Ferrari wins

[Kristof_F40]

For sure we have good pace. But don't forget that last year in Australia we also had good pace. This year however we were much stronger.
In my opinion, the thing that made this win possible was starting P2. In this way Seb could put pressure on Lewis and force him to use his car and force him in an earlier stop. If however Seb would have behind BOT and not able to overtake him, LEwis could pull a gap on BOT and therefore Seb, therefore he could manage his tyres more and perhaps not been forced in an earlier pit stop.
Seb started P2 because he did a good lap (not super good), and BOttas made a lot of mistakes..
We need to up our game in qualy or in race starts so we can use our race pace to full extent..

Also I don't trust Mercs, I still believe they have pace in the pocket but simply weren't able to use it.

[Red is Best]

Team radio transcript from the GP:

Mercedes warned Hamilton that Vettel was too close and potentially able to jump him through the ‘undercut’:

“Lewis we’re going to need to get this gap, it’s critical. Gap 1.7.”
Hamilton: “Nothing left.”

Interesting.

[Ed Harley]

http://www.speedweek.com/formel1/new...eikkoenen.html

[jgonzalesm6]

Why Australia's Vettel-Hamilton duel showed the good and bad of F1's new era

The most remarkable thing about the opening grand prix of the 2017 season was just how close the battle for victory was.

Formula One's new regulations promised a lot, but the one thing they could never guarantee was a tight battle between two teams at the front of the grid. For Ferrari and Mercedes to spend over a year working towards a new set of regulations, come up with two very different car philosophies and be split by a single strategy decision during a 307km race is really quite extraordinary -- and it was exactly what F1 needed. The talk after the race was not so much about the quality of the racing under the new regulations, but whether 2017 will see the first inter-team title battle in F1 for five years.

In qualifying Mercedes appeared to have the edge, although much of that was due to Lewis Hamilton's ability to nail all five apexes in the first sector, while Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas made mistake at Turns 1 and 3 respectively. But despite the familiar feeling of seeing a silver car on pole position, the race itself could have gone either way.

Ferrari had the faster car in the first stint but it wasn't quite fast enough for Sebastian Vettel to attempt an overtaking move for the lead. However, his ragged pursuit of Hamilton forced the Mercedes driver to push to the limit, which in turn punished his ultra-soft tyres into giving up their optimum performance. In the knowledge that Vettel was faster, Mercedes was wary that the Ferrari would switch to fresh tyres first and use the extra pace to undercut Hamilton and take the lead. A series of messages from pit wall to car followed in which Hamilton complained about the state of his tyres and expressed his desire to pit earlier than planned.

"The team asked me to give them information where the tyres were after the run, and the race we had planned to race and I was asked to race wasn't necessarily the optimum in terms of making it," Hamilton explained afterwards. "We didn't have the pace to pull a gap, for example, to Sebastian, and we knew that from quite early on, yet I continued on this road which just didn't end up working out.

"But this is an area we have to work on, obviously our tyre usage is something we have to ... we understand where we are losing so we just have to make changes to improve that for the future. Which we will do. But it is very very close in pace, clearly. But we will continue to get faster through these next races."

When the ultra-soft tyres came off Hamilton's car they still had 30 per cent of useful tread on them. In terms of physical tyre wear, Hamilton could have gone much further into the race, which would have helped keep his strategy options open, but for some reason the Mercedes was taking the ultra-soft compound out of its optimum operating window. The tyres that came off Vettel's Ferrari six laps later had next to no useful tread remaining, but he had managed keep them in their operating window throughout the length of his stint.

"I believe that these tyres have a very narrow window and you have to keep them in that window in order to perform well," Mercedes boss Toto Wolff explained. "If you are below the window, you lose performance. So that is different to the last years and needs a new calibration for all of us in understanding the tyres."

On an empty race track Hamilton's strategy was quicker. His lap times on fresh soft tyres after his pit stop were initially quicker than Vettel on used ultra-softs, but after two clear laps he came up behind Verstappen. Before he entered the turbulent air coming off the rear of the Red Bull, Hamilton had been lapping 1.3s faster than Verstappen and as soon as the Red Bull pitted he went over two seconds faster than his previous lap bottled up behind the Dutch driver. But even that sort of pace advantage is not enough for one 2017-spec car to pass another around Albert Park.

"It has been the fundamental way the cars have been since I have been in F1, but it is worse now than it has ever been," Hamilton said when asked about his difficulties following Verstappen. "It definitely has not got any better. So it is going to be the same for the rest of the season for sure. We are going much faster through the corners.

"Last year we had to have a second advantage on the car in front [to try to overtake], and it scatters from track to track. Sometimes it is a second and a half, sometimes it is two. The delta to be able to get past is bigger this year. If it was one second last year it is two seconds this year. This is going to continue all through the season."

Those six laps between Hamilton's pit stop and Vettel's not only decided the result of the Australian Grand Prix, they also provided a microcosm of what to expect from the coming season. To start with the postives, there were two drivers going flat out in two separate cars with two very good chances of winning. The drivers jumped out of their cars at the end of the race genuinely enthused by what had just taken place and the level of performance they had been able to play with.

"You could push much harder," Vettel said on the podium. "Usually the first couple of laps you were pushing last year and then the tyres were dropping off. Now the tyres are still dropping off a bit but you can keep pushing. You can keep braking at the same point. The car is screaming "more, more, more!" You could keep going forever, it was a great race, and I enjoyed it a lot."

But the negatives were also clear to see. The fact Hamilton could not attempt an overtake on Verstappen despite having a car with a 1.3s-2.0s pace advantage does not bode well. It's true that Albert Park has never been a hotbed of overtaking (and it's also true that the layout of the track means the DRS zones couldn't physically be made any longer to compensate), but everything we know about overtaking from previous seasons suggests passing will be more difficult this year. Perhaps most disappointing of all was Hamilton's approach to the second half of the race once he saw Vettel emerge from his pit stop ahead of him.

"I didn't want to push to close the gap knowing that I could not overtake anyway," Hamilton said after the race, "and then find that I had run out of tyres at the end and lose second place. So it was really once I came out behind the other car, behind Sebastian, it was really about damage limitation."

Ultimately, the new regulations are likely to result in a different style of racing this year. Much more emphasis is expected to be on strategy and the timing of pit stops. Even in a one-stop race like Australia, it was strategy that made the difference between winning and losing, and watching it unfold has a certain entertainment factor of its own. Forcing the driver in front to push harder on his tyres than he would like -- as Vettel did to Hamilton at the start of the race -- could become a crucial new tactic for gaining positions in the following pit stops.

But however the racing evolves on track, it is going to be made several times more exciting by having Ferrari and Mercedes battling for victory. If Red Bull can join that fight then the excitement levels will multiply again, but in the meantime the sense of anticipation for the second race of the season is higher than it has been for several years.

source:http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...bad-f1-new-era

[jgonzalesm6]

team radio transcripts:

Mercedes warned Hamilton that Vettel was too close and potentially able to jump him through the ‘undercut’:

“Lewis we’re going to need to get this gap, it’s critical. Gap 1.7.”
Hamilton: “Nothing left.”

After pitting Hamilton, Mercedes were concerned he was stuck behind Max Verstappen:

“This is race-critical, you need to get past Verstappen.”
Hamilton: “I don’t know how you expect me to do that.”

Hamilton: “There’s nothing left in these tyres, guys.”

To Hamilton: “We’re thinking B now, thinking plan B.”

[killer]

Verstappen: “How much faster is the fastest lap?”

To Verstappen: “Too fast. Two laps remaining, we just want to bring it home.”

Feet on the ground still, however. We just passed Turn 1 of a 20-corner circuit. Lots to go.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[From Treviso]

http://www.grandprix247.com/2017/03/...e-good-enough/

ALLISON: WE JUST WEREN’T QUITE GOOD ENOUGH

Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes are vowing to come back hard in China after being ambushed by resurgent Ferrari in the Formula One season-opener in Australia.

The German outfit, who have ruled the sport for the last three years, got a rude awakening in the first race of the new season when Sebastian Vettel beat Hamilton by almost 10 seconds in Melbourne on Sunday.

Vettel’s triumph has overturned early-season expectations and raised the prospect of a Ferrari-Mercedes battle for the world title over the remaining 19 races.

All eyes will now be on the next grand prix in Shanghai on April 9 to see if Ferrari can repeat their improved performance through Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

“If it wasn’t already clear after qualifying, then it’s certainly clear now that this is going to be a season of very small margins,” former Ferrari and recently appointed Mercedes technical director James Allison said.

“Credit to Ferrari, they had a very quick car and we just weren’t quite good enough to stick with them. We won’t panic, though.”

“It’s race one of a long season and we scored some very good points with both cars in Melbourne. We’ll be determined to come back stronger in China and make sure those small margins go our way next time.”

While Vettel’s first win for Ferrari since Singapore in 2015, and his 43rd victory overall, has supercharged the season, he said there was still a lot of work to do.

“This is one of many steps and we have to enjoy what we do. It’s great to see people smiling,” said Vettel. “Now we have to reset to go to China and try to do a good job.”

Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne said the team returning to the top of the podium was long overdue, with the victory meaning a non-Mercedes driver leads the championship for the first time since 2013.

“It was about time,” Marchionne said. “We’ve been waiting for this victory for almost a year-and-a-half. Hearing the Italian national anthem again was very moving.

“Sebastian delivered a great race and I am sure Kimi will be soon up there battling alongside his team-mate.”

But like Vettel, Marchionne is not getting carried away at the start of a globe-trotting season which will wrap up in Abu Dhabi in November.

“It is absolutely essential to remember that this is not the destination but the first step on a long road that must see us all focused on improving each and every day,” he said.

[vetalo]

Am I right to say the extra testing done by Vettel on the new Pirelli is an advantage for Ferrari on tyre usage?

[jgonzalesm6]

Am I right to say the extra testing done by Vettel on the new Pirelli is an advantage for Ferrari on tyre usage?

I would concur....Barcelona testing on all compounds definitely was a plus....gave us an insight into tyre strategy, longevity and performance on different fuel levels.

[NenoX]

Can't wait to see China/Bahrain so that we can finally get a clear picture of the current state of overtaking this year. I mean how many seconds is the performance advantage of Occon's and Hulkenburg's car compared to Alonso's Mclaren? They were three abreast at turn one at one point. But indeed the race situation then was different when Lewis was behind Max. And as Patrick Head pointed out, Mercedes historically were not good following other cars. We'll find out soon which (if not both) is true soon.

[Greig]

Am I right to say the extra testing done by Vettel on the new Pirelli is an advantage for Ferrari on tyre usage?

What extra testing?

[vetalo]

Am I also right to say that James Allison left before others had different design concepts for the SF70H because the Aerodynamic chief designer also left and what we got, is a Ferrari that look different from all other cars on the grid.
For the first time in many years Ferrari were able to design a car that even all others team are scratching their heads, this is no an old school design concept but that of a younger generation who are willing to take risk, something Ferrari has not done in a long time. I think David Sanchez & Simone Resta should be commended and also the management team for given them a go ahead so they could express themselves.

[From Treviso]

I would concur....Barcelona testing on all compounds definitely was a plus....gave us an insight into tyre strategy, longevity and performance on different fuel levels.

I remember Gary Anderson's observations from Barcelona testing, where he said that the Mercedes was inch perfect and sublime as the Ferrari when on fresh rubber. However, you'd see the Mercs beginning to miss a couple of apexes or require some steering corrections twice per lap once the tyres were 3 laps old. The more laps accumulated, the more untidy the Mercs became. His observations on the Ferrari, however, was that, heavy or light fuel, worn or fresh rubber, hard or soft rubber, the Ferraris were following their racing lines lap and after lap with great consistency and precision.

My obvious take on this observation is that the Ferraris are now capable of delivering a consistently brutal, steady stream of speed that will push its opposition out of its comfort zone. The Ferrari drivers would be able to drive with clarity, alertness, without nervousness wondering if their cars will step out unannounced. It's not about the absolute speed, but about the steady supply of speed that will take them consistently amongst the front of the pack this year. As they say - fast at Barcelona is fast almost everywhere. Vettel and Kimi have a car beneath them that allows them to race with much less fatigue, which will annoy their opposition. Kind of reminds me of Michael Schumacher in his last 2 years at Benneton where the car wasn't always the outright fastest but it had a wonderfully high level of driveability and ability to relentlessly sustain fast laps, lap after lap. A true race car that the driver could race.

[vetalo]

What extra testing?

testing done last year on the new Pirelli tyres

[Greig]

testing done last year on Pirelli

Ah yeah, Merc and Red Bull done the same though.

[vetalo]

Ah yeah, Merc and Red Bull done the same though.

but I am not sure Merc used Hamilton, because I think Red-Bull is also not bad on tyre usage

[Greig]

but I am not sure Merc used Hamilton, because I think Red-Bull is also not bad on tyre usage

I am sure Lewis did test them

[From Treviso]

So Mercedes has done well under the technical design lead of x Ferrari Aldo Costa, who has guided them to the top for the last 3 years. The temptation to poach him back to Ferrari was great, but I'm glad we didn't because this just proves that it's not a one person show. We could have ended up with him this year and been in worse off for it! It's about steady as she goes and building on what you've already got. It's quite possible that Alison helped set up the infrastructure to allow Ferrari to develop and grow into a more dynamic and methodological team, where computer simulators, wind tunnels, etc, would begin to correlate correctly with each other and then on the track. Once this is capitalised, then it's just a matter of toying with 'outside the box' ideas and seeing how the scientific data stacks up. Just look at what they've done with the side pods and underfloor cooling - who would have thought Ferrari would come up with something so radical!

[jgonzalesm6]

I remember Gary Anderson's observations from Barcelona testing, where he said that the Mercedes was inch perfect and sublime as the Ferrari when on fresh rubber. However, you'd see the Mercs beginning to miss a couple of apexes or require some steering corrections twice per lap once the tyres were 3 laps old. The more laps accumulated, the more untidy the Mercs became. His observations on the Ferrari, however, was that, heavy or light fuel, worn or fresh rubber, hard or soft rubber, the Ferraris were following their racing lines lap and after lap with great consistency and precision.

My obvious take on this observation is that the Ferraris are now capable of delivering a consistently brutal, steady stream of speed that will push its opposition out of its comfort zone. The Ferrari drivers would be able to drive with clarity, alertness, without nervousness wondering if their cars will step out unannounced. It's not about the absolute speed, but about the steady supply of speed that will take them consistently amongst the front of the pack this year. As they say - fast at Barcelona is fast almost everywhere. Vettel and Kimi have a car beneath them that allows them to race with much less fatigue, which will annoy their opposition. Kind of reminds me of Michael Schumacher in his last 2 years at Benneton where the car wasn't always the outright fastest but it had a wonderfully high level of driveability and ability to relentlessly sustain fast laps, lap after lap. A true race car that the driver could race.

We definitely threw the Merc's for a curve ball....something they are not used too ( seeing red on their rear view mirrors for ages on the opening laps) and Lewis showed it and paniced.
They will try a different strategy at the China GP as that track has more straights than Melbourne....it will be interesting.

[nani_s23]

http://www.speedweek.com/formel1/new...eikkoenen.html

I think Romain Gros will replace kimi next year & antonio will be his relacement in haas team.

[sxviper698]

I wonder if that's why merc went with the longer wheel base! they new with the shorter they would be all over the place.

[SilverSpeed]

I think China with it's long straights and fast corners will suit our car to, but the real test will come in Bahrein.

A track like Melbourne where we didn't shine in previous years. If we do well there then it's gloves on!!!

[The Architect]

A promising start, but I'm not going to get carried away. Ferrari should have won in Australia last year too. They need to achieve a development rate they've not had in almost a decade, particularly if speculation elsewhere about Merc not running their trick suspension this weekend is correct. If they have anything like a qualifying advantage this year as the last three, that could still win them most races this season too.

[darkchild]

Hamilton didnt actually go to test tires last year.

[nani_s23]

what about vettel's favourite track Singapore
with gina he will nail perfect lap again, eagerly waiting.

[nani_s23]

I am sure Lewis did test them

I don't think so lewis did appear for the test, he opted to be away from it.

[Tony]

How are those Merc boats going to make it around the streets of Monaco... they couldn't even fit in the garage at the end of the race...

[jgonzalesm6]

How are those Merc boats going to make it around the streets of Monaco... they couldn't even fit in the garage at the end of the race...

you bring up an interesting question Tony.....how is anyone going to make it around the the streets of Monaco....let alone the Mirabeau corner and the famous Fairmont hairpin which even all F1 cars in history are at FULL WHEEL LOCK. There is going to be alot of carbon fibre shards all over the track IMO.

[SilverSpeed]

Lewis was making new hits with his homiez 60 cent etc .

He was droppin' them beatz hard!

[Tony]

you bring up an interesting question Tony.....how is anyone going to make it around the the streets of Monaco....let alone the Mirabeau corner and the famous Fairmont hairpin which even all F1 cars in history are at FULL WHEEL LOCK. There is going to be alot of carbon fibre shards all over the track IMO.

I honestly don't know how the Merc are going to get the turn in to get around the Rascasse... that will be something to watch... they'll need a shorter wheelbase car to make it around there lol...

I think Ferrari and RB will be fine... well I hope Ferrari will anyway!