Australian GP 2017 - Race thread - Ferrari wins

[jgonzalesm6]

Well, I'm not surprised actually that Ferrari won this race. I could have been way off for sure on feeling that way, tough to tell for sure from testing if it's real & we were right there last year.
But I am not "over the moon" just yet, Merc & RB are right there & both are proven in their in season ability to bring good updates. Last years Melbourne race seemed to put us on our heels & the team & car were never able to show their potential.
Now, Merc will show up in China, eager to get the taste of Melbourne out of their mouth & RB will be desperate to stay relevant until they get an engine upgrade in Canada (they hope & pray).
I am keeping my feet firmly on the ground but hoping Ferrari have a killer update program planned for the whole season.

ditto to all of this.....as I said before....1 battle down, 19 more to win the WAR.

[Stormy]

But I am not "over the moon" just yet

As no Ferrari fan should be. We need to start winning some poles.
However, Mercedes reminds me of Ferrari last year with the tire degradation problems. We all bashed them for poor strategy choices, but the car obviously had problems with tire degradation. We only had problems with softs not with ultra softs or super softs, right?

[jgonzalesm6]

As no Ferrari fan should be. We need to start winning some poles.
However, Mercedes reminds me of Ferrari last year with the tire degradation problems. We all bashed them for poor strategy choices, but the car obviously had problems with tire degradation.

last year was a "testing issue" with regards to tyres....this year we have the data on all compounds as Vettel did most of it given fuel loads....they deliberately ran out of gas to see how far they could go during testing.

[Stormy]

last year was a "testing issue" with regards to tyres....this year we have the data on all compounds as Vettel did most of it given fuel loads....they deliberately ran out of gas to see how far they could go during testing.

Yap, it looks like Mercedes miscalculated something with these new tires :)

[jgonzalesm6]

Sauber "very surprised" by Giovinazzi F1 debut performance

Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn says the team was “very surprised” with the quality of last-minute debutant Antonio Giovinazzi’s performance in the Australian Grand Prix.

The Italian driver was drafted in by Sauber on Saturday morning after Pascal Wehrlein reported fitness concerns following Friday’s practice sessions.

Ferrari third driver Giovinazzi, who stood in for Wehrlein at Sauber for the first Barcelona test, qualified 16th and finished his first F1 race in 12th.

Kaltenborn said Sauber did not set Giovinazzi expectations beyond ensuring he “did not to make mistakes and hung in during the race”.

“It definitely surprised us because it’s his first race,” she told Motorsport.com.

“Yes, he’s been testing, done things like the Pirelli test [for Ferrari], but that’s not the kind of testing that other people have been doing. It’s not like this level of motorsport, so it was very impressive.

He’s had one free practice, one hour, and did a very good qualifying and the race was not an easy one because he had flat-spotted his tyres and the car was not easy to drive.

“He showed the potential the car has despite all these difficulties.”

Wehrlein’s withdrawal raised the issue that Sauber does not have an official reserve driver.

Kaltenborn said Giovinazzi would effectively hold that role, because the team has “an arrangement with Ferrari which allows us to react in that situation”.

“This is fine for us,” she said. “Our focus is rather now that Pascal is fit, that our regular driver comes in.

“We have covered ourselves with the third driver situation and there is nothing else we need to do now.”

source: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/s...rmance-887775/

[mandzipop]

Something is just different this year. You can see it in sebastian's body language. Had he not made the couple of misstakes in qualy the gap would have been probably less then a tenth. Good signs, now we need the guys at the factory to out develop Mercedes.

This

He was also not concerned on Friday. I was worried until I saw the interview with him. Then when I heard that MA wasn't happy about not getting pole then I realised that this car is different than the other years. Seb has been extremely confident. Even when he didn't get pole he wasn't upset of phased. I think he knew he had the car to easily win the race and was confident he could do it. All he had to do was superglue himself to Lewis and pit as soon as the window was open without getting caught behind someone.

[Stormy]

This

He was also not concerned on Friday. I was worried until I saw the interview with him. Then when I heard that MA wasn't happy about not getting pole then I realised that this car is different than the other years. Seb has been extremely confident. Even when he didn't get pole he wasn't upset of phased. I think he knew he had the car to easily win the race and was confident he could do it. All he had to do was superglue himself to Lewis and pit as soon as the window was open without getting caught behind someone.

We can't expect always to win battles in pit stop. Because overtaking is extremely hard, we must up our qualifying performance. The fact that MA wasn't happy with Kimi and Vettel for not getting pole, gives hope that Ferrari has the pace to do that. Now, let's wait and see what happens in Shanghai. If Lewis didn't got stuck behind Max,maybe the outcome would've been different. Nevertheless, in that scenario, Seb would've been right behind Lewis right down to the end of the race and not with an 8 second gap.

[Rallyrob]

We shouldnt complain when we make rules that allow the real true talent and skill of drivers and teams to compete against each other. The problem I never liked before was that someone like Verstapen could come up behind someone like Vettel or Hamilton and because the old rules it allowed for the advantage of the trailing car to be faster on the lap it overtakes and thus a lesser car with lesser talent could use this strategy to advance over more advanced cars and talent of drivers. We saw this last year with Mad Max overtaking Vettel and Vettel being penalized for trying to hold him off. The last thing I want to see is the rules go in the direction of NASCAR where the rules have allowed for chance to be more of a factor that talent in winning races.

[Stormy]

because the old rules it allowed for the advantage of the trailing car to be faster on the lap it overtakes

How come that was the case with last year's rules? I don't really understand. Can you elaborate?

[Tifoso]

We shouldnt complain when we make rules that allow the real true talent and skill of drivers and teams to compete against each other. The problem I never liked before was that someone like Verstapen could come up behind someone like Vettel or Hamilton and because the old rules it allowed for the advantage of the trailing car to be faster on the lap it overtakes and thus a lesser car with lesser talent could use this strategy to advance over more advanced cars and talent of drivers. We saw this last year with Mad Max overtaking Vettel and Vettel being penalized for trying to hold him off. The last thing I want to see is the rules go in the direction of NASCAR where the rules have allowed for chance to be more of a factor that talent in winning races.

Where in Idaho, amico mio? (You don't have to answer)

[vetalo]

Confirmed James Allison did not design SF70H

As I wrote yesterday; that James Alison left Ferrari because he was taken Ferrari in the wrong direction with the design of FS70H it was confirmed on tonights F1 Review on Sky sports UK. Once again I am right about my thoughts on this years' car. James has no hand in this years car and I am so happy because he got a lot wrong last year. the same reason the Chief Aerodynamic designer was butted out also.

Here is the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL5u74EROkg

[Anrasp]

Mercedes ponders on the pit stops

https://youtu.be/9aCv0c483jE

[DIEK]

[kshitijmalkan]

Confirmed James Allison did not design SF70H

As I wrote yesterday; that James Alison left Ferrari because he was taken Ferrari in the wrong direction with the design of FS70H it was confirmed on tonights F1 Review on Sky sports UK. Once again I am right about my thoughts on this years' car. James has no hand in this years car and I am so happy because he got a lot wrong last year. the same reason the Chief Aerodynamic designer was butted out also.

Here is the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL5u74EROkg

Is it just me or is Natalie Pinkham looking more manlier by the day! Jk



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[Brembo]

Lewis is being very pro Ferrari, Seb, kind words and friendly towards Seb. Now that Ferrari is ok to win WCC, WDC, he is wanting to be on his way to Marenello!

[Ed Harley]

Maybe they will swap seats.

[Rallyrob]

How come that was the case with last year's rules? I don't really understand. Can you elaborate?

With the old rules it was relatively easy for a car of slightly lower power to use DRS to make easy passes. I like overtaking and all, its exciting but the cars were getting to a point where overtaking was not based on skill or superiority of machine but the penalization of the lead driver. It appears this year that the DRS isnt going to have that same effect with easy cheesy passing. It will be based more on skill and performance.

[Rallyrob]

Where in Idaho, amico mio? (You don't have to answer)

Eastern Idaho

[From Treviso]

Confirmed James Allison did not design SF70H

As I wrote yesterday; that James Alison left Ferrari because he was taken Ferrari in the wrong direction with the design of FS70H it was confirmed on tonights F1 Review on Sky sports UK. Once again I am right about my thoughts on this years' car. James has no hand in this years car and I am so happy because he got a lot wrong last year. the same reason the Chief Aerodynamic designer was butted out also.

Here is the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL5u74EROkg

Video goes for 27 minutes - can you specify what part of the video contains this information? Cheers.

[From Treviso]

Video goes for 27 minutes - can you specify what part of the video contains this information? Cheers.

Just found it, so all good.

[Stormy]

With the old rules it was relatively easy for a car of slightly lower power to use DRS to make easy passes. I like overtaking and all, its exciting but the cars were getting to a point where overtaking was not based on skill or superiority of machine but the penalization of the lead driver. It appears this year that the DRS isnt going to have that same effect with easy cheesy passing. It will be based more on skill and performance.

Oh yeah, i totally agree about DRS. However, we got DRS this year, and i heard that it will be harder to overtake with DRS on the straights this year. But, how is that so? Because of the more complex aero that makes a lot of dirty air and turbulence for the car that follows? If i'm correct, then that is not the solution. We just got the opposite situation where a driver with a lesser talent and slightly lesser technology can stay ahead of the more superior driver. We need an aero that instead of so much downforce generates more mechanical grip. The fact that F1 has come to a point where it needs DRS is disgusting.

[vetalo]

I love this opinion from online
"when Allison was at Ferrari no one mentioned him and Ferrari constantly had negative reviews and a negative picture painted of their future, as if they were in the worst situation they had ever been in, on the verge on sliding down the grid. Alison joins Mercedes and now all of a sudden he's a genius for joining all the other geniuses at Mercedes and he is now even somehow responsible for the fast car Ferrari now has, the one they just b** slapped Mercedes with. I am not suggesting Ferrari will win the championship, my point is that the so-called experts on most shows, that I love to watch, are often 180° from being accurate, it's a common thing in sports, and of course politics. Today the only real data we have, testing and race 1, suggest Alison left Ferrari and took the "pace reducer" with him to Mercedes, Vettel said the correct changes were made a while back and the right pieces in place long enough that it should began working referring to personnel, the car seems to have improved in the chassis aero and power unit,in reference to the changes Seb also said that new ideas needed the opportunity to flourish, and they are. I think Seb and the team are happy he is gone, that's the feeling and opinion I get listening to M. A. and the drivers.
Also Paddy Lowe I heard left bc he wanted shares of the team, Mercedes AMG Motor sport I assume, that was denied, Williams obliged, and he could be there for the rest of his career.

If only these people would know that Allison actually had absolutely nothing to do with the design of this year's Ferrari SF70H. The design for this year's car that Allison had started last season was basically scrapped because it was a failure and the SF70H had to be re-designed from scratch. Simone Resta, Enrico Cardile and David Sanchez are responsible for the design of SF70H. Allison didn't do . But of course the english media likes to give the impression that it was all James Allison's work lol"

[Stormy]

^Vetalo, what about Mattia Binotto?

Maybe they will swap seats.

If we win a WDC - no way! Absolutely no one wants to leave a successful Ferrari. That's where the greatest glory in the sport lies.

[Jax]

Looks like mercedes is overweight

[Jax]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/m...f1-car-887874/

here is the story

[Havanna89]

Haha that's funny, what fat is there to trim?

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[jgonzalesm6]

Looks like mercedes is overweight

saw and read that.....apparently they need to trim some components.......yet pirelli looked at LH tyres after lap 17 and they said he had 30% life left on the tyres.

[Stormy]

saw and read that.....apparently they need to trim some components.......yet pirelli looked at LH tyres after lap 17 and they said he had 30% life left on the tyres.

30% life left? This means Mercedes did a very poor strategy decision. It looks like Seb would've overtaken him if he went on for a couple more laps.

[jgonzalesm6]

30% life left? This means Mercedes did a very poor strategy decision. It looks like Seb would've overtaken him if he went on for a couple more laps.

I would like to think that -->Seb overtaking Lewis....remains to be seen but maybe we will see it in China???

[nani_s23]

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns36078.html