2018 Australian GP: Race

[phsyklone]

Sebastian Vettel expressed caution over his 2018 prospects, believing Ferrari is currently worse off than it was last year, despite making it back-to-back wins in Australia.

This year’s race around the streets of Albert Park bore similarities to 12 months ago, with Hamilton leading away from pole, only for Vettel to claim overall honours.

However, last season Vettel used Ferrari’s pace to extend his first stint, while also profiting from Hamilton getting stuck behind the yet-to-stop Max Verstappen.

On Sunday Vettel remained a low-key third, behind Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen, and used a well-timed Virtual Safety Car period to make his sole pit stop.

Vettel emerged from the pits a few car lengths ahead of Hamilton, and kept the Briton at bay across the remainder of the race, the Mercedes driver struggling in dirty air, at a circuit where passing is notoriously difficult.

When asked about the similarities to 2017’s race, Vettel replied: “Well, at the moment we’re a bit worse off.

“Last year we had more pace at this point. If you look at the gaps the whole weekend we’re not yet a true match.

“Obviously we had very good pace today, Kimi was very strong in the first stint. I think I was probably a tiny bit stronger in the second stint but it was a different race for us.

“But I think if you look and you are fair, then Lewis was fastest whereas last year I think we were fastest and it was very, very close.

“Therefore at this point we know that we are not yet where we want to be because we want to be fastest.”

Vettel also expanded on his own feeling with the SF71-H, commenting: “I think the car has huge potential but I’m still struggling a little bit.

“I think if we also compare to where we’re still a bit weak, it’s where I also feel that the car is not yet there

“What am I missing, when you talk about something that you miss as a driver, the car doesn’t respond the way you like and it’s still sliding in places you don’t want it to slide.

“I want the car to be spot on when I hit the brakes and turn in, and in that window, I’m not yet happy, so it’s always sort-of a compromise.

“Of course, it’s our job to drive around problems that we have but if I could chose, I would like it a bit different.

“It’s not a big drama. I think we can live with it but I feel also if we get on top of that then you feel more confident.”

[KimiBot]

all we need is party mode in quali, other than that we are okey, so same problem than last season
it is so difficult to overtake, I think I saw only 3 genuine overtakes in this race

[Vettel165]

wonder if our straight line speed will come in handy in Bahrain as it seems to have alot of places where straight line speed is a premium. I'm quite optimistic about the next race. obviously Merc will be up there on top but I'm sure we can give them more troubles. Merc strat 14 is demonic but we got this

Yeah I agree engine is the saving factor on nearly every track. If you have a good, powerful, reliable engine like maybe we do now all you have to worry is about the chassis itself. Last year we were destroyed by Mercedes on the straights, this year it looks different. I have a good feeling about Bahrain GP also, the lack of FP3 running must have hurt our team more than Mercedes, because it is just a first race with a long-wheel based car. As you saw, our car was strong in S2, which has medium-speed corners, so the downforce is there, all do we need is better low-speed traction in slow corners. If Ferrari founds the right solution soon our car might become even faster than Mercedes, it has more potential that they do, why? Because they were developing the long-wheel based car for more than a year, all the updates were different than ours last year, we are at the beginning of that developement now, even Mercedes was a diva last year, I have hope in our team. And what a great day we had today. Forza.

[jgonzalesm6]

Kimi vs. Lewis lap times the whole race

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZH-gfRXUAE-9pX.jpg

[nani_s23]

wonder if our straight line speed will come in handy in Bahrain as it seems to have alot of places where straight line speed is a premium. I'm quite optimistic about the next race. obviously Merc will be up there on top but I'm sure we can give them more troubles. Merc strat 14 is demonic but we got this

Ferrari went on with less wing in order to have straight line speed & also For better PU efficiency. That’s why cornering speed was low n sliding.
Wonder how would they perform at Bahrain & baku. When all the teams trim their wings

[jgonzalesm6]

Ferrari went on with less wing in order to have straight line speed & also For better PU efficiency. That’s why cornering speed was low n sliding.
Wonder how would they perform at Bahrain & baku. When all the teams trim their wings

tyre management too.....

[nani_s23]

Kimi vs. Lewis lap times the whole race

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZH-gfRXUAE-9pX.jpg

Looking at the lap times, it’s like both are doing lift n coast.
Last 5Laps from Kimi are pretty consistent, before that Lewis laps were consistent even with strat mode 14.

I personally think SF71H has much more performance to unlock, because vet was struggling all the weekend. Car was sliding a bit in the corners. Still we managed to bring good points.

From now on it’s games of upgrades

[nani_s23]

tyre management too.....

Yeah, vet went longer & even Lewis was saying he can go longer on 1st stint.

[jgonzalesm6]

Yeah, vet went longer & even Lewis was saying he can go longer on 1st stint.

Bottas.....did'nt really "advanced" through the pack as I thought he would....first race after crash diva issues maybe....food for thought.

[Aberracus]

Q: (Phil Duncan – Press Association) Seb, do you take any extra satisfaction in the win today, given the comments that Lewis made yesterday about wiping the smile off your face after qualifying?

SV: Not really. He said he was joking and I believe him. I think we are old enough, I don’t think we need to go on that sort of level. It’s fine as long as we joke with each other and I don’t think… apart from a point last year, we don’t have a problem with each other. I think even if we are very different persons, I think we share – all of us – a common passion and that makes us quite equal again. We love racing and we try to do our best, once we’re in the car and beat all the others. I think in that regard, I don’t see why we shouldn’t get on with each other.

Q: Do you see it the same way, Lewis?

LH: Sorry, I wasn’t listening.

Q: No reason you shouldn’t get on with each other?

LH: Don’t think so, no.



This is exactly why I despise hamilton...typical arrogant sucky behaviour. Why don't you go post somemore selfies on Insta? Oh wait...

Disgusting arrogant


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[stefa]

Q: (Phil Duncan – Press Association) Seb, do you take any extra satisfaction in the win today, given the comments that Lewis made yesterday about wiping the smile off your face after qualifying?

SV: Not really. He said he was joking and I believe him. I think we are old enough, I don’t think we need to go on that sort of level. It’s fine as long as we joke with each other and I don’t think… apart from a point last year, we don’t have a problem with each other. I think even if we are very different persons, I think we share – all of us – a common passion and that makes us quite equal again. We love racing and we try to do our best, once we’re in the car and beat all the others. I think in that regard, I don’t see why we shouldn’t get on with each other.

Q: Do you see it the same way, Lewis?

LH: Sorry, I wasn’t listening.

Q: No reason you shouldn’t get on with each other?

LH: Don’t think so, no.



This is exactly why I despise hamilton...typical arrogant sucky behaviour. Why don't you go post somemore selfies on Insta? Oh wait...

It is not that SV is Ferrari driver, but he is such a class of a human and gentleman, instead of... this... well I don't want to go down on that level...

[jgonzalesm6]

Disgusting arrogant


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Seb finding the address and taking the high road.....class and sportmanship. That's how you do it Lewis. In your "effing" face.

[Vettel165]

I will make a quick race pace analysis from today. The gap you will see it smaller than you expected. So in first race stint, all 3 leading drivers (Ham,Kimi,Vet) were on the same tyres. In lap 17 Kimi went into the pits, and the gap was "just 3,4s" there to Lewis. That means that in first stint Kimi was just 0,19 par lap slower than Lewis. Vettel was a little bit lagging behind (8 seconds gap to Lewis in lap 17), maybe he was saving some more fuel (for second part of the race?), and also saving the tyres, because he was always going for the overcut, he had nothing to lose. And you can see Kimi was simply better on US rubber than Seb, and Seb was better on softs than him. Or maybe Kimi was also saving fuel and the engine for the second part of the race, because he knew that here it is nearly impossible to overtake. From lap 31 to lap 57 (of course after the safety car) Seb was about 0,21 s par lap faster than Kimi. This weekend he had a better feeling in the car than Seb, maybe found a better setup. As I saw, Seb had top speed about 2 km/h faster than Kimi, which would mean that they went with slightly less downforce on Vettels car. The less grip,downforce would mean that the car was sliding more around the corners that usually, and you can destroy the US,SS tyres quickly like that, and with pushing to hard, remember Verstappen today.

http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?p...mi%20Raikkonen

[stefa]

Seb finding the address and taking the high road.....class and sportmanship. That's how you do it Lewis. In your "effing" face.

[jgonzalesm6]

I will make a quick race pace analysis from today. The gap you will see it smaller than you expected. So in first race stint, all 3 leading drivers (Ham,Kimi,Vet) were on the same tyres. In lap 17 Kimi went into the pits, and the gap was "just 3,4s" there to Lewis. That means that in first stint Kimi was just 0,19 par lap slower than Lewis. Vettel was a little bit lagging behind (8 seconds gap to Lewis in lap 17), maybe he was saving some more fuel (for second part of the race?), and also saving the tyres, because he was always going for the overcut, he had nothing to lose. And you can see Kimi was simply better on US rubber than Seb, and Seb was better on softs than him. Or maybe Kimi was also saving fuel and the engine for the second part of the race, because he knew that here it is nearly impossible to overtake. From lap 31 to lap 57 (of course after the safety car) Seb was about 0,21 s par lap faster than Kimi. This weekend he had a better feeling in the car than Seb, maybe found a better setup. As I saw, Seb had top speed about 2 km/h faster than Kimi, which would mean that they went with slightly less downforce on Vettels car. The less grip,downforce would mean that the car was sliding more around the corners that usually, and you can destroy the US,SS tyres quickly like that, and with pushing to hard, remember Verstappen today.

http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?p...mi%20Raikkonen

https://s9.postimg.org/jo8nhccdr/Brez_naslova.png

you also have to take into account....gas.....car is heavier in the beginning of the race then the car gets lighter towards the end of the race.

[da_one]

LOL at Mercedes for blaming "software glitch" for costing them the race.

First of all, Lewis was controlling the pace. Since Melbourne is notorious for bringing out the SC almost all the time, he should have built a bigger gap to cover both Kimi and Seb. You don't need to rely on computers to do this. I think they were just over confident in the first stint and this cost them dearly.

Be that as it may, as Vettel reminded everyone that there is still a lot to learn before the car is up to speed, Merc is still the team to beat. We need to up our game in terms of qualifying as well as playing catch up would be even harder this year due to the 3 engine rule. It's basically a handicap for drivers not in P1 to push until the end of the race since you have to make the engine last for 7 races. As we saw in this race when Hamilton gave up with 5 laps to go, even though he was less than a second behind Seb. Perhaps the circuit didn't help his cause either, but surely engine conservation would be critical in most races this year.

I also hope our in-season development will be on par or better than Merc and RB this year as we have been lagging behind in this department for quite some time now. I hope we won't hear of our so called correlation problems again.

[mizf1]

The safety car helped us out massively today, it's the equivalent of Hamilton not finishing the next race and vettel finishing secons as he gained a 17 points swing

If the SC didn't come out, likely positions and points would be
Ham - 25pts
Kimi - 18 pts
Vet - 15 pts

Vettel 10 points behind Ham with the above, however this is how it ended after the VSC/SC

Vet - 25 pts
Ham - 18 pts
Kimi - 15pts

Vettel 7 points ahead instead of being 10 points behind (17 point swing)

We just need to keep our head down and work hard and unlock the potential of our car. Hopefully the heat in Bahrain will overheat the Mercs

[stefa]

LOL at Mercedes for blaming "software glitch" for costing them the race.

First of all, Lewis was controlling the pace. Since Melbourne is notorious for bringing out the SC almost all the time, he should have built a bigger gap to cover both Kimi and Seb. You don't need to rely on computers to do this. I think they were just over confident in the first stint and this cost them dearly.

Be that as it may, as Vettel reminded everyone that there is still a lot to learn before the car is up to speed, Merc is still the team to beat. We need to up our game in terms of qualifying as well as playing catch up would be even harder this year due to the 3 engine rule. It's basically a handicap for drivers not in P1 to push until the end of the race since you have to make the engine last for 7 races. As we saw in this race when Hamilton gave up with 5 laps to go, even though he was less than a second behind Seb. Perhaps the circuit didn't help his cause either, but surely engine conservation would be critical in most races this year.

I also hope our in-season development will be on par or better than Merc and RB this year as we have been lagging behind in this department for quite some time now. I hope we won't hear of our so called correlation problems again.

And that is why pinnacle of motor sport is wrong and stupid. Racing with restrictions?!?!?

[KimiBot]

what is this talk about that VSC gave us victory

it is same speed for all when VSC is on and without VSC Seb and Ham drives almost equal laps
Seb just was a bit faster when he was driving in clean air (when Hamster pitted)

[jgonzalesm6]

And that is why pinnacle of motor sport is wrong and stupid. Racing with restrictions?!?!?

+1000

The sport needs to be "dumbed" down.....FULL ON PEDAL TO THE METAL RACING.....no fuel flow restrictions, no efficiency on engines or fuel, unlimited testing and so noisy it wakes up the neighbors 2 miles away.

[barzini77]

what is this talk about that VSC gave us victory

it is same speed for all when VSC is on and without VSC Seb and Ham drives almost equal laps
Seb just was a bit faster when he was driving in clean air (when Hamster pitted)

Ehh...no

[KimiBot]

what no, Seb was pushing when he was in clean air, that is why he was ahead Hamster after his pit

[barzini77]

what no, Seb was pushing when he was in clean air, that is why he was ahead Hamster after his pit

Ham pitted on lap 18, after his outlap, there were 5 laps before Seb pitted. Hamilton was faster on 4 of them. The only reason Sebastian jumped both Hamilton and Kimi was the VSC. Because of that Sebastian's inlap+pitstop was only 7 seconds slower than Hamilton's lap under VSC conditions.

The gap between Vettel and Hamilton was 13 seconds when Hamilton left the pits and it was 11 seconds when Sebastian pitted.

[KimiBot]

do you have lap times,I saw that Seb was 1.8 sec faster in one lap

[stefa]

+1000

The sport needs to be "dumbed" down.....FULL ON PEDAL TO THE METAL RACING.....no fuel flow restrictions, no efficiency on engines or fuel, unlimited testing and so noisy it wakes up the neighbors 2 miles away.

Amen to that!!!!

[barzini77]

do you have lap times,I saw that Seb was 1.8 sec faster in one lap

http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?p...wis%20Hamilton

[jgonzalesm6]

Sector Max speeds and speed traps AusGP

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZJgq8ZXcAEwu-j.jpg

[KimiBot]

http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?p...wis%20Hamilton

You are right, VSC did help us, but how can that be, everyone should have same speed or what, Hamster and Kimi made somekind of mistake or what

[Greig]

what is this talk about that VSC gave us victory

it is same speed for all when VSC is on and without VSC Seb and Ham drives almost equal laps
Seb just was a bit faster when he was driving in clean air (when Hamster pitted)

Seb gained all the time in the pitlane as his stop was not done under racing conditions so Lewis was not going full speed. If no VSC he would have come out 3rd.

[darkchild]

Seb got same strat Kimi got back in Spain 2016. It just happens sometimes...They had to try to undercut it and running longer this would not be possible (evein if chance was small to begin with).