Originally Posted by
Michal2_F1
I agree. It is partly based on the fact that many people treat qualifying speed as the only barometer. For most of the season, Ferrari had better engine than Mercedes which gave them extra couple of tenths in qualifying which disappeared in the race. It was an inversion of 2017. Bottas ran Vettel close in Bahrain and China, there is no way Ferrari was faster in the race, they were evenly-matched. Actually it was Mercedes enjoying greater advantages in Australia, Spain, France or Austria. Rain also exposed Ferrari's weakness but we know British media want to show Hamilton as the underdog rather than German carmaker as superior one. It got to the point where the Singapore narrative was that Vettel had quicker car but Hamilton was 1s faster because he drove a mega lap. Notwithstanding the fact, he also pulled away from the German in the race with relative ease. Monza was a second game-changer after Germany, not only Hamilton won while Vettel faltered but Mercedes improved on the engine side and was a match on race pace (and very close in qualifying).
In 2017 Vettel was doing better job than Hamilton until Asian fly-aways. We should remember that Hamilton lost Bahrain due to his mistakes (forgot to activate DRS in qualifying then blocked Ricciardo in pit-lane) and underperformed in Russia, Monaco, Austria and Hungary. They were evenly matched with Bottas, while Vettel was also on top of his game, the only mistake being Baku brain fade. He recovered brillianly in China and Canada, showed a masterclass in Bahrain and unstoppable pace in Monaco.
Originally Posted by
Cavallino
I'm sick of this myth that the Ferrari was "the best" car or even "on par" with the Merc.
It's been documented, here on this forum, and elsewhere, that Seb was statistically the best qualifier last year, when it came to getting the fastest possible lap during qualifying by stringing together the 3 fastest sectors of the weekend into one lap. (Leclerc was actually the worst).
So given that, look how many poles the Ferrari got last season.
How many times did it just dominate a weekend?
Do you know how much easier it is to win a race from pole. Especially if you're Seb?
You have clean air, AND you don't have to worry about Crashtappen crashing into you.
Give me a break. It was close, but not near to on par. Give me some qualy performance and wet weather performance this year and we'll have a championship battle on our hands.
lets hope we have improved in all areas this year but def agree with you both
hockenheim 2018 / China 2018 : Never forget how quick Ferrari can lose it all, be humble.
Positivity doesn't win you championships, whining about people being negative makes you blind!
lol ignore the bitter old cows ;-)
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