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Sakae

Race 1 - F1 2018 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX

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4 hours ago, BradSpeedMan said:

The guys are sandbagging

Why would they do that so late in the game? I wish that to be the true reason, however I am more inclined to think that Seb was hampered by his car setup. It was already reported in Barcelona, that car was very unstable on entry into slow turns. There might be some race tracks which will not suit that car as much as at some other places, Melbourne however should be a place with a lot of data on books for engineers to know what is needed here to win. 

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LM launched PR campaign promising this and that, yet when chips are down, everything is just more expensive, and not different then it was under former management. I've paid my access to race data, something which was actually free of charge on the internet for so many years, but other than BIG words, I do not detect anything new. Well, there is actually something new. FOG office bureaucracy is growing including imperial fantasy how great LM is with dismissive perversity towards their position and sum of investments by automakers into F1 over the years.

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Well....from the first two free practices, at least for Australia, it looks like Mercedes over Red Bull over Ferrari. Not sure who is the fourth fastest team, but Haas looks promising. Sauber looks like it has last place reserved for itself.

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Based on first two results of FP 1 and 2, I am not in understanding how Seb can say cars are close (in performance). His time sheets were rather depressing. Maybe his calculus includes something I've missed, and I rather think we need a rabbit and a hat to end up on happy note tomorrow.

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I am hoping that Bottas is OK. Haas boys are on the run, and one can only hope they will keep up with development work. Kimi is ahead of Seb by a half wheel. He seems to be more attuned with his setup than Seb is. Tomorrow could be interesting, assuming RB will not break some China, while wanting to win a race in the first turn. Sauber and TR drivers do need to grow up into F1 class. Somehow I do not know what to think. DR is struggling and disappearing into shades. 2014 performance was an anomaly, and glass with champagne is now empty. No more c#cktails to ride on.

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15 minutes ago, Caesar said:

Honda engine is a piece of ....

As is Vettel. Outqualified by a jaded 40 year old. He should be ashamed of himself. 

Great laps from Max and Lewis. 

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This is sad. Hamilton is over .6 seconds faster in qualifying than the Ferraris. The top three teams are over a second faster than the fourth fastest team. Hopefully it will be closer at race pace.

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It's not Hamilton, but MB that is faster than Ferrari (again). Thanks FiA (again) for all that help to one team only, regardless of any claims to the contrary. From tire testing to PU research in summary it adds all to more over past several years than just circumstantial evidence which team and individual you are favoring. Under current restrictive rules once you have an advantage over competition, it is near impossible for rest of the pack to catch up. How much more evidence is needed for some to say this loudly? To add insult to the injury they have audacity to talk to us down like we are some idiots who has to be told that respective performance convergence has been achieved, and media with imbecile like expressions are in awe over this situation.

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The restrictive rules have been changed. Ferrari still can't close the gap. It looks like Red Bull-Renault is about to surpass Ferrari. 

Quit simply, the biggest spending team tends to win in F1. If that team gets an advantage because of good planning (and Mercedes did rather systematically plan and design the best power unit in F1), and because of good engineering, then if that team can outspend the others, it can maintain that advantage for years. We have seen this repeatedly.

The Mercedes advantage won't disappear until 1) they make a major change in regulations coupled with a budget cap, or 2) someone comes up with some innovation or regulatory trick that gives them a half second, or 3) Mercedes gets tired.

Anyhow, looks like we are in for another Hamilton stomp.....with Ferrari and Red Bull fighting by their lonesome for second place in the team championship. The rest of the teams seem to be out of reach with these three teams.

Now, this is the only the first race of the season, and it is a power circuit, and there is a lot of development to be done, so things will change over the course of the season, but with Mercedes with the largest budget; and Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull with the three largest budgets; things aren't going to change all that much. I fear the pecking order has already been established. The real entertainment will be watching who gets fourth place in the constructor championship.

 

Entertaining things to watch this season:

1. The fight for fourth place in the constructor's championship.

2. Maybe the fight for second place in constructors, if Red Bull doesn't already have the legs over Ferrari in race trim.

3. Vettel melting down.

4. Maybe Alonso melting down.

5. Verstappen being the usual spoiled brat.

6. All those people on this forum who hate Hamilton melting down.

7. Bottas trying to be convincing as a top F1 driver.

8. Raikkonnen's final season in F1?

9. The new drivers, all trying to earn their way (Ocon, Gasly, Vandoorne, etc.).

10. The Williams drivers.

11. Where Perez, Riccardo and Ocon go in 2019.

 

Good thing I am fan of all of F1, because if I was just watching it as a good competitive sporting series, I would be sorely disappointed.

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Sakae said:

It's not Hamilton, but MB that is faster than Ferrari (again). 

It's more that Vettel is an overrrated ****wit. 

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4 hours ago, Ruslan said:

Mercedes did rather systematically plan and design the best power unit in F1

sure, but they were ready with that PU before the FIA had even stared looking at a new set of rules, in fairness Mercedes was allowed to try what engine formula worked best for them, build such PU, test it extensively and then when they were ready they went to the FIA and told them what the rules should be, it's not difficult winning when you are allowed to draw the rules that suit you best and them impose them on the others, and it's not even a matter of how big their budget is, no matter how much Renault, Ferrari or Honda will spend they will never be in a position to seriously challenge Mercerdes until they change the engine formula (and I'm not even going into the testing ban, who's only objective is to stifle competition by preventing the others from catching up).

Obviuosly we've seen that before, maybe not with the same level of bias as in recent years but Ferrari were allowed to get away with almost everything in the first few years of the Schumacher domination, same for Renault during the Alonso era, and I'm not even going into what has been allowed to Red Bull... :rolleyes:  I'm not sure that Mercedes victories in this PU era will be remember like what they did in 1954 and 1955, then there was a level playing field and they simply built a (much) better car than the others, this time they have been handed the silverware because otherwise they would have walked out and F1 needed them more than they needed F1.

Same for Hamilton who IMHO is (in pure driving terms) the best out there but during his time at Mercedes didn't really have much competition (IMHO Rosberg had done all that he had to do to deserve to be WDC in 2014, in 2015 was a broken man for what happened the year before and finally in 2016 he managed to beat his team mate).

My personal take is that the last few years won't be remembered in the future as great racing seasons

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All true, however most significant distinction between eras past and today is in technological complexities and roadblocks (restrictiveness) on remedial activities. In the past a team could place as many people they needed on development and fixes, worked hours they needed, tested on available tracks on parallel timelines with a race season. In two or three months problems were fixed. Cars were race ready in February well before season started. Today you screw up even the most minute detail (as Honda did with fuel bladder - as an example), and you could be done for a season, because system packaging is so tight. What is getting to me is, that all of these concerns were written about and discussed n-times in the past, yet conditions as described are being ignored as they do not exists. I should not forget tires of course, as in the past there was synergy between vehicle design and tire characteristics, constantly testing months before a season began. Today teams get a tire after vehicle is designed and run it in Spain for a few hours, and too bad if there is a thermal problem. There is no point comparing yesteryears to the current mess. This is not competitive racing even in best of times. MB has a lot of power to spare, and they use it in qualifying. I was hoping Ferrari was close, but after what happened today I have my doubts. Nothing has changed. The Scuderia team is still massively behind.

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Congratulation to Ferrari and both drivers for job well done in a visibly slower car, which may probably include MB and RBR as well in that equation. Hamilton had 50%  of the race distance, superior car and full 1 hour to beat Vettel, but failed, yet people talk about Seb as he was lucky only. Better man won today. This makes my day so much sweeter.

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Yes. I am unashamedly happy despite some obscene articles on the internet. Vettel won "only" because he was lucky, rating him 7, Hamilton was rated 8.

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10 minutes ago, Caesar said:

Vettel didn't do anything whole weekend, only driving to delta, victory came to him on pure luck.

Let me correct you...

Alonso got a 5th place on pure luck

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3 hours ago, Sakae said:

Congratulation to Ferrari and both drivers for job well done in a visibly slower car, which may probably include MB and RBR as well in that equation. Hamilton had 50%  of the race distance, superior car and full 1 hour to beat Vettel, but failed, yet people talk about Seb as he was lucky only. Better man won today. This makes my day so much sweeter.

Yep

Ferrari has alot of work to do to extract more performance. Slower than Merc but on equal footing with RBR

Ecstatic for Seb's win. Ferrari drivers drove brilliantly. Its even more satisfying after the statement of Hamilton wanting to wipe smile of Vettel's face after qualifying. Madmax made a pure rookie mistake following a Haas then blames it on some obscure excuse. Maybe he needs to ask a superior driver like Vettel for some advice methinks

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