planetf1.com

Source - http://www.visitmelbourne.com/-/media/a ... =95&w=1200

NUMBER OF LAPS: 58

CIRCUIT LENGTH: 5.303 KM

RACE DISTANCE: 307.574 KM

LAP RECORD: 1:24.125
By Michael Schumacher (2004)

Press Conference:
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)

Tyres:
Purple-marked ultrasoft tyre
Red-marked supersoft tyre
Yellow-marked soft tyre

Selected tyre compounds by individual drivers:

Source - http://www.f1i.fr/wp-content/uploads/20 ... amed-1.jpg

F1Oz wrote:Ok - here we are, nobody has posted anything so I'm going to start - regardless of qualifying - conditions are set to be dry for qualifing but intermittent showers from 2-4pm on Sunday - plus - therefore affecting race

what does that mean to F1 race 1?

P-F1 Mod wrote:Utter chaos, lots of work for the mods and hopefully an action-packed race which tells us nothing at all about the pecking order?

Alex53 wrote:

P-F1 Mod wrote:...an action-packed race which tells us nothing at all about the pecking order?

Usual thing for Australia then

M44 wrote:I predict a Red Bull 1/2 with a Hamilton and Vettel DNF.

M44 wrote:I predict a Red Bull 1/2 with a Hamilton and Vettel DNF.

M44 wrote:I predict a Red Bull 1/2 with a Hamilton and Vettel DNF.

If you are so bold, let me put up my level of boldness:

Exactly so, except that they both get overtaken in the last lap by the both Toro Rosso drivers, who both suffered punctures twice during the race because of debris.

I predict a Haas on the podium!

Jackie Stewart and Damon Hill, 1 and 2...

One of the Toro Rosso drivers to win and Alonso to retire with an engine failure. It's written in the stars.

The tire allocations seem to show which teams might be thinking about going with split strategies.

Weather prediction on Sunday, please....?

Early forecasts said raining most of the weekend, but they look to have cleared up now. Possible shower around qualifying time, otherwise should be overcast and dry by the looks of it.

I hope it's mainly dry for the first weekend just so we can see where everyone is at in terms of development and overall pace.

Not long now!!!

3rd DRS zone added between turns 12 & 13:


Source - https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DYyI9JbV4AAIZ3a.jpg

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/891975/1/ ... tralian-gp

That second detection point is so far from the activation point, I don't understand why it they couldn't have been a lot closer together.

I also don't understand the numbering system.. Activation point 3 is after the first corner; point one is at T14?

At the very least hopefully the extra DRS section helps overtaking a bit this year. There's always a lot of hype coming to Melbourne for the first race, but Albert Park often leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to on-track action.

Toby. wrote:That second detection point is so far from the activation point, I don't understand why it they couldn't have been a lot closer together.

I also don't understand the numbering system.. Activation point 3 is after the first corner; point one is at T14?

At the very least hopefully the extra DRS section helps overtaking a bit this year. There's always a lot of hype coming to Melbourne for the first race, but Albert Park often leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to on-track action.

BIB: I think that's because DRS 3 is an extension of DRS 2 and uses the same detection point. It just happens to carry over to the beginning of the next lap

Zoue wrote:

Toby. wrote:That second detection point is so far from the activation point, I don't understand why it they couldn't have been a lot closer together.

I also don't understand the numbering system.. Activation point 3 is after the first corner; point one is at T14?

At the very least hopefully the extra DRS section helps overtaking a bit this year. There's always a lot of hype coming to Melbourne for the first race, but Albert Park often leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to on-track action.

BIB: I think that's because DRS 3 is an extension of DRS 2 and uses the same detection point. It just happens to carry over to the beginning of the next lap

Oo that makes a lot of sense.

UnlikeUday wrote:3rd DRS zone added between turns 12 & 13:


Source - https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DYyI9JbV4AAIZ3a.jpg

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/891975/1/ ... tralian-gp

Yeah that was stupid. T11 and t12 are super high speed corners. It’s impossible for the attacking car to stay close to the one in front through them. So imo that extra drs zone will be useless. Adding it after t10, which is very low speed, would have made more sense.

^I suppose it allows cars to get closer so that they may take better advantage of DRS 2 & 3

Zoue wrote:^I suppose it allows cars to get closer so that they may take better advantage of DRS 2 & 3

I still don’t see it. Whatever ground is gained between t12 and t13 will be lost in that tricky sector 3. I can’t recall a drs activation zone after such a high speed corner except for Silverstone but that ensuing straight is mega, unlike Albert park’s. Liberty Media strikes out again...

kleefton wrote:

Zoue wrote:^I suppose it allows cars to get closer so that they may take better advantage of DRS 2 & 3

I still don’t see it. Whatever ground is gained between t12 and t13 will be lost in that tricky sector 3. I can’t recall a drs activation zone after such a high speed corner except for Silverstone but that ensuing straight is mega, unlike Albert park’s. Liberty Media strikes out again...

It's possible, but don't you think cars would be closer than if there was no DRS zone at all?

Zoue wrote:

kleefton wrote:

Zoue wrote:^I suppose it allows cars to get closer so that they may take better advantage of DRS 2 & 3

I still don’t see it. Whatever ground is gained between t12 and t13 will be lost in that tricky sector 3. I can’t recall a drs activation zone after such a high speed corner except for Silverstone but that ensuing straight is mega, unlike Albert park’s. Liberty Media strikes out again...

It's possible, but don't you think cars would be closer than if there was no DRS zone at all?

I'm not convinced - the corners would probably make it so that anything that is gained is lost again and revert to some kind of "minimum following distance" which would be the same whether or not there would have been a DRS zone before them.

so Mercedes are boasting to have the most powerful qualifying mode they have ever created https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... e-1016834/

Super excited!

jimmyj wrote:Super excited!

hey jimmy, cant wait to see what these new cars can do on track. also interested in this 3rd DRS zone. hope they add more zones to other tracks that have similar traits of difficult overtaking characteristics

hoping not to have that sinking feeling again in q3 when engine modes are turned up. 3 teams within 3 tenths will do.

want to see verstappen and hamilton going toe to toe more often this season. especially in the wet.

Caserole of Nonsense wrote:hoping not to have that sinking feeling again in q3 when engine modes are turned up. 3 teams within 3 tenths will do.

want to see verstappen and hamilton going toe to toe more often this season. especially in the wet.

Makes me wonder how much of this extra comes from the engine and how much is electrical power.

I can not see them wanting to put any more ware and tare or stress of any sort on the engine, but it would not matter if they could run the electrical side a bit longer or higher.

Caserole of Nonsense wrote:hoping not to have that sinking feeling again in q3 when engine modes are turned up. 3 teams within 3 tenths will do.

want to see verstappen and hamilton going toe to toe more often this season. especially in the wet.

it maybe the strongest quali mode they have created but the rest of the field haven't been standing still either but I suspect the mercs will keep about the same 50hp advantage they have had over the nearest rival. so in quali trim they will maintain their advantage but they are also going to be putting more strain on the engine pushing it more. could cause reliability issues down the road but internals can be changed like for like for reliability so lets see how it plays out.

as for more heads up between Hamilton and versteppen, just gotta wait and see where the chips fall in comparison between the 2 cars.

last year Hamilton qualified with a time of 1:22.188, now with the higher quali mode, 3rd drs and softer tires dare we say 1:21.650????

Mayhem wrote:

Caserole of Nonsense wrote:hoping not to have that sinking feeling again in q3 when engine modes are turned up. 3 teams within 3 tenths will do.

want to see verstappen and hamilton going toe to toe more often this season. especially in the wet.

it maybe the strongest quali mode they have created but the rest of the field haven't been standing still either but I suspect the mercs will keep about the same 50hp advantage they have had over the nearest rival. so in quali trim they will maintain their advantage but they are also going to be putting more strain on the engine pushing it more. could cause reliability issues down the road but internals can be changed like for like for reliability so lets see how it plays out.

as for more heads up between Hamilton and versteppen, just gotta wait and see where the chips fall in comparison between the 2 cars.

Qualifying position is everything so if Mercedes is able to dominate qualifying with this childishly nicknamed "party mode" then it will be a procession for them up front. Depressing.

Mayhem wrote:last year Hamilton qualified with a time of 1:22.188, now with the higher quali mode, 3rd drs and softer tires dare we say 1:21.650????

I thought you was going to say a sub 1m 20... they are going to gain way more than 0.5. The 2017 Mercedes than ended last year, on last years tyres would have gone below that time.

MasterRacer wrote:

Mayhem wrote:

Caserole of Nonsense wrote:hoping not to have that sinking feeling again in q3 when engine modes are turned up. 3 teams within 3 tenths will do.

want to see verstappen and hamilton going toe to toe more often this season. especially in the wet.

it maybe the strongest quali mode they have created but the rest of the field haven't been standing still either but I suspect the mercs will keep about the same 50hp advantage they have had over the nearest rival. so in quali trim they will maintain their advantage but they are also going to be putting more strain on the engine pushing it more. could cause reliability issues down the road but internals can be changed like for like for reliability so lets see how it plays out.

as for more heads up between Hamilton and versteppen, just gotta wait and see where the chips fall in comparison between the 2 cars.

Qualifying position is everything so if Mercedes is able to dominate qualifying with this childishly nicknamed "party mode" then it will be a procession for them up front. Depressing.

Qualifying position is only everything in a 1 stop race. Once you to get 3 stops it becomes nearly meaningless and race pace is way more important. 2 stops is somewhere between the two. Hopefully we have more 2 and 3 stop races this year.

mds wrote:

Zoue wrote:

kleefton wrote:

Zoue wrote:^I suppose it allows cars to get closer so that they may take better advantage of DRS 2 & 3

I still don’t see it. Whatever ground is gained between t12 and t13 will be lost in that tricky sector 3. I can’t recall a drs activation zone after such a high speed corner except for Silverstone but that ensuing straight is mega, unlike Albert park’s. Liberty Media strikes out again...

It's possible, but don't you think cars would be closer than if there was no DRS zone at all?

I'm not convinced - the corners would probably make it so that anything that is gained is lost again and revert to some kind of "minimum following distance" which would be the same whether or not there would have been a DRS zone before them.

The additional DRS zone certainly isn't going to make you any further back (obviously). So its a case of it being the same or the car behind being closer.

The car behind behind should pull in about 0.250 over that DRS zone. It will inevitably lose a bit of that, but I would bet it gets to keep a bit of that advantage for the next 2 corners. The air isn't that much dirtier when you are 0.75 behind as opposed to 0.90 behind.

Which raises the question - what is the hardest gap to follow at? Because there is a trade off between slipstream and dirty air, there must be a gap where the dirty air is really bad but you get little slipstream. I guess this would vary between tracks. Vettel gained 0.2 in S3 in Spa last year when he went through there 1.5-2.0 seconds behind Kimi - I was surprised the slipstream affect was that strong from that far back.

lamo wrote:

Mayhem wrote:last year Hamilton qualified with a time of 1:22.188, now with the higher quali mode, 3rd drs and softer tires dare we say 1:21.650????

I thought you was going to say a sub 1m 20... they are going to gain way more than 0.5. The 2017 Mercedes than ended last year, on last years tyres would have gone below that time.

Being conservative for the first race, the new package hasnt been proven yet, hope it is that much faster but we shall see in very soon

lamo wrote:

MasterRacer wrote:

Mayhem wrote:

Caserole of Nonsense wrote:hoping not to have that sinking feeling again in q3 when engine modes are turned up. 3 teams within 3 tenths will do.

want to see verstappen and hamilton going toe to toe more often this season. especially in the wet.

it maybe the strongest quali mode they have created but the rest of the field haven't been standing still either but I suspect the mercs will keep about the same 50hp advantage they have had over the nearest rival. so in quali trim they will maintain their advantage but they are also going to be putting more strain on the engine pushing it more. could cause reliability issues down the road but internals can be changed like for like for reliability so lets see how it plays out.

as for more heads up between Hamilton and versteppen, just gotta wait and see where the chips fall in comparison between the 2 cars.

Qualifying position is everything so if Mercedes is able to dominate qualifying with this childishly nicknamed "party mode" then it will be a procession for them up front. Depressing.

Qualifying position is only everything in a 1 stop race. Once you to get 3 stops it becomes nearly meaningless and race pace is way more important. 2 stops is somewhere between the two. Hopefully we have more 2 and 3 stop races this year.

That's true. I doubt we'll see many 3 stop races, but yes more pit stops does throw open some new possibilities and increases the possibility of getting caught out by uncontrollable events behind you.

Alfa Romeo 1/2






or Ham, Bot, Vet...

mds wrote:

Zoue wrote:

kleefton wrote:

Zoue wrote:^I suppose it allows cars to get closer so that they may take better advantage of DRS 2 & 3

I still don’t see it. Whatever ground is gained between t12 and t13 will be lost in that tricky sector 3. I can’t recall a drs activation zone after such a high speed corner except for Silverstone but that ensuing straight is mega, unlike Albert park’s. Liberty Media strikes out again...

It's possible, but don't you think cars would be closer than if there was no DRS zone at all?

I'm not convinced - the corners would probably make it so that anything that is gained is lost again and revert to some kind of "minimum following distance" which would be the same whether or not there would have been a DRS zone before them.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too.

lamo wrote:

mds wrote:

Zoue wrote:

kleefton wrote:

Zoue wrote:^I suppose it allows cars to get closer so that they may take better advantage of DRS 2 & 3

I still don’t see it. Whatever ground is gained between t12 and t13 will be lost in that tricky sector 3. I can’t recall a drs activation zone after such a high speed corner except for Silverstone but that ensuing straight is mega, unlike Albert park’s. Liberty Media strikes out again...

It's possible, but don't you think cars would be closer than if there was no DRS zone at all?

I'm not convinced - the corners would probably make it so that anything that is gained is lost again and revert to some kind of "minimum following distance" which would be the same whether or not there would have been a DRS zone before them.

The additional DRS zone certainly isn't going to make you any further back (obviously). So its a case of it being the same or the car behind being closer.

The car behind behind should pull in about 0.250 over that DRS zone. It will inevitably lose a bit of that, but I would bet it gets to keep a bit of that advantage for the next 2 corners. The air isn't that much dirtier when you are 0.75 behind as opposed to 0.90 behind.

.

It's not 2 corners though, it's 4. And they are all very aero dependent.

We shall see on Sunday, but I highly doubt this is going to improve overtaking in any way.

Mayhem wrote:last year Hamilton qualified with a time of 1:22.188, now with the higher quali mode, 3rd drs and softer tires dare we say 1:21.650????

I'm gonna say a mid 1:19 for pole, figuring in about 1.5 seconds worth of car development and another half second from the softer tyres. Let's say 1:19.4xx, just to lay down a number.

MasterRacer wrote:

Mayhem wrote:

Caserole of Nonsense wrote:hoping not to have that sinking feeling again in q3 when engine modes are turned up. 3 teams within 3 tenths will do.

want to see verstappen and hamilton going toe to toe more often this season. especially in the wet.

it maybe the strongest quali mode they have created but the rest of the field haven't been standing still either but I suspect the mercs will keep about the same 50hp advantage they have had over the nearest rival. so in quali trim they will maintain their advantage but they are also going to be putting more strain on the engine pushing it more. could cause reliability issues down the road but internals can be changed like for like for reliability so lets see how it plays out.

as for more heads up between Hamilton and versteppen, just gotta wait and see where the chips fall in comparison between the 2 cars.

Qualifying position is everything so if Mercedes is able to dominate qualifying with this childishly nicknamed "party mode" then it will be a procession for them up front. Depressing.

If I had the fastest car with the fastest quali mode, I'd say 'party mode' would sum it up pretty well.

I see the Winter break hasn't dulled your need to denigrate a certain driver in virtually every post.

Surely you haven't given up on anyone else winning already?

TedStriker wrote:

MasterRacer wrote:

Mayhem wrote:

Caserole of Nonsense wrote:hoping not to have that sinking feeling again in q3 when engine modes are turned up. 3 teams within 3 tenths will do.

want to see verstappen and hamilton going toe to toe more often this season. especially in the wet.

it maybe the strongest quali mode they have created but the rest of the field haven't been standing still either but I suspect the mercs will keep about the same 50hp advantage they have had over the nearest rival. so in quali trim they will maintain their advantage but they are also going to be putting more strain on the engine pushing it more. could cause reliability issues down the road but internals can be changed like for like for reliability so lets see how it plays out.

as for more heads up between Hamilton and versteppen, just gotta wait and see where the chips fall in comparison between the 2 cars.

Qualifying position is everything so if Mercedes is able to dominate qualifying with this childishly nicknamed "party mode" then it will be a procession for them up front. Depressing.

If I had the fastest car with the fastest quali mode, I'd say 'party mode' would sum it up pretty well.

I see the Winter break hasn't dulled your need to denigrate a certain driver in virtually every post.

Surely you haven't given up on anyone else winning already?

Do the new regs mean the custom teams will also have "party mode" as well?
It'll be interesting to see where the custom teams end up after qualifying.

Mayhem wrote:

lamo wrote:

Mayhem wrote:last year Hamilton qualified with a time of 1:22.188, now with the higher quali mode, 3rd drs and softer tires dare we say 1:21.650????

I thought you was going to say a sub 1m 20... they are going to gain way more than 0.5. The 2017 Mercedes than ended last year, on last years tyres would have gone below that time.

Being conservative for the first race, the new package hasnt been proven yet, hope it is that much faster but we shall see in very soon

If they are being conservative as its the first race this year then they would have done the same last year too...

I expect at least 0.5 gain in the chassis, 0.5 in the tyre and 0.3 in the engine. At very least.

[quote="kleefton"]

It may not bring the overtakes but it might help.

Just coming out of the last corner 0.050 closer can make a huge difference as the slipstream affect gets larger and larger the closer you get. So being 0.050 closer out the final corner may make you 0.100 closer come the end of the straight. Which then gives you a better chance again on the next DRS.

Hamilton was about 1.8 faster than Max last year and couldn't get within 0.4 of him, so I am not holding my breath either.