[Eee Pee]

Yep, Vettel had it until the red flag. Then, in haste, made an error in strategy afterwards and kinda lost it, then top it off with his off at the end as he was seriously closing in... Excellent showing by Ferrari though, minus poor Kimi.

 

[jimmers]

  ... then top it off with his off at the end as he was seriously closing in...

He had been trying to pass Hamilton for several laps before his off, hardly closing in.

 

[Hutnicks]

Exactly what do the early race leaders have to do to land a win?

Pray to the heavens that the Team does not make bonehead decisions

 
Even though the end result was same old same old, the race was pretty darn exciting all through the ranks. Nice to see Ricciardo up there closing in on podiums again. Sainz Verstappen going to be entertaining this year methinks.
Williams?????? Sauber ?????
Renault seems to have gotten the drivers they need to crawl up the ranks this year. Nice to see that on the return. Mac looking less pathetic than in recent years. How on earth did Alonso actually get out of that wreck? I don't mean unhurt, (that is unbelievable as well) just physically how did he crawl out of it?. Take that car home in a suitcase you could.
Haas. I don't know what to think. Good on them scoring points in the first outing. I am not sure Grosjean is that much of an improved driver or just in a car more suited to his talents.
Kimi, the luck continues. I really hope he wins at least one this year.

 

[Herueyes]

  Yep, Vettel had it until the red flag. Then, in haste, made an error in strategy afterwards and kinda lost it, then top it off with his off at the end as he was seriously closing in... Excellent showing by Ferrari though, minus poor Kimi.

 
 

  He had been trying to pass Hamilton for several laps before his off, hardly closing in.

 
 
Not only that but Vettel had fresher tires, a faster compound and DRS...
 
Ham had none of the above...
 
 
Peace...

 

[oqvist]

Vettel had just catched Hamilton and started to put pressure but I don´t think he had the pace to really achieve anything. But good he tried at least.
 
It´s not much of a conspiracy that Ferrari always have a first and second driver it´s just how they always operated. Many teams have run similar approaches as well. F1 is expensive and few teams have the enonomical muscles to support two cars equally. It can also be detrimental for the team like McLaren with Hamilton and Alonso where Alonso bitched about not getting the treatment as a WC he expected coming from Ferrari

 

[WraithApe]

Originally Posted by oqvist /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
It´s not much of a conspiracy that Ferrari always have a first and second driver it´s just how they always operated. Many teams have run similar approaches as well. F1 is expensive and few teams have the enonomical muscles to support two cars equally. It can also be detrimental for the team like McLaren with Hamilton and Alonso where Alonso bitched about not getting the treatment as a WC he expected coming from Ferrari

 
I know that. You never heard of anyone being tongue-in-cheek before mate? 

 

 

[oqvist]

   
I know that. You never heard of anyone being tongue-in-cheek before mate? 

 

Sorry if I missed that

 

[xkonfuzed]

   
 
 
 
Not only that but Vettel had fresher tires, a faster compound and DRS...
 
Ham had none of the above...
 
 
Peace...

He had a better car? Just like he did for the past 3 years.

 

[Herueyes]

He had a better car? Just like he did for the past 3 years.

Maybe so but Ferrari did not do their homework during winter testing. They were afraid to run the mediums and opted for the softer & faster compound. Both Mercs went with the Medium compound tire(Ham before & after (same tire for Ham) the red flag and Ros after) Ferrari did not test enough on the Medium compound tire and were afraid they wouldn't last till the end. Mercedes knew they would last and that decision to go with the mediums made all the difference.


Peace...

 

[Arata]

It certainly was a dramatic race. From a local newspaper, this is making its rounds.
I must admit that I don't miss having to wear earplugs to go anywhere near Albert Park during the race.
 

 

[oqvist]

Maybe so but Ferrari did not do their homework during winter testing. They were afraid to run the mediums and opted for the softer & faster compound. Both Mercs went with the Medium compound tire(Ham before & after (same tire for Ham) the red flag and Ros after) Ferrari did not test enough on the Medium compound tire and were afraid they wouldn't last till the end. Mercedes knew they would last and that decision to go with the mediums made all the difference.


Peace...

They did the testing their package afforded them. I am sure they wanted to do as many laps as nico and rosberg got out of their merc. Talk about endurance testing during practise . As we all know if you re not familiar with a compound you can´t go fast with it. There is nothing like on a compete new set never tested tire get the most out of it in the first stint. So they did right in keeping with what they knew. That Vettel was so close he could actually challenge Hamilton with a slower car to me certainly don´t indicate they blew the strategy. Nico could almost keep up with Seb on the slower tire say all about which car was indead the better. As I don´t necessarily rate nico or the ham higher then Seb

 

[maxmays1]

Well the Ferrari being slower is up for question this year considering almost all of the Ferrari powered cars were keeping pace with the Mercedes powered cars. Vettel would have gained nothing running the Mediums as he had to catch the Mercedes not keep pace with them.  It came down to the fact that Hamilton was still setting optimal laps as Vettel caught him on the Yellow. At which point the softs were probably falling off fast and as such he slid on the final corner leading to the strait. Even if Vettel managed to pass with two laps left Hamilton probably could have capitalized on Vettel tires being dead. If there were to be any strategy changes on Ferrari's behalf, they should have put on the softs on the restart so that he could have run more laps and possibly killed down Rosberg's tires if he was to chase.
 
None the less, it was an excellent race with a great mix up across the field. to me this only shows that the qualifying scheme actually worked as intended. Bahrain is going to be killer no doubts.

 

[wuwhere]

Ferrari needs to fix their turbocharger problems.

 

[Hutnicks]

So we are keeping the qualifying fiasco format after all.
 
Small wonder the drivers are writing letters and getting more vocal about management changes.
 
I wonder if we could see another drivers strike happen this year.  With the money involved that would surely make a much larger impact than it did last time around.
 
John Death may well not be long for the head of the FIA position. Who would have thought someone could make a bigger mess than Mosley?

 

[wuwhere]

Hopefully Alonso recovers quickly for the China race.