jlanka

Very impressed with Red Bull today. Max passed Vettel with ease and just pulled away from him. Then Lewis could not shake him. Honda is working. Gonna be an exciting season for a 33 fan.

jlanka

Actually after I posted this I thought there has to be something wrong with Lewis car for Bottas to be able to pull on him like that

seanseidman

There was a piece of floor board missing in LH's car

Manifold

+1, good analysis.

Manifold

Seems to me that he did it for the money. Otherwise, he could have stayed at Red Bull and spent some time on the podium this season.

docwyte

It seemed like he left Red Bull because it was clear he was going to be their #2 driver.

seanseidman

+1
It was personal

V999

If I've learned anything about F1, it is not to judge the entirety of the season based on the first race. Or even the first few races.

Having said that, I found the Australian GP pretty boring this year, which is unusual for me - I'm usually pretty amped up at the start of each season. Hopefully, as the season plays out, we get at least a 3-way fight for the podium in most races, and it's not just a Merc one-two with a fight over third, in every race.

seanseidman

Fantastic article. Race 1 backs up his theory thus far.
Thanks for sharing.

LuigiVampa

Christian Horner said Ricciardo left because he was "running from a fight".

Another topic not really discussed - the guys at Honda must have been laughing there heads off when McLarens Renault engine burst into flames. Honda appears to have finally sorted out the engine.

I was also listening to the BBC 5-Live podcast and they made the point that even though Ferrari won at Australia last year it is a track that favors Merc. Next race should be a little more telling.

KevinGross

Bear in mind that the 20+ second gap between Lewis and Valtteri was in all likelihood a result of MB and Lewis realizing he could not hope to pass Valtteri. And so as MB has done before, they used LH to back up the competition, craft a nice big gap allowing VB an extra tire stop late in the race if it became necessary. Part of last year's story was how much easier the Ferraris were on their tires than MB. With limited testing, some substantial changes to their construction, I think all the teams went to Melbourne unsure of how the tires would work. I'm not fully (if at all) buying the undertray damage story: look at his closing laps and the question about whether he should go for the extra point.

The lap 1, corner 1 carnage is going to be even worse this year with the wider front wings. I don't think that reg change helps passing or the sport, unless your idea of racing is wondering who's going to cut a tire on CF debris.

Yeah, big up to Honda for not only not sucking, but actually making a lot of reliable power. A nice surprise I'm sure for everyone except their former clients.

Interesting to read that the reg changes have allowed all the drivers to put on a few pounds. Hypoglycemia doesn't make for great racing, and its just so hard to ram a granola bar under your helmet on lap 50 when the munchies set in.

jlanka

found more info here: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/h...pZCYUxZi0TV484

seanseidman

Thanks for finding and sharing that

Makes sense

Akunob

The damage details further point to Hamilton's brilliance as an F1 driver! Even with a damaged unbalanced car, hindering his ability to push (apparently since lap 4 of a 58 lap GP) Hamilton not only managed to finish P2 but held of Verstappen who was on fresher tires and had passed Vettel with ease! Onto Bahrain!!

Manifold

But we don't how much the damage impact the car's handling and pace, and the damaged Merc was probably still faster than the Red Bull. I'd love to see an F1 where all of the cars are identical and the only variable is the driver. As it stands now, F1 seems to be more of an engineering competition than a driver competition. Put Lewis in any of the slower cars and he'll never set foot on a podium during the entire season. Or put Alonso in the Merc for the past few years and he would have taken away a decent chunk of Lewis' WDCs.