Australian Grand Prix 2013, Melbourne - Race 1/19

Irish_Tom said:
You have to wonder why he was so easily overtaken by the front runners throughout the race.

Was it because he was driving a slow and steady strategy to make a two-stop work or was there something more fundamental.

His middle stint on the prime tyre didn't last long and there was a radio message where he said he was going as fast as he could (after being told to push).

If his tyres really died that quickly when he was pushing then he may not have been able to keep pace with the front runners had he been on an intentional three-stop strategy.

It's hard to say really. Hopefully the next race will shed some more light on the true pace of the Merc but I expect it's going to be a few races in before we can draw any sensible conclusions.
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I think it was mentioned that the medium tyres had a lot of graining because of the cool temperatures maybe more so on the merc than other front runners ? Since mercedes wanted a 2 stop at first did hamilton go longer on his first set of medium tyres than the others?

cool temperatures shouldn't be an issue next race so maybe then we will see a clearer picture of where the top teams are in relation to each other
 
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EVH said:
It was obviously timed in such a way to ensure a tight finish, but that video posted didn't do it justice really.

I hope it was better in the flesh?
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They adjusted the timings on the Sunday with the V8 setting off 22s after the SL and the RB 44s after IIRC. End result being that Mick Doohan won in the SL by about 3 tenths.

I was towards the back of the main straight and must say it looked pretty good with the SL and the V8 coming round the last corner in short order, with the RB screaming round a second later and all 3 crossing the line pretty much in line.

I actually got a couple of photos of the event which I'll upload once I've sorted them all.
 
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arknor said:
I think it was mentioned that the medium tyres had a lot of graining because of the cool temperatures maybe more so on the merc than other front runners ? Since mercedes wanted a 2 stop at first did hamilton go longer on his first set of medium tyres than the others?

cool temperatures shouldn't be an issue next race so maybe then we will see a clearer picture of where the top teams are in relation to each other
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This and Lewis flat spotted his tires but I do agree he should have been on a 3 stopper but merc now know what the car can do.
 
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deuse said:
This and Lewis flat spotted his tires but I do agree he should have been on a 3 stopper but merc now know what the car can do.
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He needs to know when to back out and let the other driver through, it was obvious Kimi and Alonso were a lot quicker but he battles them anyway. I enjoy watching it I must say and it's just the way he is with his mentality.

He was quoted as saying last weekend that he'll never let anyone through without a fight, that's all well and good for the show but if he were to let faster cars through he probably wouldn't flat spot, and if he'd done a 3 stopper without messing his tyres up who knows how many more points he'd have achieved.
 
smr said:
He needs to know when to back out and let the other driver through, it was obvious Kimi and Alonso were a lot quicker but he battles them anyway. I enjoy watching it I must say and it's just the way he is with his mentality.
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He was told to hold them up knowing he was coming in for new tires nothing to do with his mentality..

But don't let facts get in the way ;) anyway back on topic.
 
arknor said:
I think it was mentioned that the medium tyres had a lot of graining because of the cool temperatures maybe more so on the merc than other front runners ? Since mercedes wanted a 2 stop at first did hamilton go longer on his first set of medium tyres than the others?

cool temperatures shouldn't be an issue next race so maybe then we will see a clearer picture of where the top teams are in relation to each other
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Just checked F1 Fanatic:

Lewis Hamilton: Super soft (13) | Medium (18) | Medium (11) | Medium (16)

Lewis went four laps longer than anyone else on SS (except Nico who did one lap more than him) but his second stint wasn't that impressive. Kimi got 25 laps out of the same tyres during the same phase of the race with a true two-stop strategy. The other top cars doing a three stop averaged 15 laps during that stint so getting an extra three laps out of a set of tyres when you're trying a different strategy isn't outstanding.

As deuse and smr say; he may have stressed that set of tyres trying to defend too heavily but would that account for the seven lap difference between his longest stint on the prime and Kimi's?
 
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