F1 Australian Grand Prix: Driver of the Day - Vote Now!

[Slowdive]

He didn't lose the race there, there was no way to overtake a slightly slower ferrari on this track, he lost the race due to the VSC and his team not instructing him to push more earlier on, in fact I liked that he tried to catch vettel, but not much to do, really.

He was half a second behind Vettel with DRS and a faster car. So how exactly were other drivers able to pass other cars on the track? Your 'it's impossible to pass there' argument does not sound reasonable. Also, if he had not gone off track due to a mental lapse, he very well could have passed him.

 

[Bernd Graf]

Keep telling yourself that 'little' lie about Ferrari being far inferior to the Mercedes as a precursor for if Vettel wins the championship.
It was so 'inferior' that Lewis...even at Strat14, couldn't get close to Sebastian and had to back off.
Sure, he did that because of overheating rears and cooling concerns, but he couldn't challenge before those things started.
That Ferrari is on par with that Mercedes...has been since the middle of last season.

That's just the Hammy fans getting nervous Quite frankly, it struck me that Merc has the superior qualy car but not quite a reliable race day machine...even in qualy, Hammy was overcoming obvious understeer, slow in the wrong places it seemed...a special engine map is only as good as the rules allow for its exploitation. To win, the Merc seems now to need very ideal race conditions, pole, and quite the careful handling. If Melbourne is any proof, one slip up, either in a pit stop exploitation or crash in Bottas' case, ruins their chances. Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren all emerged with surprisingly reliable cars.

 

[Esploratore]

He was half a second behind Vettel with DRS and a faster car. So how exactly were other drivers able to pass other cars on the track? Your 'it's impossible to pass there' argument does not sound reasonable. Also, if he had not gone off track due to a mental lapse, he very well could have passed him.

Who overtook who? Bottas on force indias, the slower mclaren, ricciardo on renault, verstappen on renault, that's it, no?

Did you see any of the top 3 teams overtaking each other?

I'm talking about fairly even cars, mercedes, ferrari and red bull, that it was hard to overtake has been shown also by all the complaints from drivers, and who said impossible to overtake? Not me, I said impossible to overtake a slightly slower car, like a ferrari was for a merc.

Hamilton couldn't have passed vettel even in the whole 58 laps, just like verstappen couldn't pass alonso for all the stint after the safety car and just like ricciardo couldn't pass raikkonen.

The reason FEW overtakes took place is cause the performance difference was like 1-2,5 sec depending on which car, not half a sec!

https://www.racefans.net/2018/03/26/f1-drivers-say-overtaking-even-harder-year/

Drivers, including hamilton, complaining about how hard it is to overtake.