F1 | Australian GP: analysis of the race

The 2019 Formula 1 season opens in the name of Valtteri Bottas and Mercedes. On the Albert Park street circuit, the Finn of the "Silver Arrows" was the author of a high-level performance, dominating the race undisturbed from the first on the last lap without any rival ever being able to question his deserved victory. Also on the podium were teammate Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen with a Red Bull that has started its new partnership with Honda in the best possible way. Difficult day, however, at Ferrari, where the difficulties that had arisen both in free practice and in qualifying arose again, to which the Cavallino team will now have to respond in the next two weeks.

What sparked the race was a good fight in the middle of the group, with five riders within less than 3 seconds. Kevin Magnussen and Haas won the title of "best of the rest", confirming the excellent feeling of the American team with a track on which it has always performed well. But if in qualifying the gap between the top teams and those in the second tier was, even surprisingly, very limited compared to what was seen last season, in the race the gap increased, with all the drivers lapped from seventh place down who finished by dubbed.

Naturally, Melbourne is a circuit that does not clarify the values ​​on the field 100%, it is a track with unique technical characteristics and challenges of its kind, very different from those we will see moving forward in the calendar. It is a very slippery track that offers little grip, where the asphalt has many bumps, unlike Barcelona where we find a very smooth track, and this certainly may have put some teams in difficulty in the search for the best set- up on the subject of suspensions. However, this does not take away from the fact that the first race of the season still provided us with some indications that cannot be totally discarded, but which can also help us understand how the teams worked during last winter.

As often happens on tracks of this kind, the strategies chosen by the teams made the difference, especially in the management of the soft compound in the first part of the race. As could easily be imagined, almost all the teams opted for the single stop in order to maintain the precious track position, despite the fact that on a chronometric level the one involving two pit stops was theoretically, according to Pirelli, the fastest. If for the top 10 the choice at the start was obligatory, out of the top ten 3 opted for the soft, 6 for the medium and only Kubica for the hard. It is worth remembering that for this inaugural event of the season, Pirelli brought the compounds C2 (hard white band / low-working range), C3 (medium yellow band / high-working range) and C4 (soft red band / low -working range), which, despite some differences in terms of construction and design, should be comparable to the medium, soft and ultrasoft of 2018 respectively.

Valtteri Bottas: cold and effective

This 2019 championship couldn't have started better for Valtteri Bottas, who proved to be truly competitive throughout the weekend. Seeing the Finn in this state of form is not entirely a surprise, however, given that in recent years Valtteri has often accustomed us to excellent races in the first phase of the championship, only to unfortunately decline in the second half of the season. In Melbourne, the Mercedes driver proved to be competitive on all fronts, both in qualifying and in race management: even though he didn't get pole position, he finished qualifying only one tenth behind one of the best qualifiers in the history is undoubtedly a positive sign for Valtteri, not to mention that by taking a look at the best partials, we discover that the gap is reduced to just a few thousandths, despite the fact that the Finn had not been sent out on track in an ideal position during the his second attempt (so much so that he did not improve his time). In the race the number 77 was the protagonist right from the start, where thanks to an excellent sprint from the dirty side of the track he managed to overtake Hamilton and take the lead. Excellent at managing the softer compounds during the first stint, Bottas then commanded the race until the end, also winning the additional point for the fastest lap, despite Toto Wolff having told his drivers not to take risks to win the coveted new features for 2019. From the graph below we can see how the good management of the soft tire during the first stint and the decision to delay the stop compared to the rivals was the correct move, as the times obtained by those using the soft tire at the start they were still competitive with those who had already stopped to mount the average.

A catch-all version of Bottas, especially when at the end of the race he asked the wall for information about a possible additional stop precisely to attempt an assault on the fastest lap with a new set of tyres, given that the gap behind him would have allowed him to stop without losing positions. A request that received a negative outcome from the wall, with the order to remain on the track ("we are not taking any risk, we won't be stopping" the words of the track engineer), but with Bottas who did not he backed away confirming that he would give it a try soon: “Copy, but I want 26 points so I'm gonna try iti n the end”. The choice of the Mercedes wall was understandable given that the final success was at stake, but Valtteri wanted those 26 points and took them. After the race, praise also came from the team principal, Toto Wolff: “Last year he felt the pinch a lot, but now he seems to be back in great shape. I'm happy and he deserves it. Obviously today he had a competitive car at his disposal, but it was important to find the right compromise between performance and tire management. And I would say that from the pace he confirmed, especially in the second stint, there is little doubt about the potential he was able to put on the track." It is clearly very early to draw conclusions about what will happen in the future, but it is nice to see Bottas so confident and competitive after a very complicated second part of 2018, in which many also questioned the talent of the Finnish driver, who he certainly doesn't miss it. The season of the number 77 therefore begins in the best possible way and with full plunder, and he will now have to confirm this state of form in the next races too: the next Grand Prix will be held in Bahrain, a track on which Valtteri has always been strong, one more reason to keep an eye on him in two weeks.

Hamilton and Verstappen were the other drivers on the podium

Together with the great protagonist of the day, Valtteri Bottas, the other two drivers to reach the podium in the opening race of the season were Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. The English driver's weekend was two-sided, very positive on Saturday, thanks to the achievement of the sixth consecutive pole position on the Melbourne track, more difficult on Sunday, which did not offer the same satisfaction as the day before. Having lost the lead at the start undoubtedly complicated the Mercedes driver's race, as he was forced to go from prey to hunter: the cause would lie in the slipping of the rear wheels in the very first phase of acceleration, a factor which obviously did not allow him to have a linear progression and move up quickly, as happened with Valtteri Bottas. But other factors also intervened which further put the 5-time world champion in difficulty. First of all, being forced to stop so early to fit a new set of medium tires to cover Sebastian Vettel's early stop certainly didn't help over the long distance and in the direct comparison with his teammate. Secondly, damage to the bottom of his car caused by a ride on a curb further complicated the race for the driver from Stevenage, as he himself declared at the end of the race: “We don't know the extent of the damage and how much it cost me. in terms of performance, but I felt there was something wrong, from the fourth lap I felt more and more clearly a loss of load in the rear. On the formation lap and in the very first laps everything was as expected, then suddenly the behavior of the car changed." Clearly, damage in that area of ​​the car could have affected performance, as it is a very sensitive area of ​​the single-seater which regulates the tire squirt effect and which appears to be important for the functioning of the diffuser. It should therefore come as no surprise that Hamilton suffered from balance problems during the race, so much so that the Englishman actually turned on the radio on the tenth lap to complain about the rear axle. The Mercedes driver then finished the race more than 20 seconds behind his teammate, and, despite trying, he wasn't even able to bring home the fastest lap point. Without a doubt the final gap at the finish line between the two standard bearers of the "Silver Arrows" is not completely truthful and was influenced by various situations, such as the unfavorable strategy, the damage to the car and having spent a good part of the second half of race with a fierce Max Verstappen in the mirrors, resulting wider than what a "normal" race could have told us, but this does not take away from the fact that last Sunday Bottas won "fair and square". A very interesting aspect of the number 44's race concerns the change of pace during the second half of the race: having fitted the new set of medium tyres, Hamilton did not push immediately, but maintained a fairly high pace, stopping the clock for most of the time. part of the time above 1:28 and a half, while Bottas lapped comfortably in 1:27. Naturally, Lewis' intent was also not to put too much stress on the tires in a delicate phase of their life, given the high number of laps he would have had to cover in the second stint, but at the same time it cannot be ruled out that the English driver was trying to slow down the pace to favor Verstappen's return to Vettel, or simply that at that moment of the race the pace of the German from Ferrari was so high that the 5-time world champion from Mercedes did not have the need to push and to force. It is no coincidence that immediately after Verstappen overtook Vettel, Hamilton immediately lowered his pace (even if he was initially slowed down slightly by a Sauber), constantly dropping below 1:27, so as not to have the Dutch Red Bull in the DRS area.

Passing Max Verstappen, the Dutch driver opened his season with an excellent performance, giving Honda its first podium of the hybrid era and the first since 2008, when Rubens Barrichello finished the British Grand Prix in third place. A great satisfaction for the Japanese engine engineers who seem to have taken the right path to be able to create a combination that could give us some satisfaction in the future. It is undoubtedly too early to talk about what the objectives could be at this stage of the season, where the partners are slowly understanding each other's needs, and will certainly improve gradually over the course of the championship, not to mention that the behavior of Honda's Power Unit remains a mystery over long distances, despite the good sensations obtained in the pre-season. This first race of the season, however, can give us the first indications that Red Bull, after a very winter in which different opinions were heard on the future performance of the Anglo-Austrian team with the switch to Japanese engines, remained among the protagonists, therefore he will have to be considered as a very uncomfortable customer on those tracks, such as Monaco, Hungary, Mexico and others, which have always seen the cars from Milton Keynes be very competitive. Of course, one swallow doesn't make a summer, but it's still a very positive start, despite the fact that both Red Bull and, above all, Honda, still wanted to tone it down by highlighting the gap experienced by Bottas at the end of the race. If this new combination started the season positively, the credit also goes to Max Verstappen, author of an excellent race, in which he was able to manage certain situations well in which perhaps in previous years we would have seen him dare and make mistakes. After fourth place in qualifying, the Dutchman did well not to force the start and risked more than necessary, managing to maintain fourth position (also thanks to an error by Leclerc). The first part of the race was not easy because, as confirmed by Max himself, not only were the three in front maintaining an excellent pace, but above all because in an attempt to stay behind the German, the Red Bull driver's tires tended to overheat, making It's more complicated to be able to drive without smudging while maintaining low degradation at the same time. In addition, Verstappen was not the only one to declare how the new regulations did not lead to major improvements in following the car in front (according to Hamilton the situation remained the same as last year), citing how DRS alone was the only new feature positive, a system that now really makes the difference: “I had no chance (of overtaking Lewis, ed.). It is still very complicated to be able to follow a car. The only positive aspect is that we managed to improve the effect of the DRS. Now it is much more powerful than last year, but staying behind there is still a lot of aerodynamic turbulence” commented the Hasselt driver in the press conference after the checkered flag. In the second part of the race, Verstappen was the author of a nice overtaking on Sebastian Vettel, prepared and executed in the best way: combining the action of the DRS and the high top speeds shown by Red Bull (but also by Toro Rosso ) throughout the weekend, Max led the attack on the outside of turn 3, without giving in to the temptation to close the corner too much, but leaving enough space for the German to avoid a contact that would have ruined the race for both. Undoubtedly the difficulties encountered by Sebastian Vettel during the Australian Grand Prix helped, but being able to overtake at Albert Park even with a good lead is never easy. Throughout the weekend, as we were saying, both Honda-powered teams showed very high top speeds, being at the top in all speed traps, a characteristic that was also highlighted during the winter tests. In the past season, Red Bull often found itself in the opposite situation, i.e. with very low top speeds due to a Renault engine that was not up to par which forced it to have to design aerodynamic packages which in particular included rear wings with a lower chord than to those of the opponents. According to Helmut Marko, these progresses are due not only to the improvements of the Japanese Power Unit, but also to a very efficient car from an aerodynamic point of view, now used to facing entire championships with a significant power deficit.

Matt Ferrari, but not just for the livery

Ferrari's Australian Grand Prix weekend was undoubtedly not simple at all and far from the expectations of the day before, thanks to a negative performance that surprised the Maranello technicians themselves. Both in qualifying and in the race the SF90 proved to be no match for its rivals, finishing off the podium for the first time since 2014 in the opening race of the season.

If on Saturday Sebastian Vettel had at least managed to patch things up, taking third place on the grid albeit with a heavy gap of 7 tenths from poleman Lewis Hamilton, the situation proved to be much more complicated on Sunday afternoon, when neither the German nor Charles Leclerc managed to stem the performance of their rivals, leaving a gap of almost a minute at the checkered flag. It is difficult to understand such a negative performance from the Red team which, after the winter tests, despite what Mercedes did and did not do, still left positive and encouraging feelings for the technicians directed by Mattia Binotto.

But let's start by analyzing the race of the two Ferraris, focusing first on Sebastian Vettel's race. After taking third place on the starting grid on Saturday, the German made a good start, in which he managed to contain Max Verstappen at the first corner and maintain third position. During the first stint on the soft tyre, the Ferrari champion maintained a discreet pace, certainly not enough to keep up with Valtteri Bottas, but enough to keep the gap from the first driver in front of him, in this case Lewis Hamilton, contained. . The problem, however, did not lie only in the disadvantage suffered by those in front of him, but also in the narrow advantage that Vettel had over those behind him, Max Verstappen: the young Dutchman, in fact, was under two seconds and this pushed the Ferrari strategists to stop early to avoid suffering an undercut attempt from the Red Bull driver himself. Stopping so early to fit a new set of medium tires did not help the strategy at all, not only did the potential of a soft compound which at that moment was proving to still have a lot to give be wasted, but also because it was stretched by many laps the second stint. A curious aspect concerns the post-pit stop instructions provided by track engineer Riccardo Adami to Sebastian Vettel, with clear reference to pushing for two consecutive laps, with the usual high-performance engine settings that are provided in these situations. It is probable that Ferrari was trying not only to stem the Verstappen danger by putting space between the two, but also that it was trying to partially close a gap from Hamilton which had now reached around 4 seconds, perhaps in the hope that a slow pit stop or retarded the pilot of the “Silver Arrows” gave the opportunity to attempt an attack. In Mercedes, however, they took no risks, immediately responding to the move of the Prancing Horse strategists and in turn anticipating Hamilton's stop, although to tell the truth the new set of medium tires fitted to Vettel's car was not providing all that exciting parameters. Paradoxically, the person who gained the greatest advantage from the decision to stop the two world champions was Verstappen, who was able to go long and make the most of what was left of his soft tyre.

Another very interesting aspect concerns the Power Unit mappings used during the Australian weekend, a theme that has taken center stage over the last few days: if at the start everything was performed normally, then with engine and electric modes pushed for both drivers , the same cannot be said for the remaining part of the first part of the race, in which the Maranello technicians asked both Vettel and Leclerc to switch to very conservative mappings, in this case "engine 5", "engine 6", " SOC 8” (even if at a certain point we switched to SOC 6 which is a normal mapping in race conditions). Until last year, Ferrari had a very different behavior regarding the use of the engine in the first part of the race: starting with the classic high power settings (therefore engine 1 and K2 - which were also used in qualifying the day before ), and then move on to mappings such as “engine 3” and “engine 4”. If we want to simplify everything, at least on the engine maps, engine 1 and engine 2 are the most advanced maps, those that provide maximum performance, 3 and 4 are those that are generally used in races and for some Q1s, while 5 and number 6 are those used during free practice, although it is not completely unusual to see them used in certain rare moments of the race. What is surprising about this first round of the season is that Ferrari actually decided to skip modes 3 and 4, moving directly to 5 and 6, a truly strange behavior that certainly influenced the performance seen on Sunday afternoon. On the subject of engine maps, allow us to make two further clarifications, namely that during the Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel never spoke on the radio about "turbo lag" and that the behavior used with the gears, therefore limited use of the eighth and engine revs tall, this is nothing new for the Reds, who also showed very similar race conduct in the 2018 race.

The second part of the race unfortunately proved to be very complicated for the Ferrari champion, dealing with many problems that did not allow him to push as he would have liked. After the second pit stop, Max Verstappen immediately returned to the attack, more determined than ever to take home the last available place on the podium. Vettel tried to contain the attack as much as possible, also asking for an update on the engine (in order to receive more advanced maps to defend himself, given that at that moment he was in engine 6), without however receiving a response from the garage: the overtaking Verstappen's part was almost inevitable, not only due to the high top speeds shown by Red Bull throughout the weekend, but also because the low engine settings did not allow the German champion to defend himself at his best. If we add the fact that in turns 1 and 2 Vettel had to keep a non-optimal line, sacrificing the exit to defend himself from the first attack carried out at the end of the starting straight, it becomes even clearer that there was very little chance of being able to exit. winners from the duel. At that point Vettel's race was doomed, as he was too slow to keep up with the pace of those in front of him. And in fact no more than a few laps later, the German began to lift his foot and perform a constant lift and coast to save fuel and recharge the battery, which then became an increasingly influential factor as the laps went by. To give you an idea of ​​how much lift and coast the 4-time world champion had to do, we took Turn 3 and Turn 13 on the 41st lap as a reference, obtaining the frame in which the drivers (Vettel, Leclerc and Hamilton) lifted your foot off the accelerator. To compare the various drivers, in the first case we recommend using as a reference the space on the right where a single-seater is stored in case of problems, while for turn 13 we suggest the panel used to indicate the various flags and sponsor logos on the left. As can be seen, Vettel is the one who implements the most extreme fuel saving, while for Leclerc it is a cross between his teammate and Lewis Hamilton. On the subject of fuel saving, in recent days there has also been discussion about the addition of a small LED in the upper left part of the Ferrari steering wheel, whose task would be to suggest to the driver when to lift his foot from the accelerator to save fuel: this is actually present solution, but this is nothing new, given that it was already present in the last season.

Vettel's was a second part of the race in which the objective was therefore more to bring the car home and analyze the data as quickly as possible than to compete with his rivals. The early stop clearly didn't help, so much so that Adami intervened via radio urging the German to protect his tires more prudently, even though in reality the pace was quite slow and the number 5 wasn't particularly aggressive in his driving.

In the hope of being able to limit the damage and take home at least the additional point for the fastest lap, Sebastian had also asked if there was room to stop and fit a new set of tyres, but received a negative result from the pits, which after 11 laps from the end he then underlined the concept by confirming that they would not stop. Perhaps this weekend can be summed up perfectly in the laconic request “why are we so slow?” on lap 43, to which the team simply responded “We don't know at the moment.” The German then commented on his performance post-race: “Obviously it was a difficult weekend for us. We brought home a good amount of points, but it's not the result we wanted. We couldn't find the great form we had a couple of weeks ago in testing. In the first stint the pace was good, but with the medium tires things got worse. I still don't know why, but something was wrong. I didn't have the same confidence and feeling as I had in the first stint, and in the final stages I also suffered a lot of problems with the tyres, while other drivers who stopped early also didn't suffer the same problems. Now with the few days available before the next race we need to understand what are the reasons that determined this performance. We need to examine them better, but today we couldn't do more."

Charles Leclerc's race is also two-sided, where however it is also possible to find some very interesting and positive ideas, a glimmer of hope in a pitch-black weekend. Unlike his teammate, the first part of the race was quite complicated for the Monegasque, making his debut with Ferrari: the first problems had already arisen at the start due to a rather forced attack on the outside by Sebastian Vettel in the corner 1, where he was then forced to lift his foot and also lost his position over Max Verstappen. A situation that could have had catastrophic results for the two Reds from Maranello, given the contact between Leclerc's front wing and Vettel's left rear tyre. Fortunately neither of them suffered any particular problems, although the endplate on the Monegasque's car is slightly damaged, as can be seen from the photo below.

After a rather eventful starting phase, Leclerc was unable to maintain the pace of those in front of him, suffering a gap of over half a second per lap compared to his teammate and almost a clear second from the pacesetter Valtteri Bottas, not to mention that a long one in turn 1 made the situation even worse. The gap from Vettel can be partly explained by the decision to go long with the soft compound, opting for plan B: instead of stopping and changing to the medium one, which in any case was not giving exciting references with those drivers who had already made the pit stop, the choice adopted by the Ferrari strategists was to continue for as long as possible while waiting to mount the hard. It is important to point out that Leclerc was the only one of the top team drivers to test the race pace on the harder compound during the second free practice, so there were still some references to understand how the single-seater would have behaved with this type of compound , it was certainly not a "blind" choice. The choice to go long was undoubtedly the correct one, not only because it gained a few more laps of life on the second set of tyres, but also because the times on the soft remained quite competitive compared to the riders who had already done the stop, although perhaps it could have been brought forward by a few laps, doing it together with Valtteri Bottas - for which Mercedes chose perfect timing - or at most after 1/2 laps. Unfortunately for the Monegasque, the gap at the time of his pit stop was already large enough to allow the Finn to make his stop without losing his position on Leclerc. Much more interesting is the second stint on hard rubber by the new Ferrari driver, in which Charles managed to maintain a positive race pace despite a theoretically less high-performance compound. If, as we were saying, during the first part of the race Leclerc had experienced an average gap of around one second per lap from Bottas, the situation improved considerably in the second part of the race, lowering this gap to only around 3 tenths per lap and furthermore being slightly faster than both Hamilton and Verstappen. A good 7 tenths less despite almost nothing having been changed in terms of engine mapping: clearly we must not get caught up in easy enthusiasm, both because the Mercedes Finn clearly tried to maintain as constant a pace as possible in the second part of the race in order to to preserve the tires and not strain the Power Unit, but also because the hard turned out to be an excellent compound, more than average. This does not mean, however, that the pace shown by Leclerc in this part of the race was positive and a comforting sign. Naturally in making these considerations we took as a reference from lap 30, the moment in which the Monegasque made the stop, up until around lap 48, when the new Ferrari driver was now just a few seconds behind his teammate, with obviously a clear slowdown in pace. It is interesting to note, however, that around two laps before Leclerc ended up in Vettel's exhaust, Ferrari actually told the Monegasque to change the engine map and switch to "engine 4" for the first time during the race, a mode that falls within the of those that are designed specifically for Sunday afternoon. It's a shame that we weren't able to have a reference to understand how the SF90 would have behaved with a faster mode in terms of pace, as the decision by the leaders of the Red team to keep the positions frozen didn't allow us to give us a real comparison. A decision, however, in our opinion correct: during the winter we heard Mattia Binotto several times declare how Sebastian is the point of reference in the fight for the world championship, therefore taking home two points with the main contender for the title on a weekend in whose performances of the two standard-bearers have been heavily influenced by external factors, is a wise choice. A team order would have made sense when there was the possibility for Leclerc to go and catch up with those in front of him, such as Verstappen or Hamilton, but not having this factor on his side, the freezing of positions can be considered as a decision shareable. A choice also understood by number 16, who sacrificed personal ambitions to play as a team man: “I made a small mistake in the first stint, but the car was quite difficult to drive. The second stint was more positive. We decided to fit the hard tires and from that moment on the car improved a lot, I was able to push. I had the pace to be able to overtake Seb, but the team decided to freeze the positions via radio. In the end there was nothing to win.

Less acceptable is the choice adopted at the end of the race in the assault on the fastest lap, when there was the possibility of stopping with Leclerc and fitting a new set of medium tyres. The decision of the engineers directed by Mattia Binotto was instead the opposite one, that is to stay on the track, take space from Vettel (about 4/5 seconds) and push hard to try to get the additional point. In fact, during the last laps the Monegasque was provided with very conservative parameters in order to recharge the batteries as much as possible, and then attempt the assault with much more advanced mappings, specifically "engine 1" and "SOC 1", mode which are usually seen in qualifying (also used last Saturday): generally mappings 3 and 4 are already quite aggressive in terms of SOC, so it cannot be said that, at least in the exploitation of the Power Unit, Ferrari has not actually tried to take home the additional point. The team principal explained the decision not to stop as follows: “Every time you return to the pits there is always a risk and for us today it was important to score points. This was our choice." From a certain point of view, the words expressed by Mattia Binotto are understandable, an error in the pits or a problem would have been the final blow to an already tragic weekend, but in our opinion it was also an attempt to gnaw two points away from Mercedes and limit the damage had to be done. Was the Cavallino team actually afraid that even with a set of new tires they wouldn't be able to beat the times set by Valtteri Bottas? From this point of view, Red Bull had also contemplated the possibility of stopping with Pierre Gasly to fit a new set of tyres, as confirmed by Chris Horner, in order not to obtain the point (which is awarded only to the first 10), but to take it away from Bottas himself.

A truly bitter weekend for the Maranello team, far from the sensations that the technicians and drivers had felt after the end of the Barcelona tests. There were some reliability problems particularly during the second week, but the indications obtained were positive. The team principal thus tried to explain the difficulties encountered in Melbourne: “We haven't been on this track since Friday. We tried to work on the set-up, but we never found the right balance and the right window. This is a track where if the driver isn't able to have the right confidence in the car, then he isn't able to push to the limit. We will have to understand. I think today's race reflects qualifying. We have a lot of data, we will try to understand. We are certain that this is not the true potential of our machine. The SF90 has superior potential, which for some reason we haven't been able to exploit here in Australia. This is a very different track from others, certainly different from Barcelona. In Barcelona the asphalt was much smoother and the environmental conditions were different. We are the ones who are out of place. If you also look at the qualifying standings, we were too close to those behind us and too far from those in front of us, while all the others were consistent with what we saw in Barcelona. We must regain what this car deserves and what our drivers deserve" were Binotto's words. The disappointing performance of the SF90 on Australian soil actually came unexpectedly even for the men of the Red team themselves, who expected much more from the new single-seater.

But what are the reasons behind this defeat in the season opener? Perhaps the most worrying aspect was when in qualifying Ferrari found themselves closer to the teams behind them, with Grosjean just a few tenths behind Leclerc's time, than to the two Mercedes "panzers". In the race things didn't go much better, although there were indeed some small positive signs that leave a glimmer of hope. It goes without saying that the Power Unit certainly influenced the heavy gap suffered by the Red troop in Melbourne, running with such conservative maps while managing the use of the more advanced ones doesn't get you anywhere. Not even trying to defend yourself against Verstappen, even though the overtaking would most likely have come anyway, is a clear sign of surrender on a day in which Sebastian Vettel was left like a knight without weapons. Furthermore, the problems experienced by the other Ferrari-powered teams during qualifying, which we talked about in Saturday's analysis, did not help. On the last lap in Q3, the decisive one, Kimi Raikkonen had complained of a loss of power from the MGU-K despite still having charge available, while Romain Grosjean remained, in his words, without SOC twice . The strangest aspect of the problem that occurred to Romain Grosjean is that the battery, even in single lap mode, where energy recovery is the minimum possible, should last two laps and should never run down completely as happened to the Frenchman. It therefore seems more attributable to a management problem or to a sensor that mistakenly cut off power even when there was no need. But precisely on the subject of Ferrari-powered vehicles there is a much broader and more interesting discussion that deserves to be addressed: the other cars with the Prancing Horse Power Unit have suffered less than the Ferrari from these restrictions (also in terms of fuel saving or battery management), also allowing for greater use of mappings such as spark 1/2, the push mode and, above all, K1, or the power boost used for overtaking and defending, which for example was not used by Vettel in the duel with Verstappen. The photo below can give you an idea of ​​where Vettel's battery charging phase began over the last 10 laps.

As partial confirmation, it is interesting to note that Raikkonen spent part of the race in spark 4 mode, a "normal" mapping in racing mode. In this regard, it is good to remember that Ferrari, Haas and Sauber, despite having the same Power Unit and sharing part of the package, do not always have the same disposition and the same approach to the project, as has been seen several times in recent years. Clearly there was something that didn't work on the Ferrari Power Unit side of things this weekend, there's no point in denying it, but, on the other hand, if this were the only explanation, the numbers wouldn't add up completely. It remains to be understood what influenced such a negative performance, if Ferrari were aware of having to use rather conservative mappings right from the start and arrived in Melbourne with the wrong set-up. Or if they realized directly on the circuit that they could not fully exploit the potential of the engine, perhaps aware of not being able to compete (therefore safeguarding the drive unit for the next events) or perhaps due to overheating problems due to the new packaging: but if so, what will happen in other Grands Prix where temperatures are even higher? Should we open the bonnet even further and ruin the aerodynamics, or should we even review part of the cooling system? An omen which, among other things, could prove to be both a minimal modification, but also a more profound intervention, because it could lead to the rearrangement of certain elements in counted and already organized spaces. The trend over the weekend was far too up-and-down and it wouldn't be surprising to think that Ferrari also lost its bearings in terms of set-up trying to find a solution to those dilemmas it couldn't figure out, therefore added problems about problems. The changes made on Saturday did not yield the desired improvements, but with the parc fermé there was no further opportunity for intervention. It is interesting to bring to attention how throughout the weekend both Vettel and Mattia Binotto have underlined the fact that the Melbourne track is quite "bumpy", while that of Barcelona is very smooth: it cannot be excluded that, among the many things which influenced Ferrari's weekend, the SF90 also suffered more than it should have from such a bumpy asphalt as that of Albert Park, compromising its set-up and balance. The fact that the track is very bumpy has various repercussions on the single-seaters, which require intervention especially in terms of suspension. The discussion could be broadened considerably, also taking into consideration the front wing: during the pre-season we saw two very different concepts between the various teams, depending on the importance given to the outwash effect. Ferrari has chosen an aggressive approach, focusing on a front wing that makes the outwash effect its mantra, partially sacrificing the area that generates load. It was discussed at length during the pre-season, underlining how both concepts have strong points but also disadvantages. On a track like that of Barcelona, ​​the SF90 does not seem to have suffered any major problems from this point of view, but it is clear that it is a quite different track to that of last Sunday. On a circuit like the Melbourne one, with little grip, very bumpy and where the precision of the front makes a big difference, it is also possible that this lack in terms of load was felt more than expected, leaving the riders with a terrible understeer, a behavior that is clearly visible especially in qualifying where you have to be perfect. Naturally, Ferrari is not the only team to have opted for this aerodynamic concept, also followed by Alfa Romeo, albeit in a slightly different way: the Alfa solution is in a certain sense more aggressive than the Ferrari one, leaving more space for the internal flaps which generate aerodynamic load (which can be adjusted), slightly sacrificing the outwash effect with an inelegant and refined choice on the outermost flaps, which almost seem "cut". It cannot be ruled out that, perhaps, in the next city races, with poor grip and the need for a very precise front, the Maranello team may decide to maintain its concept while taking inspiration from Alfa Romeo to increase the load on the front. We could talk about the performance with the various compounds, good with the soft, negative with the medium, very positive with the hard, a sign that Ferrari have not managed to make the medium work as best as possible, which is a high-working range. But of course, going forward, the opposite can also be said: if it had only been a set-up problem, why during the race was the defense of the engine maps used sparingly, using the more advanced ones? Added to this is the question of fuel saving, which was truly excessive at certain moments of the race, which could find various explanations: from poor generation of the electrical part, which would be a more complicated problem to solve, to having started slightly more exhausted in order to at least try to keep up with their opponents. The screening of scenarios is very broad. There are many theories, all different and of course they are only suppositions ready to be confirmed or denied, made on a track that does not completely clarify the strengths and weaknesses of a single-seater, clearly we do not claim to have reached the point of the question of which only the technicians in Maranello clearly have a very precise idea. And it is undoubtedly too early to make a definitive judgment and to make considerations which we will find confirmation or denial in two weeks when we race in Bahrain or in the next Grands Prix. From this point of view, Bahrain is a different circuit to Melbourne, which really puts the Power Unit to the test in certain situations.

Changing the subject, another topic that has been widely discussed in recent days is that concerning the possible drops/sudden changes in engine speed of Ferrari-powered vehicles, as can actually be heard from the onboards provided by the Formula 1 OTT platform, F1TV. It is important to clarify one aspect on this issue: the transmission methods on F1TV and what we generally see at home on our televisions via specialized operators such as Sky are different. The signal received by the companies that buy the television rights, which then redistribute it through various methods, is provided by FOM via satellite, unlike that of F1TV which is guaranteed through other methods. Without going into too much detail regarding bandwidth, buffering and other reasons, the signal and quality of content transmitted via satellite is generally better than its counterpart, it is no coincidence that the difference between F1TV and what we see on television is quite evident. Over the last few months, FOM has worked hard to improve its OTT platform, in particular to make the main feed more stable and increase the quality (i.e. the one from which most of us follow the race), managed completely by the direction present on the circuit, and in fact you can notice a big difference in terms of quality compared to the channels dedicated exclusively to onboard, which still needs to be improved. Having said this, it is important to point out that the audio channels of the main feed/the main onboard channel (the one that for example can be followed from the green button on Sky, which does not focus on a single pilot but alternates depending on the director's choices) and those of F1TV regarding the driver onboards are different, so much so that at the end of last season, when FOM tried to make the first changes to also incorporate the radio teams together with the ambient sound, the result was quite negative. Last Sunday a very similar situation occurred, where the audio channel dedicated only to onboard on F1TV did not work at its best, influencing the quality of the engine sound in certain situations, with an apparent sudden "drop" in engine rpm: it's good point out that this behavior did not only happen with Ferrari-powered cars, but also with Norris or Bottas to name two other drivers. To confirm, we compared the audio present on F1TV with that of the main feed and the channel dedicated to onboard broadcasts via satellite, and these power drops/audio variations in the same situations were not present.

The race in the middle of the group

Let's leave the Ferrari topic to deal with the great fight in the middle of the group that sparked the Australian Grand Prix. If in the top areas of the classification the race was almost monotonous, without any particular excitement, the challenge in the center of the group was quite lively, so much so that on the checkered line we saw five riders within less than three seconds.

Earning the title of best of the rest were Kevin Magnussen and Haas, authors of a great race on a track with which the American team has always shown it has a great feeling. It could have been an even more positive Sunday if Romain Grosjean hadn't had to end his race early due to yet another problem that occurred during the pit stop, just like last season: if in 2018 the cause of the retirement however lay in the incorrect assembly of the tyres, this year the Frenchman was stopped by the breaking of the forced nut during the stop, which then led to the detachment of the front left. In short, just like in 2018, Haas sees a two-sided race, positive for performance, negative for the untapped opportunity. But the team based in Kannapolis itself leads us to make an interesting consideration on the gap between the first-tier teams, such as Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull, and the second-tier teams, both in the race and in qualifying. Both on Saturday and in the first part of the race, this gap between the most popular teams and those protagonists of the mid-pack challenge was quite small, so much so that, leaving aside Bottas who was in absolute top form last Sunday, Hamilton onwards the top drivers had difficulty opening the pit window to be able to stop without losing positions. In confirmation, it should be noted that at the time of Vettel's pit stop, the German returned behind Grosjean, also risking being stuck in traffic if the Frenchman had not also made his own stop. In the second part of the race, however, this gap widened, so much so that at the checkered flag all the drivers in second tier teams finished lapped, with the exception of Magnussen.

Returning to the mid-pack battle, it is worth highlighting once again the good performance put on the track by Nico Hulkenberg, a safety. After the technical problems suffered on Saturday which did not allow him to compete for the chance to access Q3, the German redeemed himself in the race, recovering three positions in the early stages thanks to an excellent sprint at the start. The excellent strategy adopted by the Renault team to use hard compound tires then put Nico in the right conditions to take home a positive seventh place, despite the pressure put on by Kimi Raikkonen in the last 10 laps: “It's a good start to the season for us. It was a difficult race, especially in the last 10 laps, I was under pressure and I really had to fight to stay in seventh place. The start and the first lap made our race: here the position on the track is really crucial, from there it was above all a question of managing the car and the tyres". Daniel Ricciardo's race, however, was much more complicated, compromised by the breaking of the front wing at the start due to a drainage ditch and then by a retirement. It therefore proved to be a very difficult weekend for the Australian on his debut with the French manufacturer, in which he struggled to find the right feeling with his RS19 since Friday, especially in terms of race pace.

Behind Nico Hulkenberg was a good Kimi Raikkonen, who managed to bring Alfa Romeo into the top 10. The Finn's race was eventful from the first lap, when he was hit by Lando Norris in turn 1 , fortunately without any consequences. The first part of the race saw him closely following the group formed by Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg, without however having the real opportunity to attempt an attack. The Finn was then forced to stop early due to a torn visor that got stuck in the air intake duct of the rear brakes, sending temperatures skyrocketing and forcing the technicians to change strategy and make a pit stop. to understand what was the cause of the problems found on the car. This stop then triggered a chain effect, which led Hulkenberg, Grosjean and Magnussen to stop in succession for fear of suffering an undercut. Curiously, the tear-off visor that got stuck in the brake air vents was Kimi Raikkonen's own: it is nothing new for riders to throw the tear-offs onto the track once they have been removed from the helmet, even though in reality they would be forced by regulation to keep them in the cockpit, as you then urged the track engineer to Iceman. The help of the other Alfa Romeo driver, Antonio Giovinazzi, was also fundamental in the Finn's race. Unfortunately, the Italian driver's race had been compromised since the first lap, when some debris collected by Daniel Ricciardo's broken wing had significantly damaged the Martina Franca driver's single-seater in the front and rear areas, forcing him to race entirely in defense and at the service of his teammate. Not being able to attack, Antonio adopted a strategy that we Italians know very well, that of the "bolt": the Alfa Romeo driver was the protagonist of some good defenses, especially the one against Kevin Magnussen, despite the car not being at Better. This allowed the pace of both the Haas Dane and Nico Hulkenberg to slow down, allowing Kimi Raikkonen to remain close to the duo.

Also in the points were a positive Lance Stroll and a Daniil Kvyat, who certainly knew how to get noticed in this Australian Grand Prix. From a strategy point of view, the race of these two drivers was very interesting, because what made the difference was the choice of the moment in which to make the pit stop: if the majority of the drivers stopped very early due to a waterfall, so as not to suffer an attempted undercut, Stroll and Kvyat opted for the opposite solution, lengthening the stint using the medium compound. This strategy allowed him to gain enough of an advantage to stay in the pit window and not lose position on Lando Norris, thus avoiding being stuck behind a group of slower drivers. The race of the Russian from Toro Rosso was also enhanced by the duel with Pierre Gasly, from which Kvyat emerged victorious, taking home the first point of the season.

McLaren's race was much more complicated, as it was unable to repeat the good performance seen in qualifying, not to mention Carlos Sainz Jr.'s engine going up in smoke during the first laps. As expected, it wasn't an easy weekend either for Williams, far away from everyone and everything. The two drivers did what was within the limits of possible, but clearly there was little to invent given the lack of competitiveness of the FW42. At least it is worth mentioning the error-free debut of George Russell, who managed to bring the car home without damage, an almost fundamental aspect given the precarious situation of the Grove team. Robert Kubica's race at the back of the group proved to be much more complicated, compromised on the first lap not only due to the delayed start, but also due to a contact during the first lap which damaged his front wing and the mirror, resulting early stop. However, the Pole did not disfigure himself in his first Formula 1 race after 8 years, keeping a good pace in relation to his teammate, even if unfortunately this is little consolation. In reference to the delayed start, it is interesting to evaluate this aspect, because it is in fact a problem that several drivers suffered last Sunday: due to the larger rear wings compared to last season, being able to see the traffic lights has now become much easier. complicated, with riders like Kubica and Gasly who had to rely on the gap of their rivals to understand the moment in which to release the clutch and start their race. Undoubtedly in a situation like the start where so much is played on the shortest possible reaction time when the lights go out, not being able to see the traffic lights is a penalizing element. It is conceivable that the FIA ​​will intervene to remedy this problem, perhaps by installing a greater number of traffic lights on the external sides of the track.

Thank you Charlie

We would like to conclude with a thought for a person who unfortunately left us on the eve of the Australian Grand Prix, race director Charlie Whiting. There are few people throughout history who can say they changed Formula 1, that they left their mark on this wonderful sport: Charlie Whiting was among them. A long career in the most beautiful sport in the world, in which over the years Whiting has worked as an FIA delegate to make it safer for drivers, in which he has always been a silent protagonist. The entire world of Formula 1 stopped to dedicate a memory to a person who gave so much, both from a professional and human point of view, to pay homage to the one who over the years was able to change this sport. And we, as lovers of this wonderful motoring world that Whiting also contributed to shaping, can only say "Thank you Charlie".