Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, Albert Park, 2019

Ferrari’s Australian GP pace ‘won’t be the norm’ – Steiner

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In the round-up: Haas team principal Guenther Steiner doubts his team will be regularly as close to Ferrari as they were in the Australian Grand Prix.

What they say

Steiner was asked if Haas was closer to Ferrari in Melbourne than he expected them to be.

It looks like. But I think Ferrari had a particularly bad weekend here. I don’t think this will be the norm.

But that was the aim, to get closer to the top, not just move from the other ones away because then you do that one automatically for obvious reasons. So I think we are in a good way. We just need to keep it up.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

How much credit should Valtteri Bottas get for his victory last weekend, and how much of it was due to the damage Lewis Hamilton’s car suffered?

For sure the missing piece hurt the car a bit, but with Bottas saying it was his greatest ever race and how he could do whatever he wanted with the car, the gap was likely as much or more about Bottas’ race speed.
@Balue

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On this day in F1

  • Born on this day in 1999: Mick Schumacher

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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25 comments on “Ferrari’s Australian GP pace ‘won’t be the norm’ – Steiner”

  1. That Mick Schumacher quote doesn’t make sense. Mick isn’t compared to Michael because he is as good as his dad. He’s simply compared to his dad because… well, because he’s his dad!

    Also, to say that Michael Schumacher is the best driver in F1 history is at the very least a debatable opinion.

    1. oh come on man…

    2. Mick did not say that he is being compared to his father BECAUSE he is as good as him.
      Concluding otherwise is more debatable than Michael Schumacher’s ranking as the best F1 driver.
      @jeffreyj

      1. Compared to or compared with makes a difference, I would argue.

        1. We should compare him to his uncle instead

  2. What an idiot for saying that a Formula E seat is better than a Formula 1 seat. Yes, Williams are dogs this year, but still, it is an F1 seat. Former F1 drivers go to FE, not the other way around. If your aim is a competitive F1 seat, you get into F1, not FE. Stupid.

    1. @trido I thought the same.

    2. @trido It appears Oliver disagrees with you.

  3. @balue I beg to differ with the COTD, yes Bottas was fantastic, but a 5 times world champion don’t forget to drive in the space of a week end, maybe the damage affected his car, maybe losing at the start affected his spirit but in no case it was 100% due to Bottas performance.

    1. @abdelilah It doesn’t say it was 100% due to Bottas’ performance

      1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        22nd March 2019, 7:29

        Yes, it said it the gap was as much likely or much more to do with Bottas’s speed. Not 100% because of it.

    2. Pointless arguing over this. For Bottas, let’s hear him say this is my best season ever come the end of the year.
      One race doesn’t make you the best.

    3. Ham has a habit of having peaks and troughs, so maybe this was an off day.

  4. How about not renewing with Barcelona circuit. Lets try some other venue in Spain.

    1. +1, races there are rather dull

      1. They completely ruined Barcelona when they put the last chicane in, so for me they should scrap the Spanish race and move it to Portimao in Portugal. A much better track!

        1. I don’t think Portimao can actually hold an F1 race. I think it has the FIA grade 2 accreditation (correct if I’m wrong please)

          1. @tifoso1989, you are correct about Portimao currently holding a Grade 2 accreditation, although I believe that the FIA indicated in the past that the circuit could probably be upgraded to a Grade 1 circuit reasonably easily. As it stands, the only Portuguese track which currently has a Grade 1 licence is Estoril.

            Excluding Barcelona, in the most recent FIA Circuit Grade List, which was issued in December 2018, the other Spanish circuits which are classified as Grade 1 are Jerez and Valencia Ricardo Tormo. I suspect that Jerez and Valencia probably hold a Grade 1T licence rather than a full Grade 1 licence, which restricts them to testing (and I think that it is mainly just testing older F1 cars these days).

            I believe that Motorland Aragón also held a Grade 1 licence, although I am not sure if they still hold that licence or if it has now expired.

        2. You’d think with these supersafe halo cars that some of the chicanes on circuits can now be removed…

  5. In the link to the Senna Mercedes race video, there’s something very weird going on in the photo just below the video… The appears to be catch fencing going across the track, just in front of the car chasing Senna. Any idea what on earth is going on there?!

    1. That’s a support car outside the circuit teaching line. Or maybe the boss’ car park spot.
      @thesud

    2. The other car is just parked there, not chasing. That part of the track where the car is parked is not part of the circuit they were racing on, although if you look quickly it looks like it is.

      1. Ah, makes sense. Thanks!

  6. I agree with both Steiner as well as the COTD. I also think Ferrari’s lack of pace in Australia was just a one-off and that similar to last year they will be more competitive on the permanent circuits of Bahrain and China. In response to the COTD: Yes indeed. The gap probably would’ve been similar even without the small floor damage. In the end, the damage had already been done on the start. Losing a position there is always going to make it challenging to regain that on a track that isn’t too overtaking-friendly.

  7. “Now has as many poles as everyone else in this picture.”
    I’m not trying to nitpick, just a funny (to me) observation: This says that LH was lagging behind the others when it comes to poles, but now he finally drew level :-).
    And before you ask, yes, I am a mathematician :-).

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