Ferrari was alert with a brilliant strategy, during the virtual safety car. Mercedes has a lot of engineers, but little common sense. They lost the race there. Now they try to blame the analytics software, but this was a human error.
It became clear that overtaking is not possible in Albert Park, despite the 3 DRS zones. Only Ricciardo made a cool move on Hulkenberg, who was not fiercely defending either.
HAAS Team had a very good start with Magnussen moving to 4th. But a double pitstop mistake took both drivers out of the race.
Max ruined his own race with a spin, due to overheating tires. He recovered nicely but was forced to let Alonso pass after the pit exit and the following yellow zone. Old fox Alonso never let him pass afterwards.
Bottas was not able to capitalize on the speed of the Mercedes. Ricciardo finished just outside the podium. Hamilton tried to attack Vettel in the closing stages of the race, but was also not able to come closer than 0.5 sec. It must have been very frustrating for drivers like Ricciardo, Hamilton and Verstappen, knowing they were faster than the car in front of them, but never really getting a chance to overtake.
McLaren had a nice result with both cars in the points, so did Renault.
They (FIA/FOM) need to find a way to force teams to reduce air disturbance behind a car. That and the massive heath, make it impossible for drivers to get really close and to race the cars in front of them.
Race result Australian GP 2018;
1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 58
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 58
3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 58
4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 58
5 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Renault 58
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 58
7 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 58
8 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 58
9 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 58
10 Carlos Sainz Renault 58
11 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 58
12 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 58
13 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 58
14 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 58
15 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 57
- Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 24
- Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 22
- Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda 13
- Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 5
- Sergey Sirotkin Williams/Mercedes 4
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/13502 ... -melbourne