[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by phoenixash

The fact that despite knowing the Mercedes cars were running the Mediums after the restart and intended to go till the end, if Ferrari sent out their drivers on Super-Softs it was probably with the assumption that their cars would be atleast 2s faster than the Mercedes, which they clearly weren't. If they had run Mediums throughout Vettel would probably not even have been assured the podium.

I think it was just a case of mediums being more suited to the track and conditions yesterday. Mercedes is not fast enough to cover the performance gap between the tires with pure car performance. If that is so, Rosberg would not have been stuck behind Kimi on same tires in the first stint and Lewis would've easily overtaken Max.

I think Ferrari under-estimated the medium tires, probably due to lack of track time in FP1/2. It was probably a gamble for both Ferrari and Mercedes with their respective tire choices. It worked out for Mercedes, but not Ferrari.

Grosjean switched to mediums after the red flag. He started his stint in the 1:33s and finished it in the 1:33s too. Massa's case is also similar. So I think the mediums were very fast and consistent yesterday. It's not just Mercedes who were able to use them to good effect. If Vettel had switched to mediums, I think he would've had a very good shot at the win. Having said that, I also think that Mercedes still have an advantage over Ferrari.

However, given that at least 1 Ferrari was ahead of each Mercedes, it would not really have harmed Ferrari to mirror the Mercedes strategy.

[ecenandu]

If any of you are interested in analysing the pace quantitatively, here is a site just for that.

http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?p...&gp=956&graf=3



While going through these please account for traffic condition as well.

Regarding Ferrari's pace, they have definitely made progress compared to last year, in 2015 Australian GP they finished 30 odd seconds in third. Let me not conclude that quickly, though but my feeling along with analysing all the lap times is the gap is much closer.

The three tyre choice for the weekend along with the radio ban has definitely spiced up the racing. Traditionally, Ferrari's are good in hot conditions and will be interesting to see how they perform in Malaysia and other places.

All the power units have made significant step in their performance, Renaults were not overtaken that easily like last year or the year before. Lets wait for the next race, where we have a traditional race circuit which will give us a better picture of the pecking order.

My Pecking order is as follows,

Merc - Ferrari - ToroRosso = Williams = Redbull - Force India - Renault - McLaren = Sauber-Haas-Manor.

- represent significant gap, = almost similar performance

[greatgyan]

Originally Posted by phoenixash

Yup, just going by conventional knowledge that the Super-Softs are traditionally 3s - 3.5s faster than the Medium tyres at optimum operating temperature but last only 15-18 laps, I'm not convinced that Ferrari have made very great progress against Mercedes.

The fact that despite knowing the Mercedes cars were running the Mediums after the restart and intended to go till the end, if Ferrari sent out their drivers on Super-Softs it was probably with the assumption that their cars would be atleast 2s faster than the Mercedes, which they clearly weren't. If they had run Mediums throughout Vettel would probably not even have been assured the podium.

Well yes, putting on medium tyres during the red flag might not have been the best option for Vettel, but still, track position is king! And we saw how difficult even Hamilton found it to overtake the Toro Rosos, I'm sure Vettel would have made it extremely difficult for anyone to get past him on track. Add to that the fact that Australia is not the most well known circuit for overtaking.
Also, seeing the difference in qualifying, I believe there was no way Vettel would have managed to gain 1.5 - 2s per lap on the Mercs for about 15-18 laps even on the super softs. Hence putting on medium tyres and keeping track position would have been the best way for Vettel to obtain a victory.