Is Ferrari really faster than Mercedes?

Ferrari was very fast in the race in Australia, but in qualifying not so much. How do you explain that? Could it be that Mercedes has the faster car over a single lap, but not over a race stint? And, if so, could that make for a great season?
Henry Davis, via email

I think Ferrari underperformed in qualifying and that things will get closer between it and Mercedes on Saturdays. It wasn't that Ferrari was faster in the race, it's that the car was able to maintain a faster pace for longer and still look after the tyres.

This is what Ferrari put so much effort into during testing in Spain. There was no over-excitement about headline times, even though Ferrari was top of the timesheets most of the two weeks. The focus was on tyre management. Melbourne, with a little help from Max Verstappen, showed that work paid off.

Watching the cars in testing at Barcelona, when Ferrari was on a long run the car stayed consistent, well-balanced and easy on the tyres. The Mercedes lost its balance, and when that happens the tyres go off much earlier.

Will this continue? Well, don't underestimate the ability of Mercedes to fight back.

Everyone says the new cars are harder to drive. From what you've seen, is that true and what does that really mean? Is it just physical or is it harder to correct if something goes wrong, and if so why is that? Does going faster in corners mean less time to save yourself if the rear goes, or are there other factors at play such as wider tyres?
Catherine Williams, via email

Physically, the cars are more demanding in that the braking and corner forces are higher. Ultimately, they will probably be around 20% higher, so the neck muscles will take a hammering, especially in qualifying on fresh tyres.

As far as the normal physical requirements are concerned, the power steering assistance will have increased, so the loads there will be similar and the braking forces will be a little higher but nothing desperate.

The faster a car is, the more focused and concentrated you need to be as a driver. Every millimetre is important when you are braking or placing the car into a corner and by going faster you are covering more metres in a second. So if the car breaks away you have less time to react before you are in the kitty litter. As Fernando Alonso puts it, you can't have a coffee break before reacting to a moment.

It is an accumulation of the extra downforce and the wider tyres that have created this. However the wider tyres are also a bit of a saviour because when the car does break away you lose a high percentage of the downforce, but the tyre grip is still there to slow the car down.

If we had high downforce levels and narrower tyres, then they would really have a problem.

Do you think we're reacting too hastily to the 'boring racing' or should we give it time given Australia is boring anyway?
Aditya Bhat, via Twitter

Yes, we should give it a little time for everyone to reach their true potential. But I'm afraid for this season the grid split, which is bigger than over the past few years, will still be there.

Unfortunately, the teams that are not as fast as the ones at the front are also the teams that are budget-limited, so they can't just go out and spend, spend, spend to get out of this situation.

The objective of the regulation changes was to make the cars look more mean and nasty, to go faster and to be more difficult to drive quickly. These objectives have been achieved, but in reality the price for this has probably been too high.

I believe the majority of enthusiasts and viewers want to see more cars racing together and not to know the results until very near the end of the race. I'm afraid these changes have done nothing to achieve this.

How different will the Chinese Grand Prix cars be update-wise? Would teams have had time to bring new upgrades and improve?
@manixmania, via Twitter

Other than any circuit-specific changes for China, the teams will have a drip feed of developments planned. There won't be anything major until around the Spanish Grand Prix next month, but every weekend there will be small additions; a Gurney flap here, a turning vane there, a flick-up somewhere else will be the order of the day.

As far as 'would they have time?', that's what the teams at the front concentrate on just as much as the car components. They put a lot of effort into reducing manufacturing times, so they are ready for this type of situation and can respond.

But before you actually get to making parts, you need to make sure you understand the problem you're trying to solve with the new components. Too many times, teams just fire ahead and before you know it you've made matters worse.

How many bhp would you put as Honda's power deficit to Mercedes? Does McLaren have any chance of being the fourth best team this year?
@hatari1611, via Twitter

We hear lots of numbers, but nobody really knows. To give you an idea of the magnitude of the problem, if it were a linear deficit through the usable range then 10bhp equals about one tenth of a second. So a second is 100bhp.

Some have suggested Honda is at a 180bhp deficit, but I find this difficult to believe as it is more or less what the ERS brings to the package.

I'm pretty sure Honda is losing around the 100bhp level, but only at some points during a lap. The current power units are so complicated that it's not just about the power output, it's about harvesting energy under braking and using the turbo correctly. Fail to maximise this and you don't have the battery capacity when you do need it.

Both McLaren and Honda have a lot to do if they are going to get back to the front of the midfield. To get to the very front and race with Mercedes or Ferrari, well, as David Coulthard said, they need a miracle and I don't think that will happen this year.

Based on what you've seen so far, do you see Lance Stroll scoring points?
@Lloydguy82, via Twitter

If he is to score points before mid-season, he will need help from others having problems.

But I think Stroll is talented and very capable, he simply needs to use the time to get himself up to speed without making stupid mistakes. These cars, with the extra performance, demand respect and to do that you need the miles. Sitting in the kitty litter does nobody any good.

If I were at Williams, I would want to see Stroll build his consistency and to be confident that, if he is in a points-scoring position, he will bring it home and not get over excited.

He has the talent, don't rush him.

I recently watched the Tommy Byrne film Crash and Burn, in which you appear. Do you believe that Byrne was the equal of Ayrton Senna and was he a driver motorsport let down? Or should he have changed the way he was to fit in?
David Murphy, via email

You never know who is as good as whom until they end up in competition with each other.

No doubt, Tommy was a very talented driver, but there is more to success in motorsport than that. Those things are what separates the good from the great

I don't think motorsport let him down, I think he let himself down. In the car he was as hungry as anyone, but outside of the car he never showed the same commitment that some others did. That true determination, 24 hours a day, just wasn't there and he expected others to get it sorted for him.

Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun with Tommy and he was hugely talented. But it was all just fun, and as the years went by I realised what was missing - that true hunger to succeed at all costs.

Sometimes, that means you have to eat a bit of humble pie every now and again, just as we all have to, but you need to do that while keeping a firm eye on the big picture of where you want to get to in the end.

Are you surprised at the lack of performance of Renault? They say they could be fourth by the end of the year, but weren't even able to score points in Australia.
Michael Curtis, via email

I'm not surprised Renault is where it is, but I am surprised that statement was made about being fourth by the end of the year. Nico Hulkenberg and Jolyon Palmer, who suggested that, are being very optimistic.

Over the past few years, the team has been robbed of many of its good staff and it will take time to rebuild that. It has probably the smallest of the works team budgets, so can't spend its way out of trouble. That never works anyway, but it doesn't stop some teams trying.

If Renault can spend 2017 moving forward bit by bit, then by the end of the season it could be fifth or sixth best. That's not going to be easy given how competitive the midfield is, but it would put Renault in a more confident position with the design of the '18 car.

By then, it will have more experience on board, and perhaps some people that might not make stupid statements about the future.

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