Aldo Costa is the greatest F1 designer of all-time

Make no mistake about it, Aldo Costa is a design genius. Even Adrian Newey isn't fit to shine his shoes.

Aldo Costa designed the cars that made Michael Schumacher unbeatable for 5-straight years at Ferrari. Now he is designing the Mercedes F1 cars and they have been unbeatable for three straight years.

Fresh from claiming pole position for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has hailed his 2017 Mercedes as "the best I have experienced" and the Aldo Costa car looks dominant for a 4th straight year.

Hamilton scored his fourth consecutive pole in Melbourne finishing 0.268s ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and another half tenth in front of new teammate Valtteri Bottas.

"It is incredible, the best I have ever experienced here," said Hamilton. "The grip is fantastic, you can really push into these corners. I have not had the car skating around on low grip tires like we have had in the past.

"I am incredibly proud of my team. This rule change has been huge and such a massive challenge for everyone and the guys have just worked so hard to make this car what it is today."

On long runs the Mercedes looks even more dominant.

FRIDAY LONG RUN TIMES
1. Bottas (Mercedes) 1m27.968s (SS) 7 laps
2. Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m28.057s (US) 10 laps
3. Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1m28.925s (US) 8 laps
4. Vettel (Ferrari) 1m29.058s (SS) 13 laps
5. Sainz (Toro Rosso) 1m29.189s (US) 10 laps
6. Kvyat (Toro Rosso) 1m29.392s (US) 12 laps
7. Perez (Force India) 1m29.602s (US) 9 laps
8. Ricciardo (Red Bull) 1m29.620s (US) 7 laps
9. Grosjean (Haas) 1m29.780s (US) 11 laps
10. Ocon (Force India) 1m29.884s (US) 11 laps
11. Hulkenberg (Renault) 1m30.150s (S) 14 laps
12. Stroll (Williams) 1m30.174s (US) 5 laps
13. Ericsson (Sauber) 1m30.376s (SS) 13 laps
14. Vandoorne (McLaren) 1m30.661s (US) 9 laps
15. Wehrlein (Sauber) 1m31.761s (S) 8 laps