2016 F1 Spanish Grand Prix

[Roman]

I have a feeling this will be closed again soon.... can't blame the mods for that..

So my three cents before it happens:

1) Ros - Ham: Pretty clearly a race incident. Very tough (but legal) defense move by Ros. And Ham trying a bit desperately (but also justified) to pass. For me Ros moved out in one move right after the exit of turn 3. Never went actually straight. Ham had a portion of his front wing next to Ros, but that was honestly only for a split second. FIA and Merc concluded correctly there is guess.
But I will let the fan boys hammer this one out.

2) Vet and Ric: I still don't really get the three stop strategy. One that forces you to overtake on a track where overtaking is specially hard. But on the other hand Nobody really expected the tires to last so long.

3) Last, great race by Ves. A future WDC there if he makes the correct career decisions.

[basti313]

2) Vet and Ric: I still don't really get the three stop strategy. One that forces you to overtake on a track where overtaking is specially hard. But on the other hand Nobody really expected the tires to last so long.

3) Last, great race by Ves. A future WDC there if he makes the correct career decisions.

Well, looking at the times, I see a new picture: Ric was simply too slow. Maybe RedBull could have waited one more lap with the first stop as they had a little gap that would have made the undercut from Vet to Ves hard. But everything else:
- Ric in clean air on a 3-stop slower as Ves on similar tires in dirty air during the full second stint??? That should have been 15 laps hammer down but not loosing 2 sec on your teammate.
- They clearly had to put him out of the way of Ves. With Ric in front Ves would have lost the position to both Ferraris.
- The same for the 3rd stint: If you loose 5 sec in 6 laps on Vet you simply will not be ahead of Vet in the end.

Looking at Vettel:
His strategy was clearly compromised. He was on a clear 2-Stop with his long first stint. They could have produced more pressure with an early decision for a 3-stop for him. Maybe Rai would have been better to mirror Ric as he had more room to gain and an earlier stop. The very short third stint put him ahead of Ric, but at this moment it was clear, that he will be P3. Good move, the fault was before. But in the end I see no way in the strategy to get both Ferraris ahead of both Bulls, so not much to blame Ferrari.

[NL_Fer]

Right, in the end, the Softs were only quicker for a few laps, Vettel and Ricciardo gained almost 12s in 5 laps. But after that the speed just dropped and they could nog gain another 10s to clear the extra stop.

[Vasconia]

At end the three stopper was lost during the 1st half of the race, ware Vettel was stuck behind Verstappen. It was Massa who showed the perfect execution of the three stopper this time. And in hindsight, the Soft was 2s quicker vs the used Medium. But after that the new Mediums were actually quicker than the Softs with only 6 laps on them and the teams did not expected it.

Those tyres are destroying some strategies which is quite good for us because races are more exciting. Temperatures seem to afect them so much!

It was so weird, i thought Vettel had a slow puncture and they weren't sure if they had to change tires or not. I think at one point Ferrari did a fake stop too (people getting ready for a pitstop then withdrawn), didn't they?

Yes, I dont know in which lap was but I saw it. I thought the same because the pit-stop was so early, it compromised Vettel´s race during his last stint.

[basti313]

Those tyres are destroying some strategies which is quite good for us because races are more exciting. Temperatures seem to afect them so much!

It was so weird, i thought Vettel had a slow puncture and they weren't sure if they had to change tires or not. I think at one point Ferrari did a fake stop too (people getting ready for a pitstop then withdrawn), didn't they?

Yes, I dont know in which lap was but I saw it. I thought the same because the pit-stop was so early, it compromised Vettel´s race during his last stint.

A later stop had just ended up in P4 instead of P3. The early stop was the way to get him ahead of Ric, there was nothing wrong with it.

[Vasconia]

But it was too early, 6 or 8 laps before ? too early. His tyres were much older than Ricciardo´s tyres and this could have cost him the podium. But his defense was great and Ricciado had a puncture, 50% of luck.

[NathanOlder]

Im happy to call it a racing incident, I just dont see how anyone can call what Lewis did as desperate ? He was approaching a car with a 17kph advantage and had a 80% gap to the right also the inside. Or 20% gap to the left tge outside.

What part is desperate ?

Danny Ric's attempt at Vettel was a lunge bordering on desperate. But still worthy of a try.

People moan like hell about lack of overtaking. Then moan even more when someone tries it. Effing joke.

[basti313]

But it was too early, 6 or 8 laps before ? too early. His tyres were much older than Ricciardo´s tyres and this could have cost him the podium. But his defense was great and Ricciado had a puncture, 50% of luck.

No. The sprint on used! Softs was planned for something like 10-15 laps and the Bulls made aggressive, early stops before. So a 8 lap undercut is the way to go. RedBull let Ric out longer to offset Vettel in tire lifetime, his laptimes were rubbish compared to the Med runners at this point.
I think Vet overused his tires a bit at the beginning of the last stint. But with the radio ban this is normal. Last year they would have coached him to a 2sec gap so that he never has a tire deficit of 1sec.

[jurinius]

Im happy to call it a racing incident, I just dont see how anyone can call what Lewis did as desperate ? He was approaching a car with a 17kph advantage and had a 80% gap to the right also the inside. Or 20% gap to the left tge outside.

What part is desperate ?

Danny Ric's attempt at Vettel was a lunge bordering on desperate. But still worthy of a try.

People moan like hell about lack of overtaking. Then moan even more when someone tries it. Effing joke.

Just take it as it is man Nobody can talk in favor of Lewis those days. You support a LH move you re a committed fanboy or you are 16 years old, plus surely you don't know anything in racing or my favorite you are a rapper too
More entertainment's to come, it was a very interesting race, I am really happy for Kimi debuts, maybe it will be there for the title. Ric is a very special driver, used to be the man in a good position for this kind of opportunity, not yesterday.

[basti313]

Im happy to call it a racing incident, I just dont see how anyone can call what Lewis did as desperate ? He was approaching a car with a 17kph advantage and had a 80% gap to the right also the inside. Or 20% gap to the left tge outside.

What part is desperate ?

No idea. I think most fanboys miss the point, that the decisions had to be made in milliseconds with this speed difference. And both drivers made them wrong. Ham did not do the easy overtake on the racing line and Ros closed the gap.

[henra]

A later stop had just ended up in P4 instead of P3. The early stop was the way to get him ahead of Ric, there was nothing wrong with it.

One stop less would simply have been the ticket. The last stint of Raikkonen on a 2- stopper was just 1 lap longer than Vettel's on a 3- stopper. That way he would have easily won.
They seemed too scared to make a mistake with the result that they made a big mistake

[Roman]

Im happy to call it a racing incident, I just dont see how anyone can call what Lewis did as desperate ? He was approaching a car with a 17kph advantage and had a 80% gap to the right also the inside. Or 20% gap to the left tge outside.

What part is desperate ?

Ok, let me clarify. He knew that was his one and only chance to pass Ros. The Merc tactics to pit the leader first plus the track plus the problems of the Mercs in dirty air would have made a later pass almost impossible. I thought the right word for it was desperate, but i think apart from that we can agree.

[basti313]

A later stop had just ended up in P4 instead of P3. The early stop was the way to get him ahead of Ric, there was nothing wrong with it.

One stop less would simply have been the ticket. The last stint of Raikkonen on a 2- stopper was just 1 lap longer than Vettel's on a 3- stopper. That way he would have easily won.
They seemed too scared to make a mistake with the result that they made a big mistake

And how would he have passed Ves? There is no question, that the 2-stop was better in the end. But for Ferrari Ves-Rai-Vet is nothing else than Ves-Vet-Rai. And there was a good chance, that 3-stop may be faster and I think they just did not pull it off in the right way (Ric too slow and Vet too early for Med).

I think you need to look at the tactics in the way, that Ferrari had the plan to undercut both Bulls in the last stint. This worked for Vet, but with Ves the Bulls made a super aggressive last stint.
The only chance to win would have been to leave Vet out long and to overtake Ves with a tire advantage...but this did not look like possible when you look at the Med times during the second stint.

[Restomaniac]

Im happy to call it a racing incident, I just dont see how anyone can call what Lewis did as desperate ? He was approaching a car with a 17kph advantage and had a 80% gap to the right also the inside. Or 20% gap to the left tge outside.

What part is desperate ?

No idea. I think most fanboys miss the point, that the decisions had to be made in milliseconds with this speed difference. And both drivers made them wrong. Ham did not do the easy overtake on the racing line and Ros closed the gap.

I agree that in hindsight the easy overtake was the racing line due to Rosbergs speed.
However at that moment the place you go to overtake is to the Right. Hamilton went where you would normally go only to find Rosberg going further and further Right due to him focusing on his engine settings on his wheel.

[basti313]

Im happy to call it a racing incident, I just dont see how anyone can call what Lewis did as desperate ? He was approaching a car with a 17kph advantage and had a 80% gap to the right also the inside. Or 20% gap to the left tge outside.

What part is desperate ?

No idea. I think most fanboys miss the point, that the decisions had to be made in milliseconds with this speed difference. And both drivers made them wrong. Ham did not do the easy overtake on the racing line and Ros closed the gap.

I agree that in hindsight the easy overtake was the racing line due to Rosbergs speed.
However at that moment the place you go to overtake is to the Right. Hamilton went where you would normally go only to find Rosberg going further and further Right due to him focusing on his engine settings on his wheel.

If you look at it in super slow motion yes...but in reality there was no "further and further", the situation was too fast to control.
By the way, Ros finished his wheel adjustments right when he exited the corner. So "focusing on his engine settings" was already done when he closed the gap. Also for this one I think everything just happend too fast due to the high speed difference and this is also what the stewards said.