2016 Singapore Grand Prix - Marina Bay, 16-18 September

[GPR-A duplicate2]

This year's approach to Friday practices from Mercedes is that, they open up the PU in FP1 and would be quite far ahead and then the other teams start optimizing the setups by FP2 and FP3, while Mercedes finds a balance. IF Mercedes continues to be ahead by over half a second in FP1, then they are going to walk away with the race. IF someone else gets ahead of them in FP1, then surely Mercedes would be facing the problems of last year. That's my bet.

[Juzh]

Why do you have the Williams and Force Indias ahead of the McLaren's? Top speed around the circuit is around 310kph with DRS wide open maybe 314 with a good tow.

INTERMEDIATE 1
POS DRIVER KM/H
1 F. Massa 321.6
2 N. Rosberg 321.4
3 L. Hamilton 320.1
4 S. Perez 319.7
5 S. Vettel 319.5
6 V. Bottas 319.4
7 M. Ericsson 318.0
8 R. Grosjean 317.8
9 N. Hulkenberg 317.8
10 P. Maldonado 317.7
11 K. Raikkonen 317.2
12 F. Nasr 315.9
13 M. Verstappen 312.6
14 F. Alonso 312.5

[Vasconia]

This is usually an interesting race though It can be fustrating the lack of overtakes. But the walls give an extra point and if Max wants to taste them it will be quite funny to see.

I guess Mercedes will be stronger this year but I hope that we will see a good battle between them and RB. Taking into account Ferrari´s last year´s performance they shoulnt be far. So at least qualy could be one of the best of the hole season.

The more than possible SC could give an opportunity to the one who tries a different strategy.

[godlameroso]

Why do you have the Williams and Force Indias ahead of the McLaren's? Top speed around the circuit is around 310kph with DRS wide open maybe 314 with a good tow.

INTERMEDIATE 1
POS DRIVER KM/H
1 F. Massa 321.6
2 N. Rosberg 321.4
3 L. Hamilton 320.1
4 S. Perez 319.7
5 S. Vettel 319.5
6 V. Bottas 319.4
7 M. Ericsson 318.0
8 R. Grosjean 317.8
9 N. Hulkenberg 317.8
10 P. Maldonado 317.7
11 K. Raikkonen 317.2
12 F. Nasr 315.9
13 M. Verstappen 312.6
14 F. Alonso 312.5

I stand corrected.

[Pierce89]

Ez win for ricciardo. Mercs 5-6 if lucky.

So you believe the Mercs will struggle like last year?

[Juzh]

Ez win for ricciardo. Mercs 5-6 if lucky.

So you believe the Mercs will struggle like last year?

Meh.. one can only hope.

[Phil]

I predict Mercedes will be strong, but RedBull might just nick pole. I think it'll be close.

[bhall II]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see a Red Bull romp and/or a curiously strong Ferrari.

With its short straights and table-like topography, Marina Bay doesn't severely punish weak, or poorly integrated, power units, nor does it reward aerodynamic consistency. Such characteristics more or less nullify the two areas of performance that are arguably Mercedes' greatest strengths.

[Multi21]

A lot of this Merc will be 3rd best is assuming that (1) they didn't do their homework from Singapore 2015; ( 2) Ferrari that hasn't won a race all season as opposed to three last year will beat Merc in high downforce configuration and (3) Redbull will be miles ahead of Merc and thus negating their strat-1 mode on a stop and go circuit that still has a couple of straights. Let's not forget that Monaco q3 was also influenced by engine issues for one of the mercs so while I think it will be the closest qualifying of the season between Merc and Redbull, if a Merc is on pole through extra qualy grunt, Redbull will throw it away in the pits.

[f1316]

I wonder who Toto is talking about....

“But you have teams that have outliers. You have a team that is doing extremely well on circuits like Singapore, with high downforce, but they are not competitive on a circuit like Monza.

“Then you can play the blame game and say the engine is not good enough. But if your car is draggy and has a rake like you are doing a handstand, then you cannot expect to go fast on the straights. It is about finding the best compromise and let’s see what happens in Singapore.”

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... ed-824740/

[Fifty]

Big wreck in the beginning, kimi for the win...unless Ferrari jacks up the strategy again...then it will be Seb or any remaining Of the four RB's....

[Juzh]

I wonder who Toto is talking about....

“But you have teams that have outliers. You have a team that is doing extremely well on circuits like Singapore, with high downforce, but they are not competitive on a circuit like Monza.

“Then you can play the blame game and say the engine is not good enough. But if your car is draggy and has a rake like you are doing a handstand, then you cannot expect to go fast on the straights. It is about finding the best compromise and let’s see what happens in Singapore.”

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... ed-824740/

Just look at all that drag (from spa):
Williams: http://i.imgur.com/QutLLGF.jpg
Force India: http://i.imgur.com/lZkcL5x.jpg
Red bull..... http://i.imgur.com/Z5zxQ8Z.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/q8TTawt.jpg

[FoxHound]

I wonder who Toto is talking about....

“But you have teams that have outliers. You have a team that is doing extremely well on circuits like Singapore, with high downforce, but they are not competitive on a circuit like Monza.

“Then you can play the blame game and say the engine is not good enough. But if your car is draggy and has a rake like you are doing a handstand, then you cannot expect to go fast on the straights. It is about finding the best compromise and let’s see what happens in Singapore.”

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... ed-824740/

Just look at all that drag (from spa):
Williams: http://i.imgur.com/QutLLGF.jpg
Force India: http://i.imgur.com/lZkcL5x.jpg
Red bull..... http://i.imgur.com/Z5zxQ8Z.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/q8TTawt.jpg

I'm assuming that the front wing surface area plays quite an important roll here....and when you attach a barn door to the front of the car, it gonna have properties akin to that of.....a barn door.


And the fact that Renault managed 354km/h without slipstream in Q1 at Monza tells you all you need to know about the drag and gearing of that Red Bull.
Oh and here's the evidence...

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/form ... /63760-054
54 min mark, 1h mark, 1h10min mark.
Magnussen did 3 runs, each speed check was done on the timed run. NO SLIPSTREAM in any timed run.

Hopefully this isn't too long for you to digest, as it was last weekend.

[Juzh]

I wonder who Toto is talking about....



http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... ed-824740/

Just look at all that drag (from spa):
Williams: http://i.imgur.com/QutLLGF.jpg
Force India: http://i.imgur.com/lZkcL5x.jpg
Red bull..... http://i.imgur.com/Z5zxQ8Z.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/q8TTawt.jpg

I'm assuming that the front wing surface area plays quite an important roll here....and when you attach a barn door to the front of the car, it gonna have properties akin to that of.....a barn door.
http://i.imgur.com/fyU6BwS.jpg

And the fact that Renault managed 354km/h without slipstream in Q1 at Monza tells you all you need to know about the drag and gearing of that Red Bull.
Oh and here's the evidence...

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/form ... /63760-054
54 min mark, 1h mark, 1h10min mark.
Magnussen did 3 runs, each speed check was done on the timed run. NO SLIPSTREAM in any timed run.

Hopefully this isn't too long for you to digest, as it was last weekend.

Mag's 354 was in slipstream whether you like it or not He was behind a car going into T1. Live timing confirms this. I'm too lazy to record this, but if you know how to access live timing you can go check it yourself.
RB had top element chopped off for monza on the front wing.

edit. he was behind hamilton, not rosberg. On the first lap he did 337 kmh, then on the next one he did 352 kmh behind hamilton.

[godlameroso]

Back to the race, the only thing that matters around here is traction, traction in mid and low speed corners, nothing else matters as much, stability under braking is second. This isn't one of those circuits where massive straight line speed will be worth much. With the cars being mostly traction limited the difference in power units can't really manifest itself. In other words they're too closely matched at speeds below 280kph, especially with all the bumps, and it's not like Monaco where the roads are almost immaculate, cleaner of trash maybe but not less bumpy.