2022 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, May 20 - 22

[cplchanb]

Mercedes fixed their porpoising issues and they're still not fighting for poles. I think Ferrari and Red Bull are simply better concepts.

I'd say give them a couple races to dial it in... they went from an undrivable car to a decent one overnight pretty much so they still need to figure out how to make it faster. Russell was purple on S1 btw

[dialtone]

Pretty much back to normal.

I think Merc is a lot closer, just 0.5s is way better than the previous quali gaps.

0.5 from the leading Ferrari.. the other one is very much within reach, same goes for Red Bull

Yep, I wrote after FP1 that Merc was close, I think they are a threat for the championship now that they can split these teams. Perez isn't going to be right behind Sainz to play strategies with Verstappen for example.

[Unc1eM0nty]

Pretty much back to normal.

I think Merc is a lot closer, just 0.5s is way better than the previous quali gaps.

0.5 from the leading Ferrari.. the other one is very much within reach, same goes for Red Bull

At least now they can fight for a podium, Charles & Max are out of reach but Mercedes can fight with Carlos & Checo

[PlatinumZealot]

Charles Leclerc. High risk driver.

George Russell is really on it. Full focus. I believe that williams has really taught him how to squeeze out every drop. Lewis is out of it. Hunger lost maybe.

Sainz. I'm sorry Carlos Leclerc is just another level. The Ferrari is so stable I just can't see sainze winning unless there is a wet race.

Checo is close to Max this year but not close enough to stop other cars from splitting them nor to be a threat to Ferrari.

[Sevach]

0.5 from the leading Ferrari.. the other one is very much within reach, same goes for Red Bull

If we are gonna be anal about it, .6 actually.
In a qualy where Max had car troubles.

Mercedes will go very well in Monaco and Hungary as well.. we shall see what happens on the faster tracks

Unlikely, their best sector is S1, they lose a lot in the tight final sector.

Unlike the optimists, i think they have a very important decision for 2023 to make.

[dialtone]

Charles Leclerc. High risk driver.

George Russell is really on it. Full focus. I believe that williams has really taught him how to squeeze out every drop. Lewis is out of it. Hunger lost maybe.

Sainz. I'm sorry Carlos Leclerc is just another level. The Ferrari is so stable I just can't see sainze winning unless there is a wet race.

Checo is close to Max this year but not close enough to stop other cars from splitting them nor to be a threat to Ferrari.

This is the first bad quali for Checo and he missed out on FP1. His average gap to max is <0.1s in quali, Checo is good imho.

[Hammerfist]

Mercedes will go very well in Monaco and Hungary as well.. we shall see what happens on the faster tracks

I don't think so. They were the weakest car out of the top 3 in the third sector. Their strength seems to be fast speed corners. Russell fastest in first sector.

Hamilton had a nightmare in the third sector, one of the worse out of all the Q3 cars and not at all in the league of the leading pack, but his middle sector was strong. Again, I think he might be running less downforce. Mercedes has closed the gap, but they are still pretty far away from challenging for poles. I think they can see a light a the end of the tunnel now. If they could outdevelop redbull last year without bringing upgrades, they can certainly catch Ferrari this year.

Congrats to Charles. He always comes through when it matters. Pretty special talent. Shame for Max. Reliability hurting Redbull again. George was able to beat a Redbull and get even in the qualifying battle with his teammate. He was also very impressive.

[MinMax]

0.5 from the leading Ferrari.. the other one is very much within reach, same goes for Red Bull

If we are gonna be anal about it, .6 actually.
In a qualy where Max had car troubles.

Mercedes will go very well in Monaco and Hungary as well.. we shall see what happens on the faster tracks

Unlikely, their best sector is S1, they lose a lot in the tight final sector.

Unlike the optimists, i think they have a very important decision for 2023 to make.

Is the fact their car is still popoising on corners why they might be losing time in the tight final sector?

Hopefully they can dial it in further but the other teams will also be improving. At least they have abaseline on how the changes have made a difference on the same track between testing and this weekend.

[PlatinumZealot]

The notorious RedBull DRS mechanism strikes again.

[Juzh]

Russell and hamilton are on different setups almost certainly. Russell is always faster on the straights by 3-5 kmh and always a tenth or two up in S1.

So verstappen had another drs failure. It definitely wasn't a driver error as you can see left hand side red light is turned on on his steering wheel, so the system thinks is open, but it wasn't. Unlikely he had enough for leclerc but probably could be closer somewhat.

[falonso81]

Lion lap from Charles. He delivered again. Carlos did a bad lap at the end, especially in S1. He should have been within 2 tenths off Charles and up in P2, but maybe it will be better for him starting on the clean side. Max keeps getting plagued by RB's reliability. Horner denying that it is a fragile car boggles my mind. They should have been running away with both championship leads by now if it was not a fragile car. Ferrari's job for tomorrow is to somehow guess RB's pit lap and pit simultaneously so they don't lose track position otherwise i can't see them winning. It will be harder than Miami for Max to pass especially with Ferrari having a great launch out of the last chicane, that is unless they don't munch their tires too quickly. Mercedes gained an unbelievable amount of pace and i doubt that, the "reliability" engine upgrade was a reliability one. Maybe FIA should have a look. Their front wing also flexing by a ridiculous amount compared to other cars, i fail to understand how does it pass the FIA tests.

[silver]

It appears the pecking order stayed stagnant despite all the upgrades. It seems Russell is now firmly in the box seat and getting everything out of the car more than Hamilton. Sainz is once again a disappointment with a quick turnaround from Leclerc of his previous error. Verstappen can't complain where he starts from as I am not sure if he had enough to beat Leclerc.

[Big Tea]

Russell and hamilton are on different setups almost certainly. Russell is always faster on the straights by 3-5 kmh and always a tenth or two up in S1.

So verstappen had another drs failure. It definitely wasn't a driver error as you can see left hand side red light is turned on on his steering wheel, so the system thinks is open, but it wasn't. Unlikely he had enough for leclerc but probably could be closer somewhat.

Hamilton always plays the longer game. If preserving tyres means losing speed, he will accept that if he believes it will come to him in the race.

[mkay]

0.5 from the leading Ferrari.. the other one is very much within reach, same goes for Red Bull

If we are gonna be anal about it, .6 actually.
In a qualy where Max had car troubles.

Mercedes will go very well in Monaco and Hungary as well.. we shall see what happens on the faster tracks

Unlikely, their best sector is S1, they lose a lot in the tight final sector.

Unlike the optimists, i think they have a very important decision for 2023 to make.

Wolff said there is no "important decision to make" post-quali. Regs are consistent for next year. They need to fully understand and get the most out of this concept now that they've seemingly cured most of the porpoising before throwing it in the bin.

Merc was losing a lot in S3 because of rear tyres overheating. I'm sure they'll crunch through that data and come back stronger for future races.

[organic]

Like last year, the DRS mechanism has failed on higher load wing...