2014 Spanish Grand Prix - Barcelona

[turbof1]

Perez hitting out at the fact that gp2 is very close in pace to the slower f1 cars:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113859

Personally I don't agree with his opinion that pirelli is to blame, but it is embarrasing, especially in the light of the budget differences.

[Hobbs04]

Alonso, Massa, Ricciardo could cause some issues with a blazing start. Just watching p2 magnussen looks good through last chicane before pit straight, obviously both merc drivers look good also, but good traction and riding the curbs is what it will take to make a pass down pit straight.

[Edax]

Shall we expect another easy Mercedes one-two race win?

Sadly, yes.

I mean, I'm a Mercedes fan, and they deserve their succes, but this is getting boring. It's going to add to the most dominated season by one team.

I don't know.I would have loved to have seen Fangio at work with the W196. Or Clark in the T25/33. Similarly I consider myself lucky to have seen Senna in the MP4/4 and Schumacher in the F2002.

It is the dominant car/driver combinations which make it to the history books. Not the tense battles between mediocre cars/drivers.

Maybe boring for now. But who knows, perhaps in 20 years this car will be praised in a documentary like "Victory by Design", and we will be bragging to the youngsters that we have seen this that legendary car live on tv and on the tracks.

[Töm87]

Am i a missing something here or has Renault made a massiv leap in power. Top speeds look quiet good for Riccardo for example.

[gandharva]

Well, as boring as some of you may find the Merc dominance, it is still a welcome change after four seasons of Vettel/RBR.

If you simply ignore the fact that this years dominance is (up to this point) even bigger than any of the last 4 years, well yes... BUT next season (if Ferrari and Renault don't --- up again) could hopefully be one of the most interesting in a loooonnnng long time.

[Donuts]

Lotus has taken a big step, RG will be challenging the Mclarens (look where Maldonado is) if he can have a trouble free FP3.

[donskar]

Mercedes is now showing the super team it transformed into through Ross Brawn management over the last few years. They are the new Red Bull.

Mercedes = several Very Good technical people
Red Bull = one genius and several Good technical people

As long as the M-B team works well together, they should be able to at least equal RB's development. And M-B's power unit is likely to be at least competitive against everyone else. Now next year, when Honda arrives . . .

[johnsonwax]

If you simply ignore the fact that this years dominance is (up to this point) even bigger than any of the last 4 years

With heavy fuel loads, Lewis was 2s a lap faster than Ferrari at the end of P2. Didn't see times for Riccardo, though. Merc has actually expanded the gap on the rest of the field, with the possible exception of RB. I think if they let Lewis open it up, we'd be facing 1998 Australia. The limit on engines is the only thing keeping him from lapping the field.

This is a catastrophe for F1. How do they balance this out? In 1998 they declared McLaren's advantage to be illegal. Clearly that can't happen here. Ferrari and Renault cars are just screwed - there's nothing they can do to move past 3rd, except possibly at some unique tracks like Monaco. And how do the other Merc powered cars deal with this? Same engine and they're not making up any ground.

The problem isn't necessarily that the other teams can't engineer their way to compete, it's that the F1 rules are preventing a certain amount of that from happening. Yeah, same rules for everyone, everyone agreed to that, etc but the outcome is what matters, and if you have a huge imbalance, it stops being interesting to fans, and it stops being something worth investing in for teams.

I want Lewis to win, but this state isn't good.

[beelsebob]

It may actually be that everyone is gaining, but no one can see it. If I were Mercedes I would be using just enough to beat everyone by 10-20 seconds a race. It may be that in the first race they were 3 seconds a lap faster, and could have lapped everyone twice, while now they're "only" 1.5 seconds a lap faster. We would not be able to see it though.

Of course, it may also be that Merc are just walking off into the distance. The point is we can't know.

[PlatinumZealot]

Lotus has taken a big step, RG will be challenging the Mclarens (look where Maldonado is) if he can have a trouble free FP3.

Maldy is BEAST around Barcelona so...

[johnsonwax]

It may actually be that everyone is gaining, but no one can see it.

I don't buy that. Hamilton was reliably 1-2 seconds a lap faster on heavy fuel than anyone other than Rosberg. Riccardo was at least in the ballpark. Nobody else was. I don't recall seeing gaps like that in P2 at the other circuits. And if you're gaining and still over a second down, so what? You're still not going to close that second down after bringing all of your upgrades out.

[Multi21]

Really silly to ask this but im on the Fia website trying to figure out how to find out lap times for the free practice sessions. This is not the fastest lap classifications but all laps by all drivers, any chance anyone here would have better luck than me finding it on the site? would be greatly appreciated. As Far as the race, it will be Merc racing into the distance again. Apart from Monaco where maybe redbull might luck into pole, i dont see Mercedes letting up all season. Even though alonso is downplaying his chances at the start, as long as he is on the second or third row, he could make another one of his lightning starts and fight for that third.
My predictions are for a Merc 1-2 (Hamilton-Rosberg) and Alonso on the podium, with an oustide chance of RedBull somehow telling Ric three laps into the race that his ERS has failed.

[ringo]

Perez hitting out at the fact that gp2 is very close in pace to the slower f1 cars:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113859

Personally I don't agree with his opinion that pirelli is to blame, but it is embarrasing, especially in the light of the budget differences.

How much Kg of fuel does an GP2 car consume?
Sadly, that's where we have to look to, to show the difference in advancement, not the speed of the car.

[dave34m]

Well if thats the future of F1 then it isn't looking too good really.

[johnsonwax]

Really silly to ask this but im on the Fia website trying to figure out how to find out lap times for the free practice sessions. This is not the fastest lap classifications but all laps by all drivers, any chance anyone here would have better luck than me finding it on the site? would be greatly appreciated. As Far as the race, it will be Merc racing into the distance again. Apart from Monaco where maybe redbull might luck into pole, i dont see Mercedes letting up all season. Even though alonso is downplaying his chances at the start, as long as he is on the second or third row, he could make another one of his lightning starts and fight for that third.
My predictions are for a Merc 1-2 (Hamilton-Rosberg) and Alonso on the podium, with an oustide chance of RedBull somehow telling Ric three laps into the race that his ERS has failed.

Here. Look under 'Timing Information'.