- Login or Register
No account yet? Sign up
The Australian Grand Prix turned out to be one to forget for Williams. While Lance Stroll made it to the finish without any chance for points, team mate Sergei Sirotkin was struck by bad luck as a plastic bag jammed up his rear brakes to force an early retirement.
So you are telling us that everything that we can find on Google is true?Gothrek wrote: ↑23 Mar 2018, 20:01They spend more than double as Ferrari or Renault on the engine by 2015. Just google it. You will find it.foxmulder_ms wrote: ↑23 Mar 2018, 17:33How do you even know that?? Why do you think they spend more than Ferrari or RedBull.
Didn't they say that the track was a lot hotter this year and so the teams weren't getting as much time out of the softer compounds?godlameroso wrote: ↑23 Mar 2018, 20:01So Hamilton is almost .3 seconds slower than this time last year but the cars are faster? Alonso only gained .8 seconds from last year?
I think the simple answer is that none of the teams have turned the engines up yet. Now that the engines have to last 7 GP, they are only going to turn them up when they absolutely have to, so the top teams won't do so till Q3.godlameroso wrote: ↑23 Mar 2018, 20:07There really doesn't seem to be a one lap performance difference between compounds, the only difference between the 3 compounds is which one lasts longer and is more consistent in the race.
Even if it's hotter it doesn't explain how the cars have slower lap times than last year if the new cars are faster. I guess they haven't learned how to get the best out of the new rubber.
This is completely wrong, it's been mandated that they must all be the same for 2018.
I was humoring himdans79 wrote: ↑23 Mar 2018, 20:41This is completely wrong, it's been mandated that they must all be the same for 2018.
https://www.pitpass.com/61096/FIA-moves ... ine-parity
Quicker than last year, and yet the times to this point do not indicate that. Increased cornering speed and yet slower overall lap times must surely indicate the engines are severely turned down. Or increased drag perhaps from the higher downforce levels?"So it felt a lot more normal," Hamilton replied when asked how the car felt in comparison to Barcelona. "But obviously the car is quicker here than it was last year, so it feels better everywhere. Turns 11 and 12 are just crazy! We are not even braking into that corner, it is insane! But we are going to get quicker and quicker through the weekend. Well if it does not rain."
More likely Q2. Would Mercedes or Ferrari risk running in "boring mode" and have Williams, FI or Haas suddenly turning up the volume in the last two minutes of Q2 and knocking them out of the top 10? I can see Q1 being "boring mode on" for the top guys as the bottom of the grid won't be fast enough either way but FI or Haas might just be able to do it in Q2. The top three teams will do a banker in "boring mode" in Q2 and then be on track in the last two minutes with "party mode" ready to go if necessary.
I'm just going to add that last year Hamilton had a bigger advantage in FP1 and FP2 whereas Vettel won the race. I don't believe anybody can threaten Merc winning this year but just sayin'...f1316 wrote: ↑23 Mar 2018, 19:44Several times last year Ferrari looked behind on a Friday and then came in extremely strong in Q3, dropping back slightly vs Mercedes in quali. That was the general pattern of 2017 practice.tranquility2k4 wrote: ↑23 Mar 2018, 18:39A word of warning for those thinking it may be close at the front (forgetting about rain i'm on about raw speed here if it is dry). Several times last year after Friday practice Red Bull and or Ferrari were ahead of Merc on 1 lap pace and/or on the long runs an then Merc were similar to them or ahead when it came to quali and the race. As it stands everything looks very close from Friday so if that normal pattern emerges I would expect Merc to have quite a bit in hand.
I recall often seeing Merc and RB close on long run times on Friday but then Merc way ahead in the actual race and thinking why didn't that show in the Friday long runs. It's either fuel or engine usage in one way or another.
It's likely that Merc can turn up their engines a lot more compared with RB. Remember Baku last year? Merc were behind in short and long run, by quite a bit and looked average. On Saturday and Sunday they dominated.
The only times the others had a chance last year was when another team looks quite dominant on a specific track or when Merc have a really poor Friday. Neither looks the case here so I think business as usual. If you want to see the real performance look at the average time on the 2nd stint they did in the long runs in Practice 2. Hamilton and Bottas far ahead of competition on the SS and S tyres respectively. They were clearly nursing the US tyres in stint 1 and unleashed potential in stint 2.
What's most surprising is the cars are not any faster than last year, in fact in the long runs especially Merc were quite a bit slower. Either this is because of the track temps or Merc really have their engine on mode 1 out of 10.
Hungary was a prime example of where the gap was big enough in Q3 for them to maintain a lead despite Mercedes closing up - but they were a clear third on the Friday.
Not saying it’s necessarily going to happen but it was a pattern
Over a single lap yea, but Hamilton's long run pace was not nearly as consistent as it is this year.