2018 Austrian Grand Prix, Spielberg, 29 June - 1 July

[Phil]

Well done to Ferrari for not swapping positions. Very impressed.

Gutted for Bottas. Hamilton, well, bad luck, but that is just how it goes. Lucky it happened from 4th.

Mercedes ruined their race when they forgot to pit, but i think they were sleeping because it was their own car that caused it. Questionable strategy though - i guess instead of bringing Hamilton in to defend against Vettel, *I* would have stayed out long. The high tire tenperature did make me think a 1 stop might be close, so i thought they should have stayed on target and run deep instead, plus hope for another VSC or even safety car. Kind of felt like panic mode.

Big points for Ferrari today, but i feel quite confident that Mercedes will wipe the floor with the rest next week. That car is a beast, especially with the new updates and engine.

[Vanja #66]

Whats biased I just told you that I cheer for team and for him in championship!?
You know that gearbox hydraulics doesnt change when you bring new engine? And they introduced it in last race that they have WON. This failures were probably caused because of vibrations or hitting some rough cerbs and hydraulic and fuel lines on some weak spots snaped. On Daniels car exhaust failed as a example. Its probably nothing fundamental wrong with engine design. It is a beast yesterday was clear in qualy.
But you are right about strategy department they are realy slow thinkers and it is showing more and more in races where they dont have big pace advantage.

With new more powerful PU, there could be a number of things fundamentally wrong by design.

[popovic94]

Whats biased I just told you that I cheer for team and for him in championship!?
You know that gearbox hydraulics doesnt change when you bring new engine? And they introduced it in last race that they have WON. This failures were probably caused because of vibrations or hitting some rough cerbs and hydraulic and fuel lines on some weak spots snaped. On Daniels car exhaust failed as a example. Its probably nothing fundamental wrong with engine design. It is a beast yesterday was clear in qualy.
But you are right about strategy department they are realy slow thinkers and it is showing more and more in races where they dont have big pace advantage.

With new more powerful PU, there could be a number of things fundamentally wrong by design.

I agree with that but it isnt like that is whole new unit with 100% new parts.

[Vasconia]

Every team besides Ferrari had blistering maybe we actually see the different tyres at some more GP.

Well we always say its up to the other teams to catch up to the Mercedes PU, so its up to the other teams to get on top of the tyre blistering

Definitely. The cars were designed and built with a specification of tyre in mind so to make in-season changes without the agreement of all teams would be disgraceful.

I hated when Hamilton complained about the tyres. Ferrari did a fine job and even Max did a good one. It's up to Mercedes to improve..but there is too much histeria. usually Mercedes is awesome with hard tyres. Today was a bad day, deal with it Mercedes.

[Vanja #66]

I agree with that but it isnt like that is whole new unit with 100% new parts.

It isn't and that's something that might be a problem. Highly, highly unlikely, but it could be that gears are under too much surface pressure with more torque from PU and they simply chip away bit by bit after a few hours of use. This would cause blockages in hydraulic system. I have no idea about order of magnitude of surface pressure on these gears, but if safety factors are very small to keep their weight down, well...

Again, highly unlikely, but it's one of many possibilities.

[Phil]

With new more powerful PU, there could be a number of things fundamentally wrong by design.

The engine was already used the weekend before, in 6 cars each with no faults. It might in combination with the new aero/body etc. i am not concerned.

[epo]

Well done to Ferrari for not swapping positions. Very impressed.

Gutted for Bottas. Hamilton, well, bad luck, but that is just how it goes. Lucky it happened from 4th.

Mercedes ruined their race when they forgot to pit, but i think they were sleeping because it was their own car that caused it. Questionable strategy though - i guess instead of bringing Hamilton in to defend against Vettel, *I* would have stayed out long. The high tire tenperature did make me think a 1 stop might be close, so i thought they should have stayed on target and run deep instead, plus hope for another VSC or even safety car. Kind of felt like panic mode.

Big points for Ferrari today, but i feel quite confident that Mercedes will wipe the floor with the rest next week. That car is a beast, especially with the new updates and engine.

Beast with the custom made Pirelli tires yeah and they will have that at Silverstone. Races like this with tire blistering is just way more exciting.
It's just someone already mentioned, improve the car if your car can't control these tires.
And a car that breaks down is not the fastest.

[Vanja #66]

The engine was already used the weekend before, in 6 cars each with no faults. It might in combination with the new aero/body etc. i am not concerned.

Perez DNF last week?

[Phil]

Wasnt directly engine related.

[Vanja #66]

Ok then.

[Sierra117]

Incredible how the "custom made tyres" argument is still being passed around like some joint when it's been debunked over and over again by drivers themselves who liked them no less.

As Vanja said, it's probably to do with the connections between the drivetrain and the engine. It could be that the improved aero package its allowing more to be pushed out of the engine (compared to the bad chassis/aero of the customer teams where the air resistance isn't letting the engine really perform) and the effect on the gearbox is much more than expected. They delayed the engine and checked it out, so the likelihood of manufacturing error here is much lower than likelihood of dynamic, on-track variables, as aforementioned, together with the usual environment variables.

[popovic94]

I agree with that but it isnt like that is whole new unit with 100% new parts.

It isn't and that's something that might be a problem. Highly, highly unlikely, but it could be that gears are under too much surface pressure with more torque from PU and they simply chip away bit by bit after a few hours of use. This would cause blockages in hydraulic system. I have no idea about order of magnitude of surface pressure on these gears, but if safety factors are very small to keep their weight down, well...

Again, highly unlikely, but it's one of many possibilities.

Yeah thats a good point. But I doubt that an increase of 1-3% of power and torque would affect the endurance of the gearbox as much. After every sesion teams do the samples of oils for metal particles to measure wear. They would probably change gearbox if they saw more wear than normal after last race.

[popovic94]

Incredible how the "custom made tyres" argument is still being passed around like some joint when it's been debunked over and over again by drivers themselves who liked them no less.

As Vanja said, it's probably to do with the connections between the drivetrain and the engine. It could be that the improved aero package its allowing more to be pushed out of the engine (compared to the bad chassis/aero of the customer teams where the air resistance isn't letting the engine really perform) and the effect on the gearbox is much more than expected. They delayed the engine and checked it out, so the likelihood of manufacturing error here is much lower than likelihood of dynamic, on-track variables, as aforementioned, together with the usual environment variables.

+1

[Phil]

The gearbox is probably related to the kerbs. And the tires related to set-up. The weather and tarmac temperature was significantly higher today than yesterday or Friday.

[RZS10]

Is there a replay of Verstappen ramming Kimi to gain the position?