2016 Belgian Grand Prix - Fri 26 – Sun 28 Aug 2016

[Juzh]

Last year:




2015 Pole lap:
http://www.formula1.com/en/video/2015/8 ... lgium.html

A lil' something from me:


2015 timing information:
http://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-o ... rmation-12

Tyre selection:


It's still a long way to go, but since tyre selections are known I figured it's time to start this topic.

Ferrrari going for a single set of mediums. Clearly anticipating a SS-S-S race? Red bull going the opposite way anticipating a lot of medium running. Will be interesting to see who gets it right. You can overtake here so perhaps a 2 stop is the way to go and we've seen supersoft behaving quite well in germany despite predictions not being in favour of it. Mercedes will probably have a bigger advantage than usual here, based on last year.

Red bull probably ahead of ferrari.

Track record 1:44.503 from 2009 to fall? Would require 2.6s improvement from last year. On the cusp imo.

[gandharva]

Wow, nice tire joices. Could make things a bit more interesting.

[Jolle]

If Hamilton takes his penalties here, this will be an easy win for Rosberg. Looking at the huge difference last year with number three, even with the development of RedBull and the tire blow-out from Vettel, second place would be possible for Hamilton.
Will be a fun race! (Zig zagging Lewis).

[notsofast]

Maybe Mercedes is expecting to get into Q3 without using any supersofts. The track is so long, that they may be able to build up enough of a gap on softs in Q2 to stay in the top 10.

[Jolle]

Maybe Mercedes is expecting to get into Q3 without using any supersofts. The track is so long, that they may be able to build up enough of a gap on softs in Q2 to stay in the top 10.

If Hamilton takes his penalties it would make sense (just a 106% laptime in Q1) and trying to do the GP one stop less then the people around him, but Rosberg surprised me.

[godlameroso]

I'm guessing pole will be around a high 1:45, Race pace will be in the 1:53's, 54's.

Will give weather prediction next week, I won't even bother until then. Next Friday is the last 'dog day of summer(when Sirius rises with the sun)', the days will start getting progressively shorter as the Sun shifts south until late December. Temperatures will very gradually start dropping also, it's been an unusually mild F1 season, ambient temperatures haven't really gotten 30C+, it came close in Hungary, there's still Sepang and Singapore however..

Anyway, temperatures are in the low 20's high teens around this time, if it's sunny it could reach ~24C ambient temperature.

Hope to see a nice step forward from McHonda, at least better fuel economy.

[Manjhi]

One thing is sure the race will be unpredictable with this much range of tyre choices. Will be interesting to see the strategy of Red Bull & Ferrari. I am also kind of hoping that Force India & Williams also challenges RB & Ferraris, that will be interesting. The long straight will be a boon for Mercs power chassis, will be interesting to see how RB compromises with downforce for that straight line speed. =D> =D>

[godlameroso]

I think that it makes sense to get consistent tires for practice so you can minimize variables. Use the mediums and softs for fp1 & 2 and use a SS in fp3. It's good to evaluate all the tires so you have a great strategy for the race.

[ME4ME]

One thing is sure the race will be unpredictable with this much range of tyre choices. Will be interesting to see the strategy of Red Bull & Ferrari. I am also kind of hoping that Force India & Williams also challenges RB & Ferraris, that will be interesting. The long straight will be a boon for Mercs power chassis, will be interesting to see how RB compromises with downforce for that straight line speed. =D> =D>

Red Bull were about to beat Force India, Williams and Lotus last year already, until Ricciardo's car gave up. With the progress Red Bull and Renault have made this year, surely they'll be comfortably ahead.

[GrizzleBoy]

If the mediums end up being the race tyre at any point.......Ferrari are doomed.

[Jolle]

Looks like most teams (apart from Ferrari and Sauber) going to run three compounds in the race. So. Two stops for everybody and three for Ferrari and Sauber?

[ClarkBT11]

If the mediums end up being the race tyre at any point.......Ferrari are doomed.

Even if they were the race tyre Ferrari would struggle to get the mediums in the right window.

The trend over the last couple of races has been to be on the yellow softs for the majority of the race. In the race the super softs aren't yielding a huge difference in lap time but are degrading quicker than the yellows.

I would say the supper softs are the best tyre for the last stint if you had to use them.

[godlameroso]

Agree. You also have to consider that it's Spa, the chance of cool weather is almost a given, a high probability of clouds, and a chance of rain. Not to mention, the front tires are the ones that take all the abuse. The supersoft tire will probably be good for 8-9 laps not even good enough for a 3 stopper, the soft probably for 12-14 laps so a conservative two stopper, but the medium can probably make it just under half race distance. So with the medium you could have a more aggressive two stopper, you'd have to set your car up for sector two, but the added drag would hurt your fuel consumption. SS S M seems to be the best strategy for Spa. That would give you 7 good laps from the SS, 14 from the soft, and you'd try to finish with the medium

[basti313]

Agree. You also have to consider that it's Spa, the chance of cool weather is almost a given, a high probability of clouds, and a chance of rain. Not to mention, the front tires are the ones that take all the abuse. The supersoft tire will probably be good for 8-9 laps not even good enough for a 3 stopper, the soft probably for 12-14 laps so a conservative two stopper, but the medium can probably make it just under half race distance. So with the medium you could have a more aggressive two stopper, you'd have to set your car up for sector two, but the added drag would hurt your fuel consumption. SS S M seems to be the best strategy for Spa. That would give you 7 good laps from the SS, 14 from the soft, and you'd try to finish with the medium

This is a much too conservative prediction. The best measure this year so far was China, where they did more laps on the SuperSoft than last year on the Soft. New tarmac is spoiling the comparison for Hungary, but the same picture there with more or less the same number of laps on a softer sort of tire.
Vettel nearly pulled a 1-Stop last year, so a SS-S-S strategy will be easy to do.

The tire choice for Merc is not surprising. They are planing for harder tires to be more flexible as they have more than enough pace. And I guess they will do a lot of testing during FP1 and 2.

[PlatinumZealot]

Last year the mediums were quite good for the race. A nice tyre because the lap is so long the warm up will be close to the softer tyres. Could be used in the second stint. Watch out for Hamilton starting on softs then to medium then to a defensive supersoft.