2022 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 18 - 20

[JPBD1990]

Leclerc only won on the last corner. The RedBull is fundamentally faster everywhere especially on the straights. I'm not sure how Max lost on the last corner but I'm guessing his tyres faded more than Charles'.

https://youtu.be/Oe8ucnyNUgs

Telemetry suggests your analysis may be incorrect:



If anything, it seems Leclerc had some time on the table while max’s lap seemed executed perfectly.

Everywhere I’ve looked is saying redbull is the favourite for the race. Is this really based on the like 3 laps Ferrari did on Friday, or something more solid?

I guess everyone said they were the favourite for quali too so you just never know.

[silver]

Leclerc only won on the last corner. The RedBull is fundamentally faster everywhere especially on the straights. I'm not sure how Max lost on the last corner but I'm guessing his tyres faded more than Charles'.

https://youtu.be/Oe8ucnyNUgs

Telemetry suggests your analysis may be incorrect:



If anything, it seems Leclerc had some time on the table while max’s lap seemed executed perfectly.

Everywhere I’ve looked is saying redbull is the favourite for the race. Is this really based on the like 3 laps Ferrari did on Friday, or something more solid?

I guess everyone said they were the favourite for quali too so you just never know.

I saw this tendancy from Charles to go on throttle earlier than Max on most corners. It paid particularly well on13th and 14th corners where he jumped ahead. It's undeniable that Ferrari has great traction out of corners.

There's one thing for race where Ferrari has a weakness. Race management. They have poor record of strategy and pit stop and Red Bull is the class of the field there. Let's see how that pans out. Hope Ferrari is going up the game there as well.

[ringo]

By the way. Moderators need to reopen the Abu Dhabi thread as the March 18 concluding report is out.
It's rather important the new changes to the rules are understood.

[silver]

By the way. Moderators need to reopen the Abu Dhabi thread as the March 18 concluding report is out.
It's rather important the new changes to the rules are understood.

There is something called personal message feature which you can use to contact mods. Besides, there is already an FIA Thread open for exactly same discussion.

[lh13]

If all the drivers across all teams would have hooked up their ultimate laps, Merc would've been much closer.

RBR and Ferrari better make hay while they can.

Merc isn't nearly as far away as I suspected, especially if Aston's figures about porpoising are true.

Best sectors are no indicators of actual pace, as it is virtually impossible to run ideal sectors in a single lap. Going a bit slower in first sector can result in a faster second sector, similarly, compromising entry/exist of one turn can result in faster subsequent turns, so the real pace is actually what we saw in quali, and not the ideal sectors.

Hamilton was 2 tenths slower in Q3 than his own Q2 time, so they are lagging my approx. 5 tenths, which is not much given their situation.

[zibby43]

Mercedes is not even porpoising that more than Ferrari. They're just simply slower.

They’re slower because they had to compromise the ride height to cure the porpoising (not even solved fully), which in turn nuked the performance

You guys are sticking by this "it's gonna be awesome soon", i think it's just bad, it's not particularly fast anywhere.

It’s almost like we have a modicum of faith in the 8x WCC winners to get on top of their issues.

How long will it take? That’s the only question.

[Airshifter]

If all the drivers across all teams would have hooked up their ultimate laps, Merc would've been much closer.

RBR and Ferrari better make hay while they can.

Merc isn't nearly as far away as I suspected, especially if Aston's figures about porpoising are true.

https://preview.redd.it/y7cc2vxd6fo81.j ... 93b998497c

Best sectors are no indicators of actual pace, as it is virtually impossible to run ideal sectors in a single lap. Going a bit slower in first sector can result in a faster second sector, similarly, compromising entry/exist of one turn can result in faster subsequent turns, so the real pace is actually what we saw in quali, and not the ideal sectors.

Hamilton was 2 tenths slower in Q3 than his own Q2 time, so they are lagging my approx. 5 tenths, which is not much given their situation.

Agreed. Especially in a day and age where the cars on the limit can take the life out of the tires in a lap or less. The ultimate lap is the qually lap unless a driver screws up or gets balked. Breaking it down into best sectors and adding them up really adds nothing of value.

[Schippke]

There's one thing for race where Ferrari has a weakness. Race management. They have poor record of strategy and pit stop and Red Bull is the class of the field there. Let's see how that pans out. Hope Ferrari is going up the game there as well.

I'd argue last year and some parts in 2020, they actually made some decent calls compared to what they were getting-up to the seasons prior. Last year in particular they made very few mistakes overall and their pit stops generally were very consistent and quick.

Of course, it might be a bit different when competing for the race win (potentially), but I think the Ferrari strategists over the last 12 months have been fairly solid.

The biggest issue have had up until now it seems has been the car... the team itself, strategy calls and both drivers are all there. Now it seems, they could very well have the car...

[Airshifter]

They’re slower because they had to compromise the ride height to cure the porpoising (not even solved fully), which in turn nuked the performance

You guys are sticking by this "it's gonna be awesome soon", i think it's just bad, it's not particularly fast anywhere.

It’s almost like we have a modicum of faith in the 8x WCC winners to get on top of their issues.

How long will it take? That’s the only question.

Though I agree with the general assumption that Merc will figure it out and probably reasonably soon, some of the comments here in the thread make it sound like it's already done and everyone needs to look over their shoulder.

I mean.... the Williams will be awesome if they sort out all their issues too. As is true with every car. With Merc seeming to be a bit behind on figuring out the root cause, that leads me to think fixing it might be harder.


And let's face it, every major period of dominance ends at some point. I think Merc will spring back, but it might not be all the way to the top again.


On the up side, at least we will see race pace and performance soon.

[silver]

If the FP2 analysis is anything to go by, it appears, Mercedes are further off on race pace than they were in qualifying. They had a similar deficit in FP2 on a single lap to Red Bull as it was in qualifying and around a second off in race pace sims. It was difficult to comprehend it on Friday, but seems like it's real for the course of a race.

Red Bull, reportedly, is still 10 kilo heavier than Ferrari, which is obviously a big penalty. It should be relatively smaller penalty on race load, than on qualifying fumes. It's going to be interesting battle today between the two. Hopefully the top 3 or 4 would come out of turn 1-2 and 4 without any damages.

[shamyakovic]

Ferrari definitely the favorites for the race. I only question the determination of Leclerc in comparison to Max. Does he have the ruthlessness to win against Max?

[AriaanGert]

Any idea why the Mercedes were so much slower in Q3? Was the track that much changed and too cold? Or did they change the settings, ride height or anything, on their car, before parc fermé?

[shamyakovic]

Any idea why the Mercedes were so much slower in Q3? Was the track that much changed and too cold? Or did they change the settings, ride height or anything, on their car, before parc fermé?

They had their out lap procedure wrong according to Toto.

[TNTHead]

I wonder whether Mercedes has hampered the development of their car by coming up with two very different cars during testing. Overconfident, and caught by surprise with the porpoising? Hubris is just around the corner for giants and heros.

[DChemTech]

They’re slower because they had to compromise the ride height to cure the porpoising (not even solved fully), which in turn nuked the performance

You guys are sticking by this "it's gonna be awesome soon", i think it's just bad, it's not particularly fast anywhere.

It’s almost like we have a modicum of faith in the 8x WCC winners to get on top of their issues.

How long will it take? That’s the only question.

Past results are no guarantee. For all the successes of RB in the 2010-13 period (which might have continued if the rules weren't changed in '14), they haven't won a WCC since. Ferraris many consecutive titles in the Schumacher era were no guarantee for later performance. Rule changes may turn a title winner to a midfield contender, and vice-versa. In that light, the biggest dissapointment is that this year, in spite of all changes ánd a budget cap, it's still effectively the same teams that are ahead. The mutual order may have been scrambled somewhat, but we lack a much needed real surprise.