With the extreme effect on tyres of the high temperatures it looks like being another strange weekend that fails to reveal the overall pecking order. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll get anything approaching a normal weekend for a long time, with tyre operating windows being so small. I can see races being won by whoever can make the best of a bad situation.
This is pretty much what I was thinking myself but maybe Spain will provide the benchmark many of us would like.
Is Hamilton quicker when it comes to setting the car up? Only over the past few years, he seems to do less laps in practice than the majority of the other drivers, including Vet, Web, Alo, But
It should but then I thought Bahrain was going to be a good baseline. I wonder what kind of summer we're in for in Europe? Hamilton's 2008 WDC owed a lot to a cold, wet summer. If we have a dry, hot summer then we could see this kind of unpredictability throughout the season.
I'm sure I saw the front page of one of yesterday's papers was promising 'the coldest May for 100 years'. Didn't read it though. I think, generally, May in BCN is pretty stable, very warm.
well it seems to be jenson is complaining more about the tyres than lewis so far. their quickest lap times and laps times on there 9 lap runs at the end are very interesting. jensons tyres seemed to wear out quicker than lewis's. the difference is quite significant,plus button sounds worried in that skysports interview.
I think they're all struggling. Hamilton said it was like driving on ice. Button doesn't rate his own chances, though, unless they can turn it around tomorrow..
Friday Press Conference. Not a very informative or interesting quote but quoted because it's not about Bahrain politics and because it's Kate.
Lots of teams running monkey seats in Bahrain. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image The last one might not display until after the weekend.
Here's the rear wing. There's a kink in the endplates but not much bulk. It's feasible that there could be some ducting in there and there's a pipe running back into the cooling outlet. please log in to view this image I don't know what to make of the two big holes in the bulkhead but I think there's too much gubbins around them to carry through to the front wing. please log in to view this image I still think it'd be a mighty quick turnaround to implement a Mercedes-equivalent solution but who knows?
Don't they need to actuate DRS in the same way Mercedes do to exploit the loophole. Mercedes have two mechanisms on the rear wing flap at each end to hide the duct to the front wing. Red Bull still have the standard single actuator in the middle of the wing.
I don't know, tbh, but you're probably right. I'm not sure exposing the inlet in a hypothetical Red Bull solution would have to depend on the movement of an endplate-mounted actuator, especially in a hastily assembled system. If airflow in could be minimised when the flap is closed simply by the flap being closed rather than the inlet being partially covered by the actuator then it may be sufficiently effective to achieve something. I'm only speculating to indulge SilverArrow, though. I don't think Red Bull have the same system, even if they are doing something with airflow into the rear wing.
Don't know what conclusions can be made from these FP2 sector times: please log in to view this image Ferrari: In sector 1: 0.694 slower than Mercedes, 0.507 slower than McLaren, 0.397 slower than Red Bull, 0.184 slower than Lotus, 0.026 slower than Sauber In sector 2: 0.383 slower than Mercedes, 0.121 faster than McLaren, 0.325 slower than Red Bull, 0.345 faster than Lotus, 0.110 faster than Sauber In sector 3: 0.600 slower than Mercedes, 0.180 slower than McLaren, 0.329 slower than Red Bull, 0.043 faster than Lotus, 0.016 slower than Sauber All laptimes here
Apparently Michael was stuck in traffic on his fastest lap, so was just short of locking out a Mercedes 1-2 for FP2.
Did Schumacher have stuff to do or an appointment he didn't want to be late for? please log in to view this image
Interesting observation. I hadn't noticed that he does significantly fewer laps than the other top drivers but, if he does, also factor in the wider setup window that he can work in compared to Button, the supposedly better feedback Button can provide to the engineers (it's my personal opinion that the reason we hear Button describe the car's behaviour so often is because he has that responsibility), car conservation, and maybe existing data (the team has three extra years information on what Hamilton likes at which circuits in various conditions compared to Button). It'll be worth noting how many laps he does relative to Button at new circuits. I don't think you can compare him to drivers in other teams because the car differences will account for much of the variation. How well McLaren understand the MP4-27 compared to Red Bull's understanding of the RB8 or Ferrari's of the F2012 is a major factor. I'm under the impression that the RB7 required almost no setup work over and above applying a known configuration. How many laps did Vettel do in practice sessions in 2011 compared to his rivals?
Maldonado will get a 5-place grid penalty for using a new gearbox. Hamilton will also have a new gearbox but won't receive a penalty because he's allowed to take a freebie following a penalty (which he had last week).
