yeah he did, they were losing .2 almost everytime through the last corner to the line because they couldn't put the power on as early, so they were losing that all the way down the straight as the merc accelerates better. What does interest me is the Mercs having braking problems on both their cars again, will it surface again in Canada, the race Ferrari say they are bringing in an engine upgrade.
As Red Bull used to show though it wasn't always down to top speed, it was how quickly you could get to that top speed as well. Compared to last season Ferrari power is ridiculously better at end of straight speed!
Very good chance that they will have to be careful with the brakes. I didn't think Bahrain was a particularly hard circuit on brakes, so maybe it was a batch of components that went wrong on both cars. If it is a simple brake wear issue then Canada could hurt them badly if they can't manage their brakes well enough.
Do you realise that Hamilton won without even the 4th fastest lap? Wouldnt you think he was cruising then? It seems he is driving well within himself. Last year he was driving much harder and was harder on the car, but this year he seems to be pacing himself and not trying overly too hard to hurt the car. There was no way Kimi would have caught Hamilton. When Hamilton needed to pull out a gap he did it without much of a fuss. When he asked the team where his gap went to after losing the time in the pits he simply went back to work and opened out another gap. Rank Driver Car Fastest lap Gap On lap 1 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’36.311 42 2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’36.624 0.313 38 3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’37.326 1.015 36 4 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 1’37.665 1.354 43 5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’37.857 1.546 38
Wow, Ferrari have the quickest car. FACT. How crap are Vettel & Kimi if they can't win in a car that is CLEARLY over a second a lap faster then the Mercedes
Pastor is a faster driver in a Lotus than Hamilton is in a Merc. FACT look at the gap between Kimi and Rosberg, closes quickly then matches it until the brake problem, the Ferrari's just weren't quick enough off the last bend to use DRS to effect
I've only read posts on this page so far. The only FACT I'll suggest is that Ferrari are currently taking bigger steps forward than Mercedes. Despite what I've said in the awards thread about Mercedes still having the best car, I admit this is already coming under scrutiny and that Ferrari are very close – and still improving faster than the leader. At this rate, it is quite conceivable that Ferrari will soon have the better car.
You have to congratulate Ferrari on their response to last seasons debacle. I've said before, this is a Formula that should really suit them and they are starting to deliver on the promise. The engine upgrade for Canada might make things interesting but will it cause reliability issues? Will Honda get something together soon or are they a long, long way off?
You are correct. What I believe happened after last season was that Mercedes got to complacent and decided to play it a bit conservative since they were miles ahead of everyone else. And the chatter about changing the rules to slow them down and accusing them of trying to kill F1 because they did their homework and were miles ahead, that got to them and they didn't seem to have the host of upgrades like the other teams. Now you are hearing them talking about bringing forward upgrades that they were expecting to bring later on in the season. They simply got shell shocked by Ferrari's speed and the quality of their car. ow they have to react very quickly or risk getting left at the starting blocks. I think they are really miss Ross Brawn for more than one reason. Their ad hoc decisions on the pit wall seems to be questionable. Mercedes are the champions with what I believe is still the fastest car right now (I don't know for how much longer) and I don't know why for the life of me why they have been letting Ferrari dictate their race strategy. OIf you are sure and decisive then you have to control from the front, you cant be in the lead of a race and only reacting to what the competition behind you is doing, you have to be more proactive than that. The pitwall is too indecisive. For instance, in Sunday's race why didn't they think of putting Rosberg on the mediums and let him run deeper into the second stint then unleash him with softs for a shorter final stint? Right now I think the only big difference between two teams is the fact that Hamilton is driving very well and using his head.
I need to ask a question and I would be happy if someone could shed some light on it. When Rosberg overtook Vettel as Hamilton was coming out of the pits he crossed right into the pit lane exit. Is there some rule against this? I know when you are coming out of the pits you cant touch the lines but I really don't think it is safe for drivers on track to so violently fly over into that lane. Can you imagine what would have happened had Hamilton was a few tenths slower coming out of the pits lane? I remember some time ago there was an issue (I cant remember which track) with drivers deliberately cutting the pit lane exit and they were given a warning during practice and were told not to do it in the race. I don't know if that rule was track specific or it's a general rule..but what I saw yesterday was very scary as both Rosberg and Vettel could have collected Hamilton and it could have been a very serious accident. If anyone could shed some light I would be very happy.
Nothing wrong crossing the line, unless you are exiting the pits. It was Brazil where the race director amended where they could cross the line on entry to the pits - not the exit.
And that was due to the blind crest just where the pit entry begins. Slowing cars would be invisible until it was too late. No such concerns here.
Absolutely. Ferrari are not far off at all, we're talking tiny, tiny details, a handful of BHP here, a point of downforce there. Either could put them (on a race) level with Merc on pure pace, both could well see them ahead. I just have a feeling with the Mercedes, it's development curve is pretty much maxed out already. The car is fundamentally great, strong in all areas, where do you find much more from? Just looking at the Ferrari on track, it looks decent but has more rough edges to work on, even with those edges, they are on Mercedes tail. That has to be promising.
Anyway it looked really scary when Rosberg made the dash over the right as Hamilton was just coming out of the pits.. I am sure he never saw Hamilton until he had already made the passing move. If you watch it again look at when he made the move and how far over into the pit exit he was. Luckily Hamilton was a few tenths in front or else it would have been trouble, because there was no way he would have been able to brake in time to prevent a crash.
Kimi info courtesy of Brundle. "At the end of his middle stint on the mediums, Raikkonen recorded lap times of 1:39.884, 1:39.591, 1:39.665 and 1:40.684. Straight out of the box on the softs, Kimi produced a 1:36.311, his fastest lap of the race and only suffered two seconds’ worth of degradation over his next 15 laps. On his two final tours, when he overtook Rosberg and began to close in on Hamilton’s ailing Mercedes, Raikkonen still had enough life in his rubber to set lap times of 1:38.766 and 1:38.015. Compare those times to the laps of 1:39.665 and 1:40.684 that Raikkonen recorded when his medium began to fade. It’s a difference of around 3.5 seconds, a tally which dwarves Raikkonen’s 3.3-second deficit to Hamilton at the chequered flag. If only Ferrari had been slightly more aggressive, the race was there to be won."
I don't buy that.. Kimi showed no signs of being able to get past once he got within a second of Rosberg. Had it not been for the brake issues, he'd not have got past Rosberg let alone chase down Hamilton. Rosberg said that whilst the Meds where slower than the Softs he believed he had enough life left in the tyres to keep Kimi behind. Hamilton also alluded to the fact that had he needed to go quicker, he could have done, well assuming they didn't have the brake issues..
I think the point is more to do with the fact that if they had optimised the strategy they could have completed the race distance in a reduced time. I agree that overtaking the Mercs would have been an issue and Lewis probably had time in hand (ultimately it's a faster car) the result probably would have been no different. If Ferrari are able to make Merc race to the very last lap, there will always be an opportunity - a mistake here or a failure there. That is the only way Ferrari have a chance. I wonder what the deficit is between the two engines, there must have been a reduction from last season but that could be purely down to all the energy and harvest systems working correctly. Will the Canada engine upgrade for Ferrari be that little bit needed to get on a par?
