Well we saw 1:29 in tests so we have to assume that's a safe test time. 1:28.5 to 1:28.8 is still my guess. the track was rubbering in today as well so times were coming down. if we really have every car on the same pace and no red bull margin then there was no evidence in testing mercs were going to sail out ahead. if everyone was with lin a couple tenths then thry will all have tonamp up the power to compete equally and we will see everyone around that 1:28 mark.
What was Max's time last year? 1.29 something? We can assume that Red Bull are likely to better that, so what do the others have up their sleeves? Given that the RBR is an evolution, it's unlikely they have gone backwards or that we have a Newey howler. I'll not get excited for a good season unless we get a good close quali, then I might.
The long run data would suggest they’re some way off, people are suggesting they turned up the engine. However, take a look at Wolff, Allison, Russell and Hamilton interviews today. The smiles are almost exploding out of their faces!!!! They obviously are pleased about something. I read a very interesting thing about their engine this week- there is chat that the improved cooling solution this year is going to allow their engine to run harder and hotter for longer - which may unlock PU performance that has been missing. Add that to a new design that has stripped the drag out of it and that may lead to a much improved showing. Let’s see how they go tomorrow and Saturday to see if the smiles were clues!
I'm still skeptical. We could be in for some fun and games behind Max but I'm sure he's going to stick in some too times tomorrow. I'll happily be proved wrong though.
Do we seriously think that from what we saw in testing that the merc is faster than the ferrari? Lets ignore the redbull. They can have all the smiles they like on their faces after P2. The times have not even touched what was done in testing yet and the ferrari was nearly 0.75 seconds slower than its own testing time. We'd have to assume everyon was on same fule and same relative power to beelive this stuff. The only thing we know is soft tyres were used on all cars. My view is that the ultimate time for quali is massively quicker than anything we've seen so far from any car
I do wonder if Merc are pleased that they have resolved their biggest issues from the last 2 years not necessarily their absolute pace. There are stories that Merc now have much better cooling so they can run at higher power for longer which could mean they turned up the pu to corollate the models with the track. If that's all they where smiling about I think they should be worried, very worried.... Not long to go now till we have a better idea of the pecking order.
In testing the Merc drivers, particularly Russell, were talking about a car that didn't have the vices of the cars of the past two years, and so they were a good platform that pace can be added onto. So whatever the absolute pace now, there's a lot of satisfaction that they have fixed the issues and will add pace as the season goes on.
Max reckons Red Bull had their engines turned down. No surprise there. https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/e...ls-real-pace-in-bahrain-f1-practice/10581610/
Well, Ferrari topped 3rd practice with a 1.30.8 which is still 0.5 sec off Hamilton’s FP2 time and Hamilton was almost a second off his own FP2 time, so they’re all sandbagging for qualifying later this evening. Max probably wins Q3 by a second, second and a half if it’s as good a car as everyone thinks.
Still no wiser here. It s not a representative time of day for the quali Nobody has got near testing time so far, why i don't know. not sure if its slightly colder there right now or not. Red bull run a little sting on softs to sim the start of race and were very fast yesterday. Perez runs hards and is faster than runners on softs. Nobody is near the time 1:29.921 by sainz. hamilton was at 1:30.374 in P2 at the more representative time. more than 4 10ths down. I don't know if they've altered the track limits to stop running on drains or everyone is sandbagging but we've 2 hours before we find out for sure.
