Looking a lot closer on long runs again. Could have a race on our hands if Mercedes need to run their third stint on primes while Ferrari can use options. McLaren's pace has improved again, it's looking more and more like they've built a strong chassis, but they need to start seeing the chequered flag. Really good job being done by Honda to improve the engine so much with the restrictions on testing. Can't help but think where they'd be now if they'd had a second customer during pre-season.
The only way Ferrari will win this is if the mercedes chew up their tyres like last time. People were going on about te prancing horse being back , but seemed to forget that the ferrari only finished 8 seconds ahead of a car that had taken an additional stop. So same amoutn of stops, only one winner.
In Malaysia Mercedes were caught napping, they got over confidant from Aus and didnt fear looking over their backs. The beast has been awoken now and Mercedes will ensure dominance over Ferrari. Probably at the expense of Nico.
Yeah a free one under the safety car. By the time Hamilton had cleared the traffic he was only 9secs behind. From that point they both did two stops and the gap didn't come down despite Vettel being on used tyres for that first stint. Ferrari were faster in Malaysia, end of.
I can see a Kimi victory, Ferrari again seem to have better tyre degradation than Mercedes. Qualifying will be crucial for Mercedes, they have to lock out the front row and hope Red Bull or Williams are ahead of Ferrari.
Get a grip Hamilton did not come out right behind the ferrari after the early stop. he only thing that stopped hamilton catching the ferrari was trye were and them using up the last set of their hard tryres in testing. The Ferrari won due to less stops and not chewing up their tryes. But hey if it is faster as you say, lets have a bet on who wins the constructors this year big boy!
Lol.....here we go again. I think you have missed the point and you made it yourself in relation to the pit stops. If the Merc was always going to 3 stop (which they were) through additional tire wear, then they were always going to be on the back foot......hence there isn't "only one winner". It's not the fastest car in a stint that wins a race. The point AG is making that once Lewis had cleared traffic, he was only 9-10 sec down on Vettel against a normal pit lane loss of circa 25 sec. In reality the Ferrari was just a better race package on the day.
2014 FP1 @ 1:39:783 / 2015 FP1 @ 1:39:033 2014 FP2 @ 1:38:315 / 2015 FP2 @ 1:37:219 Lap record: Schuey 2004 @ 1:32:238
Hamilton will be tough to catch, he will certainly bag pole, I also doubt he will lose his head in the race. It's all about the cooler temperatures really, to be honest after practice Mercedes have cemented their place this weekend again. So a Kimi resurgence is looking slim again. (He will win now I bet you).
I thought that the issues were pretty simple: firstly, the Mercedes eats tyres in very hot and/or humid temperatures. These issues were not apparent in Melbourne and are unlikely to recur in Shanghai. The other issue, as was mentioned earlier, is that Mercedes were complacent: they weren't prepared for Ferrari's challenge and didn't respond well to it either. But we'll see soon enough...
For christ sake < I wis people would actually read my posts, Vettel managed to stay ahead of a man who did and extra pitstop and had to make his way through traffic, and who on the last stin had to use scrubbed options. The ferrari's got lucky on the day, but in realiy they are still no where near fast enough of good enough to beat the mercedes without a lot of luck going their way. The essential point I'm making is that boh the commenters an some forum members seem to think ferrari have caugt up, which is complete and utter bollocks, the merc is still a good half o full second a lap faster than anyone else, when they are no sandbagging. Don't believe me? bet against the mercs winning the majoriy of races and both championships. Whe wih the same tires and pit stops they beat the mercs, then we will have some competition, but relying on tire wear or rain during qualifying arent going to do it.
This for the rest of the field to have a chance, it needs to be super ho or a big slice of luck needs to go their way, which is a shame, because I long for the days when it was proper competative, the rest of the field still have a lot of work to do.
Calm down dear... I did read your post, how is a car that can do one less stop than the other and cover a race distance in a quicker time than their competitor, lucky?
Spot on. Yes the Mercs made an additional stop, but when they came out and racing resumed, they were, on track, around 8 seconds behind. Sure they lost time overtaking others but by the end of the race were still 8 seconds behind. Overall they made a gain from the safety car to the chequered flag of zero and that was with Vettel controlling his pace to protect the tyres. Ferrari just had the legs in the race. People being bitter saying "It was only the tyres"... you do realise that is a strategic part of the racing? It is also ignoring the fact in every single race run in practice so far this season, Ferrari have been faster overall. It's easy to get blinded by Mercs qualy pace, it is still the fastest car over one lap by a huge margin but as race cars go, the Ferrari is seemingly on a par (at worst) right now.
Don't think there has been any bitterness, certainly not on here. The breaking of Merc's dominance is welcome, though of course the questions on how it happened would always come. There were/are no excuses for Mercedes not winning, Ferrari simply had the better pace and better tyre management i.e. they had the better car in Malaysia.
Nah not on here, i just meant in general, there was quite a bit of "whataboutery" from a certain drivers fans in particular blaming everything from Pirelli to the safety car, pointing to other cars getting in the way etc, saying Ferrari got lucky etc when the real reason Ferrari won was them just being quicker on the day and maximising their strategy. I agree though, The simple fact is without the safety car, Merc would have fallen at least another 15 seconds down the road than they did with the safety car saving them, and that's not including any cars they would have had to pass anyway, it's not inconceivable that without the safety car, the Mercs could just as easily have found themselves over 30 seconds back from Vettel rather than the 14 or 15 it was at it's maximum when Hamilton finally got back into second, and painted whatever way anyone wants, they never had the pace to make that up and Ferrari had more in their pocket. Those saying Ferrari got lucky is IMO very disrespectful when you consider they have consistently been faster in practice on the race runs in the first 3 races. They have a better race car than Mercedes, and that is absolutely genuine. Sure, the high temps did swing it in their favour and highlighted it, but we saw in Australia and practice in China that even when it's cooler, on a run, the Ferrari is at least as fast as Mercedes. They just need a situation where both cars cleanly get to fight with Mercedes now to show it. I genuinely believe from everything we've seen in practice in the 3 races, Kimi is actually the quicker of the 2 over a stint on that car, so it will be good when he finally gets a clean run at fighting with them alongside Seb.
For me it seems both seb and Kimi split a direction for the race and find a middle ground for FP3 while Mercedes are a little bit less different. Seb always seems to he slightly slower than Kimi and he just goes up two notches for qualifying when he needs to do it. The straight line speed suggests kimi was running more wing and the now more favourable set up for Saturday/Sunday with a few more tweaks. Would expect Mercedes to try and improve tyre wear or be forced into 3 stopping so the FP3 gap to Ferrari might be cut down further.
Kimi sets up his car for pure race pace and Vettel edges his set up slightly more towards one lap pace i think. In the first 3 races in practice, on long runs, Kimi has both been faster over his stints and better on his tyres, the straight line speeds again showed he was running more wing than Vettel so seems that way again. Also not a coincidence in the 3 fp2's, vettel has done the data runs on the softer tyres when Kimi does the work on the harder, again suggesting they want to run the tyre that will wear out first on the car that they know will use them a fraction more so they have a minimum/worst case scenario to work from on both cars.
