66 laps of the 4.675-kilometre Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya 20th May Practice 1 13:00 - 14:00 20th May Practice 2 16:00 - 17:00 21th May Practice 3 12:00 - 13:00 21th May Qualifying 15:00 - 16:00 22th May Race 14:00 - 16:00 All times are UK times Poll closes before Quali.
I am voting for Le Clerc. Rationale is high downforce track with enough corners to suit the traction ferrari brings to the party. Not enough areas where verstappen can bring the higher top speed to play.
So before FP2 do we think Merc have made a step forward or is it just like Miami's Friday practices? I'm keeping fingers crossed we will have a 3 way battle at front.
theres not much to go on yet. as the wick gets turned up the Loads increase and the ture picutre emerges. this is a high downforce track a) if mercs have a top speed issue then it will be less severe here b) if the mercs have too much drag that may be lessened here. c) if the mercs have stability it will show up. personally i don't by that its just bouncing. The ferrari is like Tigger on steroids but the second they come to turn in the thing handles like it is on rails though corners Red bull have top running speed. ferrari best fraction and handling. Merc hasn't been good anywhere. its a clear 3rd best all round for me.
Red Bull whining again as normal - this time about Aston 'taking IP' to make 'new car'. When Lance was interviewed he said the Red Bull staff had only arrived 4 weeks ago so no way in that time to bring this level of change. He was very careful with his words though. He also said they worked on 2 car designs over winter and now they are using second one as first not good!! FIA have cleared them but Red Bull like whining don't they!!!
I definitely call bullshit on the idea that Aston designed that whilst having never seen the Red Bull. That doesn't mean they broke any rules mind you. For a team that's investing so much, it does strike me as unambitious. They might find some improvements this week but copying isn't ever getting you to the top.
Tell that to Xerox who had their 'mouse' stolen by Steve Jobs!!!!! Where are Xerox now in the PC world?
More seriously, have you revised your opinion at all after FP2? They looked really good to me, and seemed to look a lot more comfortable entering the corners. Plus, I was encouraged that they were relatively fast in each sector, not just making up time in certain corners or sectors.
So leclerc improve a little from fp1 to fp2 on his spot tyre run. Verstappen didn't much. Clearly its positive for mercs to start out stable then have a nice improvement on softs to gain 0.5 seconds? The question is how much is in reserve for tomorrow for all 3 teams as it ramps up. Alonso might be a useful mark to judge off as he's been up there when things suit and the mercs are faster than him.
It is called vision, to invent is one thing, to release the potential is another, to be brave enough to leave the past for the future. 44 years in the IT industry taught me much.
Some talk about Mercedes new ICE seeking out some more performance in a higher mode (thanks to reliability update). Be interesting to see if they turn it up and still mix it with Ferrari and Red Bull tomorrow. EDIT: Yes- looks like they used PU1 as a benchmark to understand and will seek to push harder on the next engine- should be good for racing as I think these cars have looked slow on the eye sometimes!
why is the optimism gone? Charles top of the leaderboard with a time almost the same as George yesterday. Let’s see what Qualifying brings, the most important indicator for the upgrades Mercedes brought