Seems not after all! They got bumped from 10th in Brazil by Caterham. Should be worth ~10-20MM to 'em, and may have saved Heikki's job...... Be interesting to see if Bernie gives Marussia (& HRT?) a handout like last year again..... Cheers, Ian
Hijack.... another question unrelated... Drivers must use both sets of tires during the race and start on what they qualified on.. 1. If it is raining in qualifying and you are on full wets, do you have to start on those the next day even if it is dry and sunny? 2. If you have to change to inters/wets during a race, do you STILL have to use the other set during the race?
If it rains (IIRC the official thing would be to declare the track wet), you can do what you want with the tires.
Being pedantic, only the top 10 in qualy must start on the same tires. All the guys knocked out in Q1 & 2 are free to start on whichever they like. All of 'em must run both during the race though. The above is negated if qualy is wet. A dry race the following day would mean they're all free to choose, but again both must be used. The moment it's wet in the race - as Florian says, Charlie declares the track wet, all bets are off and again it's free. Cheers, Ian
I think if its only a little wet and you elect to stay out on slicks and then it dries up and no inters/wet tires were needed by you that you still need to run both compounds of slick, at least thats what Martin Brundle was making it seem like for Button and Hulkenberg up until they needed to get inters at the end when it got bad.
Hmmm. Interesting. I believe the key is if Charlie declares it to be wet - Once he's done that, tires are free - You can can stay out on slicks of any compound with no requirement to run both is my understanding. Anyone recall when Charlie made his pronouncement last week? Cheers, Ian
I could be wrong, but I don't believe so. Once Charlie declares it wet all bets are off and you can do whatever you want. I think..... Cheers, Ian
As long as it stays wet (really wet, no drying line etc), I think they could do it - Wets are remarkable things that hardly wear at all as long as it stays wet....... Particularly as in that scenario the SC would most likely be leading 'em for some time. Cheers, Ian
As long as we're speculating. If its that wet the cars will be brought in eventually. If its not that wet parts of the track will be dry enough (through drainage or micro-climate) to promote wear. The scenario you paint is an unlikely one. Balanced on a fine edge for up to two hours.
