FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA PIRELLI 2017: RACE ***SPOILERS***

Yeah, but it's a race...There was a gap and he went for it. By that same reasoning Kimi shouldn't have gone to overtake Bottas either in case he hit him .

Fair play but not much he could've done. His steering arm was already broken, barely any steering. Kimi also came back on track, also with broken steering. By the time either of them realized it was too late. As for saying he was too busy waving his hand about showing his displeasure...from where he was sitting it must've looked like an overly aggressive and failed defending move, but after he saw the images he knew it was Bottas.

 

Via Autosport - 33 Max Verstappen
Red Bull-Renault RB13

Start: 5th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/retired)

Rating: 8

Verstappen felt the updated RB13 was the best he's driven all season and he put it to good use to crush team-mate Ricciardo in qualifying and lap within three tenths of Raikkonen's Ferrari.

That excellent performance earns him high marks. Sadly, Verstappen's race ended after one corner. He blamed Bottas for causing the collision, but three-wide through Turn 1 was never going to work.

 

7 Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari SF70H

Start: 4th
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/retired)

Rating: 7

Raikkonen was honest enough to admit his own messy driving cost him again in qualifying, when Mercedes looked there for the taking, so he loses marks for that scruffy effort.

He was blameless in the Turn 1 collision that ended his race, but put a smile back on the face of a very unhappy young Ferrari fan caught on camera sobbing over Raikkonen's exit and then invited into the paddock to meet his hero.

 

77 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes F1 W08

Start: 3rd
Finish: Retired
Strategy: (soft/medium/retired)

Rating: 7

Bottas was discombobulated by the loss of his new engine before final practice. He then couldn't tame oversteer in qualifying and made mistakes on each of his Q3 laps.

He started well, but braked too early for Turn 1 and inadvertently pushed Raikkonen into Verstappen. He survived the collision, but had no pace, so played a dutiful team game until the engine let go.

 

Unfortunately, the majority of F1 races the past few years have been decided by turn one. This year... a little different... but still.

 

I've been a Seb fan for quite awhile.. so I'm just happy he's back being competitive because I think he really is a true racer. I think Lewis is as well, so it's fun to watch. I just had this feeling that it was Seb's race to lose and unfortunately Ferrari made sure that happened. They have yet to overcome their weakness - strategy. Way too often they stuff it because of odd calls or failures to call. It just reminds me of Williams who if given 4 potentially bad choices, they choose E - all of the above.

I don't get going back on the softs which took away the option for a two stopper and allowed Merc to have a choice as the race panned out. I don't know... the VSC was an issue but Merc obviously made the right call... once again... Ferrari just didn't react.

 

This point should be in the Massa sucks thread... not only did Massa punt off Alonso and Vandoorne on two separate incidents, he also cost Vettel several seconds near the end as Vettel tried to chase down Hamilton. Didn't Massa hit someone else, too? A genuinely useless drive from him, being in the way and on the wrong part of the track for the entire race.[/QUOTE]

LOLo, i agree, that kind of hater's coment should really be in a suck thread, it's of no good use in a serious race debate.

 

Results are mostly determined by:

Qualifying position
Starts/first lap
Minimizing pit delta

There is very little passing on track after the lap one, the start and the first few corners are the best opportunities to gain position.

 

Ferrari lost on strategy/pits. I think we had a quicker package then Mercedes, just a poor strategy for how to work the mediums into the equation. It definitely going to be a dogfight this year. But all the monies for the season are based on constructor points so hopefully we can catch up in that category.

+100 for Kimi's class act with his young fan. That's what it's all about

 

+1

And I'm so encouraged by Ferrari's pace despite Merc's massive upgrade.

 

Yes, Max is great seeing gaps...even those only he sees like the one in Spa
Difference: Kimi opened a second lane, Max a third and this was obviously one to much. It could have worked out and people would have praised Max for the maneuver of the year but there was a good chance of things not working out as one could see...Maybe one day Max could differ between those gap that are there and that make sense and those who might be there but do not make that much sense...

 

+1 its about gaining 'feel' for what is possible before you decide to attack the gap. He's young still.

 

TifosiUSAs predictions after FP1 and FP2:
We are nowhere on long runs and will be beaten in qualifying. You can't pass here and Merc will easily get pole. *less than .1 second. So easy* This race is gone.

As for the rest of the year...this was my fear from the start. In years past Ferrari starts with a good car, not the best, but good, but can't keep up with the development pace of Mercedes and Red Bull. This is just a preview of the rest of the year. Merc is relentless with upgrades and will cruise to the WDC/WCC. Ferrari likely won't be beating Red Bulls here in a few races. Watch. Was fun to be in it for a few races though. Took me back to the good ole days.

You're setting yourself up for disappointment if you believe otherwise. Notice how much closer Red Bull already is with their new upgrades. It's coming. Meanwhile Merc is their standard .6 ahead that they will maintain for the rest of the year.
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Not exactly the story of the weekend, was it?
Poor strategy calling cost the win, but Ferrari was clearly right there on the pace. And Red Bull? Oh yeah...they're coming for sure after their massive updates. How far behind did RIC finish?

I'm curious how you define "cruise to the WDC/WCC"? Let me know if you're taking bets...

 

Merc took pole and won the race, just like I said they would. Ferrari was closer than I thought they would be, which is encouraging. Unlike you, I actually have the balls to make predictions not just sit back and criticize after the fact. You're a Monday morning QB, congrats. In the end, Merc won the race. Ferrari was closer than I thought but who really cares? They lost.

Now, what would you like to bet? Step up to the plate.

 

The VSC is supposed to maintain the time distance between the cars. There should not be a way to effectively get a 15 sec pitstop, eliminating an 8 sec lead.

 

Not true. Merc performed the pit stop in the last lap of the vsc. This meant that ham was stationary whilst all the cars on track were running at much reduced pace. When Ferrari pitted, ham we running at full race pace as the vsc was over. Net result - 8 second gain.

 

"Balls to make predictions" about something you have no control over? Wow. To what end? 'So very impressive.
That last part of the selective quote rings so true.

 

Tire strategy.

 

We're on an internet forum, none of us have control over anything in F1. But other than that, good call.

 

The "balls" it doesn't take was the point I was making. Not the correctness or "control" of the prediction/outcome. Just sittin' here havin' some fun.

Back to Indy practice......

 

Funny that you say you have the "balls" to make a prediction, and then start backpedaling immediately.
Your predictions:
Merc would walk away with it:
.6s quicker per lap in Spain AND throughout the rest of the season. (Btw, fastest race lap gap was .08s) WRONG.
"Merc would easily get pole". (Qual gap was .049s.) WRONG.

Now after the fact "oh I just predicted they would take pole and win, which they did". Funny, that's not what your post says.

As for a friendly wager...
Define "cruise to WDC and WCC". Win both by 50+ points? 100+ points?
"Ferrari won't be beating red bull here in a few races. watch". So..."a few" = 3? Baku? So red bull will outscore Ferrari starting at that point until the end of the season? Sure i'll bet against that.

Like you said, just having a bit of fun. But it bugs the heck out of me when people come on here and start singing the blues so quickly. After a PRACTICE session no less.
Have some faith! It will be a good season!

 

The VSC maintains the time distance between the cars, at a reduced pace. Let's say the regular lap time was 1:22, and a VSC lap was 2:00 - if a pit entry-pit stop-pit exit costs 22 seconds, then with no VSC, it takes 22 seconds/82 seconds, or 26.8% of a regular lap, for a pit stop. Under the VSC with an assumed 2:00 lap time, then a pit stop only takes 22 seconds/120 seconds, or just 18.3% of a VSC lap. That's 8.5% of a lap distance advantage for a pit stop under VSC versus no VSC - convert that to 8.5% of a lap at regular speed, and it's 12 secs advantage when racing speeds resume.

Obviously my numbers are very rough for illustrative purposes only, but they show how it is relatively easy to gain 8 seconds by pitting under VSC compared to a guy who has to pit without VSC.

 

Bottas did what he should have done.

Max and Kvyat should have some sort of slap down. Those guys are dangerous.

Good race. Elton did what he had to do, dammit.

 

What I was saying is that there should not be a way to make it an advantage. They should create a pit delta and use that to determine the gaps. Otherwise, unless it is completely off the pit strategy, it would just make sense for everyone to pit. If it doesn't maintain the gap, they might as well just have the normal SC and let everyone bunch up (Or close the pits during a VSC)

 

Obviously Ferrari was much faster than I expected given the Merc updates which I was happy to see. That said, Merc took pole and has sat on pole 4/5 races. Doesn't bode well. It's hard to win races from the second row against such a strong opponent. Just find it a bit funny when people come here after the fact and gloat that I was wrong when I didn't see them making any predictions of their own. Gap was smaller than I thought but Merc still won both pole and race so while Ferrari was close you know what they say...2nd place is the first loser.

As for singing the blues, Ferrari hasn't won a WDC in 10 years. Forgive me for being a bit of a cynic I still think Ferrari will be out-developed and Merc will win the WDC/WCC. By cruise I mean both will be locked up before the final race. I HOPE I'M WRONG.