2018 Formula One Season ***Possible Spoilers***

At least I don't have to live a lie

 

day 1 of testing.

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I don't think he answered his own question....

MERCEDES SPANISH GP DOMINATION: AN OUTLIER OR THE START OF A TREND?

POSTED BY: JAMES ALLEN | 15 MAY 2018 | 2:58 PM GMT | 28 COMMENTS
We said at the start of this 2018 F1 season that with the car that they have, Ferrari could win the championship only if they execute perfectly.

Some strategy calls have gone well, others like Bahrain they have got away with because of the driver, others have gone wrong and so has the driver, like Baku.

But in Spain they were on the defensive; on race pace, strategy, tyre usage and engine reliability, they were fighting a rearguard action and Mercedes enjoyed the most dominant winning margin of the season.

Was this the start of a trend, after a shaky Mercedes start to the season, or an outlier of a race due to Pirelli changing the tyres for this race (and two later ones in France and UK)?

Pre-race considerations

It is never desirable to change something fundamental, like tyres, during a racing season. For one thing it always gives rise to conspiracy theories that the change was motivated by the team who subsequently wins the race to the detriment of the team that loses.

F1 fans have fresh memories of Mercedes struggling to master the tyres in 2013 until they did a controversial test and from that point onwards started winning races.


Spain 2013: After a front-row lock-out, Mercedes struggle with tyres during the race.

The idea of Pirelli bringing a tyre with thinner gauge arose after teams experienced blistering at the winter tests in February and early March. All the leading teams were part of that request to Pirelli. Knowing that they had time from a logistical point of view, the company obliged with tyres for Spain, France and Silverstone, where the problem was mostly expected to arise.

Up to that point in 2018, the supersoft had been a tyre that Ferrari had worked better than Mercedes in the opening rounds of the championship. But now it wasn’t to anyone’s liking and we had the highly unusual spectacle in the Q2 session, which decides the starting race tyre, of all but one car going for it on the soft compound instead.

Only Fernando Alonso went through Q2 on supersoft and therefore started the race on it. When only one car in the whole field, as it subsequently turned out, starts on the ‘qualifying’ tyre, then something is wrong.

Interestingly Sauber was the only team to ignore the supersoft completely in Friday practice and to focus on optimising a soft-medium strategy. It worked for Charles Leclerc, who got another solid points finish in a race with Alonso.

Leclerc was ahead and knew Alonso couldn’t overcut as he couldn’t extend on his supersoft tyres, but knowing they could never pit Leclerc before the safe moment for one stop to be able to reach the end on mediums.

For the midfield, the battle was in doing a better job of calculating how early your car could get to the end on Medium tyres.

Doing the opposite
Track position is king, goes the saying and at some tracks you give it up only if you absolutely have to. On fast open tracks with good overtaking possibilities, it’s all about doing your fastest race, not worrying too much about being held up by slower cars after a pit stop.

In Spain it’s different, especially with the 2018 generation cars. It’s very hard to overtake. Even a big tyre offset doesn’t compensate; track position is king. This was demonstrated vividly after Hamilton’s pit stop, where on fresh tyres he couldn’t get past Verstappen, whose tyres had done over 30 laps.



And so when Ferrari – fearing an undercut attempt by Valtteri Bottas – pulled Sebastian Vettel in to the pits on Lap 17 from a second place he had taken off Bottas at the start, committing him to a two stop race, it did several things at once.

First it brought him out behind Kevin Magnussen, as he didn’t have enough of a gap back to clear the Dane. He lost some vital time there. Second it determined Lewis Hamilton’s strategy for the afternoon as the Englishman was running in clear air, which causes less damage to the tyres, and was able to extend his first stint to the point where he could move directly onto mediums to the finish of the race.

It also determined Bottas’ strategy, as Mercedes pushed Bottas to do two more hard laps while Vettel was losing time behind Magnussen, the target being to then overcut him at the stop. A problem with one of the rear wheels meant that Bottas stop was 3.9s, almost twice the normal length and he rejoined behind Vettel. That was two set-backs in the first part of the race for Bottas, who’d lost the start to Vettel and after his blowout in Baku he must be wondering when his luck would change.

It told everyone that Vettel was on a two stop and Bottas almost certainly as well as they had almost 50 laps to go to the finish. Both teams went into the race with two stops in mind. Ferrari were getting through the tyres more voraciously than Mercedes and far more so than Red Bull, who had seen in Friday practice that they could hold onto them longer that their rivals and that opened up the possibility of a one stop race, from soft to medium.

But Ferrari had another problem that was undermining their performance; the engine. As at the end of last season, when Vettel’s title hopes went away with reliability concerns on the engine, so in Spain Raikkonen lost an engine in practice and then another in the race causing alarm bells.

One of the problems has been traced to an electrical fault and that engine may be used again for practice later in the season. But Vettel’s race was doubly compromised by instructions to take care of the engine after Raikkonen retired before half distance.



Added to Ferrari’s strategy move to bring Vettel in on Lap 17 for the first stop, to prevent Bottas from undercutting him, it added up to a defensive race for Ferrari, rather than an offensive one.

This is the real story of Ferrari’s strategy in Spain, not the focus on the second stop under the Virtual Safety Car, that dropped Vettel down to fourth place where he eventually finished.

By that point he was already well and truly on the defensive and the move under the VSC was the right thing to do as it meant that the stop cost half as much time relative to the field as stopping at racing speeds. Ferrari had been hoping for a VSC or a Safety Car, knowing Vettel had to stop again. Every race this season has had one, it’s becoming a clear pattern.

Vettel dropped to fourth and stayed there because his positioning was slightly out on the pit box entry and also he was held momentarily for another car passing so as not to be released unsafely.

This allowed the one-stopping Verstappen to get past him for a podium finish.

Mercedes, meanwhile ‘did the opposite’, when Vettel stopped. Ferrari had been relying on the Finn also needing to stop a second time after an early first stop, but when Vettel pitted the instruction was to stay out and try to make the finish.

There was only a very small probability that the VSC for Ocon’s broken down car could become a Safety Car, which might have made the decision to stop more pressing. The Strategists on the pit wall are racing mathematicians, who calculate probability and risk/reward in real time throughout the race.

Bottas was able to make the tyres last to the finish for a one-two for Mercedes. He was helped by Verstappen breaking off part of his front wing in a collision. Although he maintained remarkably strong lap times, it inevitably imbalanced the car and despite having tyres that were 15 laps fresher, he could not get close to Bottas.

 

Well, he was in a Toro Rosso

 

Lewis has voices in his head lol

http://f1.channel4.com/video/lewis-you-hear-the-whispers-your-ears

 

Quite astounding how the hamilton fanbois were very quiet for a few weeks....now they've gone beserk in the F1 section because he won a race and is leading the championship.

One of them said that Hamilton is better than Schumacher...."Even Irvine beat Schumacher in '99" *sigh*

Someone needs to remind them that even in his 40s, MS got pole in that (then) crap Mercedes at Monaco and on the rare occasion both cars finished, he was usually ahead of Rosberg, which is taking nothing away from Rosberg. AND OMG....they are so butt hurt that Nico beat Lewis so often AND won a championship. it's comical to watch, if you like bamboo under your fingernails.

 

Well, that's an interesting observation. When the Ferrari fans get mad at the lewis trolls, the mods ban them, but when the lewis trolls are trolling, they're just expressing their opinion.

I still don't get it. Overcompensating, i think.

 

It was extraordinary.

 

#OnThisDay in 1999, Michael Schumacher became Ferrari's record race-winner Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login The German's Monaco GP victory was his Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login th for the team, overtaking Niki Lauda's total Image Unavailable, Please Login He would go on to win Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login more races for Ferrari, and five drivers' titles Image Unavailable, Please Login

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Today.........

Image Unavailable, Please Login Scuderia Ferrari‏Verified account @ScuderiaFerrari 2h2 hours ago
.@Anto_Giovinazzi jumps into the SF71H for #F1Testing

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Image Unavailable, Please Login Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya‏Verified account @Circuitcat_eng 40m40 minutes ago
End of morning session! Best times so far: #F1Testing
BOT 1:16.904 Image Unavailable, Please Login
GIO 1:16.972
MAG 1:18.274
Norris 1:18.827
Aitken 1:18.942
LEC 1:18.993
KUB 1:19.253
Mazepin 1:19.671
Vandoorne 1:19.914
Dennis 1:20.684
Gelael 1:20.763
Latifi 1:21.433

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How good would this be? But not for Lewis.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/motorsport/formula-one/mercedes-ricciardo-contract-bombshell/news-story/24a0cae411c2beec87328ef9490cdf29

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BizK5X-BUu6/

 

Convinced yet?

https://www.autosport.com/f2/news/136101/how-the-halo-passed-its-first-major-test

 

Poor Lewis

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/136131/alonso-takes-the-lead-in-your-driver-ratings