We were already screwed when Ferrari's strategic capabilities cost Seb valuable points. They're not up to the challenge of a complicated race... at least it doesn't appear so the past couple or so seasons. Now, if all the races just go normal... no real crazy happenings where strategy will make or break the win... they may be able to fight with Merc. But with Merc getting the luck of a tire change, plus just having the ability to sort out their car and keep developing at a massive rate the entire season... well... yeah.. we're screwed probably. I don't count Monaco as a comparison race. It's a pole to win race and largely a follow the leader circuit. Canada and France will be telling and I have the very sick feeling, Merc will be in their own league.
I recommend people watch F1 Paddock Pass on YouTube: Interviewer: “ how has Mercedes managed to unlock this track this weekend” Vettel: “Different Tires” It’s very simple. Mercedes had Pirelli change the tire that they favor to suit their car.
Keep in mind that France - I think - is another track where Pirelli is bringing the Mercedes special tires. So, that one will presumably be a walk over for Mercedes.
@Astro_Feustel might up in the @Space_Station but he still found time to catch the #SpanishGP Image Unavailable, Please Login This is the guy that sends us pics of tracks he is over 250 miles up. He's watching MotoGP. He eats 4G's for breakfast. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Kimi Raikkonen's first power unit is DEAD and his second power unit suffered an electrical glitch. https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/ferrari-il-motore-2-di-raikkonen-in-spagna-non-si-e-rotto-solo-un-black-out-1037649/ … via @Motorsport_IT
http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/23501753/why-did-ferrari-struggle-spain The main problem was that the smoother surface was not resulting in as much physical wear from the tyres as before. The more rubber remaining on the tyre, the more heat it retains -- and on the softer compounds the surface of the tyre was getting so hot it started to blister. In agreement with the FIA, a decision was made to reduce the thickness of the tyres for the Spanish, French and British Grands Prix, in an attempt to avoid blistering on the newly-laid surfaces at all three circuits. After being accused of favouring Red Bull in 2013 when it changed the construction of its tyres following that year's Spanish Grand Prix, Pirelli has been wary of altering its product midway through the season. But this weekend's change is tiny in comparison -- just 0.4mm of the tread was skimmed from the normal tyre -- and is common practice elsewhere in motor racing. What's more, by all accounts the thinner-gauge tyres were a success with no blistering reported during the race weekend. But in a sport measured in thousandths of a second, the smallest changes can make a noticeable difference.
Again Will Buxton licking Strolls arse as deep as he can...nice tongue job Will...now run and get that paycheck from papa stroll, pretty sure the Stroller will need you good services again after Monaco!
Funny but I didn’t even think about the fact that Max crashed into someone yet again. At least he didn’t ruin wdc contenders’ race this time.
Respectfully some of the comments in these threads are childish. People on here love to complain about LCH going from on top of the world to down in the doldrums as his results ebb and flow. His mood swings are nothing compared to some of the emotions shown here by many of the same people who supposedly dislike LCH for the very same reason. The Ferrari IS the faster car on aggregate this season. Spain has been a track that Mercedes go well at since the start of the hybrid era. Weren't they something like 1.5 seconds clear in the first year and they have always run well here. Merceses have had pole every year and Lewis has won every year unless something has gone disastrously wrong with his race. It's a track that suits this team and driver perfectly. Monaco in two weeks will be an entirely different track and one that in recent years Ferrari have been far more competitive than Mercedes, Kimi especially. I'm hoping for Kimi's luck (and strategy calls) finally comes good and he gets his first win since re-joining the Scuderia. The tire episode is laughable, people trying to make conspiracies out of nothing. The change may have been requested by Merc, but it was proposed right after testing at the beginning of the year and was AGREED too by all the teams and the FIA. Arrivabene (or was it Marchionne) may be trying revisionist history claiming they were told not asked, but they could have vetoed it. Also, this isn't a compound or construction change, it's just marginally less tread thickness to help prevent overheating. It's not a wholesale change to the tire. There is good and bad luck in any sport. LCH should have won in Australia, but the safety car allowed Seb to steal it. The reverse was true in China. Most of Ferrari's issue this year have been frankly appalling strategy calls from the pit wall plus the unguided missile that's Mad Max. Organize a Coup d'état if you must, or call up the mafia and take out a hit on the flying Dutchman, but please please quit the constant whining about LCH, Mercedes, Pirelli and the FIA, it's simply laughable. My call for Monaco 1st Kimi, 2nd Ricciardo, 3rd Seb. I've got Ricci in 2nd as if it were Kimi, Seb 1-2 then I'm sure the call from the pits would be 'Kimi, Sebastian is faster than you' and I'd hate to see that.
An image/video is worth a thousand words... Any proof that Pirelli is now part to the MB-FIA team... https://streamable.com/c6a1s Probably Isola stopped by to see when he is going to receive the wire transfer...
I don't have a problem with Lewis or Merc at all. I"m just sick of seeing them win. You can argue they benefited greatly from the development freeze that did not allow competitors to advance their cars in the first crucial seasons of the new era. Merc certainly got it right... a lot more right than any other team, but it was unfair in my view not to give the other works teams the ability to develop and catch up. Any doubt of that greatly benefiting Merc is easily dispelled by how quickly Ferrari and Red Bull caught up once the freeze was lifted, the ridiculous token system abandoned, and development allowed. Let's imagine for a moment if Renault and Ferrari could addressed PU issues real time during the 14, 15, and 16 seasons. I'm not saying Merc wouldn't have won what they did... I don't have that sort of crystal ball, but I'm sure it would have made for a lot more of an exciting racing season. But looking at the Safety Car thing... in Australia when Seb won, Merc also had the chance to pit. They didn't. Strategic blunder on their part. In China, after 2+ laps... Seb drives by the pit entrance, then the Safety Car lights up and allows Lewis to dive in at the last moment with his team all set to go. Conspiracy? I don't know. Fair... not really. Fixable... Certainly. I said a few weeks ago that the pit lane should be closed until all the leaders come around and have a chance to dive in. If they do or don't, it's their strategy to make or break. It's not good for racing when people in the booth effect the outcome of races with arbitrary decisions that are very easily controllable yet are allowed to happen and cause mass controversy. It's not good for the sport.
What’s strange is I hadn’t noticed that before however this time it did strike me. I was a bit surprised.
