03-03-2018, 14:06
El Abuelo F1 a retweeté
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What can we read from the Barcelona timesheets?
@sportmphMark has evaluated who sits where in the early pecking order: http://bit.ly/2FeNXLP
Mercedes (total 306 laps). Up until the final day the Mercedes W09 didn’t look decisively faster than either the Ferrari or Red Bull. It was always very quick in sectors one and two - which emphasise aero efficiency – but was consistently slower than its two rivals in the slow final sector. But whether through a set-up change that kept the rear tyres from getting too hot or through Lewis Hamilton finding a better groove there than had Valtteri Bottas, it was competitively quick even in its weakest sector on Thursday. By our reckoning Hamilton’s best lap – fuel and tyre adjusted – was around 0.3sec clear of Vettel’s Ferrari. But that was only on a single lap basis. On the long runs, Hamilton’s best would have had him 2.4sec behind Vettel at the end of a nine-lap stint. Although super-quick over a single lap, we’ve yet to see the Merc complete as good a long run as either Ferrari or Red Bull. Just a different run programme or indicative of an actual trait? That could be the single most important question of the off-season.
+0.3sec
Red Bull (total 207 laps) and Ferrari (total 298 laps). Vettel was The Man on Tuesday, and actually went slightly faster on Thursday, but not by enough to prevent being shaded by Hamilton. However, his best long run had him averaging 1m 20.9sec over nine laps, which was an exceptional pace and the best long run anyone put together all week.
Red Bull didn’t get the cleanest of runs after Daniel Ricciardo had headed the times on Monday. Max Verstappen suffered technical problems on both Tuesday and Thursday but he was quick when he ran. One very long run he made on Tuesday of 23 laps looks especially interesting: taking out the obviously slow laps (for either traffic or perhaps trying to keep the tyres alive), he averaged just 0.2sec slower than Vettel’s much shorter best run on Thursday.
+0.6sec
Renault (total 273 laps). The RS18 looked best of the rest after the big three by a very useful margin, though uniquely it did its fastest time on the Monday – in the hands of Nico Hülkenberg.
+0.5s
Williams-Mercedes (total 275 laps). Robert Kubica reported the FW41 to be a “powerful performer” in some respects but had some initial balance issues that needed further work. Lance Stroll was well into the car’s groove on Thursday afternoon and managed to string together a sequence of laps that seem to place the car initially towards the upper midfield.
+0.5s
Haas-Ferrari (total 187 laps) & McLaren-Renault (total 249 laps). This is a respectable pace for Haas, a worrying one for McLaren. Kevin Magnussen found the Haas to respond well to the super-soft tyre but even accounting for that tyre’s supposed 1.3sec advantage over the soft most others were using, the new VF18 looks promising – though Roman Grosjean continues to struggle with front locking.
At McLaren the headline numbers looked good, with Stoffel Vandoorne second quickest on Thursday – but that was using the hyper-soft, a much quicker tyre than anyone else. He remained on this compound throughout his running and taking account of its performance boost puts the McLaren around 2sec off the Red Bull. However it’s believed to have been running in compromised form, possibly related to a problem with exhaust temperatures that brought a premature end to its Tuesday. If the engine was being run rich to control exhaust temperatures, it would cost significant performance. Fernando Alonso spent most of his time on the super-soft but wasn’t particularly fast either. A lot of question marks surround the MCL33 at the moment, but hopefully it will show its true potential if it can run in uncompromised form next week.
+0.3sec
Force India-Mercedes (total 166 laps). Even compared to the other teams, Force India was spending a lot of its time aero mapping and we probably haven’t seen a representative lap from it yet. The team says it will be concentrating on performance testing next week.
+0.4sec
Toro Rosso-Honda (total 322 laps). The Honda ran very reliably throughout the four days, actually completing more laps than any other team, but as yet not very quickly.
+ 0.3sec
Sauber-Ferrari (total 282 laps). The Alfa-liveried car has yet to go as well as it looks
Motor Sport Magazine
Compte certifié
@Motor_Sport
2 mars
Plus
What can we read from the Barcelona timesheets?
@sportmphMark has evaluated who sits where in the early pecking order: http://bit.ly/2FeNXLP
Mercedes (total 306 laps). Up until the final day the Mercedes W09 didn’t look decisively faster than either the Ferrari or Red Bull. It was always very quick in sectors one and two - which emphasise aero efficiency – but was consistently slower than its two rivals in the slow final sector. But whether through a set-up change that kept the rear tyres from getting too hot or through Lewis Hamilton finding a better groove there than had Valtteri Bottas, it was competitively quick even in its weakest sector on Thursday. By our reckoning Hamilton’s best lap – fuel and tyre adjusted – was around 0.3sec clear of Vettel’s Ferrari. But that was only on a single lap basis. On the long runs, Hamilton’s best would have had him 2.4sec behind Vettel at the end of a nine-lap stint. Although super-quick over a single lap, we’ve yet to see the Merc complete as good a long run as either Ferrari or Red Bull. Just a different run programme or indicative of an actual trait? That could be the single most important question of the off-season.
+0.3sec
Red Bull (total 207 laps) and Ferrari (total 298 laps). Vettel was The Man on Tuesday, and actually went slightly faster on Thursday, but not by enough to prevent being shaded by Hamilton. However, his best long run had him averaging 1m 20.9sec over nine laps, which was an exceptional pace and the best long run anyone put together all week.
Red Bull didn’t get the cleanest of runs after Daniel Ricciardo had headed the times on Monday. Max Verstappen suffered technical problems on both Tuesday and Thursday but he was quick when he ran. One very long run he made on Tuesday of 23 laps looks especially interesting: taking out the obviously slow laps (for either traffic or perhaps trying to keep the tyres alive), he averaged just 0.2sec slower than Vettel’s much shorter best run on Thursday.
+0.6sec
Renault (total 273 laps). The RS18 looked best of the rest after the big three by a very useful margin, though uniquely it did its fastest time on the Monday – in the hands of Nico Hülkenberg.
+0.5s
Williams-Mercedes (total 275 laps). Robert Kubica reported the FW41 to be a “powerful performer” in some respects but had some initial balance issues that needed further work. Lance Stroll was well into the car’s groove on Thursday afternoon and managed to string together a sequence of laps that seem to place the car initially towards the upper midfield.
+0.5s
Haas-Ferrari (total 187 laps) & McLaren-Renault (total 249 laps). This is a respectable pace for Haas, a worrying one for McLaren. Kevin Magnussen found the Haas to respond well to the super-soft tyre but even accounting for that tyre’s supposed 1.3sec advantage over the soft most others were using, the new VF18 looks promising – though Roman Grosjean continues to struggle with front locking.
At McLaren the headline numbers looked good, with Stoffel Vandoorne second quickest on Thursday – but that was using the hyper-soft, a much quicker tyre than anyone else. He remained on this compound throughout his running and taking account of its performance boost puts the McLaren around 2sec off the Red Bull. However it’s believed to have been running in compromised form, possibly related to a problem with exhaust temperatures that brought a premature end to its Tuesday. If the engine was being run rich to control exhaust temperatures, it would cost significant performance. Fernando Alonso spent most of his time on the super-soft but wasn’t particularly fast either. A lot of question marks surround the MCL33 at the moment, but hopefully it will show its true potential if it can run in uncompromised form next week.
+0.3sec
Force India-Mercedes (total 166 laps). Even compared to the other teams, Force India was spending a lot of its time aero mapping and we probably haven’t seen a representative lap from it yet. The team says it will be concentrating on performance testing next week.
+0.4sec
Toro Rosso-Honda (total 322 laps). The Honda ran very reliably throughout the four days, actually completing more laps than any other team, but as yet not very quickly.
+ 0.3sec
Sauber-Ferrari (total 282 laps). The Alfa-liveried car has yet to go as well as it looks