F1: 2020 Round 6 Spanish GP (See Mod note at Post4)

deafroadrunner wrote: »

If you watch again. You can see ocon looking in his mirrors before avoiding kmag.

At least one of them was looking in their mirrors.

If you're going to do something unusual like drive very slowly and veer acroethw track, surely it's your job to have a look in the mirrors and do it safely.

Penalty must be coming for KMag.

deafroadrunner wrote: »

Stewards say no punishment for either. Unfortunate accident.

Surprised by that. Fair enough.

Vettel misses Q3

Where the hell did that lap from Gasly come from?

Perez is faster than anyone in Sector 1 then nearly half a second slower in Sector 2, that's some swing.

This is it wrote: »

Vettel misses Q3

He was actually very close to Albon and norris ahead of him. But he was a full 2 tenths behind LeClerc. And all this is with the brand new chassis.

I'd say the chassis change was probably mostly psychological. Giving him a fresh start. If memory serves, he needed a new chassis when he was being beaten by Ricciardo too.

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

He was actually very close to Albon and norris ahead of him. But he was a full 2 tenths behind LeClerc. And all this is with the brand new chassis.

I'd say the chassis change was probably mostly psychological. Giving him a fresh start. If memory serves, he needed a new chassis when he was being beaten by Ricciardo too.

I think he missed out by 2 hundredths for Q3. Close but still disappointing, especially since LeClerc pushed on, though didn't finish Q3 as well as he might have

Yeah Vettel Both poor and Unlucky 0.002 is tight. Still ,Does he get free tire choice now? . Go on Medium ,Get a good start take at least one place , into the points , Long first stint ...Red wall softs a head and behind go off he could end up with some free air and a decent points finish .......5th is possible but it would take a lot of Not messing up which of late ..meh .


Gasly is having a great run of late , Getting loads out of the Alpha Tauri . I do remember him saying he did not like driving the Redbull , he felt he could do more with the Toro Rosso at the time. That it would move how he wanted and expect to move but he is driving out of himself in the Qual sessions .

Joeface wrote: »

Yeah Vettel Both poor and Unlucky 0.002 is tight. Still ,Does he get free tire choice now? . Go on Medium ,Get a good start take at least one place , into the points , Long first stint ...Red wall softs a head and behind go off he could end up with some free air and a decent points finish .......5th is possible but it would take a lot of Not messing up which of late ..meh .


Gasly is having a great run of late , Getting loads out of the Alpha Tauri . I do remember him saying he did not like driving the Redbull , he felt he could do more with the Toro Rosso at the time. That it would move how he wanted and expect to move but he is driving out of himself in the Qual sessions .

Yeah hopefully Vettel can use the tyres to his advantage. I think they're using the hardest three compounds this week so probably not as dramatic as the last couple of weekends.

I wonder if adrian newey has lost his touch. This year's RB seems to be way too skitty at the back end. Maybe he's run out of road for development with the current aero formula. 2022 will be th he big test of whether he's still got it.

Joeface wrote: »

Gasly is having a great run of late , Getting loads out of the Alpha Tauri . I do remember him saying he did not like driving the Redbull , he felt he could do more with the Toro Rosso at the time. That it would move how he wanted and expect to move but he is driving out of himself in the Qual sessions .

https://the-race.com/formula-1/has-red-bull-hit-the-limit-of-its-high-rake-designs/

Some insight into red bull struggles

It was a similar story last year; it took a few races last year for the team to understand the car and setup -- Gasly and Max were both complaining about its nervousness in the early races. Now on race pace it seems a match for the Mercs.

If the ban on quali modes comes into force, that might help close the gap further. And then if Mercs are struggling with tyres in hotter temperatures, they can't be looking forward to Italy and Portugal too much.

Dont be at yourself wrote: »

It was a similar story last year; it took a few races last year for the team to understand the car and setup -- Gasly and Max were both complaining about its nervousness in the early races. Now on race pace it seems a match for the Mercs.

If the ban on quali modes comes into force, that might help close the gap further. And then if Mercs are struggling with tyres in hotter temperatures, they can't be looking forward to Italy and Portugal too much.

It's going to be interesting to see what Merc do if Verstappen is going to win and Bottas is ahead of Hamilton!

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

At this point I'd say they'd just let them race. If it was close in the championship between max and Lewis then they'd let Lewis ahead and if it was close between Lewis and bottas they'd let them race.

They were good at letting them race back when it was Hamilton vs rosberg. There's mush have been much better coverage of Mercedes back then too. We saw very little of merc during the races they win comfortably.

I wonder how the higher-ups in Daimler see it. Do they see utter dominance as the best outcome or do they want close racing and a few controversies where they squeek victory in the end?

Only 30 points between Hamilton and Verstappen, so he could wipe out 33% of Hamilton's lead today if he won and Ham was 3rd.

F2 race a tyre conservation battle. Cars got five seconds slower over the course of the race.

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

True butthey've always let them race early in the season. They might pull team orders but it would be a big departure from what they've done in the past.

Bottas signed a new contract recently. There could be a new clause that makes him an explicit no.2. But in all honesty I'd expect them to let them race at this stage of the season. Particularly given how dominant they are this year soft tyres and hot weather notwithstanding.

I'd bet Mercedes is lobbying full force for the hardest tyre compounds in all the races where compounds haven't been decided yet.

Most of the remaining races will be hot thought?

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Hot with hard tyres is no bother to merc. In Spain in August with hard tyres Bottas in second was over 6 tenths clear of verstappen. depends on how the race pace goes but I'd back Mercedes all day long over the season.

I back them to influence the tyre selection for the remaining to make them harder for the rest of the races

Spain has the hardest selection available