planetf1.com

Source - http://www.imgur.com


Source - http://www.imgur.com


Source - http://www.imgur.com

Let's hope Ferrari haven't screwed the pooch again with their limited Softs choice.

Both Ferrari and RBR pull only one set of the hardest compound available.
It only makes sense to me that for every compound you have, you need one set to practice on and one set for the race.

I am wondering what McLaren are thinking with their tire choices for Alonso and Vandoorne. Nobody else is even close to their allocation choice.

Japan was a one stop race last year, although that was with a fair bit of time spent behind the safety car. Ferrari seem to be hinting at two stopping with those tyre choices. Mclaren seem to have an eye on a one stop.

The mediums are not a great race tyre though, but the soft tyre generally is. So ferrari bringing just two seems odd.

On the tyres, do you have to bring each tyre or could you just not bother with one of them?

I guess the big question going into this weekend is whether Merc's qualifying and possibly race pace advantage from Russia will carry forward to here. Before they have made this step forward since Spa I thought this might be the race that would suit them most out of the remaining ones.

JN23 wrote:On the tyres, do you have to bring each tyre or could you just not bother with one of them?

I guess the big question going into this weekend is whether Merc's qualifying and possibly race pace advantage from Russia will carry forward to here. Before they have made this step forward since Spa I thought this might be the race that would suit them most out of the remaining ones.

A lot of high speed corners here. Where Merc usually thrives. The gap might even be bigger than in Russia. But if this season has taught us anything so far it's that the races haven't panned out the way we think. So I won't be surprised by anything that happens here, even if a Ferrari somehow gets pole.

Ferrari were just fine in Silverstone. I think they'll be OK. If they don't perform I don't think it will be because of track layout. I think they did a lot of work on this type of scenario, which was somewhat of a weakness for them last year

kleefton wrote:

JN23 wrote:On the tyres, do you have to bring each tyre or could you just not bother with one of them?

I guess the big question going into this weekend is whether Merc's qualifying and possibly race pace advantage from Russia will carry forward to here. Before they have made this step forward since Spa I thought this might be the race that would suit them most out of the remaining ones.

A lot of high speed corners here. Where Merc usually thrives. The gap might even be bigger than in Russia. But if this season has taught us anything so far it's that the races haven't panned out the way we think. So I won't be surprised by anything that happens here, even if a Ferrari somehow gets pole.

I think its very hard to guess anymore. On paper the last 3 tracks were Ferrari territory and yet overall Mercedes have looked quicker.

The last 2 tracks with lots of really high speed corners were probably Spa and Silverstone, both of which Ferrari won.

Any word yet on who will have penalties for driveline changes?

Watch out for Max in this race. He will be a threat for the win IMO.

What are overtaking opportunities like here in comparison with the remaining races ?
Easier to overtake here than Brazil and Mexico
But more difficult than USA and Dubai ?

sandman1347 wrote:Watch out for Max in this race. He will be a threat for the win IMO.

Well, he has finished 2nd the last two Japanese Grand Prix. Once behind Nico and once behind Lewis.

Never have thought that much about Max being a threat at Suzuka.

Esteban Ocon's virtual lap around Suzuka:

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2018/ ... Japan.html

Xink wrote:What are overtaking opportunities like here in comparison with the remaining races ?
Easier to overtake here than Brazil and Mexico
But more difficult than USA and Dubai ?

I would say easier than Brazil only. The straights just aren't very long, and the length of the longest straight tends to set the ease of overtaking with the current breed of F1 cars.

Power unit components used till now:


Source - www.imgur.com

Supposedly, the weather forecast is rain on Friday & Saturday whereas only the race on Sunday is poised to be dry!

Drivers press conference:

UnlikeUday wrote:Drivers press conference:

Only Sunday seems will be dry. Excerpts from the link below:

'Friday will begin with a 40% chance of rain in first practice according to Meteo France, and air temperatures of up to 19C. By second practice the air temperature will rise to around 22C but the threat of rain will grow too, to 80%.

Saturday is expects to remain overcast with more showers. There’s no indication yet the rain might be severe enough to force a postponement of qualifying to Sunday, though that has happened more than once in the past.

A dramatic change in conditions is expected on Sunday. The cloud will lift and the race should see warm, sunny and dry conditions for which the teams are likely to have had little experience of in the preceding 48 hours.'

https://www.racefans.net/2018/10/04/sun ... at-suzuka/

FP1 done:


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UnlikeUday wrote:FP1 done:


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So Lewis and Valtteri are faster on the mediums and soft tires than either Ferrari or Red Bull on the Super Softs????

Looks like Ferrari have committed to a two stop strategy with all the sets of Super Softs. Will the Merc boys be able to motor off into the distance at a faster pace on more durable tires??? FP2&3 will be interesting to watch.

Meanwhile Fernando is scuffing set after set of medium tires for future use. What are they up to???

Mort Canard wrote:

UnlikeUday wrote:FP1 done:


Source - https://scontent.fbom16-1.fna.fbcdn.net ... e=5C1BA143

So Lewis and Valtteri are faster on the mediums and soft tires than either Ferrari or Red Bull on the Super Softs????

Looks like Ferrari have committed to a two stop strategy with all the sets of Super Softs. Will the Merc boys be able to motor off into the distance at a faster pace on more durable tires??? FP2&3 will be interesting to watch.

Meanwhile Fernando is scuffing set after set of medium tires for future use. What are they up to???

No doubt Mercedes have the outright pace. As for McLaren, they know they'll be towards the back. So trialing Mediums more for a longer strategy.

A close call between Hamilton & Gasly:

Fascinating to watch so far. It looks like Mercedes have surged ahead in the performance department quite convincingly now. It's only practice but they look stronger here than they have all season at any circuit. Ferrari are in serious trouble now. The fat lady has begun to warm up.

Of course anything can still happen but Mercedes were absolutely in command in the first session.

FP2 done:


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sandman1347 wrote:Fascinating to watch so far. It looks like Mercedes have surged ahead in the performance department quite convincingly now. It's only practice but they look stronger here than they have all season at any circuit. Ferrari are in serious trouble now. The fat lady has begun to warm up.

Of course anything can still happen but Mercedes were absolutely in command in the first session.

How has it turned around so fast ?
It was only a few races ago that Ferrari were considered to have the fastest outright car .
I also thought that there was only so much development that could be done so late into the season

Isn't it strange how Ferrari have dropped off so much is such a short space of time.

I'm think they have been told behind closed doors by the FIA to stop using their dual battery. I have no proof before you ask just a hunch.

This article from a while ago seems to imply that the advantage is a software one, so perhaps it is simply that the mechanical components have stayed the same all along but Mercedes have caught up with the software.

https://translate.google.co.uk/translat ... rev=search

From another thread on this board it seems that they still maintain an advantage at the start.

http://forum.planet-f1.com/viewtopic.ph ... 1&start=40

well difficult to draw any precise conclusions from FP of course but I hope that the times so far are unrepresentative as otherwise Mercedes have not so much inched as catapulted ahead. 8 tenths from Hamilton to Vettel, the closest they've been in both FP1 and FP2. As dominant as anything so far this season. Given the gap to red Bull, too, I'm inclined to think it's Mercedes improving more than Ferrari somehow losing performance. Impressive work from Mercedes but baffling how they've managed to make such dramatic improvements

I don't think we have seen the full performance from Ferrari yet, I expect a dramatic improvement in 3rd practice and qualifying!

I read on Sky's live practice blog thingy that the word in the paddock is that Ferrari have got their engines very low in practice because they are worried about them. Even so, I can't imagine that Merc have them much higher. I expect Merc to qualify as 1-2 but the race to be a lot closer like last weekend in Russia.

JN23 wrote:I read on Sky's live practice blog thingy that the word in the paddock is that Ferrari have got their engines very low in practice because they are worried about them. Even so, I can't imagine that Merc have them much higher. I expect Merc to qualify as 1-2 but the race to be a lot closer like last weekend in Russia.

yeah I'd agree that performance tends to converge more during races. Still a pretty frightening gap so far, though!

Word is FIA have fitted a second sensor on the battery which has led to power drop although they deny it obviously https://formulaspy.com/formula-1/ferrar ... nsor-56810

bonecrasher wrote:Word is FIA have fitted a second sensor on the battery which has led to power drop although they deny it obviously https://formulaspy.com/formula-1/ferrar ... nsor-56810

It will be interesting to know when it was fit. I thought the new sensor that they used in Canada was the 2nd one they tried, so does this refer to that one or a newer one?

Black_Flag_11 wrote:

bonecrasher wrote:Word is FIA have fitted a second sensor on the battery which has led to power drop although they deny it obviously https://formulaspy.com/formula-1/ferrar ... nsor-56810

It will be interesting to know when it was fit. I thought the new sensor that they used in Canada was the 2nd one they tried, so does this refer to that one or a newer one?

Scarbs has an interesting video on it on his twitter feed. Suspicion is they had something in a grey area within the rules regarding the batteries and energy deployment, and the FIA has slowly tightened down what they were letting them do. GPS data suggests they arent getting this acceleration surge anymore (like we saw Vettel do to Hamilton on the first lap in Spa)

Scarborough’s take on it is in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q1gGmU40zA

OK, so are we saying that Ferrari as the faster car is now an because of the exploitation of a grey area. If so that means their challenge for this years WDC, remote as it is, is probably over? It also means Ferrari, Renault, Honda have a significant amount to catch up on for next season as well.

Option or Prime wrote:OK, so are we saying that Ferrari as the faster car is now an because of the exploitation of a grey area. If so that means their challenge for this years WDC, remote as it is, is probably over? It also means Ferrari, Renault, Honda have a significant amount to catch up on for next season as well.

yeah, if it is just down to Ferrari exploiting a grey area - and I'm far from convinced that is the case - then that effectively means that Ferrari haven't actually caught up with Mercedes in reality, which in turn means that 2019 could be just a return to the established hybrid pecking order. Can't say the prospect of further Mercedes dominance has me salivating, tbh. For that reason alone I hope that these rumours are not true, as the alternative points towards a boring future

bonecrasher wrote:Word is FIA have fitted a second sensor on the battery which has led to power drop although they deny it obviously https://formulaspy.com/formula-1/ferrar ... nsor-56810

A power drop from Singapore, I don't see it as the qualifying onboards showed Vettel's Ferrari accelerating faster out of the corners than Hamilton's Mercedes, I think people are making guesses for the reasons behind the turn around in the relative performance between Ferrari and Mercedes?