
Source - Imgur

Source - Imgur
Yeah great circuit... If they brought back Malaysia and got rid of bloody Abu Dhabi the last few races of the season would be amazingHerb wrote:Always look forward to this race!
FormulaFun wrote:Yeah great circuit... If they brought back Malaysia and got rid of bloody Abu Dhabi the last few races of the season would be amazingHerb wrote:Always look forward to this race!
I'll take Mercedes and Hamilton.M44 wrote:Surely Ferrari territory this weekend?
M44 wrote:Surely Ferrari territory this weekend?
Wrong.. don't u remember "f**cking finally" last year?DFWdude wrote:I checked the ESPN Stats... Hamilton has won every year at COTA since its 2012 inception, save 2013 (Vettel). That's 6 of 7 races. No reason to expect anything else in 2019.
I stand corrected. So it's 5/7 for Hamilton, then. HAM clearly enjoys this track.Johnson wrote:Kimi won last year
I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.Invade wrote:I'll take Mercedes and Hamilton.M44 wrote:Surely Ferrari territory this weekend?
Yeah, but what I do see is Ferrari throwing away a front-row lockout due to strategy.M44 wrote:I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.
There are also a lot of slow to medium speed corners where the Merc does well.M44 wrote:I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.Invade wrote:I'll take Mercedes and Hamilton.M44 wrote:Surely Ferrari territory this weekend?
I feel the pit-straight and long back straight will be pure Ferrari territory.
As a Lewis fan, I am willing to be pleasantly surprised
How cynicalExediron wrote:Yeah, but what I do see is Ferrari throwing away a front-row lockout due to strategy.M44 wrote:I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.
I think it will be extremely difficult for the front runners to overtake at this circuit with the cars the way they are. I think anyone following will lose so much time through sector 1 and 3 that nobody will get close enough to attempt an overtake.Mort Canard wrote:There are also a lot of slow to medium speed corners where the Merc does well.M44 wrote:I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.Invade wrote:I'll take Mercedes and Hamilton.M44 wrote:Surely Ferrari territory this weekend?
I feel the pit-straight and long back straight will be pure Ferrari territory.
As a Lewis fan, I am willing to be pleasantly surprised
The wide open entrance to turn one also means that there is above average opportunity for overtaking on track.
Ferrari will be strong, but I am not ready to concede the weekend to Team Red yet.
It won't. This is a track that actually promotes overtaking. With the track as wide as it is, multiple racing lines are possible so dirty air is not that big of an issue here. Merc will still have trouble overtaking the Ferrari in the long straight of course, but there are plenty of other places where a talented overtaker can do some damage. I'd say watch out for Verstappen in this race. Hamilton on the other hand will not take any chances I feel, but he just loves it here so you can never count him out. The circuit also punishes the tires and usually it's at least a two stopper. Should be a great show.mikeyg123 wrote:I think it will be extremely difficult for the front runners to overtake at this circuit with the cars the way they are. I think anyone following will lose so much time through sector 1 and 3 that nobody will get close enough to attempt an overtake.Mort Canard wrote:There are also a lot of slow to medium speed corners where the Merc does well.M44 wrote:I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.Invade wrote:I'll take Mercedes and Hamilton.M44 wrote:Surely Ferrari territory this weekend?
I feel the pit-straight and long back straight will be pure Ferrari territory.
As a Lewis fan, I am willing to be pleasantly surprised
The wide open entrance to turn one also means that there is above average opportunity for overtaking on track.
Ferrari will be strong, but I am not ready to concede the weekend to Team Red yet.
The problem is unless they can get much closer than normal then it doesn't matter how wide or or how many racing lines the track has. With this years cars the layout will be a nightmare for dirty air.kleefton wrote:It won't. This is a track that actually promotes overtaking. With the track as wide as it is, multiple racing lines are possible so dirty air is not that big of an issue here. Merc will still have trouble overtaking the Ferrari in the long straight of course, but there are plenty of other places where a talented overtaker can do some damage. I'd say watch out for Verstappen in this race. Hamilton on the other hand will not take any chances I feel, but he just loves it here so you can never count him out. The circuit also punishes the tires and usually it's at least a two stopper. Should be a great show.mikeyg123 wrote:I think it will be extremely difficult for the front runners to overtake at this circuit with the cars the way they are. I think anyone following will lose so much time through sector 1 and 3 that nobody will get close enough to attempt an overtake.Mort Canard wrote:There are also a lot of slow to medium speed corners where the Merc does well.M44 wrote:I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.Invade wrote:
I'll take Mercedes and Hamilton.
I feel the pit-straight and long back straight will be pure Ferrari territory.
As a Lewis fan, I am willing to be pleasantly surprised
The wide open entrance to turn one also means that there is above average opportunity for overtaking on track.
Ferrari will be strong, but I am not ready to concede the weekend to Team Red yet.
I am a big fan of the circuit. I think it could use some more grass or gravel instead of all those runoff areas but otherwise, this is one of the best circuits on the calendar.
Leclerc has not had a retirement that was the fault of the car. IIRC he did have a power loss in Bahrain but was still able to finish the race in the points. Sebastian Vettel had one mechanical failure in Sochi. So Ferrari has also had a remarkably consistent year for mechanical reliability.TheGiantHogweed wrote:I do wonder how mercedes have managed to have such good reliability this season. When has there been a year without some technical retirement for either of their cars? I suppose hamilton didn't have any in 2017, but Bottas did in spain. They both did in austria last year. But this is the only thing that could easily delay Hamilton's WDC. But I don't see it being likely. But if both cars can do a full season without a single technical retirement, that is pretty impressive.
It's not even that.WHoff78 wrote:Hamilton may actually decide he can afford to take chances. His main priority is of course the WDC, but if he is racing the Ferraris or anyone other than Valtteri for the win, then chance is are that Bottas will drop at least 7-points anyway. May free him up to take a little more risk and try and wrap it up in style. He may as well push on for race wins now!
Exediron wrote:It's not even that.WHoff78 wrote:Hamilton may actually decide he can afford to take chances. His main priority is of course the WDC, but if he is racing the Ferraris or anyone other than Valtteri for the win, then chance is are that Bottas will drop at least 7-points anyway. May free him up to take a little more risk and try and wrap it up in style. He may as well push on for race wins now!
Bottas can only prolong the title battle with a win AND Hamilton finishing lower than 8th place.
If Hamilton finishes in eighth place -- irrespective of where Bottas finishes -- he is WDC. If Bottas doesn't win -- irrespective of where Hamilton finishes -- Hamilton is WDC.
If Lewis is fighting Valtteri for the win he's already won. The last thing he'd want to do is DNF and fulfill the only scenario where he doesn't clinch the title at COTA. After 2007, I expect Hamilton to play it safe until the title is actually sealed.
Brazil in 2016 was wet and in 2017 Hamilton and a Ricciardo started out of position which probably artificially increases the number of overtakes.Mort Canard wrote:Interesting graph I found.
Source: https://i.redd.it/dqtak32bf4301.jpg
I am assuming this is on track overtakes but it may not be. Austin is not the circuit with the most overtakes but it looks to be more than average.
I guess I should not be surprised that Brazil has a very large number of overtakes.
Exediron wrote:Yeah, but what I do see is Ferrari throwing away a front-row lockout due to strategy.M44 wrote:I cant see Mercedes out-qualifying Ferrari.. And Mercedes dont seem capable of overtaking the Ferrari even with DRS and tyre offsets.
Ah does that explain why they’re so low down?kleefton wrote:Hamilton and Merc are just pounding so many laps on that test compound, perhaps ensuring a healthy head start for next year...
JN23 wrote:Ah does that explain why they’re so low down?kleefton wrote:Hamilton and Merc are just pounding so many laps on that test compound, perhaps ensuring a healthy head start for next year...
Yes, although Croft was spending so much time talking about food and de Resta so keen to rubbish what Hamilton was doing that they failed to notice what the Mercs were actually doing. Davidson finally pointed it out to them with 6 minutes to go. Although to be fair to croft and de resta they couldnt have spent much more than 20 minutes in total talking about what was happening in FP1.JN23 wrote:Ah does that explain why they’re so low down?kleefton wrote:Hamilton and Merc are just pounding so many laps on that test compound, perhaps ensuring a healthy head start for next year...
To be fair is there 20 minutes worth of stuff to talk about in an FP1 session?shoot999 wrote:Yes, although Croft was spending so much time talking about food and de Resta so keen to rubbish what Hamilton was doing that they failed to notice what the Mercs were actually doing. Davidson finally pointed it out to them with 6 minutes to go. Although to be fair to croft and de resta they couldnt have spent much more than 20 minutes in total talking about what was happening in FP1.JN23 wrote:Ah does that explain why they’re so low down?kleefton wrote:Hamilton and Merc are just pounding so many laps on that test compound, perhaps ensuring a healthy head start for next year...
JN23 wrote:Brazil in 2016 was wet and in 2017 Hamilton and a Ricciardo started out of position which probably artificially increases the number of overtakes.Mort Canard wrote:Interesting graph I found.
Source: https://i.redd.it/dqtak32bf4301.jpg
I am assuming this is on track overtakes but it may not be. Austin is not the circuit with the most overtakes but it looks to be more than average.
I guess I should not be surprised that Brazil has a very large number of overtakes.