Will Mercedes Get Tyre'd Tomorrow?

[Bram Hengeveld]

View the Post on the Blog

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Top 5 for both cars if they are lucky i think.
Hamilton has some setup issues and is fearing the worst in terms of tire deg and Rosberg visibly used more of the tires on his quali lap, working the car very hard.
First stint will be very tough i think.

Best case scenario for Rosberg is to be first in T1 and then rely on Hamilton having trouble keeping the pitbulls behind him which should allow Rosberg to open up a gap.

It´s gonna be one hell of a race though,

 

[Jordi Casademunt]

Perhaps this is the chance for Hamilton to "return" the favor from China

Who knows. Betting on Mercedes would be pretty risky right now, but I'm kind of hoping they get to win races this year.

 

[Qazdar Karim]

I think vettel will take them both i nthe first corner ^^

 

[Leon Charmant]

Very much looking forward to this race! My bold prediction for top 3: Vettel, Grosjean, Alonso

 

[Andrew Ford]

what happened with hamilton's tyre situation? did he run his final options set in q2 and then again in q3 ? i.e. 2 fast laps?

 

[Kartik Sri Harsha]

No Lewis did 1 lap on Q1 and used the same set in Q2. He then went to Use a New Set for Q2 again . So he left with only 1 Fresh set which he used for Q3.

 

[Benedict Venturini]

Very much looking forward to this race! My bold prediction for top 3: Vettel, Grosjean, Alonso

you cray cray mayne.. i dont think Grosjean will be in there.. maybe, Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton.. but i hope we wont see a repeat of Bahrain, where the Mercs looked quick in quali but did abysmal in the race.. WE'LL SEE

 

[Darren Bentley]

simple answer. Yeah it did

 

[Diego Lopez]

Tyres are fine, they just need to fix the delamination, but keep the compounds the way they are. RB is moaning, Neweys "genious" cannot fix the issue, yet Lotus and Ferr have done the homework besides being fast...all the $$$$ of RB money...they are too focused on their aero, Newey needs a James Allison lesson on tyre wear.

Mercedes...not Pirellis fault, they had this fundamental tyre wear issue for a few years now.

 

[Ruiner89]

These tyres are aweful, worst generation of tyres from Pirelli as of yet. Watching the guys race at 80% for most of the race is really gross to see, not enjoyable at all.

 

[Kartik Sri Harsha]

Say the same word when Ferrari have a bad race like Bahrain

 

[Diego Lopez]

Say the same word when Ferrari have a bad race like Bahrain

DRS issue for Alonso, he was doing fine and overtaking with the "degrading" Tyres all the way to 8th.

Felipe DID catch debri prior to his puncture, which can lead to a full blow delamination in the way they are construtcted.

And please fanboy, Ferrari has not even moaned about it, They have done their homework as well as Lotus, whom by the way, used the Mediums and made them last while also Opening a bigger gap to Vettel.

Oh yeah that's right, you cannot admit that your 3 WC RB team can sort out an issue, that the other "top" teams have.

Make the tyres harder please, just do, It will just backfire, since Ferr and Lotus are already good enough, they will make less stops while RB will just have to do a few xtra more anyways. God your freaking pathetic to not admit Newey is not a genious...

#RoryByrne

 

[Diego Lopez]

OH AND BY THE WAY, Pirelli DID tell the teams that they Tyres were going to be softer. Everyone has the same Tyres, IT is up to the each team to WORK out how to be fast and be able to nurse the Tyre without so much the driver having to do so. Red Bull is simply bitching too much at this point. They had all this time to figure out how to sort it out, not Pirellis fault, it's RB fault.

If it were everyone's fault, then Ferr, Lotus, etc would all be united on a campaign to change it. 8 out 11 said no to harder compounds, the 3 were smaller teams with RB, shocked? I'm not. They sound worse than Ferrari did when the 2005 rules were changed. Get over it, its Formula, Newey needs to figure out the Formula as he is such a "genious", or he needs to give James Allison a call.

 

[Diego Lopez]

Mod-edit: Abusive language removed.

 

[Diego Lopez]

2011 Spanish GP
Winner - Vettel - 1 hr 39 mins 3.031 secs - 4 pitstops

2012 Spanish GP
WInner - Maldonado - 1 hr 39 mins 9.145 secs - 3 pitstops

2013 Spanish GP
Winner - Alonso - 1 hr 39 mins 16.596 secs - 4 pitstops

Turns out Alonso wasn't going that slow yesterday; actually faster if he pitted 4 times! Nothing has really changed!!

of course RB fans will go sour.

When RB Wins Horners words "Tyres were not that bad" when RB loses "Tyres are too over the edge, is holding my car back...blah blah blah," worse than McLaren complaining about the flexi wings and EBD.

RB has the resources to balance their car out, if Alonso was only doing 80% of true pace to be 40+ ahead of the field...then I wonder if it would of been almost a full lap ahead of the field on 100%

suck it Red Bull. Fix it, or fire Newey.

 

[Kevin McDonald]

2011 Spanish GP
Winner - Vettel - 1 hr 39 mins 3.031 secs - 4 pitstops

2012 Spanish GP
WInner - Maldonado - 1 hr 39 mins 9.145 secs - 3 pitstops

2013 Spanish GP
Winner - Alonso - 1 hr 39 mins 16.596 secs - 4 pitstops

Turns out Alonso wasn't going that slow yesterday; actually faster if he pitted 4 times! Nothing has really changed!!

Considering Maldonado's pole time ( not counting Hamilton's ) last year was 1.5 seconds slower than Rosberg's this year shows that the cars are a lot quicker so your argument isn't really valid and to be fair if Ferrari were have problems with the tyres you would probably be the first on the forum to call for Hembrey's head.

 

[Kartik Sri Harsha]

To the One who wrote Long stories and trying to show his happiness of Fernando's win
We (RBR fans) Trust the team and their Hard work. The Challenger may eating the tires but it was the game And to Know Newey is not the only one Paul Monaghan and peter prodromou are the Ones who work in department of Aerodynamics and They are the guys who look for Tire wear and its problems. Let the Tires be 2013 or Changed ones. There is a Driver in that team who lot of people hates more which delivers consistently. Once RBR fixes their Problems don't come out and cry.
Also I responded not because of your usual Crap posts but for the word Fire newey

 

[Hampus Andersson]

The key difference this year seems to be that the more downforce you have, the worse you´ll do in races.
The Mercedes and Red Bull clearly has more downforce then the Ferrari and Lotus.

Nearest Ferrari/Lotus in Qualifying compared to Pole Position.

Australia
+1,083s Massa

Malaysia
+0.913s Massa
(Red Bull pole, Mercedes fastest of the guys on old tires)

China
+0.277s Raikkonen

Bahrain
+0.377s Alonso

Spain
+0.459s Raikkonen


Yet in the race it´s the other way around when in reality in general it should carry through to the race.

 

[Markus Neumann]

The key difference this year seems to be that the more downforce you have, the worse you´ll do in races.
The Mercedes and Red Bull clearly has more downforce then the Ferrari and Lotus.

Nearest Ferrari/Lotus in Qualifying compared to Pole Position.

Australia
+1,083s Massa

Malaysia
+0.913s Massa
(Red Bull pole, Mercedes fastest of the guys on old tires)

China
+0.277s Raikkonen

Bahrain
+0.377s Alonso

Spain
+0.459s Raikkonen


Yet in the race it´s the other way around when in reality in general it should carry through to the race.

I think it's too simplistic to speak of downforce in general. You'd at least have to take front and rear as well as high- and low-speed downforce into account. Lotus was insanely fast through T3 in Catalunya, which is all about aero (and that turn is also the one that attacks the left front the most, which was the limiting factor in the race, and yet Lotus did the best job of preserving it), whereas Mercedes was best in the last sector, where aero really isn't that important. Similar with Ferrari and Red Bull. Plus, downforce is a two-edged knife: too much, and you kill the tyres, too little and you get wheelspin/don't get them up to temperature, which destroys them even more.
And besides, if it really was so simple, then why wouldn't RB and Merc just drive with less wing? Better tyre wear and more straight line speed - what's not to like?