formula 1 Formula 1 World Championship 2015 Season Discussion

[Noir Angel]

I read an article that Vettel believes Merc were caught sleeping as they were sandbagging again but by the time they realised what might happen they were nursing the break issue and had nothing to fight with.

 

Obviously that's just an opinion but giving the temperatures and what happened in Malaysia I don't think its impossible for Merc to be trying to play cautious.

 

As for Maldonado - wow, I don't really know what to say about that!

 

Definitely possible, it's a tactic Lewis used to pretty impressive effect in China so keeping a bit of tyre life to the end of the stint would be the right thing to do.

[Skiver Veteran]

Definitely possible, it's a tactic Lewis used to pretty impressive effect in China so keeping a bit of tyre life to the end of the stint would be the right thing to do.

 

Exactly, if Merc know they can up their pace by 0.5-1 per lap as and when they need to, they can let the Ferrari's burn their own rubber pushing that bit harder to get close and when it starts to get a bit close they just drop the hammer.

 

In a way, we saw it happen after the first round of pitstops, Ros and Vet were incredibly close to Hamilton but before you know it he had a 5-6 second gap on Rosberg and was comfortable again.

 

As long as Merc don't have a bout of reliability issues and Hamilton keeps a clean head, I think he'll walk this season much easier than last. He has momentum in his favour and I think you can see Rosberg is not as mentally strong as last year, his cage has been rattled and coming 3rd in Bahrain is going to make him desperate.

[MightyJordan]

From the Dutch commentary (it's NSFW)...

[Noir Angel]

Exactly, if Merc know they can up their pace by 0.5-1 per lap as and when they need to, they can let the Ferrari's burn their own rubber pushing that bit harder to get close and when it starts to get a bit close they just drop the hammer.

 

In a way, we saw it happen after the first round of pitstops, Ros and Vet were incredibly close to Hamilton but before you know it he had a 5-6 second gap on Rosberg and was comfortable again.

 

As long as Merc don't have a bout of reliability issues and Hamilton keeps a clean head, I think he'll walk this season much easier than last. He has momentum in his favour and I think you can see Rosberg is not as mentally strong as last year, his cage has been rattled and coming 3rd in Bahrain is going to make him desperate.

 

Something else I noticed listening to the radio transmissions in China is that when Rosberg was complaining about Lewis driving too slowly, Seb was on the radio about the same time and when his race engineer asked him he basically said he was pushing as hard as he could, so it's definitely possible they do have pace in hand. The next round of races won't be as hot as Bahrain so I imagine they will have a bit of an easier time of it, though it will be interesting to see if they can keep the momentum going as rumours say Ferrari have a pretty serious engine upgrade coming in.

 

I agree about Hamilton though. Rosberg looks like a beaten man at this point, he has no answer to lewis. He seems a lot more happy this year and winning last year's title upped his confidence massively. A lot of people hate him dominating the sport but I love watching him drive when he really gets his rhythm going.

[MightyJordan]

 

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says the introduction of a fifth penalty-free engine for the 2015 F1 season is now just a formality.

 

Drivers have had their allocation cut to four per car for this season, but with unreliability proving an issue for a number of teams, and others already limiting their running in practice sessions to preserve mileage, moves have been afoot to allow an extra power unit to be used.

 

"We unanimously agreed on it [the fifth engine] in Malaysia," Horner said. "That was all the teams, including Bernie Ecclestone, so it only has to formally go through the strategy group and permission to be signed, and that can be done by fax vote."

An electronic vote would negate waiting for the next scheduled meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in June and the extra allowance cannot come soon enough for Red Bull after Daniel Ricciardo lost his third engine in four races when his Renault unit blew out at the finish line in Bahrain.

 

"All the fireworks went off and the engine felt like it needed to join in!" Horner joked. "It was a fairly spectacular finish, failing 200 metres before the line, but he had enough momentum to cross it.

 

"I think that engine will be a coffee table in the future! But that's three out of four, so he will be on engine four for the next race in Barcelona."

 

The main reason behind limiting engine usage to four units was cost cutting, but Horner feels the price per powerplant is too high to begin with.

 

[Skiver Veteran]

Pirelli to use softest compounds at three of next four races

 

 

Pirelli has opted to bring soft and super-soft tyres to three of the next four races.

At the next grand prix in Spain the teams will have hard and medium tyres to contend with the high-energy loads generated by the circuit's quick corners. But at the following three rounds in Monaco, Canada and Austria, Pirelli is opting for the softest two compounds in its range.

"In Spain, Pirelli will bring the P Zero Orange hard and P Zero White medium: the two hardest tyres in the range," a press release read. "The Montmelo circuit is well known for putting high-energy loads through the tyres, while ambient temperatures can also be high.

"For Monaco and Canada, respectively a street circuit and a semi-permanent facility, the two softest tyres in the range will again be used: P Zero Yellow soft and P Zero Red Supersoft.

Read More

I think this should be interesting if Mercedes is concerned on how it uses its tyres as the softer compounds might highlight this further.

[MightyJordan]

 

The 2016 F1 season will break with recent tradition and begin in April instead of March.

 

In an unexpected announcement, the Australian GP revealed that while they will again host next year

[i11usive]

Jules Bianchi Health Update: F1 Racer out of artificial coma breathing unaided and declared in a 'stable condition'. 

 

There is good news to all the fans of phenomenal racer Jules Bianchi. Jules is now declared to be out of artificial coma and can also even breathe unaided. Despite being in quite a critical state, Jules Bianchi's condition has improved a lot, as witnessed by his family. He has been transferred into a hospital in Nice, France wherein he continuously receives intensive care and serious medical attention.

 

http://www.vcpost.com/articles/62429/20150430/jules-bianchi-health-update-f1-racer-out-of-artificial-coma-breathing-unaided-and-declared-in-a-stable-condition.htm


 

Off to Barcelona on Thursday to see the race - I'll post pics when we get home!

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

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[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

McLaren F1 team to change its livery for Spanish Grand Prix

McLaren will revise its Formula 1 livery for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, with the team shying away from the chrome scheme that it has used for several years.

McLaren Group chief executive Ron Dennis remarked during pre-season testing the livery would change at some point this year, albeit insisting it would not be for aesthetically-pleasing reasons.

A McLaren spokesperson said: "We have revised our car's livery, improving its visual impact, optimising it for not only bright sunshine but also for the floodlights increasingly used in twilight and night races.

"The result is a dynamic, predatory, graphite-grey colouration, complemented by McLaren-dayglo 'Speedmarks' and keylines, reducing the reflection issues caused by our latest chrome-silver treatment."

Source: Autosport

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

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[vanx]

Stealth as in "nobody can see us"? Pretty true if they keep being at the back of the grid 

[123456789A]

Maybe they secretly upgraded it.

[heslo]

Much better! Now if they could just sort out their power unit!

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

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[MightyJordan]

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[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

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[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

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[MightyJordan]

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[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

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[MightyJordan]

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

[123456789A]

Poor Alonso...

 

Also a pretty uneventful race. Only 6 competitive cars on track.