2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - Jeddah, Dec 03 - 05

[zibby43]

Is it that Redbull were slow every lap of the race sim, or that their speed dropped off quickly and brought the average down?

AMuS had the race pace delta between RBR and Merc at nearly 1s.

FOM (which is NOT AWS) has it around 5-6 tenths.

That’s a pretty eye-opening margin, considering HAM was using an old practice engine. Merc need to maybe sacrifice a bit of that race pace and make sure they lock out the front row.

How come Red Bull are ahead in qualification simulation pace?

The quali pace simulations are a bit of a lottery. They were off by about 4 tenths in Qatar.

But the race pace of Mercedes is seriously strong. Which means they probably have some margin to play with, especially when they run the Softs (which are a bit difficult to manage over a single lap).

As dans79 points out, Mercs ran Mediums for their quali sims in FP2.

[search]

But the race pace of Mercedes is seriously strong. Which means they probably have some margin to play with, especially when they run the Softs (which are a bit difficult to manage over a single lap).

Hamilton was like 6-7 tenths quicker than Ocon, which looks like a normal margin to me. So I'd say say the 1s gap to Red Bull is more down to their poor pace.

But yeah, qualifying should be interesting, especially as FP3 won't be much help to find the right window for the soft tyres either. Whoever gets it right, will be on Pole later on. Wouldn't exclude it to be an underdog today.

[falonso81]

I do not see this race ending in a predictable manner. We might have an interesting podium come Sunday evening.

[El Scorchio]

I do not see this race ending in a predictable manner. We might have an interesting podium come Sunday evening.

Agree. Could become quite topsy turvy with a few red flags or safety cars at interesting times.

[El Scorchio]

But the race pace of Mercedes is seriously strong. Which means they probably have some margin to play with, especially when they run the Softs (which are a bit difficult to manage over a single lap).

Hamilton was like 6-7 tenths quicker than Ocon, which looks like a normal margin to me. So I'd say say the 1s gap to Red Bull is more down to their poor pace.

But yeah, qualifying should be interesting, especially as FP3 won't be much help to find the right window for the soft tyres either. Whoever gets it right, will be on Pole later on. Wouldn't exclude it to be an underdog today.

Agree. I’m not reading too much into yesterday. Everyone’s first ever go round a new circuit with it being very hard to get clean laps in. IMO the biggest danger to anyone is going to be traffic or flags in qualifying. Otherwise it will I am sure be Hamilton and Verstappen in the front row in either order, and not more than a couple of tenths between them.

[politburo]

It will be Hamilton and Bottas 1-2, then Verstappen fighting for 3rd with Sainz and Leclerc.

[politburo]

But the race pace of Mercedes is seriously strong. Which means they probably have some margin to play with, especially when they run the Softs (which are a bit difficult to manage over a single lap).

Hamilton was like 6-7 tenths quicker than Ocon, which looks like a normal margin to me. So I'd say say the 1s gap to Red Bull is more down to their poor pace.

But yeah, qualifying should be interesting, especially as FP3 won't be much help to find the right window for the soft tyres either. Whoever gets it right, will be on Pole later on. Wouldn't exclude it to be an underdog today.

Agree. I’m not reading too much into yesterday. Everyone’s first ever go round a new circuit with it being very hard to get clean laps in. IMO the biggest danger to anyone is going to be traffic or flags in qualifying. Otherwise it will I am sure be Hamilton and Verstappen in the front row in either order, and not more than a couple of tenths between them.

There'll be no such thing as red flags in Q3, there was only one in all the practice sessions. And you don't have to read from yesterday alone, you can read from yesterday and the past 3 qualifying sessions and FP2/FP3 sessions to see that it will be Merc 1-2 in Q3. Bottas is looking very quick over one lap on this track, seems to like it quite a lot, especially in the middle sector, and Hamilton's aggression and commitment are at their highest level they'be been all season.

[El Scorchio]

Hamilton was like 6-7 tenths quicker than Ocon, which looks like a normal margin to me. So I'd say say the 1s gap to Red Bull is more down to their poor pace.

But yeah, qualifying should be interesting, especially as FP3 won't be much help to find the right window for the soft tyres either. Whoever gets it right, will be on Pole later on. Wouldn't exclude it to be an underdog today.

Agree. I’m not reading too much into yesterday. Everyone’s first ever go round a new circuit with it being very hard to get clean laps in. IMO the biggest danger to anyone is going to be traffic or flags in qualifying. Otherwise it will I am sure be Hamilton and Verstappen in the front row in either order, and not more than a couple of tenths between them.

There'll be no such thing as red flags in Q3, there was only one in all the practice sessions. And you don't have to read from yesterday alone, you can read from yesterday and the past 3 qualifying sessions and FP2/FP3 sessions to see that it will be Merc 1-2 in Q3. Bottas is looking very quick over one lap on this track, seems to like it quite a lot, especially in the middle sector, and Hamilton's aggression and commitment are at their highest level they'be been all season.

Nah. I know why you’re trying really hard to downplay Verstappen and Red Bull and make out they’ve got no chance- I think most of us do- but it’s going to be a lot closer than you’re making out.

[politburo]

Agree. I’m not reading too much into yesterday. Everyone’s first ever go round a new circuit with it being very hard to get clean laps in. IMO the biggest danger to anyone is going to be traffic or flags in qualifying. Otherwise it will I am sure be Hamilton and Verstappen in the front row in either order, and not more than a couple of tenths between them.

There'll be no such thing as red flags in Q3, there was only one in all the practice sessions. And you don't have to read from yesterday alone, you can read from yesterday and the past 3 qualifying sessions and FP2/FP3 sessions to see that it will be Merc 1-2 in Q3. Bottas is looking very quick over one lap on this track, seems to like it quite a lot, especially in the middle sector, and Hamilton's aggression and commitment are at their highest level they'be been all season.

Nah. I know why you’re trying really hard to downplay Verstappen and Red Bull and make out they’ve got no chance- I think most of us do- but it’s going to be a lot closer than you’re making out.

You literally said that in Qatar as well when I remarked that we are all just waiting and counting the days 'til Hamilton takes back the lead in the WDC, and look what happened there - it was not even close. It has been a great season but it's too late for hope. Verstappen and all his talent cannot do much when their rival is simply faster. Look what has Hamilton has done since Mexico, dominant qualy+win, dominant qualy+win. It's not like it has been razor-thin either, it has been quite a gap between the 2 main protagonists.

[politburo]

Agree. I’m not reading too much into yesterday. Everyone’s first ever go round a new circuit with it being very hard to get clean laps in. IMO the biggest danger to anyone is going to be traffic or flags in qualifying. Otherwise it will I am sure be Hamilton and Verstappen in the front row in either order, and not more than a couple of tenths between them.

There'll be no such thing as red flags in Q3, there was only one in all the practice sessions. And you don't have to read from yesterday alone, you can read from yesterday and the past 3 qualifying sessions and FP2/FP3 sessions to see that it will be Merc 1-2 in Q3. Bottas is looking very quick over one lap on this track, seems to like it quite a lot, especially in the middle sector, and Hamilton's aggression and commitment are at their highest level they'be been all season.

Nah. I know why you’re trying really hard to downplay Verstappen and Red Bull and make out they’ve got no chance- I think most of us do- but it’s going to be a lot closer than you’re making out.

All in all, I'd be happy to be wrong as I hate to be pessimistic. Just looks highly ominous.

[search]

Agree. I’m not reading too much into yesterday. Everyone’s first ever go round a new circuit with it being very hard to get clean laps in. IMO the biggest danger to anyone is going to be traffic or flags in qualifying. Otherwise it will I am sure be Hamilton and Verstappen in the front row in either order, and not more than a couple of tenths between them.

I wouldn't read much into the results either, but the fact that most teams (including Mercedes and Red Bull) struggled big time to go quicker on softs than on mediums/hards is of course interesting, and something to watch out for. The track temperatures will constantly change today as well, and this just makes it difficult to find the right, narrow window to get the softs to work.

Sure, there's still a good chance the top teams will master that task, but there's basically no way to practice it, which of course adds a bit of lottery factor. We've seen in Mexico what a big change a minimal temperature drop/rise during Qualifying can come with

[politburo]

F2 sprint race track temp 40 degrees. Many on Yellow (2nd hardest) compound. Safety Car first lap.

[Mogster]

F2 sprint race track temp 40 degrees. Many on Yellow (2nd hardest) compound. Safety Car first lap.

Overtaking looks close to impossible, even in an F2 car.

[godlameroso]

Soft tire is only good for one run and it overheats in sector 1. You have to raise the tire pressure for the tire to survive a lap let alone a stint.

By raising the pressure you reduce peak performance, it looks like the other compounds can be ran on lower pressures, which compensates for the fact they're harder compounds.

[politburo]

F2 sprint race track temp 40 degrees. Many on Yellow (2nd hardest) compound. Safety Car first lap.

Overtaking looks close to impossible, even in an F2 car.

I think they are struggling to follow in sector 1 early in the race, perhaps struggling with tire warmup. But actually looks possible a bit more possible in the middle of the race, seen some great action so far.