2022 French Grand Prix - Le Castellet, July 22 - 24

[Just_a_fan]

Seems like Aston Martin didn't learn much from Montreal. They are basically comitted to a one-stopper again, and in case of a late safety car (but too early for softs), they have nothing at all to put on the car. Same for Ricciardo.

I missed that! They either going to start on new softs (unlikely) or start on a used tyre. Wonder what mileage is on them. I presume if its a scrubbing in lap, then not too bad.

I think I recall hearing on one of the short items (SKy) that they found it helpful to 'scrub' all the tyres as heat cycle improved them. When they are down as used, I don't think it means much taken out of them, just the opposite

Brundle often trots out the "Scrubbing tyres to get a heat cycle through them" line. I wonder if it's applicable today or even if it was ever truly applicable.

[RZS10]

I didn't even know that Pirelli provided those images to anyone prior to posting them, Albert Fabrega at least managed to post the higher res stuff, scarbs was probably in such a rush to be the first to post them that he messed it up, but hey he was an hour quicker than the official Pirelli Motorsport account ... lol

F1 has their own article/graphs https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... NGglH.html

IIRC they talked about the heat cycle on sky and they said Pirelli claimed it does nothing but that some teams still do it

[Just_a_fan]

Misfortunate for either Leclerc or Verstappen is definitely not what anyone wants! IIRC, they are even on DNFs with both having two mechanical failures, hopefully there are NO more failures or DNFs for either driver.

Fans of other drivers might want that, of course. If their favoured driver(s) get a chance of a win thanks to multiple DNFs at the front, they'll be happy.

[search]

I missed that! They either going to start on new softs (unlikely) or start on a used tyre. Wonder what mileage is on them. I presume if its a scrubbing in lap, then not too bad.

I think I recall hearing on one of the short items (SKy) that they found it helpful to 'scrub' all the tyres as heat cycle improved them. When they are down as used, I don't think it means much taken out of them, just the opposite

Yeah, I can’t see teams falling short of tyre allocation. That’s the basics!

yeah, that's what Aston Martin does every weekend, those tyres are not really "used" (1 slow lap on hards, two on mediums in FP3). The issue I see was more that they only have one of a kind left for the race, leaving them very unflexible (what do they do if lap 1 ends with a puncture, for example?), and potentially on a back foot if degredation turns out to be bigger than they think.

Especially for a team like them, which regularly misses the cut in Q1 anyway, I can't really see why they save so many softs instead, which they are unlikely to ever get to use.

[chrisc90]

Anyone got the comparison in mclaren/Mercedes’ Race pace?

[johnny comelately]

Anyone got the comparison in mclaren/Mercedes’ Race pace?

Yep, the Merc is quicker because of the Hamilton function

[djones]

These days whenever there is a Ferrari in front of Max at the start I wonder how long before they let him past (in seconds usually). They just never seem to fight for some reason.

I'm fully expecting the same again today - Max leading at the end of lap 1.

[PlatinumZealot]

A DNF from Max would bring the championship in nice position going into the summer break! Not saying I'm wishing this to happen.. But the small wins here and there for Fearri wont cut it

But you shure like to bring it up. I thought you liked racing instead of disliked RB. We've had enough DNFs from the front runners already. I'd rather see good fights on track for all races to come than DNFs.

It's just to balance things out as I said. Ferrari still suffering from and managing the engine issue. Sort of a forgone clonclusion that Max is champion up to this stage unless some luck swings Ferrari's way.

[atanatizante]

Both Merc drivers are some 10kph down the straight compared to VER/PER and this could be for both being draggy and race choice set up in order to be kinder to the tyres. And the reasons are the following:

We have to bear in mind that this is the hottest race up until now regarding track temperatures so this means they must open up the car to the highest degree (PU and stuff-related brakes and so on)
Also, track temps are forcing them to choose a setup not to heat up the tyres and particularly the left front one ... then S3 slow time shows us that the rear isn`t particularly loaded thus protected to resist more due to setup choice.
The poor results in qualy are mainly down to both having a draggy car but mainly for opting to set up the car only for the race pace, as they usually did up until now.

In the race, it`ll be interesting to see whether they are sticking to the same strategy for a long first stint as they did in Barca, Silvertone and Austria coz this would be the key had they could have a 1-stop strategy in this race ...

As for RB and Ferrari leaders, VER and PER did an 8 and 10 laps race sim on medium tyres in FP3, with VER running in the high 1:38 and PER low 1:39 and that was at least 1 sec/lap slower than what they did in FP2 when they simulate a 2 stop race. But what was interesting to see was that VER was constantly at this level for the entire stint but PER had a bid drop out after some 5-6 laps so it`ll be interesting to see had they`ll slide more in the race (maybe towards the end of the stints) knowing the have to face higher track temps and higher fuel loads ... Then, it`ll be the same interesting to see if Ferrari had solved the tyre issues at this track and if they`ll choose to have a longer first stint bearing in mind they seem to solve the tyre deg issues, at least for what we could see in Austria ... in addition, the longer the first stint they could manage the better for both 1-stop strategy and maybe a SC/VSC phase this time around ...

[chrisc90]

Aren’t practice starts meant to be done behind the pit line just before the traffic lights?

[bosyber]

Aren’t practice starts meant to be done behind the pit line just before the traffic lights?

Yes, they are just now doing that , just after the pitlane traffic lights.

[chrisc90]

Aren’t practice starts meant to be done behind the pit line just before the traffic lights?

Yes, they are just now doing that , just after the pitlane traffic lights.

There was a few that were after the line. Both mercs, one alfa.

Wonder if there was any eagle eyed stewards looking at that and how close they follow the notes.

[bosyber]

Aren’t practice starts meant to be done behind the pit line just before the traffic lights?

Yes, they are just now doing that , just after the pitlane traffic lights.

edit: but, just behind Leclerc, Vettel seems to get going w/o it, and Verstappen just now either didn't do a practice start, or he did that way before that line (so I guess he just went out, maybe do a lap and then come in for a practice start?

[yamahasho]

A DNF from Max would bring the championship in nice position going into the summer break! Not saying I'm wishing this to happen.. But the small wins here and there for Fearri wont cut it

Agreed, season has no excitement, Vest. is either on form or a bust. He can’t win unless the car is in perfect.

[*]Not sure which season you are watching, there has been plenty of good racing throughout the grid.

Get rid of floors and pit in during S/C.

[*]Underfloor, alleged flexing floor or the whole floor (1980’s FFord-style)? Front mounted cooling would be interesting…

Let’s all watch these semi-automatic boats that have 140” a wheelbase follow each other tomorrow. Ferrari, RB and Merc, Apline or McLaren. How predictable.

[*]Paul Ricard has never been a great track for recent generations of car, the new aero rules should improve that, but time will tell.

Hopefully the the car goes back toward the drivers during Spa with the rule change.

[*]What on earth does that mean?

And for god’s sake take off those wheel covers so we can see those rotors light up during braking.

[*]Brakes are fully enclosed within the wheel as it is, the cover is there to ensure that the wheels are not used for outwashing.

Alonso is right F1 is boring. Just waiting for the FIA to wake up.

[*]But what would make it interesting?
The last 50 years have seen periods of dominance from one team or another, whether it be Tyrell, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, Williams, ‘Enstone’, Mercedes or Red Bull (if you go back further that list gets slightly longer…). Some of them being repeat offenders at being just that little bit better than the rest (or, in some cases, much better than the rest); there have been very few seasons (ever) where more than three teams have been ‘in the hunt’ at the end of the season. What, exactly, does the FIA need to wake up to? We’ve just had the biggest technical rule change since Ground Effect cars were banned, with a focus on basic engineering principles to control the aero platform; other than wholesale changes to the power unit, what more could possibly change?

You sound familiar…

A few counterpoints added.

You make some valid points but Alonso himself stated F1 is boring because there have been on 4 winners, take out Monica and it’s down to 3, to his criticism he didn’t offer any solutions.

To your point, I don’t see a few overtakes but only overtakes when one has fresher tires that’s not racing, I don’t want a spec system but Alonso is correct.

I know the FIA has been trying to clamp down on this but they need to do more to give the car back to the driver. Ban traction control (correct me if I’m wrong), abs (I think they did this a long time ago), being back manuals and clutch pedals, so even the best champions can be forced to make errors like Schumacher made others do.

Limit wheelbase to 115” so these boats can make a real turn and race side by side and be less stable and puts the control back to the driver.

Ban 2 way telemetry or bring it back.

Make the curbs higher on non overtaking corners. Let the drivers earn their money. Just waiting for Spa but I would like to see other idea’s from members on how the sport could be better.

Thanks for the reply.

[InsaneX_Badger]

Lewis to DNF on his 300th race? Many times seen drivers have a bad race or DNF on these anniversary grand prixs