2012 Italian Grand Prix - Monza

[strad]

heard it a couple of times and that was my thought

[raymondu999]

RFA??

It's not. It's what Mercedes have called (since last year) the DRS. "Rear Flap Adjust," or rather, "Redundant Flippin' Acronym"

[LHamilton]

Mercedes looks fast. However, can they keep their rear tyres in good shape all through the race? With Medium and Hard tyres, could we see a 1 stop again? Could be a struggle for Mercedes which seems to be harder on their tyres than their rivals.

[NonNewtonic]

Button car seems to be bouncing on the rev limiter half way down the main straight already?
When do they have to finalise the gear ratios? Before the weekend starts, only before qualy?

I believe before qualifying, then at qualifying they enter perc ferme rules. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Actually its before Friday night

[strad]

Button car seems to be bouncing on the rev limiter half way down the main straight already?
When do they have to finalise the gear ratios? Before the weekend starts, only before qualy?

I believe before qualifying, then at qualifying they enter perc ferme rules. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Actually its before Friday night

By Friday night do you mean?...After practice the night before qualifying?

[Gerhardsa]

Mercedes looks fast. However, can they keep their rear tyres in good shape all through the race? With Medium and Hard tyres, could we see a 1 stop again? Could be a struggle for Mercedes which seems to be harder on their tyres than their rivals.

Dont need to read too much into FP1 mate. Nobody knows whos doing what.
I'd say wait till FP3 is done, hell these days, even wait till after qualy!
I dont think Merc will be quicker than Lotus, Mclaren or RB...maybe not even Ferrari (maybe except Massa's Ferrari )
But lets wait and see.
One can always hope...

[raymondu999]

Mercedes looks fast. However, can they keep their rear tyres in good shape all through the race? With Medium and Hard tyres, could we see a 1 stop again? Could be a struggle for Mercedes which seems to be harder on their tyres than their rivals.

I think a 1-stopper should be the outright quickest strategy, bar none. Tyres are not punished at Monza, and the pitstop loses you quite a bit of time (because you travel the pitstraight at 100kph as opposed to some average 250kph). I don't think even an OOP strategy is quicker. I think the key to this race would be being canny and smart with your race (and stint) management.

I think the tyres should be able to do a 1-stop, when being managed, but you will not be able to do it flat out.

By Friday night do you mean?...After practice the night before qualifying?

Yep. 2 hours after the end of FP2

[strad]

thanks Ray

[Gerhardsa]

I wonder why that Ferrari stopped out on track. hope there aint gearbox or engine issues.
EDIT: Eish...on the replay that didnt sound that healthy breaking for the 1st chicane!

[kalinka]

I wonder why that Ferrari stopped out on track. hope there aint gearbox or engine issues.
EDIT: Eish...on the replay that didnt sound that healthy breaking for the 1st chicane!

Yes, quite strange, from replay it seems that the team told Alonso to stop. No strange noises, at least I didn't noticed any.

[Morteza]

What happened to Maldonado?

[strad]

Pastor = Karma?

[raymondu999]

I didn't notice anything wrong with the sound on the onboards. Fernando obviously felt something wrong somewhere - and immediately turned off his engine. It wasn't gearbox I don't think - the engine seemed to blip for him on the downshifts just fine. Engine, could be something wrong rather than a blowup, because I certainly don't see any smoke coming out. Maybe some sort of ancillary part failing, like an alternator or something.

[strad]

Thats the second time Kimi has gone kurb hopping

[strad]

I think Button and engineer were joking about Kimis flight