2014 Spanish Grand Prix - Barcelona

[raymondu999]

2013



2014
Tyres - Hard (prime, orange) and Medium (option, white)

2013
Tyres - Hard (prime, orange) and Medium (option, white)
Polesitter - Nico Rosberg (1:20.718)
Winner - Fernando Alonso (Medium - Hard - Hard - Medium - Hard)

2012
Tyres - Hard (prime, grey) and Soft (option, white)
Polesitter - Pastor Maldonado (1:22.285) - Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole, but was disqualified
Winner - Pastor Maldonado (Soft - Hard - Hard - Hard)

2011
Tyres - Hard (prime, grey) and Soft (option, yellow)
Polesitter - Mark Webber (1:20.981)
Winner - Sebastian Vettel (Soft - Soft - Soft - Hard - Hard)

2013 pole lap - Nico Rosberg (1:20.718)

[gray41]

4 in a row for Lewis, Nico p2 again with DanRic on the podium for the first time officially.

[AfroDude41]

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that neither of the Mercedes cars will win the race. Alonso or Ricciardo or maybe even Vettel will win.

[Sevach]

Small mistake on the opening post, the medium tire color is white.

[beelsebob]

I can see AfroDude's stance here for sure. Both the RedBull and the Ferrari were very close to the Merc, if not ahead through the twisty turny stuff in china. I can believe that they'll be ahead in Spain.

That said, I guess Merc can always just bolt a barn door onto the car and be as fast down the straight as everyone else, but quick in the twisty turny. We'll see I guess.

[Shrieker]

This was one of the weekends last year where Nico was clearly ahead. Certainly the ideal place to launch his counterattack judging from 2013. But Hamilton says he's comfortable with the W05 whereas it was seldom the case with the W04, which is somewhat crucial. As things stand, I don't think Red Bull or Ferrari will be beating Merc for a win on this track; of course things never remain static in F1- the upgrades they (and Merc) bring will determine the outcome. Still though, i don't think something other than a Merc will win the gp, maybe the gap to others will be less come the end of the race than we've seen so far.

[myurr]

I can see AfroDude's stance here for sure. Both the RedBull and the Ferrari were very close to the Merc, if not ahead through the twisty turny stuff in china. I can believe that they'll be ahead in Spain.

That said, I guess Merc can always just bolt a barn door onto the car and be as fast down the straight as everyone else, but quick in the twisty turny. We'll see I guess.

That's the thing a lot of people miss when they say how much better the RB car is through the twisty stuff - both cars are being optimised for the best lap time and to a degree on the Merc that means chasing top speed as much as absolute downforce.

Hamilton's view when interviewed on Sky is that RBR have just about as much downforce as Mercedes, perhaps even a little more in the high speed turns. My interpretation of that is that Merc is reaching those figures despite having better aero efficiency and therefore straight line speed and lower fuel usage. For Barcelona, if it makes sense from a lap time point of view, they'll optimise for higher downforce at the expense of overall efficiency.

[mkay]

I can see AfroDude's stance here for sure. Both the RedBull and the Ferrari were very close to the Merc, if not ahead through the twisty turny stuff in china. I can believe that they'll be ahead in Spain.

That said, I guess Merc can always just bolt a barn door onto the car and be as fast down the straight as everyone else, but quick in the twisty turny. We'll see I guess.

Huh, no. RBR got close to Mercedes through the twisty stuff in China, but Alonso was a few tenths off every lap.

And Mercedes had a 10-15kph top speed advantage on both.

[MercedesAMGSpy]

I can see AfroDude's stance here for sure. Both the RedBull and the Ferrari were very close to the Merc, if not ahead through the twisty turny stuff in china. I can believe that they'll be ahead in Spain.

That said, I guess Merc can always just bolt a barn door onto the car and be as fast down the straight as everyone else, but quick in the twisty turny. We'll see I guess.

Lewis Hamilton didn't need to push at all, let's see when he needs to turn the wick up - Mercedes is far ahead.

[cirrusflyer]

I can see AfroDude's stance here for sure. Both the RedBull and the Ferrari were very close to the Merc, if not ahead through the twisty turny stuff in china. I can believe that they'll be ahead in Spain.

That said, I guess Merc can always just bolt a barn door onto the car and be as fast down the straight as everyone else, but quick in the twisty turny. We'll see I guess.

Lewis Hamilton didn't need to push at all, let's see when he needs to turn the wick up - Mercedes is far ahead.

Mercs did not push as hard through twisty and fast parts of the track as others did ( they just ran away on the straits ). Nico and Lewis to a greater extent had both really good tyre wear ( had been on soft rubber longer than the others ). I am afraid/glad that they could be quite faster if they needed to ( that would cost some tyre life - they'd be equal on longevity of the rubber and faster then the rest ).

[NathanOlder]

I think merc had time in their pocket in china. Remember, if we didnt have a safety car in Bahrain, we wouldn't have seen their true pace. Today Lewis didnt need to push at all. Rosberg was taking it easy until the point he attacked Alonso, and Fernando had no chance at all. In Spain Merc will go as fast as they need and nothing more. The only chance of them pushing hard is if Nico and Lewis are close in the last half of the race.

[AfroDude41]

It will be interesting though, they haven't been to Catalunya yet this season, so we don't know whether they might still have massive tire wear like last season.

[mika vs michael]

Mercedes seems to have a 1 sec advantage from Redbull and Ferrari. I guess if Redbull and Ferrari push like hell the development rate they could cut it to 0.5 secs but still they will trail Mercedes. So if nothing extraordinary happens in the race difficult to see a Redbull or Ferrari winning it.
Today Lewis spent about 5-6 kgs less fuel than his rivals. So he did not push hard.

[Duke]

First race of big upgrades to all cars, can't wait

[prince]

Mercedes seems to have a 1 sec advantage from Redbull and Ferrari. I guess if Redbull and Ferrari push like hell the development rate they could cut it to 0.5 secs but still they will trail Mercedes.

Provided Merc stands still and does not produce any upgrades. Just to let you know, read some quote from Nico saying, they will bring updates to Barcelona and "hopefully provide further performance". When any team gets such a head start with that kind of lead, it has seldom lost it. It only makes other teams to respond aggressively, where teams try anything and everything in a hurry and that is what a dominant team want their competitors to do. That means, teams simply try things that their cars are not designed for.