2015 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir

[Cuky]

How many races the engines need to last 4 or 5 this year? The Engine reliability means less running i believe and Bahrain is a Power Demanding Circuit.

They are not limited by number of races but by number of PUs per driver for a season. They have 4 PUs for a whole season which in 19 races season like this one means that ideally you would like to use 3 of your PUs for 5 races and one for 4 races. You can also use extra PUs if needed, but with penalties or you can maybe try and squeeze one or two extra races on already used PU. Mercedes did whole season's distance in testing with one PU so it is possible to do more than 5 races on one PU. How competitive would you be, that is a different story

[mkable1370]

How many races the engines need to last 4 or 5 this year? The Engine reliability means less running i believe and Bahrain is a Power Demanding Circuit.

With 19 races on the schedule and only 4 sets of PU components allocated per car before incurring penalty, each will need to last at least 5 races. But, if the first three sets all last through five races, then the fourth will only need to see four race.

That being said, and with the poor showing of the Renault Power Units, I wonder how many Red Bull will end up using, since they it appears they are already on #3 after only 3 races...

[Unc1eM0nty]

What was Lewis's problem last year when Nico was faster, I can't remember what he said after the race - was it poor set up ?

Nico does look fast here but Lewis is in such good form that I can't see past him for the win, if the racing is even half as close as last year then someone's going to loose a wing or maybe even worse.

[SectorOne]

The merc havent showed any signs of being prone to eating its rear tires.
In Malaysia they had thermal degradation, not wear. In 60 degree track temps at that.

My prediction is biggest gap to Ferrari of the races we've seen so far.

[Sevach]

The merc havent showed any signs of being prone to eating its rear tires.
In Malaysia they had thermal degradation, not wear. In 60 degree track temps at that.

My prediction is biggest gap to Ferrari of the races we've seen so far.

Don't agree with that, Mercedes biggest advantage is high speed corners, Bahrain is mostly stop and go with some long straights and Ferrari has good straight line speed.

[SectorOne]

We'll see

[f1316]

So what happened to the 5th pu idea then? Was that not ratified?

I.e. This: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/118232

[iotar__]

So what happened to the 5th pu idea then? Was that not ratified?

I.e. This: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/118232

Why do you need it ? AFAIU: they pretended they needed more engines to run more on Fridays (ridiculous) so a sound counter-argument was made that they should be given additional engine ONLY for Fridays. That stalled the proceedings because in fact change or rules was designed to help RB and Honda. So as everything in F1 it depends on who wants it and what can be traded. Let's put it this way if it was only Lotus and Force India with unreliable engine and penalties looming no one would even mention change of rules.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

The merc havent showed any signs of being prone to eating its rear tires.
In Malaysia they had thermal degradation, not wear. In 60 degree track temps at that.

My prediction is biggest gap to Ferrari of the races we've seen so far.

Don't agree with that, Mercedes biggest advantage is high speed corners, Bahrain is mostly stop and go with some long straights and Ferrari has good straight line speed.

If I remember correctly, Merc always had good exit speeds out of slow corners, even when they were struggling in 2012 and 2013. A classic example of stop and go is Monaco, where they have been consistently good. Their biggest growth in the last couple of years has been on high speed corners and that is how the car has become good.

With the kind of downforce levels Merc is running from 2013, they naturally do not have speed on straights but the Merc customer cars have been topping on the straight line speed. I had mentioned it elsewhere, for Ferrari to take advantage of straight line speed, they have to be right at the tail of a Merc when the straight begins and that is not going to be possible due to the downforce advantage Merc has, which makes them get through the sequence of corners faster than Ferrari and move out of DRS detection range quickly by the time straight starts.

From last week in China, here are the top speeds in 3 sectors (Race).
Sector 1
Kimi 285.4
Vettel 283.9
Nico 282.9
Lewis 280.0

Sector 2
Nico 275.4
Lewis 275.1
Kimi 274.8
Vettel 273.6

Sector 3
Kimi 264.7
Vettel 262.2
Nico 260.5
Lewis 260.4

Qualifying Speed Trap (at the end of Back Straight)
Nico 334.6
Lewis 332.1
Vettel 331.6
Kimi 330.6

Shanghai, having the longest straight, still there wasn't anything on display from Ferrari in terms of their straight line speed.

[MercedesAMGSpy]

The merc havent showed any signs of being prone to eating its rear tires.
In Malaysia they had thermal degradation, not wear. In 60 degree track temps at that.

My prediction is biggest gap to Ferrari of the races we've seen so far.

Don't agree with that, Mercedes biggest advantage is high speed corners, Bahrain is mostly stop and go with some long straights and Ferrari has good straight line speed.

If I remember correctly, Merc always had good exit speeds out of slow corners, even when they were struggling in 2012 and 2013. A classic example of stop and go is Monaco, where they have been consistently good. Their biggest growth in the last couple of years has been on high speed corners and that is how the car has become good.

With the kind of downforce levels Merc is running from 2013, they naturally do not have speed on straights but the Merc customer cars have been topping on the straight line speed. I had mentioned it elsewhere, for Ferrari to take advantage of straight line speed, they have to be right at the tail of a Merc when the straight begins and that is not going to be possible due to the downforce advantage Merc has, which makes them get through the sequence of corners faster than Ferrari and move out of DRS detection range quickly by the time straight starts.

From last week in China, here are the top speeds in 3 sectors (Race).
Sector 1
Kimi 285.4
Vettel 283.9
Nico 282.9
Lewis 280.0

Sector 2
Nico 275.4
Lewis 275.1
Kimi 274.8
Vettel 273.6

Sector 3
Kimi 264.7
Vettel 262.2
Nico 260.5
Lewis 260.4

Qualifying Speed Trap (at the end of Back Straight)
Nico 334.6
Lewis 332.1
Vettel 331.6
Kimi 330.6

Shanghai, having the longest straight, still there wasn't anything on display from Ferrari in terms of their straight line speed.

Exactly.

People said Rosberg would attack Lewis with a low downforce setup on the straights in China, forgetting Lewis would create a gap between him and Rosberg in the first two high downforce sectors.

[SiLo]

Tbh this track is similar in many ways to China, with the central part of the track broken up by a high downforce section.

I expect much the same as China, but with merc likely further away. Their pace on the mediums just blew Ferrari out of the water so as soon as they both get onto those tyres, the race will be over.

[Vasconia]

Mercedes will cake walk it again. They'll stay just ahead and match Ferrari pit stops. I hope Raikkonen gets a go at Vettel this time. I think the safety car ruined that in China. I'm also hoping McLaren will actually be able to race somebody.

According to the longs runs during the GPs we have seen so far Kimi could be faster than Sebastian if he qualifies at least behind him. So if Kimi does his job we could see a great battle between him.

Its a pity that the race is at night because with such a high temperatures we could see Ferrari putting Mercedes under a great pressure but now...

Hamilton is absolutely on fire, so my only hope is if Nico can deliver a great lap in the Q3 and achieve the pole position. If not...

[SiLo]

Mercedes will cake walk it again. They'll stay just ahead and match Ferrari pit stops. I hope Raikkonen gets a go at Vettel this time. I think the safety car ruined that in China. I'm also hoping McLaren will actually be able to race somebody.

According to the longs runs during the GPs we have seen so far Kimi could be faster than Sebastian if he qualifies at least behind him. So if Kimi does his job we could see a great battle between him.

Its a pity that the race is at night because with such a high temperatures we could see Ferrari putting Mercedes under a great pressure but now...

Hamilton is absolutely on fire, so my only hope is if Nico can deliver a great lap in the Q3 and achieve the pole position. If not...

As we saw last year, it doesnt really matter if he qualifies first if Hamilton is second. It's the race he really needs to beat him in AS WELL as qualifying.

[Vasconia]

But if he starts on pole there will be more chances. Last year we saw Nico´s absolute incapacity to overtake Lewis (sometimes because Lewis was too hard).

[Phil]

I think the performance of each drivers vary. Hamilton has been very strong, but he hasn't always been in a position to pass when he found himself behind Nico. Monaco, Brazil and Canada were examples for instance where Nico stayed ahead. He was bordering on the limit though, as the mistakes he made (cutting the chicane in Canada) weren't investigated. Brazil is a good example however - Hamilton nearly had him if he hadn't made a mistake, but still, beating your team-mate with a later pit-stop is extremely difficult, because the undercut will probably offset any pace advantage he may have. Monaco would have been close though, and the safety car played into Nicos hands. Canada, the longer pitstop helped Lewis to get past before his car DNFed. Brazil, showed that passing on the track was not possible and there wasn't enough in it to attempt it through the pit-stop offset. So, if two in the same car could get by one another is very track dependant. I think Nico would be in a much stronger position if he had the opportunity to get himself on pole and remain in the lead beyond the first corner.

Although, being overtaken on track is mentally a lot tougher to swallow then to be passed in the pits, or being outqualified and never making it passed.