2015 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir

[Juzh]

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.

Rai was faster on medium, compromised long stint for vettel could have an impact on this. Vet was faster on the soft.
Raikkonen pretty much nullified his lower grid position after 3 corners when he overtook both williams cars. This was a head on race troughout.

[Overdriving]

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.

Rai was faster on medium, compromised long stint for vettel could have an impact on this. Vet was faster on the soft.
Raikkonen pretty much nullified his lower grid position after 3 corners when he overtook both williams cars. This was a head on race troughout.

Exactly. Rai was faster on mediums because Vet's run on medium was longer than ideal thanks to the attempt to undercut Rosberg. Vet was doing better on softs than Rai.
I expected Rai to do better than that. China has never exactly been Vet's strongest track. He's far stronger in Bahrain.

[FrukostScones]

ROS HAM RAI

RAI VET RIC

[SiLo]

ROS HAM RAI

RAI VET RIC

First corner crash between Rosberg and Hamilton? I like your style.

[SectorOne]

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.

Rai was faster on medium, compromised long stint for vettel could have an impact on this. Vet was faster on the soft.
Raikkonen pretty much nullified his lower grid position after 3 corners when he overtook both williams cars. This was a head on race troughout.

Exactly. Rai was faster on mediums because Vet's run on medium was longer than ideal thanks to the attempt to undercut Rosberg. Vet was doing better on softs than Rai.
I expected Rai to do better than that. China has never exactly been Vet's strongest track. He's far stronger in Bahrain.

This would all be true if you ignore the data.

[Jolle]

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).

Plus, it looked like that ROS was faster in the last stint last year, but most people forget that ROS was on the faster tires... I think its safe to say that next to ALO's 6th tenths, we can speak of HAM's half a second.

[dans79]

This year though - I think Hamilton will do better (relative to him last year). Last year was still fresh with the new tyres - this year, I think they are more predictable. I think their pace will be more similar, so the guy on pole will have an advantage.

I think last year Lewis was still trying to figure out how to deal with Nico analyzing and duplicating everything he did. This year Lewis is either hiding what he is doing better, or Nico just can't duplicate it.

[Alexgtt]

One thing is for sure..........it's gonna get spicey!! I really don't think Nico can mentally take the same from Lewis. Whatever happens I predict fireworks. If the tack is warm Ferrari will be in the mix and will pick up the pieces if Nico ups the stakes like Spa last year. One thing we know about Nico is he holds a grudge and can't let it go.

Really hope Williams can up their game.

[Manoah2u]

This year though - I think Hamilton will do better (relative to him last year). Last year was still fresh with the new tyres - this year, I think they are more predictable. I think their pace will be more similar, so the guy on pole will have an advantage.

I think last year Lewis was still trying to figure out how to deal with Nico analyzing and duplicating everything he did. This year Lewis is either hiding what he is doing better, or Nico just can't duplicate it.

Wind back one year, what happened? radio bans. To be honest, it seems like radio communication bans affect nico much more than lewis. Though we don't get all the messages offcourse, there have been plenty of live messages where nico was asking for information that he couldn't get, and having trouble to understand the messages. i get the feeling nico is more accustomed to having a certain amount of feedback.

doesn't mean he can't do without, i just hink he's so accostumed to it that i can imagine change will hamper him. After all, he performed less after the radio ban, and still does.

Meanwhile, i think it must be remembered the start of this season is profoundly different than last year; lewis started with a DNF and nico took the win and thus had a 25 point advantage straight out.

more, Rosberg seemed to perform better during qualy compared to hamilton on regular occasions - or perhasp i'm wrong, but that's what i recall. so, Rosberg would have track position over lewis.

it's easy to think somebody is nowhere when the picture is a bit different. however, despite lewis having the upper hand and quite the mental game on him already, Rosberg still was close to lewis. Yes, lewis had much left in his tires, but it's not like nico was a millenium behind him.

Rosberg is still close, but he could be closer if he didn't let his mindset scr*w around with him. I think Mercedes telling him to stop being politically correct and become the *whining b*tch* again wasn't the smartest thing though.

Thing is, will rosberg fix his mindset? if he does, he'll make the season difficult for lewis again. if he keeps it like it is now, his championship opportunities fly very fast away.

[Kiril Varbanov]

Flashback from 2010:

[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

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.

Er... I don't need anything. Just wanted to clarify what the regulations were...

Having read the above article, it seemed almost a lock, but then nothing seems to have happened and I personally have seen no update. Hence my question.

[Richard]

*hard done by driver* would have beaten *doesn't deserve it driver* in China if only for *insert excuse here*

*feeds the fanboy by debating with them*

pretty sure all this should be in the china grand prix thread? Mods?

Done

Please talk about the Bahrain GP in the Bahrain thread, and the China GP in the China thread. If nothing else it means there is a chance of leaving the past in the past so we avoid endless fanboy comparison of laptimes.

[Vasconia]

This year though - I think Hamilton will do better (relative to him last year). Last year was still fresh with the new tyres - this year, I think they are more predictable. I think their pace will be more similar, so the guy on pole will have an advantage.

I think last year Lewis was still trying to figure out how to deal with Nico analyzing and duplicating everything he did. This year Lewis is either hiding what he is doing better, or Nico just can't duplicate it.

It seems that Hamilton has really improved as a driver which is not the case of Rosberg. I dont know if the radio ban has something to do with this. But Nico has lost the edge on saturdays which are the only opportunity for him to beat Hamilton.

No pole, no chances of victory Nico.

[dren]

With Ferrari being closer, Mercedes cannot experiment with two different strategies to race each other between their drivers. They have to go with the quickest strategy and react to whatever Ferrari end up doing to cover them. So we will not see the Mercedes fighting each other as much since they will both be on the same strategy, the same tires, etc. It will be down to qualifying for them as to who wins with potential pitstop passing. The race start will be vital to race victory for Mercedes. If Rosberg cannot up his qualifying form, he is in trouble.

[Jordan44]

This year though - I think Hamilton will do better (relative to him last year). Last year was still fresh with the new tyres - this year, I think they are more predictable. I think their pace will be more similar, so the guy on pole will have an advantage.

I think last year Lewis was still trying to figure out how to deal with Nico analyzing and duplicating everything he did. This year Lewis is either hiding what he is doing better, or Nico just can't duplicate it.

Radio ban thing is a complete myth. None of Nico's wins last year were won on pace alone. A straight overtake simply because he's faster. His wins came when there was a car issue for Lewis, or Lewis made a mistake somewhere.

I think Lewis's luck just got better and he became more consistent after the radio ban, so it looked that way. But in reality I don't think the radio ban changed anything. Lewis had the edge in raw pace from the beginning.

In my opinion, Nico was flattered last year. The order of the DNFs meant Nico looked a much stronger competitor than he actually was. I don't think Nico is any worse than last year, but last year he wasn't any good anyway. For me he's the clear number two.

People also seem to think he's quicker than Lewis because of his good qualifying run last year. But if you look into how many times Hamilton topped Q2 and then went on to overdrive on his final flying lap of Q3 you'll start to see a pattern. Lewis is the quickest driver but he just got into a habit of overdriving when it mattered.

At the moment he looks confident. And a confident Lewis is one that makes very few mistakes. So far he's been near perfect.