2015 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir

[Phil]

Yeah, I think I agree with that. We should also not disregard the mental aspect; When you're leading the championship like Nico did last year for pretty much 90% of the season, I think you approach the weekend differently. He had the lead and therefore could afford to take on each weekend in a very analytical manner. Lewis on the other hand, was under constant pressure to make up the point deficit caused by DNFs and troubles during QF, so tend to drive more agressively.

This year, it's the opposite. Lewis is ahead, so the "analytical" approach by Rosberg isn't enough, so he is finding himself under more pressure, which, perhaps is causing him to make more mistakes or show the level of frustration he is which is also influencing his on-track performance. If he had the lead, I think he would be a lot more relaxed and "calculated". Right now, he is under pressure, both from the media and himself knowing that he is being outperformed with little he can do. But as I said, a good race could change that quickly - and would perhaps give him back some confidence. Bahrain will be a good place to start and I think he's been always strong here. Didn't he outperform Lewis last year in QF only to lose at the start? I'll be very interested to see how this weekend shapes up with the both of them.

On the topic of Bahrain; I also hope Kimi can get closer to Vettel. I really want to see them battle on track for once.

[Bomber_Pilot]

It seems we're in for quite a windy weekend.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/bh/as-sak ... 0465?day=4

[Alexgtt]

+1 but I still think Nico missed the coach by radio. It seems to me that Lewis can make adjustments with far more confidence than Nico. Or maybe his seat of the pants driving skill makes it less of an impact.

[Cuky]

picture from Ferrari's Facebook. Lots of sand on track and curbs

[n04h f1]

Given that it's a night race, I doubt Ferrari will be able to challenge them like they did at Malaysia, so I really hope Rosberg can really battle Hamilton or else it'll be another boring race!

[ringo]

I don't think Rosberg will challenge lewis. We quickly forget that it was the safety car that even allowed Nico to see Hamilton's taillight and to make matters worse he could not pass him with faster tyres. So if all goes well and there are no safety cars then Lewis will continue to dangle a carrot in front of Nico.

[iotar__]

I don't think Rosberg will challenge lewis. We quickly forget that it was the safety car that even allowed Nico to see Hamilton's taillight and to make matters worse he could not pass him with faster tyres. So if all goes well and there are no safety cars then Lewis will continue to dangle a carrot in front of Nico.

Not this again, just rewatch this damn race. "We quickly forget"? Indeed, you (plural) apparently forgot 3/4 of the 2014 race, the part you didn't like and 1/4 you remember you remember wrongly.

[FW17]

In all fairness the Pirelli faster tyre would have been at its best for 2 - 3 laps when pushed hard as it was last year, combine that with low track temperature at night there would not have been much

[hattrick]

Midweek Report 15.04.2015

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Inside Grand Prix 2015




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Today driver press conference:

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Lewis Hamilton   (Mercedes)
Pastor Maldonado (Lotus)
Sergio Perez     (ForceIndia)
Daniel Ricciardo (RedBull)
Will Stevens     (Manor)
Max Verstappen   (TorroRoso)

..at 13:00h (London time) will show live on Sky Sports F1 stream.

-the main topics will be #SprayGate and #GrumpyGate


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Chiefs teams press conference will take place tomorrow at 19:00h (London time) live on Sky Sports F1 stream:

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Maurizio Arrivabene(Ferrari)
John Booth         (Manor)
Eric Boullier      (McLaren)
Monisha Kaltenborn (Sauber)
Rob White          (Renault Sport F1)

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Media Kit .pdf
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[Phil]

I don't think Rosberg will challenge lewis. We quickly forget that it was the safety car that even allowed Nico to see Hamilton's taillight and to make matters worse he could not pass him with faster tyres. So if all goes well and there are no safety cars then Lewis will continue to dangle a carrot in front of Nico.

I just wanted to add that I wasn't basing my assumption of seeing a strong Nico on that last stint after the safety car. I was basing his strong performance on his good qualifying in 2014 and his very good first stint, in which he preserved a bit of tyres that enabled him to attack Lewis. Lewis fended him off and retained pit-stop priority which led to the switched strategies in the 2nd stint, in which Rosberg went on to the prime tyre, Lewis onto the option. That end to the race was something special, but there was already quite a fight at the end of that first stint that is easily forgotten.

[iotar__]

Copy paste: "Expected performance gap between the two compounds: 1.5 -1.7 seconds per lap." "...starting in the region of 29 degrees centigrade ambient and dropping down to 25 degrees or lower by the finish" (Pirelli)

[condor]

After the china gp Lewis should go all out attack and finish 20seconds ahead of rosberg then rosberg wouldnt need to complain about lewis going slow

Rosberg needs to get P1 and then control the race from the front. Then he can try to do what he accused Hamilton of doing. I think, however, that if he tries it he'll find Hamilton crawling all over him with a view to overtaking rather than bitching.

Like in Monaco begging for a stop out of sequence and preferential treatment or maybe like Rosberg in Barcelona/Bahrain? Overtake on track happened once in dry conditions (USA). Same old story theory=/practice: before the race - Hamilton will drive away 20 s in front, race - doesn't happen, 2s or loss, after the race - you see he "controlled' the race. Why do you all predict driving away all the time then?

I would hardly call Monaco as begging for an out of sequence pitstop when Hamilton provided the answer himself immediately that he already knew what Merc's policy was. btw he wasn't asking for anything preferential as you would like to imply - http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2014/05/a ... pit-stops/ this explains it clearly. For example at McLaren, which also have a driver equality policy, they allow whichever driver is closest to the pit entry to pit first in a safety car situation. This makes complete sense because otherwise the team could potentially be screwing both drivers if the lead driver has just gone past the pit entry and they forced the second driver, who was behind the pit entry, to also do another lap to pit behind the lead driver. Both drivers would then end up at the back of the pack if everyone else was behind the pit entry and therefore pitted before them. Merc could afford to do that last year as their dominance was such but I bet you they wouldn't do the same this year. It makes complete sense for at least one driver to not get avoidably screwed by a safety car.

You are also wrong that Lewis overtook Nico on track only once in dry conditions. Lewis overtook him in Bahrain 2014 which was dry. If you actually watched the race, you can clearly see that at one point Nico did get past Lewis and was clearly in the lead, and then four corners or so later Lewis overtakes Nico and gets the lead back. Now I guess you could also count that as a successful overtake by Nico in the first place, but hard to award that as a legit overtake when he can't manage to keep the place for hardly four corners. Lewis' overtake on Nico that four corners later counts and he kept the lead. Let's stop and consider that for a moment - both drivers and pretty much everyone acknowledged that Nico had better race pace in Bahrain than Lewis. Yet with slower race pace, Lewis manages to overtake and keep the place from Nico. With faster race pace, Nico cannot manage to overtake a keep a place from Lewis.

You are also ignoring the other dry overtakes by Lewis, such as Monza 2014. I can guess that you're ignoring it because Nico made a mistake by locking up and going off track. So what! That's the whole point of an overtake - it is between the two parties involved and in almost all cases where the cars are of similar speed, requires the overtaken driver to make a mistake. Whether that is a small mistake, like not covering the inside properly and underestimating the other car such as what happened in USA GP, or a big one as choking and locking the brakes badly in Monza - it's still a mistake under pressure. Now it's fine to not count it as a legitimate overtake if the lead car was nowhere close to being pressured and just made a silly error, but the fact is that in examples such as Monza Lewis was putting immense pressure on Nico and forced him into a mistake. No different to a forced error in tennis.

I also find it interesting that you think it is only worth country overtakes in the dry. What's next - overtakes in the dry with one hand on the wheel when the moon is blue? Wet overtakes are just as worthy. Afterall, it's the same conditions for both drivers.

It looks to me like you are incapable of making an unbiased comment when it comes to Hamilton.

[condor]

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.

Lewis has actually learnt from Nico this year for qualifying. Nico is very good at optimising the settings of the car for each and every corner for qualifying. He uses practise sessions, especially P3, to tune the diff and brake balance settings, braking points, braking shape, lines and throttle application based on grip levels in P3. Then he and his engineers make an estimation for small track evolution and temperature changes for qualifying and then he continues to fine tune this during qualifying sessions. i.e they work out a very close baseline based on practise session and then tune that according to the conditions at the time. There is a lot of data that can be gathered about track friction co-efficients etc based on suspension loads etc. The big advantage for qualifying is that other variables that come up during race day are minimised, such as fuel weight going down, which changes car balance; taking different lines to keep maximum possible speed without damaging tyres while in another car's dirty air; changing braking points, braking shape, lines and throttle input to conserve fuel as required or alternatively push when required.

In 2014, while Lewis also played around with settings during qualifying, he never optimised it to this level. Instead he drove qualifying closer to how he drives race day. By the feedback from the steering wheel and by the seat of his pants.

Come race day, the seat of the pants style worked better for Lewis as the track evolution changes rapidly, fuel levels go down, car balance changes, comes across traffic, managing fuel etc. So all memorised set parameters for each corner that Nico held for qualifying was of no advantage and in fact a hindrance as he had prepared the weekend relying more on settings and memorising than feeling the car.

This year it seems Lewis has realised this and his qualifying has improved but what is noticeable is that he is far more active on the steering wheel during qualifying. He is doing what Nico is doing, changing brake balance and diff settings for each corner. Come race day, he can still drive his natural seat of the pants style.

Only time will tell but I think qualifying will be close this year, provided both drivers get their practise sessions in each race weekend without problems. I think Nico will edge out Lewis in qualifying in Bahrain again as Nico is very good at this track.

[Shrieker]

IIRC Hamilton had a brake issue in the hydraulic lines during qualifying last year. That may or may not have helped Nico secure pole. As many have pointed out though, this is one of Nico's best tracks if not the best. And last weekend there were only 4 hundredths of a second between the two come q3. Hard to make a guess. Be interesting to see if Ferrari try something different in the race and throw a spanner in the works

[SectorOne]

Im hoping for another dog fight, that sould be sweet!
But maybe this time its Vettel and Raikkonen that will dance?