2015 Austrian Grand Prix - 19-21 June

[mikeerfol]

How does the weather look for tomorrow? Could we get a wet FP3 and quali as well? At least that's what it says here

[drunkf1fan]

He claimed he was four tenths up on Rosberg at the second sector... Ominous if he figures out how to keep it on the black stuff in S3.

When Hamilton is at his absolute best he goes beyond the limit, makes mistakes, then either finds a way to tune the car to the limits or he will pull back just marginally to stay on the track. He's better than anyone else on the grid at this and does it all the time. People kept complaining he was making mistakes at several tracks this year then goes away and blows everyone away in qualifying. Safe drivers go and try and find a 1/10th from the safe side of their limit. THe absolute best drivers thrash the car, go beyond the limits and come back the other way. The advantage being if you do a safe lap and build, you can never really be sure where the limit is. When you do a beyond the limit lap you definitely know where the limit is.

Hamilton's soft tire time was immense and most important the 11th lap on soft tires. He'd put in a few fast pace laps and one qualifying pace lap already with some slower laps in between. Used tires and where he was.... with a clean lap I'd put him 3-4/10th's clear which is apparently what Hamilton thinks also.


As for race pace, not sure why people still compare times. Even Rosberg pointed it out after FP3 I think in Canada. When asked about times compared to Ferrari he said along the lines of he hadn't seen the times but the times don't matter. In so many words he basically said the teams go over the data, work out fuel and engine power level everyone else used, know what settings they used and then and only then you get a comparison.

A guy on reddit who links his analysis of long run times from race to race, I don't agree with everything he says but the fact that Mercedes generally show a race pace 0.5-1 second ahead of their FP2 times while importantly Ferrari rarely do.

People all season have gotten excited about Ferrari pace in Fp2 matching or appearing ahead of Merc yet in the race Merc gain a second. From the general trend of the past 2.5 years Merc tend to run heavy fuel/lower engine power in Fp2, Ferrari run lighter fuel or higher engine power and tend to show realistic race pace numbers. Williams tend to have a changing program, their FP2 times don't seem to tally with race pace in a consistent way.

Ferrari don't look very close to Merc to me, Williams may be closer to Ferrari than normal but I don't think the fastest WIlliams will look particularly close to the fastest Ferrari here.

[Overdriving]

Hamilton's soft tire time was immense and most important the 11th lap on soft tires.

Vettel's fastest lap on softs was on 13-lap-old tyres and he could have gone faster but aborted the lap and returned to boxes, so Hamilton's lap was nothing special.
That said, I'm sure it will be a Merc on pole as usual.

[Samraj_official]

This year's fp2 time is slower than last year. I wouldn't bet on any records being broken.

Pirelli is failing to deliver performance on the tires, their tyre choices are extremely conservative and their 2015 compounds aren't faster either, hoping for MICHELIN magic in 2017!!!! (if it happens)

[Jordan44]

He claimed he was four tenths up on Rosberg at the second sector... Ominous if he figures out how to keep it on the black stuff in S3.

When Hamilton is at his absolute best he goes beyond the limit, makes mistakes, then either finds a way to tune the car to the limits or he will pull back just marginally to stay on the track. He's better than anyone else on the grid at this and does it all the time. People kept complaining he was making mistakes at several tracks this year then goes away and blows everyone away in qualifying. Safe drivers go and try and find a 1/10th from the safe side of their limit. THe absolute best drivers thrash the car, go beyond the limits and come back the other way. The advantage being if you do a safe lap and build, you can never really be sure where the limit is. When you do a beyond the limit lap you definitely know where the limit is.

Hamilton's soft tire time was immense and most important the 11th lap on soft tires. He'd put in a few fast pace laps and one qualifying pace lap already with some slower laps in between. Used tires and where he was.... with a clean lap I'd put him 3-4/10th's clear which is apparently what Hamilton thinks also.


As for race pace, not sure why people still compare times. Even Rosberg pointed it out after FP3 I think in Canada. When asked about times compared to Ferrari he said along the lines of he hadn't seen the times but the times don't matter. In so many words he basically said the teams go over the data, work out fuel and engine power level everyone else used, know what settings they used and then and only then you get a comparison.

A guy on reddit who links his analysis of long run times from race to race, I don't agree with everything he says but the fact that Mercedes generally show a race pace 0.5-1 second ahead of their FP2 times while importantly Ferrari rarely do.

People all season have gotten excited about Ferrari pace in Fp2 matching or appearing ahead of Merc yet in the race Merc gain a second. From the general trend of the past 2.5 years Merc tend to run heavy fuel/lower engine power in Fp2, Ferrari run lighter fuel or higher engine power and tend to show realistic race pace numbers. Williams tend to have a changing program, their FP2 times don't seem to tally with race pace in a consistent way.

Ferrari don't look very close to Merc to me, Williams may be closer to Ferrari than normal but I don't think the fastest WIlliams will look particularly close to the fastest Ferrari here.

I think you've found me here, JordanF1? Nice to see a fellow redditor here. Which bits didn't you agree with?

[drunkf1fan]

Hamilton's soft tire time was immense and most important the 11th lap on soft tires.

Vettel's fastest lap on softs was on 13-lap-old tyres and he could have gone faster but aborted the lap and returned to boxes, so Hamilton's lap was nothing special.
That said, I'm sure it will be a Merc on pole as usual.

Except factoring in that Hamilton's was a single run, Vettel pitted half way through and with tire temp being one of the single biggest factors in both tire deg and overall grip(so shorter runs are beneficial). As with most cars Vettel did a run and had a 10 minute gap before his second run. Most cars go out, adjust to conditions make some set up changes that usually dial in to the track and give more speed. THen also 15-20 mins later into the session track conditions are likely improved. All of which reinforce why I believe Hamilton's time which was still faster than Vettel's was a very very good lap.

[Jordan44]

Well having seen that soft tyre lap from Vettel I'm now starting to think differently, the short lap here means Ferrari are a genuine threat this weekend. Perhaps both Mercs will probably still be able to get pole with their unique qualifying engine settings which I don't think they run now, plus the fact Hamilton was able to beat Vettel before he made that mistake on his 3rd or 4th run on the tyres but it's gonna be the closest we've seen all year.

[ME4ME]

Oh for the love of God ..Why can't they stay onboard on Raikkonen's quick-lap. Instead they view some passive people in the pit-lane doing nothing at all

[iotar__]

Geniuses from Lotus on top of selling another FP to Palmer messed up FP3 too, that's two out of three. They got rid of the only element that worked in this team, the only competitive advantage they had. Beating their own records of incompetence of running F1 team.

[Juzh]

Thank you mclaren for ruining another session just when action is about to start.

[Juzh]

And now it started to rain. GREAT.

[Overdriving]

Hamilton's soft tire time was immense and most important the 11th lap on soft tires.

Vettel's fastest lap on softs was on 13-lap-old tyres and he could have gone faster but aborted the lap and returned to boxes, so Hamilton's lap was nothing special.
That said, I'm sure it will be a Merc on pole as usual.

Except factoring in that Hamilton's was a single run, Vettel pitted half way through and with tire temp being one of the single biggest factors in both tire deg and overall grip(so shorter runs are beneficial). As with most cars Vettel did a run and had a 10 minute gap before his second run. Most cars go out, adjust to conditions make some set up changes that usually dial in to the track and give more speed. THen also 15-20 mins later into the session track conditions are likely improved. All of which reinforce why I believe Hamilton's time which was still faster than Vettel's was a very very good lap.

And yet you're discarding that Vettel missed the entire FP1 and did no previous setup work. That's far more impressive I think.

[SectorOne]

Qualifying will be interesting, they have to qualify with what they got basically.

[Emmcee]

Be interesting to see how kimi goes in qualy if tyre temp is vital here. Expecting another poor qualy performance compared to Vettel?

[f1316]

Noticed that there's a run off area here which is Tarmac with a little bit of gravel trap right at the end. Without giving it any serious thought maybe this would be a good compromise at more places to punish drivers + keep safety over pure gravel?