2015 Russian Grand Prix - Sochi, October 09-11

[godlameroso]

If Rosberg stays in front of Hamilton after the 3rd corner there's a good chance he'll stay in front, and Hamilton could DNF trying to pass him. An agressive two stop strategy doing two stints on super softs and a short one on softs could be a good way to make up ground. Otherwise the one stop seems to be the most efficient way around, I'd say the super softs are good for about 10-12 laps depending on how you manage them, and from there the soft can easily take you the rest of the way. Everyone else that tries a one stopper is going to be struggling at the end of their first stint, and towards the end of the race.

[Jordan44]

If Rosberg stays in front of Hamilton after the 3rd corner there's a good chance he'll stay in front, and Hamilton could DNF trying to pass him. An agressive two stop strategy doing two stints on super softs and a short one on softs could be a good way to make up ground. Otherwise the one stop seems to be the most efficient way around, I'd say the super softs are good for about 10-12 laps depending on how you manage them, and from there the soft can easily take you the rest of the way. Everyone else that tries a one stopper is going to be struggling at the end of their first stint, and towards the end of the race.

Trying to pass someone guarantees a DNF, right?

[mrluke]

Cue half a dozen threads about how the cars must be redesigned because of this crash.

You can't design the car for every crash eventuality. You can change the barriers though - should be possible to do that to prevent submarining whilst keeping the barrier effective for other race series etc.

Maybe I'm missing the point, but Sainz has crashed at the fastest part of the track with very little speed scrubbed off at the point of impact, and been left completely uninjured. He literally could've and would've walked back to the garage if it weren't for the understandable abundance of caution by medics. The Tecpro has absorbed so much energy that a car impacting head on at 150+mph has 'only' partially breached the single skin metal barriers behind.

As seen with a very similar impact for De Jong at Spa, the Tecpro being lifted as it absorbs energy in neither track, nor car specific. Only needing to replace a small piece of barrier when a car hits head on at that speed and the driver completely fine is a best case outcome in all respects.

I think the most important issue is that the Tecpro barrier could have hit Sainz his head or perhaps even worse: squeeze his head between the barrier and back of the cockpit. Don't get me wrong: I'm hugely glad that none of that happened, and that the barriers did their job actually.

So the point is that the crash exposed a very vulnerable point, which luckily did not mattered this time. It's not one thing contributing to this, but several: a low nose, rake, and the issue that breaking the suspension lowers the nose further, and probably a weakness to this kind of submarining in the shape of the tecpro barrier.

Its not a new weakness, once again it is showing how exposed the drivers head is.

We have seen multiple "freak" accidents but the theme through all of the concerning ones is the vulnerability of the drivers head.

[Andres125sx]

Sainz will be allowed to race tomorrow: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/10/10/s ... n-to-race/

Best news of the weekend so far =D>



About the barriers, I agree lifting and hitting drivers helmet is a risk, but as some of you already posted that can´t be prevented because they can´t be secured to the ground or they wouldn´t decrease deceleration so well.

I´m a big defensor of closed cockpits, but in this case I don´t think this is a big problem. It is not a solid object hitting drivers helmet, it´s a techpro barrier (soft) so that´s not a huge problem, helmets should cope with that perfectly

[Just_a_fan]

If Rosberg stays in front of Hamilton after the 3rd corner there's a good chance he'll stay in front, and Hamilton could DNF trying to pass him. An agressive two stop strategy doing two stints on super softs and a short one on softs could be a good way to make up ground. Otherwise the one stop seems to be the most efficient way around, I'd say the super softs are good for about 10-12 laps depending on how you manage them, and from there the soft can easily take you the rest of the way. Everyone else that tries a one stopper is going to be struggling at the end of their first stint, and towards the end of the race.

The big question is will Hamilton play the averages or go for broke? The sensible approach is to take a safe second place behind Rosberg. Hamilton only needs to finish second at each race to take the title. A DNF opens the title up to the other two.

[DVB]

Sainz will be allowed to race tomorrow: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/10/10/s ... n-to-race/

Best news of the weekend so far =D>



About the barriers, I agree lifting and hitting drivers helmet is a risk, but as some of you already posted that can´t be prevented because they can´t be secured to the ground or they wouldn´t decrease deceleration so well.

I´m a big defensor of closed cockpits, but in this case I don´t think this is a big problem. It is not a solid object hitting drivers helmet, it´s a techpro barrier (soft) so that´s not a huge problem, helmets should cope with that perfectly

Hi,

It's easy to make a system that will keep the barriers close to the ground but still will let them move away. Think about a rail system. They should do this tests with knowing a driver could hit it with 320 km/h. It's quite normal that an un-attached barrier come's up.

The helmet won't have a problem with the barrier, but the impact might have on the rider's head / neck / spine.

In what state was the helmet of Jules? That would also be something important to the discussion.

[Paul]

Hamilton should know to target 1st better than anyone else, having once failed to win the title when he needed to be 7th and another time being one corner away from finishing 6th when he needed 5th.

[ringo]

Hamilton i think may have better tyre management. He will pressure Nico into a mistake then go for the opening.
Nico hasn't had Lewis up his gearbox this year. He probably wont be able to hang on under the pressure.
For an exciting race i really hope Nico stays ahead after the first turn so that Lewis can pressure him.

[Andres125sx]

Sorry for the OT, but everytime I read Ringo´s posts, I have to look at his avatar for some seconds...

I hope even when OT, you all will appreciatte some more pictures of that beauty, one of the most iconic F1 cars in history, the Brabam BT52

[SiLo]

Very anti-climactic session because the shootout finished so early. I hope the race is exciting tomorrow.

This track though... 80% of it just looks like Valencia, so boring and flat. I do like the first few corners though.

[godlameroso]

Sector 3 is low speed but interesting, a lot of full throttle sections one after every turn in sector two.

[Andres125sx]

I like corner 3 and the camera placement, wich sometimes makes awesome corners look standard, but in this case it shows cornering speed perfectly from that high position capturing almost the whole corner from a good perspective to notice the speed

Apart from that, boring track IMO.

[Nathanael F1]

[djos]

I now understand why most Americans don't watch F1, the NBC coverage sucks, particularly the commentators, they are morons! (I regret to say, especially the Aussie Leigh Diffy, he sucked even in Australia commentating the V8's)

[QLDriver]

So the race will be interesting - a total of 45 minutes of real dry track running before qualifying - nobody knows how long the tyres will REALLY last now. And presumably as there hasn't been sustained hard running, the track could change quite significantly through the race as it rubbers in. I think these freak circumstances could lead to a more interesting race, where the drivers find and have to adapt to changing balance and unpredictable tyre life.