ANALYSIS STEP here Sebastian Vettel the race simulation - source link
After the two race simulations Mercedes that review in recent days, and that of Kimi Raikkonen, analyzed yesterday, today it happened to Sebastian Vettel once again demonstrate the potential of the Ferrari SF16-H in race configuration .
After working during the morning on short runs , the German Ferrari driver during the middle of the afternoon focused to simulate an entire Spanish GP . Simulation that unfortunately was interrupted on lap 7 due to a red flag for problems Power Unit Mercedes Force India's Sergio Perez.
Here is a list of the times recorded by the German Ferrari driver:
Let us compare the pace of Vettel with that of its direct competitors, then Hamilton , Rosberg and Raikkonen .
1st stint
The first stint with soft tires was good enough for Ferrari Vettel as it is able to run at a better pace than Hamilton (5/10) and Raikkonen (one tenth) but worse than Rosberg (2/10) that went very strong in the first part of the race. The stint Vettel unlike that of the two pilots of the Mercedes lasted one lap less. The degradation with this compound was high enough but not to the levels of what had in Raikkonen's race simulation, because the stint began in 29 down to end after just five laps, 30 in average. You can tell by analyzing the time available, that V Ettel is the pilot who managed to better manage the soft tires ways .
2nd stint
After the red flag that maybe stopped a few laps before the first stint of Soft, Vettel changed compound in the second stint (18 laps as Hamilton), mounting medium . This part of the race was the most critical for the German Ferrari driver , but in a few laps he found a lot of traffic; from this we can conclude that the pitch could be definitely better talking in tenths. At the end of the stint the pace of the Finnish driver was worse than Hamilton 8/10, 2/10 compared to Rosberg and well half compared to Raikkonen but has traveled a shorter stretch of the race.
3rd stint
However great the third stint Vettel, in a part of the race over 20 laps shot with very consistent times and with a slightly better pace than the two Mercedes drivers and teammate. Assuming that all his rivals, including Raikkonen have shot for less laps (especially Hamilton), the race pace shown by Sebastian in the middle phase of the race was impressive.
4th stint
While mounting medium tires, and not as Hard Raikkonen, last stint the Ferrari Vettel suffered a lot , recording much higher times especially compared to those of Hamilton who finished the race with an impressive pace, time hammering around all ' 1.27.
In conclusion, Vettel to equal strategy (SMMM), has not been fully competitive showing on average a half times around the second highest score compared to those made from a super Lewis Hamilton .
If you calculate that Raikkonen, using the hard compound after the race, was one tenth better than the average lap Vettel's time, we can conclude that the German driver will not be fully satisfied with today's race simulation.
(translated by google)