2016 European Grand Prix - Baku City Circuit, Fri 17 – Sun 19 Jun

[Fulcrum]

Another great reason to get rid of them altogether.

Seriously, is there a logical reason to have curbs/kerbs at this track aside from defining where they would 'prefer' to see the drivers driving?

Its so that there is 'something' there for the drivers to negotiate on the apex of the corner requiring them to balance their entry point. If it wasn't there then they'd just get their outside wheel as close to (but still outside) the white line on the apex making every corner much shallower.

Imagine the sequence in the image shown above, without the kerb there altogether the drivers would be able to 'straight line' through there with no penalty and no application of skill. At least with a kerb there there is a balancing act to be done of entry speed, aggressiveness over the kerb and steering input.

Sorry, that's not an argument that holds much water with me. That's actually part of my point. Placing kerbs on this track where they have effectively neuters it.

Why do the drivers need to have 'something' to 'negotiate' with?

You've stated it yourself. Without kerbs the balancing act is negotiating the wall, which seems a much better application of skill than 'negotiating' an arbitrary point like a kerb.

As such, removing the kerbs would place a much higher emphasis on the driver than the car.

[dans79]

Lewis was 8/10s up on Nico's time before that mistake.

yea, he lost 1.2 seconds because of that mistake. One thing fore sure this track will heavily penalize any mistakes on the part of the driver.

[dans79]

Why do the drivers need to have 'something' to 'negotiate' with?

Because making a mistake with a kerb, isn't as bad as making a mistake with a wall.

[flickerf1]

Lewis was 8/10s up on Nico's time before that mistake.

yea, he lost 1.2 seconds because of that mistake. One thing fore sure this track will heavily penalize any mistakes on the part of the driver.

Now he's gone nearly 7/10s faster than Nico!

[justmoi]

Lewis was 8/10s up on Nico's time before that mistake.

yea, he lost 1.2 seconds because of that mistake. One thing fore sure this track will heavily penalize any mistakes on the part of the driver.

I seriously fear for any driver who goes into that run off area during the race from missing his turn. He'll have to do a 180 turn or even worse reverse first. Gonna lose a lot of time there

[Sonador]

That Mercedes looks amazing with traction out of the corners ....
Joy to watch!

[Juzh]

Hamilton full lap onboard:

https://streamable.com/n6az

[GrandAxe]

Ferrari is running really slow!

I think this could be due to the amount of downforce they are running, which in turn might be due to the way the car is reacting to the high track temperature (tyre wear/heating), which in turn might not bode well for other high temperature tracks such as Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.

[dans79]

Hamilton full lap onboard:

https://streamable.com/n6az

FP1 I assume?

[dans79]

Lewis was 8/10s up on Nico's time before that mistake.

yea, he lost 1.2 seconds because of that mistake. One thing fore sure this track will heavily penalize any mistakes on the part of the driver.

I seriously fear for any driver who goes into that run off area during the race from missing his turn. He'll have to do a 180 turn or even worse reverse first. Gonna lose a lot of time there

lewis went off in 16, it has a huge amount of run off space.

[Juzh]

Hamilton full lap onboard:

https://streamable.com/n6az

FP1 I assume?

yes

[dans79]

what happened to Rosberg?

[Vasconia]

what happened to Rosberg?

Not a lot of information about that, no smoke and no signs of a collision.

I was just going to write how amazing are the Mercedes being the fastest ones, and the ones who make more laps without a problem...

[Gaz.]

what happened to Rosberg?

Lost power and stuck in 4th. Isn't that usually a hydraulic issue?

[ripper]

Roughly translated from motorsport.it live: "from a replay we could see that at the end of turn 16 a warning popped on his steering wheel and the car blocked on 4th gear. Nico said to the radio that he had an engine problem"