2016 Singapore Grand Prix - Marina Bay, 16-18 September

[iotar__]

A miracle of car redesigning at Mercedes, it's no evolution people. They gained relatively 1,3 on RB (plus engine) and 2,5 on Ferrari (+ engine and if you believe that Raikkonen is as good as ever).

Lowe said Mercedes’ designers divide the 19 current circuits into 3 categories: street tracks Monaco and Singapore, high-speed tracks Spa and Monza, and ‘the rest’.

“We have optimised our car for the rest,” he revealed, adding that the second priority is the fastest tracks.

“Since wind tunnel time is limited, you have to decide where you put your priorities,” said Lowe, who thinks Mercedes also made setup mistakes in Singapore. “Singapore was also our weakest circuit last year,” he recalled.

Simple maths and nothing to do with Monza rules breaking, post Spa tyres etc. Turns out that in '16 Monaco is the odd one (as it should be) and they dominated Monza too. Weird.

- New Senna - reality 2-9. Time for Verstappen's way is the best way and custom car. Alternatively, Marko: hey at least he's probably popular right guys?
- No worries at Ferrari - they still have Raikkonen.

[FoxHound]

A demolition job from Nico, gotta hand it to him today, those ultra should be pretty handly for the initial launch too.

Those RB drivers must be crying!!! I am sure that they thought the had chances of getting the pole. What an amazing job by Nico! =D> =D> =D>

But strategy will be important tomorrow and RB has advantage. Tomorrow cant come too soon!

If cars remain as they qualified, Mercedes hold the aces. 2 sets of softs to Red Bull's 1.

[atanatizante]

1. Now Merc`s strategy for tomorrow is : US-S-S and RB went for a SS-S-SS or SS-SS-S ...
Could see who`s strategy will prevail and write down some scenarios in case of a SC phase : a. in the first stint; b. in the second stint; c. in the third stint; d. 2 SC phases
2. Lewis has had a poor S2 since FP3 ... could be his setup more towards the race (as Paddy suggested on Sky, when he said Lewis paid more attention to the (race) setup and not given a fell for the track) or was just the brake issue (BBW or front one?) as Toto said and Lewis didn`t denied it or put the finger on it on Sky interviw after the qualy ...
My belief if clearly he lacked confidence under braking after FP3 with those 2 offs in turn 7 ... seems to me they didn`t get the brake issue solved for the qualy either ...
For sure his shorted time in FP2 didn`t help him either with the setup for race, but until that he didn`t seem to struggle both in FP1 and 2
3. Stunning face for Vettel after Rosberg first blood in Q3 ... like to see that!

[Sonador]

A bit dissapointed with Max Verstappen, he was on it al thru FP 1, 2 and 3.

Maybe setup a bit more towards the race, just like Hamilton?

Awesome laps from Ricciardo and Rosberg.
Should be good fun to watch tommorow!

[GoranF1]

Jesus, you're right. And this year with better/faster tyres!

Did I not say this on Ferrari forum? This year's car is a step backwards and the PU is masking the lack of chassis performance. And here they are, 3 tenths faster using Ultra Softs and the 12 months worth of upgrades on PU, compared to last year where they used Super Softs!

I think this is the first race when the times have shown that - albeit Kimi did end up faster than last year's pole.

But with the tyres you'd expect a step and there wasn't one at all.

Yes in the end it turns out that Kimi is faster than last years Seb's pole.

But others seemed to improve much more 2015-2016 than Ferrari, maybe focus is 100% on 2017 since Alisson left.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Did I not say this on Ferrari forum? This year's car is a step backwards and the PU is masking the lack of chassis performance. And here they are, 3 tenths faster using Ultra Softs and the 12 months worth of upgrades on PU, compared to last year where they used Super Softs!

I think this is the first race when the times have shown that - albeit Kimi did end up faster than last year's pole.

But with the tyres you'd expect a step and there wasn't one at all.

Yes in the end it turns out that Kimi is faster than last years Seb's pole.

But others seemed to improve much more 2015-2016 than Ferrari, maybe focus is 100% on 2017 since Alisson left.

[basti313]

1. Now Merc`s strategy for tomorrow is : US-S-S and RB went for a SS-S-SS or SS-SS-S ...
Could see who`s strategy will prevail and write down some scenarios in case of a SC phase : a. in the first stint; b. in the second stint; c. in the third stint; d. 2 SC phases

I still can not see a reason for a 2-Stop without an early or late SC. The US will be good for 20 laps according to the FP times. My bet is still they go on US as long as the laptimes allow it. When the laptimes drop on the Merc they will already have a clear pitstop window. Once this happens RedBull has to come aswell to not completely loose the contact and/or avoid an undercut by Ham.

2. Lewis has had a poor S2 since FP3 ... could be his setup more towards the race (as Paddy suggested on Sky, when he said Lewis paid more attention to the (race) setup and not given a fell for the track) or was just the brake issue (BBW or front one?) as Toto said and Lewis didn`t denied it or put the finger on it on Sky interviw after the qualy ...
My belief if clearly he lacked confidence under braking after FP3 with those 2 offs in turn 7 ... seems to me they didn`t get the brake issue solved for the qualy either ...
For sure his shorted time in FP2 didn`t help him either with the setup for race, but until that he didn`t seem to struggle both in FP1 and 2

The car was strongly bottoming in FP3. No idea, why this should be race setup related. Ham was mostly slower than Ros in every sector, I can not see any sector "shining". On his last run he had a bad outlap due to Ves overtaking and slowing down the Mercs, so maybe this played a role in the last attempt.

A bit dissapointed with Max Verstappen, he was on it al thru FP 1, 2 and 3.

Maybe setup a bit more towards the race, just like Hamilton?

No, he just could not warm his tires. In the last attempt the track was even colder.

Yes in the end it turns out that Kimi is faster than last years Seb's pole.

But others seemed to improve much more 2015-2016 than Ferrari, maybe focus is 100% on 2017 since Alisson left.

I can not see how one can compare the times. In 2015 the track was fast for full Q. Today we had a badly rubbered track, which was strongly developing during Q and in late Q3 a too cold track. So a strong up and down. With stable, warm weather and no TCR running before Q, we would have seen even better times today. Ferrari, as the team suffering more from mechanical grip than Merc and RedBull, of course suffered more from the worse track today.

[FrukostScones]

1. Now Merc`s strategy for tomorrow is : US-S-S and RB went for a SS-S-SS or SS-SS-S ...
Could see who`s strategy will prevail and write down some scenarios in case of a SC phase : a. in the first stint; b. in the second stint; c. in the third stint; d. 2 SC phases

I still can not see a reason for a 2-Stop without an early or late SC. The US will be good for 20 laps according to the FP times. My bet is still they go on US as long as the laptimes allow it. When the laptimes drop on the Merc they will already have a clear pitstop window. Once this happens RedBull has to come aswell to not completely loose the contact and/or avoid an undercut by Ham.

2. Lewis has had a poor S2 since FP3 ... could be his setup more towards the race (as Paddy suggested on Sky, when he said Lewis paid more attention to the (race) setup and not given a fell for the track) or was just the brake issue (BBW or front one?) as Toto said and Lewis didn`t denied it or put the finger on it on Sky interviw after the qualy ...
My belief if clearly he lacked confidence under braking after FP3 with those 2 offs in turn 7 ... seems to me they didn`t get the brake issue solved for the qualy either ...
For sure his shorted time in FP2 didn`t help him either with the setup for race, but until that he didn`t seem to struggle both in FP1 and 2

The car was strongly bottoming in FP3. No idea, why this should be race setup related. Ham was mostly slower than Ros in every sector, I can not see any sector "shining". On his last run he had a bad outlap due to Ves overtaking and slowing down the Mercs, so maybe this played a role in the last attempt.

A bit dissapointed with Max Verstappen, he was on it al thru FP 1, 2 and 3.

Maybe setup a bit more towards the race, just like Hamilton?

No, he just could not warm his tires. In the last attempt the track was even colder.

Yes in the end it turns out that Kimi is faster than last years Seb's pole.

But others seemed to improve much more 2015-2016 than Ferrari, maybe focus is 100% on 2017 since Alisson left.

I can not see how one can compare the times. In 2015 the track was fast for full Q. Today we had a badly rubbered track, which was strongly developing during Q and in late Q3 a too cold track. So a strong up and down. With stable, warm weather and no TCR running before Q, we would have seen even better times today. Ferrari, as the team suffering more from mechanical grip than Merc and RedBull, of course suffered more from the worse track today.

VET with S-US-US saving one stop with SC. Victory!

[matt_b]

Interesting stats: 8 out of 8 poles have led after lap 1. 6/8 have won from pole (2 that didn't 2008 (we all know what happened there) and (2012 gearbox failure). Red Bull are really going to have to take some risks with strategy tomorrow to go for the win.

[nevill3]

Perez has an 8 place grid penalty for tomorrow, 5 places and three points for failing to slow down during double waved yellows and 3 places for passing a car under yellow flags. He also picked up a fine for pit lane speeding.

[F1NAC]

So Rosberg took pole and Perez got penalised. Good job stewards...


Arrivabene got arrested for six hours and fined 1000 dollars because of cigarettr butt. Wtf?

[basti313]

Interesting stats: 8 out of 8 poles have led after lap 1. 6/8 have won from pole (2 that didn't 2008 (we all know what happened there) and (2012 gearbox failure). Red Bull are really going to have to take some risks with strategy tomorrow to go for the win.

They will take every risk they can at the start. I can picture Ric and Ros or Ves and Ham next to each other in turn 1. In the first possibility I can picture one of the two leaving the track...in the second...

What would be a risky strategy in your sight? As said before, due to the small difference between US and SS there is not much difference between working strategies.

[Fifty]

Arrivabene got arrested for six hours and fined 1000 dollars because of cigarettr butt. Wtf?

Wait...what?
Well...thems the laws...signs everywhere.

[atanatizante]

Seemingly after Lewis interview at the press, Toto on RTL has changed his approach saying he didn`t get to the grips all weekend ... no word about the front brake issue that Lewis was talking in his first run on Q3 ...
And Niky told later on RTL that he shouldn`t play so long with the tyres (pressure maybe ?!) and figure it out tonight what he must do for the race with them ...
After Monaco experience I think he could stay at bay for longer on the US and try to do a one stop US-S strategy, bearing in mind we will have at least a SC period ...
And why he couldn`t win the race tomorrow? after all there are too many resemblances with Monte Carlo race : he started 3rd; he used a US-S strategy; there was a SC phase ... so fingers crossed
...
On another note seems to me that the drop in track temperature would affect more the SS tyre, which has a higher working window ... or is the other way around : the US tyre will be more affected ?
Bottom line : which one has a lower working window: SS or US tyre?

[SR71]

A bit dissapointed with Max Verstappen, he was on it al thru FP 1, 2 and 3.

Maybe setup a bit more towards the race, just like Hamilton?

Awesome laps from Ricciardo and Rosberg.
Should be good fun to watch tommorow!

Hamilton was the 3rd best driver today, nothing to do with race set up.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2016/09/17/s ... -hamilton/