2017 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, April 14-16

[Shakeman]

RAI coming to a smokey stop out on track.

[WaikeCU]

https://twitter.com/RenaultSportF1/stat ... 5443985408

[TEHNOS]

[Fulcrum]

He'll need an ice-cream after that.

[f1316]

Is it me or have there been lots of issues with the timing on the tv feed this year? Seems like it keeps dropping in an out.

Also, what happened to all the micro timing loops we had in Oz? That was a really nice addition.

[godlameroso]

Alonso only 1.6 off the pace? Looks like McLaren has made another small step since China. Could just be the track, and perhaps the hot P1 is rather meaningless as the race and qualifying will be in much cooler conditions.

[ChrisDanger]

[Juzh]

Pace not really that hot at the moment. Still 3s to go to the outright record, and then some if expectations on laptimes are to be met.

[godlameroso]

They won't, I said it already they're not going to improve much on last year's pole, because the nature of the track means there aren't many high speed turns where the cars can make big gains.

5,6,7,11 & 13 are the only places they could really gain, and being mid speed corners the gain won't be much. This isn't a huge aero track, it's more an engine power, low speed grip and good braking track. Sochi is more of an aero track than Bahrain.

[ClarkBT11]

Alonso only 1.6 off the pace? Looks like McLaren has made another small step since China. Could just be the track, and perhaps the hot P1 is rather meaningless as the race and qualifying will be in much cooler conditions.

Last years FP1 times were quicker. I don't think anyone was pushing just evaluating their cars in higher temperatures. Unless you were being sarcastic? Then Ferrari have gone a step further with their package nearly a full two seconds faster than Mercedes.

[WaikeCU]

Alonso only 1.6 off the pace? Looks like McLaren has made another small step since China. Could just be the track, and perhaps the hot P1 is rather meaningless as the race and qualifying will be in much cooler conditions.

True, why waste life out of parts when quali and race are not in these hot conditions. Unless you don't have any clue how the performance is, then you might need to test it out. I suppose Merc isn't even trying in FP1, because they are confident that it will match their predictions. We have seen it in the past 3 seasons when Merc, have been sandbagging in FP1.

[ripper]

Yes probably most team used this fp for data collection and correlation for new parts used or to check tyre degradation on very hot track

[dans79]

We have seen it in the past 3 seasons when Merc, have been sandbagging in FP1.

Most likely Mercedes is evaluating tire degradation, as they did more laps than anyone else.

[Sevach]

FP1 in Bahrain doesn't mean much because in the night the car gets a lot more grip and tire deg falls.

[Mansell89]

Not too much to glean from FP1 in that heat but one thing I would say is that the Merc showed similar characteristics to its awful Singapore GP a couple of years ago.

Unlikely they'll be as bad in FP2 in the cooler conditions but you never know.