2017 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, 12-14 May

[f1316]

It's one of those things in racing but the climax was ruined a bit by the VSC.

Without it, you would probably have had Lewis closing in during the final stint and much more will he/won't he. With the VSC it became a DRS slam dunk, which was a shame. Plus what was Vabdorne doing to cause it?

Anyway, good race, and reminds me so much of the Schumi Hakkinen years; Coulthard (Bottas) will get in there from time to time given the car, but Irvine/Barichello (Raikkonen) just not good enough

[Xwang]

I think that Ferrari were unsure about their performance because to protect from an undercut they have pitted Vettel at lap 16 putting soft tyres.
I think that if more than a stop is needed it is not important to avoid the undercut at the first stop, but to be able to do an undercut at the second pit. So maybe they should have waited for Ham to stop and the following lap they would have used the same tyres in order to be on the same strategy.
Do you agree?

[Restomaniac]

I think that Ferrari were unsure about their performance because to protect from an undercut they have pitted Vettel at lap 16 putting soft tyres.
I think that if more than a stop is needed it is not important to avoid the undercut at the first stop, but to be able to do an undercut at the second pit. So maybe they should have waited for Ham to stop and the following lap they would have used the same tyres in order to be on the same strategy.
Do you agree?

They were right to be worried by the undercut though. Hamilton was close enough to make that work. Wolff said to SKY that they saw Ferrari pit and straight away thought 'we go long'. I have a nagging feeling that the WANTED Ferrari to make that call all along due to the sheer amount of 'Chat' coming from Mercedes.

[dans79]

They were right to be worried by the undercut though. Hamilton was close enough to make that work. Wolff said to SKY that they saw Ferrari pit and straight away thought 'we go long'. I have a nagging feeling that the WANTED Ferrari to make that call all along due to the sheer amount of 'Chat' coming from Mercedes.

I agree, this is the first race where Mercedes looked to have tire wear and temps under control.

[CriXus]

Sky commentators pushing hard to make Lewis lead driver for the rest of the season in the post race chat. At the moment it is not necessary as Bottas is a definite team player.

Sent from my SM-A700F using Tapatalk

British media wants a British drive to be number one. I have been wondering for some times, who is going to marry Hamilton. You can feel their deep love for him.

[Sevach]

They were right to be worried by the undercut though. Hamilton was close enough to make that work. Wolff said to SKY that they saw Ferrari pit and straight away thought 'we go long'. I have a nagging feeling that the WANTED Ferrari to make that call all along due to the sheer amount of 'Chat' coming from Mercedes.

I agree, this is the first race where Mercedes looked to have tire wear and temps under control.

True, i was half expecting for Hamilton to gradually start to slide backwards in the first stint(specially given a radio early on where he said it was difficult to keep up) but it never happened, if anything the opposite, in the last 5 laps before Sebastians pit stop Hamilton started gaining on him.

[AnthonyG]

Sky commentators pushing hard to make Lewis lead driver for the rest of the season in the post race chat. At the moment it is not necessary as Bottas is a definite team player.

Sent from my SM-A700F using Tapatalk

Don't say Bottas, the correct name is Hamilton's teammate
-Crofty

[Restomaniac]

They were right to be worried by the undercut though. Hamilton was close enough to make that work. Wolff said to SKY that they saw Ferrari pit and straight away thought 'we go long'. I have a nagging feeling that the WANTED Ferrari to make that call all along due to the sheer amount of 'Chat' coming from Mercedes.

I agree, this is the first race where Mercedes looked to have tire wear and temps under control.

True. Go back and watch their 2 Qualy laps though. Like I said at the time Vettel was driving the wheels off the Ferrari and fighting it. Hamilton in comparison looked smooth as silk.
I said then that you could see why the Mercedes long race pace was so much better. It's clear then to see how Hamilton just did pretty much half a race on 1 set of soft tyres. I imagine that was what the Mercedes upgrades were aimed at.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Great moments of the day !!!

[Xwang]

I think that Ferrari were unsure about their performance because to protect from an undercut they have pitted Vettel at lap 16 putting soft tyres.
I think that if more than a stop is needed it is not important to avoid the undercut at the first stop, but to be able to do an undercut at the second pit. So maybe they should have waited for Ham to stop and the following lap they would have used the same tyres in order to be on the same strategy.
Do you agree?

They were right to be worried by the undercut though. Hamilton was close enough to make that work. Wolff said to SKY that they saw Ferrari pit and straight away thought 'we go long'. I have a nagging feeling that the WANTED Ferrari to make that call all along due to the sheer amount of 'Chat' coming from Mercedes.

Yes, but since they were ahead and since with the same tyres it is very difficult to overtake, maybe they should have waited for Mercedes to do the first pit (VET wasn't losing so much performance at lap 16) in order to copy HAM strategy and tyre choice and try to undercut him at the second stop in case HAM undercut had worked at the first stop.
According to me VET has lost because has driven for more laps with the medium tyres than HAM, moreover with the lap at 16 VET has had to overtake RIC and BOT loosing a lot of time (expecially with the second) and the best laps of his fresh soft tyres.

[bonjon1979]

Dare I say it, F1 seems quite good at the moment? Drivers able to push on tyres but tyre strategy still counting for something. Stewards letting cars race, good times, no?

[Manjhi]

Amazing race...

Driver of the day should be given to :
1. Pascal Wehrlin
2. Esteban Ocon =D>
3. Vettel =D>

Team of the day, without any doubt :
1. Force India =D>

Team player of the day :
1. Valterri Bottas

Vettel was clearly the faster & better driver today, he only lost due two reason 1. Bottas at front costing him 4-5 sec & 2. Bad strategy by Ferrari during VSC.

Valtteri once again proved that he is ready to act as second driver in the team and he has already surrendered championship fight to Lewis.

But that doesn't make Lewis anything less, he still drove brilliantly and showed great racing craft.

2017 is slowly becoming a 2 horse race.

[Restomaniac]

I think that Ferrari were unsure about their performance because to protect from an undercut they have pitted Vettel at lap 16 putting soft tyres.
I think that if more than a stop is needed it is not important to avoid the undercut at the first stop, but to be able to do an undercut at the second pit. So maybe they should have waited for Ham to stop and the following lap they would have used the same tyres in order to be on the same strategy.
Do you agree?

They were right to be worried by the undercut though. Hamilton was close enough to make that work. Wolff said to SKY that they saw Ferrari pit and straight away thought 'we go long'. I have a nagging feeling that the WANTED Ferrari to make that call all along due to the sheer amount of 'Chat' coming from Mercedes.

Yes, but since they were ahead and since with the same tyres it is very difficult to overtake, maybe they should have waited for Mercedes to do the first pit (VET wasn't losing so much performance at lap 16) in order to copy HAM strategy and tyre choice and try to undercut him at the second stop in case HAM undercut had worked at the first stop.
According to me VET has lost because has driven for more laps with the medium tyres than HAM, moreover with the lap at 16 VET has had to overtake RIC and BOT loosing a lot of time (expecially with the second) and the best laps of his fresh soft tyres.

As a team you need to react to the here and now. Hoping gets you nothing. You are looking at it in hindsight which is always 20/20. Ferrari thought Mercedes were going to undercut and reacted, incorrectly as it happens. But none the less.

I think Mercedes have seen Ferrari coming on this. I'll say it again I did question Ferrari's handling in Qualy so the idea that Ferrari would have been able to undercut a Mercedes that has just done almost half a race on a set of Softs is questionable anyway.

[santos]

Yes, Ferrari reacted to Mercedes with the fear of the undercut. It could have worked if it wasn't the VSC. If VET should be punished? No, he shouldn't. Like Botas shouldn't and he wasn't.
You want someone to punish? Punish Mercedes, for bringing the mechanics with tyres to the pit and no car came to the pits. That is not allowed.
Ferrari receives more money because of all the value they add to the championship. Think like it is the Real Madrid of motorsport. Real receives more money then Juve... it's business. F1 needs Ferrari, as Ferrari needs F1

[Artur Craft]

Bottas already accepted being #2 @Merc. Sacrificed any own chances in the race to help his teammate and shouldn't expect for one second to get this favor back in the opposite case. Wow. Big Mistake from him. Will be difficult to revert. He should have learned from Nico's mistakes.

Agree. Iotar constantly talks about this and Bottas was really turned into the team's donkey this weekend,doing all the dirty work. It was already fishy with them reverting back to the old PU for him. Still, he was able to fight for pole and could've got it without that final corner mistake. He had poor race pace(don't know if due to the collision affecting his car) but Mercedes destroyed his race completely by using him as a barrier for Vettel. It was 100% 2nd driver treatment stuff and quite bad to watch, actually.

Btw, I'm not bashing Hamilton in anyway as I think he did a very good job passing Vettel. Yes, DRS massively helped but he managed to get quite close on the last corners, which is essential. Maybe that was all due to the tyre gap, but I'll give him a little bit too

Hamilton basically had all the luck going his way, as he had in pretty much all races this year.

Hamilton, throughout his entire carreer, has often been lucky. The amount of poles that he have with just a few thousandths or hundredths of advantage is already evidence of that. When the times are very tight, it usually goes to his side and Canada 2014 is maybe one of the very few examples of the contrary