2017 Austrian Grand Prix, Spielberg 7-9 Jul

[NathanOlder]

[...] As for the Austrian GP, I think if Ferrari are still off the pace in Qualy, it may be the time of the year that Ferrari fall back in the development race yet again. It just normally takes a little longer to happen. I guess the immense pressure may be beginning to take its toll, Hence the incident in Baku.

[Vasconia]

And you remind me of the guys who watch the football game on tv and think you know more about it than the manager of the team playing.

As for the Austrian GP, I think if Ferrari are still off the pace in Qualy, it may be the time of the year that Ferrari fall back in the development race yet again. It just normally takes a little longer to happen. I guess the immense pressure may be beginning to take its toll, Hence the incident in Baku.

I don´t understand why the "Baku incident" should affect Ferrari´s performance. I guess some people are confusing actual prospects and desire.

Ferrari has changed its philosophy since Maria Binottos´s arrival. 2016´s last part showed that Ferrari was working well and solving some of their problems which hampared their season. I am pretty sure that their development rate will be better tan during Alonso´s years. Anyway, I still think that Mercedes has the best car and if they have solved all their problems with tyre managment it will be difficult to catch them.

[ironrose]

Ferrari likes the ultrasoft so I am surprised to see that they have only choosen 7.

They probably will use more SS on FP and in the end of FP3 all teams will roughly have the same allocation I suppose

Could this mean that they will use more SS on the race day? . Because if you want to collect data with this tyre, it should mean that you are going to use it on the race.

May be something to do with ambient temparatures in Austria

Pirelli says super softs are better in colder weather ...

https://www.pirelli.com/tyres/en-gb/mot ... omepage-f1

[ironrose]

Next week's thrusday driver press conference FIA should invite Hamilton and Vettel, Kimi and Bottas, Perez and Ocon .. that will be fun and fireworks.. =D>

[WaikeCU]

I think Force India could be 3rd best team here. Not much technical sections. Just a fast flowing circuit.

[ENGINE TUNER]

On race day sunday Ferrari is every bit the match for the mercedes car...the way i see it so Mercedes qualifies ahead on saturday which gaurantees nothing on sunday...

HAM pulled out 4 seconds on VET before the first safety car(lap 11), unless VET was just getting a gap for aero reasons, I doubt his/ferrari's race pace was close enough to call it "a match".

[Big Mangalhit]

They probably will use more SS on FP and in the end of FP3 all teams will roughly have the same allocation I suppose

Could this mean that they will use more SS on the race day? . Because if you want to collect data with this tyre, it should mean that you are going to use it on the race.

May be something to do with ambient temparatures in Austria

Pirelli says super softs are better in colder weather ...

https://www.pirelli.com/tyres/en-gb/mot ... omepage-f1

Yeah it could be that. Last year Ferrari did Q2 with SS and did the race using SS and then S. So it's possible they want to at least test if it worth.
I would still expect that being the tyres harder this year and Ferrari good on the US they will start on that and do a one stop for the SS and go to the end, or even use two sets of US.

Anyway this way they can test the SS and US in the FP and depending on which tyres they decide to give away to pirelli they can still save some US for Q and Race or save more SS for a similar strategy as last year

[dren]

Hamilton victory, Alonso podium.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

May be something to do with ambient temparatures in Austria

Pirelli says super softs are better in colder weather ...

https://www.pirelli.com/tyres/en-gb/mot ... omepage-f1

Is this some kind of joke from Pirelli? As a matter of standard tyre behavior, until last year, the US was supposed to get up to temperature quickly and was supposed to be faster than SS (and degrade faster), which in turn should be getting temperature faster than Softs and blah blah blah. And hence, the US was allocated on tracks which have less wear and slower corners (as in both cases, putting temperature in harder tyres is going to be difficult). If SS performs better in colder temperature, then they have changed the philosophy of their compounds!

Red Bull Ring has more straights than punishing corners (read high downforce), so it should be easy to lose temperature from tyres. Then how is SS better than US? Very strange! And this year's compounds are harder than their predecessors. US is like last year's SS and so on. I guess if someone bolts a set of Softs after a first lap incident, they can blindly go all the way to the end of the race with a constant performance. They have already junked Hard, it's time they junk Medium too and create something like "Super Ultra Softs".

I wouldn't be surprised to see Ferrari starting the race on SS (having qualified in Q2 with SS). Seems like they have accepted that they cannot beat Mercedes in qualifying! Which to me seems like the oil burning ban has affected them and hence they are looking at alternate strategy to beat Mercs. Assuming they have been using oil burning all this while, they still haven't managed to beat Mercs in Qualifying so far. So, it would be difficult to imagine if they can beat Mercs without the oil burning thing.

On grid walk in Baku, when Brundle asked Horner about this oil burning FIA directive, the response was quite intellingent. He said, "Someone who came from Ferrari to Mercedes, observed something on the Red Car and went asking for clarification!". Obviously referring to James Allison. And as a consequence, FIA issued another firm directive. Looks like it is tit for tat. Ferrari put Mercedes in a spot with the Suspension thing and Mercedes returned the favor with oil burning thing.

[Vasconia]

On grid walk in Baku, when Brundle asked Horner about this oil burning FIA directive, the response was quite intellingent. He said, "Someone who came from Ferrari to Mercedes, observed something on the Red Car and went asking for clarification!". Obviously referring to James Allison. And as a consequence, FIA issued another firm directive. Looks like it is tit for tat. Ferrari put Mercedes in a spot with the Suspension thing and Mercedes returned the favor with oil burning thing.

Classic F1, f*cking each other.

The big thing here is if they can have the same or better race pace. At least this could give us some hope to see a good battle. Anyway, a 1-2 for Mercedes would make things too easy for Lewis to pull away and build a gap.

[WaikeCU]

May be something to do with ambient temparatures in Austria

Pirelli says super softs are better in colder weather ...

https://www.pirelli.com/tyres/en-gb/mot ... omepage-f1

Is this some kind of joke from Pirelli? As a matter of standard tyre behavior, until last year, the US was supposed to get up to temperature quickly and was supposed to be faster than SS (and degrade faster), which in turn should be getting temperature faster than Softs and blah blah blah. And hence, the US was allocated on tracks which have less wear and slower corners (as in both cases, putting temperature in harder tyres is going to be difficult). If SS performs better in colder temperature, then they have changed the philosophy of their compounds!

Red Bull Ring has more straights than punishing corners (read high downforce), so it should be easy to lose temperature from tyres. Then how is SS better than US? Very strange! And this year's compounds are harder than their predecessors. US is like last year's SS and so on. I guess if someone bolts a set of Softs after a first lap incident, they can blindly go all the way to the end of the race with a constant performance. They have already junked Hard, it's time they junk Medium too and create something like "Super Ultra Softs".

I wouldn't be surprised to see Ferrari starting the race on SS (having qualified in Q2 with SS). Seems like they have accepted that they cannot beat Mercedes in qualifying! Which to me seems like the oil burning ban has affected them and hence they are looking at alternate strategy to beat Mercs. Assuming they have been using oil burning all this while, they still haven't managed to beat Mercs in Qualifying so far. So, it would be difficult to imagine if they can beat Mercs without the oil burning thing.

On grid walk in Baku, when Brundle asked Horner about this oil burning FIA directive, the response was quite intellingent. He said, "Someone who came from Ferrari to Mercedes, observed something on the Red Car and went asking for clarification!". Obviously referring to James Allison. And as a consequence, FIA issued another firm directive. Looks like it is tit for tat. Ferrari put Mercedes in a spot with the Suspension thing and Mercedes returned the favor with oil burning thing.

And that's why I like this sport so much. The battle between the rivalry teams on the track on the pitwall and behind the scene. Very intriguing stuff!

[TAG]

I don´t understand why the "Baku incident" should affect Ferrari´s performance. I guess some people are confusing actual prospects and desire.

Not sure if you've been up on it, but here you go. https://youtu.be/FmRzUl8E-8A?t=3m31s

You're welcome.

The video has been erased but anyway, thank you.

I do what I can, but miracles are tough. anyways, the post above does highlight the content of the video.

[Big Mangalhit]

And that's why I like this sport so much. The battle between the rivalry teams on the track on the pitwall and behind the scene. Very intriguing stuff!

I agree 100%. The same way as Ferrari questioned the legality of the suspension of Mercedes and RB now it is the reverse with Mercedes asking for clarification on the oil subject. Apparently all teams were cheating and got tattle told.

I enjoy both the cheating (bending the rules whatever) and the political games involved behind scenes, classic F1. This season can't go any better I am so looking forward to Austria

[BanMeToo]

No no I think that Pirelli page is just poorly written. It says that both the US and SS are 'low working range.' It also says that US has the fastest warm up. I personally do not believe the SS is better in colder temps, unless car-dependent.

[iotar__]

Last year HAM and ROS gave us a good show Let's hope this year HAM and VET don't disappoint

- Well...Unfortunately Mercedes didn't with: grid penalty, unequal tyres (mistery) and brake failure. OK, ok, I know, that's enough.

- I didn't know there are only 2 drivers in F1 but if it's a Baku type of "show" I can't wait. Which will it be: Raikkonen taking out Bottas giving a team-mate two positions or Bottas slowing down in front of Vettel to create wake .

- apart from oil burning rumours track looks fifty/fifty between Merc and Ferrari. Seems that harder tyres slightly bothered Ferrari, no problem here.

- More engine than corners, couple of strong braking corners, two weird ones towards the end an endless saga of kerbs and track limits.