2017 Austrian Grand Prix, Spielberg 7-9 Jul

[BanMeToo]

Valsecchi is hilarious I love it.

[Phil]

Maybe Hamilton is running a different setup, knowing he wont start on pole anyway. AMuS said it was a strategic decision to keep quiet on Hamiltons gearbox change as that gave them the opportunity to prepare during FP1 and 2, while everyone else was focusing on a more default approach to the weekend on Friday.

he was simply slow.

Did he make a mistake somewhere? I didnt see qualifying, so i dont know. Only going by what i read on AMuS before qualifying inlight of the expected grid penalty.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Maybe Hamilton is running a different setup, knowing he wont start on pole anyway. AMuS said it was a strategic decision to keep quiet on Hamiltons gearbox change as that gave them the opportunity to prepare during FP1 and 2, while everyone else was focusing on a more default approach to the weekend on Friday.

he was simply slow.

Did he make a mistake somewhere? I didnt see qualifying, so i dont know. Only going by what i read on AMuS before qualifying inlight of the expected grid penalty.

He turned in early on turn 1, ran over the kerb on the entry that threw him badly on the exit of the left kerb, had a bad moment and as if that was not already bad, he had another moment in the last last sector. So overall, a very crappy lap. He looked like he had everything under control until Q2, but then couldn't manage to keep it all together in Q3.

[matt_b]

Pirelli say 26 laps on the SS then S until the end is the quickest theoretical strategy, second fastest being 18 on the US then S until the end. Of course the rain throws everything out the window.

Also Lewis' soft set only did 1 installation lap at the start of P3 so they're still fresh for racing.

[Phil]

Thanks!

[sosic2121]

Kimi is just, UNDERWHELMING!

He is going to cost Ferrari the WCC or at least a chance to fight for it in the final races.

And possibly even WDC. He's far away from Ferrari standard.
Being a kimi fan, I would like nothing more than seeing him win races.
IMO Alo with this Ferrari would be a WDC.

[iotar__]

http://s1131.photobucket.com/user/timec ... 1.jpg.html

Pirelli say 26 laps on the SS then S until the end is the quickest theoretical strategy, second fastest being 18 on the US then S until the end. Of course the rain throws everything out the window.

Also Lewis' soft set only did 1 installation lap at the start of P3 so they're still fresh for racing.

- Even if differences between tyres are smaller here what's stopping them from running US - SS? All the practice on SS and they won't use them? ~20 + ~50? Whatever, we'll see.

- The upside of starting on SS is that the cars in front will be slower than Merc, stint can be longer and you can either overtake them or jump/gain advantage (length of stint/tyres) during pitstops.

[atanatizante]

PUs are detuned to a predefined mapping after each race weekend. Might only be a HP or two over all but still impactful on performance nonetheless.

If memory serves, Kimi had an updated power unit, and he was pretty far off the pace....

Kimi's car was severely damaged.

I think in race trim they are equal. ...

From my point of view, since 2016 Ferrari has shown better race pace than qualy pace hence to me they ONLY focused on race pace! So everything is coming good in Qualy for them is a bonus. Therefore, except Baku or other races when they hit something wrong, when they are closely matched to Merc in Qualy means they would be faster on Sunday`s race. But I think Merc now follows the same philosophy with a setup more in more towards the race and the proof of that is Ferrari and Red Bull being closer in Qualy, despite their PU lack of upgrade in power output ...

[ENGINE TUNER]

Maybe Hamilton is running a different setup, knowing he wont start on pole anyway. AMuS said it was a strategic decision to keep quiet on Hamiltons gearbox change as that gave them the opportunity to prepare during FP1 and 2, while everyone else was focusing on a more default approach to the weekend on Friday.

he was simply slow.

Did he make a mistake somewhere? I didnt see qualifying, so i dont know. Only going by what i read on AMuS before qualifying inlight of the expected grid penalty.

HAM ran the SS in Q2, so when he pushed hard on US in Q3 the balance of the car changed a lot, it seems like the car balance went towards understeer. He went hard into T1 and it understeered and then was loose on exit. Just didn't have the right balance in Q3. Also BOT was on it in Q3.

[Phil]

Interesting. I am sure the car is probably set up different. How much this impacted Q3, i dont know, but the whole point in prerending on Friday that everything was in order, was to mask the fact they knew they were going to take a grid penalty. I think running SS during the Q2 was always the plan and perhaps race dedicated setup was part of it. Are there any indication on less drag for a higher topspeed on Hamiltons car or something?

Either way, starting 8th will be a very big challenge... i hope for his/Mercedes sake, Bottas delivers...

[ringo]

The last q3 run seemed to have affected every car. I beleive the track temperature put the tyres out of their operating window. Everyone was sliding all over the track. Vettel, Max, Lewis, Valteri, Romain etc.

[giantfan10]

I predict Vettel jumping bottas either at the start or after the first pit stop.....i also predict at some point in the race Bottas lets Hamilton through without a fight due to some problem with Bottas' car.
1.Vettel
2.Max
3.Hamilton

[PlatinumZealot]

Yes that is what it seemed.
for hamilton sixth would be better than 8th. Bottas and crew will run away into the distance so Ham has to make sure he is not a pitstop down near the end of the first stint. He needs to be out there running that supersoft to the end and hope for rain or a safety car.

[Phil]

Just to recap: Hamilton will start 8th, which would be behind the two redbulls, Grosjean in the Haas in 6th and Perez in 7th. Perez could be tricky with the Mercedes engine.

I will predict Hamilton to be conservative at the start. He is starting on a harder tire too, so in theory will be worse on the brakes than everyone around him. I hope he will not lose any positions, but it will be most important to survive lap 1 clean...

[Moose]

I'm pretty sure that Hamilton is betting that they'll all be starting on blue ringed tyres, not yellow, red or purple.