2017 Belgian Grand Prix - Spa Francorchamps, 25-27 August

[AnotherAlex]

As predicted ferrari has nothing on mercedes on the straight. Lucky hamilton.

It's the same as with Q3 - Mercedes can burn a bit more oil when they need to.

It was Ferrari with the extra oil tank, not Mercedes.

Yes, Ferrari added an extra oil tank in an effort to match what Mercedes have been doing with one.
The early introduction of a 4th ICE was as close as we're going to get to an acknowledgment from Mercedes that their current engine burns more oil than the 0.9 litre per 100 km limit which will be in effect for any new engines introduced from Monza onwards.

[ringo]

I thought lewis goose was cooked, but he held off vettel like he held of rosberg in bahrain who was also on the softer tyre. Hamilton still showing that though he is running at the front, he still has the battling skills.

The ferrari was the faster car here based on vettel's pace. Vettel was able to stay in touch at will and even bide his time. Hamilton was pushing very hard to stay 1 second ahead, and normally he would give an opponent at least a 5 second gap to be safe. Mercedes didn't have control over this race at all. Ferrari showing its the car to have to win this championship. I am kind of fretting that Lewis has to be perfect to even be ahead in the wdc by the penultimate race. Vettel has the car and also the #2 driver at his back to ensure he is on the podium every single race.

[Juzh]

Hamitlon said ferrari is the faster car. Interesting tactic he used to break sebastians drive into the tow! HAM didnt give full throttle out of the corner in order to compromise sebs drive into the skipstream. I felt he should have kept that one a secret!
Sebastian also confirming that his car is slightly faster than the Mercedes in the race. There you go folks!

That's useless when your car is 10 kph slower on every single straight and the other car has a an overpowered Q3 mode to easily keep him ahead in qualifying as we've seen countless times now.

[Sevach]

Yes, Ferrari added an extra oil tank in an effort to match what Mercedes have been doing with one.
The early introduction of a 4th ICE was as close as we're going to get to an acknowledgment from Mercedes that their current engine burns more oil than the 0.9 litre per 100 km limit which will be in effect for any new engines introduced from Monza onwards.

Expect a lot of discussion since the FIA intends to force Mercedes to comply with the new directive that kicks off in Monza even though this engine has been introduced before Monza.

https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/consu ... za-945275/

[TAG]

overpowered Q3 mode to easily keep him ahead in qualifying as we've seen countless times now.

Someone should mention that to Bottas, he'd love to know where the overpowered button on his steering wheel is!

[Juzh]

overpowered Q3 mode to easily keep him ahead in qualifying as we've seen countless times now.

Someone should mention that to Bottas, he'd love to know where the overpowered button on his steering wheel is!

Quite possible he was in an incorrect settings as they were mentioning problems at the restart for bottas.

[Mandrake]

Hamitlon said ferrari is the faster car. Interesting tactic he used to break sebastians drive into the tow! HAM didnt give full throttle out of the corner in order to compromise sebs drive into the skipstream. I felt he should have kept that one a secret!
Sebastian also confirming that his car is slightly faster than the Mercedes in the race. There you go folks!

That's useless when your car is 10 kph slower on every single straight and the other car has a an overpowered Q3 mode to easily keep him ahead in qualifying as we've seen countless times now.

Exactly. And so masterful to defend if you just need to cover the inside line because you are faster anyways. The Merc engine is too strong. Imagine where all of Hamiltons pole records (and victories) were if it wasn't for the Merc engine in the very good and reliable car.

[Hammerfist]

Hamitlon said ferrari is the faster car. Interesting tactic he used to break sebastians drive into the tow! HAM didnt give full throttle out of the corner in order to compromise sebs drive into the skipstream. I felt he should have kept that one a secret!
Sebastian also confirming that his car is slightly faster than the Mercedes in the race. There you go folks!

That's useless when your car is 10 kph slower on every single straight and the other car has a an overpowered Q3 mode to easily keep him ahead in qualifying as we've seen countless times now.

It's not useless if you are in front. If Ferrari ever got in front it would have been a very different race.

[Dazed1]

I thought lewis goose was cooked, but he held off vettel like he held of rosberg in bahrain who was also on the softer tyre. Hamilton still showing that though he is running at the front, he still has the battling skills.

The ferrari was the faster car here based on vettel's pace. Vettel was able to stay in touch at will and even bide his time. Hamilton was pushing very hard to stay 1 second ahead, and normally he would give an opponent at least a 5 second gap to be safe. Mercedes didn't have control over this race at all. Ferrari showing its the car to have to win this championship. I am kind of fretting that Lewis has to be perfect to even be ahead in the wdc by the penultimate race. Vettel has the car and also the #2 driver at his back to ensure he is on the podium every single race.

My first thought was "Did Lewis know they were going to softs when he came in?" This isn't the first time the world goes "What the hell is Mercedes thinking?" only to see them produce winning results.
Trust the brain-trust, I guess.

[Mandrake]

On another note: if the engines introduced in monza have to comply to the 0.9l oil rule, are all engines checked though? Or is the talking about Merc using too much oil just blind guesswork?

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Yes, Ferrari added an extra oil tank in an effort to match what Mercedes have been doing with one.
The early introduction of a 4th ICE was as close as we're going to get to an acknowledgment from Mercedes that their current engine burns more oil than the 0.9 litre per 100 km limit which will be in effect for any new engines introduced from Monza onwards.

Expect a lot of discussion since the FIA intends to force Mercedes to comply with the new directive that kicks off in Monza even though this engine has been introduced before Monza.

https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/consu ... za-945275/

Coming into the Spa Race weekend, it was widely expected that Mercedes would run away with the GP due to the power sensitive nature of the circuit.

They brought a new spec engine (which wasn't expected) and still could barely manage to get ahead of Ferrari, who were on the older spec engine. Based on what was on display in Silverstone, the expectation was Mercedes to dominate even with older spec. That did not happen.

And the news of FIA enforcing the new rules on Mercedes PU, is coming out.

I am having a theory (could be grossly wrong).
1. Did Mercedes know, the new rules are going to affect them, regardless of their early introduction of the latest spec PU in Spa, instead of Monza?
2. With their new Spec, are they compliant to new rules and that is why the new Spec was just a match to Ferrari''s current spec? Because, on the power sensitive Silverstone, the old spec Mercedes PU was miles ahead of Ferrari's current spec.
3. Is this what is going to happen to Ferrari too, when they have to introduce their FIA OIl Directive compliant PU for Monza?

[TAG]

overpowered Q3 mode to easily keep him ahead in qualifying as we've seen countless times now.

Someone should mention that to Bottas, he'd love to know where the overpowered button on his steering wheel is!

Quite possible he was in an incorrect settings as they were mentioning problems at the restart for bottas.

Wait, thought you were talking about Q3... you have to get a grip of yourself man, you're not making sense in trying to stick to the narrative. Two weeks, we'll see how Hamilton's obvious luck holds up.

[Dazed1]

On the first pit stop series, did Raikkonen slow some to try to block Lewis before he pitted? I thought Lewis caught up to him rather quickly. (And then ate him alive!)

[Just_a_fan]

Did any of those moaning about Mercedes being too powerful hear Hamilton saying that he effectively backed in to Vettel which meant Vettel had to pull out of the tow early and back off slightly? If Vettel had had a correct run on to the straight he would have overtaken Hamilton. Vettel basically confirmed the same thing.

[Treble]

Yes, Ferrari added an extra oil tank in an effort to match what Mercedes have been doing with one.
The early introduction of a 4th ICE was as close as we're going to get to an acknowledgment from Mercedes that their current engine burns more oil than the 0.9 litre per 100 km limit which will be in effect for any new engines introduced from Monza onwards.

Expect a lot of discussion since the FIA intends to force Mercedes to comply with the new directive that kicks off in Monza even though this engine has been introduced before Monza.

https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/consu ... za-945275/

Coming into the Spa Race weekend, it was widely expected that Mercedes would run away with the GP due to the power sensitive nature of the circuit.

They brought a new spec engine (which wasn't expected) and still could barely manage to get ahead of Ferrari, who were on the older spec engine. Based on what was on display in Silverstone, the expectation was Mercedes to dominate even with older spec. That did not happen.

And the news of FIA enforcing the new rules on Mercedes PU, is coming out.

I am having a theory (could be grossly wrong).
1. Did Mercedes know, the new rules are going to affect them, regardless of their early introduction of the latest spec PU in Spa, instead of Monza?
2. With their new Spec, are they compliant to new rules and that is why the new Spec was just a match to Ferrari''s current spec? Because, on the power sensitive Silverstone, the old spec Mercedes PU was miles ahead of Ferrari's current spec.
3. Is this what is going to happen to Ferrari too, when they have to introduce their FIA OIl Directive compliant PU for Monza?

So basically the secret behind Mercedes success in these three years is "burning oil". When Ferrari found that and tried to do the same Fia woke up and said this is not allowed. LOL