2017 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, 6-8 October

[Gerhardsa]

I still think McLaren have a lot of ground to make up in RB in terms of Chassis.
Just look at FP1.
Both McLarens' were basically 2 seconds slower than Ricciardo. Throwing a Renault in the back of the McLaren wont make that difference just disappear.
If McLaren wants to compete with or even beat RB in 2018, they will basically have to build the best chassis/suspension/trickeries on the grid for 2018. Doubt they can make that jump honestly. Not 2018 at least.

[Vasconia]

If it was Ferrari, Hamilton fans would quickly explain to us that Ferrari did it so Vettel would end up in front of Kimi.

But since this is Mercedes, most unbias team in history of F1, no one can understand what really happened...

I have no problems with team orders in certains cases. Lewis is leading the championship and there were big doubts about the new package, so the second driver used this package. Bottas has accepted this role, I guess everyone is happy.

I think it was Lewis that didn't accept the new package and Bottas was happy with it. They went their separate ways based on feel. For Japan, Lewis is still saying he needs the team to convince him the new package is the way to go. Don't think team orders had anything to do with it.

Once it went sideways for them, I don't doubt for one second that the focus shifted to have Bottas simply gather data and make his car wide when Vettel passed by. Just racing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdRm1wwGgBo

I could be wrong but I can´t recall positive comments by Bottas about the new package. Anyway, Valtteri seems to be a Little bit lost, it is very weird when a driver changes his position in the car so late in the season.

[Vasconia]

Based on what I've seen on P1, I would say Hamilton and Vettel will be very close. Slight advantage to Vettel. However, if we compare what happened in Malasia to here, Merc looked much better, so back to usual I guess.

Ferrari is looking very good. I was expecting to see Mercedes ahead of the field, with a clear margin. Ferrari usually improves a lot from FP1 to FP3 so if Vettel is so fast in F1 this means that the car is very good in Suzuka. Good news for F1 fans, we coud see a great battle for the pole!

[Gerhardsa]

I have no problems with team orders in certains cases. Lewis is leading the championship and there were big doubts about the new package, so the second driver used this package. Bottas has accepted this role, I guess everyone is happy.

I think it was Lewis that didn't accept the new package and Bottas was happy with it. They went their separate ways based on feel. For Japan, Lewis is still saying he needs the team to convince him the new package is the way to go. Don't think team orders had anything to do with it.

Once it went sideways for them, I don't doubt for one second that the focus shifted to have Bottas simply gather data and make his car wide when Vettel passed by. Just racing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdRm1wwGgBo

I could be wrong but I can´t recall positive comments by Bottas about the new package. Anyway, Valtteri seems to be a Little bit lost, it is very weird when a driver changes his position in the car so late in the season.

Doubt Valtteri had any choice. Merc have chosen (lets be honest, from day 1 of the championship) their title challenger and he wasn't comfortable with the new aero. They had to have someone run the new aero to learn/gather data and try understand it... so they used Bottas. Whether he like the new aero or not, I doubt he had any choice but to run it.

[Phil]

Huh? Both used the new aero bits in Malaysia in fp1 and fp2. Stop making up things. Its well documented what led to the split during Saturday as well as interviews by both drivers.

[Vasconia]

FP2 with lot of rain, only four-five drives have posted a time. A lot of work tomorrow in FP3!.

[Bill_Kar]

Did Mercedes run the new aero?

[iotar__]

"Hamilton says Mercedes car "back to normal" at Suzuka", https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hami ... ka-961994/
A miracle ladies and gentleman, a miracle . What does Bottas say? Is he even driving?

[Gerhardsa]

Bottas was...again half a second behind in FP1, so probably not saying much. Wonder if Merc missed a trick here retaining him. Think its his saving grace that he didn't start this season the way he is finishing it...constantly half a second down on Hamilton, otherwise we could have seen someone else in that seat next season. Can they still pull back on that agreement and sign someone else?

[Vasconia]

"Hamilton says Mercedes car "back to normal" at Suzuka", https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hami ... ka-961994/
A miracle ladies and gentleman, a miracle . What does Bottas say? Is he even driving?

If you read the article you will see that Bottas is also happier with the car but the feels a lot of work is still to be done.

I guess today´s temperaturas were low, so it will be interesting to see if with higher temperaturas the package will work well too.

[f1316]

Oh that's just rude from Ferrari, as fast on Softs as Merc on Super softs...

I didn't see the session and haven't seen this reported anywhere - are you saying there was a point in the session where Ferrari on the softs were close to Mercedes on SS?

Also, anyone have any long run info from FP1? Bottas saying he was reasonably happy with long runs.

[garyjpaterson]

Sky is just started a rerun of FP1 now - watching a stream.

[ClarkBT11]

Oh that's just rude from Ferrari, as fast on Softs as Merc on Super softs...

I didn't see the session and haven't seen this reported anywhere - are you saying there was a point in the session where Ferrari on the softs were close to Mercedes on SS?

Also, anyone have any long run info from FP1? Bottas saying he was reasonably happy with long runs.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2017/10/06/2 ... esult-fp1/

[Schuttelberg]

Bottas was...again half a second behind in FP1, so probably not saying much. Wonder if Merc missed a trick here retaining him. Think its his saving grace that he didn't start this season the way he is finishing it...constantly half a second down on Hamilton, otherwise we could have seen someone else in that seat next season. Can they still pull back on that agreement and sign someone else?

His first half of the season was nothing great either. Hamilton fans were raving about it, but it was actually Lewis who was having his usual 'off' weekends of the year. Days when Lewis is on it, he's easily half a second up on him. It's a combination of Lewis' brilliance and the mediocrity that Bottas is. God knows how badly I'd have a different driver in the second Ferrari and Merc. They're either badly past it or never had it.

[Wynters]

Also, I feel Lewis could have won Malaysia. It's his championship situation that prevented his racing instincts. The 'derates' didn't help either.

I'm not sure he was fast enough to avoid the undercut or keep Max behind him for the whole race but I agree that the Championship situation stopped him actually racing. In Hungary he ended up directly behind Max after the first couple of laps and he just sat there after having one look at making a pass. When the team questioned him he said something along the lines of "That guy’s dangerous, it isn’t worth the risk."*

I do wonder how dispiriting it must be. I'm guessing that these guys all love the actual racing part of driving so to have to regularly yield so you don't put your WDC chances at risk can't be good for morale.

*I'm sure Max was thinking 'job done' when he heard this. Nothing like having potential rivals paranoid/scared about trying to overtake you. Makes defending much easier. In a season where he's not going to achieve anything apart from one or two isolated wins he may as well craft a long term benefit for himself even at the expense of scoring points (that won't affect where RBR or himself finish at the end of the season).