2017 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, 6-8 October

[Restomaniac]

Have Ferrari dialed understeer into the setup to look after the rears ?

They way the back kept stepping out in the Degner 2 didn't look like understeer. Unless I misunderstand Understeer.

Maybe they were overzealous with the throttle out of Degner 2 ? Esses are very different, they are faster corners where aero balance matters a lot more.

Maybe so. I guess time will tell.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

[media]https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/916575631936167937[/media]

[TAG]

Qualifying at Suzuka, the Mercedes update worked. It's going to be hotter on race day, so no all hope is lost.

[iotar__]

- Underdog Mercedes is the quickest . I have a weird feeling of deja vu of BS and good predictions. Ferrari close enough, Vettel is not good in Suzuka, Raikk just awful.

- "Best chassis" Red Bull is 1 second behind? Unless that's the engine difference I have a weird feeling of deja vu of arrogant liars: Marko, Red Bull chassis now the best on F1 grid https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red- ... ri-960776/

[atanatizante]

On RTL Toto said something about overheating tires in their long run pace in FP3, so it probably wont be smooth sailing. Anyone here watch FP3 or look at the data?

Phil, gladly I could help you with that ...

I think Toto was referring on SS tyre bearing in mind what Lewis said in his interview after the qualy saying long runs soft tyre seems good and not so good on SS tyre ...
In addition, they did only 5 laps on soft tyre then afterwards being focused more on a SS race stint as follows:

Lewis (S tyre-qualy run stint): 1,29.7 ; 1,29.0 ... and on SS tyre (race run stint): 1,35.0 ; 1,34.8 ; 1,34.8
Vettel (S tyre-race run stint): 1,33.6 ; 1,33.5 ; 1,33.7 ... on SS tyre (qualy run stint: 1,29.4 ; 1,29.6 ; 1,29.6

Then in Q1 he did another race sim stint on soft tyre having a 1,29.5 on lap 2, 1,29.3 on la 4 and finally 1,29.0 on lap 6 of a 8 lap stint ...

At Ferrari is seems to be the same case with Vettel`s car having dialed more understeer in order to protect the
rear tyres, as Davidson said on Sky, watching his car both in Dagner 2 and the last chicane ...

Today it was 22 degrees Celsius on air and 26 on track but tomorrow will be 26 on air and maybe 32-33 on track
but that was the same a month ago at Monza when we know how they performed ...

[Phil]

Great information, thanks!

[TAG]

Here's an interesting chart I ran across out on the interwebz. Goes a long way towards answering the temperature thing.

[NathanOlder]

Here's an interesting chart I ran across out on the interwebz. Goes a long way towards answering the temperature thing.

https://i.imgur.com/rvYeWyU.png

Nice one. Clearly shows once that track temp goes up about the mid 40's, Mercedes are stuffed. So from the remaining races, i don't see Merc having any real issues looking at this chart.

Vettel looks to be in big trouble

[TAG]

Here's an interesting chart I ran across out on the interwebz. Goes a long way towards answering the temperature thing.

https://i.imgur.com/rvYeWyU.png

Nice one. Clearly shows once that track temp goes up about the mid 40's, Mercedes are stuffed. So from the remaining races, i don't see Merc having any real issues looking at this chart.

Vettel looks to be in big trouble

It's the cool part of the season, yes.

[GrandAxe]

Here's an interesting chart I ran across out on the interwebz. Goes a long way towards answering the temperature thing.

https://i.imgur.com/rvYeWyU.png

Great info. From that, Mercedes can't seem to handle anything above 50 degrees Centigrade; as an aside, that's something that might affect their performance next season.

I've always thought they would dump the long wheel base for next year, but doubts intensify each time you hear them say they are trying to "understand" their issues with high temps. Today, Lewis actually dropped what could be a hint in an interview; he said they were studying the high temp problem and needed to fix it for "next year" - this can be interpreted as Mercedes evolving their current LWB concept.

Perhaps, their trials of suspension solutions is not hitting bullseye, hence the need to throw resources at studying the problem race in, race out.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Here's an interesting chart I ran across out on the interwebz. Goes a long way towards answering the temperature thing.

https://i.imgur.com/rvYeWyU.png

Azerbaijan could have been easily Mercedes. We know what happened there. Both Mercs dominated the qualifying. We know how the race transpired.
Singapore shouldn't have been Mercedes, but we know what happened there too.

Malaysia was an exception and had most likely, to do with the upgrades and setups. It was more like Ferrari's Silverstone and Monza.

I still believe, it has nothing to do with the temperatures, but more about the lack of great Mechanical grip. Mercedes struggled in Russia (3rd sector), Monaco, Hungary and in Singapore (if not for incident). All of those circuits that have slow speed corners. In fact, in Monaco (also higher temperature), Mercedes struggled to put temperatures in tyres!!! They kept going lap after lap to put heat into tyres, unlike Ferrari and Red Bull.

Everything points to the trick suspension that they lost so late in the game for the season.

[TAG]

Here's an interesting chart I ran across out on the interwebz. Goes a long way towards answering the temperature thing.

https://i.imgur.com/rvYeWyU.png

Azerbaijan could have been easily Mercedes.

Everything points to the trick suspension that they lost so late in the game for the season.

Baku stood out for me as well, not necessarily the result but because both air and track temps were high, but Merc dominated. That IMO has everything to do with the long straights there allowing the tires to cool, never getting critically hot and begin to slide, leading to to a faster erosion and more degradation.

The suspension is the reason this car has been labeled a "Diva". They clearly were relying on it. It's a German team, you know they won't show up next season with the same problem.

But enough about this, how about that sublime lap? How can one not fall in love with the sport watching that?

[Shrieker]

The way that car goes into spoon looks physically impossible. I'd like to see the entry speed of other cars there.

On a side note; notice the tiny lock up into the hairpin. I saw it on live feed from the outside angle. It actually cost a couple hundredths, the 2nd sector of the first Q3 run was a wee little bit faster. He made i think -0.115 in the first sector, and lost around 0.03 in the second and third sectors compared to his first run. Both immaculate laps but to be honest the car looked just glued to the ground.

[Bill_Kar]

The graph with track temperature sorted wins clearly shows that temperature is not that much of an issue. Plus, as GPR pointed, Azerbaijan was clearly Mercedes.
But I disagree with UK-Italy being an "off" for Ferrari just like Malaysia was for Mercedes.
The counterpart for this is Mercedes' weekends in Monaco and Singapore.Track just doesn't suit, I don't get why Mercedes is the only one with track-wise weaknesses.
It's the ABYSMAL performance of Mercedes that is not an analogue to Ferrari; Ferrari can salvage at least third place in terms of pace.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Does anyone knows, what's the extra boost that Spec 4 PU gave for Ferrari? The rumored 10 hp is heard of, but does anyone know how much of the reduced oil burning has an impact on the performance?