2018 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, May 11-13

[NathanOlder]

So Pirelli changed tread thickness by 0.4mm (I think I read) 0.4mm! Not 4mm 0.4mm! Thats nothing!? How can something so small make such a huge difference!

And how can Merc not manage a tyre so close to today's tyres?

[Mamba]

What we saw today was domination. Other weekends it was only in quali where Ferrari seemed to have an clear advantage. The races were always very evenly matched. It only means that Ferrari understand and use the proper tyres better but only to a small extent - which is one of the major challenges of the sport, especially in the Pirelli era. Having a tyre altered and then suddenly your cars come alive - that is helping.

And the 0.4mm equals about a kilo per tyre if I remember correctly. That is a lot less in F1 standard! Less rubber on the tyre, less movement which means it is "harder" but alo less graining. The Pirelli tyres are really sensitive too so even a small change can have a big influence on how they work.

[NathanOlder]

If find it hard to believe 0.4mm is equal to a kilo. That would mean the tyres would weight 100kg+ each, which of course they dont. Unless the tyres are only 5mm thick?

[TAG]

well done verstappen, another stupid pointless incident, thankfully it didnt affect the race much this time.
i went back over the footage and Max accelerated and made contact before the lights turned to green, what a total numpty!

He didn't then drive up next to Lance Stroll and hit him, that's something.

[ringo]

The Hamilton record setting machine rolls on.

His latest one is winning races from pole positions.

I think first driver to have back to back Barcelona wins as well.

[Zynerji]

well done verstappen, another stupid pointless incident, thankfully it didnt affect the race much this time.
i went back over the footage and Max accelerated and made contact before the lights turned to green, what a total numpty!

He didn't then drive up next to Lance Stroll and hit him, that's something.

Still causing a Collison under safety car...

[Mamba]

If find it hard to believe 0.4mm is equal to a kilo. That would mean the tyres would weight 100kg+ each, which of course they dont. Unless the tyres are only 5mm thick?

You are correct, I had it wrong. It is one kilo per set, not per tyre. Fact stays, small things can have a big impact as we saw today. Two teams highlighted sever blistering and two teams clearly had an tyre life and performance advantage today. One much much more than the other though.

[NL_Fer]

Slomo’s on Durch tv showed the lights in the car AND on track were green before he was close to Stroll. He was taking a Canadian money-nap.

[Sieper]

well done verstappen, another stupid pointless incident, thankfully it didnt affect the race much this time.
i went back over the footage and Max accelerated and made contact before the lights turned to green, what a total numpty!

He didn't then drive up next to Lance Stroll and hit him, that's something.

Before the VSC Max was 8,5 second behind Bottas, after the VSC 12 seconds. And he was on the tail of Stroll (not allowed to overtake under VSC) how is that possible? Why was Stroll not keeping his delta. If the Ferrari pitstop for Vettel would have been faultless Vettel would have been back on the track before Verstappen (Stroll was smack death in front of him). Now (with 2 seconds lost during the pitstop due to the right rear wheel not getting on) with Vettel right behind him Max fully expected Stroll to accelerate to and through the chicane, just like when starting any qualy lap. He expected Vettel to be all over him so had nothing to spare there. Why didn’t Stroll accelerate. Just a misjudgement by Max, but I understand why he was so close to Stroll. Otherwise a great race by Max.

[Manoah2u]

ok really, i can only say 2 things for this race.

Utter, total, unforgivable idiot of the day - Grosjean.
If that total dunce didn't spin his wheels, and hit the brakes instead and wait, good chance he would not have been hit. he pulled a smokescreen nobody knew where he was.
what a total fool, all the way back to 1st lap nutcase. I'd start wondering whether he might have negative iq points. just wow. present him the bill of the damage to the other cars, please.

second fool of the day - Sirotkin.
What on earth was he doing? driving already weird during the VC, to then at the restart actually BRAKING, which there was no possibility for Max to miss him. and then really, that half-spin in the corner, it was like it was his first lap ever in a F1 car, or better yet, ever in a Formula car and he had no idea what to do. Dangerous driving for real. Get the hell outta here.

Apart from that, nice race. Nothing particularly spectacular, not particulary boring either.
Still just as disappointed as ever with VanDoorne, how long are they going to keep giving that disgrace a seat? Also unimpressed with the DNF. Has much changed since last year?

[TwanV]

Reading this thread you begin to wonder why 50% of the people here are even interested in F1.
I enjoyed this one, not the best track for overtaking but it kept me on the edge of my seat all 66 laps.
- masterful drive by Hamilton. Bottas showed good pace but looked shaky with vettel in his mirrors, twice.
- what was grosjean thinking? Full throttle to keep out of the gravel? Shocking. Good job stewards for the grid penalty.
-stroll.. Has verstappen P3 and vettel P4 in his mirror, fails to notice the restart. Just.. Facepalm... Lot of salt against verstappen for this, but what would you do with vettel close up? This guy failed to notice the restart a full two seconds(!). I feel for Williams.
-VSC, we need to lose this ridiculous measure. Artificial gaps opening and closing because of sleepy backmarkers, it's just a lottery.

But apart from that.. Good midfield action.. Nice strategy-spread, clean racing, much better than what I expected from this circuit.

Edit : reading manoahs post above.. Was it sirotkin? In that case I apologize to the stroll fans if any and feel doubly sorry for Williams.

[Edax]

So Pirelli changed tread thickness by 0.4mm (I think I read) 0.4mm! Not 4mm 0.4mm! Thats nothing!? How can something so small make such a huge difference!

I can imagine that it impacts thermal management of the tire. Rubber, even carbon-filled, is a quite good thermal insulator. 0.4 mm could make it a lot harder to transfer heat away from the friction surface. Not sure whether it could impact stiffness, but it does look like 0.4 millimeter is significant to the overall thread thickness.

[bonjon1979]

well done verstappen, another stupid pointless incident, thankfully it didnt affect the race much this time.
i went back over the footage and Max accelerated and made contact before the lights turned to green, what a total numpty!

He didn't then drive up next to Lance Stroll and hit him, that's something.

Before the VSC Max was 8,5 second behind Bottas, after the VSC 12 seconds. And he was on the tail of Stroll (not allowed to overtake under VSC) how is that possible? Why was Stroll not keeping his delta. If the Ferrari pitstop for Vettel would have been faultless Vettel would have been back on the track before Verstappen (Stroll was smack death in front of him). Now (with 2 seconds lost during the pitstop due to the right rear wheel not getting on) with Vettel right behind him Max fully expected Stroll to accelerate to and through the chicane, just like when starting any qualy lap. He expected Vettel to be all over him so had nothing to spare there. Why didn’t Stroll accelerate. Just a misjudgement by Max, but I understand why he was so close to Stroll. Otherwise a great race by Max.

I imagine nerfing a car in the back side instead of accelerating away on an empty track may cost you 3.5 secs

[GrandAxe]

You are correct, I had it wrong. It is one kilo per set, not per tyre. Fact stays, small things can have a big impact as we saw today. Two teams highlighted sever blistering and two teams clearly had an tyre life and performance advantage today. One much much more than the other though.

If a kilo can cause such wild fluctuation in performance, then surely we would need to ban full tanks of fuel, because an F1 car can weigh almost 100 Kg less between race start and end as fuel is burnt.

If shaving off 0.4mm from the tyre surface (without changing the compound) can result in "cheating", then by God, we must ban F1 tyres from ever wearing and losing any multiple of 04.mm from their surfaces. Going by the logic of your argument; as it is, tyres can currently wear down to the canvas - this has to be very wrong, it has to be "cheating".

Lets lay this thing to rest.

[ferkan]

You are correct, I had it wrong. It is one kilo per set, not per tyre. Fact stays, small things can have a big impact as we saw today. Two teams highlighted sever blistering and two teams clearly had an tyre life and performance advantage today. One much much more than the other though.

If a kilo can cause such wild fluctuation in performance, then surely we would need to ban full tanks of fuel, because an F1 car can weigh almost 100 Kg less between race start and end as fuel is burnt.

If shaving off 0.4mm from the tyre surface (without changing the compound) can result in "cheating", then by God, we must ban F1 tyres from ever wearing and losing any multiple of 04.mm from their surfaces. Going by the logic of your argument; as it is, tyres can currently wear down to the canvas - this has to be very wrong, it has to be "cheating".

Lets lay this thing to rest.

Then again, if like what you say, 0.4mm hardly makes a difference, why even bring them here?