2018 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, May 11-13

[LM10]

Mark Hughes on the conspiracy theories re: the tires:

https://flic.kr/p/24pGGWd Hughes by Andrew R., on Flickr

Arrivabene: "There is a difference between being consulted and being informed. We have been informed, not consulted." - You can choose whom to believe.

[dans79]

oh yeah passed Hamilton in rainly Brasil 2008 in a Minardi DNA Torro Rosso and nearly cost him the WDC.

The fact that use this as some kind of vindication shows you don't know how to put passing into the proper context.

[GrandAxe]

Arrivabene: "There is a difference between being consulted and being informed. We have been informed, not consulted." - You can choose whom to believe.

Heheh! Lovely cop out from Arrivabene.

The long and short is that Ferrari long knew about the change. because it was one of the teams that requested it.

Did Ferrari ask questions and get answers when they were informed? If so, that would read like a consultation of sorts.
Can Ferrari point out a single team that was "consulted", how deep the consultation was, and finally, what exactly they mean by consultation in the particular context and in exact terms, how that differs from being informed?

It is wrong to work up gullible fans only to turn around and reduce a set of quite grave accusations to a debate of semantics. Principle should always come to the fore.

Lets lay this thing to rest. Arguments that shaving 0.4 mm off the tyre surface could have killed Ferrari's tyre handling seem quite ridiculous, considering that much more than 0.4 mm would have worn off in the cause of a normal race. It's like saying that as a result of a couple of laps of normal running (and 0.4 mm + worn off), the Ferrari's would suddenly have found themselves unable to keep within the operating temperature of the tyres.

[zibby43]

Mark Hughes on the conspiracy theories re: the tires:

https://flic.kr/p/24pGGWd Hughes by Andrew R., on Flickr

Arrivabene: "There is a difference between being consulted and being informed. We have been informed, not consulted." - You can choose whom to believe.

I like Maurizio, but that's the easiest choice I've been given in a while.

Every single word I hear uttered by Toto, Maruizio, and Christian is taken with a grain of salt. Their interests are protecting and promoting their teams, above all else.

[Cannonballer]

I don't understand the motive behind the conspiracy to help Mercedes. How can anyone believe that the changes to the tire only helped Mercedes and (or hurt Ferrari); and Pirelli and the FIA made the changes only to help Mercedes? That is essentially saying that the FIA and Pirelli think that helping Mercedes continuing to dominate Formula 1 is going to make F1 more popular, exciting, appealing, and or money. There is no way.

[ferkan]

Mark Hughes on the conspiracy theories re: the tires:

https://flic.kr/p/24pGGWd Hughes by Andrew R., on Flickr

Arrivabene: "There is a difference between being consulted and being informed. We have been informed, not consulted." - You can choose whom to believe.

I like Maurizio, but that's the easiest choice I've been given in a while.

Every single word I hear uttered by Toto, Maruizio, and Christian is taken with a grain of salt. Their interests are protecting and promoting their teams, above all else.

Mark Hughes is known for taking rather biased side sometimes, especially when Hamilton is in question. Vetttel and Ferrari where consistent throughout this issue (since winter testing, unlike Pirelli that literally said they "prevented lottery that could have happened"). This has been confirmed by AMUS, that broke actual story and from where Mark copy pasted his "GPS data reveals" part of article. Ferrari didn't ask for it, but Mercedes. Ferrari tires didn't grain, and if they did they grained nowhere near as in case of Merc and even RB.

For me its very clear, McLaren went on record with AMUS that they didn't have graining, and therefore why would they want tire change to accommodate other teams that have this issue. Mark on the other hand said McLaren is a team that pushed for it. I would rather trust guys that actually broke this story weeks ago, then Hughes.

I don't understand the motive behind the conspiracy to help Mercedes. How can anyone believe that the changes to the tire only helped Mercedes and (or hurt Ferrari); and Pirelli and the FIA made the changes only to help Mercedes? That is essentially saying that the FIA and Pirelli think that helping Mercedes continuing to dominate Formula 1 is going to make F1 more popular, exciting, appealing, and or money. There is no way.

Its not conspiracy. If your tires are graining hard, you will have to pit more frequently as you will be losing time duo to tire performances. If you are Merc, you can "suggest" Pirelli that there could be safety issues such as exploding tires, so they better fix it. Pirelli would and did take that side since its not in their interest that tires explode with hundreds of million of people watching it live, thats very bad PR.

So in essence, Merc had a reason for this change, they played safety card and Pirelli obviously went with safe option rather then risking any embarrassing tire issues that might ensue.

[ferkan]

Arrivabene: "There is a difference between being consulted and being informed. We have been informed, not consulted." - You can choose whom to believe.

Heheh! Lovely cop out from Arrivabene.

The long and short is that Ferrari long knew about the change. because it was one of the teams that requested it.

Did Ferrari ask questions and get answers when they were informed? If so, that would read like a consultation of sorts.
Can Ferrari point out a single team that was "consulted", how deep the consultation was, and finally, what exactly they mean by consultation in the particular context and in exact terms, how that differs from being informed?

It is wrong to work up gullible fans only to turn around and reduce a set of quite grave accusations to a debate of semantics. Principle should always come to the fore.

Lets lay this thing to rest. Arguments that shaving 0.4 mm off the tyre surface could have killed Ferrari's tyre handling seem quite ridiculous, considering that much more than 0.4 mm would have worn off in the cause of a normal race. It's like saying that as a result of a couple of laps of normal running (and 0.4 mm + worn off), the Ferrari's would suddenly have found themselves unable to keep within the operating temperature of the tyres.

So 0.4mm can't change car performance, but according to Isola, that thread shaving off resulted in us going from "tire lottery" and probably few pitstops, to safe 1 stop with 0 graining?

[zibby43]

Its not conspiracy. If your tires are graining hard, you will have to pit more frequently as you will be losing time duo to tire performances. If you are Merc, you can "suggest" Pirelli that there could be safety issues such as exploding tires, so they better fix it. Pirelli would and did take that side since its not in their interest that tires explode with hundreds of million of people watching it live, thats very bad PR.

So in essence, Merc had a reason for this change, they played safety card and Pirelli obviously went with safe option rather then risking any embarrassing tire issues that might ensue.

It was a blistering issue, actually. And it's not just Mercedes. Red Bull suffered from nightmarish levels of blistering in testing. I'm thinking about posting all the photos, but I don't know what difference it will make as the facts continue to be ignored.

Verstappen loved the new tires this past weekend. Held off Vettel with a broken front wing lol.

What is funny to me is that virtually no other team in the paddock was complaining about the tires this weekend. The "new" tires performed as they were designed to during the race.

This notion that Ferrari is completely immune to tire issues, absent a change, is inaccurate. Ferrari were hailed tire kings last year (and rightly so based on their early season performance) . . . but they were absolutely atrocious on front tire wear in last year's British GP. And atrocious on pace.

I'm just going to sit tight and wait for Monaco. Ferrari were strong there last year but Bottas was only .002 off of Vettel in qualifying and that was when Merc was in the midst of their W08 diva nightmare. Ferrari also have a longer car this year, which will be interesting.

[Sierra117]

Ferrari also have a longer car this year, which will be interesting.

Yeah this should be pretty interesting. RB hasn't changed the length much have they?

[f1316]

Yeah , I don’t think there’s a conspiracy here - Pirelli weren’t trying to help Mercedes, they were simply bringing the tyres they felt best suited the circuit in question.

Nevertheless I think it’s only logical that the sudden total reversal of which team was best managing the tyres is due to this change - as Seb said, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that removing tread will make the tyres harder and that’s always been better for Mercedes than Ferrari. Both have it in their ‘DNA’ on opposite ends of the spectrum.

We’ll certainly see in Monaco but I think Toto’s comments are telling - they’re not looking forward to hypersofts.

[Phil]

Lets see, Barcelona 2018 pit stop summary:

Mercedes: 1 stop
RedBull: 1 stop
McLaren: 1 stop
Haas: 1 stop
Sauber: 1 stop
Renault: 1 stop
Force India: 1 stop

Ferrari ............ 2 stops

And yes, Williams and TR also 2 stopped. Doesn't look like many teams struggled to get a 1 stop to work on these unique 'Mercedes tires'.

[f1316]

Also I meant to say: Ferrari will at least be pleased that the track where they struggled most so far this season - with the tyres on which they struggled most - has a test session directly after.

This may allow them to find some degree of solution on how to manage these tyres for France and Britain, as I suspect they’ll be fine everywhere else.

[zibby43]

Ferrari also have a longer car this year, which will be interesting.

Yeah this should be pretty interesting. RB hasn't changed the length much have they?

Absolutely will be interesting. The W09 has also improved quite a bit in slow corners compared to the W08.

I believe you're correct re: the RB14's length.

Also, on a completely unrelated side note, here is a very well respected former F1 mechanic (McLaren) putting to bed the tire conspiracy theories. He begins addressing the tires around the 15-minute mark:



There have been so many reputable sources rubbishing this claim (and implicating Ferrari as one of the teams that asked for the change), if this is not the final nail in the coffin, I don't know what will be.

[Vasconia]

Its not conspiracy. If your tires are graining hard, you will have to pit more frequently as you will be losing time duo to tire performances. If you are Merc, you can "suggest" Pirelli that there could be safety issues such as exploding tires, so they better fix it. Pirelli would and did take that side since its not in their interest that tires explode with hundreds of million of people watching it live, thats very bad PR.

So in essence, Merc had a reason for this change, they played safety card and Pirelli obviously went with safe option rather then risking any embarrassing tire issues that might ensue.

It was a blistering issue, actually. And it's not just Mercedes. Red Bull suffered from nightmarish levels of blistering in testing. I'm thinking about posting all the photos, but I don't know what difference it will make as the facts continue to be ignored.

Verstappen loved the new tires this past weekend. Held off Vettel with a broken front wing lol.

What is funny to me is that virtually no other team in the paddock was complaining about the tires this weekend. The "new" tires performed as they were designed to during the race.

This notion that Ferrari is completely immune to tire issues, absent a change, is inaccurate. Ferrari were hailed tire kings last year (and rightly so based on their early season performance) . . . but they were absolutely atrocious on front tire wear in last year's British GP. And atrocious on pace.

I'm just going to sit tight and wait for Monaco. Ferrari were strong there last year but Bottas was only .002 off of Vettel in qualifying and that was when Merc was in the midst of their W08 diva nightmare. Ferrari also have a longer car this year, which will be interesting.

It seems that Max was more consistent on this tyres than Ricciardo. As Hamilton he may like the harder tyres because of this agressive driving style.

As it has been mentioned also before, Monaco will be interesting. Last year Ferrari was clearly better during the race but this year it won´t be so clear, though Ultrasofts should benefit the Ferrrari. I expect a RB to be on the pole.

[Phil]

Ultra softs? I am fairly confident they will be running the hyper-softs at Monaco, but this should be in that topic...