Vasconia wrote: ↑03 Jul 2018, 08:35
But Barcelona and Silverstone are tracks were aero efficency is needed, and also being strong in fast corners. Mercedes is very strong in both aspects so they will be very strong in Silverstone. Let alone they will have they beloved tyres, I guess Lewis must be very happy.
I'm not saying Merc won't be strong here, it's 100% their race to loose. All I'm saying is their PU is their top card, not their chassis and/or aero.
LM10 wrote: ↑03 Jul 2018, 16:15
It's a bit of a mysterious thing. If we assume that Mercedes has a more powerful PU then it's quite interesting that Kimi on a 5 races old spec 1 engine was almost matching the times of Mercedes at the end of S1 and S2, but losing several tenths in the last sector (Vettel was even closer to Mercedes despite having been a tenth slower than Kimi in S1). In addition to that it also must be considered that Mercedes had a big upgrade which according to Bottas noticeably stabilized the rear and thereby must have made them more competitive in the first 2 sectors.
So the question is why Mercedes was way quicker through those fast corners in S3 and if it was for the more powerful PU the only thing which I could think of would be a setup with more downforce being allowed due to more power. But then again: Why were they constantly slower than Ferrari in S2 when we assume they had more downforce and a stabilized rear which should have given them much better traction (also spec 2.1 is told to have increased traction)? The only part where Mercedes was significantly faster and where they got the first row was S3.
Let's see how it's gonna be in Silverstone. I think Qualifying will be pretty one-sided, but I hope the race is gonna be exciting.
More downforce and more drag combined with a bit more power from PU makes you faster in S3. S2 for Ferrari is down to aero efficiency, better acceleration due to less drag.
Also, Merc looked like it didn't roll at all in corners 9 and 10, which is what they are working on for a number of years. Other then all this, they were able to extract maximum from tyres in Qualy, their pace in the race was not that better then competition in the first stint (primarily Max, Kimi kept steadily loosing a few tenths every lap, and the same for Dani Ric and Vettel because of Kimi in front of them). Needless to discuss second stint.
That's just my view, let's turn towards the Cradle of F1.