2019 Singapore Grand Prix - Marina Bay, 20-22 September

[godlameroso]

With Mercedes having put so much of effort in building race pace, which was obviously evident with Lewis being on tail on almost all the recent GPs, it would be interesting to see what Lewis can do if he is not starting from pole. It would be foolish to not bet on him getting a pole, due to their superior slow corner performance, but it would nevertheless be interesting. Hungary offered a glimpse of Mercedes race pace and an impeccable strategy with which Lewis could hunt down Max on a track notorious for lack of overtaking. Singapore is notorious too in terms of lack of overtaking and it would be interesting to see what Lewis can do. With both championships almost having been wrapped up, the only interesting spectacle is to watch Lewis hunting down drivers ahead.

Does C5 (Softs) even last a whole lap, considering the energy that would be put in them around this track and the higher ambient temperatures?

This would be the last round of car updates for the leaders, as they would have to move all of their resources to next year's car. So, it's pretty much this is the last that we could watch car updates. Most other stuff would be next year's developmental parts that teams would run in free practice.

Verstappen nor Red Bull will make the same mistake twice. They understand how long the tires will last, and how much they can get out of them. I honestly didn't think Hamilton was much faster than Verstappen in Hungary if at all, on the same tires, now with Honda's spec 4 and the new fuel, plus any chassis developments, the gap will be that much narrower. It may be a two stopper, as this track does wear out the rears. The biggest determinants to strategy will be track position, and safety cars, if it rains during the race, all bets are off.

The C5 tire can probably do about 14 laps before it drops off, so a two stop is likely. Neither the C2 or C3 tire will be fit for one stopping. Perhaps a S M H is the way to go?

[foxmulder_ms]

For the remaining 7 races, I think Merc is the favorite in all but Mexico. So, I expect a very strong Merc here.

[dans79]

I think the race will pan out much like last year.

[GPR-A]

Verstappen nor Red Bull will make the same mistake twice. They understand how long the tires will last, and how much they can get out of them. I honestly didn't think Hamilton was much faster than Verstappen in Hungary if at all, on the same tires, now with Honda's spec 4 and the new fuel, plus any chassis developments, the gap will be that much narrower. It may be a two stopper, as this track does wear out the rears. The biggest determinants to strategy will be track position, and safety cars, if it rains during the race, all bets are off.

I am not sure if you paid attention to Lewis' pace on hard tyres in Hungary. He closed the 6 second gap in 4 laps after the first pit stops and was on tail of Verstappen again. That was the kind of pace he had. As with Honda's Spec 4, Mercedes have brought out their own Spec 3 and unlike Honda, there are no rumors about Mercedes' gains, which is how they have operated. Mercedes wasn't satisfied with their package in Germany and needed to tweak that major upgrade and Singapore being the high downforce track, whatever optimizations they would have done for that package, would be obvious in Singapore. There was already a rumor that, Petronas brought a new fuel in Hungary, which was worth 18 HP. So, Mercedes has in their armor, similar upgrades to what you are talking about Honda.

[Sieper]

Do you really think that is the pace he has. real pace. Lewis could have been the whole race every lap 1,5 seconds faster as Verstappen?

Or was it juts him "investing" in the new rubber (using it harder) to get back on Max'tail asap so that he could try an overtake?

I think they (Mercedes) already were on their plan (2 stopper) at that moment, just push Max as hard as you can and then make another pitstop. The whole field was already comfortably out of pitstop reach by that time.

That is also why Leclerc went to white for his second stint in Monza imho.

[godlameroso]

Verstappen nor Red Bull will make the same mistake twice. They understand how long the tires will last, and how much they can get out of them. I honestly didn't think Hamilton was much faster than Verstappen in Hungary if at all, on the same tires, now with Honda's spec 4 and the new fuel, plus any chassis developments, the gap will be that much narrower. It may be a two stopper, as this track does wear out the rears. The biggest determinants to strategy will be track position, and safety cars, if it rains during the race, all bets are off.

I am not sure if you paid attention to Lewis' pace on hard tyres in Hungary. He closed the 6 second gap in 4 laps after the first pit stops and was on tail of Verstappen again. That was the kind of pace he had. As with Honda's Spec 4, Mercedes have brought out their own Spec 3 and unlike Honda, there are no rumors about Mercedes' gains, which is how they have operated. Mercedes wasn't satisfied with their package in Germany and needed to tweak that major upgrade and Singapore being the high downforce track, whatever optimizations they would have done for that package, would be obvious in Singapore. There was already a rumor that, Petronas brought a new fuel in Hungary, which was worth 18 HP. So, Mercedes has in their armor, similar upgrades to what you are talking about Honda.

In the end we only know the outcome, we cannot conclude that Hamilton would have been faster than Verstappen had they both been on two stoppers. We can only conclude that an aggressive two stopper was faster than a one stopper. If the two stopper would have been chosen, would Verstappen have been more aggressive on his set of tires? How much did that influence the pace difference between the two? Verstappen was set on a one stop strategy and that meant doing 45 laps on his set of tires, naturally he needs to drive to a delta to make that. Hamilton's two stopper threw that plan in trash and ultimately proved to be the faster strategy. Granted we don't know if Hamilton could have made it work without the inherent pace he gets from the car, because you need to be fast enough to pull off the move in the first place.

We shall see, I just hope that Red Bull can be on the same level of Mercedes and give them a proper challenge. I'd love to see Honda win it all, but I'm also just as happy seeing a real slug fest on track. The last 3 races have been rather enjoyable.

[dans79]

I think it was pretty obvious that even during the first stint, that Lewis had more pace than Max. He could close up on Max at will, and sit in his Dirty air until he had to back off and look after his brakes.

[NathanOlder]

With Mercedes having put so much of effort in building race pace, which was obviously evident with Lewis being on tail on almost all the recent GPs, it would be interesting to see what Lewis can do if he is not starting from pole. It would be foolish to not bet on him getting a pole, due to their superior slow corner performance, but it would nevertheless be interesting. Hungary offered a glimpse of Mercedes race pace and an impeccable strategy with which Lewis could hunt down Max on a track notorious for lack of overtaking. Singapore is notorious too in terms of lack of overtaking and it would be interesting to see what Lewis can do. With both championships almost having been wrapped up, the only interesting spectacle is to watch Lewis hunting down drivers ahead.

Does C5 (Softs) even last a whole lap, considering the energy that would be put in them around this track and the higher ambient temperatures?

This would be the last round of car updates for the leaders, as they would have to move all of their resources to next year's car. So, it's pretty much this is the last that we could watch car updates. Most other stuff would be next year's developmental parts that teams would run in free practice.

Verstappen nor Red Bull will make the same mistake twice. They understand how long the tires will last, and how much they can get out of them. I honestly didn't think Hamilton was much faster than Verstappen in Hungary if at all, on the same tires

I dont think RedBull or Max had a choice, due to Mercedes being faster even on equal tyres. That was clear with Lewis able to sit on the back of Max lap after lap.

[Sieper]

No, in the race there was no choice indeed. Lewis was already within the pit window after the first lap on his new tires so Max wodul have lost his position.

But Redbull is still improving, new spec4. They could have gone for white tire (like Leclerc did in Monza, I am sure that was one of the lessons from Hungary). Or they could have gone for a 2 stopper from the get go themselves as well.

[drunkf1fan]

Do you really think that is the pace he has. real pace. Lewis could have been the whole race every lap 1,5 seconds faster as Verstappen?

Or was it juts him "investing" in the new rubber (using it harder) to get back on Max'tail asap so that he could try an overtake?

I think they (Mercedes) already were on their plan (2 stopper) at that moment, just push Max as hard as you can and then make another pitstop. The whole field was already comfortably out of pitstop reach by that time.

That is also why Leclerc went to white for his second stint in Monza imho.

First they clearly could. Hamilton was faster after his first stop, but not much, in reality Max was actually VERY slow after his stop. He was within the window by a mile so went slow and was saving tires. What I didn't understand was how it took 2.5 laps for the team to spot Hamilton's sector times and give Max the hurry up. THe second Ham caught him he started doing the same times, Ham barely slowed down when he caught Max. Then Max stayed on that pace for most of the rest of the race.

SO Max pit early, the team realised Ham was going long, they realised they needed to get to the end with older tires so had him go slow but they should have reacted when Ham was still 4.5 seconds down and half a lap of fast times by Hamilton then it would have taken a lot lot longer to catch up. RBR just massively dropped the ball there.

[GPR-A]

Do you really think that is the pace he has. real pace. Lewis could have been the whole race every lap 1,5 seconds faster as Verstappen?

Or was it juts him "investing" in the new rubber (using it harder) to get back on Max'tail asap so that he could try an overtake?

I think they (Mercedes) already were on their plan (2 stopper) at that moment, just push Max as hard as you can and then make another pitstop. The whole field was already comfortably out of pitstop reach by that time.

That is also why Leclerc went to white for his second stint in Monza imho.

Mercedes was NOT on 2 stopper by plan. Neither Mercedes, nor Red Bull knew how slow Ferrari was going to be on race day. Mercedes attempted the second stop, once the window opened up after first pit stops due to Ferrari being so far behind. When Lewis was pushing, the idea was to push and overtake Max in the first available opportunity. When that did not happen AND when the gap to Ferrari opened safely, Mercedes decided to switch to two stopper.

Regarding Lewis' pace, he has shown in multiple races now, starting from Baku, that he can comfortably sit in the wake of the leading car and be on tail, which shows that he could comfortably be way more faster in the free air, like he was in France.

[Sieper]

Ofcourse. The merc is still the best package, or ar least was in Hungary, certainly in the hands of Lewis.

But your post read to me as, he was 6 seconds faster in those 4 laps so that was his true pace. With the current pace they already left the ferrari,s a minute behind. I believe there was not much in it for both (both did not leave much time on the table) Max one his one stopper and Lewis on his, Lets call it 1,5 stopper. They certainly made it a 2 stopper in the end.

I also believe redbull was caught a bit sleeping, per druk fan. They need to relearn being at the front.

Certainly lessons will have been learned, Lets see If RBR can qualify up front again and how the race pans out.

[foxmulder_ms]

Ofcourse. The merc is still the best package, or ar least was in Hungary, certainly in the hands of Lewis.

But your post read to me as, he was 6 seconds faster in those 4 laps so that was his true pace. With the current pace they already left the ferrari,s a minute behind. I believe there was not much in it for both (both did not leave much time on the table) Max one his one stopper and Lewis on his, Lets call it 1,5 stopper. They certainly made it a 2 stopper in the end.

I also believe redbull was caught a bit sleeping, per druk fan. They need to relearn being at the front.

Certainly lessons will have been learned, Lets see If RBR can qualify up front again and how the race pans out.

If lewis got the 1st place after the start, he would have finished ~30sec in front of Ves with both of them pitting once. Merc was faster car with Hamilton driving.

[Sieper]

I don’t think that kind of a gap existed. And even If it did (which it did not) Lewis would finish 8 sec’s ahead. Just like he did here in Singapore last year. Via which we are back on topic!

[Unc1eM0nty]

Verstappen nor Red Bull will make the same mistake twice.

It wasn't a mistake as such, they had to avoid the undercut so pitted early themselves, if they hadn't Lewis would have, Mercedes were faster simple as, they could have made either senario work

If the lead car does't pull away then they're not the fastest