2019 Russian Grand Prix - Sochi Autodrom, 27 - 29 September

[Sevach]

Not sure I agree. Since FP1 it looked like Leclerc had easy peasy 0.3s in pocket infront of Vettel.

Actually, it looked like that for entire year. Its just that Leclerc has gotten even faster. If he wasnt left in pits by Ferrari in Monaco or didnt have brain fade in Baku (both weekends he was clearly faster), this would look even worse.

I disagree that it looked like this all year, in fact up until Canada Vettel was doing quite alright against Leclerc, in some races Leclerc was faster on some others it was Vettel, and on a number of occasions they were exchanging who was going faster on every time they went out.
And in terms of consistency Vettel was winning.

Wether it's down to Leclerc getting settled in, attempts to make the car more pointy pushing it more towards Charles, Vettel going off the rails... The fact is Charles now has a sizeable advantage in his pocket, which he didn't have before, he's quicker every session, every time they go out, last time they were more on less even was Hungary, and that is pretty much a blip in a sea of Leclerc dominating.

Even when Vettel shows speed, like in the first attempt of Singapore Q3 it's out of nowhere.
And even then he botched he final corner of that lap and had an overdrivy second attempt.

[Big Tea]

Not sure I agree. Since FP1 it looked like Leclerc had easy peasy 0.3s in pocket infront of Vettel.

Actually, it looked like that for entire year. Its just that Leclerc has gotten even faster. If he wasnt left in pits by Ferrari in Monaco or didnt have brain fade in Baku (both weekends he was clearly faster), this would look even worse.

I disagree that it looked like this all year, in fact up until Canada Vettel was doing quite alright against Leclerc, in some races Leclerc was faster on some others it was Vettel, and on a number of occasions they were exchanging who was going faster on every time they went out.
And in terms of consistency Vettel was winning.

Wether it's down to Leclerc getting settled in, attempts to make the car more pointy pushing it more towards Charles, Vettel going off the rails... The fact is Charles now has a sizeable advantage in his pocket, which he didn't have before, he's quicker every session, every time they go out, last time they were more on less even was Hungary, and that is pretty much a blip in a sea of Leclerc dominating.

Even when Vettel shows speed, like in the first attempt of Singapore Q3 it's out of nowhere.
And even then he botched he final corner of that lap and had an overdrivy second attempt.

Or it could be Chas has adapted to the car ans Seb has not? All cars give a better performance if they are driven a particular way, and that is not always the 'seat of the pants' way. Sometimes doing something counter intuitive gets the result even though you would swear it was about to swap ends (but it does not). If you can overcome your normal reaction, and another driver cannot, you will win.

This is actually the same thing said of Seb being the top dog at RBR in hot blown days. Could it be the other end of the scale?

[izzy]

So what's the strategy for tomorrow??
-Ferrari: Soft-Medium
-Mercedes: Medium-Hard or Medium-Soft??

If it is Medium-Hard, i don't think they have any chance of winning...they'll be fast with Mediums at the start but Hards won't be fast enough i believe!

What do you think??

depends on the deg! Stating the obvious but Mercedes' only chance is if the Ferrari's Mediums fade badly towards the end of the race.

[Sevach]

Not sure I agree. Since FP1 it looked like Leclerc had easy peasy 0.3s in pocket infront of Vettel.

Actually, it looked like that for entire year. Its just that Leclerc has gotten even faster. If he wasnt left in pits by Ferrari in Monaco or didnt have brain fade in Baku (both weekends he was clearly faster), this would look even worse.

I disagree that it looked like this all year, in fact up until Canada Vettel was doing quite alright against Leclerc, in some races Leclerc was faster on some others it was Vettel, and on a number of occasions they were exchanging who was going faster on every time they went out.
And in terms of consistency Vettel was winning.

Wether it's down to Leclerc getting settled in, attempts to make the car more pointy pushing it more towards Charles, Vettel going off the rails... The fact is Charles now has a sizeable advantage in his pocket, which he didn't have before, he's quicker every session, every time they go out, last time they were more on less even was Hungary, and that is pretty much a blip in a sea of Leclerc dominating.

Even when Vettel shows speed, like in the first attempt of Singapore Q3 it's out of nowhere.
And even then he botched he final corner of that lap and had an overdrivy second attempt.

Or it could be Chas has adapted to the car ans Seb has not? All cars give a better performance if they are driven a particular way, and that is not always the 'seat of the pants' way. Sometimes doing something counter intuitive gets the result even though you would swear it was about to swap ends (but it does not). If you can overcome your normal reaction, and another driver cannot, you will win.

This is actually the same thing said of Seb being the top dog at RBR in hot blown days. Could it be the other end of the scale?

I actually mentioned Leclerc getting settled in as a possibility, in fact that was the first one i brought up.

[drunkf1fan]

Let's take into account the fact that Vettel had 3 times the unfortunate situation that when he wanted to plant a lap, there were incidents that took away chances, like Albon's crash.
That's 3 times in not being able to do what he could have done, and as such naturally missing out on some opportunities which include building up your own confidence and feel.
3 times Vettel was cut short, which did not happen with LeClerc. Vettel also had some errors in his final finish lap. Yes, he did that himself, but i'm pretty sure that the way the day went on influenced that. Vettel could have been closer to LeClerc and be P2. Yes that still means LeClerc would have beaten him and yes that is still in itself extremely impressive.

Still a long way to go, and it's not the first time Vettel dropped down a bit and then started building back up and coming back.

But it must be said, LeClerc is doing an incredibly amazing well job nevertheless.

Are you serious? First off if something external is cutting off a lap, that isn't killing your confidence, just your lap, but if you're out there doing three laps you're gaining more time on track to get a feel for the car. The first time he blew his lap completely by himself, it wasn't someone else at all, that was entirely on him.

So he blew his own lap and he had longer on track than Leclerc and still wasn't anywhere near him. To frame it as he's unlucky that he had three laps ruined and more time on track so he's less confident, lol, that's crazy.

As for Merc's dominance doing something in the first half of the season that meant Vettel couldn't show his greatness. In Bahrain Ferrari were strong but Vettel screwed up and Leclerc was on for a comfortable win, even before Vettel's spin he couldn't keep up with Leclerc. In Baku it was Leclerc who was faster all weekend, Leclerc who was comfortably first in Q2 when while he made the error, Ferrari sent him out to do an extra lap on mediums for absolutely no reason as he was already comfortably through.... wow, bone headed by Ferrari completely. I can't actually remember how the weekend looked in Monaco but Leclerc was miles ahead of Vettel in his first run such that Ferrari didn't send him out for another one even though it looked obvious to everyone else he should.

merc's dominance had nothing to do with it, Leclerc looked faster in most of the places Ferrari could or should have won in the first half of the season and regardless of Leclerc beating Vettel so comfortably in qualifying in the last 4 races, it's the what 5-6 in a row before summer as well that he did that, and the gaps are rarely small. Most of the time when Verstappen was beating Ricciardo the gap was in the <2/10ths range, right now Vettel with 4/10ths down looks closer than he has been recently.

Vettel doesn't look a bit down, he's being out qualified and outdriven most of the season with only really a couple of places he's looked faster. But does anyone say Bottas looks as good as Hamilton because he was faster at a couple of races? you miss setup, you have a bad weekend, it's a track you just don't gel with, every driver gets beaten by their team mate if the team mate isn't hopelessly incompetent because that's how sport goes, everyone can't be at 100% all the time. But over the season Leclerc is incredibly obviously the faster driver, the difference is Leclerc has been gaining qualifying and race pace all season while Vettel, in his what 13th year in the sport iirc, is long past the point of gaining any real speed and if anything is getting slower.

[TAG]

How long before Vettel intentionally drives his car into Leclerc's car?

[Zynerji]

How long before Vettel intentionally drives his car into Leclerc's car?

Why would he?

[Restomaniac]

So what's the strategy for tomorrow??
-Ferrari: Soft-Medium
-Mercedes: Medium-Hard or Medium-Soft??

If it is Medium-Hard, i don't think they have any chance of winning...they'll be fast with Mediums at the start but Hards won't be fast enough i believe!

What do you think??

Well if those Softs burn out quickly then Soft-Medium run could see Ferrari having no Tyre life left at all at the end. Bearing in mind they are on them when their car is as heavy as it’s going to be.
I would go as far as to say that if Ferrari try and run Soft-Medium then there is a good chance they will be in a second time for another set of Tyres.
Mercedes are set up with the Medium Tyre as they have choices whereas Ferrari have kind of boxed themselves in by not taking a Medium Tyre they could easily have taken.

[Ringleheim]

Ferrari on softer compound at start, have straight line advantage, and usually make very good to great starts.

On top of that, Ferrari is starting on the good side of the grid.

Will be Ferrari 1-2 by the time the initial race start action starts to calm down.

[drunkf1fan]

How long before Vettel intentionally drives his car into Leclerc's car?

Why would he?

Why did Vettel hit Webber, why did Rosberg hit Hamilton, why did Prost/Senna hit each other, why did Schumi hit...... everyone he hit. At some point stress, pressure and wanting to win combine to usually create cars coming together. It would make sense that at some point Vettel is fighting wheel to wheel and feels like he can win a race, or beat Leclerc in the championship and maybe to the title and that at that time he'll make a mistake and push to far or do something deliberately in the heat of the moment. To deny these things happen when we have ample evidence of it is kind of crazy.

Does that mean Vettel will hit Leclerc, no, or that if he hits him it was intentional rather than hard driving gone wrong, no. But the chances of them tangling as the pressure ramps up and Vettel at some point feels the need to race harder than he should is more likely than not imo.

[Zarathustra]

Then Vettel needs to up is game first- if he wants to be at least equally as fast as Leclerc.

[Unc1eM0nty]

Mercedes expected to be on the 2nd row , thier decision to use the medium tyre was
A no brainer.

It gives them flexibility, they needed an early safety car in Singapore but didn't get one. Then later on there were three in a row, you just need the run of the green, going long gives them more of a chance

Ferrari going soft medium sounds like a stretch to me, I don't think they'd have the tyre life at the end. Many Mercedes could do the opposite at the stop

[falonso81]

Mercedes are set up with the Medium Tyre as they have choices whereas Ferrari have kind of boxed themselves in by not taking a Medium Tyre they could easily have taken.

Ferrari should hire you as chief strategist then! You absolutely can't know all the variables in play. If they thing softs is the better tyre for them to start on, it's the right decision. Ofc anyone could point out that they could have bolted mediums on for Q2, it was too obvious which is the reason i am questioning your statement.

[selvam_e2002]

How long before Vettel intentionally drives his car into Leclerc's car?

Why would he?

Why did Vettel hit Webber, why did Rosberg hit Hamilton, why did Prost/Senna hit each other, why did Schumi hit...... everyone he hit. At some point stress, pressure and wanting to win combine to usually create cars coming together. It would make sense that at some point Vettel is fighting wheel to wheel and feels like he can win a race, or beat Leclerc in the championship and maybe to the title and that at that time he'll make a mistake and push to far or do something deliberately in the heat of the moment. To deny these things happen when we have ample evidence of it is kind of crazy.

Does that mean Vettel will hit Leclerc, no, or that if he hits him it was intentional rather than hard driving gone wrong, no. But the chances of them tangling as the pressure ramps up and Vettel at some point feels the need to race harder than he should is more likely than not imo.

Look back at Vettel's history, he is the youngest WDC and at that time everyone praised him. He is super fast.

If I remember correctly, he beats Lecrec in qualy and race till canada. In canada he said over radio that "he will not kill Lecrec's" qualifying. After that incident he is not performing well in qualy.

It is all about the situation at ferrari and Mental pressure. If you are not in comfortable position in a team then you will loose everything. It is very difficult for Vettel to comeback to his prime till with ferrari.

It will happen to all the driver in F1, now it is happening to Vettel and in future it will happen to Lecrec...

It is just a time he is going through and he will come out once he left from Ferrari.

It is clear that Ferrari giving priority to Lecrec and he is the future of Ferrari, So, even 4 time champion like Vettel cannot digest that and it is very difficult for him to shine at ferrari.

I am still supporting Vettel because the same thing happen to Alonso at Mclaren decade ago but Alonso matches Hamilton but Alonso did not get team support and he left.

I am 100% confident that Vettel either retire end of this year or he will move to RB. If even he stays with Ferrari in 2020, It is very difficult for Ferrari to win WDC and WCC because they need support from two driver. But it is not going to happen.

[jumpingfish]

I think Ferrari will use hard compound after softs, then Mercedes stays longer on medium to have younger tyres at the end of the race, but it will be hard to overtake Ferrari on straights. Maybe same situation as it was in Monza