Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped the second session for the Belgian Grand Prix, but Mercedes seemingly held its pace back on the flying laps, showing dominant race pace during the long runs.
Someone should be critical of what Renault are doing. Their pace is suspect. Last year brake balance, and this year they said they weren't bringing any PU upgrades. Right.
Dude they have no wings... Also Ric was going strong since the beginning of the season.
Ricciardo can't explain where his pace is coming from. Renault might be playing dumb like last year and say they didn't know what they were doing was illegal. They dropped their case against RP, maybe they don't care to get caught or will accept it afterwards. Probably would only be a slap on the wrist from the FIA anyway, so they may just run with it. After what happened last year you can't blame anyone for suspecting foul play, even if they say they were too dumb to know otherwise.
Why is Red Bull or Honda not complaining against RP? Do they also worry they might get caught?
How does a commentator know which mode a car is running? The onboards doesn't show anything! Even if it, how does one know they haven't already retracted from their previous party mode in preparation for next race?
Last edited by Moore77 on 29 Aug 2020, 17:00, edited 1 time in total.
Dude they have no wings... Also Ric was going strong since the beginning of the season.
Ricciardo can't explain where his pace is coming from. Renault might be playing dumb like last year and say they didn't know what they were doing was illegal. They dropped their case against RP, maybe they don't care to get caught or will accept it afterwards. Probably would only be a slap on the wrist from the FIA anyway, so they may just run with it. After what happened last year you can't blame anyone for suspecting foul play, even if they say they were too dumb to know otherwise.
Why is Red Bull or Honda not complaining against RP? Do they also worry they might get caught?
How does a commentator know which mode a car is running? The onboards doesn't show anything!
Chandhok said someone in the know informed him Mercedes were using strat 2. Take that how you will but there's no reason for him to say it if it wasn't true, unless he was lied to.
Ricciardo can't explain where his pace is coming from. Renault might be playing dumb like last year and say they didn't know what they were doing was illegal. They dropped their case against RP, maybe they don't care to get caught or will accept it afterwards. Probably would only be a slap on the wrist from the FIA anyway, so they may just run with it. After what happened last year you can't blame anyone for suspecting foul play, even if they say they were too dumb to know otherwise.
Why is Red Bull or Honda not complaining against RP? Do they also worry they might get caught?
How does a commentator know which mode a car is running? The onboards doesn't show anything!
Chandhok said someone in the know informed him Mercedes were using strat 2. Take that how you will but there's no reason for him to say it if it wasn't true, unless he was lied to.
He said, he heard Pete Bonnington saying, use Start 2.
Doesn't look like it's strat2. Top speeds are abnormally low. Mercedes only beat RB by 0.5s in a circuit that was in their favor. I personally think they're again using strat3 like in Spain.
Bottas was told strat2 before starting the lap. I just checked. It makes sense since he beat verstappen by only 0.01s, without strat 2 he'd be behind.
Interesting. So Mercedes indeed chose such a draggy setup that knock off 10km/h in top speeds.
Doesn't look like it's strat2. Top speeds are abnormally low. Mercedes only beat RB by 0.5s in a circuit that was in their favor. I personally think they're again using strat3 like in Spain.
Bottas was told strat2 before starting the lap. I just checked. It makes sense since he beat verstappen by only 0.01s, without strat 2 he'd be behind.
Interesting. So Mercedes indeed chose such a draggy setup that knock off 10km/h in top speeds.
That'd hurt them badly if no rain in Sunday lol
It will do at the start, Verstappen has the potential to pass both cars providing he gets a good start.
Why is Red Bull or Honda not complaining against RP? Do they also worry they might get caught?
How does a commentator know which mode a car is running? The onboards doesn't show anything!
Chandhok said someone in the know informed him Mercedes were using strat 2. Take that how you will but there's no reason for him to say it if it wasn't true, unless he was lied to.
He said, he heard Pete Bonnington saying, use Start 2.
Well there you go then. Not sure why you asked the question in the first place if you seem to know the answer?
How come pole is still only 3 tenths faster than Vettel's Q2 in 2018?
Possibly tyres. The drivers were all taking it fairly easy on the outlaps - even those not jockeying for positions in the silly trains. Suggests that the red tyre was going to struggle to hold up for the full lap without some care. Possibly the tyres didn't like the conditions as much as they did 2 years ago.
Also, the whole early part of the season has given a reduced development of the cars. Normally, the cars are carrying extra pace due to early season upgrades. Perhaps the teams just haven't been able to bring the lap time they might have expected to in a normal season.
So in reality the cars in 2018 were faster around here because it's highly likely they would have gone more than 3 tenths faster in Q3 had the rain held off.
In 2018 they used the 'old' Supersoft tyres (now gone from the range) which were harder than the Soft this year (formerly the Ultrasoft) - maybe a tyre that was between the current Medium and Soft would have been a bit faster?
Mercedes also supposedly ran a high DF setup which must have cost them some lap time given the small gap to RBR despite using "über party mode" (strat2)
But it's still interesting how little faster they are compared to 2018.
Possibly tyres. The drivers were all taking it fairly easy on the outlaps - even those not jockeying for positions in the silly trains. Suggests that the red tyre was going to struggle to hold up for the full lap without some care. Possibly the tyres didn't like the conditions as much as they did 2 years ago.
Also, the whole early part of the season has given a reduced development of the cars. Normally, the cars are carrying extra pace due to early season upgrades. Perhaps the teams just haven't been able to bring the lap time they might have expected to in a normal season.
So in reality the cars in 2018 were faster around here because it's highly likely they would have gone more than 3 tenths faster in Q3 had the rain held off.
In 2018 they used the 'old' Supersoft tyres (now gone from the range) which were harder than the Soft this year (formerly the Ultrasoft) - maybe a tyre that was between the current Medium and Soft would have been a bit faster?
Mercedes also supposedly ran a high DF setup which must have cost them some lap time given the small gap to RBR despite using "über party mode" (strat2)
But it's still interesting how little faster they are compared to 2018.
Like I said in reality they are slower because I'm certain they would have improved more than 3 tenths in Q3 had it not rained.
Today the speed Hamilton was taking the corners was breathtaking, it always looked like he was on the verge of binning it he looked that committed.
Today's cars are less efficient than 2018 because the endplate slots and upper wing elements are gone. A track like Spa pays to the best aero efficiency.
That's an unnecessary gamble considering the long drag into Les Combes and the risk of losing a position which you'd struggle to recover without the required top speed.
That's an unnecessary gamble considering the long drag into Les Combes and the risk of losing a position which you'd struggle to recover without the required top speed.
I think it is, it's not like they have struggled in the wet as of late.
When you have the car for pole I think it is always best to go with a racy setup, if they are really 10kph down on Verstappen he has a great chance of passing both on Kemmel straight.
Yes it is difficult because pirelli are incompetent. ... And NOBODY ever asked them to make "degrading" wet tire, they just can't do better.
The-Race.com put up a nice article noting the Pirelli tyres are designed and made to a tight budget, as most of Pirelli's F1 expenditures is for advertising costs. They pay to be the supplier, that payment includes all the trackside advertising hoardings and so on, and then they supply the actual tyres to F1 teams for free AFAIK.
Whereas Michelin and Bridgestone were of course in a competition, so they spent a lot more on R&D, furthermore tail-end teams like Minardi had to actually pay for their tyres.
The tires are not free for the teams, I think the supply costs them $1M or more each. Michelin included free tires in their rejected tender, but the FIA and FOM didn't want to lose their pirelli bribe money.
Last edited by ENGINE TUNER on 30 Aug 2020, 00:55, edited 1 time in total.
They already built a nice 3.9L 65-degree V12 for Gordon Murray Automotive, with 653 @ 11,500rpm with 60,000 mile rebuild interval.
Put pneumatic valves on it, up the rev limit to make 1020hp @ 18,000rpm, lower the rebuild interval to 5,000 miles (obviously strengthening the bottom end as appropriate) and you have yourself a great racing engine.
A "great racing engine" that will consume 3x as much fuel as now requiring refueling which has already been proven to be detrimental to the on track product. All for what ? Loud annoying noise? No thanks.
