2021 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, May 07 - 09

[godlameroso]

At no point in time in the race was Perez faster than Hamilton. Not even when Hamilton was about to pit. Merc could have left Hamilton out longer but they had to respond to Verstappen's undercut.

Yet here, Perez was within a tenth of Hamilton's pace on softs. Do you really believe Verstappen is .3 slower than Perez? It could be that Perez suddenly adapted that well to the car. I think that Verstappen is a bit faster than Mr.Perez, just by virtue of having the driven the car for so long.

I'm pretty sure Hamiltons race sim posted above has an anomaly lap 23.9 there. I know you want Max to be fastest but at the moment he seems a tad behind on race pace.

Well being pretty sure is not the same as being actually sure. Soft stint vs soft stint Perez is within a tenth of Hamilton with no anomalous laps counted. The question remains, is Verstappen faster than Perez in the RB16B? If he is, then he is marginally ahead of Hamilton as well, at least when it comes to soft tire usage.

A one stop will be very hard to pull off, simply because the undercut is so powerful. Starting on softs, and doing medium medium will be the optimal strategy, medium hard is too slow despite what you save on the pit stop.

[PlatinumZealot]

This is good for Mercedes if it continues like this because RedBull said this is the track where their updates should work well!

The RedBull car is struggling with understeer in some corners ( imo). Max running wide hitting curbs spoling his qually sim, damageing his wing and all that.

Not sure what's happening exactly with the RB16B set-up but Mercedes is wasting no time capitalizing on this golden opportunity!

Bottas and HAM are sandbagging too. Qualfiying should be easy 1:16s.

[Just_a_fan]

Yet here, Perez was within a tenth of Hamilton's pace on softs. Do you really believe Verstappen is .3 slower than Perez? It could be that Perez suddenly adapted that well to the car. I think that Verstappen is a bit faster than Mr.Perez, just by virtue of having the driven the car for so long.

I'm pretty sure Hamiltons race sim posted above has an anomaly lap 23.9 there. I know you want Max to be fastest but at the moment he seems a tad behind on race pace.

Well being pretty sure is not the same as being actually sure. Soft stint vs soft stint Perez is within a tenth of Hamilton with no anomalous laps counted. The question remains, is Verstappen faster than Perez in the RB16B? If he is, then he is marginally ahead of Hamilton as well, at least when it comes to soft tire usage.

A one stop will be very hard to pull off, simply because the undercut is so powerful. Starting on softs, and doing medium medium will be the optimal strategy, medium hard is too slow despite what you save on the pit stop.

Medium, medium, soft might be better as the medium will better handle the loads from the heavy car. Going to softs when light, and the track fully rubbered in, would be better than running the soft on a heavy car. Starting on mediums also gives the option of swapping to either hard, medium or soft. One could see hard, medium as a winning strategy.

[PlatinumZealot]

Hard Medium would be my choice if were a midfield runner. The track is harder with the wind sensitive 2021 floors so saftey cars or even VSC can be expected. Hard should keep a midfielder running to create a couple SC windows.

[Hoffman900]

Calling it now, Perez on the hard for a zero stop strategy

[godlameroso]

Calling it now, Perez on the hard for a zero stop strategy

Pit on lap 2, the ultimate undercut.

[McMika98]

Calling it now, Perez on the hard for a zero stop strategy

Pit on lap 2, the ultimate undercut.

Yeah he will end up with zero points. Track is very difficult to overtake even a backmarker will be tough. They tried similar strategy with Albon last year.
All these talk of Redbull matching Merc on racepace is a waste of time. Quali looks very close and I can see few cars ahead of Redbull, which means that the bulls will be stuck in a train while the Merc open a pit window gap.

[sosic2121]

Calling it now, Perez on the hard for a zero stop strategy

It's a shame zero stops is forbidden. Also having to run different tires. They are just taking options of the table.

[Vasconia]

We had a very exciting beginning of the season but now the Mercedes look clearly faster, not only based on the lap time but that the car looks now much easier to handle. Max is doing mistakes because he is driving in the limit, if his car would be the faster there won´t be the need to do it. Its a shame, but unless RB finds something more I expect a boring race tomorrow.

[LHamilton]

Important day today for a lot of drivers I feel. Especially those who aren't yet comfortable with their cars. This track together with next race at Monaco leaves little room for mistakes when it comes to qualifying. Qualify out of place and you risk loosing heaps of points due to the difficulty of overtaking. Bad qualifying here might have a carry over effect for the next race in Monaco, and perhaps even into Azerbadijan.

Qualifying might actually be super exciting if it's this close then. 1 second seperated first place and fifteenth place in FP2. So my prediction of someone binning it in the 10-11 complex in quali might become a reality. That corner is one of those corners which are a bit deceptive because they look like you can carry more speed than you actually can and thus people push boundaries more. Verstappen lost his quali lap in FP2 due to that.

In terms of the race, strategy might be the name of the game here more so now than ever due to the new turn 10 corner. Little time for the tyres to rest. The only slow corners we have now with the new turn 10 corner is the last few corners.

Predictions:

- Alonso P5 in the race
- Someone bins it in qualifying at the new 10-11 'complex'.

[214270]

This track together with next race at Monaco…

I totally forgot Monaco is next. That’s not gonna be fun with MAZ

[mclaren111]

Calling it now, Perez on the hard for a zero stop strategy

Pit on lap 2, the ultimate undercut.

[falonso81]

In light of this so called Mercedes resurgence, i am pretty sure there wasn't even a problem to start with. Old and tried Merc PR gimmicks. Nothing to see here, move on people. Maybe something exciting will happen in Baku. Next 2 races will be a yawn fest.

[mafeotul]

This is good for Mercedes if it continues like this because RedBull said this is the track where their updates should work well!

The RedBull car is struggling with understeer in some corners ( imo). Max running wide hitting curbs spoling his qually sim, damageing his wing and all that.

Not sure what's happening exactly with the RB16B set-up but Mercedes is wasting no time capitalizing on this golden opportunity!

Bottas and HAM are sandbagging too. Qualfiying should be easy 1:16s.

Don’t let the Bull army see this. Some are claiming RedBull to be one tenth and a half up on a Merc that has ran the heaviest on Fridays for 7 years. What’s the most impressive thing is that Mercedes has still not upgraded their car, have been on an upward trajectory, and are still finding pace in the car. Makes you wonder, how fast their ultimate pace is when the W12 is fully unlocked.

[TimW]

This is good for Mercedes if it continues like this because RedBull said this is the track where their updates should work well!

The RedBull car is struggling with understeer in some corners ( imo). Max running wide hitting curbs spoling his qually sim, damageing his wing and all that.

Not sure what's happening exactly with the RB16B set-up but Mercedes is wasting no time capitalizing on this golden opportunity!

Bottas and HAM are sandbagging too. Qualfiying should be easy 1:16s.

Don’t let the Bull army see this. Some are claiming RedBull to be one tenth and a half up on a Merc that has ran the heaviest on Fridays for 7 years. What’s the most impressive thing is that Mercedes has still not upgraded their car, have been on an upward trajectory, and are still finding pace in the car. Makes you wonder, how fast their ultimate pace is when the W12 is fully unlocked.

I am slowly starting to believe that Mercedes is hiding performance. If Red Bull stays close in the championship battle, with Max in second position on the WDC, RB will keep developing this year's car, compromising development of next year.
I am usually not into conspiracy theories, but that Mercedes finds more pace without upgrades than RB with upgrades is weird.