2016 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi - Yas Marina, 25-27 November

[ChrisDanger]

[AnthonyG]

Now the season is almost over, I have to know, what does it mean that tyre emblem is full? (under the tyre strategy collumn)

[Thunder]

A filled dot means the Tire was new, hollow means it was a used set.

[AnthonyG]

A filled dot means the Tire was new, hollow means it was a used set.

A used one in FP1?
Or does it just mean the tyre wasn't changed for the stint?

[Thunder]

They all started with a new Set. As soon as 1 Lap is on that Set it is deemed used and henceforth has a hollow Dot. Even if they just came in to adjust the FW.

[basti313]

Max has put in a stellar lap to go within half a second of the Mercs...on the slower tyre!

Mercs were on the ultras whilst Max was on the supers.

No. The Mercs put their times on very old US (8 and 9 laps). Ham time was even better on the S and Ros put a similar laptime on US and S. Ves put his time on 4 lap old tires while the Mercs both had more laps on them (I think 8 for Ros).

The problem is in the combined lap times: Both Ham and Ros did not have clean laps. If you combine their best sector times the Merc is still 0.6 tenth ahead. Same Problem like all season...it is, of course, a bit early, but the times show nothing different than the usual boredom. Even if the Merc drivers bottle their Q laps they will start 1-2.

Was it me or did the Ultras last better than anticipated in Monaco? Will be interesting to see how they strategise, especially as Red Bull like to go in a different way to unsettle the Mercs.

Yes, you are right. If we look at the development of the US times on the green track, there was not much increase. So I guess the difference will be, like in Monaco, not game changing. So I do not believe in a much better strategy with SS...if anything Merc will be able to run them through Q2.

Looking at last year: Pitstops started at lap 6 (track position is king). The SS was literally dying after 10 laps. The S after 27 laps. These are the values of the Mercs, but no need to compare them, they were miles away from the rest of the field, but they give a number on the possible laps they can do.

Looking at Rai vs. Per I can see a picture to put pressure: Per was well slower than the Ferraris. He lost over 3 sec on Rai until he pitted for the undercut. He made it nearly stick, so when you are running tight it is a good chance. In the end traffic and the 3sec killed his attempt.

So I am not sure if splitting the strategies will do the job for the Bulls: The car that goes for the undercut at lap 6 will suffer from traffic and badly from tire wear. The strategy will be completely predefined. So there is a lot of room for the Mercs to do something else, like running longer in the middle stint, if one falls behind.

[ChrisDanger]

[ChrisDanger]

Not sure if this will have any consequence.
https://twitter.com/F1/status/802155383829753856

[matt_b]

Not sure if this will have any consequence.

https://twitter.com/F1/status/802155383829753856

Just a Friday gearbox, if it happened in FP3 then its a different story.

[ian_s]

from autosport.com:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... ood-friday
"Vettel stopped on track in the final 10 minutes with a gearbox failure, but the unit was only being used for practice so he will not incur a penalty and said "we got most of the homework done" beforehand."

[Mansell89]

Right now it looks like the key for Lewis is getting to the first corner first. The only chance is to back Nico into the tenacious Ricciardo, Verstappen, and Vettel.

The fact that Vettel ran well in P2 though offers encouragement to him because we know the Bulls go nicely in a long run.

That said, Nico is right in the hunt for pole.

[PlatinumZealot]

Right now it looks like the key for Lewis is getting to the first corner first. The only chance is to back Nico into the tenacious Ricciardo, Verstappen, and Vettel.

The fact that Vettel ran well in P2 though offers encouragement to him because we know the Bulls go nicely in a long run.

That said, Nico is right in the hunt for pole.

You are not allowed to talk about the t*tle race in the race that decides the t*tle. You have been warned...

[Vettelswonmeover]

Max has put in a stellar lap to go within half a second of the Mercs...on the slower tyre!

Mercs were on the ultras whilst Max was on the supers.

Was it me or did the Ultras last better than anticipated in Monaco? Will be interesting to see how they strategise, especially as Red Bull like to go in a different way to unsettle the Mercs.

If Max can produce that sort of time on the super softs, he could in theory get into Q3 on them and start with a potentially better race tyre and look to go longer in the stint than the Mercs.

Danny Ricc needs to show his mettle though for Nico to be under any pressure, as Ferrari look nowhere again this weekend.

I would like to see the real difference between the ultra and soft tyres. FP2 wil be very interesting in order to see Red Bull´s race pace. If bot RB can put Nico under pressure this race could be interesting.

Ferrari are competitive in the evening at cooler temps. Vettel was around 3 tenths down. Kimi was 6 tenths down. So Ferrari do have a say. But both RB & Ferrari do not have the pace to hurt the Mercs. In FP1, the long run pace of RB looks good but we have always seen that throughout the year. Mercs gain 3 to 4 tenths per lap on Saturday (6 tenths in qualy). So I do not think race pace is the problem.

The start is key as always. If Lewis or Nico get bogged down, then it gets interesting. Abu Dhabi is a difficult track to overtake. Plus with little weather variation, tyre strategy also may not vary much. One stop looks unlikely.

In conclusion, qualy will not decide anything. There is everything to play for on Sunday!!.

[basti313]

Ferrari are competitive in the evening at cooler temps. Vettel was around 3 tenths down. Kimi was 6 tenths down. So Ferrari do have a say. But both RB & Ferrari do not have the pace to hurt the Mercs. In FP1, the long run pace of RB looks good but we have always seen that throughout the year. Mercs gain 3 to 4 tenths per lap on Saturday (6 tenths in qualy). So I do not think race pace is the problem.

Yes. Looking at the data, there is nothing that may bother the Mercs if everything runs the usual way. Like all season the long runs look good according to Horner....looking at the data: The Mercs did solid 8 lap stints on the US. Ves did only 3 laps and Ric was half a second slower at the end of his 6 lap stint than Ham on his 8 lap stint.
On the Soft tire Ros did a 21 lap run. On lap 21 he was still faster than Ric on his 19th lap. Ham did a shorter run, but had incredible times...again half a second on the best Ric laps on similar old tires.

Ferrari...Vettels long run was disastrous.

The start is key as always. If Lewis or Nico get bogged down, then it gets interesting. Abu Dhabi is a difficult track to overtake. Plus with little weather variation, tyre strategy also may not vary much. One stop looks unlikely.

In conclusion, qualy will not decide anything. There is everything to play for on Sunday!!.

I do not agree with your conclusion. Of course the pole will decide. Which Merc is on pole will decide who will have an easy Sunday afternoon. The one who is on P2 will either need to profit from a bad start or is himself in dager at the start from behind.
I also do not agree with "then it gets interesting". Looking at the long runs, the Mercs have so much juice in the tires, that they will gain places like in Japan just by easy strategy moves. So whoever falls to P4 or P5 at the start will be back on P2 just by the strategy.

[ChrisDanger]