2014 Hungarian Grand Prix - Hungaroring

[Kingshark]

It would appear that Vettel is getting his groove back. He finished ahead of Ricciardo last weekend and today he was near .2s faster in Q3.

Tell me you actually watched that race?

Good job by Seb today though.

[dans79]

They care a lot, if the news is to be belived, Totto apologized to Lewis and to Lewis's fans for the mechanical issues. Basically the failures are becoming a big PR problem for the team.

[iotar__]

So if it rains does it mean Hamilton is lucky or not? He's one engine failure behind Rosberg in reliability the 2nd luckiest driver in F1 ATM. All the dissecting and weird ideas (it's Lowe's fault, really?) remind me how after Monaco it was necessary to extend Q3, whereas after Austria it wasn't a problem at all.

Separate from that if you are Hamilton do you really want a wet race? Depends, if it was steady, without changes rain and conditions, yes. Something on and off and between tyres (like it might be) - no, too risky.

[matt_b]

It wont rain during the race, it will rain afterwards like always this season. Also I don't understand how the rain will help Lewis, trying to overtake all those cars from the back with little visibility gives a big probability of a crash, also all of those new dry tyres go to waste. Mercedes have a massive advantage in the dry and although this is a difficult track to overtake on, we have not seen this kind of performance advantage in many years. Though he has to keep his nose clean this time, he was fortunate a few times in germany.

[Phil]

Yeah, i guess i had a bit of an off time last night. It's not as if Mercedes are having too many reliability problems; the brake disc failure Hamilton had, i guess could be down to a faulty part which the team likely couldnt forsee. Gearbox issues probably either, as its to some degree wear & tear. The fuel leakage however is, and is particular costly if it hurts the driver who is already at the receiving end of failures and parts failing...

This race will be quite damage limitation again, though it will be hard to limit that. If nico wins and hamilton fails to finish in the points, the gap will increase from 14 points tp 39 - 6 consecutive race wins. Fail to win one and it extends by another 2 (one to make up the win you've just lost, another to gain another 7 points). The season is still relatively long, but IMO, this race and such a gap could be crucial in terms of the WDC.

It'll be interesting to see what strategy Mercedes will run with Lewis and how he will tackle his overtakes. IMO, i think he will go full blast. The track is difficult to overtake, so i think he will rather try to make up places than risk finishing safely outside the points. i dont think he will drive too risky - but if there's an opportunity to pass, i think he will be going for those gaps.

At the front, i dont think Nico will have much of a battle. He's in a very comfortable position and i think he will drive accoardingly. Nurse his car, his tyres, so the gap to the cars behind him might seem smaller than i think it is.

I'm quite intruiged by the battle between Seb and Ric. I wonder who will end up ahead at the end of the race.

[atanatizante]

1.Nowadays a wet setup has minimal changes to a dry setup, as many drivers confirming that ... only the wings are tweaked for more DF, brake ducts are duck taped for less air intake and engine mode is changed for a wet race
2.Bearing in mind that prime tyres are 1,5 sec slower and Lewis must start from the pit lane isn't wiser to start with them and just after the first lap swap them with the options, like Vettel did in Abut Dhabi in 2012?
He will lose what? let't say 25 sec. so 10 laps to catch up or maybe 5 laps to catch the backmarkers?
Or maybe no loss in case of a safety car arrival after a lap 1 incident at the first corner?
3. Could he pass someone taking a wide exit in turn 8 and then cut straight into turn 9 in order to surprise the driver in front of him?
4. Or could go to a outside line in turn 2 and then take a inside turn 3 in order to pass outside of turn 4, like he did with Webbed last year?
5. Why don't they modify the circuit scrapping turn 9 and make a longer line ending with a corner like turn 6 in Hockenheim?
Then they could have another go in the actual turn 12 coz now they have a longer straight line

[SectorOne]

So what do you do for Hamilton in terms of tires now..
I know the mediums wasn´t the best tires but with a tank brimmed to the top you might get them working nicely.

Perhaps run Mediums first, overtake the cars you can and then just wait for the pit stops for the guys ahead then have free air and make sure you clear them when you jump in for Softs then another set of Softs.

Or do you start with Softs, clear as many cars as you can, pit for Mediums, do a long run on those and attack on the last set of softs late in the race?

Or do you go all out Soft Soft then Medium stint at the end?

If there´s more then two stops you can just add another Soft to the above.

[AnthonyG]

Atm 60% chance of rain from 1300-1600, 50% till 1700 and 40% till 1900.

[komninosm]

Mercedes have had 5 total car failures (HAM Australia race, HAM Germany quali, HAM Hungary quali, HAM Canada race, ROS Silverstone race)

1 driver having 4 out of 5 failures by random chance is not even close to being statistically significant
In fact by my calculations either driver having 4 or more out of a total 5 car failures is ~37%! (so ~18.5% for Hamilton to have 4 or more out of 5 failures, someone can check my maths)

Your math is probably wrong, but I can't say for sure, cause you showed none of it :p
The random model is tossing a coin 5 times and landing heads 4 or more times. Which is 18.75% (3.125% of that is 5 heads).

[Shrieker]

This can easily end with a no score for Lewis, rain or not. Hope he manages to salvage close to ten points.

[kalinka]

Quite a big chain of thunderstorms are closing from south-east towards the track now. It could reach the track within 90mins, so just for the beginning of the race.
Source : http://www.idokep.hu/radar

[mikeerfol]

Atm 60% chance of rain from 1300-1600, 50% till 1700 and 40% till 1900.

Is this Hungarian time zone?

[atanatizante]

Niki Lauda said on RTL that Lewis has the Friday engine to avoid penalty later in the season ... so his drama never ends ...

[basti313]

So what do you do for Hamilton in terms of tires now..

Hembery expected two stops for boiling hot weather. Now it is cloudy and not too hot. They have to minimize the time on the Prime as much as they can.
With the possibility of rain everybody will start on the Option and without rain a short stint on the Prime in the middle or at the end. Some will try OP for sure.
Everything else like PO or POO is just hoping for a safety car and a dry race.

I'm quite intruiged by the battle between Seb and Ric. I wonder who will end up ahead at the end of the race.

My start predicition:
1. Ros
2. Bot
3. Vet
4. Alo
5. Ric/Mas
6. Mas/Ric

I think, that Vettel and Ricciardo will be likely to loose places at the start. Weak engine and dirty side of the track will be a problem. The big question will be if Ricciardo manages to stay ahead of Massa or not. If he does he will be round Vettel after the first round of pitstops.

[basti313]

Niki Lauda said on RTL that Lewis has the Friday engine to avoid penalty later in the season ... so his drama never ends ...

This would mean yesterday's engine is completely gone
They have two new engines for Monza and Spa with which they could finish the rest of the season...using one of those today would mean they would need yesterday's engine again.