2020 British Grand Prix - Silverstone, 31-02 July / August

[PlatinumZealot]

Strong wind blowing towards the east on both qualifying and race day. This means tail wind into copse, and side wind through the esses. On Friday, very strong head wind into the esses.

No fans this weekend so the wind won't be as strong as it was last year.

You see when we had over 100 thousand fans at the track the noise and that wind was crazy!

[63l8qrrfy6]

Or when they used to take the Vulcan for a spin. Crazy noise and wind then!

[Mattchu]

Another thanks to MtthsMlw for starting these threads amd providing the information...stella job fella.

Now for the race...well, I think the race will end up in №44`s favour [baring any misfortune] for the simple fact Lewis is so much better at managing his tyres compared to Bottas! Looking at that podium shot from last year, the Bott man looks pretty glum and has that look of how tthe hell did he finish 25 seconds up the road from me when we qualified within a fag paper of each other!
The best of the rest could well be Perez in the pink panther, another driver who really has got a good grip [pun intended] on them pesky Pirelli tyres! Hopefully the McLarens can put in a good good show, 6th or 7th, but unfortunately I think the Renault power unit might let them down a bit. Red Bull, or more specifically Max, will be the main challenger to RP for the last podium spot, the wind may cause them more problems than others though.

Ferrari will be Roll on the weekend...

[godlameroso]

Strong wind blowing towards the east on both qualifying and race day. This means tail wind into copse, and side wind through the esses. On Friday, very strong head wind into the esses.

No fans this weekend so the wind won't be as strong as it was last year.

You see when we had over 100 thousand fans at the track the noise and that wind was crazy!

Forgot about the maelstrom caused by all those fans.

Just like COTA

[NathanOlder]

Or when they used to take the Vulcan for a spin. Crazy noise and wind then!

Ahhh the vulcan. Was lucky enough to see it a few times over Silverstone. Good times.

[Restomaniac]

Another thanks to MtthsMlw for starting these threads amd providing the information...stella job fella.

Now for the race...well, I think the race will end up in №44`s favour [baring any misfortune] for the simple fact Lewis is so much better at managing his tyres compared to Bottas! Looking at that podium shot from last year, the Bott man looks pretty glum and has that look of how tthe hell did he finish 25 seconds up the road from me when we qualified within a fag paper of each other!
The best of the rest could well be Perez in the pink panther, another driver who really has got a good grip [pun intended] on them pesky Pirelli tyres! Hopefully the McLarens can put in a good good show, 6th or 7th, but unfortunately I think the Renault power unit might let them down a bit. Red Bull, or more specifically Max, will be the main challenger to RP for the last podium spot, the wind may cause them more problems than others though.

Ferrari will be Roll on the weekend...

I don’t think Bottas was just thinking that. He was probably also wondering how the hell Hamilton managed to be that far ahead, after having to protect his tyres when doing a pit stop less AND having enough life in his HARD tyre to banzai a fastest lap at the end.

I think it’s safe to say if Hamilton gets away then it’s race over at the front mechanical issues aside.

[dans79]

I don’t think Bottas was just thinking that. He was probably also wondering how the hell Hamilton managed to be that far ahead, after having to protect his tyres when doing a pit stop less AND having enough life in his HARD tyre to banzai a fastest lap at the end.

It makes me laugh now when you go back and read posts here, or articles claiming he is a tire eater/destroyer.

[Restomaniac]

I don’t think Bottas was just thinking that. He was probably also wondering how the hell Hamilton managed to be that far ahead, after having to protect his tyres when doing a pit stop less AND having enough life in his HARD tyre to banzai a fastest lap at the end.

It makes me laugh now when you go back and read posts here, or articles claiming he is a tire eater/destroyer.

I think it’s safe to say Hamilton seriously watched and learned when he was teammate to a certain tyre whisperer at McLaren.

Like I say if he’s away and clear by the end of lap 1 it’s over at the front.

[bill shoe]

I don’t think Bottas was just thinking that. He was probably also wondering how the hell Hamilton managed to be that far ahead, after having to protect his tyres when doing a pit stop less AND having enough life in his HARD tyre to banzai a fastest lap at the end.

It makes me laugh now when you go back and read posts here, or articles claiming he is a tire eater/destroyer.

I think it’s safe to say Hamilton seriously watched and learned when he was teammate to a certain tyre whisperer at McLaren.

Here is video on advanced sim to show drivers how to set quickest possible laptime for given amoung of tire energy usage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... e=emb_logo.
Here is sim of how to save tires while avoiding being overtaken
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ik5Cz7ibPw

I agree that Hamilton's race pace over the last 3 years has been generally better than Bottas for both speed and tire wear. The interesting thing is that the combo of speed & wear is something to be studied and learned with sim and other tools, as opposed to being something the driver just has natural talent for. Hamilton is likely a better learner than Bottas.

FYI the sim company is called Canopy Simulations, and I first heard about them from an excellent post in the Formula E thread. The company appears to be formed from the previous sim braintrust at McLaren. Their schtick is that you should buy their sim software and immediately apply it to improve laptimes, rather than pay your scarce Engineers to develop the underlying software in-house. It makes sense, because for example no F1 team develops their own CFD software in-house from scratch.

[dans79]

The interesting thing is that the combo of speed & wear is something to be studied and learned with sim and other tools, as opposed to being something the driver just has natural talent for. Hamilton is likely a better learner than Bottas.

I don't know if I'd agree with that. As the track rubbers in, track temp changes, air temp changes, fuel load changes, you end up with a constantly changing target. You ultimately end up back in the what the driver can feel cliche scenario.

[holeindalip]

Too early to say but. I expect RB to raise their game. I'm not buying this Mercedes dominance to be honest. They hit the sweet spot and it was just 2 different tracks remember. That RB looks handful in Qualy but very fast come race trim. So, let's just wait and see.

In Hungaroring most of us though it'd be Max on pole, it turned out to be different.

Did you watch the last race, if Hamilton wouldn’t of pitted to go for fastest lap the slowest red Bull would have been lapped and verstappen would have been 30secs back.....

[Schuttelberg]

Two very difficult races to watch in the offing. Expect Lewis to dominate. This is also Seb's weakest track so Charles should do a double number on him!

[Phil]

I was really surprised that Bottas nicked pole last year ahead of Lewis. Even so, hasn't Lewis won pretty much all the Silverstone GPs since... 2014 or something?

Edit:
2014 Santander British Grand Prix United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid
2015 Santander British Grand Prix United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid
2016 Santander British Grand Prix United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid
2017 Rolex British Grand Prix United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 W08 EQ Power+
2018 Rolex British Grand Prix Germany Sebastian Vettel Ferrari SF71H
2019 Rolex British Grand Prix United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 W10 EQ Power+

That's fricking ominous! Even more so, when you think about that he also won races where it wasn't straight forward.

In 2014, Nico was on pole and Hamilton started 6th (Nico had later gearbox problems though).
In 2015 Pole and victory
In 2016 Pole and victory
In 2017 Pole and victory
In 2018 Pole but had a slow started and finished 2nd, despite collision with Kimi on lap 1.
In 2019 Started 2nd behind Bottas but still won the race.

[Jolle]

I was really surprised that Bottas nicked pole last year ahead of Lewis. Even so, hasn't Lewis won pretty much all the Silverstone GPs since... 2014 or something?

Edit:
2014 Santander British Grand Prix United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid
2015 Santander British Grand Prix United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid
2016 Santander British Grand Prix United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid
2017 Rolex British Grand Prix United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 W08 EQ Power+
2018 Rolex British Grand Prix Germany Sebastian Vettel Ferrari SF71H
2019 Rolex British Grand Prix United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes F1 W10 EQ Power+

That's fricking ominous! Even more so, when you think about that he also won races where it wasn't straight forward.

In 2014, Nico was on pole and Hamilton started 6th (Nico had later gearbox problems though).
In 2015 Pole and victory
In 2016 Pole and victory
In 2017 Pole and victory
In 2018 Pole but had a slow started and finished 2nd, despite collision with Kimi on lap 1.
In 2019 Started 2nd behind Bottas but still won the race.

And was on his way to victory after his pole in 2013, but blew out one of those kevlar Pirelli's, Nico won.

[PlatinumZealot]

Is he equal on the home track record?