2014 Hungarian Grand Prix - Hungaroring

[SectorOne]

Which is awesome to see.
Look forward to the theoretical race pace numbers Tranquility!

[Juzh]

Which is awesome to see.
Look forward to the theoretical race pace numbers Tranquility!

Softs are faring much better tbh, but still, they're good for some 20 laps and then they're dead. OOOP most likely. I doubt mediums can cope for more than 10 proper laps, given how they were finished after 2 flat out sectors on low fuel runs.

Long runs look pretty much the same as quali sims. merc in class of their own, then RB with ferrari fast on their tails. Williams are some +0.5s further a drift.

[MercedesAMGSpy]

Lewis looking strong here.

[LookBackTime]

Valtteri Bottas believes Williams has made a step forward with an updated car during practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

While Williams has been very strong in recent races, the FW34 is expected to be less competitive in Hungary due to the high-downforce requirements of the circuit. However, Bottas said the new parts brought to the Hungaroring had all worked and he hopes the team will be able to remain competitive throughout the weekend.

“We made steps forward so that's really nice to see,” Bottas said. “We went through all the updates and were trying all the bits. I'm really that happy that everything we put on the car – that was planned – made the car better. So that was good to see, but obviously I think it's going to be really tight this weekend.”

With neither Williams managing to finish higher than seventh in the two sessions, Bottas said the team was aware it was likely to be less competitive in Hungary.

“I think it was really expected that could be the case. It's pretty difficult to predict where we will be tomorrow because from Friday practice to qualifying a lot of things can change. I know we can still improve everything for tomorrow. I can probably get a better lap in and we as a team can get the set-up better, so it's going to be close.

“All the bits that we put on the car which were new made the car better, so that was really good to see. I think there is still a lot of room – certainly in lap time – to go down tomorrow. From Friday to Saturday we can make some good steps.”

And Bottas said Williams is still aiming to beat both Red Bull and Ferrari despite the circuit not suiting the car as much as previous tracks.

“We know here it's going to be more difficult. It's going to be really close I think this weekend but that should be the target. We know it's not going to be as easy as some other circuits but we need to be aiming for it.”

Source:
http://www.crash.net/f1/news/207082/1/b ... mpaign=rss

[tranquility2k4]

On 1 lap pace, Hamilton had the edge, impressively he posted 2 lap times (1:24.513 and 1:24.482) that were both 2 tenths faster than Rosberg, his fastest would have been when the tyres were past their best.

On race pace, Mercedes had a clear advantage over their nearest rival (again Vettel as in FP1). Bare in mind as well, RB often are closer to 2nd stint fuel, whilst Mercedes run with a full tank at the end of FP2. I know this by correlating the lap times from FP2, to the opening stint in the race. At Germany for example, Rosberg was able to run the same, if not faster as in the long run from FP2, whereas, Vettel was much slower and only in the 2nd stint did he post lap times comparable to his run in FP2. I cross-checked this at other events and it appears a trend, which is why RB sometimes seem fairly close on long run pace on friday then Merc look to have anything up to 2 seconds in hand on race day.

Anyway baring that in mind here's the ominous numbers - as Vettel says, maybe Merc could have a sit in the pool on Saturday and still end up winning:

HAM
18
1:28.818
19
1:28.642
20
1:28.486
21
1:28.635
22
1:29.214
23
1:28.630
24
1:28.881
25
1:28.541
26
1:41.089
27
1:28.876
28
1:28.854
29
1:29.215

ROS
18
1:28.996
19
1:28.718
20
1:28.623
21
1:28.577
22
1:28.977
23
1:45.115
24
1:28.190
25
1:28.483
26
1:28.252
27
1:29.088
28
1:29.065
29
1:29.372

VET
13
1:29.117
14
1:28.716
15
1:28.805
16
1:29.269
17
1:30.367
18
1:28.975
19
1:29.015
20
1:29.093
21
1:30.292
22
1:29.298
23
1:29.141
24
1:29.051
25
1:29.571
26
1:29.388
27
1:29.654
28
1:29.306
29
1:29.506

[SectorOne]

Thanks!

[Juzh]

One other thing I found interesting was how alonso could get nowhere close to vettel while sitting in his drs for quite some laps when they were very similarly paced at the time.

[iotar__]

Forget all the dissecting - rain on Sunday [-o< . A bit of chaos overall won't hurt. Merc is still winning easily but who is gaining: probably Red Bull.

[CHT]

I am guessing Nico is sandbagging.

[SamH123]

On 1 lap pace, Hamilton had the edge, impressively he posted 2 lap times (1:24.513 and 1:24.482) that were both 2 tenths faster than Rosberg, his fastest would have been when the tyres were past their best.

On race pace, Mercedes had a clear advantage over their nearest rival (again Vettel as in FP1). Bare in mind as well, RB often are closer to 2nd stint fuel, whilst Mercedes run with a full tank at the end of FP2. I know this by correlating the lap times from FP2, to the opening stint in the race. At Germany for example, Rosberg was able to run the same, if not faster as in the long run from FP2, whereas, Vettel was much slower and only in the 2nd stint did he post lap times comparable to his run in FP2. I cross-checked this at other events and it appears a trend, which is why RB sometimes seem fairly close on long run pace on friday then Merc look to have anything up to 2 seconds in hand on race day.

Anyway baring that in mind here's the ominous numbers - as Vettel says, maybe Merc could have a sit in the pool on Saturday and still end up winning:

Hey, nice analysis
Williams looked quite slow on the long runs, do you think that is genuine or do you often they are generally quicker on Sunday's than their FP2 showing?
I guess they can't run more than a 1st stint fuel load though, but today they weren't far ahead of the Toro Rosso's and were behind Magnussen

[Shrieker]

One other thing I found interesting was how alonso could get nowhere close to vettel while sitting in his drs for quite some laps when they were very similarly paced at the time.

But aren't they all using DRS on the designated sections ? I watched both practice sessions, i think they were.

[tranquility2k4]

One other thing I found interesting was how alonso could get nowhere close to vettel while sitting in his drs for quite some laps when they were very similarly paced at the time.

But aren't they all using DRS on the designated sections ? I watched both practice sessions, i think they were.

Don't have time to look at Williams in detail right now, but what I can say is I remember on Friday practice in the long runs in Germany they were not as quick as Red Bull, but then appeared to be much faster in the race. I'm guessing Williams also run a full-tank, so you can expect their pace to be much closer to RB, although I think RB may just about have the speed on them this weekend. The Mercedes teams usually seem to find a lot more on Saturday with their race engines, using the more powerful engine maps. Renault are meant to be providing another small upgrade between Friday - Saturday for their supplied teams.

I expect in qualifying we'll see Merc, RB then a close battle between Williams and Ferrari - although I wouldn't be surprised if Williams gave RB a run for their money.

[Morteza]

FIA Friday press conference

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxIAx_hx1rQ[/youtube]

[beelsebob]

Looks like the race is increasingly likely to be dry:

[Sombrero]

Thanks Morteza.

This is the full transcript : http://www.fia.com/news/2014-hungarian- ... conference

At 15:50

Q: (Pablo Gorondi – AP) Two parts, the first part is concerning the upcoming race in Russia. Do you have concerns about it considering the fact that the conflict in Ukraine seems to be growing every day. My second question is about… we just heard about the new races in Mexico and Azerbaijan and the one thing that’s common to them is that they will both be street races, not on permanent circuits – does this pose a special kind of challenge to you?

Dealing with the first one first, Russia: does anyone want to comment on that? Claire?

CW: Obviously what’s going on in Russia and that part of the world at the moment is of huge concern to everybody – but we’ve always said as a support we try to disengage from taking a political angle on these things. Here the FIA is the governing body of our sport, they issue a calendar and we have to take our direction from them and at the moment, the race is still on the calendar.

Vijay?

VM: Well something similar occurred in Bahrain and we followed the FIA’s directive, or recommendation. I think I agree with Claire. It’s up to the FIA to guide us and we all follow what the FIA guidance is.

Monisha?

MK: I absolutely agree with that. We have to rely on the governing body and commercial rights holder. They’re the ones who have the responsibility and we will do as they say, like we’ve done in the past.

Eric BOULLIER (McLaren) , Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Marco MATTIACCI (Ferrari)

Tip : next time put the three small team representatives in the front row !

SMALL TEAMS 3 =D> - BIG TEAMS 0 + 0 + 0

Note that the 2014 World Superbike Round in Moscow (21/9) has been cancelled...

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/2014- ... 79944.html