Formula 1 - 2018 Season

[entity279]

Oh and I'd be happy to have brundle back on commentary next race. Did resta is useless.

David Croft & Anthony Davidson are a way better pair in my view. Yet they keep insisting on using Di Resta as Martin's replacement

 

[Pete]

Yeah, I don't dislike di Resta but I like Davidson. He's the closest thing I've gotten to Gary Anderson since the BBC's heyday. I hope he still does the odd practices. Brundle is great in his short bursts during the practices when he points out what to look for in specific corners.

 

[Tahir2]

Are Mercedes back? Was it the tweak in tyre compound that has helped them?

 

[cjo]

Are Mercedes back? Was it the tweak in tyre compound that has helped them?

I think they said they have been gaining more understanding of how the tyre works with the car over the first races of the season, and that's now starting to translate to better performance. We won't know if that's actually the case for a few more weekends yet.

 

[Bludd]

It will be interesting to see who gets pole in Monaco. I suspect Red Bull will do really well there.

Hopefully McLaren will too.

 

[Pete]

I forget, does Mercedes have trouble switching the tires on in low temps (like last weekend) or overheating in high temps? Or do low ambient temps help their engine more than others? They shaved 0.4mm of compound off the tires this weekend to prevent overheating/blistering from the overly smooth new track surface. I'm not sure Merc can count on that advantage, if it is one, in future races.

(It was confusing to hear Croft/Brundle say Alonso had trouble with grip in the opening stint because he had the super softs. I thought supers had a lower operating range and so would switch on faster than the softs and mediums everyone else was on.)

Rough stretch for Grosjean that's gotten in his head. Seemed like a bad decision to keep it planted and reenter the track perpendicular to traffic, but I'm no pro.

 

[Kaotik]

Are Mercedes back? Was it the tweak in tyre compound that has helped them?

If the other 2 races with these new compounds show the same trend, then yes.

It's really suspicious to begin with when tyres are suddenly changed mid-season without consulting all the teams or all teams agreeing to it, especially when someone seems to benefit from it. As Arrivabene said, "Ferrari was informed, not consulted"

 

[pharma]

Why were Mercedes much more relatively competitive in Spain than in the past three races? There were several theories floated for that. One revolved around a change in the tyres for this race, Pirelli choosing to bring tyres with a thinner tread depth to avoid the blistering some teams suffered from in pre-season testing.

Wolff dismissed theories this was done to favour Mercedes with some salty language, and pointed out after the race their performance advantage in testing, on the thicker-gauge tyres, had actually been larger than it was at the race weekend. This is true - and accounts for some of the pre-season fears Mercedes might dominate this year.
...
Another theory doing the rounds was Ferrari had had to make some modifications to their power-unit following an intervention by the FIA. But there was no proof of that. And it would certainly not explain their struggles in the race.
....
Vettel, clearly stung by his car's lack of pace, made no attempt to play down the potential seriousness of Ferrari's experience.

"We got a fair beating this weekend," he said. "We were not quick enough. If we are not able to see that, we are more than blind.

"Second, we struggled a little over the course of the weekend with the tyres. They changed but they changed for everyone, so our ambition has to be we are better rather than worse off.

"Third, it was a poor weekend in terms of reliability. Kimi (Raikkonen, Vettel's team-mate) had an issue with the engine (on Saturday) and had to change it. And he had to retire (from the race). So overall there are three things we must be able to see. If we don't see those, there are no excuses.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/44102809

 

[entity279]

It's really suspicious to begin with when tyres are suddenly changed mid-season without consulting all the teams or all teams agreeing to it, especially when someone seems to benefit from it. As Arrivabene said, "Ferrari was informed, not consulted"

Surely one of the teams would have disagreed, if they'd been all asked.

But possibly, at least to the letter, the change is not illegal. My speculation would be that Pirelli has some freedom to do changes to the tire compounds, especially as they can quote safety as the grounds for it

 

[Bludd]

Here's Mark Hughes' report.

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/reports/f1/2018-spanish-grand-prix-report

Re the new tyres:

The sun was out by the 3pm start, though there were dark clouds threatening off to the south-east. The wind had died down but the rumours had not. The thin-gauge tyres had clearly been made specifically for the benefit of Mercedes, said some. Merc had struggled with tyres in the previous three races, went the theory, and had applied political pressure – and lo and behold the Mercedes had recaptured its status as the fastest car. Except it was nonsense.

Conspiracy debunking

1) The request for thinner-gauge tyres on fast corner tracks had come from a number of teams – but led by Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari – after winter testing here on the new surface had revealed worrying degrees of blistering.

2) Pirelli finally agreed to the request on the weekend of the Bahrain Grand Prix – i.e. after just one race: a race (Melbourne) at which the Mercedes had been the dominant car.

3) Such nonsense assumed that anyone had sufficient understanding of the alchemy of the Pirelli-car-track temperature relationship that it could modify the tyre in a way that was sure to have the required differing effect on each car.

 

[Kaotik]

Here's Mark Hughes' report.

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/reports/f1/2018-spanish-grand-prix-report

Re the new tyres:

I'm more inclined to believe the team than outside reporter. Ferrari stated outright that they were only informed about the change, never consulted, which implies that they surely didn't request it either.

 

[entity279]

I'm more inclined to believe the team than outside reporte.

Me too (I'm speaking in general, not for this particular instance : ) Except if that team is Ferrari. Or perhaps WIliams too.
They are the least transparent team in the paddok, it seems to me.

 

[Bludd]

Me too (I'm speaking in general, not for this particular instance : ) Except if that team is Ferrari. Or perhaps WIliams too.
They are the least transparent team in the paddok, it seems to me.

Ferrari has been very uncommunicative after Stefano Domenicali was fired, and let's face it, it is Sergio Marchionne running the show there. I feel like Arrivabene is just there to look suave.

 

[Bludd]

I'm more inclined to believe the team than outside reporter. Ferrari stated outright that they were only informed about the change, never consulted, which implies that they surely didn't request it either.

Btw, here's a comment by Mark Hughes in response to a reader asking about that

It was supported in the meetings by the Ferrari technical people, regardless of the team principal's public propoganda [sic]. You need to see behind that. And to claim Ferrari was not also suffering blistering during Barcelona testing is wholly inaccuarate. I could dig out the pictures proving such if I had time.

 

[Kaotik]

Btw, here's a comment by Mark Hughes in response to a reader asking about that

Of course it's possible, but without being able to quote some specific representative it's highly dubious. Suffering from blistering in testing doesn't necessarily mean they'd want or support the switch

 

[Bludd]

Of course it's possible, but without being able to quote some specific representative it's highly dubious. Suffering from blistering in testing doesn't necessarily mean they'd want or support the switch

But remember, the testing was unusually cold and they still blistered the tyres. Also everybody thought Mercedes would dominate this year and the switch was agreed upon after the first race.

It doesn't gel with me that this was Pirelli favouring Mercedes.

 

[CSI PC]

Well there has been controversy regarding tyres going back years; from pre-testing, the ones chosen for the race benefitting some over others potentially deliberately, to pressure and camber angle specification (some teams to work optimally for their racing car had to work outside the angle or pressure spec),etc.

Regarding Mercedes, Pirelli did give them some pre-testing back in 2013.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/107697/mercedes-angry-at-tyre-test-criticism

But at some point I think most of the primary teams have benefitted in one way or another with regards to tyre manufacturers.

E

 

[CSI PC]

Also here isn example of a mid-season tyre change that benefitted a team at the expense of others.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/111974/newey-tyre-change-helped-red-bull

Newey acknowledged that the original 2013 Pirellis had held Red Bull back.

"The tyre change certainly helped us, probably more than some of our competitors," he said.

"Our performance advantage has tended to be in high-speed corners and straightline braking, when you are putting maximum load into the tyres.

"So you then put on a tyre that is fairly fragile and not able to cope with high loads, and it stands to reasons that you will be less able to take advantage of it.
...
Newey dismissed any suggestion that the tyre change unfairly penalised teams that had optimised their cars around 2013 Pirellis, arguing anyone who benefited from this year's original rubber was simply lucky.

"Obviously there were a lot of politics surrounding that with a couple of teams in particular lobbying to stay with the 2013 tyres on the basis that they had been extraordinary clever in designing their car around these tyres," said Newey.

"We all play the game, but we also know that that is complete rubbish because none of us knew how these tyres were going to behave.

 

[Bludd]

Also here isn example of a mid-season tyre change that benefitted a team at the expense of others.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/111974/newey-tyre-change-helped-red-bull

But that is the opposite conspiracy. In 2013 RBR was dominating and the conspiracy was that the tyres were changed to stop the RBR domination. Now the tyres are changed to help the dominant team.

Bleh.

 

[Kaotik]

But remember, the testing was unusually cold and they still blistered the tyres. Also everybody thought Mercedes would dominate this year and the switch was agreed upon after the first race.

It doesn't gel with me that this was Pirelli favouring Mercedes.

Of course, but the new pavement wasn't in same condition anymore either.
The assumption that Pirelli favoured Mercedes with this naturally comes from Mercedes' suddenly found new performance which happened at the same time as the switch, which at least in the public opinion of some teams was something Mercedes asked for and many others didn't get to weight in.
Whether there's any truth to the story remains to be seen, but if Mercedes shows similar pace in the other 2 races where they're using these new compounds and not in others, it really starts to look like there's some foul favoring going on