Ferrari stronger in race but Hamilton struggles

58 comments on “Ferrari stronger in race but Hamilton struggles”

1. 

   RIISE (@riise)
   10th April 2011, 17:30

   Lewis did 3 stints in a row on the hard tyres? Of course the 3 laps at the end didn’t count much but still, and Jenson went Soft 3 times and only hard once.

   Wow.
   1. 

      zecks
      10th April 2011, 17:34

      I think the hards were all he had left
      1. 

         BasCB (@bascb)
         11th April 2011, 6:46

         exactly, he ruined some softs on saturday.
   2. 

      NDINYO
      11th April 2011, 8:05

      Hamilton’s lap times when he went into the pits are terrible compared to his teammate – in the first pitstop he did a 124.25 to Button’s 123.35. Although the times improved by the next stop when he did a 122.24, Button still managed a better lap time of 119.68 – almost 3 seconds better than Hamilton. However the third stop was simply put a disaster. He could only managed a 124.64 against Button’s 119.84 – that is 5 seconds slower!

      From these times, my theory is that so long as Jenson was within a couple of seconds to Lewis, McLaren always knew he was going to take 2nd away from the younger former WDC. They probably knew that he was on a strategy that could not deliver 2nd place anyway or knew something was wrong with how the car was handling the hard tyres from the practise sessions – at least in his hands.

      I will definitely be watching his lap times very closely in China.
   3. 

      Coefficient
      11th April 2011, 13:10

      So Jenson went soft 3 times and hard just the once, poor Jessica!!
2. 

   Solo (@solo)
   10th April 2011, 17:36

   Buemi was right to complain about getting a stop and go instead of a drive-threw. The judges were overstrict today with the exception of Vettel.
   1. 

      Bren
      10th April 2011, 18:41

      yeah u got the likes of vettel and petrov weaving about all over the show.

      and you got lewis and fernando who were racing fair, even despite the small contact. it was a fair battle. yet they get a penalty.

      madness.
      1. 

         UKfanatic (@)
         10th April 2011, 23:32

         you are right, in melbourne no one was penalised for weaving or passing of the racing line today it was only the ones that already had their races ruined
3. 

   Jay
   10th April 2011, 17:40

   Jenson is my driver if the day,great stuff.

   Would have been Alonso had he not crashed into Hamilton. Alonso drove a frantic last stint. Ferrari race pace was good, both guys were going well, hope fully we can expect a podium next week
   1. 

      topdowntoedown (@topdowntoedown)
      11th April 2011, 11:50

      Likewise. Compare his ‘gap to leader’ graph to Hamilton’s. Slipped back slightly at the start (looking after the tyres?) but then as Hamilton was just sliding away in the last stint he’s edging towards Vettel.
4. 

   SundarF1 (@sundarf1)
   10th April 2011, 17:42

   Interesting to note Seb’s fastest lap, he was a whole second behind race fastest lap. Maybe he had a lot more pace in reserve than he would want us to know?
   1. 

      AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
      10th April 2011, 18:32

      More than likely yes! No need to burn an engine out.
      1. 

         Laranja Mecanica
         10th April 2011, 20:15

         He also said his tyres weren’t quite all right in the final laps. If Button had come a bit closer we would know.
         1. 

            AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
            10th April 2011, 21:08

            I remember Vettel complaining of a vibration too, nothing seemed to come of it though.
5. 

   Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
   10th April 2011, 18:16

   Keith how can say Lewis had a problem with tires. I am looking at the times above and I see a different story.

   His first sting on hard tires was 11 laps: average 102.76
   Then his next stint also on hard tires, 13 laps with average 103.3
   That’s 0.6sec per lap slower AND carrying 15 laps worth of fuel LESS. Doesn’t make sense to say tires are to blame.

   IN, OUT and Alonso fight times excluded.

   Here is how I see the situation:

   Lap 34/35 (Both above 103sec wheres all other laps are in mid 102) something on his car breaks and he loses a bit of performance.

   Team thinks his tires are gone and calls him in. He then drives around showing the same performance (mid 103, only 2 laps are in high 102).

   I also don’t see why they called him in for extra stop. His was doing steady lap times. Maybe they saw pressure loss from his tyre , that I can only speculate about.

   Conclusion: Car performance dropped or Lewis didn’t feel his best.
   1. 

      Ral (@)
      10th April 2011, 19:08

      Ted Kravitz said on his Malaysia from the pit lane, that Lewis insisted on coming in and it was his call, not the team’s.
      1. 

         Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
         10th April 2011, 19:38

         That’s why drivers should not be making these decisions, they just don’t have enough information available to them.
   2. 

      Frans
      10th April 2011, 19:25

      This is how I see it.
      The first set of hards is good, the 2nd set is lemon. Basically when Hamilton use his 2nd set of hards he didn’t gain any laptime.

      The last stop according to Kravitz is down to Lewis. The team asking him to stay out, but Lewis want to pit. If that is true, obviously it was not the brightest decision, since he probably only gain a maximum of 15s compared to 22s lost on pit.
      1. 

         Laranja Mecanica
         10th April 2011, 20:23

         Too late obviously but he seemed to be doing well with the last tyre set. A problem with the thirs set seems morte likely than something broken in the car
         1. 

            Laranja Mecanica
            10th April 2011, 20:26

            oops: third, more
         2. 

            Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
            10th April 2011, 20:38

            Look again on the chart:

            Button 0.3 faster with tires that have been used for 11 laps (thats almost the whole stint) and with 4 laps worth more of fuel. than Lewis with fresh tires.
            1. 

               Oliver
               10th April 2011, 20:56

               I thought they carry the same amount of fuel or did you notice any driver refueling?
         3. 

            Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
            10th April 2011, 21:39

            Oliver, look when the fastest times were set. Button in fact had a reason to save tires, Hamilton didn’t.
   3. 

      Damon
      11th April 2011, 10:01

      Or they gave him a bad set of tyres on his 3rd stop. On his first set of hards his pace was fine he was maintaining the gap to button whilst button was on the softs and vettel pulled away to about 8 secs which is to be expected due to the performance difference in the compounds. So why the hell did they pit him so early? and to top it off they give him the worst set of hards imaginable where he was massively slow from the first lap on them. Lewis needs out of mclaren and sign with the drinks company asap. Mclaren seem to go out of there way to hinder him
6. 

   Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
   10th April 2011, 18:25

   Also it looks like Lewis was doing better lap time on hards than Alonso on softs and Button (although he had a car in front so doesn’t really count)
7. 

   janis1207
   10th April 2011, 18:37

   Most excellent analysis – and very fast done, too!

   Just wanted to say: thank you, Keith!
8. 

   Manuel
   10th April 2011, 19:04

   Lewis problem came after his 3rd pitstop. He was 2 seconds off the pace in his 4th stint with the hards tires. I don’t think it had nothing to do with tire management or degradation. He never put not even one decent lap on them. Mclaren need to analyze what happened there. I have a feeling they gave him a wrong set of tires.
   1. 

      Icthyes (@icthyes)
      10th April 2011, 20:15

      Yet Button said he felt his car “came alive” when the hards went on. So it looks like they had each other’s perfect strategies!
9. 

   Oliver
   10th April 2011, 19:53

   Great work Keith, that mainframe you have in your attic churning out endless data.
   If Mclaren wanted lewis to do fewer stops they kept calling him in early which defeats the whole purpose. There was lots of unused tyre life left on his first 2 sets of softs. Thd hards were obviousy trojans.
   I can understand why he would want to pit . The team couldn’t find any fault with the car perhaps, hence it had to be the tyres and how can we tell if his next lap wouldn’t have been 10seconds slower if he had continued on.
10. 

    Oliver
    10th April 2011, 20:05

    Kobayashi did longer stints on any set of tyres. I wonder what Mclaren was smoking when they were talking of Jenson doing the longest stint on the hards. Yet Kobayashi got into several tussles on track and made some spectacular passes. Made Schumacher feel like a juvenile.
    1. 

       Ral (@)
       10th April 2011, 20:24

       Yeah, I was wondering about that when they said that during the race. I was sure Kobayashi had done a longer stint on the tyres he’d qualified on, nevermind the hard tyres, but wasn’t sure at the time.
11. 

    Icthyes (@icthyes)
    10th April 2011, 20:11

    Clear the gap of lap times and then click both McLaren drivers. I must say Jenson did a good job today, he was often in touch with Hamilton even before his 4th stint.

    Team mate Jenson Button fared better and said afterwards he’d increasing his front wing angle in his pit stops to improve the balance.

    Makes you wonder why they didn’t give the idea to Lewis, or if he did, why it didn’t work or if and why he rejected it.

    I’m really puzzled about the choice to go on hard tyres for the third stint. I can’t think of anything that would explain him having one less set of softs. I know he did a second run late in Q2, but that wouldn’t explain it; he must have used both sets from Q3 during the race, so what was wrong with the Q2 set? There’s no way McLaren would have thought they could have lasted to the end, but did they just want him to get the hards out of the way there and then, so he could do a banzai stint on the softs on the lowest fuel possible, but the hards went off quicker than expected because of balance issues? But then he went back onto hards again, so that wouldn’t explain it. There’s a key piece I can’t work out.

    I hope McLaren give us a full picture of what happened.
    1. 

       Dan
       10th April 2011, 20:19

       that is exactly what I cant understand
       1. 

          Dan
          10th April 2011, 20:26

          also though when looking at the graph with just hamilton and button between laps 27 and 37 their laps were pretty similar but hamilton was on hards and button on softs the quicker tyre, so hamiltons pace was fine in that stint, why no pace on next set of hards for the get go
          1. 

             Icthyes (@icthyes)
             10th April 2011, 20:53

             I get the impression that they asked him to save them but he wasn’t putting enough heat into the tyres so they went off anyway.
          2. 

             Skett (@skett)
             11th April 2011, 16:16

             Wasn’t Button stuck behind Hamilton at that particular point in time?
12. 

    Dan
    10th April 2011, 20:15

    really dont understand the lose of performance after the third stop for hamilton, his first stint on the hard tyre was fine. He was in second on hards, button and alonso was on softs and he was maintaining position.

    However after that third stop(which lost him 3 seconds to button which caused button to get the jump) button pulled away comfortably straight away, so this had nothing to do with tyre deg.

    Also I dont understand why hamilton went soft,soft,hard,hard when most others around him went soft,soft,soft,hard which is getting a stint of the quicker tyre

    As for the pen’s for both hamilton and alonso, what are the fia thinking what a joke.
    If hamiltons defending is deemed illegal than how about vettel at the start. When you see it again he goes right,left,then right to block, then left to take line, what is the difference then?
    Also yeah alonso hit hamiton but this was a racing incidentand as brundle said on a tweet, that having to pit for new wing pen enough
    1. 

       gwenouille (@gwenouille)
       10th April 2011, 20:36

       Abolutely agree about Vettel at the start: this is not correct.
    2. 

       Dan
       10th April 2011, 20:38

       “Equally, we weren’t able to give him a second stint on Option tyres today because they’d been damaged in qualifying yesterday”
       Martin Whitmarsh

       So theres the answer as to why hamilton used hards instead of softs
       1. 

          Icthyes (@icthyes)
          10th April 2011, 20:51

          Presumably Whitmarsh meant switching him onto options at his second stop i.e. his third stint. Thanks for that, it explains a lot.

          But that does make McLaren’s strategy even more confusing as to why they brought him in so early for his second stop, his times were very consistent.

          His car set-up must have just not liked the hard tyres.
13. 

    JamieFranklinF1 (@jamiefranklinf1)
    10th April 2011, 20:16

    Very impressed with Jenson this weekend, he really showed that preserving his tyres does him well, and without the changes to the front wing, he may have even had the pace to challenge Vettel, but I guess we’ll nevebr know.

    Also interesting to note that Sauber once again did a stop shorter with Kobayashi only stopping twice. Which makes it more of a shame that Perez retired early on.
    1. 

       Oliver
       10th April 2011, 20:43

       Perez was never going to make it into the top 10. I doubt he’d have been able to make his tyres last longer than Kobayashi’s either.
14. 

    Oliver
    10th April 2011, 20:39

    Jenson just did his usual casual race that was probably going to get him on the podium, he never challenged any driver hence his tyres were in a better state.
    Lewis on the other hand had several cars to contend with during each of his stints apart from probably the last, deite that he was in contention for the win until he got on the hards.
15. 

    AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
    10th April 2011, 21:05

    Great stuff from Kobayashi with the tyres, pity he couldn’t take any more positions than he did.

    A less than 6s gap between Webber and Liuzzi’s fastest laps is very respectable, HRT should be very proud. Take note Virgin, seriously.

    I really love these new analysis pages.
16. 

    Mr.Zing Zang
    10th April 2011, 21:24

    Tyres were dud tyres. Mclaren were just to ashamed to admit they gave the guy the wrong set. Those tyres probably had 20 laps in them even before they went on Hamilton’s car!
    1. 

       Oliver
       10th April 2011, 21:47

       Haha that is a possibility. Mistakes can Happen. The final sets he sent on was much faster it seems.
       1. 

          VXR
          11th April 2011, 2:24

          He was obviously going to go a bit faster on new tyres for the last few laps of the race.

          Hamilton’s first set of hard tyres were brand new.
          1. 

             Damon
             11th April 2011, 10:10

             Yes and they were working fine so why did they bring him in so early??
17. 

    Oliver
    10th April 2011, 21:43

    A single fastest lap does not a race win make.
    Webber set the fastest lap but Vettel finished the race in the fastest time which is what matters. And the chart will show that Vettels average lap time was much faster than Webber’s.
18. 

    BROOKSY007 (@brooksy007)
    10th April 2011, 23:11

    Kers might have helped!!! – webber was the driver of the day, how unlucky to have 2 races in a row with car problems! But he showed his true grit by never giving up and still collecting 4th with a faulty car! Other drivers would have just had a sunday drive. How much would that have hurt emotionally at the start with all these cars just driving by! You’d feel like going home after lap 1! Great effort from a true competitor!
    1. 

       wasiF1 (@wasif1)
       11th April 2011, 4:10

       Do agree I thought after the first lap that he won’t be in the points at all but great driver from him.
19. 

    wasiF1 (@wasif1)
    11th April 2011, 4:04

    I do wonder whether Sauber & Torro Rosso are setting up their car less aggressively which will help them to last their car longer?
20. 

    McRo (@)
    11th April 2011, 10:40

    Hamiltons trouble with his tyres could even mean even more conservation of tyres in qualifying, which is bad news for us viewers.
    I was very disappointed to see only McLaren and Red Bull competing in the first part of Q3. We may not see any cars out in the first 5 minutes next time!
    1. 

       Dan
       11th April 2011, 11:16

       yep exactly, may see them just do one run so have a set of softs for the race
21. 

    troutcor
    11th April 2011, 12:17

    Observations:
    1) Hamilton has been off since about 3/4 the way through last year.
    2) Alonso wrings more out of his car than any other driver, then screws up.
    3) Kobayashi single-handedly provides about 75 percent of the excitement in F1.
    4) The movable wing has put an ended to the rolling roadblock (when it works, as shown by Alonso’s problem).
22. 

    timi
    11th April 2011, 12:47

    you always have nice charts and graphs, but the analysis is about 10/15 lines. kinda weak. i think if you put more effort into a proper race analysis, the site would be even better
    1. 

       Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
       11th April 2011, 12:52

       There are also individual analyses for each of the teams, the first of which has just gone up.
23. 

    Cool_bob
    14th April 2011, 17:04

    Jenson button has been going on about the 3,2 sec gap between him and Vettel at the end. the gap for 6.1s till the last corner when Vetttel slwed down swerving the car to pass the finish line.

    In the last stint Button only made up 2 secs also becaus vettel was just controlling the pace in the closing stages. don’t know why him and mclaren are making such a big deal of it.

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