Mercedes’ double DRS could put them in contention for pole

52 comments on “Mercedes’ double DRS could put them in contention for pole”

1. 

   mclaren (@mclaren)
   13th April 2012, 11:55

   I think mercedes are in the mix to start the race from pole position, but i suspect Hamilton will have enough pace to get the outright quickest time in Q3.

   In the race however, i think its between Macca and RBR as Mercs tyre degredation is clearly hurting them.

   Intersting analysis by Gary Anderson regarding drivers race pace, Hamilton comfortably was the quickest overall in his race stint, the Red Bulls were lapping in the 1.43′s and on a couple of occassions ,only dipping into the 1.42′s. JB was lapping pretty much identical to the RBR’s. Hamilton however was lapping consistantly in the 1.42′s and and only on a couple of occassions lapped in the 43,s bracket.

   Overall, despite his grid penalty, i expect Hamilton’s going to be tough to beat.

   Source for Laps from FIA website: http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1_media/Documents/chn-session2-times.pdf
   1. 

      raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
      13th April 2012, 12:12

      @mclaren have a link to Gary’s analysis mate?
      1. 

         mauri (@mauri)
         13th April 2012, 17:12

         http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17593531
   2. 

      Zecks (@zecks)
      13th April 2012, 13:36

      Unless hamilton can make a banzai start and leap frog the redbulls, I think p3 might be the best that he can achieve
      1. 

         DaveW (@dmw)
         13th April 2012, 16:46

         You saw the race last year, right?
         1. 

            ivz (@ivz)
            13th April 2012, 21:18

            So technically, if Hamilton gets pole, does it count as pole then grid penalty? Or does it regulate him to P6 and therefore P2 is pole? In the latter case, it would mean that Hamilton should not be in the top 3 press conference at end of quali.
            1. 

               Mike (@mike)
               14th April 2012, 3:14

               I believe it’s the former.
   3. 

      vanja
      13th April 2012, 21:26

      but you have to take in consideration the lenght of those hamilton’s quick lap times. only 6 laps whereas others have a longer streaks
      1. 

         Erik Nilsen Aamot
         13th April 2012, 22:21

         An awsome article, lets sure hope that Michael and Mercedes can carry the pace from today over to sunday. Then we are actually in for a shot at a podium.
         Great article Keith, with some stunning analyses.
2. 

   Hola
   13th April 2012, 11:56

   Yay, Thats good news! Go Merc
3. 

   AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
   13th April 2012, 12:04

   Lap times are significantly quicker here than last year. Schumacher’s fastest time in FP2 was 1.715s faster than Vettel’s best from the same session last year.

   If that improvement is carried over to tomorrow it could bring them within range of the fastest time seen at the track. Last year’s pole position time of 1’33.706 was 1.468s off Schumacher’s record 1’32.238 from 2004.

   My expection is that, for some reason, the teams were running lower fuel today than they were last year, and that we will again (as in Malaysia) see a Q3 time that is slower than last year’s (I predicted Schumacher on pole with 01.34.872).

   Funny how so many teams seem to be caught out by the cold temperatures, especially since the weather forecast hasn’t changed much over the past week.

   Finally, I was wondering about McLaren’s pace in the final sector. I haven’t seen much of practice this morning, but were McLaren running a lot of wing, or do they tune down their engines more for practice than other teams?
4. 

   Vettel1992 (@vettel1992)
   13th April 2012, 12:18

   Come on my fellow Germans!
5. 

   bearforce1 (@bearforce1)
   13th April 2012, 13:02

   wow wow wow. I love it when there is a re shuffle of the pack. Can’t believe I missed these two sessions. boooo.

   Even if Mercedes aren’t in with a win race pace cause of their tyres its still way cool and will make things heaps interesting. I know I am pretty easily satisfied but still this is really great.

   I think the five place grid penalty may end up being good for Lewis. If he wins it with a grid penalty he will be The Man, and it looks as though he has the pace to do it.
6. 

   Vassilis Balomenos (@balouldiez)
   13th April 2012, 13:12

   I agree that Hamilton is the fastest in the stint…I think that top speed of Mercs’ will give them the opportunity to content for the pole…On the other hand, I’d like to see if on low temperatures the tyre degradation of Mercs will not be a problem…!
   1. 

      Robbie (@robbie)
      13th April 2012, 15:53

      yeah I think Merc might vie for pole now that LH will be docked 5 spots, but there’s still JB in his Mac…I think that what does not bode well for Merc though is that in spite of their ‘magic’ F-duct, they haven’t started on the front row yet…the Mac’s without an F-duct is faster on a single lap in quali so far.
      1. 

         Mike (@mike)
         13th April 2012, 16:53

         Why couldn’t Merc get pole on outright pace?
         1. 

            Robbie (@robbie)
            13th April 2012, 18:12

            Yeah they might, but they haven’t yet…that’s how fast the Macs have been and without the ‘trick’ F-duct…that’s all I’m saying…for sure there’s a good chance a Merc will get pole and probably sooner rather than later…just find it interesting that their innovation hasn’t prevented Mac, without said innovation, from getting one-two on the grid for the first two races.
7. 

   Tango (@tango)
   13th April 2012, 13:17

   Quali laps by the mercs in Monza should be interesting.
   1. 

      Zecks (@zecks)
      13th April 2012, 13:39

      they will probably do a button and run more wing rather than go for a comedy top speed
      1. 

         JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
         13th April 2012, 23:12

         I don’t think that they will do a Button since the situation was different with the original McLaren “F-Duct” which could be used at any point during the race. If they run too much wing then they might take an easy pole position but will become sitting ducks in the race with high downforce and no DRS.
   2. 

      Adam (@swansf1)
      13th April 2012, 13:41

      Unless the other teams have copied the system by that point.
   3. 

      dkpioe
      13th April 2012, 14:06

      i expect every top team to have spent millions of dollars by then developing their own double drs.
8. 

   jonnyw360f1 (@jonnyw360f1)
   13th April 2012, 13:20

   “Taking these two factors into consideration, I am not expecting anything new in terms of our positions on the grid: at the moment, our realistic expectation is somewhere between seventh and twelfth place.”

   Read that as: “We’re expecting Fernando in 7th and Felipe in 12th.”
   1. 

      Tango (@tango)
      13th April 2012, 13:45

      Huge laughs for that one.
   2. 

      Nirupam
      13th April 2012, 16:18

      That is hilarious :) :)
   3. 

      bplowry
      13th April 2012, 16:21

      I thought the exact same thing :P
9. 

   Bigbadderboom (@bigbadderboom)
   13th April 2012, 13:39

   I think theres a very real danger of Alonso missing Q3, difficult times for Ferrari, it seems the harder they try the worse it gets for them, but chopping and changing personel is unlikely to be the answer, they need consistancy, and strong leaders, no point in making any more sacrices to ease pressure. But I fear that some more heads may roll soon.
   As for the Mercs, I really hope Schuey can stick it on pole then watch as he makes his car the widest on track as his tyres inevitably drop off before anyone elses (except Rosbergs of course) could make for a dramatic race especially with that top end advantage. McLarens will be bouncing off the limiters even DRS and KERS may not be enough, simply may not have the room at that end of the gears! I remember Jenson having that problem last year! If the weather holds this could be a brilliant race!
   1. 

      Tango (@tango)
      13th April 2012, 13:54

      Schumacher holding everyone else would be a blessing for a charging Hamilton. That is, If he doesn’t tangle with Maldonado, Massa or Grosjean, who will be for the first laps there or thereabout.
10. 

    BaKano (@bakano)
    13th April 2012, 13:54

    I think I will use a typical testing theory: Lotus is sandbagging ;-)
11. 

    dkpioe
    13th April 2012, 13:55

    let them have their artificial pole. they will only finish 6-8th or so anyway in the race.
12. 

    callum (@095cal)
    13th April 2012, 14:20

    How i would love for a Schumacher & Hamilton battle. There is a lot of talk of Mercedes and Hamilton but where will Button and Red Bull fit in ?
    1. 

       David BR2
       13th April 2012, 17:40

       Well I guess by the race, Button will have borrowed Hamilton’s set-up data to get a bit closer.
13. 

    electrolite (@electrolite)
    13th April 2012, 14:58

    I’m almost thinking Hamilton’s grid penalty might even do him a bit of good – he might shine a bit more if he knows he’s got to fight his way through the pack. Winning from 6th place? Stranger things have happened.
    1. 

       Dave (@davea86)
       14th April 2012, 3:38

       It will do him a whole lot of good if he wins but what happens if he sticks it on pole, takes his penalty and finishes third again? That’s going to get pretty frustrating. I suppose the one positive if that happens is there’s a pretty good chance he’ll be leading the championship.
14. 

    Young One
    13th April 2012, 15:13

    The figures only showed that HAM had alot in store.
15. 

    SteveLWA
    13th April 2012, 15:59

    DRS Sucks!
    1. 

       John H (@john-h)
       13th April 2012, 22:22

       COTD (well, I liked it).
16. 

    Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
    13th April 2012, 17:03

    I would love to see Schumacher add to his pole tally, but I’d like to see Vettel add to his more…
17. 

    f1andy83
    13th April 2012, 17:36

    Does anyone know which exhaust configuration was used by redbull drivers?
    1. 

       Karthikeyan (@ridiculous)
       13th April 2012, 17:55

       Vettel’s was supposed to have preseason testing config. Webber’s the latest config from last race. Remember that RBR changed the exhaust config in the last test(which made it to Australia and Malaysia)
18. 

    Alain (@paganbasque)
    13th April 2012, 18:00

    It surprises me a lot to see that Nico is clearly faster than Michael on the long stints, speciallly when Michael seems to be quite happy with the balance of the car and Nico is struggling a little bit more. Extrange, isnt it?
    1. 

       xeroxpt (@)
       13th April 2012, 18:35

       Its weird to see that drivers like Webber and Schumacher can cope with less and unpredictable cars than the new guys like Rosberg and Vettel which are used to super gripy cars from 2006 onwards.
       1. 

          Ken
          13th April 2012, 21:56

          It didin´t seem to me that Nico was that much faster or faster at all on the longer stints.We will see,who gets the most out of the Merc this time around.
19. 

    xeroxpt (@)
    13th April 2012, 18:27

    I doubted it, still it doesnt matter they are incapable of winning with that car, the Mclaren is too far ahead the Mclaren behaves completely different from any other car, dont know what is different but when a driver is complaining of understeer without blown diffuser thats good, the car looks very balanced and very low, very low centre of gravity unlike any other car.
20. 

    Ed Marques (@edmarques)
    13th April 2012, 21:21

    Mclaren needs to find some pace on the last sector, other than that things look good. Altough it’s a bit early to dranw certain conclusions
21. 

    Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
    13th April 2012, 21:54

    If Red Bull haven’t shown their hand yet we could see another Vettel pole..
22. 

    @HoHum (@hohum)
    13th April 2012, 23:41

    If you take the long run lap times as an infallible race predictor it’s going to be Ham, Web, Vet, But, but that’s a big if, throw in the 5 place penalty and Webber is looking good for some more points this weekend and realistically so are Button and Vettel, on top of that you have to consider that Webber came from 18th. to 3rd. last year so Hamilton should be capable of winning from any place on the grid as long as it’s ahead of Massa.
23. 

    AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
    14th April 2012, 0:19

    I was actually expecting a bigger gap from the speed trap for Mercedes. Only .8kph to Lotus isn’t much at all all things considered. Strange that McLaren were so far behind too. Are they going for a more downforce orientated set-up?
    1. 

       @HoHum (@hohum)
       14th April 2012, 2:12

       Hi Andrew, yes I noticed that, if the Lotus could generate the downforce of the McLarens and have the top speed of the Mercedes then nobody would need Mercedes double DRS system. I think we know now why the Lotus chassis is not working.
24. 

    M30
    14th April 2012, 1:51

    Kieth if Hamilton gets top time in Q3 will he still be given the pole position stat? Or will the 2nd place driver get it? I don’t think the second place driver deserves it as it is no fault of a driver for a cracked gearbox.
25. 

    F1_Dave
    14th April 2012, 3:25

    I don’t like this ‘Double-DRS’ as once everyone starts developing it all thats going to happen is the system will get optimised, more drag will get dropped, DRS will thus produce a bigger speed gain & passing in the DRS zones will become even easier & more boring to watch.

    This is the fundamental flaw in DRS, fota/fia say they want it to get to a point where it doesnt produce easy/guaranteed/uncontested passing & will continue optimising the drs zones. However teams will always find a way to get more speed out of it & eventually we could see a point where even in smaller zones were getting boring/easy/uncontested DRS passing & that will only harm the racing.
26. 

    alexf1man (@alexf1man)
    15th April 2012, 19:52

    @keithcollantine You were right about Merc being a factor!

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