2015 British Grand Prix Friday practice analysis

An unusually hot day at Silverstone left drivers struggling to get to grips with the track. And with race day set to be much cooler, the competitive order we saw today is likely to be shaken up.

Beneath a sunny sky the Silverstone asphalt exceeded 45C as the second practice session began this afternoon. This is substantially higher than average – in the past ten years, the nearest maximum track temperature seen in a race at Silverstone was 39C in 2006.

This goes some way towards explaining why so many drivers were complaining about their car balance at the beginning of the session. That and the gusty Silverstone winds caught a few drivers out, particularly as they switched from left to right between Brooklands and Luffield, where Fernando Alonso, Romain Grosjean and Roberto Merhi were all caught out.

But overnight rain is expected to reset the track surface overnight, and after that cooler temperatures and overcast conditions should keep it from getting anywhere near today’s peak. That may leave several drivers chasing their set-ups ahead of the pivotal qualifying session.

That will give some consolation to Lewis Hamilton as he found himself almost half a second off team mate Nico Rosberg in the second session. However he was one of only two drivers who failed to improve his time after switching to the softer medium tyre, so his run in final practice tomorrow will take on added importance.

Hamilton was behind both the Ferrari drivers in second practice. Following Maurizio Arrivabene’s complaints about his team’s ‘fake’ Friday performance in Austria, if his drivers stay as close to the pace as they were today then we may finally see them get back in the mix with the Mercedes drivers.

In the midfield battle it’s an important weekend for Force India as they have finally brought their ‘true’ VJM08. The car features heavily revised aerodynamics including an unique nose featuring a pair of ‘nostrils’ and a more tightly sculpted engine cover.

Nico Hulkenberg was solidly inside the top ten, and although Sergio Perez was around a second off his team mate he believes the team is off to a “very positive start” with the ‘B-spec’ car.

“I feel we have definitely taken a step forward,” he said. “It is always a complex task to learn about all the new parts in just a couple of sessions, but by the last run of the session, I was feeling comfortable, and that’s promising for the race.”

However Perez admitted the biggest challenge for the team will be working out which route to go with their set-up with their little-tested car. “Qualifying will be interesting because there are many directions in which we can go and we’ll need to choose the right one.”

Longest stint comparison – second practice

This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/charts/2015drivercolours.csv

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
Lewis Hamilton	99.525	99.707	99.767	99.905
Nico Rosberg	98.792	98.682	99.084	99.444	98.86	98.945	100.692	98.358	97.988	98.56	99.725
Daniel Ricciardo	99.557	99.089	99.051	99.262	99.631	103.081	99.171
Daniil Kvyat	98.587	98.913	98.698	98.677	98.489	98.462
Felipe Massa	98.919	99.086	100.48	103.768	99.253	98.907	99.342
Valtteri Bottas	99.807	99.778	99.807	99.812	100.351	99.897	99.877
Sebastian Vettel	98.441	98.751	98.666	101.575	99.342	99.822	98.655
Kimi Raikkonen	99.794	100.466	99.655	99.723	99.91	100.098	99.638
Fernando Alonso	102.177	101.638
Jenson Button	101.879	101.743	101.65	101.57	101.468
Nico Hulkenberg	99.102	104.148	99.401	99.649	99.999	99.72	99.989	113.731
Sergio Perez	100.343	100.85	100.285	100.268	99.847	99.848
Max Verstappen	99.55	99.236	99.273	99.476	99.485	99.231	99.427	99.647	99.899	99.586	99.82
Carlos Sainz Jnr	99.845	99.737	99.661	99.239	99.459	99.855	99.782	99.942	100.057	100.144	100.184	100.666
Romain Grosjean	99.543	100.105	99.814	99.994	100.037	100.421
Pastor Maldonado	101.296	100.64	100.196	100.23	100.368	101.548	101.393	102.402	101.351	100.868
Marcus Ericsson	103.551	100.537	100.227	99.679	99.173	116.529	99.142
Felipe Nasr	100.461	100.47	100.242	100.609	101.035	100.144
Will Stevens	104.545	103.538	103.803	102.984
Roberto Merhi	100.105	114.741	112.669	100.897

Complete practice times

Pos	Driver	Car	FP1	FP2	Total laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’34.274	1’34.155	45
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’34.344	1’34.621	49
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1’35.588	1’34.502	50
4	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1’35.739	1’34.522	43
5	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull-Renault	1’35.876	1’35.009	47
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1’35.818	1’35.153	47
7	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’35.530	1’35.300	54
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1’36.157	1’35.387	62
9	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’35.669	1’35.866	70
10	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1’36.469	1’36.147	55
11	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Mercedes	1’38.080	1’36.164	40
12	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes		1’36.183	33
13	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1’36.889	1’36.351	54
14	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Mercedes		1’36.728	21
15	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	1’38.222	1’36.731	30
16	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	1’36.855	1’36.822	43
17	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	1’38.860	1’37.196	26
18	Susie Wolff	Williams-Mercedes	1’37.242		19
19	Jolyon Palmer	Lotus-Mercedes	1’37.262		26
20	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari		1’37.327	36
21	Raffaele Marciello	Sauber-Ferrari	1’37.372		17
22	Will Stevens	Manor-Ferrari	1’38.981	1’38.279	44
23	Roberto Merhi	Manor-Ferrari	1’40.477	1’39.878	43

2015 British Grand Prix

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13 comments on “Changing conditions will keep teams guessing”

peras
3rd July 2015, 22:29

I cannot understand how Kvyat managed that lap time (faster than his teammate) on the harder compound?

Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
3rd July 2015, 22:50

Me neither. RB definitely went their own way.

I was eagerly following the 2015 SFI and the car looks visibly more grippy on high speed but you could also see that SFI are still far to reach the set up perfection they had achieved with the 2014B. The true 2015 car was all over the place on low speed this friday.
Everything is tighter and probably tidier with their new car. I was surprised to hear that the chassis made for the 2014B is essentially the only old part of the true 2015 car. They said the front suspension is “old” but that’s because it was debuted in Monaco, alongside the introduction of a conventional positioning of the front callipers. Now the rear wing is the only thing I can’t remember when it had been debuted, but it mustn’t be that old. I’m surprised with how successful the team was during the start of the season, nor how poised the old car looked on Hulk’s hands in Austria, genuinely a top 10 car.
1. Patrick (@paeschli)
  4th July 2015, 8:35
  
  A FI in the top 5 tomorrow?
Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
3rd July 2015, 23:06

I think the hard compound was suited to the hot temperatures, hence Lewis didn’t improve in FP2 on mediums.
1. hunocsi (@hunocsi)
  4th July 2015, 10:19
  
  Correct, and barely did Rosberg improve too.
  1. Alex Bkk (@alex-bkk)
    5th July 2015, 5:26
    
    This is one of the real negative points of F1… Tires. Teams spend millions of pounds to build an engine and chassis combo only to handicapped by spec tyres.
    1. Alex Bkk (@alex-bkk)
      5th July 2015, 5:30
      
      “to be handicapped”*

darry
3rd July 2015, 22:58

Why would Verstappen say something like this:
“I think we can be quite strong. P5 or P6 is a bit optimistic, but around P7 or P8 is a target, I think that is realistic. I think the long run was very good, I was very happy. I had a Mercedes in front of me and he was not pulling away a lot. In general, the car balance was very positive so I think we can be very good in the race. I think only Mercedes were a bit faster.”
I don’t understand. He thinks their car is second only to Mercedes, then says he’s expecting P7/8. What then? Is he implying that he is underperforming? If he just means the race pace, I have news for him: It looks like STR might be around and even behind RBR and FI, rather than Ferrari this weekend. Of course they must have more data, but that’s a bit hyperbolic to say their race pace is second only to Mercedes. Though, to be honest, it looks like Williams is right there with them and RBR might give a challenge to Ferrari in this race. Seeing this season, I believe Ferrari is good at all tracks, but not better than Red Bull / Williams whoever their challenger is. The margin is so small that it is possible drivers are making the difference.

Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
3rd July 2015, 23:09

He’s talking about the car.. maybe the engine will drag them backwards ;)
1. darry
  3rd July 2015, 23:24
  
  Were they running without the engine today?
  1. Neel Jani (@neelv27)
    4th July 2015, 7:14
    
    What he meant is that the Renault engine is holding them backwards when compared to other engines manufacturers.
    
    It’s just an assessment of a teenager so don’t get too hyper about it.
J. Riemersma
4th July 2015, 3:04

Because of this…

The STR10 goes well in fasts corners and they worked on set ups at the Austria test. He was lapping considerably faster consistently in a stint at the Austria test as in the race. They seem to have made a big step, but Red Bull also. He thinks the chassis is the seconds best right now, but the serious lack of BHP is still hindering them.

xylon
3rd July 2015, 23:25

Q: Your team boss Maurizio Arrivabene said that with Ferrari’s tradition of running with low fuel on Friday you might get a false picture of where you are. Is that so?
SV: One thing I can tell you: if we ran with low fuel for the long runs they wouldn’t be long runs! (laughs) One thing is sure: we can be more aggressive for Saturday and Sunday. So probably that is what we are going to do tomorrow.
http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/latest/interviews/2015/7/sebastian-vettel-q-a–ferrari-have-to-learn-from-rivals–tactics.html

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Changing conditions will keep teams guessing