Red Bull encouraged by long-run pace

2016 German Grand Prix Friday practice analysis

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While Mercedes retain their usual edge in terms of one-lap performance Red Bull drew encouragement from their long-run pace at the Hockenheimring.

“We looked quite close to the Mercedes on high fuel so that was promising,” said Daniel Ricciardo after today’s practice sessions. “This afternoon’s race stint looked really good so if we can replicate what we did then on Sunday I think we can have a strong chance in the race.”

Ricciardo’s pace dropped by just two-tenths of a second over a 13-lap stint in the second practice session, better than either of the Mercedes drivers managed. But Red Bull’s ability to take on the silver cars could be hindered by the superior one-lap pace of the Ferraris, both of which have been quicker than them so far.

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While Nico Rosberg led the way at Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton was taking extra care with track limits to avoid the risk of incurring a reprimand. If he incurs a third he will receive a ten-place grid penalty.

Sauber will stick with their new rear wing
“There was a little bit of stress this afternoon with race direction concerning track limits at [turn one],” admitted Paddy Lowe, “particularly concerning Lewis’ position with two reprimands already to his name – so we compromised our programme somewhat to ensure that he avoided a third”.

Williams are wary of the threat posed by Force India this weekend, who have taken the unusual step of bringing more medium compound tyres than anyone else. While the quickest pit stop strategy is expected to involve one stint on super-softs followed by two on softs, could Force India be hoping to make a one-stop strategy work?

“I think we were the only team to run the medium compound today alongside the soft and super-soft, which allowed us to get a lot of data about each of the three different tyres,” said Sergio Perez. “The mediums are performing quite well, which is a bit of a welcome surprise.”

There was also finally some positive news for Sauber, as the revised rear wing introduced at Silverstone is now working as intended. “We tried the new rear wing again in FP1, and finally see the numbers we want to,” Marcus Ericsson confirmed.

“We will continue with our in-depth analysis, but it seems to be a step forward. We also plan to keep this rear wing for the rest of this weekend, which is a positive sign.”

Longest stint comparison – second practice

This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint. Very slow laps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, right-click to reset:

Complete practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2Total laps
1Nico RosbergMercedes1’15.5171’15.61475
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’15.8431’16.00866
3Sebastian VettelFerrari1’16.6671’16.20868
4Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’16.9271’16.45669
5Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’17.0891’16.49068
6Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’16.8521’16.51268
7Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’18.5911’16.78178
8Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’17.6121’17.08731
9Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’18.6281’17.14873
10Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’17.1831’17.22539
11Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Ferrari1’18.0441’17.34254
12Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Ferrari1’18.0081’17.36762
13Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’18.2101’17.42581
14Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’18.5891’17.60233
15Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’18.3221’17.68673
16Esteban GutierrezHaas-Ferrari1’18.00542
17Kevin MagnussenRenault1’18.9331’18.05681
18Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’18.1981’18.13056
19Pascal WehrleinManor-Mercedes1’19.9751’18.19375
20Jolyon PalmerRenault1’18.31347
21Rio HaryantoManor-Mercedes1’19.1671’18.59181
22Charles LeclercHaas-Ferrari1’18.88232
23Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’18.9611’19.29563
24Esteban OconRenault1’18.98130

2016 German Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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16 comments on “Red Bull encouraged by long-run pace”

  1. Keep an eye on the Force Indias!

    1. Raveen dhana
      30th July 2016, 7:08

      Force India have brought more mediums than anyone, Perez said till now the mediums seem to perform well let’s see

  2. https://t.co/WnbVZ8JRp5

    For the silly season, Perez in talks with Renault and Williams while Ocon set to join for 2017 and Manor 2016 seat

    1. Raveen dhana
      30th July 2016, 7:06

      Perez brings a lot of money, will be interesting what effect he might bring to force India if he leaves. Most probably he will leave. Heard is not happy with Vijay for him announcing that Perez is staying with team fi

      1. Source?

        I got the impression that both Perez and Hulkenberg love the spirit at FI. They are both against a well regarded team mate, have consistently the ‘best of the rest’ car and have to opportunity to score podiums from time to time.

        Joining Williams or Renault just might be a step backwards in the short run.

        1. Raveen dhana
          30th July 2016, 7:29

          Autosport http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/125489
          And I read somewhere that Renault f1 is vying for Sergio Perez, with this Perez Has still not confirmed himself with Vijay cofirming perez. So feel something is brewing.

        2. Raveen dhana
          30th July 2016, 7:32

          And there are other websites saying the same, the thing is Perez is still non commital.

  3. “There was a little bit of stress this afternoon with race direction concerning track limits at [turn one],” admitted Paddy Lowe, “particularly concerning Lewis’ position with two reprimands already to his name – so we compromised our programme somewhat to ensure that he avoided a third”.

    So can we expect Lewis to go out and deliberately get a third reprimand the weekend he finally takes his engine penalty? Just to get everything out of the way in one go?

    1. A reprimand for running wide in free practice exams using stupid. I thought reprimands were for dangerous issues? If you run wide in quali your lap is deleted, 4 times in a race a penalty which is great but running wide in practice where you are practising for the limits in quali and the race then to get a reprimand is really stupid, or is it just me that thinks this?

      1. No, not just you.

        1. No, I feel the same: a reprimand for running wide in practice is unnecessary @hohum.

          1. oops, sorry, I misread your comment @hohum.

    2. Martin, that was my immediate thought too.

      In Spa where he’ll be starting from the back anyway, he could quite easily pick up a reprimand for a number of non-dangerous things. If Mercedes are thinking about it strategically (and it looks like they are) then I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pick it up during FP1 there before they announce he’ll be taking on 2 new power units.

  4. Do track limits really matter during free practice? I’m all for enforcing these rules during race/qualifying but I don’t understand why it even matters during practice.

    1. @steevkay Completely agree.

  5. Really don’t want to play the devil’s advocate here, especially not for Hamilton as I simply hate the championship being a no-contest, but why not say ‘oops’ and incur that third reprimand ‘somehow’ during the Belgian GP weekend where he’ll most likely start last anyway…

    Talking about maximising things…

Comments are closed.