Raikkonen quickest as Vettel hits trouble

15 comments on “Raikkonen quickest as Vettel hits trouble”

1. 

   OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
   7th April 2018, 14:14

   What a shame to see Williams at the bottom of the timesheet. Well, they might be running a different program, but that can’t hide the whole figure.
   1. 

      nase
      7th April 2018, 14:29

      Yeah, things are looking horible for them at the moment. They were already bad in Melbourne, but close enough to the front of the midfield to speculate that Massa, with his usual advantage over Stroll, would’ve been able to score points. However, this is not the case today, as they’re over a second behind the top 10 – on a track that used to suit them.
      They said that they adressed the car’s main weakness, the lack of downforce, over the winter. Have they thrown the baby out with the bath water by removing the car’s trademark strength, its straight line speed, without achieving a competitive level of downforce in return?
      1. 

         kpcart
         7th April 2018, 15:40

         when you add downforce, top speed drops
         1. 

            nase
            9th April 2018, 12:40

            Well, duh. My point is, they seem to have failed to trade their single greatest strength for a general improvement of their package. Now, the car is not only unremarkable on the straights but also subpar in the corners. This is not the typical result of adding more downforce, so they must’ve screwed up somewhere. Badly.
2. 

   Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
   7th April 2018, 14:30

   Vettel and his garage has to be on top of their game this weekend. There are sold points on offer.
   1. 

      Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
      7th April 2018, 14:31

      I meant to say solid
3. 

   David Searle (@searlo)
   7th April 2018, 14:35

   Impressive lap numbers being rolled out by the Honda – and good to see Hartley putting in a better time this session.

   I’m more interested in the midfield race this year – looks highly competitive!
   1. 

      Egonovi
      7th April 2018, 14:44

      Looking forward to Q to see if a Honda powered car can get ahead of one/more Renault/McLarens. Hard to believe that STR has a better chassis.
      1. 

         kpcart
         7th April 2018, 15:41

         i dont think honda has qualifying modes like renault and mercedes
4. 

   Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
   7th April 2018, 15:23

   Thanks a lot for having the wrong TV times.
   1. 

      Egonovi
      7th April 2018, 17:29

      They seem correct to me.
5. 

   kpcart
   7th April 2018, 15:39

   Williams are reaping the rewards of having possibly the 2 most (in dollar terms) sponsored pay drivers in history in one team :P has any team every had about $50million coming from the drivers? … no car development will come from this, they need Kubica in EVERY 1st practise and as race driver next year (or better still, from the next race). Pathetic situation Williams are in, they can not get better with duds in their car, money wont help if the drivers are hopeless.

   Looks good for pole battle, Mercedes will turn on party mode, but i suspect Ferrari might have this one in the bag this weekend.

   Also Toro Rosso/Mclaren looks close, but toro rosso will fall apart in qualifying with useless Honda engine (like in melbourne).
6. 

   f12007v (@f1fan-2000)
   7th April 2018, 15:43

   Yay raikonen back to the Top of his game.
7. 

   Alonso (@alonshow)
   7th April 2018, 16:45

   I’m very interested in this statement:

   the Mercedes driver was told the team could see a “power difference” between his lap and Raikkonen’s

   I guess a “power difference” is a difference in the power used by the engines of the Ferrari and the Mercedes. Which suggests that Mercedes knows how much power Ferrari is using. That makes sense, it should be relatively easy for an expert with the right data to calculate the power used at any given moment by any car.

   So I have two questions about this:
   1. Is this idea correct? Is it possible for us to know how much power a car is using at any particular moment?
   2. If my idea is correct, where can we find that info? If it isn’t, how comes Mercedes knows about Ferrari’s power?
   1. 

      nase
      9th April 2018, 12:45

      @alonshow

      So I have two questions about this:
      1. Is this idea correct? Is it possible for us to know how much power a car is using at any particular moment?
      2. If my idea is correct, where can we find that info? If it isn’t, how comes Mercedes knows about Ferrari’s power?

      1. It is possible to calculate the power of a car using GPS data and comparison data from one’s own car, together with several other minor factors, such as wind direction, etc. However, it is not possible for us to know that. A team like Mercedes can use their own data to calculate Ferrari’s power very precisely, but the TV stations don’t have that kind of information. If they did, they could simply look at Ferrari’s data.
      2. Consequently, that info isn’t available anywhere, except for the inner circle of data analysts working for the major teams.

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