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| CONCLUSIONS So, following the trend lines through, what pointers can this assessment give for the second half of the season? Given the clear and relatively untroubled nature of their qualifying performances to date, it would be no surprise were Mercedes to continue to dominate qualifying throughout the season – should the sessions remain trouble-free. Only in the rain in Malaysia were Ferrari able to qualify within three tenths of Mercedes, and the Silver Arrows’ advantage in qualifying trim remains formidable. Mercedes advantage over Ferrari is much larger than the gaps between any of the other teams (for example Vettel to Hamilton vs Bottas to Vettel) so there is probably more chance of Williams catching Ferrari and even more chance of Red Bull catching Williams. To catch Mercedes in 10 Races Ferrari need to gain almost 0.1s/lap in addition to the normal development rate per event. If we assume the typical wind tunnel development targets of 1 point of downforce per week, or 2pts per event then Ferrari need to gain this plus an additional 3pts per event. So that’s 150% of Mercedes development rate. That seems impossible, based on incremental improvement with a team of a similar size. What is needed is large step changes in Power Unit development and innovation somewhere. Williams and Red Bull have consistently been best of the rest behind Mercedes and Ferrari throughout the season, but their team average qualifying positions (7.05 and 8.30 respectively) indicate that they are very much at the mercy of fluctuating form depending on the characteristics of each circuit. Further back, Toro Rosso find themselves with a higher average qualifying position (10.30 – with both Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz sharing the same average qualifying position) than Force India and Lotus, yet behind both teams in the constructors’ standings – highlighting that the team have issues converting strong qualifying performances into consistent points finishes. Force India made one very significant gain when they introduced their ‘B’ spec car and this affects their average development making it seem better than other teams. What has in fact happened is that they’ve rolled up a winter’s worth of development into the season average as well because they started the season with a car that was much further behind their wind tunnel programme than the other teams. With a normal budget and operation that wouldn’t have happened. At the back of the field, Sauber have clearly struggled with development, and from having the fifth fastest car in qualifying trim at the start of the season now find themselves ahead of Manor alone in terms of pure qualifying performance. McLaren and Force India will likely see their progress plateau as they optimise their cars towards extracting the maximum from their respective packages. The trend lines project a difficult and lonely second half of the campaign for Manor though, with little sign of tangible progress relative to the performance of their rivals. |
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Originally Posted by ashwin.terminat
(Post 3781440)
The live F1 stream on StarSports.com will now be free for everyone for the rest of the season. As for those who have already subscribed, they will get a full refund very soon. :D |
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Originally Posted by ashwin.terminat
(Post 3781479)
Maybe TV broadcasts aren't getting a good enough audience and this is to push live streaming folk back to the ol' tube? |
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Originally Posted by arunphilip
(Post 3781464)
But it will no longer be live :( Bummer! |
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Originally Posted by Hatari
(Post 3781499)
Looking to Spa, Honda claim they are targetting Ferrari, which is a huge step forward. Yet other reports state the increase in power to be only 15bhp, not the predicted 50bhp. Anyone have further clarity on this? |
| "Spa is the final upgrade for this year, with ancillaries to follow in the following race," Arai told AUTOSPORT. "Mk 3 [will be introduced] in Spa [and] we have already started development on next season's power unit. "Mk 4 will be on the same level as Mercedes, that is the target; Mk 3 will be on a level similar to Ferrari, which is what we're aiming for. It's a big step." |
| "[The car has] not so good mechanical grip, or aero, compared with Red Bull there is still a big gap," Arai added. "We have checked the GPS data; the chassis and aero package needs time and fine-tuning, such as wing angle, ride heights, suspension settings. "[Engine] unreliability has meant lots of parts were changed in winter testing and so things like flow-vis and taking data has been done during the season in FP1, due to the unreliability in the winter." |
| "From the start of the season we knew there was a cooling problem, so we turned the engine power down a lot," Arai told AUTOSPORT. "We upgraded the power unit in Spain to 'Spec 2' and we have almost perfected the heat rejection. "Due to the compact package, you have the very skinny [bodywork] and everything on the inside had many issues regarding heat rejection, which causes a lot of damage for the MGU-H, the MGU-K. "Finally, in Hungary, we have no problems and we have a good package." |
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