Motors Bit-Tech F1 2017 thread - Season Complete

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Maybe we greatly underestimated how good Nico was, If Bottas ends this season getting destroyed guess we will have our answer. Ferrari did match Bottas lap.

Reminds me of Vettels Red Bull days, Webber was always about 1/3rd back in most tracks

 

I can say I'm in that camp. Nico did out perform Schumacher. While it wasn't the Schumacher of old he was still a strong driver and even then proved to be a moving roadblock for most drivers.
Ferrari rejected Bottas for a reason despite Raikkonen having a bad phase and despite Bottas outperforming Massa.

 

I think this will be a very telling year for Bottas - There's no doubt he is capable of some impressive consistency, and did pull some surprising laps out from that Williams, but he also had plenty of weekends where he was practically invisible, and was he ever exciting? Plus, there's a reason why Mercedes only gave him a year, despite Toto being part of his management group...

He has a difficult task this year, one he probably can't win. Either he;

A) Gives it everything he has, doesn't roll over for Hamilton or move out of the way every time he gets near, keeps every data advantage he has for himself etc and pisses the team off for causing headaches.

Or

B) Does a Massa, plays the nice guy/super co-operative no.2 and hope Mercedes keep extending his contract until Lewis retires and inherits no.1 status, but gets replaced by Vettel/Alonso before he gets the chance.


Going to be interesting to see how it plays out, that's for sure.

 

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Probably because he's just not cool, not marketable.

 

Wehrlein to skip Australian GP.

Giovinazzi to replace him for the rest of the weekend.

 

...and stroll has put his car into the wall... again...

 

I would ask after quali where is the promised 5 seconds, difference between the 2 pole laps from last year and this year is less than 2 seconds.

 

Considering even the joke team Sauber was only 2 seconds off the time of the Mercs in Q1 I reckon there was some extreme sandbagging going on at the front with setups fully focused on race rather than quali performance.

 

Maybe in Q1 not so in Q3, Pole Lap from this year to last year is not a great deal of difference.

 

I thought the 5 second figure was specifically in relation to Catalunya's 2015 pole time? Not 5 seconds every track, every car... At least, that's what Keith's article on F1Fanatic implies.

But still, first race of the season is never going to be fully representative of a new set of aero rules - once the first round of proper upgrades come (probably in Spain, as per normal) we'll see what the engineers can really do.

 

This a fast street circuit, the cars will not find 5 seconds on a track that's mostly straights and flat out curves. This is one of those tracks that favours the old lower drag rules (as will Monza).

However.

Lewis pole is the fastest ever lap recorded at Albert Park, 2.2 seconds faster than Schumacher's 2004 pole. These cars are monsters although whether they will be able to fully show that in the race I somewhat doubt, although it wouldn't surprise me if the 2004 race lap record goes tomorrow as well.

 

C4 and sky both put up a side by side of Hamilton's '16 and '17 pole laps, and it was clear how much more speed he was carrying through the corners... in 16 you could hear him backing off prior to certain corners whereas the 17 lap he was flying round with barely a lift-off.

 

Are the driving styles of some drivers the resulting gaps in teammates or have the new cars actually sorted the men from the boys?
Apart from Hulkenberg, none of the new drivers outperformed the old guard at each team.

 

Bit of both, Bottas was never getting close to Lewis was the general feeling either way, Kimi has never really been beating vettal either

 

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Well.... Not the most exciting start to a season! Everybody was fairly well behaved, and it's nice to actually have something other than the Merc driving away from the start, but it still felt a little stale.

There's going to be a few circuits where I can't see any overtakes outside of those done in the pit lane though, hopefully China will show what the cars are actually capable of!

 

Great start to the season! Ham trying very hard to get passed Vetel on failing tyres , and jockeying around the rest of the pack.

Should make for an exciting season!

 

Result still decided by pit stop strategy. R.I.P. Exciting racing...