F1 - General discussion and 2017

[caroper]

HAMILTON CHIPPING AWAY
1:25.384 for the Briton now, but he's on a faster lap too.


VETTEL TO P2!
Second place for Ferrari.
A soft tyre run sees the four-time champion post a 1:20.572.

ALONSO UP TO P8
The McLaren is back out again, with Alonso setting a time good enough to climb one place to eighth. A 1:23.326 for him.

FURTHER GAINS FOR HAMILTON
He's down to a 1:25.087 now with those soft tyres.
His pit board suggests that he's on a race simulation. 64 laps to go...

 

[caroper]

The Red Bull is a deceiving car to watch. It has done a decent enough lap time today but because of the docile sound of the Renault it doesn’t seem so quick and it's harder to pick up when it's on a quick lap. But it looks stable. There were a couple of wobbles through Turn 2 getting the power back down on the way up to Turn 3, probably more wobbles than most others, but Ricciardo was pushing on quite hard.
Gary Anderson

 

[caroper]

Helmut Marko has been chatting to Sky Sports News HQ about Winter Testing and much more, including Daniel Ricciardo's comments that Red Bull can beat Mercedes.

"Of course Mercedes are still the favourite," Red Bull advisor Marko told Craig Slater. "They have the fastest engine and the most reliability.

"Renault is catching up, how much, we will see when we go to Melbourne. But we are positive that we can be very near to them by mid-season."

And after chatting to Sebastian Vettel's father Norbert by the track, he added: "Sebastian had an unlucky season last year. Ferrari look strong, but you never know how much extra weight the Italians are carrying!"

A 1:19.952 from Sebastian Vettel

While we were marking Hamilton's times on his long run, the Ferrari has appeared on track sporting a set of soft tyres and moved within two tenths of Bottas' morning benchmark

Yes, softs.

 

[caroper]

ALONSO IMPROVES AGAIN
The McLaren's best time is now a 1:23.146.
That looks to be on the super-soft tyres.

 

[caroper]

That's a good lap from Vettel, given he's on softs. The Ferrari looks like it should be capable of that kind of pace given how good its balance and grip seems to be. On softs, 1m19.9s compared to other people is very good. And looking at Hamilton, his best lap on a race run is a 1m25.0s, so that would put him at about 1m20.0s in terms of pace attacking on soft tyres. So that's positive. If Vettel can do it right in the Ferrari, he could do a 1m19.3s on the ultra-soft. So we're still on target to get laps under 1m19s because these runs aren't being done on the sniff of an oily rag in terms of fuel.
Gary Anderson

 

[caroper]

MORE IMPROVEMENTS FOR ALONSO
His time is down to a 1:22.598 now, courtesy of a stint on the ultra-soft tyre. 45 laps on the board for the recovering McLaren team.

 

[caroper]

Watching Vettel through Turn 1-3 is definitely my 'wow' factor of the day. The Ferrari is just planted and, even on used tyres, it doesn't budge one millimetre off line.
Gary Anderson

 

[caroper]

44 TO GO FOR NUMBER 44
Following a quick pit stop simulation, Hamilton is back out on the medium tyre.
The fresh rubber sees him set an improved lap time of 1:24.965.
Ericsson also pitted to dispose of his orange-walled hard tyres.
HAMILTON QUICKER AGAIN...
He goes one tenth faster on that lap.

 

[caroper]

Lewis, on his long run, is having to hang on, with the car moving around. He struggles to get back on the throttle in turn three and the front end is getting away from him. He has to have a big lift on entry to get the front end to bite.

Alonso had some very snappy oversteer in the middle of Turn 1 on his quick lap.
Gary Anderson

 

[caroper]

As the fuel comes down, Hamilton is getting faster with the triple champion just posting his sub-1:25 lap of the day - 1:24.985.

He's still at the foot of the order, but headline times clearly aren't what Mercedes are focused on at the moment as this race sim progresses.

 

[caroper]

McLaren, meanwhile, remain the only team yet to dip under the 1:23-lap mark...

The good news for McLaren is that their situation appears to be improving.

Alonso pumps in the team's best lap of the test - by a full half second too - to move into seventh on a 1:22.598.

Correction: It's the ultrasofts for the McLaren and the MCL32 is now back in the pits.

 

[caroper]

RED Flag:

And now everyone is heading back to the pit lane - bar the stricken Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz, who has brought out the red flag after coming a cropper in the Turn Four gravel trap.

It's not the first time we've seen a car off in that high-speed section this week.

 

[caroper]

DRIVER TEAM CHASSIS TIME DIFF. #
1. Bottas Mercedes W08 1:19.705 75 ● PIT
2. Vettel Ferrari SF70-H 1:19.952 +0.247 100 ● PIT
3. Ricciardo Red Bull Racing RB13 1:21.153 +1.448 67 ● PIT
4. Palmer Renault RS17 1:21.396 +1.691 51 ● PIT
5. Ericsson Sauber C36 1:21.824 +2.119 93 ●
6. Stroll Williams FW40 1:22.351 +2.646 97 ● PIT
7. Alonso McLaren MCL32 1:22.598 +2.893 48 ● PIT
8. Grosjean Haas F1 VF-17 1:22.884 +3.179 37 ● PIT
9. Hülkenberg Renault RS17 1:23.137 +3.432 32 ● PIT
10. Sainz jr Toro Rosso STR12 1:23.540 +3.835 31 ●
11. Celis jr Force India VJM10 1:23.781 +4.076 43 ● PIT
12. Kvyat Toro Rosso STR12 1:23.952 +4.247 31 ● PIT
13. Hamilton Mercedes W08 1:24.821 +5.116 49 ●

 

[caroper]

IN THE GRAVEL TRAP
He's off at turn four.
He looks to have straight-lined the corner. It appears to only be a small, but costly, mistake.
RECOVERY PROCESS
He's out of the car, which is now being lifted onto the flatbed truck.
We don't think this red flag period will be too long.

This interrupts Hamilton race simulation, though, 49 laps in the bag already...

 

[caroper]

LAP COUNT:
Bottas, 75
Vettel, 100
Ricciardo, 67
Palmer, 51
Ericsson, 94
Stroll, 97
Alonso, 48
Grosjean, 37
Hulkenberg, 32
Sainz, 32
Celis, 43
Kvyat, 31
Hamilton, 50

 

[caroper]

As Hamilton's race stints progressed, Turn 3 has becoming increasingly like a hairpin for the Mercedes. He's having to take bigger and bigger lifts to get it to bite on turn-in.
Gary Anderson

 

[caroper]

GREEN FLAG!
We are go.
Alonso and Celis immediately head for the pit exit.

 

[caroper]

MORE JOIN IN...
Ericsson and Stroll also join the track.
No sign of Hamilton continuing his race sim yet.

RED FLAG AGAIN!
Stroll's in the wall!

 

[caroper]

Williams will need more than a spare wing this time.

 

[caroper]

He looks to have dropped the car on the exit of turn five and hit the inside wall.
Looking at where the car has ended up, it seems that Stroll lost the rear of the car exiting Turn 5 and spun into the barrier.
There are tyre marks coming off the kerb pointing towards the grass where Stroll's car has come to rest.